Works shown include: Big Pretty Bird (2019), Bluebird (2020), Pretty Bird ver.CC (2019), Parrots (2020), Birds at my Feeder (2020), Electrolier / September Night (2018), Moth Electrolier (2019), and The Great Conjunction (2021). All of the lights and sounds are dynamically generated by analog electronic hardware of my own design.
analog electronic
Pretty Bird gets Bigger /
A to-scale inkjet print of my latest (and considerably larger) pretty bird circuit. Kelly Heaton, July 2019
My Pretty Bird circuit is about to fly to China and get bigger.
Songbirds on my lawn /
Here are six transparent pepakura-style songbirds, each containing a unique, analog electronic sound generator. The birds are linked by rainbow cables to a breadboarded computer (i.e, “bird brain”) that uses shift registers, astable multivibrators, and transistor switches to achieve a pseudorandom sequence… so the bird’s songs don’t sound repetitive, of course. I’m chasing after the mysteries of life —the spark of life. Eventually these little fellows will perch in a sculpture called “Birds at My Feeder,” (2019).
This morning, I took the electronic birds and sequencer breadboard (aka "bird brain") outside to sing on my lawn. Here's a video clip (make sure your sound is on).
Bird Study #1 (Tortuga Escondida) /
Bird Study #1 (Tortuga Escondida), 2018. Analog electronics and watercolor on paper. For a video of the sound circuit: https://vimeo.com/297499948
Unafraid field cricket /
Analog electronics, watercolor, and graphite on paper. Kelly Heaton, 2018
Unafraid Field Cricket, 2018. Analog electronics, watercolor, and graphite on paper. This little analog electronic cricket painting is "unafraid" because its sensor is pretty insensitive. The speaker element is a deconstructed RadioShack piezo electronic buzzer (with some blue paint to knock down the white rubber ring - see detail on right).