WOK IN PROGRESS - TRAVAUX EN COURS - LAVORI IN CORSO - ARBEITSVORGANG
  

Write - Ecrivez - Scrivete - Schreiben Sie
Title page - Page de titre - Pagina di titolo - Titelseite - Página principal
Ich wünsche mit Personen in Verbindung kommen, die dieselbe künstlerische Interesse wie ich haben. Deshalb habe ich daran gedacht, den ersten Schritt zu machen, und regelmäßig über meine letzte Arbeitsvorgänge zu berichten.
Started:
last update June 10, 2004
 Finished:
April 20, 2004 : "The invaders" - Assemblage of wood, plastic, steel, table forks, printed circuits & computer mice, keyboards and papier-maché
June 10, 2004
 
 
The idea

April 20

A few days ago my wife suggested that I make a large egg and decorate it with mosaic pieces of printed circuits. I thought about it and an idea came about during a sleepless night travelling by car to Germany.

A large egg (30 cm high) would be placed on a set of quartz crystals covered with keyboard pieces. The egg is broken and hatches computer mice which crawl down climbing on the crystals (probably about 20 of them).

The piece shall be called:

"The invaders"


I changed my mind several times on how to make the quartz crystal. I quickly abandoned the idea to use keyboard pieces and thought of obtaining the crystal effect with mirrors cut and glued on a base of wood shapes; finally, as I was in Germany I came about the idea of simply using transparent plastic pieces.
The overall size of the piece had to be determined by the size of computer mice. The egg at 30cm height would do and the base dimensions should be around 50x50.
I made several sketches.
At that point I decided that the egg should not rest directly on the quartz block - there should be a nest. For the nest I decided to use some aluminium spiral cuts obtained when you turn a metal piece on a turntable. My son Nicolas is occasionally using a turntable to make circular pieces for his steady-cam system.

 

The base needed an access slope for the mice to crawl down. Here above the mice are shown in red.
Instead of a slope I chose a system of ramps which is aesthetically more satisfactory than a straight slope.
In Germany I bought some un-oxidisable steel plates which are like slightly imperfect mirrors, and I decided to use it for the vertical walls on the ramps (blue in the sketch at left).
The boxe sides should be covered with printed circuits boards (green on the sketch).
Execution


 

I started with th egg, using a balloon blown to the desired size and covered with papier-maché; the balloon was pierced and removed after the dried papier-maché gave it rigidity. An opening was cut like the broken shell of an egg.
Then I cut small pieces of printed circuits (1 to 2 cm squares) after removing all the above board discrete components. These mosaic pieces were individually and patiently glued all around the egg.

 

I build a wooden structure with a central platform on which to rest the nest. On 3 sides of the platform would be plastic plates with plastic vertical pieces imitating a quartz crystal block. This would also permit to illuminate the plastic pieces from under with lamps hidden inside the box.

I started then to cut and glue together many plastic pieces of various shapes and sizes, obelisk type and triangular shapes.

Once all the plastic pieces glued and dried up in place, I build a wooden casing around each of the 3 plates and poured liquid propylene (resin) mixed with abrasive and bricks' powders and dotted them with small stones and broken brick pieces.

I used low energy, long duration light bulbs to illuminate the plastic blocks from under.

 

 

 

 


For the nest I used a bunch of the metal cuts and sprayed them randomly and partially in gold, blue and black.

I then surrounded the nest with table forks simply planted in the metal mesh, they are defending acces to the nest.

And the egg was laid in the nest.

The nest is resting on the central platform of the wooden structure which I started to decorate with printed circuits, a keyboard and steel plates for mirror effects.




 

The plastic quartz constructions were put in place.
Two light bulbs were place under these plastic plates to illuminate the plastic pieces from under.

I also put another light bulb inside the egg which had been inside sprayed with gold paint.



I had collected some 20 mice. I opened them to insert several multicolored wires coming out like the flagellum of a bacteria.

 

June 7

I made a complete assemblage to appreciate the effect. No good!
It is too bulky.
So I decided to take it apart and restart with another wood structure, not so high (15 cm instead of 25) and with a somewhat larger base.
The ramp with 2 levels is replaced with 2 ramps which join each other in the middle.


The idea is to have pyramid type inclined walls, on 3 sides, going from the edge of the base to the top of the structure.

 



June 10

Here is the result so far - almost done!
A few details need finishing.

It is 75 wide, 85 deep and 55 high.

It needs a few more mice.