Brooklyn artist D. Billy makes impermanent onomatopoeia interventions to his surroundings, helping to bring comic book joy to our surroundings. He writes:
Using colorful media such as twisting balloons, party streamers, and artist tape, I have begun to add visual representations of sound effects to public spaces as a sort of dimensional graffiti. After embellishing the found scenes and photographing the results, I leave my additions in place to engage passers-by for as long as the materials hold up. For me, this process encourages a reexamination of surroundings and objects that are usually taken for granted, and injects a hint of the fantastical surreality that I have established in my other work. Or, at the very least, I hope someone thinks these things are kind of funny.
Dale Dougherty, editor and publisher of MAKE and CRAFT, is on the road this week and writes:
On a visit today to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, I got a quick tour of the collections, a place where objects not in active use are stored. One thing caught my attention: a wooden treadmill. I learned that it was built as a treadmill for a dog and its purpose (the big wheel) was to generate power. So a dog-powered generator, built and once used on a farm.
Thanks to Kathleen McCarthy for the tour. I could have spent hours there so I'll have to come back.
My friend has been carrying around this empty shell of a Micro Muzak Model 1008 for years with the intention of converting it in to something... someday. Apparently this was used in a university to pump the college station through all the buildings and had long since been left to fall in to ruins.
Using parts you can easily get and very little modifications to the actual case it came out looking preatty good. We reused the original knobs where they were still available for that original look. The tubes were left on the case to look cool, they do nothing.
I admit this is less of an instructable and more of a hey-check-this-out-able, but maybe it will inspire you to make something neat.
IVC Wiki has an excellent roundup of projects for adding internal components (Flash storage, Bluetooth, FM radio, etc.) to an Eee PC laptop. There are several points on the Eee's mobo that make 3.3v and 5v readily available.
Immune Attack is a shoot'em edu-game that teaches immunology! via /. . Available for PC, in vitro, in situ, and in vivo.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) presents Immune Attack™, an educational video game that introduces basic concepts of human immunology to high school and entry-level college students. Designed as a supplemental learning tool, Immune Attack aims to excite students about the subject, while also illuminating general principles and detailed concepts of immunology.
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Come by the Austin Children's Museum (201 Colorado St.) on Sunday July 20th, from 1pm - 5pm for the Maker Faire Austin Auditions. To request a 15 minute time slot and more information, please send an email to sherry@oreilly.com. (Pictured above is our own Gareth Branwyn showing how to make Mousey the Junkbot.)
A paper cup, a sewing needle, and a simple LEGO Mindstorms robot make for a nice little record player. This might be a fun project to work on with the kids this 4th of July weekend. You know they've been wondering about the boxes of vinyl frisbees in the basement. Aside from anything else they might be learning, it's a good opportunity to slip in some information about how music used to be groovy.
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The artists essentially use grass as a form of photographic paper, projecting a black-and-white negative image onto a patch of grass as it grows in a dark room, and using the natural photosensitive properties of the grass to reproduce photographs...
When grass gets plenty of sunlight, it produces chlorophyll and therefore turns green – but the less light it receives, the more yellow the colour is," explains JWT art director Mark Norcutt of the process used to make the work. "Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey discovered that by projecting a bright black-and-white negative image onto a patch of grass as it grows (in an otherwise dark room), they can use the natural photosensitive properties of the grass to reproduce photographs. From a distance it looks like any other monochrome photograph (albeit with a slightly unusual tint); up close, it looks like perfectly ordinary grass. But even individual blades sometimes have a range of hues, as any given cell can respond to the amount of light it receives.
This photo gallery by Marc Steinmetz really illustrates the essence of making what you "need" from what you have at hand; the objects are rough, but incredibly elegant solutions to problems that most of us will never have to solve.
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Mac started using the Cypress Programmable System-on-Chip as a robotics platform - In order to get acquainted with the micro he decided to explore some of its non-robotic capabilities -
This project describes how to use a Cypress CY8C29466 Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) to drive a standard VGA display. Minimal external components are required to accomplish this feat. Horizontal and vertical sync pulse generation, video blank timing, pixel serialization, and the generation of three-bit foreground and background colors are implemented via ten PSoC digital blocks. External communications are accomplished through two PSoC UART blocks. The driver is realized in a PSoC Designer 4.4 project, which can be downloaded, along with a PDF version of the project document, on this web page:
This project turns a vintage "Planet Lamp" into a parabolic microphone for recording and uses a CMoy, low power amplifier circuit for the microphone. The whole project runs runs from a 9 volt battery. Check out the link for circuit diagrams and instructions for this project.
The "Foldable Greenhouse" by Daniel Schipper is a light-weight, flexible modular greenhouse built specifically for small spaces like city apartments, balconies, roof terraces, or even town gardens. The system is "frameless" and built from recyclable plastic which can be folded flat or expanded when required. He's looking to produce these for the masses, so if you want to help, drop him a line and head to the link below.
Calling All Dallas/Ft. Worth Area Makers - Join Us for "An Afternoon at Maker Faire" on July 19th.
Make Magazine, Craft Magazine and the Maker Faire team will be coming to Dallas to host an "Afternoon At Maker Faire" at The Museum of Nature and Science on Saturday, July 19th (from 9am - 5pm).
We will bring together Dallas/Ft. Worth area makers to exhibit their creative projects for a fun afternoon at The Museum. We are hoping to have cutting-edge DIY projects based around art, robots, electronics, alternative crafts, new music and interactive art and we are inviting all area Makers. If you are interested in being a part of this special event, please email sherry@oreilly.com for more information, and be sure to include some information about your project. And, if you know of any Dallas/Ft. Worth area Makers that we should be talking to, please be sure to send them our way.
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Making a binary clock is nothing new. However, it is a lot of fun and easy to make. If you have an Arduino and a parts bin, you should be able to make right now.
You might think that this can not be a real product. You're right, but it is in development, at least that what the maker says. There is even a link to a prototype, but it's still a far cry from a finished and working Plattabass.
Proposed specs, courtesy Ray:
2 assignable cross faders, an extreme pitch control that goes to zero RMP, a thumb worn magnet that triggers a sensor inlaid in the back of the neck
Three control knobs, and 2 TRS stereo outputs
Fender P bass neck, Basslines 1/4 pound pickups, and Fender flat-wound strings
Technics 1200 motor, plater , and controls
The experimental, spring loaded ,3 pole, zero drag stylus cartridge caddy / Bas string bridge, will be a one off custom piece of metal work
I will need a dsp unit that has a phono preamp built in, I was thinking I could cannibalize a Rane TTM-56
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories decide to remake a video game from the 1950's called "Tennis for Two". All you need is an oscilloscope, an AVR microcontroller, and a digital to analog converter and you can make your own. Well, that and a few other common parts and some electronics knowledge.
The game was based on the best contemporary technology: analog electronic computers built out of op-amps, relays, and the occasional transistor. It took Higinbotham and his technicians several weeks to design and build the game. Of course, some things have changed over the last 50 years. Using convenient modern electronics, we have designed a functional and playable replica of the original that can be put together by a hobbyist in a couple of evenings.
Here are the most read articles of all time in MAKE volumes 1 through 14.
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Dave Rocamora turned his old Ikea night table into a charging station for his gadgets, and made it an elegant lamp at the same time. He made a nice instructable about it, too, so with not much more than a router and utility knife, you can achieve the same look.
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