lepidodgera

The butterfly will be returning to the desert in 2010.  Prepare to be blown away.

Check out the Linden Street Brewery too!

Burning Man was a brilliant success this year for the Lepidodgera. Many thanks to all who helped us: Evil Chris, Gordon and Diane, Joey, Sonny, Borris, Alaska, Jeremy, Camilo, Mark, Muhammed, Adam, Aimee, Jess, Jim, Larkin, Rachael, Jake and Camp DeMaTerial. The story of our journey to the desert and a schedule of upcoming events for the Lepidodgera are soon to follow. For now, feast your eyes on the new images.

We have finished our wing coverings and color changing halogen night lights.  Check out how cool they look at night as they move from one color to the next.  We now begin work on the van itself, causing the rusty old thing to metamorphosize into a shiny green chrysalis.

We made it to the Maker Faire… and back! After two days of nearly non-stop question-answering and wing-flapping, our confidence in the hydraulic system has risen to 100% and our explanation of gasifiers has become far clearer. The van made the trek like the champ it is without incident, although we fear the aerodynamics of the vehicle have been somewhat compromised.

At the faire we ran one battery all the way down by fluttering over the course of both days: better than expected performance here. One set of hydraulic issues: we need a reservoir overflow for quickly lowering the wings. A jug, hose and hose clamp should do the trick. Astoundingly, we have greatly reduced our setup and take-down times: 4 hours for setup and 2hours 45 minutes for take down with 4 people each time. With such a streamlined operation, we’ll have more time for events like this, so look for us!

Thanks to Lira’s super-bad-ass container-equipping prowess we have a container that is inviting to be in and ready for anything. Mike bought half of the Harbor Freight store and a new Lincoln 140 welder. We appropriated a cabinet and welded it up so it wouldn’t fall over. To ice the cake, Mike’s parents, Diane and Gordon, made a special guest-appearance providing beer and a rolling tool cabinet!

On the fabrication side of things, all of the tubular wing pieces have been repaired, labeled with weld, pressure washed, and half are fitted with new attachment points for the cables. A few are even painted. We are into buffer-time for fabrication of the wing pieces, but still on-schedule. With some luck there might be time to fire the gasifier this weekend.

Also, check out the newly updated fire effects design under the design tab.

The old project is prepared for work to begin!

Lira and I spent Sunday clipping zip-ties, hauling rusty steel and pushing dust and sludge around.  Result: a butterfly carcass you can really get into.  We now have the finest damn double-wide container in the yard with insulation, wiring, windows and an arch.   Joe down at Stanford has the broken ass and wing of the project.  Expect great things.

On the design front, we will be using hydraulics for wing-actuation this year to simplify constraining the wing in the up-direction.   I have written some matlab code for simulating the motion and forces involved for this system.

The above 12V hydraulic power unit will work beautifully for what we need.  An image of the new design is coming shortly.

This is the new Lepidodgera website.  Lepidodgera is an expansive kinetic artpiece that interacts with participants through sound, light, kinematic motion, tactile sensation and heat.  A 37-foot-tall butterfly, Lepidodgera draws you in with intriguing sounds and colorful patterns washed across its 1200 square feet of wing.  It then engages you in a process of discovery as you realize the food to make it live and inspiration to make it beautiful must come from you.

Much more is to come for this site in the next week, including detailed schedule for March and April, new up-to-date design details, Gasifier discussion board and more.

If this is your first time visiting us, please see our proposal to learn what we’re all about.