Erinys writes “Here’s how to build a contact microphone. A step by step I put together years ago, but it is surprisingly still of use. Contact microphones may be used to record acoustic waves that propagate through media such as wood, sheet metal, or a block of ice. Doesn’t sound “pretty” in a classical sense, but if you’re into noise and field recordings, you’ll love what you can coax out of an old tin can with one of these attached.” Link.
Hans writes – “This LED Matrix Clock is a feasability study for a much larger project I am building for my employer, the intention was to prove to myself (and my employer!) that I am able to drive an LED matrix from a PC. This is the first project I have made which is driven by a PC. The clock uses 3 B64CDM8/B48CDM8 8×8 5mm LED Matrix modules from Nexus Machines, each having an onboard MAX7219 display driver chip. These require an SPI serial interface, which I by toggling pins of the host PC’s parallel port (printer port). The small software application which drives the displays is written in Delphi 5 and runs on Windows NT 4.” Link.
I met Bruce from “The Tao of motion control” he makes incredible X,Y machines “The purpose of this site is to suggest that motion control is also an emerging medium for artistic expression. Despite the universal use of motion control in industrial settings, its use by artists has been hampered by the enormous cost of commercial equipment. Because access to the tools of this medium is crucial for its exploration, one strategy open to motivated artists is building their own equipment from scrapped components flowing out of industrial sources.” This one moves a metal ball over sand to make a zen garden. Link.
Quick and easy how to on Apartment therapy “Stretching a canvas is easy. You take four planks of wood, make a rectangle and pull the canvas over it. (Or pay framing stores a lot of money to do it for you…). Before you get frustrated starting from scratch get ready made heavy duty stretcher bars (best & cheapest:Utrecht Art Supplies). Their ends fit together so precisely that you donรยดt need glue or nails. Asembly time for the perfect rectangle: 60 seconds.” [via] Link.
Jason from Preshrunk writes “The gang over at Vestal Design have made and documented a really killer bar made out of somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 discarded library books. Well, I know I’d totally make one if I had that many books laying around.” Link.
MAKE pal Jean just interviewed New Yorker Alyce Santoro, who weaves ‘Sonic Fabric‘ out of old cassette tapes, and runs tape heads over her clothes to make them audible! “Here’s how she does it – It’s quite simple, actually. Just take an old tape walkman, unscrew the head and remount it on the outside of the plastic housing using silicone. Plug in the headphones, turn the volume all the way up, and press PLAY. Now run the head over the fabric. Works best if you drag it along in the same direction as the tape (as opposed to running it along the warp, which is cotton or polyester). Try it at various speeds and see what happens.” Link.
GarageSpin writes “ArtistServer was created by one guy, Gideon Marken. The ultimate DIY musician, he went out and built his own music hosting platform thousands of artists now use. All the music promotion tools are free (blog, podcast, ringtones, mobile sites, downloads, streams, etc), and it was even voted one of the top 5 music hosts by Time! Basically, a DIY musician empowering other musicians with DIY tools..!!” Link.
