Parts of a body

It’s been really great looking back at all the video footage and photographs I have taken so far. I have only put several videos on the blog because they take so long to upload. After not looking at them for a while and then coming back to them with fresh eyes you see new things. For instance the DEMES videos. There is the one where I had 3 DEMES fixed to one plate. We had them moving at different times to create a ripple effect. Now that I look at it again it looks like fingers of a hand stretching outwards then curling inwards again towards the palm. It would be cool to make five of them and slightly change the triangular shape of the DEMES to make them look more finger-like. In this way you can imagine how cool it would be to create a whole body that moved or something like that.

Thanks for all your great comments and feedback about what you see on this blog. I also need to point out that nothing can replace what you see with your own eyes. The videos are great but you really get the greatest understanding and impact from the work when you see it actuate in front of you. Take ‘Red Breeze’ for example. If I had the time I could look at that for so long. See the different rhthyms of the movements and watch the muscles contract and expand. It is quite hypnotic. Then while you are watching all the components moving, you can imagine that they are parts of a body. Parts of one whole. I imagine lungs expanding, inhaling and exhaling. A heart pumping. Eyes blinking. This is what I see. I see a living body that needs all of its parts to function in order to live and breathe.

Speaking of blinking eyes, here is an article Emilio found that shows the latest success for artificial muscles:
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/newsdetail.html?key=3626&svr=http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu&table=published

As far as I can tell no one in the lab has tried to do a layering of planer DEAs. For me the movements of the layers of VHB has greater impact and they tell a story about the parts of the body that are working together to create this artificial life.

As you can probably tell, the team is very keen to get these artworks out to the public so you can see them and appreciate them with your own eyes. This is something we would like to bring to you as soon as possible!