OCULI is a mechanical installation made from discarded restaurant equipment and lights and installed in an abandoned Au Bon Pain restaurant. The sculpture is on a series of timers which periodically light up and activates the window of this former restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh.
Commissioned by Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, and organized by Renee Piechocki.
Video and sound design by David Bernabo.
Video and sound design by David Bernabo.
antumbra is a hand-built machine to create micro-eclipses. Composed of steel locker baskets, restaurant shelves, a 10,000 lumen LED light, motor, and lens, this device projects a moving light pattern onto a wall or screen. Originally commissioned by Pittsburgh Cultural Trust as part of the exhibition Machine Culture, and curated by Murray Horne.
Video and sound design by David Bernabo.
Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. In this installation a pair of small leopard puffer fish swim around their glass bubble activating various tones from a series of horns. Each horn is comprised of a hand-built bellows blowing across a pair of brass reeds which produce a pair of tones.
Built over a period of one month, this is a physical manifestation of the 3D Pipes screensaver known mostly to users of Windows XP. Originally used as a way to prolong color lifespan in cathode ray tube screens, the virtual has been made physical and weighty. As the virtual screensaver appeared to be, this was realized without a concrete design or plan for its final output.
Interactive Kinetic Experimental Apparatus is a group of mechanically activated paper lanterns from everyone’s favorite Scandinavian home store. Lanterns range from 4 inches to 30 inches in diameter and expand and contract like choreographed breathing.
The Jeep Wagoneer was an early sport utility vehicle (SUV) noteworthy for being in production for more than 28 years with only minor mechanical changes, and the Grand Wagoneer was the first true luxury 4x4. This 1984 Jeep Grand Wagoneer was deconstructed with torches and welded into a giant sphere, with solar power and working lights. Commissioned by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in 2009, the “car ball” is located in the museum’s parking lot.
39 Steps is made up of mechanically actuated shoe lasts (forms) which tap out a rhythm and dance around the floor in a chaotic whirling-dervish fashion. Eventually cords tangle, and shoes fall on their sides exhausted.
Originally built for the 2000 Pittsburgh Biennial curated by Vicky Clark.
This interactive fountain built for the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh demonstrates water as a cyclical resource as it tumbles and circulates over historic stone building blocks from Pittsburgh’s rich architectural past. It has been in active service since 2004 and is controlled by visitors to the museum.
'Prototype for an infinite array of semi-autonomous percussive devices' aka Crickets is network of robots that knock out a pattern based on interactions with the devices around them. Using Conway's Game of Life rules, each robot makes a decision about whether to knock or go silent based on its neighbors actions.
Originally developed for the Robot250 festival as part of the BigBots display, these Crickets inhabited the Mattress factory Museum Garden.
For The Asynchronous Array, I created a habitat of small robotic devices that interact with each other using a set of simple rules as a guideline for behavior. A synchronous system in computer architecture typically consists of operations under a strict centralized control. Allowing human interaction as a determining factor for behavior, The Asynchronous Array will follow a system more closely related to the human world. A system consisting of a reactive jumble of inputs and outputs, each vying for your attention, with direct impact upon one another.
Lo-Tek is a large steel bathysphere that protects the operator from the environment. All interaction is managed through external cameras, speakers, and a roving tethered proxy with which to interact with the environment.
For the last 20 years I have created a variety of these tiny machines called micronauts from cast-off watches and small mechanical parts. Each sculpture is assembled under magnification with long periods of clamping and waiting for glue to set, and each machine hints at some as yet unrealized function. The creation of each piece is an extended meditation in and about time.
