birds

Electronic Naturalism at Maker Faire Rome - The European Edition, 202 /  by kelly heaton

Electronic Naturalism at Maker Faire Rome - The European Edition from October 7 - 9 in Booth L.1.06

Analog Electronic Crow /  by kelly heaton

The universe is made of energy, frequency, and vibration. Electricity is the Qi of life flowing through humans, birds, and circuits alike. My new "Analog Electronic Crow" (2022) is an evolution of Deep Fake Birdsong from 2020 in which I explore the power of electrically oscillating circuits to manifest intelligent behaviors. This circuit has only six oscillators: five astable multivibrators and one modified Hartley. It's battery operated so you can carry it around. Stay tuned for a product launch this Fall!

Printed Circuit Bird (Bluejay), 2022 /  by kelly heaton

My "printed circuit birds" are self-contained sound generators. The electronics are 💯 analog: no audio recordings or software are involved. By “analog” I mean that the sound is dynamically produced by the bird’s body (circuit), like a vintage synthesizer. In this video, I adjust knobs to change resistance in the circuit, thereby altering the song quality. You can think of this like adjusting neurons in a bird’s brain to alter the impulse by which it vocalizes. I am passionate about building circuits because they demonstrate the life-like qualities of electronic hardware, which is often over-looked in favor of software. I’m not sure why we abandoned analog hardware along the road to technological advancement— digital is great for what it does, but it’s not the full spectrum of creative electronics. It would require a vast amount of hardware to build a digital computer capable to execute code for birdsong like this.

Circuit Garden in NYC /  by kelly heaton

“Circuit Garden” by Kelly Heaton was curated by Common Ground Arts and commissioned by Arts Brookfield for Manhattan West and Brooklyn Commons. Video courtesy of Brookfield Arts and Micah Joel Productions

Circuit Garden celebrates our electronic culture and invites us to contemplate nature – specifically human nature in symbiosis with machine intelligence. Artist Kelly Heaton presents a large-scale circuit board in the form of an artificial lawn that is “planted” with plush sculptural electronic devices. The work evokes a playful garden, or a vintage circuit board that has been enlarged to human scale. Situated in the landscape of Circuit Garden, viewers will discover smaller functional circuits that mimic animal behaviors, such as birdsong and chirping crickets. As the viewer approaches the installation to investigate further, Heaton’s analog electronic designs generate these naturalistic sounds in real time.  The sonic landscape of Circuit Gardenis thus brought to life by electric vibrations of artificial origin and not recordings of real birds and crickets, as one might expect.

 STATEMENT BY KELLY HEATON: 

“Electronic technology is profoundly shaping our world. Many people are symbiotic with their smart phones and digital presence. Artificial intelligence is growing smarter, and our concept of “nature” is being radically transformed by engineering.  Electricity is the most important invention since the discovery of fire. Yet, the art of electrical engineering is not well understood or practiced by people outside of the scientific community. I would like to invite everyone—not only engineers—into a conversation about electronic culture, nature, and the rise of machine intelligence. While most artists work with digital media, I focus my creative practice on electronic hardware because circuits are the physical body without which there would be no digital media. Like a biologist studies animals, I study circuits to understand the physiology of intelligent machines. I am inspired by Nikola Tesla’s statement, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” My art explores these concepts literally in the form of circuits that vibrate in naturalistic patterns. Circuit Garden pays homage to electrical oscillation, specifically to the astable multivibrator, which is my favorite method to generate life-like waveforms.”

Circuit Garden /  by kelly heaton

I am pleased to announce the premiere of “Circuit Garden.” This electronic and sculptural work will be on view February 28 through April 8, 2022 in the lobby of 5 Manhattan West (450 West 33rd Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan) NYC. I am deeply grateful for Brookfield Arts (Brookfield Properties) and Kendra Roberts (Common Ground Arts) for her curatorial vision. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity! Thank you also to King Credie, PCBWay, and Advanced Circuits for your outstanding manufacturing of my artistic circuit boards.

https://www.manhattanwestnyc.com/events/circuit-garden-art-installation-by-kelly-heaton/