• November Turning Challenge: Puahala Calabash! (click here for details)
  • Sign up for the AAW Forum Pre-Holiday Swap by Monday, November 4th (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Ted Pelfrey for "Forest Floor" being selected as Turning of the Week for November 4, 2024 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Incorporating "Behaviors" In Pieces

Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Messages
9
Likes
0
Location
San Jose, CA
Website
web.hypersurf.com
Turning is a very dynamic, kinetic process. But the result is almost always static - a piece that sits there- typically with a single axis symetry - only the OUTSIDE of the piece visible - and then only the light reflected off the OUTSIDE of the piece getting to the "viewer".

Folks have come up with all sorts of ways of adding / enhancing what comes off the lathe - to add additional visual "dimensions" to the piece - dyeing, coloring, scorching, charring, pyrography. piercing, carving, sand blasting, air brushing, . . .. With few exceptions, actual physical movement - of the piece, on the piece or in the piece - don't seem to be being used.

Until recently, internal light source(s) and ACTUAL movement were impractical to utilize and even more difficult to use aesthetically. But available "new technology" make internal lighting, movement, sound AND sensing possible, readily available and affordable. One such "new technology" is little battery powered, programmable micro controllers / computers - and all sorts of things they can control - light, sound, movement - triggered by sensors if you want to add non-contact interactivity.

I've been playing with ways to add actual movement to my turnings - a penduluming finial on a lidded box, wind up toys spinning eccentric weights, marbles, tight ropes, little battery powered micro-robots and recently battery powered, programmable micro controllers - controlling things attached to them - everything inside the piece - or hidden in a pedestal for the piece.

What these micro controllers bring to the pallet is "behaviors" - the ability to have the piece change dynamically - and perhaps convey something that would be difficult, or impossible to convey with a static turning, post lathe enhanced or not.

Still photos of dynamic and/or kinetic pieces, even with accompanying descriptive text, can't convey what the experience of the piece is - and while posting photos of pieces is available, videos of pieces don't seem to be. At the moment, YouTube is the most available venue for sharing dynamic (the appearance changes overtime) and or kinetic (actual movement) pieces. So I hope that including a link to a YouTube video of a piece doesn't violate any forum rules.

Here's the link to a kinetic piece I'm almost done with - an Editorial Piece - about the need for On Demand Drug Rehabilitation Treatment. It's not an aesthetic piece - it's meant to be disturbing and thought provoking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRcSXHRwzQQ

For more details about this thing here:

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/Turning/SpeedFreakEye/FreakEyeTOC.html

Gimmick or Opportunity For Expanding Post Lathe Enhancement?
What say you?
 
Back
Top