This is those present during the crit. giving it the hard look over.

these images of the machine were created by Bill Jones. I think they are beautiful drawings of the machine for an ee. The schematic for the machines electronics were drawn up by Tim Force.Schematic Allso I am posting the code used to make the machine function. The code is nervous machine.txt

One asspect that I have neglected to discuss has been the logo chip. The center board has the logo chip and the ultrasonic sensors are tied direrctly onto this board. The motors all tied into the two boards on the left and right of the logo chip.

Transposition, Debi Kaufman, Ulrich Museum, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas

The thesis exhibition of Debi Kaufman is a delightful presentation of the human figure at the Ulrich Museum of art. Several of the works are simple black and white images on heavy hand made paper. The heavy paper created an embossment and printed on the paper as well. The monoprints are lively and full of color and movement directing the viewer to explore the work. The oil paintings were for me the most exciting aspect of the exhibit. The work titled Dagen’s bedroom is a fascinating use of color and texture. The work is divided into the foreground with heavy paint and hard edges that contrast the ground, that is blurred yet distinct with color. The only disappointment is that there were not more oil paintings. Debi Kaufman’s graduate emphasis is printmaking yet the work could easily be miss-construed with being the work of a painter. Congratulations are in order for a show well done.

Figure in Space an invitational by Dan Jenson who is currently an adjunct faculty at Newman University. The ten artists invited are all Kansas residents and close acquaintances of Dan’s. Despite the close connections to Dan all of the artist seem more than capable of creating with the “figure in space” as a jumping off point. The figure in space is dealt with in a variety of ways. The works by Beth Van Netta are interesting as the actual figure is not a tangible form yet referenced to by the objects she builds. At first glance her hand forged crow and walking sticks may seem out of place within the context of the show, yet breakthrough the ordinary to reveal the human connection. Ted Adler’s ceramic forms have a visceral reference to the interior of the figure as if ones guts were turned inside out. The works by Susan De Witt are light hearted and amusing as the viewer may expect to see from her, as she puts her touch to the idea of figure in space. In the corner of the space is a white box affixed to a table post and seems rather non-descript except for the peephole. Marc Durfee asks the viewer to participate by peering into the hole and discovering the figure in space. Marc has created an interesting world within the box. His combination of a used bread mixer, mirrors and the invisible woman are just the right ingredients for an interesting experience. Overall the Figure in Space exhibition is a gathering of ten different views and approaches to what the idea of a figure in space is and how it is viewed and experienced.

Jacob Prater, RSC Gallery, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas

The exhibition by Jacob Prater in the RSC gallery is perplexing when considering the work in context to his artist statement and the RSC advertisement. The work is a combination of wheel thrown ceramics and a figurative wooden sculpture. The shows advertisement describes his work as comical and exploratory. Exploration is the only truth in advertising in this exhibition. Prater’s past work is defiantly a victim of the fun and comical, with his exploration of submarines and spacecrafts. His current work and exhibition is boring and mundane. It seems that everyone in current ceramics department is on the wood fire bandwagon and Jacob Prater is leading the charge. His vessels seem unoriginal and mundane. The work is simply safe and without the risk taking, that was seen in the past. The largest disappointment is in his artist statement with his soapbox stance on proselytizing his beliefs. His ranting about god commanding him to create a vessel is a shallow attempt of using a parable of the human body and spirit and the admonishment to fill it with the word of God, as a reason for his efforts. The final straw of disappointment was the pamphlets stuffed into his wood fired vessels. The most obvious question is what do cheaply printed gospels of John have to do with the vessel. The entire exhibition was a dismal attempt converting viewers to the ways of Jacob Prator.

The fins were created by making several passed on the table saw using a sliding miter box. Once the heat sink was cut to length the positioning of the fets were considered and installed on the board.

you might notice that the heat sink changes color, it looks anodized but its just some translucent red paint.

At this point we are all excited that things are coming together despite massive amperage draws on the batteries. We were able to get the motors to pulse in response to the ultrasonic sensors, except for one of the banks that was drawing an excessive amount of amps. Bil, Paul and I fixed the bank that was drawing excessive amps due to the motors grounding out on the tubes. Once the last bank of motors was installed it all went to hell. Tim felt that the fets were not working as planed and came up with some alternative fets but in the end I don't think it was our best option. I am also unhappy with the the way the machine respondes to the viewer.

this image of complications is the last thing I wanted to happen just before the opening. Our piece probably had the most amount of man hours and still fell short of the finish line.

One of the major problems was that the motors were manufactured with a brass electrical contact protrude beyond the body of the motors. Despite the fact that the motors were covered with heat shrink, the brass contact cut through the plastic and caused most of the motors to grounding out or were on the verge of grounding out.

I went ahead and pulled all the motors and striped all the heat shrink in order to trim back the brass plate that has reeked such havoc. I used pneumatic die grinder and an abrasive wheel to trim of the brass protrusion on all 80 motors and then re heat shrink the motors. One other problem was that several of the motors got some flux around the shaft of the motor and caused it to freeze up. I used a bit of lacquer thinner to clean of the flux.

Once all the motor banks were put in working order and had consistent amperage draw, Tim rounded up some more fets and got it working again. We did have one of the sensors go out and one is on order to replace the third sensor.

The last thing I have done so far is to put a cover plate on the back side of the machine. I provided a place for a on/off switch, serial port and battery recharging jack.

The ultrasonic sensors were purchased from a company called Acroname. The cost is about 25$ per sensor per unit. We used 3 units, I would have proferred a few more but money isn't growing on trees these days.

I found some info about the sensor at this link

Cutting the plate with the DXF file downloaded into the cutters computer

the main parts are cut and ready for assembly

The plate used is 16ga A36 cold rolled steel, this makes it rather easy to fold and weld the edges.

the connections for the tubes are 1/4" pipe couples with the end turned on the lathe so that fits through the plate and makes the joint easy to weld. The third image is from the inside of the body. Notice that the inside is clean and shinny because the plate had been left outside and only one side got wet and rusted, however I think it is to my advantage for this work. With the couple turned down on the end you can see how the pipe protrudes through and creates a lip to weld on. I chose this method so that the pipe would be perpendicular to the plate and would require less clean-up or grinding.

this next image is the body all welded up and just about ready for some paint. I notice in this picture that not all the parts on the bottom are welding into place, but I think you get the idea on how its all but together.

The paint job I chose is reminiscent of some safety and lifting equipment that was used at steel warehouse I worked at, some years back.