MADE ON EARTH
#madeonearth
The world of backyard technology
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ETHEREAL FISH TANK LANDSCAPES
At first glance, New York artist Kim Keever’s landscapes look like traditional paintings. But when viewing them on his site, the aperture, camera, focal length, and shutter speed is noted for each piece. To what otherworldly land does Keever travel to photograph these stunning shots? No further than his studio, where he creates perfect miniature underwater landscapes in 200-gallon fish tanks. He then plays weatherman to his ecosystem by adding materials like paint, plaster, and Mylar to the water; hones in the dreamy lighting; and shoots away, capturing the ethereal motion of the clouds, frozen in time.
—Goli Mohammadi
Kim Keever
FROM PEST TO BIOPLASTIC
JEONGWONJI.COM/BIOELECTRIC.HTML
When life gives you mitten crabs, make bioplastic.
The Chinese mitten crab, an invasive species from East Asia, gets its name because it looks like it’s wearing a pair of furry mittens on its claws. But it’s not so cute. The crab negatively impacts native wildlife in Europe and the U.S., where it’s labeled an “injurious species.”
London-based industrial designer Jeongwon Ji has come up with a practical solution to combat the crustaceous invaders. She crunches up their shells and makes a biodegradable plastic she calls “crustic.” The material is made of red algae, glycerine, water and chitin, a long chain polymer that makes the shells hard.
Ji has incorporated crustic in a series of electronic enclosures, formed on wooden molds. She calls the series BioElectric.
“Although production time is longer, this nontoxic process can improve the work life of those who manufacture our electronics,” she says.
The finished product has a pebbled, coarse texture that evokes its natural origins.
—Stett Holbrook
Daniel Thomas Smith
STRETCHED PERSPECTIVE
JONTYHURWITZ.COM/ANAMORPHIC-SCULPTURES
Niina Keks and Otto Pierrotto
There’s more to the curious sculptures of London-based artist Jonty Hurwitz than first meets the eye, which becomes apparent when a reflective surface steps in to put things into perspective. Hurwitz utilizes mathematical algorithms in conjunction with historic methods of manipulating the perspective of an image in order to create anamorphic sculptures that hide realistic images in plain sight. These mindbending sculptures depict objects that have been elongated and distorted in three dimensions, so the intended image is only revealed when seen from the correct angle in the reflective cylinder. In programming terms, it is as if Hurwitz’ imagery has been encrypted with an anamorphic code that has to be decoded by the appropriate optical devices.
—Andrew Salomone
Brian Duckering
MUSICAL PVC PIPES
PROJECT: BUILD YOUR OWN PVC PIPE INSTRUMENT — SEE IT IN ACTION AT MAKEZINE.COM/PROJECTS/PVC-PIPE-INSTRUMENT
Thirteen-year-old Jason Duckering showed off his PVC Pipe Instrument at last year’s Maker Faire Bay Area and as a guest during last summer’s Maker Camp, playing classic songs like Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” and Europe’s “The Final Countdown.” With 11 pipes tuned to notes in a C major scale, the instrument packs more than 80’ of 2" diameter pipe in a 24"x40" footprint, a configuration he planned out on graph paper. For the custom paddles he uses to strike the tops of the pipes, he experimented with scrap pieces of foam duct-taped to sticks and even flip-flops covered in socks, but he finally settled on foam rubber backed with Plexiglas for rigidity. Next up: an upgraded three-octave instrument.
—Craig Couden
Jason spray painted his PVC pipes, but to achieve longerlasting color, learn to stain PVC with this handy tutorial: makezine.com/projects/stain-pvc-any-color-you-like.
Shannon Chappell
HE LIVES!
MAKEZINE.COM/GO/STEAMPUNKGOLEM
Meet Golem, an 11’-tall “steampunk rock” creature by Canadian sculptor and maker Shannon Chappell. “A Golem is an animated creature created out of inanimate matter. In this instance, a magical will was put into a pile of rocks and antique machine parts to bring this Golem to life.”
Magic … or maybe a lot of hard work! To wear it, an operator climbs in through the lower back, locks his feet into ski boots mounted on 3’-tall stilts, and fires the light, sound, and smoke effects from inside a spaceship-style cockpit. The Golem walks! Gears on the chest spin, and the Gatling gun spins and lights up. Strips of pulsating LEDs threaded between the rocks create a lava effect.
Chappell, a hotel handyman, had been making on his own for years before being introduced to the maker community by Calgary Mini Maker Faire producer Shannon Hoover. Since then, the Golem’s electronics — initially hacked from dollar store toys — have been vastly upgraded and the project now has a crew of roboticists and technicians.
—Sabrina Merlo
BRICK BOD HOT ROD
Never underestimate the power of Twitter. Without mentioning the word Lego, a single, purposely nebulous tweet attracted enough capitol to fund this full-size, working Lego hot rod. The brainchild of self-taught Romanian engineer Raul Oaida and savvy Australian marketer Steve Sammartino, the 256 tiny pistons arranged in four radial engines are powered by compressed air and propel the car to speeds of 12–18mph. Any faster and Oaida is afraid it might fall apart. Except for the air tank, gauges, and a few structural elements, the car is made entirely out of more than 500,000 Lego pieces. That’s around $60,000 in Lego.
—Craig Couden
Josh Rowe