"Oilpunks" and MAKE pals Jon Sarriugarte and Kyrsten Mate have struck (hammer to anvil) again and come up with the Electrobyte, a cross between an extinct marine arthropod and a wheel chair. Flush from the success of their amazing Golden Mean snail car, they decided to do a sort of mini-me companion vehicle. They took the power and drive systems from an old electric wheelchair and created a hand-tooled trilobite body to go on top of it. The result is this sweet little ride.

Test-driving the Electrobite, a trilobite-shaped DIY vehicle

More:
Make your own snail art car
Snail car

Here's a neat idea from designers razy2. Instead of casting a chair out of foam or silicone, they decided to build one up layer by layer out of what looks like a giant Post-It pad. Because the paper is only attached on one side, you can scribble on the top layer and then just pull it off to clean up, or stick things between the layers. Sounds fun, but I would be pretty scared that I would spill something on it. [via core77]

Here's a very nice bit of video documenting the recent Steampunk exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford.

Steampunk Art @ Oxford

BIBI is a French artist who almost entirely uses trash plastic in his art. He calls himself a "plastician." [Thanks, Karen!]

BIBI, Plastician Artist

There are lots of custom knife-makers out there, and plenty that specialize in exotic or fantasy knives, but there is only one I know of who has gone so far as to invent a fictional world, complete with geography, mythology, and history, as a context for his work.

Virgil England installed and photographed this life-size dragon skeleton in Chugach National Forest in Alaska in 1990. In his own words:

The part of the Dragon that is exposed is about 18 feet long. The wing is 15 feet high. The skeleton is carved whale bone and forged mild steel with reindeer rawhide stretched and stitched over the bones. I did it to display a 59 1/2 inch two handed sword called "The Veil of Tears". After the ten hour photo session It went to a three day showing in San Francisco then to the buyers.

Virgil's handmade knives are highly sought after among collectors, and you can view more of his edged work at his personal website. The photos of his "Chugach Draegon" that appear with this post are being published online here for the first time. Click on each to see it at full resolution. [Thanks, Virgil!]

The first time I saw a circuit board where the board designer had broken through the boundaries of a grid pattern and made traces that curved playfully and made decorative shapes, it was a revelation. You can make a PCB any damn shape you please! (So long as it takes into account the component shapes, circuit design requirements, and doesn't get too confusing.) Too often we get stuck in rigid modes of thinking about the world. I love it when people tweak those tunnel realities a little. This painted saw, spotted on Dinosaurs and Robots, is a perfect example. I've seen a few shop tools maybe painted a non-factory-issued color, or with some bumper stickers and tool company logos, etc. on them, but have never seen one tricked-out painted just for fun and aesthetic pleasure. Why not? This saw was done by custom guitar painter Sarah Ryan, for Creston Lea's bandsaw.

Okay, here's one reason not to paint your shop tools. It apparently attracts snakes! (See story on the link.)

Creston Lea's Bandsaw Painted by Sarah Ryan

This tangle of corrugated plastic tubes is the Audiocloud, a collaboration between Piotr Adamski and mode:lina. It's got some high-falutin' conceptual roots, but I gotta admit I'm just charmed by the series of tubes. [via Core77]

It should be able to work without being connected to an outlet. It should have lights and it shouldn't be to heavy to move around. Ateast not by a small wagon. And it should be loud. Not Mötorhead loud but loud enough. It should also be cheap enough so that I would not cry if it got trashed or stolen after a few gigs/parties.

In the Maker Shed:


In the Maker Shed: Arduino Duemilanove

Jung von Matt/Neckar lässt für Eichborn, den Verlag mit der Fliege, 200 mit Bannern bestückte Fliegen auf der Frankfurter Buchmesse starten. To promote their exhibition stand at the Franfurt Book Fair, Eichborn the publisher with the fly prepared 200 flies with an ultra light banner. The banner was attached with natural wax. After a short time the banner dropped off by itself. And the flies were not harmed.

Can't decide on a typeface for your next project? Why not choose them all, with Michael Flückiger and Nicolas Kunz's Laika, the dynamic font generator. It's a relatively straightforward concept, but could make for some cool visualizers. What if the text on your website 'breathed' with you, or melted when left in the sun? It could either be really cool, or more annoying than regular old blinking text. Personally, I'm picturing a weather display, where the word weather itself morphs in relation to outside conditions. [via thestrangeattractor]

Dale posted a tweet about the Chris Ware cover of the latest New Yorker magazine. I think the cover is a brilliant commentary on our mobile-connected, interrupt-driven, Twitter and FB-obsessed lives, and maybe on some of the "phoned-in" parenting that goes on.

It instantly reminded me of an incident at Maker Faire Bay Are three years ago. I was running a Mousey the Junkbot building workshop. People would buy parts bundles, sit at picnic tables, and I would guide them through building the bots from a workbench with a mic and overhead mirror, home expo cooking demo-style. A guy and his son, maybe 8 or 9, came up to look at the mousebots and parts bundles. I could already tell dad was bored, distracted, and slightly rude and dismissive (e.g. he baulked at the idea that the bundles cost money, like we were trying to rip him off). The kid said he wanted to try building one. Dad shelled out the bucks, grabbed the kit, and picked a spot at a table. As soon as dad sat down, he pulled out his phone and started playing a game on it. Now keep in mind, the Mousey build is rather involved, and includes using a Dremel and a cut-off wheel to hack a lot of plastic, requires a soldering iron, etc. It really requires some adult supervision. My teen son was helping out by circulating amongst the tables, making sure people had on their goggles, and showing them how to use the tools. He noticed this kid was basically unsupervised and went over to show him the ropes. Dad didn't flinch. He literally had his back turned to his son. The poor kid made a valiant effort to do what he could on the build. When he was ready to leave, he tapped his father on the back. Dad said: "Let's take a picture for mommy," took a quick pic of the kid posing with his roughed-out robot, and they made off into the crowd. As they were leaving, I saw dad pulling out his phone again, and his head go down. I've never in my life wanted more to give another parent a self-righteous lecture (maybe with some physical punctuation marks) about engagement, the precious value of attention, and basic parenting.

While I know the Ware image isn't necessarily that deep of an indictment (we all check our phones when there's a break in the action), it still reminded of this incident. I love how the reflected glow of the phone screens echoes the ghost/mask-like faces of the children at the door.

Judy Castro and Michael Shiloh run a series of classes called "Teach Me to Make" on a variety of subject such as electronics and arduino, mechanical sculpture, and electromechanics. Classes are run out of The Crucible and The Shipyard. Michael writes:

More recently (2-3 months) I've been teaching classes at my workshop which is now back in The Shipyard. I hold two classes every Tuesday: In the afternoon is a Project Lab, where students work on their own projects with my guidance, assistance, and tools. In the evening is the Arduino and Electronics class, where lately we have been focusing on controlling stepper motors. Both of these classes are stand-alone, in that students attend whenever they are able, and each meeting is guided by the knowledge and interest of those present.

Scott Jarvie made this Clutch Chair using more than 10,000 drinking straws. This one is apparently a non-functional art piece, however it seems like one should be able to make a usable chair with the same materials.

Anyone know how to form a curved surface using only straight segments of straw? My best guess is that you could use half-length straws as a wedge to form the curves. [via neatorama]

Dutch designer Jelte Van Abbema recently won the €10,000 Rado Prize for promising young designers. His awarded body of work includes Symbiosis, a project involving printing with bacterial cultures on paper and billboards. The letterforms change shape, saturation, and hue as the micro-organisms grow and die. The seriousness with which it's all taken seems a bit overblown to me, but it's still a neat idea. I also like the minimalist text-only styling of Van Abbema's personal webpage.

Here's a channel NY1 report on the recent Pop!Tech conference in Camden, ME. The piece profiles three MAKE contributors, Reuben Margolin, Zach Debord, and Mike Gould. Reuben has shown his work and spoken at Maker Faire, Zach Debord's BEAMbots have been featured in MAKE (and on the cover of The Best of MAKE), and Mike Gould's Laser Lunchbox project is in the forthcoming issue, Volume 20, of MAKE. Great job, fellas!

Science Inspires Visionary Pop!Tech Artists

As part of the summer-long Fame Festival in Italy that culminated in a final show last month, artists Blu and David Ellis spent a long week collaborating to create this amazing animation clip, made by filming morphing hand-painted murals. The video loops twice, in case you are beyond astounded the first time around.

From photographer Kevin Van Aelst. [via Boing Boing]

Lessons 1 and 2 by Ben Turnbull: weapons whittled into wooden desktops.

Josh writes in to spread the word about the Muralizer verticle surface printer/plotter project - which is hopefully a kit in the making -

t's a drawbot that takes SVGs as input, letting you print vector graphics really big. The project was started at noisebridge, San Francisco's hackerspace, earlier this year, and we got a prototype going (a bit of video is up on the page).
I'd love to bring this piece of open hardware to the community as a kit, but need some help to do so. Inspired by the success of MakerBeam, I set up a kickstarter page. It would be great if people could pledge even a little bit to help make this tool available to artists (and those of us who want to be artists but are better at soldering than painting).

Related:

Hektor - The spray painting robot

]]> <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/muralizer_prints_art_on_the_wall.html" />Read more</a> | <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/muralizer_prints_art_on_the_wall.html" /> Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/muralizer_prints_art_on_the_wall.html#comments" />Comments</a> | <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/arduino/" />Read more articles in Arduino</a> | <a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2009%2F10%2Fmuralizer_prints_art_on_the_wall.html&title=Muralizer%20prints%20art%20on%20the%20wall&bodytext=%20Josh%20writes%20in%20to%20spread%20the%20word%20about%20the%20Muralizer%20verticle%20surface%20printer%2Fplotter%20project%20-%20which%20is%20hopefully%20a%20kit%20in%20the%20making%20-t%26apos%3Bs%20a%20drawbot%20that%20takes%20SVGs%20as%20input%2C%20letting%20you%20print%20vector%20graphics%20really%20big.%20The...&topic=tech_news" />Digg this!</a> http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/muralizer_prints_art_on_the_wall.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/muralizer_prints_art_on_the_wall.html Arduino Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:30:11 -0800 The buildings in the town of Vercorin in the Swiss Alps contribute to an impressive piece by Felice Varini, called Cercle et suite d'éclats. The pattern was projected on the town from the vantage point, then traced and painted. Photographs from the same spot in daylight make the town look flat, almost like a postcard.

The buildings in the town of Vercorin in the Swiss Alps contribute to an impressive piece by Felice Varini, called Cercle et suite d'éclats. The pattern was projected on the town from the vantage point, then traced and painted. Photographs from the same spot in daylight make the town look flat, almost like a postcard. What I'd like to know is how he got the town to go along with it; I could see an easily-repainted suburb in the States being convinced, but this quaint (and much older) town in Switzerland seems like a much bigger challenge. Don't miss the panorama picture on Varini's site. [via Core77]

Charles is using an Arduino ethernet shield to send the rhythm of his heartbeat over a network in the form of OSC messages. Each beat is detected via a simple sensor comprised of an IR LED and phototransistor -

The idea is that when your heart beats you have a quick rush of blood into tiny blood vessels close to your skin which makes it less transparent. This effect is easiest to observe on your finger tips or earlobe. So the IR emitter and phototransistor are placed next to each other (not much light goes through the side of the emitter!) and I put my finger on top. Light from the IR emitter illuminates my skin and is reflected into the phototransistor.

The phototransistor is connected to the Arduino in a similar way to a potentiometer. One lead is connected to +5V and the other to ground. The +5V lead is also connected to an analogue input on the Arduino. When the phototransistor receives more IR light it becomes more resistive and a lower voltage is detected by the analogue input.

His sensor was built using Meng Li's instructions & schematic. Looks like a great input option for those interested in experimenting with biofeedback.

Related:

Heartbeat midi controller

In the Maker Shed:

Arduino Ethernet Shield

From Etsy seller studiokmo:

four paper panels, each panel measures approximately three feet by four feet (overall dimensions, six feet in width x 8 feet in height) and exposes city blocks of brooklyn, manhattan, queens, and the bronx. the panels fit together like panes of a window and all four pieces must be sold as a set. image one would located in the lower left pane. image two located in the upper left pane. image three in the upper right pane and image four in the lower right pane. image five shows the delicacy of the pieces.

[via Dude Craft]

I got jealous of Matt's recent "SuperFoam" chair post and had to find one of my own. This design is from a Taiwanese student named Yu-Wing Wu. The voids are non-random, being carefully designed to collapse into the shape of an armchair when you sit on the thing, which in its resting state looks more like a giant block of tofu than a chair. No word on how it was manufactured. [via Neatorama]

The sign build is by Hector Turner, the original zombie family art by LiveJournaler Image Girl. [via Haunt Project]

Make: Halloween Contest 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.

I recently ordered some refillable paint pens from Art Primo, and this was in the box as a freebie. It's the exact size, shape, and color as a cigarette, and among a dozen real cigarettes in a pack it'd likely pass any search completely unnoticed. It took me a minute to figure out its nefarious purpose: If you get caught in the vicinity of a fresh tag, after all, it's best not to be found with a marker on your person. They're manufactured by Germany's On The Run, but you won't find them on their website. The one I got was gold; the silver ones below were photographed by Flickr user $30,000.

I'm going to invent a time machine so I can go back and persuade my parents to name me Jonathan Brilliant, which for now am this guy what made this impressive installation simply called "The Berlin Piece." [via Dude Craft]

"Spike" is a cartoonist (caution: "F-word" on the link) who says she's mastered the art of living well on an artist's income and wants to share what she's learned by writing a book, called Poorcraft: A Comic Book Guide to Frugal Urban and Suburban Living. She's using an innovative website, called Kickstarter, to try and raise money to fund the production of the book. Kickstarter allows you to post your project and solicit backers for it. Spike has a whole bunch of different pledge levels. She's looking to get $6,000 pledged. She already has $3,894 (and counting). A $5 pledge will get you a PDF of the book when it comes out, $10 gets you a signed hard copy.

Here's a neat physical computing project coming to London. The Bus-Tops project is planning to install around 40 LED screens on the tops of bus stations around the city, and is inviting the public to develop content to put on them. Since the screens will be on the roof, they will only be visible from double-decker buses and from buildings.

I like that they are taking advantage of their two-level transportation system. Think it will encourage more people to use it, or is that not an issue in the UK? Either way, it looks like fun, and way cooler then just putting some ads up there. [thanks Dale!]

Metal sculpture artist Gabriel Dishaw uses found objects from typewriters, adding machines, and old computers, held together with fine wire and glue, to create his awesome sculptures. He pays homage to his favorite sneakers by piecing together these replicas. Pictured above is the Junk Dunk (Left), based on the Nike Dunk Low. Here's a side view:

In previous iterations, like the first version shown below, he sacrificed a shoe from his personal collection to harvest the sole as a base to build off of.

The newest addition is the Blazer Pentium 1.0:

(Via Geekologie. Thanks Brookelynn!)

We're holding a benefit at Mister Jalopy's place, and it promises to be a wonderful event. We'd love to see you there!

Mister Jalopy writes:

On November 7th, Mister Jalopy's personal 4000 square foot studio will be host to the first Machine Project benefit.
Proceeds from this once-a-year event will enable Machine Project to continue welcoming any and all to free Machine public events in 2010. Tickets start at $75 for members, or $100 for non-members, with a Benefactor level ticket available for $250.

With over 20 participating artists, technologists and musicians, the 2009 Benefit will pack a month's worth of events into a single intimate evening. What to expect? Opportunities to steal art from a laser-protected, action movie-style set, wager on microscopic slime mold races, try your hand at gold panning to prospect for real gold nuggets, stay late to huddle around the firepit to make 'smores, partake from the amply stocked wine and beer bar, have a wood-fired pizza from an on-site brick pizza oven, enjoy music from four different acts, replace your old Getty Museum fake ID, participate in head-to-head speed soldering contests and eat noodles supplied by Kwong Dynasty Noodle Cart.

[via Dinosaurs and Robots]

More:
Laser tripwires for Machine Project art heist