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Lewis
deSoto
See more of Lewis's work on
his web site
I first met
Lewis in 1992 when he asked me to engineer a complex light
and sound fader
for his show at the New Museum of Contemporary Art
in New
York.
His piece was an installation work that reflected his response
to the noticeable
sounds emanating from the large, visible air ducts in the
ceiling. "Tempest" accentuated
the sound and focused attention on the
ducts by slowly
fading up several blue flood lights focused on the ducts,
while
simultaneously fading up the amplified and processed sound from
a microphone in
the ducting. The sound faded up over a few minutes, then
slowly diminished
over 15 minutes or so.
The controller
that I built was fully adjustable so that Lewis could set
the fade-up and
fade-down timing of the lights and sound. All the audio
equipment was
housed in a 19" rack.
The circuitry
contained counters that incremented digital values that were sent
to
Triac AC dimmer circuits and A/D
converters that controlled the audio amplitude
of
the signals fed through it.
See
more images and video of this piece on Lewis's web site
Over the years
I have made several other audio and light faders for his other
installations all
of which used similar technology to control lighting and sound levels.
Exhibited 3 times
from 1994-6,
"Tahquitz"
featured 6 separate audio/light faders
that cross faded
the sound to 6 different speakers and lights.
The sound was
a spoken
narrative
in native American tongues that moved
randomly
about the space creating the effect of a disembodied spirit --
.
--while ice
dripped slowly into large ceramic vessels below.
I
built these controllers using all hand wired logic and counter circuits
that
required
dozens of chips...
Engineering
these projects has become much easier with the advent of the
PIC
microcontroller chips and Basic Stamps!
See more images and video of this piece on Lewis's web site
"Sound of the
Trumpet"
installation at ART PACE in San Antonio,
Texas. 1996
Lewis placed a
large custom built automobile engine mounted openly in a large
gallery under 2,
1000 Watt flood lights.
.
I built and
programmed a controller that choreographed a timed performance for the
motor and
lights. Beginning in a darkened room with only a red spot light
derived
from a gelled
skylight, the motor started up and idled for a few seconds while the
lights
began to
glimmer. This motor was VERY LOUD even at idle!
Over time the motor
revved up and up
as the bright halogen lights became brighter and brighter.
After several
minutes the motor peaked at 4000 rpm as the lights reached their
full 1000 Watts
and suddenly stops as the lights black out, leaving the engine's
exhaust headers
glowing cherry red. (Exhaust and coolant were plumbed outside).
My controller
(mounted to the post 5 feet behind the motor) used 2
Basic Stamp 1 microcontrollers
to control a linear stepper motor that operated the
motor throttle
linkage, and the starting relay, and a Triac dimmer circuit for the
lights.
I programmed
the piece from a laptop via a lengthy umbilical cable.
Programming this
piece on site was terrifying! Lewis and I cowered over 10
feet from the
racing engine at first, while Donny, the engine's laconic Texan
builder stood
over the motor and observed that it could go up to 8000 rpm
without causing
harm. We decided that 4000 rpm would do fine!
See video of this installation on Lewis's site
"Writing"
One of 2 similar works that used lasers.
Created in 1996,
this enigmatic piece moves a red laser pointer
dot around on the
wall opposite the tapered pedestal that supports
the laser and the
mechanism that moves it.
The laser dot
slowly forms a vertical rectangle about 5 feet high
as you watch it
move along the wall, then it goes off for a moment
and begins inside
the top left of the conceptual rectangle and
"writes" by
squiggling up and down as it moves left to right
forming the idea
of an invisible hand at work. Another identical
piece titled
"Drawing" used the same idea.
Here is the
mechanism that I designed to drop into the tapered
pedestal that I
also built for him:
The small red
portable AM radio is used as a random signal source for the
computer so that
the writing movements are completely random.
The signal from
the speaker is sampled by the computer and used
to construct
random variables that determine the laser's direction
and travel
distance.
The stepper
motors that move the laser up/down and left/right
are controlled by
a Basic Stamp 2
microcontroller
at bottom left.
At right is the
up/down motor and the limit switches that prevent it from moving too
far.
See more images of this piece on Lewis's web site
"Dervish"
For his
installation at Metronom in Barcelona, Spain in 1997 Lewis created
"Dervish" . This was a sound and light piece of literally
dizzying proportions.
From 6 locations
in the room, speakers were hung from 2 wires, each with a
bright spot lamp
mounted to it. These were then rotated slowly so that the
lamp created
swirling beams of light as the speakers swung out in a wide arc.
The music was
commissioned by Lewis to be played on an antique string instrument
that dervish
music was originally played on. 6 different forms of dervish
music were used
for the 6 speakers.
Each
speaker/light was hung from a brushed aluminum box that I designed
which housed a
motor and commutator system that allowed power for the lamp
and signals for
the speaker to be fed through a rotating plate to the support wires.
An external
control box could be plugged in to set the speed of the rotation.
The motor's speed
was controlled from a Basic
Stamp 1
microcontroller, this was also
programmed to
start the rotation very slowly so the wires didn't tangle,
and stop it the
same way.
see
this piece on Lewis's web site
"Traveler" (1998)
One of my favorite pieces that Lewis
conceived.
This piece was
based on his childhood memory of being in his crib. His
mother
would enter the
room and find the crib had moved across the room to the window.
She discovered
that young Lewis wanted to see out the window, so he would
stand at the
headboard and jump against it to push the crib across the room.
That experience,
combined with his adult fascination with automobiles produced
this work.
As one nears the crib the toy truck backs up slowly to the end
of the crib then
accelerates rapidly forward until it crashes into the head board
with a resounding
CRASH -- making a sound like a bass drum.
This action
slowly
forces the crib to move around the gallery floor.
I modified the
remote control to be operated by a Basic Stamp 2 chip , and put it
in
an elaborate
control box with numerous knobs that Lewis could use
to set the
forward
speed, reverse speed, timing, and number of repeats,
this was then
mounted to the gallery wall. An LCD screen shows a description
of the trucks
current activity. There is a motion sensor mounted to the crib
that sends a
radio signal to the remote control to begin the performance
which consists of
several crashes before it rests for a while.
More info about this piece on Lewis's site
"Ship"
1998
With this work
Lewis moved to an object based format.
This is a 6 foot
long scale model of the Titanic made of steel that roves autonomously
around the
gallery
while exuding a fog bank from under itself. The idea was to give
the impression
that it was lost in its own fog.
While I had
some experience with a previous
robotic installation , this project challenged
me to the extreme
and eventually exceeded my mechanical design skills.
There was barely
enough room in this 80lb ship to cram in all the components!
Controlled by
2 Basic Stamp 1 microcontrollers
The ship is festooned with sensors
that prevent it
from colliding with walls, people or from exiting the gallery.
An infrared
proximity sensor in the prow prevents collisions with people
by stopping the
ship within 4" immediately, while long range ultrasonic
ranging sensors
on each side of the bow look for walls at a greater distance, and cause
the ship to turn
away from them. Another downward facing reflective optical sensor
detected
reflective tape
across the gallery openings. This sensor stopped the ship,
preventing it from
leaving the
gallery. 4 passive infrared motion sensors in portholes on all 4
sides sensed
people nearby and
activated the drive and fog circuits when people were present.
I also installed
lighting for the portholes.
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See more images and video of this piece on Lewis's web site
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