This weekend Justin and I added an AM/FM radio and an iPod/iPhone charger to the sola-system with great results. Even in evening sun we were still getting enough power to run the radio and charge an iPod.

I did a remix of “Carved in Light’ by my old band Iron Hero. I took a couple parts of the song that I liked, processed them individually, and “sewed” those parts together to form a sort of collage. Enjoy!

 

 Carved in Light (Hasty Remix) [10:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can download the remix, along with others, from the IH myspace page.

I was asked to write a short piece on the EM Brace for Rhizome’s new “Tools of the Trade” series, in which artists talk about the technical side of their works.

It’s currently on the Rhizome’s front page, and its static location is here.

I just graduated. Here’s my new band

SOURCE OF YELLOW

My final for my Sustainable Energy is the SolaSystem, which was co-created with Justin Downs & Florica Vlad. It’s a solar powered amplifier to be used for guitars, mp3 players, computers, or whatever you want. Right now, it’s at 14watts power at 16v, give or take 1amp, but we’re gonna upgrade the amplifier to a class D amp that’s more efficient and powerful. The panel outputs more volts and amperage than was listed, so we installed a voltage regulator to control how much power we’re feeding the amp. The sound still gets a little fuzzy at points. The current amp just needs to go.

Here’s some videos of the SolaSystem in action.

RAD!

My ITP thesis, the EM Brace, is up and running. The EM Brace is a wearable device for physically engaging with ambient electromagnetic frequencies emitted by computers and other electronics. It does so by turning these frequencies into sounds that are sent into a “bass-shaker” speaker in the back of the device. Metallic arms reaching around the wearer help distribute the vibrations coming from the speaker.

Here are some testing videos and photos of fabrication and “guts” (preamp circuit, amp circuit, speaker). For specific component parts, check out the previous “thesis” entries.

Here are some photos from the prototype version of the EM Brace. The final version will be in a more streamlined case, but I’m using this heavy metal box first so to work out my measurements before transferring everything to the final enclosure, which will house the bass shaker and amplifer. So far, input on the design has been positive. One friend referred to it as evil looking, another said it looks like bondage gear. I’m happy with both evocations.