This is what the actual sheets will look like. I wanted to make a nice drawing of what it all looked like, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I think I'll just wait until I actually get them cut and together.
12.09.2007
Laser Cutting
Once I finally decided what I was building, it was time to get in gear and make some pieces to be cut on the laser cutter. I basically stayed up all night on Sunday to make sure that I got it all done, but we ended up not being able to do it that day, which sucked, but at least I have it done now, and I can just wait until it's time to get it all cut.
This is what the actual sheets will look like. I wanted to make a nice drawing of what it all looked like, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I think I'll just wait until I actually get them cut and together.
This is what the actual sheets will look like. I wanted to make a nice drawing of what it all looked like, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I think I'll just wait until I actually get them cut and together.
Level 2 Ether Machine
Man, it's been a long time since I posted. I am sorry about it, but I've been so busy with other classes, that I couldn't get this done properly, and I didn't want to just throw up some garbage on here simply for the sake of having a post.
After the my crit on Friday I was completely lost. I've been working on this project and thinking about it so much that I just didn't know where I was going anymore. I had a thousand and one ideas, but none of them seemed to be what I was really supposed to do.
The idea that I pitched to Patrick was a small control box that someone could play with near my machine. Using FM transmitters, a person could create a tone using a 555 timer and then the rotary switch, a few meters away or across the room, would react to the noise being carried over the radio. Patrick said that this was a bit limiting, and I think he is right about that. It is limiting because why would you want FM radios taking the place of a short length of wire? It doesn't really make sense, but that was all I really had.
We started talking about other options, and what we kind of came up with was a way to expand the idea of the control box to something that's placed all around the building. This way, when someone, say, opens a door in one room, it registers on my machine which is in another room completely. It was an interesting idea, and I liked it, but I needed some more thinking to figure out whether or not this was okay.
The other thing we talked about was something called an orrery. An orrery is a nineteenth century device that has small gears in it that, when cranked, spin a small scale solar system around a central axis. These machines are incredibly intricate and beautiful, and since my previous machines had a nineteenth century feel to them, this kind of machine resonated with my ideas.
This is an orrery that I found particularly interesting. It's extremely intricate, and beautiful as well.
I was still confused, though, and I had no idea where all of this was leading. I had a big talk with Gregory about the whole thing, and he had a few ideas, but the main thing that came out of the conversation was,
What is the ether to you? How do you want to show it?
This was one of those questions that I had just completely lost sight of. I had gone so far down the road that I couldn't see where I had come from. I had to think about it for a while and go back to my research to answer it, but I did come up with an answer.
The ether is energy. I want to show where energy is in a building at a given time.
I had to really think about what my machine should be doing, and so I did. I realized that there are three different stages, or levels, of ether throughout the history of the world. The first stage is from ancient Greece all the way up until the nineteenth century, where people believed that the ether was some kind of pervasive liquid that we all existed in. In this liquid were ideas and energy, and the only way you came up with anything, be it ideas or actions, was to tune your body to the idea that was floating around in this ethereal liquid. This meant that there were no original ideas, just things floating into your perception.
When this first level of the ether was disproven by Einstein and Hertz, the second level was quick to follow. The second level of the ether is the radio, and this is where my machine exists. The second level is where there are ideas and information floating around in the air and you can receive them easily, with a radio, of course, but it's very hard to have any effect on the ether. You can build your own transmitter or create electromagnetic waves, but the things you send out are fleeting and momentary, meaning that your ideas are lost as soon as they're broadcast. This is where my machine is, and that's why I was having such a huge problem with this project. My machine is NOT a level 3 ether machine, and I was trying to force it into the third level. This is what wasn't working.
So what is the third level? The third level of the ether is the manifestation of the first, and we call it the internet. Think about it. Every idea that anyone has can be put on the internet, and that idea can then be accessed whenever you want. Not only can you focus on a certain idea, or certain information, but that information stays there. The fact that the information is intangible, but still semi-permanent is the first reason for the distinction between level 2 and level 3, but the second distinction is the ease that you can have an effect on that ether. If you go online, you can post on a blog, you can talk with other people across the world, you can write a web page. You have an amount of control that is unheard of. The internet is the manifestation of the old idea of the ether, and I think if you went back in time and told someone about it, they would recognize what you were talking about right away.
It was with this in mind that I decided to make a machine that was like an orrery, but was firmly grounded in the second level of the ether. The orrery is important because it shows the person who sees it their own relationship to the universe. My machine will show the spectator their relationship to the building instead. My machine will be less representational than an orrery, but it will do a similar job. The machine will have many different machines on it, and they will all be hooked up to radio receivers. I'll put small FM transmitters all over the building and then when someone is in a room making some kind of noise, one of the machines will react to it. This will broaden the spectator's perception of the building as a whole, and show their relationship to it.
This kind of machine stresses something that I've been working towards all term. The idea of connectedness is a big one to tackle, and this machine will aspire to do it. If you believe in ether, or chi, or mana, then you believe that everyone is connected all the time. Our energies and our thoughts, so my machine will show you that connection. Where your own perception stops in the room, the machine will project it out into the rest of the building.
I'm kind of excited, I won't lie.
After the my crit on Friday I was completely lost. I've been working on this project and thinking about it so much that I just didn't know where I was going anymore. I had a thousand and one ideas, but none of them seemed to be what I was really supposed to do.
The idea that I pitched to Patrick was a small control box that someone could play with near my machine. Using FM transmitters, a person could create a tone using a 555 timer and then the rotary switch, a few meters away or across the room, would react to the noise being carried over the radio. Patrick said that this was a bit limiting, and I think he is right about that. It is limiting because why would you want FM radios taking the place of a short length of wire? It doesn't really make sense, but that was all I really had.
We started talking about other options, and what we kind of came up with was a way to expand the idea of the control box to something that's placed all around the building. This way, when someone, say, opens a door in one room, it registers on my machine which is in another room completely. It was an interesting idea, and I liked it, but I needed some more thinking to figure out whether or not this was okay.
The other thing we talked about was something called an orrery. An orrery is a nineteenth century device that has small gears in it that, when cranked, spin a small scale solar system around a central axis. These machines are incredibly intricate and beautiful, and since my previous machines had a nineteenth century feel to them, this kind of machine resonated with my ideas.
This is an orrery that I found particularly interesting. It's extremely intricate, and beautiful as well.
I was still confused, though, and I had no idea where all of this was leading. I had a big talk with Gregory about the whole thing, and he had a few ideas, but the main thing that came out of the conversation was,
What is the ether to you? How do you want to show it?
This was one of those questions that I had just completely lost sight of. I had gone so far down the road that I couldn't see where I had come from. I had to think about it for a while and go back to my research to answer it, but I did come up with an answer.
The ether is energy. I want to show where energy is in a building at a given time.
I had to really think about what my machine should be doing, and so I did. I realized that there are three different stages, or levels, of ether throughout the history of the world. The first stage is from ancient Greece all the way up until the nineteenth century, where people believed that the ether was some kind of pervasive liquid that we all existed in. In this liquid were ideas and energy, and the only way you came up with anything, be it ideas or actions, was to tune your body to the idea that was floating around in this ethereal liquid. This meant that there were no original ideas, just things floating into your perception.
When this first level of the ether was disproven by Einstein and Hertz, the second level was quick to follow. The second level of the ether is the radio, and this is where my machine exists. The second level is where there are ideas and information floating around in the air and you can receive them easily, with a radio, of course, but it's very hard to have any effect on the ether. You can build your own transmitter or create electromagnetic waves, but the things you send out are fleeting and momentary, meaning that your ideas are lost as soon as they're broadcast. This is where my machine is, and that's why I was having such a huge problem with this project. My machine is NOT a level 3 ether machine, and I was trying to force it into the third level. This is what wasn't working.
So what is the third level? The third level of the ether is the manifestation of the first, and we call it the internet. Think about it. Every idea that anyone has can be put on the internet, and that idea can then be accessed whenever you want. Not only can you focus on a certain idea, or certain information, but that information stays there. The fact that the information is intangible, but still semi-permanent is the first reason for the distinction between level 2 and level 3, but the second distinction is the ease that you can have an effect on that ether. If you go online, you can post on a blog, you can talk with other people across the world, you can write a web page. You have an amount of control that is unheard of. The internet is the manifestation of the old idea of the ether, and I think if you went back in time and told someone about it, they would recognize what you were talking about right away.
It was with this in mind that I decided to make a machine that was like an orrery, but was firmly grounded in the second level of the ether. The orrery is important because it shows the person who sees it their own relationship to the universe. My machine will show the spectator their relationship to the building instead. My machine will be less representational than an orrery, but it will do a similar job. The machine will have many different machines on it, and they will all be hooked up to radio receivers. I'll put small FM transmitters all over the building and then when someone is in a room making some kind of noise, one of the machines will react to it. This will broaden the spectator's perception of the building as a whole, and show their relationship to it.
This kind of machine stresses something that I've been working towards all term. The idea of connectedness is a big one to tackle, and this machine will aspire to do it. If you believe in ether, or chi, or mana, then you believe that everyone is connected all the time. Our energies and our thoughts, so my machine will show you that connection. Where your own perception stops in the room, the machine will project it out into the rest of the building.
I'm kind of excited, I won't lie.
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