install

today was all about getting all the materials into place, testing all the wires, the microphones and the amps, the lights and all the amount of powerboards and extension cables needed.

setting up the first speaker-lamp;

connecting the contact mic, the power, and the speaker to the amp

setting the component elements into place

one of the necessary environmental conditions to consider is the lighting. often something easily overlooked. most times, galleries are very well lit, sometimes with track lighting or spots. for this installation i wanted the lighting to be a bit dramatic, a bit like a fractured infrastructure, as if the lights have either not yet been put into their place, or had been taking away from where they were meant to be.

 sitting the bluestone cobblestone on fluoro lights

placing the lights on the speaker-lamps 

seemed to elicit the best effect in the space

butterflies are thoughts

all the bits and pieces of the artwork, like the component elements of a mini-system, are all constructed, soldered, drilled, tied and taped.

all four speaker-lamps built:

starting to look a lot like a system now

once constructed i needed to tested out how the lamps are going to look when i set them out as an apparent grouping of behaving objects.

first i set one up and just looked at it, to get a sense of its feeling, or effect/affect.

of course, there's a particularly anthropomorphic element, 
not least thanks to a particular digital animation

but then once they are grouped, another dynamic comes into play. a structural, systematic, amplification of the repeated behaviour, however that 'behaviour' may be implied to any given viewer.

   

 starting with 2 speaker-lamps 

(the log here will actually be a large bluestone cobblestone)

 

a third speaker-lamp, increasing the sense of implied power and implied network

introducing the slightly different speaker-lamp,

the one directed at the cobblestone protruding from the wall of the gallery

all four speaker-lamps, 
all mounted on structural pine (another infrastructural material reference)

the last image is taken from down lower to try and describe the feeling of intimidation that i feel like i'm getting from these objects that seem somehow to be with some sort of agency. the brick in the middle has replaced the log so i could get a better feel for the materiality of a rock.

here's hoping that there is a decent sound coming from the contact microphones on the pipes. even if not, i think the sculptural form of the work still carries some of the desired feeling i had hoped to evoke.

happy with this layout prototype i'm now all ready to take the whole lot of pieces into the gallery space and set them up to suit the dynamics of the architecture with which it will exist. tomorrow is install day.

  
this is everything all sorted out so i can pack it all up and take it into the city on the train

building some assemblages

after a rather frustrating error with some soldering that resulted in one of my amps being destroyed, today was much more successful. another amp built, this time successfully, worked on the first test and brings the total to 3 constructed amplifiers.

 this is the amp i messed up, literally, burning the connections into oblivion.

this basically breaks the chain of connections and means the circuit is broken.

 successful amp construction - testing

whilst i wait for jaycar to reopen after the holidays, i moved on to making the contact microphones. after some net surfing about these microphones and some youtube videos on how to make them i discovered you can take these sensors called piezo sensors, cut the plastic casing off of them, and extract the brass and ceramic disc from the middle. 

 this is how the sensors look when you buy them

this is the inner disc that you take out,

and these things are the microphones.

the inner disc is able to detect vibrations. the ceramic bit just moves very slightly, simply by pressure. you basically just connect the wires to an amp, so it makes the tiny fluctuations larger. then plug a speaker into the amp to hear what the vibrations sound like.

placing the discs against walls, glass, wood or really, any surface, means that they detect the sound waves hitting the material and the vibrations caused by anything else touching the material.

for this next show, 4 of these will be placed against the 4 pipes in the middle of the room. when i went to look at the exhibition space i noticed these pipes were each emitting a subtle sound of water, echoing metallic sounds and what i thought were human voices. so that experience led to the idea of amplifying those sounds to enable them to fill the space like liquid.

proof of concept

i've decided that the mixer is not the best way to amplify the signal from the pipes, instead i'm going to build mini-amps for each pipe. that way each of the 4 speakers i'm planning to use will each be individually the sound of one of the pipes. one pipe, one speaker. 4 individual pipes, 4 individual speakers.

 i found this sound mixer, with 5 inputs, in the rubbish!

 this is a rig up for testing 

- speaker at left, mini-amp in the middle (circuit board),

power off to transformer at top, contact mic at right.

 close up mini-amp, built from an electronics kit

this contact mic was made by artist Riki-Metisse Marlow

drawing out some ideas, considered mounting amp on pipe

getting a feel for how the 4 pipes would look with the 4 amps and 4 speakers,
and trying to figure out how to get the power to each amp

decided here to run the power cables up the pipes and into the roof,
creating much cleaner lines in the 'system'

sequence of developed ideas through drawings (left to right)

i'll have to make 2 more mini-amps, as i have 2 left over from an artwork i exhibited last year. and i'll need to get 4 desk lamps. that should be all i need to purchase to complete the work.

resolved and completed

charging is complete and ready for the show. 

 putting the plinth together

 test and configuration of electronics

 complete!

 plants rigged up with wires connected to copper probe inserted into soil, with aluminium probe on the other side of the plant

 this is the networked electronic detonation device - 

the plants are apparently running the clock device (at right),

which turns and breaks the connection on the electric eye (light bulb),

which triggers the voltage fluctuator (rear),

which also registers on the counter of the 'dynamite' branches.

glitches and redesigns and thinking out loud

working with new techniques and unfamiliar technologies always creates the possibility of error or glitches. turning my hand to amateur electronics brings with it equal part exciting new discovery and hair-extracting torturous malfunctioning of sculptural potential. so far i've been successful at constructing component electronic circuits that function perfectly well - a flashing LED light, a variant voltage fluctuator, a counter and an electronic eye. that much has been fun and felt like quite an achievement. 

now, publicly declaring the difficulties one encounters in one's art practice is a risky undertaking, as it exposes the trials and tribulations the artist encounters in his/her creative process and lays bare their decision making acumen. this blog is designed to provide an insight into my practice, including the manner in which i think through my material creations, particularly for the benefit of current owners of my work and potential owners, and declaring my failures is a risky affair. however, i think it's important to reveal these inner workings, to show the dead-ends of studio research together with the successful achievements. whether these current glitches result in a cul-de-sac that i have to reverse out of, or whether they prove to be small hurdles to be overcome, only time and hard work will tell!

the tricky part in this particular construction has been combining the disparate electronic components into some sort of integrated system that serves to enhance the sculpture i'm working on. a network of components that is a functioning, interactive ensemble of circuitry that creates the illusion of a working detonation device for a homemade 'bomb'. one major issue is that the combination of the elements results in a substantial increase in consumed power and a resultant drain on batteries. the consequence of this is that the electrical parts of the sculpture function only for a day or two, before batteries need to be replaced. now this would be perfectly acceptable, if this sculpture was indeed a home made detonation device for a 'bomb'. however, it is actually an artwork and must last at least the length of a standard art exhibition which is 3 to 4 weeks. so further investigation/consideration is required in this area. 

the burning question for this particular work is this: how close to an authentic simulacra of a detonation device does it need to be?

this question has played on my mind for years with these sorts of sculptures. at what point does illusion need to be overcome by actuality? specifically for this sculpture, it is never actually ever meant to be a 'real' detonation device. in fact, it is never intended to ever really appear like one. the 'dynamite' is clearly and obviously only cut up branch segments. the sculpture is always itself only a simulation. other sculptures i have made have been created to actually appear to be authentically doing something, that in actuality they are only 'pretending' to. in contrast, this sculpture isn't really pretending to be what it appears. it is very much propositional. as if to say, imagine the power of nature.

so, in that light, pursuing authenticity beyond a particular point becomes unnecessary. one must make a judgement call about where that point is. i do not wish to give up on some of my ideas - such as having the viewer trigger the detonation counter by their proximity to the sculpture - but at a certain point, the technicalities of achieving some of these elements becomes untenable or impractical.

such are my frustrations with the work at this stage!

visually - the 'dynamite' bomb section, consisting of wired up trees branch segments, LED counter of home-made electronic circuitry, the artificial grass covered platform/plinth, the pot plants as the detonation device and the overall composition of all of these elements is very pleasing indeed. i find myself now entangled only in the finer technicalities of the last few little fragments of the work, having to resolve minor glitches and making some important judgement calls. 

and this process of thinking through this final stage, has me leaning toward a more pared down expression of the sculpture - editing out the unnecessary and perhaps ornamental aspects of the work. in which case, interactive elements, overly complex networks of circuitry and additional configurations of electronics is not going to add to the sculpture's productive meaning. these things will have their chance in future work. thinking on it further, i feel that the interactive elements are more suited to installation contexts. this sculpture is very much a stand alone piece - one work in a group show of works, presented on a plinth and designed to evoke ideas of dormant power in nature. for that end, i'm thinking now that it should be simply and clearly produced as just that.

countdown

a slight delay in production this week due to a pretty heavy road accident - fortunately Lucy and I came through relatively unscathed, but my car is still being assessed for repair or write-off status. some idiot ran a red light on dandenong rd and plowed into us.

anyway, i always ensure my production process has certain time flexibilities, usually due to my sculptures having technical components that can be susceptible to glitches in the build phase. this flexibility has allowed for me to absorb a few days off to deal with the crash and stay on track with my sculpture for the 'Experiments on Plant Hybridization' at Dianne Tanzer Gallery.

a quiet saturday in the studio with the soldering iron.

today i completed a counter that will form part of the 'detonation device' in the sculpture. 

the plan is for the counter to form an interactive component in the work. it will be connected (hopefully, my amateur electronic skills are being stretched here) to a sensor that detects a viewer getting close to the work. the conceptual idea is that this detonation device will get closer to arming itself when anyone gets close to it. so, with live plants eliciting an energy that looks as if it is charging a 'bomb', any attempt to disarm the bomb only brings it closer to detonation. the implications or evocations of this idea are open for the viewer to consider.

i've selected some plants too - typical household plants, purchased from a large warehouse retail chain. the plants are little symbols of 'the natural' but really are quite removed from nature. propagated and cultivated via techniques of mass production more aligned to factory production than the natural cycles of life, these plants straddle both natural and cultural worlds.

the plants are pilea cadierei or aluminium plants. they work nicely in name as there is aluminium conductors in the soil of the plants for the sculpture and the foliage of the leaves echoes the patterns of the circuit boards of the electronics. 

registering action and authenticities

this week i have been consulting electronics handbooks and researching plant power. it would seem that large plants, that is - trees, can generate some low level voltage action. i've always been keen to somehow extract some sort of energy out of plants - perhaps as a way of illustrating the energetic charge i myself feel i acquire from being in the presence of nature. so this actual, measurable voltage charge is an interesting thing. 

in my sculptural works, the scale of the natural elements used (that is - little household plants) don't quite carry enough electrical charge to actually register with the equipment i have been harvesting from stereos. at least not without some more seriously scientific investigation. this is something i plan to pursue. however, for the purposes of an upcoming show, for which i will be contributing a small sculpture, i'd still like to engage with this idea. and in the interest of still communicating the potential electrical potency of plants, i'm going to rig up a voltage meter so that it appears to be reading some sort of electrical charge from the plant.

now this is something i have wrestled with for a while. ideally, and indeed my future intention will resolutely go in this direction, i would like to authentically harness actual power/information generated by plants/trees. in some cases i have indeed done this. however, producing simulations of these effects has a slight ring of illusion to it. and this troubles me to a small degree. but... in art, deception, illusion and trickery is territory well traversed. and if i think of the simple illusion of single point perspective in painting, i feel as if there is some place for illusion. if it stimulates the mind, and is conducted in such a way that it is not intended to make a fool of the viewer but rather to open up possibilities of thought, then surely that can't be too bad a thing.

so for my next sculptural work, i've started to rig up a voltage fluctuating device. one that produces a variant flow of voltage from a small battery, driven by the rotating second hand of a small clock. the voltage meter will be rigged up to a small plant or small terrarium of plants and appear to be giving a reading of the plant generating some sort of electrical charge.

i'm toying with the idea of pushing this one step further, where the energy being read from the plant then produces something else. i like the simple idea that the plants around us are generating some sort of energy (and for me i find this energy to be a medicinal one) but i would like to propose that this energy is then some sort of information that can be translated into something. in the past i've translated this energy into sound. this is still a fruitful possibility. i am also keen to explore more options too and with this new re-evaluation of my work, i'm thinking this is a direction to pursue with renewed vigour. 

plant hybridisation

very excited to get started with my sculpture for the upcoming group show at Dianne Tanzer Gallery. for the first stage i've collected together the basic materials that i'm planning to work with and commenced assembling them to see how to make them work.

a whole lot of electrical components harvested from hard rubbish

the ensemble of materials for this sculpture (at this stage) will be electronic components, plywood, artificial grass, fluorescent lights, speakers and living plants. this is a reflection of the materials used in the sculpture prewood_postwood (2009) that prompted my inclusion in this show.

at this early part of the process i'm just looking to see what elements fit together, a very intuitive trial and error experimentation with composition. i quite like the way these materials work together, i find them very pleasing to look at and for me atleast, they stimulate a few ideas as well. in a way, this first step is just confirming my choice of materials. next step will be working out how to integrate the components together so that they become more hybridised, blurring the line between where one elements ends and the other begins - a reflection of the conceptual approach of my current research into the ambiguities and difficulties in the relationship between nature and culture.