I’d like to especially thank Almost Scientific team members David Shulman and Jo Slota for their help and support installing and running two high voltage sculptures in one night.  I’d also like to thank Melissa Alexander, Donna Wong and Eric Rosa and The Exploratoruim for everything.

I never got a chance to take any photos of video of the show so if anyone out there got any good media please pass it on to me!

For those who are first coming to the Almost Scientific site please check out our new Gallery where you can see some of our past projects.  You can allso follow us on Twitter if that’s you thing.

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.

We are currently using SolidWorks to design many of the elements of the Raygun Gothic Rocket (the model).

The Galactic Gala!

This is your chance to support The Raygun Gothic Rocketship and experience the greatest intergalactic event this side of  SetiAlpha-6!

Featuring Almost Scientific’s

The Neuron Chamber

&

The Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator

And more amazing artwork by Applied Kinetic Arts members: Nemomatic and Carl Pisaturo

***** BEGIN OFFICIAL TRANSMISSION *****

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.

Thanks Laughing Squid!

Burstein! wrote:

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.

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?

Last year we were there with the Dihemispheric Chronaether Agitator and  had a great time!

We come in at 1:40 if you want to jump right to us. This was shot on opening night and I was absolutely exhausted, and I’m amazed I was able to talk at all.

It was really cool to have the piece up and running for a sold month and it was really interesting to see how how things changes as it aged.

One really striking change was the extreme amount of oxidation we observed.  After the first week we noticed that allot of rust had built up on the neuron sculptures really quickly.  We soon realized that the ozone generated by the high-voltage discharge was responsible for this rapid oxidation.

Not only did the ozone oxidize the steel to create a very fine, powdery, orange rust, but it also oxidized the copper to a beautiful blue-green color.

Here are two photos of what the neuron sculptures looked like at the start of the show.

Here you can see the amazing blue-green patina that developed on the copper tubes.  When we originally made the axons we tried to build up this exact same patina using cupric nitrite, but it never took.

Here you can see the fine powdery rust on one of the dendrites.  Also you can stat to see that the rust has fallen onto the bottom creating the projection of the dendrite.

The oxidation also built up on the inside of the chamber, under the glass, as well.

Intriguingly the oxidation was not even.  In the next few photos you can see how it built up allot in some spots but not others.

Man I was exhausted when they shot this — it’s a miracle I was comprehensible.