| exercise machine | stephan schulz | videodoes@gmail.com | ||||
| For the performance exercise machine I am wearing a white jogging suit with five motion-sensors attached. My movements are translated in to the rotating movements of five fluorescent light tubes. These tubes are mounted on to posts of street signs and become like parasites which re-appropriate public space. The small movements that my body makes by walking up and down a street will be amplified in size and in the amount of attention. This project deals with the alternative uses public space offer us. By altering and personalizing the use of those spaces I think it is possible to bring the uncover the potential and meaning of public space better. I hope this spectacle of movements, light and technology will do exactly that. watch some clips of the moving lights. On July 6th 2006 (11am) I will perform this piece for the first time in front of the UdK Berlin (Grunewald Str. 2-5). "Man is not only a robot in his private reflexes but in his civilized behavior and in all his responses to the extensions of his body, which we call technology." (Marshall McLuhan) here my early project note |
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| This is a technical test in Peter Flemming's Studio. More detailed video footage will come after July 6th 2006. | |||||||||
| I am in Montreal for the summer using Peter Flemming's huge studio. I was able to set up all seven poles with the 8 foot fluorescent lights. One big problem has been for a while how to get power to the turning lights. I new slip ring connectors would be the solution. I spend a lot of time on my first DIY solution (link here) involving copper rings and spring metal 'fingers' which would create the rotatable connection to the power. In the last week now I redesigned the slip ring connectors by using normal ball bearings (link here). This works much better and seems to create a connection that is a lot more stable. The current can now flow uninterrupted. I am still not sure if I will use flex sensors or potentiometers to detect the movement of my joints. Potentiometers seem to give me a greater degree of rotation, about 300 degrees. The flex sensor I tested works fine between 0 and about 130 degrees. Bending it in the opposite way gave me only about 10 degrees of movement. So I will probably end up using the potentiometers. For now I am using a long cable that will connect the performer with the micro controller which in turn send the right signals to the stepper motors. I am looking into setting up a wireless communications between to wiring i/o boards but with one month left I rather concentrate on having a precise translation of my movements into the rotary motions of the lights. All the electronics are set up that includes the 10k Ohm potentiometers, the microcontroller (wiring i/o board), the Xylotex stepper motor driver and the Xylotex 1.9 Nm stepper motor. I already had a test run which showed that the microcontroller is fast enough to make all the movements simultaneously even when it has to read the input data from the potentiometers. |
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| I found that in my life i don't do a lot of other things then work for my art and once in a while meet my emidet friends. I seem not to purse any hobbies or other leisure activities. I can't even say that I am reading for leisure. All the things I am doing are related to my work and I certainly enjoy most of them. In this performance I will try to combine my work with a leisure activity, physical excersice. To motivate myself more I am amlifying my bodies movements by having light tubes turn according those movements. I also hope to stop once in a while and talk with passersby about their leisure activities, how they are managing work and private life. use the word hobby, dream of doing, to do something for yourself |
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| coming soon on july 6th I will perform the first time in berlin at the udk-berlin |
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