Backbone

Make Blog

A few posts ago, I wrote briefly about my favorite exhibitors from this year’s Makers Faire. One of these was a man named Tristan Shone of Author and Punisher (The name under which he performs his hand made mechanical, drone noise machines.)

Tristan builds high precision machines that incorporate sensors and other electronics to produce a digital sound that he runs through various effects. The most striking thing about his work is the visual, and actual, weight of it. Most of the work has been milled from solid blocks of steel and aluminum and assembled with hardware of the same material. My favorite piece was constructed from a 2’ diameter pipe with 3/8” thick walls. It stands about 1 1/2’ tall and weighs (I’m guessing) probably 100 lbs. This machine is played by pushing the pipe, which rotates on a thrust bearing to produce a heavy rolling, thunder-like sound. The resistance from its weight requires much effort to overcome and results in the use of his whole body to operate it, as do most of the machines he has built.

I have noticed recently the increasing effect that sound has on my creativity. This has compelled a deeper look into sound and how it informs my current work. From this I have noticed trends in my aesthetics that gravitate towards the notion of weight. As a metalsmith, I find myself at times in a sisyphusian relationship with my tools and material. Iron is heavy, and my interaction with it produces physical, psychological and of course audible results.

This is why, I believe, I am drawn to work like Author and Punisher. In the future I hope to explore sound as an element in my own work in addition to an outside influence.

Stay Tuned

This piece is about is about 3/4 complete.

Stay Tuned

You might think that watching 10 minutes of this would get boring – but it never does.

Backbone Metals was lucky in 2007 to have met a group of creative and industrious folks who were forming a greater collaborative group around the construction of the Steampunk Tree House.

Since then, the group has shifted and evolved to produce a handful of other, smaller projects such as the Neuron Chamber. This past April we learned that we would be moving forward with the latest project – The Raygun Gothic Rocket and have since been erecting the hull in our secret Oakland base.

Other commitments have kept Backbone from full engagement to this project, but we are excited to be involved on a “special opps” level with the structural and aesthetic construction of the rocket.

Stay Tuned.

There were more exhibits worth noting than I have space for here. Nevertheless, here are my favorites:

Tristan Shone – Mechanical Sound Machines

Luana Coonen – Jeweler

Longnow Foundation – 10,000 yr Clock

Sparkfun Electronics  – Open Source MP3 platform

Almost Scientific – The Neuron Chamber

Ben Cowden – Kinetic Sculpture

Stay Tuned.