From a work in progress, 07-30-19
Birds and the circuits that surround us.
birds
Detail of new work in progress /
Detail of new work in progress, 2019
Ghost Bird /
Ghost Bird, 2019
Pretty Bird gets Bigger /
A to-scale inkjet print of my latest (and considerably larger) pretty bird circuit. Kelly Heaton, July 2019
My Pretty Bird circuit is about to fly to China and get bigger.
Songbirds on my lawn /
Here are six transparent pepakura-style songbirds, each containing a unique, analog electronic sound generator. The birds are linked by rainbow cables to a breadboarded computer (i.e, “bird brain”) that uses shift registers, astable multivibrators, and transistor switches to achieve a pseudorandom sequence… so the bird’s songs don’t sound repetitive, of course. I’m chasing after the mysteries of life —the spark of life. Eventually these little fellows will perch in a sculpture called “Birds at My Feeder,” (2019).
Portrait of Appalachian woman /
Portrait of a middle aged Appalachian woman in her garden with handicraft, 2019
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.”
