"At Burningman I was told that the space capsule over at 0300 and
Esplanade was not to be missed. I headed over there and enjoyed it
one night but didn't actually get to sit in the chair and play with
it till Decompression, where I stood in line three times to go in.
The first time I went in with a man next to me in line, then I went
in with some Russian tourists, and the third time, when I felt I had
mastered it, was with a brand new date. We had a blast, especially
since I knew how to do it and felt like a big in the know space
stud. I loved watching her sit on the vibrating seat and laugh and
laugh. We made it all the way through and this was the start of a
beautiful thing - we are at this moment on our honeymoon in Hawaii.
All because of U ME and the space capsule. Falling in love IN SPACE
is highly recommended. Especially if you're queer and prone to weird
love anyhow. Thanks you guys for the fabulous experience and I hope
you either bring it out again OR another amazing fun interactive
love boat type thing next year!"
At Burning Man 2007, near the corner of
3:00 and The Esplanade , sits a solitary space capsule,
much like those of the NASA Mercury missions, but with something
terribly wrong. With parachute deployed and fluttering on the
ground, it lies despondently on it's side, looking like a discarded
salt shaker fallen from the table of some giant in the sky, partially
buried in the playa due to the tremendous impact.
Upon closer inspection, and charred
markings of a defunct East German communist space program become clear as does the
hatch at the wide end. When entered, an interactive experience
awaits the participant.
Inside the darkness. eerie space beeps and
blips emanate from diminishing rows of bulkheads with outdated control
panels and an aluminum jump seat, flanked by what appears to be a
living chimpanzee in a space suit... and he's pissed off. You
see, U-Me the monkey wants to go back into space where he feels at
home, and he needs your help. Can you enter the launch codes
correctly? Will you make the monkey happy? Would you like
a banana?
So begins U-Me, the Unfortunate Monkey Experience. Enjoy.
Here is an example of the technology in a short video:
When you recline on the couch, a pressure
sensitive switch activates an LED reader board that scrolls the
following message:
Correct sequences are rewarded by lighting and
activating the animatronic chimp heads on either side of you to move
and sound happy. Incorrect responses are punished by making the
chimps slightly upset with you.
Once the adequate launch
sequence has been entered, the capsule begins to vibrate and the
chimps become very excited. Once the capsule breaks free of
Earth's gravity, the vibrating stops and the reader board flashes new
interactive messages, accompanied by sympathetic emotions from the
chimp cosmonauts, your new comrades in space:
"You
are now in outer space. How can you know this is true?
Because I told you so. Now shut up, monkey, and look down at
your planet. Is it blue? Yes it is. Press the blue
button. Good monkey."
"Is it
pretty? You bet. Then why do you keep fucking it up and
throwing your monkey poop everywhere? Monkeys like to fuck......
You'd fuck all day if you could. Your DNA tells you to because
it wants to replicate and make more poop-throwing monkeys. How's
that for "green"? Press the green button. Good monkey."
"Once
there was a monkey in a lab experiment. The scientists hooked a
red button up to the pleasure center of its brain. It did not
eat. It did not sleep. It pushed the red button over and
over until it dropped dead. Push the red button. By
the way... the monkey in the experiment was a male."
"You
know, you read pretty well... for a monkey. You may have guessed
by now that I like saying the word 'monkey'. Admit it... you do
too. Say it with me... really loud... so all the other monkeys
in outer space can hear you. Ready?...... MONKEY! MONKEY!
MONKEY! MONKEY! MONKEY! MONKEY! MONKEY! Now use it in a
sentence... Good monkey! You deserve a treat for
that.... The yellow button is a ripe juicy banana. Push the
yellow button. Save the banana peel for later so you can wipe
your monkey ass.
"Very
funny. I said 'push the yellow button' and you thought 'Hey, I
can choose my own destiny! I've read Ayn Rand! Besides,
I'm a counter-culture rebellious type! I'm not a monkey!'
Well............. you still pushed a button. Who's the monkey
now, fuck face?"
"You
want to punch me, don't you? Relax, monkey. You're in
outer space. Besides.... I control your air supply. Take a
deep breath........ Now another...... Just one more.... feel
better? Good monkey."
"Time
to vote for your favorite monkey. Red, Green, Blue, or Yellow.
Please push a button now to vote.......... Thank you. Your
vote has been electronically tabulated... as far as you know.
"Prepare for splash down.....The next monkey waiting behind the
curtain is feeling anxious. They think you have been in here too
long. They also think they are not a monkey. This is
funny to you. On the way out you can make a strange noise at
them. Any noise will do. If the noise you make at them
sounds like a word it will reinforce their belief that they are not a
monkey... whatever."
Please
gather your belongings and watch your head as you get up. Go
now, sweet sapien, and thank you for participating in... THE
UNFORTUNATE MONKEY EXPERIENCE.
House lights come on, and the
direction of the bulkhead lighting sequence reverses direction to
encourage your egress. Speaking of which, we are considering
different ways of encouraging "sleepers" to vacate the capsule.
Should not be too hard to program the vibrators and the monkey screams
to kick in just when they are reaching REM state. Maybe another
sign at the entry that says "If the monkey is sleeping inside, please
drag him out and wish him "happy birthday".
It is our intent that the
capsule be completely self sufficient, positioning RV solar panels on
the outside curved skin of the capsule for maximum sun exposure to
charge the batteries. Very green indeed.
How it all started. "U-Me" is
(was):
...styled
after the turn of the 19th century organ grinder scenario, a fully
articulated mobile sculpture or "land puppet" by "Killbuck" and
"Jellyfish". He is a backpack-mounted structure standing approx.
11
feet high with compressed air animatronics to move his angry face and
greedy fingers. You see, U-me has a bad attitude. All he
wants to do is eat, steal, and be a general shrieking nuisance causing
people shout
"Get that #$%&* monkey out of here!!!". The banging of his
wrist-mounted cymbals and giant tin cup do nothing to help the
situation.
Part of a
two-person operation, the other being the "Grinder" who holds a large
red box with crank handle on the side that plays loud Italian techno
music. Both wear the traditional red vest and fez hat with
tassel.
The artistic
premise is that of the modern American consumer. U-me thinks
only of himself and leaps from one shiny object to the next, leaving
behind a trail of broken toys and devastated landscape. His
Grinder, on the other hand, represents a sense of guilt and conscience
as he tries to keep his monkey on a leash. He turns the crank
that spins the internal dynamo, charging the batteries that power the
music and lighting that accompany his intimidating, scurrying, furry
creature of need.
Interactive
features include rapid pneumatic rubbery fingers that surround a
victim's head and attempt to rotate it as he feeds on it like a piece
of fruit. The prehensile tail wraps around the operator's body
as U-Me hunches over his shoulders... he too is a victim: "Get
this %$#&* monkey off my back!!!"
U-Me is the
Unfortunate Monkey Experience. U-Me is you and me.
If you start at the bottom of this page and work your
way up, you will see how he went from concept to completion with all
the trial-and-error in between.
10-1-2006: More concepts
with Killbuck in the LabWerks garage. Here is my attempt to draw
as well as him and not feel too suicidal afterward:
9-2005: Initial Killuck concept
sketch above poorly executed yet strangely similar Jellyfish sketch
after our long road trip conversation that fleshed out the idea:
Killbuck really wants long rubbery
arms, and Jellyfish insists upon rubbery hands slightly bigger
than a human head. The fingers are to be naturally curled
inward, yet held straight by compressed air feeding through tubes in
the arms. When they cradle a "victim's" head, the operator can
release individual solenoid valves allowing individual digits to emit
a "pffft" sound and curl around their head. The overall effect
is like having a giant monkey inspect your head for lice or quickly
turn it over and eat your skull as it would a piece of fruit.
De-Briefing
9-10-2007: Well that just about topped us off for a year!
What an amazing success and how good it felt to the U-Me crew to touch
so many people. Long lines formed and my heart really went out
to those standing in the heat just to go inside a hot box... in space!
With all the amazing art a Burning Man this year, I was surprised
when many told me it was their favorite installation. Whenever I
was feeling a little low, I could just walk over to the piece and
perform some unnecessary maintenance and collect props galore...
yummy!
The solar team at Snow Koan Camp went over and above their promise
to keep the experience powered, the high pressure sodium vapor light
was a good choice to top light the piece with an erie amber glow.
With a few tech glitches usually only requiring a re-boot, we estimate
the experience worked 90% of the time up through the burn, then the
chair sensor completely failed on Sunday after we replaced it with our
last backup part so we called it a week and rested, allowing it to
just be a nice sculpture with no interaction that day.
My deep and sincere thanks to the U-Me team
members Kernul Killbuck, Chris Munz, The Pawn, and Zulegoona, as well
as to those that helped us install, remove, and maintain the piece at
Burning Man. Those that come to my playa-baked memory and are just as
important as those who don't (yet) including: Planeto Steve (Robotland),
Dragonfly Jafe, Z-Spy, Cap'n Smashy, Major Mallet, "Baddog and Mark"
(the hinge team), Brad, and Marshall.
If I left your name out above it's because I am a selfish jerk who is
more interested in scarfing down sushi right now... just kidding. I
feel wiped and dizzy, as you may too, so please PM me so I can put you
in the U-Me hall of fame.
As for you, dear Burner, who participated and enjoyed it, I want to
eat your heart with some wasabi and ginger. You spilled out of it
laughing, and gave us your insight and praise so we could feel like
rock stars just for a bit. You brought back friends new and old to
share it, and together we swung like space monkeys on a secret new
jungle gym. I'm humbled by your shrieking song of love... IN SPACE!
What's next? Burning Man has invited U-Me to make an
appearance at the San Francisco Heat in the Street Decompression
event. We'll try our best to make that happen. As for next
year, it's still up in the air. Don't be surprised if we decide
to sell the U-Me to fund our next project. Just how much are
crash-landed monkey-occupied space capsules fetching on ebay these
days?
Next up for 2008: The installation to be called "Zsu Zsu".
She is a crybaby drama queen robot who refuses to leave her trailer.
Progress
8-6-2007: As we enter the final phase of drilling down the details,
this website will now maintain radio silence until Burning Man 2007.
Any surprises and changes can be seen there on the playa. The
man burns soon!
7-30-2007: The Drum Dance and Didgeridoo festival was a complete
knockdown success. We're so glad we could be in a relaxed
atmosphere and test some humans through the experience.
Very
well. 90% Of the electronics that worked in the garage worked at the
event, after a few minor on-site fixes.
Photos by Baddog
Surprisingly, children ages approximately 7 to 12 really dug it. The
fact that we were by the river meant a lot of wet kids so we had to
dry off the rubber floor and metal seat a couple of times. I was glad
we used low voltage circuits and no seat padding. They would get in
line to do it over and over. Adults would go in with their kids and
had a great time. Some younger kids were frightened by the experience
and the robot monkey creeped them out. It was nice to have the option
of leaving the door open for some. One little girl, about two years
old, was carried out of the capsule by her grinning father. She
cried loudly and was heard to say, in the middle of a long sob: "I
likes it". That kind of emotional duplicity as a result of the art
was something we treasured.
7-21-2007: The chunks are built and now they come together-- and
indeed what a chunky monkey it is. Team U-Me welcomes Brian
Takemoto to
Team U-Me. His software expertise together with that of Chris's
makes for a perfect balance of creativity and de-buggery. They
are now compiling the simon game (with real chimp grunts!), flow
charts and getting it ready for Artown's Drum Dance and Didgeridoo
festival here in Reno at the end of July.
Killbuck was hard at it giving the chimp his body and final make up
and has now been promoted to U-Me's contact lens coordinator.
The last picture above shows his sculpted foam and painting process
to simulated a charred and melted heat shield. Even titanium has
its limits.
6/17/2007: One small step for a man, one giant leap for the monkey.
Here's a link to 4 little movies of a tour filmed by Titwi:
Fixed the backwards wiring (my fault) that made the chips melt into
nachos. Still having trouble with sticky relays, but made lots
of progress otherwise. Installed the power supply, trussed up
the wiring, and even swept out the capsule. Killbuck did some
fine texturing to the heat shield to make it look like melted, lumpy
titanium. Jump seat installed and engages the pressure switch.
A couple of cooling fans with dust filters, maybe a third to blow in
your face. Chris's computer program is looking great and as soon
as we fix the relay problem I'll map out all the inputs and outputs.
Click here to play an experiment with a German voice generator for the
audio program.
5/30/2007: Just call me "Hot Chip II". Hopefully Chris will
figure out tomorrow just how I got two of the relay controller chips
to BURST INTO FLAME!
Killbuck made great progress on the jump seat with lots of artistic
do-dah. We're keeping it uncomfortable for a reason.
He made some revisions and strengthened the nose cone as well.
Nobody is going to want to sit on sun-heated steel real estate signs!
5/7/2007: The meters look good in the aluminum. I sure went
through some jigsaw blades getting them in there. Did not want
to label them in German, but did the next best thing:
5/5/2007: Our robotics consultant, Chris Munz was over yesterday
with much in his magic bag.
The relay boards he designed are very high quality,
but we could not get the USB in/out board to work and the chip was
getting alarmingly hot. We still decided to get another one and
double our capacity for a total of 48 in's or out's from the computer
so we can really put on a show inside the capsule. I was able to
double-decker the recycled cases Mr. Fixit gave us so we'll have a
sturdy rig built to take a beating with the computer on the bottom and
the control boards on the 2nd floor.
Before that I spent way too much time crafting the panel on the inside
by the floor and door.
It's got one of Blackberry's panels in it, a panic button with a huge
plastic cover, and an array of mechanical counters with blue LED
backlighting for a lovely effect. This panes is built tuff for
participants scuffing their way in and out.
4/27/2007: The Yuri's Night Debut of the capsule was a success,
especially from the standpoint of transport and logistics. It
fit nicely on Killbuck's small flatbed trailer for now, and
transferred easily using mover's dolly's and a crew of 3 he-men.
People loved sitting in the pilot's seat inside and pushing the
buttons on the control panels, and I am told that the capsule was
"christened" by a lovely threesome-- something not likely to happen
once the monkey and other gear is installed inside. Crimson Rose's
suggestion of making the nose cone "crow bar proof" is making more
sense with the damage we incurred in the PVC sheet foam shell. I
spoke with William at eeSolar and they are putting together a proposal
for solar power on the playa. 115 Volts A/C, 300 Watts and we
will knock it down in the capsule cone to 5 and 12 Volts DC. We
won't have to trench for the extension cord much since the partially
deployed parachute will cover it.
4/11/2007:
Both the Reno Gazette-Journal and Reno News and Review will be doing a
story on our Yuri's Night / Reno-Compression fundraiser and they took
pictures of the U-Me capsule. Should show up in their Thursday,
April 12 entertainment sections.
3/30/2007: Locking mechanism and stays installed in nose cone and
capped with this nice dome light from the thrift store.
A stellar care package from Blackberry got started on my first
panel:
3/25/2007: Killbuck cuts a pretty mean circle! The nose
cone access hatch is a perfect fit, with hinged access to the
components. Landing gear is "go". Grey paint will look
good in the panel seams.
3/16/2007: Got the ultra cool lighted launch code buttons, mounted
them in a steel panel. Even came with prophylactic dust caps!
Hell-- for $65 they should push themselves!
3/15/2007: Thanks to the peeps at Burning Man for the artistic
grant! Now we HAVE to deliver! Thanks also to Blackberry
for his donation of control panels and expertise.
They look good on the inside and the flashing lights will enhance the
launch sequence:
There's something very boy's clubhouse about the feeling inside the
capsule. With the initial framing complete, we start on the nose
cone where the computer and electronics will reside. Thanks to
Crimson Rose for her suggestion on making it "crowbar proof".
2/11/2007: Installed a few vents in the hull.
Made a fake window out of pressboard over plastic film over
black PVC sheet. Dowel plugs for the rivet look. Halved PVC pipe
covers the seams nicely and lends some soft curves to the otherwise
hard angular lines.
Made a white LED light bar to illuminate the chimp.
2-4-2007: Killbuck and I had a wondrous day at
Slabwerks today. He really took the lead this time with
engineering, especially because he actually build a space capsule this
size when he was a boy! Photos below:
12/3/2006:
OK, I simply had to have one. Besides,
it's Christmas and nobody is going to really buy me a robotic chimp
head. OMFG! It's incredible. Really good
animatronics here. I'm sure the servos are the same crap they
put in to Baby Poops-Alot and such, but the sequencing is great, the
sounds accurate, and it is just too creepy. Fits nicely inside
the acrylic lightning beacon dome Mr. Fixit gave me. I'll chop
it down for a good helmet. I took apart the remote control and
the switches will hack fine into some kind of computer interface.
Titwi and Espresso dude offered to help with the programming... maybe
Irish too?
Click here for a mini-movie of my dog playing
with the new toy. These
great drawings from Killbuck, we're opting for the top "Fallen Over"
design:
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