We Are Experiencing Some Turbulence

Michael Schippling
Axle Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico
September 16-30, 2012
various locations, see the Axle FB page


concept
Bricoleur's Conception, March 2012
(click for full scale image)


We Are Experiencing Some Turbulence is a site specific installation by Santa Fe bricoleur Michael Schippling in the Axle Contemporary mobile gallery. It comprises a truck full of small objects which move in what might, or might not, be random patterns. Proximity sensors allow the viewer to exercise some control over the motion so it becomes a meditation on our ability to distinguish the random from the regular.

Experiment #1 -- Framing the question

A frame that I made some years ago to do just this. But the original fan was had not enough poot to do it. Now it does:

etude
Etude Turbulent


Experiment #2 -- Thinking inside the Box

A somewhat-kinda scale model in chitboard. This has five of the mofo-muffin fans (out of the prophicized eight) which are just manually controlled. At least the power-supply works, non?


Experiment #3 -- Study in a different medium

I thought I might be able to do something similar by pumping water into oil. I got lucky with the jet size, such that bubbles of water formed in the baby oil (thin mineral oil, who knew?) and you can see some of the turbulence:
bubbles
Engine of Desire


Experiment #4 -- First Install

I got the truck to play with for a couple days and built it out. Now it's all fit and finish. And electronics...
truck
First Install


Experiment #5 -- The Control System

The control system and software work about as well as they are going to. I get the truck on Sept 12 to see just how good that is. We hope to go live before the Sept 16 After Dark party in Santa Fe's Railyard.
block
Software


The Real Deal #1 -- Locked and Loaded

I got the truck on a drizzly and cold Sept 12 and wedged everything back in. It seems to work -- will go live soon after I find a level playing field to see how many pellets to use. We got a little writeup in the SF Reporter about our hard opening at the Sept 16 AHA Fest, 11am to 8pm in the Santa Fe Railyard. Maybe see y'all there? Or check the Axle FacePlant page for itinerant location updates.

block
Real Deal 1

The Real Deal #2 -- Delivered and Running

Sent the truck back to its owner/operators and loaded it with all the packing pellets I had:

Real Deal 2


The Real Deal #3 -- The Final Report to YouTube




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