Photographer Michael Rauner took some cool photos of some of my work (The Triaparator, The Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator and The Neuron Chamber) at the Fire Arts show. He also as some great shots of the Steampunk Treehouse and KSW.
You can see his whole gallery from the show here.
Below are some of the photos [...]
I’m honored to have been featured in this interview by the fantastic Meredith Scheff for The Steampunk Workshop.
I’m still recovering from finishing and showing The Neuron Chamber and will have the final round of photos form it up soon!
Portrait of a mad scientist: Alan Rorie of Almostscientific.com
Meredith Scheff — Mon, 07/14/2008 - 15:05
(image: Alan [...]
Hey all –
I just got back from taking apart the Steampunk Treehouse in LA and found a note in my inbox from some good friends directing me to this cool photo and blurb in Wired.
The blurb is similar to the other write up they did of the the The Dihemishperic Chronaether Agitator.
Wow. I just got back from Maker Faire and had a fantastic time. So many cool projects and brilliant people walking around. A glorious geek fest!
Check out the write up of Almost Scientific and the Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator in Wired:
Mad Labber Scientist Tinkers With Time
Stanford grad student Alan Rorie shows off [...]
It’s true, my most recently complete work, The Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator, will be showing all this weekend at the Maker Faire in San Mateo.
I just spent the evening in the shop shining it up and tweaking the gears.
I don’t think I’ll run it on steam power but I’ll have the steamengine there for show and [...]
I’m honored to be somewhat featured in this recent Nature article about Steampunk. Nature is a very high profile science journal that I largely only encounter in my life as a scientist. I think my thesis advisor will find it … let’s say … amusing that I’ve gotten a mention in Nature for [...]
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator is a kinetic, “steampunk” sculpture of a “time machine” that is powered by a real steam boiler and steam engine. It was built in collaboration with my good friends at Kinetic Steam Works. It was original displayed at the Edwardian Ball in 2008 and will be displayed again this [...]
Sunday, February 24, 2008
On Thursday Dick and I fired up Little Baby Steamy Pants, on of KSWs small boilers and hooked up the DCA.
I shot some video and quickly threw this little movie together. It as my first time shooting video and it’s something I need some more work at;) But I hope the little story [...]
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Here are some photos of the DCA at the Edwardian Ball taken by the event photographers:
www.pixievisionproductions.com and www.theblight.net.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Hey everyone!
Over the past few weeks Cyrus Farivar, an NPR reporter, has been putting together a story on Steampunk, including the Steampunk Treehouse and KSW for NPRs All Things Considered. He stopped by the Edwardian Ball and interviewed me while I was (exhausted) and setting up the Dihemispehric Chronaether Agiatator.
Well, the story will be [...]
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Well, it’s been almost a week since the show and I think I’ve finally physically recovered.
The 48 hours leading up to the show were exhausting.
On Thursday night, with my friend Davids help, I was able to get some LED lights installed under the tray. Because the steam engine vibrated I needed some way to [...]
Saturday, January 26, 2008
The show was last night. I’m still too tired for a full write up. The piece was a smash success and it will be at the the next two nights of the show as well.
Here’s a photo Dick took while I was setting up:
More to come!
UPDATES: Read about the show here. See the [...]
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Well, one of the final aspects of the piece that was undecided utill the end was the finish. One option was to paint it flat black (the original plan) , another was to polish the steel to a shine (an look I began to like the more I looked at the polished parts during fabracation) [...]
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Only a few days left before the show and I while I’m constantly coming up with new ideas and additions I’m resisting the urge to keep tinkering so I can get it all slick and finished looking for Friday. I’m still not sure if I’m going to paint it. My orginal idea was [...]
When I built the Triaparator I got more questions about how I did the etching then how I designed and built the irises — well here is how I made them:
The general idea behind etching is that you cover the metal to be etched by the acid with something that will prevent or resist the [...]
Here are what will likely be the final tray etchings. These will be 3.5′ in diameter and the yellow circles will be where brass end nuts are used to attach them to the tray itself.
These were designed in Illustrator and then I’ll print them onto glossy photo paper. The toner from the [...]
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Well, with about a week to go before the Edwardian Ball where the Dihemisoheric Chronaether Agirator makes its world debut, it’s all about the finishing touches. Here are some photos of some of the new bits.
First off we have the drive sprocket. Here is a rear view of the DCA with a close [...]
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The initial design for the brass etching for the tray were a bit more complicated then what I think I am actualy going to go with. I think I am going to make them three or four (likely three) 3.5″ circles with a circuit board style etching on them. I’m simplifying them primarily [...]
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Because the spirals are mounted with their narrow end at the hub I needed a way to support the large end of the spiral at the end of the rod. I decided to make these supports out of straight lines to contrast a bit with the spirals and circles on the hubs and bowls.
I [...]
Making the brass spirals was a fun challenge. I could have freehand cut them with a plasma cutter but I’m not really steady enough to have them come out with nice even edges.
I could have drawing one on the computer and transfered it wood and used it as a jig/guide but not only would [...]
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Last night I banged out another little widget for the hemispheres. I’m still unsure how I’m going to a affix these to the copper bowls. I’m also not sure if I’ll put both of these on the same bowl or one on each.
Here are some of the small parts that I machined with the very fine help of my pal Nathanial at Radiorobot. These square parts will be used to make the alignment brackets on the underside of the tray. The round parts will be used as stoppers for the rods.
Here the square parts above [...]
Friday, December 28, 2007
Here are some shots of another day of fabricating some of the major components. First is the main vertical component of the base which is a ~20″ tapering piece of 5/16″ plate, cut to a taper and then bent about 90° of a ~24″ radius. First the taper is laid out:
Then it’s [...]
Sunday, December 23, 2007
A bulk of day was spent making bands. Each hemisphere has a circular band around it and the body is two perpendicular bands, one horizontal and concentric with the bowls and another vertical one for the tray. To make these bands as accurate as possible I first rolled out the flat-bar into circles [...]
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The plan is to cover the top of the tray with etched brass work. Below is a sketch of the brass peices that will be cut and then etched. The holes in the brass will accommodate some of the brass rod which will drop down the tray and fill in the hollow space [...]
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
My buddy Dick Venerbeck of KSW is going to be hooking me up with a small, vintage steam engine to power the DCA. Here are two snapshots he just sent me of one of the two possible candidates he’s got.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Here is the first, primitive mock-up of the DCA hemisphere. This is the real copper bowl, however, the banding and brass spiral are scrap pieces. Before I committed to this design idea I wanted to make sure it would look as good in real life as it did in the drawings and [...]
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Jankey hack additions: antenna, dish, loose wires, broken switches, cooper wire attaching brass spirals to outter collars.
Pipe stand — run copper tubes out the back, between them and the main band, in the space bellow the tray, use them to compose the tray. Three pipes fanning out from back, single radius curves.
Copper tubes attaching [...]
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Here’s my first crack at the base. I’ve had a lot of ideas about how to mount the main assembly and loved none of them — including this one.
This base is successful because:
It’s simple, elegant and strong
It supports the assembly from the back and allows it to hover — a look I was [...]
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Well the gears haven’t gotten here yet but I’ve pulled their specs from the web and whipped some up. Shown here is the nearly finished core assembly.
The three gears will be aligned and stabilized by the two concentic rings that also serve as the tray for the objects. I’m not planning on using [...]
