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Progress
For more ancient history on the project, click
here for the archive page.
August
25, 2004: Stress is the malady of choice for local burners.
There's not one of us right now that is not slammed to the gills with
unfinished projects. Note to self: take some extra vacation time
prior to departure. Still waiting on the arrival of plan-B
inverters for the big clock. When do I do costumes? Maybe on
the playa! 8-). I am a lousy welder. As of tomorrow, I
either bolted something or a professional welder did it. Thanks
again to Nate for that.
The
good news: some of our neighbors threw a block party the other
night and it was a great opportunity for a night time beta test... with
kids! They were thrilled with the free play and interactivity, not
to mention yelling on the bull horn. The el wire and lights were
dazzling. One of the neighbors brought out a hose for tire
pressure... good call. The Space-Time Serendipity drive is a joy
when swerving through tight turns and figure eights. Thanks to
Hagey for the honky horn.
Bill's
flatbed trailer squeaked into garage with one millimeter to spare!
A little more tweaking, some safety netting, and the clock sequence and
we are ready to load it all up for the playa run on Saturday.
August
21, 2004: Extreme bonus double lucky golden thanks to Metatech and
Darmit (sp?) for their help on the beta test run today. Here are
the pictures...
August
13, 2004. Santa Barbara Bill to the rescue! Thanks, Bill,
for your donation of the use of your flat-bed car hauler. Now we
can take the International Time Vault to the playa in style!
The
beta test drive will take place on Saturday Morning, June 21st and
will include a drive down to the Bud Beasley Elementary School parking
lot. If you are staying at Hagey's home then and want to
participate, I will stop by to pick you up in a normal car and transport
you to my home where we will prepare the ITV and ride it down to the
school.
The
Christening Celebration will take place at dawn on Monday, August 30th
at the Black Rock Burner Hostel camp located on the playa at "Venus
and 5:00".
Thanks
to Cindy for coming through with her artistry and unique style on the
lovely wooden discs that encapsulate the third trailer art piece
"Wheel of Memory" that represents the past.
The
sequencers never got finished in Hong Kong for Funhouse Productions so
we are switching to plan B and ordered 10 inverters from Coolight West
to fire off of the sequencer kit we built that has a 12 volt output.
August
10, 2004. 18 Days until we pack it to the event and we still
don't have a solid plan for transportation to the Playa. Yikes!
The two hourglass sand timers have cracked acrylic cylinders! One
was due to my stupidity trying to load the Time Tractor on a ramp
without removing the hourglass in front. The other is a simple
stress crack due to the added weight of the seed beads. Beta
test day at the Elementary School parking lot down the road on Saturday,
August 21. The steep hill back will be a true test. Robotic
arm addition may be scrapped as we just don't know where to attach
it. Datsun B210 muffler purchased with electrical flex conduit to
address the noise problem. Final supplemental El-Wire order ready
to be placed and I still don't have the sequencer/inverter. Time
to call them again. LED clock built for side of Time Tractor looks
cool at night, sequencer works, but looks cluttered during the
day. If proper sequencer for El Wire not available, I will buy
inverters for each of the big clock hands and use that sequencer
instead. Mini flags acquired for all nations represented by the
International Burner Hostel as of today with the possible exception of
Serbia.
August
4, 2004: El Wire installed on all but one roman numeral and on sides and
top. This stuff looks awesome at night, This is the best my
camera would do with it:
Cindy
and Muli did some lovely artwork on the cocktail table and the first
hourglass. My job was perhaps just as important: spinning out the
margaritas to keep them... inspired! Cindy took home the two discs
for the Wheel of Memory and I look forward to seeing what she does with
them.
July
17, 2004: Cut all the dimensional steel for the Roman numerals on the
big clock. Now to strip the rust off, prime, and paint white so
they will reflect the various colors of El Wire.
July
14, 2004: 20 Pounds of colorful seed beads arrived for the
hourglasses. A hefty expense but we can't risk using anything that
will get stuck if condensation occurs within. Sealed up the first
one and gave it a spin... Wow! Super fun hypnotic instant
gratification! You won't be able to keep your hands off of them
has they hiss and drain out the colors. We thought about reducing
the hole size in the middle to slow the tide of the beads, but it is
much more interactive this way draining in 20 seconds or so and holding
your attention long enough to want to give them another spin.
That's with the 1" hole, the one attached the the NanoRover.
The hourglass on the Time Vault has a 3/4" passage so the beads may
take longer.
Umbrella
over the NanoRover will be upside down to look like a colorful
communications dish and mounted over the trailer hitch. Roman
numerals being installed around the main clock on the Time Vault.
Dimensional steel is rusty but strong... better go and get that tetanus
booster shot!
July
10, 2004: Mutation Alert! The
rear trailer which represents "The Past" has mutated.
The beer cooler on a trailer concept is out. Thanks to Rat for his
donation of time, advice, and bike parts. We are now building a
"wheel of time" that is a non-ride-able art concept with a
single bicycle wheel at the center which will be touching the playa
surface, with images of the past suspended in the spokes. This is
sandwiched between two plywood circles just under the same size with
holes in them to allow the spinning images to appear through them from
both sides. It is mounted on a hacked upside-down bike frame towed
behind the Time Vault. Mounted within or without this important
part of our trilogy are white strobe lights which will create a
stop-motion silent movie effect of the images and movement of the
wheel. No el wire or other lights on it as it is representing the
past, or more importantly, our perception of the past. Flek Stone
paint with black accents will be applied to give it a stone age look.
July
5, 2004: The white primer gives the time tractor a cool NASA
look. Black and white with the green circuit boards. Some
black lettering in a strange space language would be cool. Maybe
add some gold foil and fake solar panels, an upside-down umbrella as a
shade-providing satellite dish? We're now starting to let our
creative minds flow away from the fact that the base vehicle is a
mini-tractor. Maybe a new name will help. Any
suggestions? How 'bout "The NanoRover"?
July
3, 2004: Independence Day weekend and everybody is pitching
in! Thanks to John and Joey for the upholstery and rivet-rivets.
I'm looking forward to seeing the work that artist Cindy
will contribute too! You can see below that the sturdy flag pole
donated by Mr. Fixit will help our "freak flag fly". The
wind generator is lightweight and reliable only if balanced
properly. We wrapped it's pole with strobed el wire for a stop
motion effect at night.
The
white primer also gives some "pop" to the clock hands.
You can see how the word "now" is becoming more clear.
The "X" framing in the middle of the "O" will be
painted a neutral playa beige so it does not detract. Thanks to
Joey for his work on the first cozy bench seat on the left. Nap
tested, playa approved!
Now
for some techie discoveries: The time tractor that hauls the mutant vehicle represents the future and is covered with raw, useless circuit boards. There will be important looking tubes,
artwork, and el wire between them. They will be dotted with the 100 violet LED's grouped in
series circuits of 3 each. and those grouped into more parallel circuits and
control all of them with a 10 channel chaser sequencer kit I built. The overall effect will be rows of LED's chasing forwards or backwards to create the illusion of faster or slower movement of the time travel vehicle.
June
28, 2004: Mr Fixit does it again! With one more visit to his
Xanadu of parts, he picked off over 14 items on our "Got
Stuff?" list plus a care package of tons more.
Thanks, Mr. Fixit, for another wonderful afternoon of
discovery!
The
raw circuit boards are just the thing for the futuristic exterior of the
time tractor. The huge flagpoles will support the earth flag and
windmill with strobing el wire for a stop-motion effect. I was so
glad to find the earth flag on ebay because I almost went with the
United Nations flag to manifest the unification of the future. I'd
rather address things globally than politically.
June
19, 2004: Bonus thank you's to Mike at Coolight
West for taking lots of time with me to make sure my El Wire
order was right on. It's so great doing business with a guy who
gets excited about your project. Great prices too. Now for
the fun lighting phase of the construction. I'm told by Funhouse
Productions that their Cat-09 10-channel sequencer is being mass
produced and should arrive next month. It's the only el wire
sequencer with that many channels and we're designing the clock
sequencing around its anticipated arrival.
Here's how the
hourglasses came together:
For
more ancient history on the project, click
here for the archive page.
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