The Universe is Mind, 2021. Animation made with found footage from Giphy. This sequence is an excerpt from “Initialize La Valise,” 2021. Kelly Heaton
philosophy
Mind is analog electronic (so says Crow) /
Prototype for an analog electronic crow product coming soon! Stay tuned for launch announcement.
Printed Circuit Bird, 2021 /
Printed circuit bird, 2021. I created this work of electronic art to demonstrate the principles by which consciousness originates. The bird's circuitry is entirely analog electronic, which means that her song is not recorded but *generated* by adjustable vibrations in the circuit that forms her body. She is designed to vibrate when exposed to electricity, and we hear the resulting (audible) waveforms as a bird-like sound. Her circuit contains five analog electronic oscillators that are coupled together with a combination of resistors and capacitors. The vibrations of one oscillator affect the others, thus causing a degree of complexity and unpredictability that we wouldn't expect from such a simple circuit. It would be difficult to model this analog system because there are so many possible states, as I will attempt to explain below.
In the video, you see me adjusting variable resistors that affect the frequency, amplitude, and symmetry of the oscillations. The resulting changes in vibration are heard as tonal variation and patterns of sound, or "syntax" of the bird's song. In other words, we can hear the frequency, amplitude, and temporal structure of the waveform as it changes within the bird's circuit. Residual capacitance adds to the unpredictable nature of cause and effect. It is not only which knob I turn or how much, but *when* I make the adjustment relative to the state of the entire connected circuit. These are the continuous, interconnected, analog principles from which life-like behaviors arise. The late roboticist and neuroscientist William Grey Walter experimented with similar principles, notably demonstrated by his tortoise robots.
She is like us — we are electrical beings, too. The neural activity of a human brain is an aggregate of billions of oscillating neurons affecting each other to form thoughts and feelings. While each individual neuron is very simple, the complexity of the neural system is unfathomable. As Nikola Tesla said, "If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." These physical laws are the basis of mind and our conscious universe.
Breadbird (No. 1), 2020 /
Sound on. “Breadbird (No. 1),” 2020. In order to convey the core of my electronic practice, I built this demonstration piece featuring five oscillators and an audio transformer circuit. The oscillators have adjustable base resistors which enable me to alter the pattern (and therefore the song). Does this oscillating circuit have something in common with bird neurology?
Deep electricity (transparent birds) /
My transparent birds invite you to contemplate the electricity that flows through their being. The visible electronics are all discrete hardware — analog electronic sound generators that vibrate to sing a song (refer to the video in this post). There are no recordings or software involved in the making of the song, only an oscillating electronic circuit. To quote @melissadelzio regarding Shipibo-Conibo philosophy, “Existence is essentially comprised of vibrations, encapsulating the connection between the energetic and material worlds and expressing the link between light and sound.”
Owl surgery /
Paper owl looking onto its electronic eye circuit, 2018
Transitions. Sometimes it feels like the holes that we have are equally -if not more- beautiful than what promises to fill them. Here, a paper owl contemplates the circuit that I designed to fit into its eyes. The addition of electronics to a static object adds more than functionality and aesthetics - it changes the identity of the object. Non-electronic things live in a physical world with thousands of years of creative history, while electronic things are very new. What was once an owl then become a robot - perhaps more robot than owl in our estimation. Does the owl stand to lose more than it gains?
Machine-centric intelligence /
We struggle to relate to machines on their own terms, despite the fact that we created them. I suppose there are people with fluency in some machines, but the body of knowledge in computer science alone vastly exceeds anyone's capacity to understand. Moreover, there are subtle and often surprising effects that arise from even basic electronic components - instruments for manipulating electricity in ways that have yet to be discovered.
However, if you add human features like the eyes in this video, suddenly we connect. But with what do we relate, really, besides our own reflection? We must push ourselves beyond human-centricity to see things for what they really are.
Electricity is life /
I have spent nearly twenty years exploring the world with the eyes of an artist and the curiosity of an electrical engineer. All living creatures are electronic devices. Are all electronic devices living creatures? The distinction between manmade and natural lifeforms is blurry, and growing blurrier every day, as human-made electricity vibrates the architecture of reality itself.
In this painting, a frog is merged with a printed circuit design for an astable multivibrator. This amazing little circuit has profound implications because it takes a static voltage and converts it into an alternating signal. This circuit is one of the ways that I make electricity vibrate -- and not only me; the astable multivibrator is a common element in circuit design. The reason that I like it is because it is simple, inexpensive to build, and easy to understand. I'll be talking more about multivibrators in the coming weeks.