Time — Professor Jeff Feddersen

Midterm Hardware Software Technical Demo

I priced out my previously designed build with the copper and everything and thought, this is a nightmare. This is going to be so much work for so little effect, I will need to have a secondary aspect which pulls the copper rod towards the copper sheet, especially if I want it to be hung on the wall.

Im sick of sculpture which sits on the floor, my floor specifically, theres no room in my little nyc apartment.

Also, what am i thinking creating outdoor installation? where am I going to put it? Realistically?

Time to revisit the source:

A leafy branch reaching across a pale paneled wall below a metal vent, the wall faintly stained in the arc the branch sweeps.

Subtly, the branch traces out its own existence on the dirty wall behind it. its reach and influence is mapped, this slow change is my desire. this is time embodied.

A Sculpture of Change

Ideas dont arrive fully formed. Something of the watch hand as a feather lodged itself in my mind. But how can I have a feather trace its rotation? and into what surface? Sand is perhaps the most obvious, but the most problematic. How to balance the feather against its backing? What could be possibly light enough?

The idea for calligraphy paper came to me as an ideal surface, the feather perhaps dipping into a pool and then tracing its rotation across the calligraphy paper. The problem, feathers are hydrophobic. I racked my mind for brush like natural materials which wicked up water, but most animals repel it, where as plant life attracts it.

I thought about a blade of grass in the morning dew. the water was transported through the air to the blade of grass. I dont want to work with something living because I dont want to deal with death. The fading of the medium is not the message.

Pen sketch of a square panel with a single hand pivoting from a motor below it, next to handwritten notes: with feather what is the medium? feather in dew? feather in mist? feather deflects mist?

The dew was then in my mind became central. The purpose of the feather is to control the flow of air. If we let the dew deposit naturally onto the canvas, calligraphy paper, we can let the feather do its job as god designed it and sit back as the river forms. I just needed to see if calligraphy paper would actually respond how I wanted, so I ordered some and dug out my ultrasonic misters.

Pen sketch of a square panel above a round base, with dense bundles of lines radiating from a center point like a clock hand's sweeps traced over time.

It took me some time to remember how to use ultrasonic misters, theyre really picky towards 5v specifically, variable voltage delivery power supplies are not appropriate.

Test rig on a shop table: a sheet of gray calligraphy paper taped to a cardboard box, a clear acrylic sheet in front of it, and a small ultrasonic mister board glowing blue on the box below.

I set this together with printer boxes, some borrowed acrylic and my new calligraphy paper. It took some time to balance the distance between the paper and the plexy, but in time my dark cloud formed.

Close up of the gray calligraphy paper behind the acrylic, darkened by mist into a large black cloud shape that drips toward the bottom.

So now, lifes good. I need but implement my BLDC motor arm. The utility of such is that I need not calibrate its position, a weakness of steppers and servos. the BLDC with a magnetic position sensor will calibrate its own position, close its own control loop, claude does the code, esp32 connects to wifi and get the time. the whole thing plugs into power. I should get a rtc attachment.