tesla

Hi again everyone.

After a couple different takes on the studio (am radio, shortwave radio, trying to figure out how to control an r/c vehicle with regular band FM) I stumbled upon a radio coil designed by Tesla and built by MrfixitRick.

from: http://www.instructables.com/id/Spooky-Tesla-Spirit-Radio/step11/Spooky-Effect-3-Make-Sound-With-Light/

The 'radio' picks up all sorts of em interference (from light, modems, am radio) and looks like an exciting way to monitor the em activity in an area. I'm excited to build this and explore the Teufelsberg site!

A video show the 'spooky effects'.

Teufelsberg

Teufelsberg was an NSA listening post during the Cold War in Germany. US agents listened to radio transmissions from the GDR. The site has an interesting history. Under the 400,000 buildings worth of rubble that the tower sits on is a Nazi Military Technical College designed by Albert Speer.

The site is abandoned now, but is sometimes used by artists because of its acoustics (the main tower has a fully enclosed geodesic sphere), surfaces which are conducive to projection, and historical significance.

Copyright Spreephoto, see more images here:
http://www.spreephoto.de/abandoned/nsa-fieldstation-teufelsberg.html

Video artists using Teufelsberg as a projection screen
http://vimeo.com/5662697

Sound artists using Teufelsberg as a studio
http://www.tunedcity.net/?p=451

http://vimeo.com/9319219

Some amazing photos:
http://www.spreephoto.de/abandoned/nsa-fieldstation-teufelsberg.html

Info on the Military Technical College:
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/speers-geheimnis-unter-dem-teufelsberg/869938.html

Good blog on ruin, ruin value, and Teufelsberg:
http://narratingwaste.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/teuflsberg-and-the-exigency-of-ruin/

More Links!

this time to build your own shortwave radio transmitter. schematics look intimidating, but hopefully do-able!!

Convert AM Radio to Shortwave

An instructables link to instructions on how to listen to shortwave radio broadcasts on an am radio.

Berlin Radio International

BRI was the 'voice' of the GDR (East Germany) before unification in 1990. It was broadcasted over shortwave radio and the station was terminated when Germany unified.

Here is a link to their final broadcast.

Sensor Research #2

more on piezos

from Sensor Wiki

Piezoelectric

Piezoelectric sensing of acceleration is natural, as acceleration is directly proportional to force. When certain types of crystal are compressed, charges of opposite polarity accumulate on opposite sides of the crystal. This is known as the piezoelectric effect. In a piezoelectric accelerometer, charge accumulates on the crystal and is translated and amplified into either an output current or voltage.

Piezoelectric accelerometers only respond to AC phenomenon such as vibration or shock. They have a wide dynamic range, but can be expensive depending on their quality (Doscher 2005)

Piezo-film based accelerometers are best used to measure AC phenomenon such as vibration or shock, rather than DC phenomenon such as the acceleration of gravity. They are inexpensive, and respond to other phenomenon such as temperature, sound, and pressure (Doscher 2005)

blah blah theoretical blah blah blah

Frederick Kiesler and Marcel Duchamp


Kiesler (1890-1965) was an architect, artist and theatre designer. He believed that 'art had the ability to balance' (or modulate) 'the technological, natural and human environments.' That 'art' (or architecture) 'could point out current imbalances and suggest solutions' to these imbalances. He was intrigued by the window and used its qualities in his design of sets, architecture and storefront windows. 

Kielser's Triptych
from: http://www.kiesler.org/cms/index.php?lang=3&idcat=42

'The storefront window is a silent loudspeaker.'


Kiesler saw 'reflective glass as a catalyst for a relationship between viewer and object.' That this 'borderless space' could 'dissolve the barrier and artificial duality of vision, reality, image and environment.' The properties of reflective glass give 'an illusion of a three dimensional world on a two dimensional plane' and implicate the viewer directly into the scene behind the glass. Glass, as both 'a surface and a space' is an enclosure that divides and links at the same time. This 'gateway' relies on the presence of the viewer. 


Marcel Duchamp shared similar beliefs on the properties of glass as he worked with the material in many of his pieces. The Large Glass, a large painting / sculpture, is built onto glass and is often photographed with the space behind the work showing through. Duchamp thought in analogues. Projecting the third dimension onto a two dimensional surface was likened to a four dimensional object being projected onto a three dimensional object. 

 Bride Stripped bare by her Bachelors, Even or The Large Glass, 1915-23
from: http://www.dpcdsb.org/IONAS/Courses/Visual+Arts+Gr+12.htm

The content of The Large Glass deals with four dimensional geometries, mechanomorphic beings and sexual and translational overtones. 


In a similar vein, I propose (very early, very rough proposition) two similar machines, to be mounted on opposite sides of a window pane. Using temperature as a generator of electricity, one machine will produce vibrations, the other will translate those vibrations to sound. This configuration implicates the viewer, speaks to the collapse of space (via temperature) onto a two dimensional pane and also uses the thickness of this two dimensional plane as a transmitting medium. Because these machines use temperature difference as a generating force, it also calls to imbalances in the environment.


All text in quotations is from
http://www.heyotwell.com/work/arthistory/thesis/chapter4.html

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