The Project: Cyborg, project 3.

The Purpose:

To further explore the boundary between human and machine, the biggest challenge of which was to be using only inorganic parts to represent the living aspects.

The Process:

Step 1: Finding the Supplies:

______Styrofoam Wig Head.

______Old Webcam.

______Red L.e.d. Light.

______Old Steering Wheel Knob.

______Talking Christmas Tree.

______Polyurethane for Skin.

______ Various Metal Pieces.

_______Pizza Pan.

_______Reflective Shield from Light.

_______Large Bolts.

_______Tools.

Step 2: Cut the head in half.

Step 3: Carve out openings for the eyes.

Step 4: Take apart the webcam, insert the red led behind the lens.

Step 5: Glue the steering wheel knob and modified webcam into the eye sockets, run the battery pack out the side for easy access.

Step 6: Strip down the Talking Christmas Tree, taking the speaker, electronics, motors, and jaw hinge for later use.

Step 7: Carve out a space for the jaw hinge in the back half of the head.

Step 8: Separate the jaw from the rest of the styrofoam and hollow room for the jaw hinge and motor inside the front half of the head.

Step 9: Drill a hole for the motion sensor in the forehead.

Step 10: Glue in the jaw hinge, glue the back half of the head to the front half, and glue the foam jaw to the jaw hinge, running the wires down the inside of the neck.

Step 11: Build the base out of a weight, large screws, the reflective device of a light, and a pizza pan. Carve out a hole for access to the electronics controls.

Step 12: Add the metal cover for the battery case on the head.

Step 13: Try to glue on metal pieces for the mohawk. FAILED. Glue not strong enough; however an anchor system may work - we decided the sleaker look was better.

Step 14: Pour the polyurethane for skin.

Step 15: Begin covering the head with decorations: add in foil for metalic backing, add the skin by carving areas and sewing them in with wire cut into staples and screws. Cut and form the wire for hair and glue it in.

Step 16: Glue in the teeth.

Step 17: Fit the head onto the base by carving a slit into the base and sliding the electronics through it.

Step 18: The electronics FAILED. The motherboard died. Find a replacement christmas tree to borrow the motherboard from, and splice in the wires.

Step 19: Create an audio track for the head to speak, writing a text and having the mac speech function recite it, then effecting the voice in garageband and with hardware effects to give the sense of a destroyed functionality in the head.