It’s not so much that everything in the future will be built around the idea that we’ll need a proper vessel to study the organs of extraterrestrial life, but you can imagine very quickly that it would need to look stinkin’ cool… and have lights and bolts and stuff.
For instance, it would almost certainly look like the Neuron Chamber by Alan Rorie. It’s Art. It’s Kinetic. It’s Almost Scientific and it’s a mash-up of 3D mechanical design, late nights spent welding and entertaining the minds and hearts of attendees of the Maker Faire and other events.
Alan gives ya some more insight to how he creates his art. Prepare your mind.
I usually have my SolidWorks models loaded up in the shop so I can pull whatever measurements I need on the fly. For me allot of the fun of of using SolidWorks is spending a lot of time building a nice model and then slowly seeing it come to life in the real world. I’m also love to see how you think and interact with the object changes, as the real world constraints (and mates) take over.
Charge up your jet pack, set your raygun to indigo, run a final system check and power-up your un-licensed, un-tested n-phase thrust generator and plot a course to …
May 15, 2009 – NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE (NORAD) COMMAND
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, CO, USA
SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) has intercepted, and NORAD has confirmed the following transmission, discovered during routine monitoring of deep sub-space audio traffic for patterned activity in the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life.
According to the contents of the transmission, an invasion force of as-yet-unidentified extraterrestrial creatures are planning an infiltration at LAT/LONG 37.794194,-122.400102 on Friday June 5th, potentially disrupting The Galactic Gala fundraising event, supporting the construction of the Raygun Gothic Rocketship, a privately-owned interplanetary space vehicle.
… IT IS UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME WHETHER THEIR INTENTIONS ARE BELLIGERENT OR BENIGN IN NATURE. PEOPLE IN THE VICINITY OF THE BENTLY RESERVE DURING THIS TIME SHOULD STAND READY FOR ANY EVENTUALITY, AND ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO ARRIVE PREPARED WITH SPACE TRAVEL-READY GEAR.
Laughing Squid is always one of the first blogs I check out to see what is going on in the Bay Area and beyond, so it was supper cool to load it up this morning and see The Neuron Chamber right there at the top of the page.
The Neuron Chamber by Alan Rorie is an electro-kinetic sculpture of a steel and glass frame that contains hand-forged steel and copper model neurons. Even better, the neurons within the chamber create and send beautiful electrical arcs down the interior of the sculpture. These arcs do more than merely look pretty, but they have changed the sculpture itself by oxidizing its innards, giving it a new layer of color and depth.
Here is a every so slightly more polished (and short) video of The Neuron Chamber experience at Maker Faire this year.
Overall we had a fantastic time. I’d like to thank Dale and all the other organizers of Maker Faire for putting together such a fantastic event.
Thanks also to CTP and Nemo for pulling together another super Applied Kinetic Arts (AKA) show. The Neuron Chamber was a smash hit at Maker Faire and the AKA show was an even huger hit. I think in total we won 4 or 5 editors choices awards. One even went to The Neuron Chamber.
Finally, thanks to all the other makers who showed up with their great stuff, and thanks to all those visitors who came by, said nice things, and asked good questions. You feed back left me creatively recharged and ready to make something even cooler.
I’m still recovering a bit from the event — last night I dreamed that one of the army of R2-D2 robots wandering the event attacked me, forced me into an elevator, rotated it 90 degrees and told me I could never escape. Why R2? Why?
Here is my posted reply to the orginal post and the comments:
Hello all –
I’m the artist responsible for The Neuron Chamber.
First, thanks to Gizmodo for the post and thanks to ya’all for the comments.
Second, The Neuron Chamber is a collaborative work and credit should also be give to Ben Carpenter (www.backbonemetals.com), Jo Slota (www.joslota.com) and David Shulman.
Third, I assure you this is not a work of Steampunk art. Just because an object has brass fittings on it does not mean it is Steampunk. Trust me, I’ve built Stampunk art and this is not it.
And to address other comments:
We estimate The Neuron Chamber will likely become sentient when we hook it up to the internet and feed it a steady stream of blog comments and tweets.
Maker Faire has always show art, especially, hand made, interactive kieneitc art.
If you think art is dead then you are not living.
I’m not sure what a Flood parasite is but I hope it’s tremendously evil and difficult to kill.
I’m also not sure why a neuroscientist would be offended by this post or The Neuron Chamber. Some of my best friends are neuroscientists and they’ll assure you this is one of the least offensive things I’ve ever done.
Last night Jo brought the 3d-print of the RGR model I made last week. We printed it in four sections with the fins separate, then glued them all together and put on a coat of primer. This stands ~10″ tall. Armed with this Jo can now cast this into various materials.
I love when I see objects I’ve created in the computer come to life in the real world.
In honor of my dog Piper, who had a very bad day recently when he got a huge fox-tail stuck in his nose, I’ve posted the audio of a talk I delivered a few weeks ago at The Exploratorium about the evolution of the domestic dog.
If you have ever wondered exactly how the ferocious wolf became the friendly dog listen to this short talk (34min). There were no visuals accompanying the talk so don’t be shy.
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