Materials: Aluminum gutters, custom electronics and software, pump, plumbing.
Dimensions of the entire system are approximately 16x16x3 feet and variable.

The process of constructing the system involved continually running water to find leaks in the system and then attempting to control them with more gutters. Adding more pieces tended to shift the existing structure creating more problems, however. The result is patch on top of patch, fix on top of fix. Pots, bowls and cups are employed to catch the remaining leaks, and yet, water still escapes and floods the floor.

Organic Processor #1. April 2010. Wood, glass, Porifera, jute, custom electronics, custom software.  9x9x10 inches

Organic Processor #1 is the first in a series of sculptures exploring cognition and the characteristics of empathy in imaginary organisms.  The organism comprises several “neurons” in software, each responding to stimulus in the immediate environment, within itself, and remote information such as messages on twitter.

Sample video of OP #1 deep in thought.  The software is still under development. I’m working on a number of different animated gestures that convey emotion.  As it processes sensory information and browses twitter, it will respond by displaying different moods (happiness, depression, anxiety, calm, etc.)  The video shows a generic animation for “thought” to indicate new information is being processed.

Mark making can be broken into three categories: addition of material, removal of material, and the modification of a material (although there is a fair amount of overlap between the categories).  Examples of addition were to clamp a bead onto a passing string, to add a blob of glue, or to add a drop of water. Removal of material could mean cutting away, notching, or burning a substrate as it passes. Modification could be knotting the material as it passes, staining it, raising the temperature, etc.

Most media strive to be precise and permanent. By soaking portions of a passing rope with saline, these regions can be detected as they pass “listeners” further down the line. Due to the capillarity of the rope, however, the saline spreads out in several directions which causes slight conductivity and more gently ramping (as opposed to digital) signal. Due to evaporation, the signals get weaker and weaker as they progress through the system yielding unexpected results. Looping everything back around will allow one continuous rope to be used.

Additional possible methods could use a heating element to apply varying amounts of heat to a passing wire. As the heat spreads, the crispness of the signal is diminished and bleeds into adjoining signals. As the heat is transferred to the environment, the overall signal diminishes and returns the wire to its original state.

Saline on Jute by ukle

The Sound of Vapor from Luke Loeffler on Vimeo.