The second iteration of the mobile unit, in which the script/ robots postulate that head movement was the essential missing attribute from their earlier failed prototype, is now complete. A simple (glueless!) crank system controls the head.

Alas that simple animation of a dismembered head is not enough to make it convert Co2 to O2, so the robots/ scripts' plight continues.

Working with more physical media, I am realising that the experience of working physical and digital materials are actually quite similar. When I first lived overseas, I quickly discovered that my problems traveled with me -- they were my problems and not the country's. Or, put another way, wherever you go, there you are.

Similarly, working with wood or pixels I encounter a lot of the same problems, interests, obsessions. Using the pen tool to create bezier curves in Adobe Illustrator there have always been particular compound curves that always give me troubles, and I have to fuss over those transitions to get them pretty. I always assumed this was because I wasn't very good at bezier curves.

But now, cutting compound curves out of wood with a bandsaw, I find myself fussing over the exact same curves. Obviously it is not the tool that I have troubles with, but the more broad aesthetics of that type of shape.

I find that creating simple gears with wood feels very similar to coding. Once I have crafted a useful object, I work on re-using that object in a variety of circumstances and in recombination with itself to create new effects. I even get purist in the same ways. Glue becomes as taboo as Global variables, because I know that with a little effort I can figure out how to achieve the same results more elegantly.

I'm sure as I delve more into wood I'll notice some more similarities. For now, check out the cute stuff I've been making. Next step, I'll lay a thin layer of cheap gouche on them like Isaac Resnikoff"

and, of course, create increasingly complex systems of wooden mechanics.