‘Worry Stone’ is an impractical catharsis tool to deal with the stresses of modern life. Traditionally, a worry stone is a small, smooth river rock that the user would rub or ‘worry’ with their thumb. The purpose was to calm your mind, get into a rhythm and transmute your anxiety into calm. This mechanical worry stone will ask the user what they’re concerned about, how concerned they are, and depending on their answer, the machine will then shoot a laser beam into a rock for a predetermined amount of time. ‘Worry Stone’ is my attempt at making a piece that succeeds because it fails. Anxiety doesn’t go away if you put it on layaway, but many of us try to accomplish this through a myriad of inputs, outputs, and distractions.
It’s the year 3030, and the trees that once produced the resin called frankincense and myrrh have disappeared due to poor harvesting practices and an inhospitable climate.
The papacy sets in place restrictions to ration what supplies of incense remain, and alternative options to keep the rituals alive are explored.
The vape thurible was never really considered a viable alternative, but the nicotine did wonders for congregation retention.
#thurible #ritual #catholic #frankincense #myrrh #vape #dystopian #futurology #3dprinting #3dprint #fusion3060 #design #vapes #vapetricks
I had the luxury of being able to audit a class this semester called “Time” taught by @fddrsn at @itp_nyu . We got to discuss the history of time keeping, the experience of time, how technology leverages time, and so much more. It was a really awesome experience!
I wanted to take the class because it relates to a different piece I’m currently working on. (Specifically I wanted to know more about clock mechanisms and their history) This was my final project for the class which will be on display at the @horologicalsocietyofny in January.
The idea is that the farther I am from my last meal, the sleepier and angrier I am. You plop a food token in my mouth and crank the handle and I wake up rejuvenated! (enlightened even!). Then, as time passes, my eyes shut and my expression gets sour.
It’s fully mechanical, and works by using springs, gears, and an escapement like you would find in a typical clock. I learned a lot in making this mechanism work…. I’m extremely happy with the result,(with minor gripes here and there) but it does everything I set out to make it do.
P.S. Please excuse my shameless use of AI art for the faceplate, and pray for me that Nintendo doesn’t sue me into oblivion for directly ripping off the art style of animal crossing. 🏡
I finally finished the LED tree of life for the new tarot machine!
I’ll post an explanation about what part it has to play in the overall machine a little later… for now I’m just gonna sit and stare at it for a few hours 😮
#tarot #treeoflife #electronics #arduino #neopixels #3Dprinting
From the year 4300-3500 BC the Boian culture lived in what is now Romania and Bulgaria.
In one of the Boian archeological sites dubbed “The Sanctuary” at Cascioarele-Ostrovel, they found a column with a stair stepping pattern on it. There was a theory that the people in that settlement might have been part of a column cult. They would worship the ‘axis mudi’ better known as the world tree. The theory doesn’t hold much water anymore, but I really enjoyed the idea of it.
With the step-up pattern, I imagined that you would worship by walking around the pole with your eyes fixed on its markings. the pattern would endlessly ascend from the roots of the earth to the upper most reaches in heaven.
Well, if you’re anything like me, you’re a bustling Boian who does NOT have time for all that circling and stepping, so I threw that column on a motor. That way, you can kick back in your Neolithic equivalent of a La-Z-Boy and worship while you attend to other pressing matters.
#Column #art #sculpture #electronicart #archeology #Neolithic #museum #ancient #religious #motorized #automated #spirituality
The aluminum rod that came with the receipt printer doesn’t fit inside the paper rolls I ordered, so today I headed over to the lathe to fix that. Now it’s a perfect fit! 👨🏻🍳
I just rediscovered this video I put together from YouTube clips right after I finished the first tarot machine.
I was learning about quartz crystals because I had found a random number generator that uses the clock of the microcontroller (which is a quartz crystal oscillator, which means that the tarot machine crystal powered!)
I enjoy the fact that there’s something engineers and shamans can both agree on: that quartz crystals are pretty dope.
