The latest version of this doc. with links at- www.polycosmos.org/skylife/skylife.htm
Collaboration with Department of Aerospace Engineering
Cultural Aerospace- Artistic expression by means of flight.
Floating Conceptual Art- BioBlimps are proposed to explore the poetics of Living in the Sky.
Deliverables- Display at Aerospace and Art Depts. (AES approved Sept. 13,'99), Flights of BioBlimps, Web Site Documentation, Essay with Verse, Video, Press Coverage, lecture at Aerospace Dept.
Media Platform- MicroAviation is proposed as a vehicle for full duplex audio video acquisition and presentation of cultural media.
Flying Sculpture- Flying Humanoids,
Earlier UT groundwork- Traveler- CASA/School of Design Semester Project (fall '98)
Precedents- Goya, Panamarenko, Calder; True flight artist pioneers: Austin's Silicon Barrio and Robot Group: work of David Santos
High Performance Robot Airship
TechnoPoesis Flight Verse Winged Humanoid Robot The Flying Sphere
Sept.14,'99 Hyperkinetic Humanoid featured on Learning Channel, Extreme Machines III.
Sept.16,'99 Final Proposal for fall semester;
Sept.17,'99 Silicon Barrio demos at Diez y Seis Celebration in Zarragosa Park.
Sept.25,'99 Set up display at Aerospace Dept. (approved)
Sept.28,'99 Visit by Fenella Saunders of Discover Magazine on campus and at South Austin shop to review work in progress.
Sept.30,'99 First Critique
Oct. Lecture at Aerospace Dept. (approved)
Oct.28,'99 Second Critique
Nov. Lecture and display at Art Dept.
Nov.30,'99 Final Critique
Fine Arts Faculty Sponsor- Vincent Moriani
Radio. Television, and Film- Ellen Spiro Assistant Professor 471-6643 spiro64@earthlink.net
School of Design- Assistant Professor Katie Salen (512) 471-9133 zed@mail.utexas.edu
C.A.S.A.- Consultation with Holle Humphries, Yakoff Sharir, Board Members
P.A.C. backstage is proposed as a test base- Shop Supervisor; Rick Stephens, 471-0630 rstephens@mail.uteas.edu Computer Systems Administrator; Bill Morgan, 471-0656 b.morgan@mail.utexas.edu
David Santos 462-3107 santos@88net.net www.polycosmos.org/people/santos.htm
Cultural Aviation Page- www.polycosmos.org/glxywest/galxywest.htm
Could humanity ever live on the wing and leave the earth undisturbed? I consider the little novelty flying sculptures as direct prototypes of this future life. Growing food and enjoying it is a key enabler, just as much as automated flight systems and sustainable power.
The current flight platform will control insolation, ventilation, and irrigation with one microservo, a photodetector, and a thermistor. It will eventually will be microcontrolled, but a spoonful of discrete components would also work at similar or lower weight and power consumption. A small solar cell would be useful, especially if the heavy glass mounted type is avoided. Amorphous cells have an advantage of providing useful charge in low light. The moist parts of the world are lost to crystalline panels.
In exploring the meaning of "tabernacle" the other day, found it related to "tavern", as well as originally meaning "tent", or "shelter" at its most basic. Nomadic Jewish tribes developed mobile tabernacles, adding an aura of holiness to the concept, the body came to be considered as the soul's tabernacle. The Mormons picked up this tradition and applied to hand carts, the subject of a wigged out essay in progress, while this note is about the irony of "tavern as temple", an Eleusian mystery.
Altar means a raised platform, secular or sacred. Elevation is associated with divinity, so altars become religious fixtures. A Flying Altar, or Tabernacle is a natural progression, a joy to think on. The mobile tabernacles/arks of old died out, some variants persisted, such as religious parade displays. Then there are modern "cranks", who take old cars, trucks, and trailers and deck them with messianic religious texts. The third world is rife with vehicular altars, especially private bus services where the cab begins to resemble the most glorious cathedral altar. It matters not which religion, the basic format is fundamental. When I was living in Mexico City (long ago) we used to escape to Tula, and spend the day at the Toltec ruins. I was shocked to visit a domestic excavation and see that the home shrines were faithful tiny versions of the great altars called pyramids. Looking around, it became clear that there was a seamless range of sacred structures from tabletop to hilltop scale. Western civilization made the home shrine an entertainment center.
Flying churches may take many forms. A temple aloft with telepresence communes with the spirit of sky. The earth bound soar the holy vehicle through the stratosphere as communion. Reminds of modern Tibetan virtual sacred architecture that exists only in virtual reality. The designers discovered that in VR gravity is no limitation, and they began to incorporate levitating features which had existed only as mythology. A flying temple is pretty mythical stuff.
The latest flying humanoid news is the addition of a solar panel on the head that keeps the receiver and servos operating indefinitely in sunshine. The little glass faced panel also balances the center of gravity forward. The esthetic effect of the little patch of blue crystals is pleasant.
Designing and building at the same time is hard work, writing seems like laziness by comparison. Joyce Rutan (a cousin to Burt and Dick) and I went to the kite store and found some awesome tapered carbon fiber spars to embed in the wings, as suggested by George Parks. These carbon rods and whiskers are clearly the thing to use on microblimps, instead of bamboo, wood, or aluminum. They are much stiffer and tougher, just what we've waited years for. Only bummer is price- matched tubes for humanoid wing ran almost 25 bucks.
Am planning a mini solar cooker and biosphere payload, to get a symbolic head-start on future aircraft. These flying machines need only GPS based embedded control and a large source of lift to stay up all day by themselves.
Making good progress on a design for a sleek flying wing that folds up and out into a nomadic cart. A new flight niche is suggested where a ridge soaring hang glider can land in wild meadows and be hauled up new hills. I'm inspired by the many bugs and birds that only fly in bits, as the occasion demands. Limited flight is very much easier than performance flight, so there is opportunity to explore extreme extensions to aviation. Previous study explored the shelter like qualities of wings as inspired by wing tents and nesting birds. Its a short leap to think of a rolling shelter that flies.
Joyce DiBona and I met with model aviation guru, George Parks, to nail down the radio control implementation of the Flying Humanoids. Then Joyce and I attended a robotics lecture by Takeo Kanade at the Austin Museum of Art, in conjunction with the Alan Rath Exhibit. Our Flying Humanoid sculpture stunt, at 1% of the price of an Alan Rath piece (Joyce asked Alan about pricing ;^)), is going to demonstrate the greater creative power of the Austin tech art scene. We're going to try a new technique for foam wing reinforcement, embedding a tapered carbon fiber tube into the bottom surface as opposed to 'glassing the whole wing or other traditional reinforcement, such as the sleazily effective fiberglass strapping tape we use in most our prototypes.
This work and Rath's are worlds apart. Classic Austin robot hacking has less precedent in terms of materials, construction, and design, resembling something ET would have made more that the mainstream techno look of Rath's stuff. To our taste his stuff is bland, too minimal, testing no new technological ground. To his credit his devices are good enough. Our stuff is much wilder, with a larger number of ideas, greater ambition, and daring. Our best stuff might only last one session, say a glorious flight ending in a crash, with only video and a bit of very strange trash left over. The Art museum's ignorance of the Austin tech art scene until the imported Rath exhibit had consumed all the resources donated by Dell. Instead of a great leap forward for Austin, the museum leadership was as absent as ever, except for the wonderful efforts of the education coordinator, who "discovered" the 15 year old legendary local scene when she called Lone Star Robotics, and arranged the belated inclusion of Austin tech artists with her bit of budget.
The Flying Humanoids near completion for Saturday's flight. They use a new structural language consisting of carbon fiber kite tubes embedded in foam surfaces. This allows one a strong stiff frame with great freedom in shaping the foam. Construction is greatly accelerated so time can be lavished on details.
Post Apocalyptic Aviation will be made from discarded bikes, sailboats, and aircraft, especially hang gliders and ultralights. Costs are low and assembly quick. The flying machines look odd, patched ancient scrap left unpainted. The junk look is deceptive in that performance is valued and based on good design. Odd trade-offs are made for niche missions. Esthetics is indulged in striking ways, even trading away hard won performance for style. Nomadics, sustainablility, cultural arts, technoculture, mutant culture, extreme sports, eccentricity, and individualism are aspects of Post Apocalyptic Aviation. Safety is achieved with careful operational protocols and safety gear such as ballistic parachutes, pilot air bags, etc.. Calculated risks are taken for humanitarian and scientific missions. Propulsion is green and as sustainable as possible, using alternative fuels, ideally hydrogen, or at least biofuels. Solar electric propulsion, human power, thermal /ridge soaring, and base launching are also prized.
The flying humanoids flew successfully at auditorium shores, in very high winds, with no previous test flights. Everyone involved expected the machines to crash before an angry crowd, but it all somehow came together, raw luck despite every pain, and the crowd oohed/ahahed and clapped.
George Parks made the flights look easy under trying conditions. I had guessed at every design parameter. George arrived ten minutes before the flight, yanked lead pilot rank from the very capable yet young enough to be his (grand) son, Tony Burmudez. Tony provided many special services to the effort.
Still not really a field, but there are precedents.
Recently discovered the work of "flight" sculptor Panamakenko, whose work resembles mine in sentiment. The big disappointment was that his work never flies, but this was perhaps too much to ask in the sixties, when he began his aero themes. Aerogami is a more modest thing, but really flies.
Concept development at full steam of GyroSculpture, work that relies on rotation to modulate acceleration v. gravity, light, sound, and lift/drag.
A field of the future- Sacred Flight; scared running has long existed and is undergoing a revival. Flight has always been tinged with awe. Sacred flight would ritualize and estheticize every aspect of the flight routine. Cargo cults must have some relevance. Flight is a central metaphor in religion and literature, with a great cultural wealth accrued. There is also a sense of real sacrifice, in that the saints of flight have often crashed to death. Prayer has always been common before flight, particularly in war.
A sacred aircraft would be different than a merely utilitarian one. Special elements might include symbolic features, artistic design; a sculptural quality. Surely someone has painted a crucifix on the cruciform plan of some aircraft. We almost worship the icons at the National Air & Space Museum.
Perhaps what's implied here is a spirituality of locomotion, of swimming, walking, running, flying, the mystique of the road trip, the pilgrimage.
Migration as pilgrimage, that would be a synergy.... I've been pondering foot based migration, say along the Appalachian trail, south for the winter, etc., as the means to be a comfortable and happy nomad. Flight based migration would be even cooler if done right. A solar powered airplane that charges enough for a few miles of flight a day, weed hopping its way with in harmony with the seasons and weather.
Many nomadic cultures practiced rock art, even building elaborate shrines and sculptures. Its quite easy to carry a small set of stone working tools. The ultimate nomadic architecture combines permanent masonry features, even megaliths, with tents and huts that collapse and move on.
One might have a summer and winter "palace", favored places marked by a carved megalithic constructions in progress, that one works on while camped for a season.
Mysticism has taken a lot of abuse lately, a backlash against so much superficial belief. Bruce Sterling has banished the subject from consideration in fashioning his Viridian eco art movement. I myself am a diehard rationalist, but my impulse to fight for the underdog puts me in a mood to defend mysticism.
First, it seems foolish to declare the death of mysticism while we are still surrounded by so much mystery. Sure, all mystic fads pale and crumble under critical examination, but just as the validity of faith cannot be proved by science, neither can it be disproved. finally, science itself is but a special case of a particularly powerful religious impulse, ever improving, but ever flawed, What Galileo and Newton believed would classify as rather primitive faith today, but they were scientists. Einstein, no dummy, well understood this issue. Science is the study of creation, the primal religious event.
So what would an up to date belief system look like? It would consider, not ignore, efforts such as biphilia and Gaia theories. It would study all traditional belief systems with scholarly interest, looking for good ideas. It would glory in the creation on an experiential level as well as from a state of the art scientific perspective. Above all it would deliver a rich mental and physical life, without making the fatal error of dogmatic conclusion that both fundamentalists and materialists make.
The modern outlook would blend secular and sacred gracefully, finding value in all sincere ontologies, the Great Spirit as revealed by science.
Collaborating with UT design students has been pleasantly exciting. They are expanding ideas along some of my favorite paths, with ambition unbridled by massive technical knowledge or practical caution. The current concept calls for something resembling a new global religion, complete with dazzling effects. For once I feel I could kick back and twenty souls would keep moving things along nicely. Of course there is the need to fill in gaps and foolproof the unknown elements.
The working name of the project has been Traveler, but some misc. names for things are still under consideration- Gyroart, "Revolutionary" art, Skywheels, MediaTornado, Whirlwind, Cyclone Drifter, Nomad Whirlwind, Sky Pilgrim, GyroDrifter, Sky Traveler,
GyroArt- Sculpture using the physics of revolution for effect. Language- rpm, off-center mass, flywheel, hoop stress, gyroprecession, stroboscopy, G-force, colorwheel effects, electrical commutation, hysteresis, axial, radial, balance, airfoil, bull-roar, multi-element-single-axis, counter rotation,
A mobile could be animated by flywheels that when tilted cause the arms to swing in reaction. This might be more elegant than actuators in roots. Flywheels might allow a mobile to resist wind gusts. A viridian fly wheel mobile could aim solar panels, user interfaces, and maybe even roll about on its flywheels as a vehicle.
Some hard questions need to be addressed regarding event concept- 1) How does the concept of interaction balance single interactions with global state? The state machine needs to define multiuser states more fully. 2) Community is the goal, what is the community to do once defined? A student said they were supposed to "thrive" thereafter. it would be cool to explore this. 3) The logistics of a world tour are daunting, would simultaneous events be better, encouraging teams elsewhere to network events in parallel? If Audience all sit facing outward, won't this mitigate against community? Perhaps an ampitheatre with a visitor accessible "backstage", a performing stage in front of the Central Object.