Speaker 1: I was probably the only one really doing stuff with Farra fluid. I'll tell you that. For me, it's always really nice to watch people's reactions of kind of this inquisitive blown away sense of awe just with the materials doing itself, because they're not able to imagine that this is actually able to do what it's doing. We haven't seen something like this very often. [00:00:30] Hey guys, come on in, look into the studio Sparks. My name is Eric mess play. I build all [00:01:00] sorts of technology, mediated, art and sculptures. Fair fluid is basically iron particles. They're nano-sized particles and they're in oil and, and a surfactant. And the surfactant just kind of holds the two together. It is really, really messy, but it can do some amazing stuff. [00:01:30] And I found it, uh, randomly in a science article about 13, 14 years ago, I was very much drawn to the alien like characteristics and, and shapes it would make. And, and, and what it looked like. I knew I wanted to do something with it, And this is my area here, which is just [00:02:00] chaos zone. So this is one of the current projects I'm working on. It's, it's at a very, very beginning stage right now, but the fluid will come out of the finger and the magnet will charge this finger and you'll get the jump of fair fluid and it'll build up on this finger until it builds up enough that I decide I would like it to fall back down.
Speaker 1: Uh, my father got this anvil for me when I was 12 at a, at [00:02:30] a, um, auction in Colorado. Kind of a reminder of the beginnings of, of all of this, I guess you could say. So I grew up doing a lot of kinetic sculptures and as time went on, what I really wanted to do was enhance and do more with the kinetic and movements. I started learning about computer programming and sensors. Um, I ended up going to grad school to learn about a lot of these things. And during that time, you know, I was building my own computer chips, writing programs, and really kind of dictating how [00:03:00] I wanted the sculptures to behave on top of a lot of old technology, pour Moton metal and molds and whatnot. I do use lots of machines to make a lot of the parts and components I need for these interactive sculptures and whatnot.
Speaker 1: Uh, this is a bridge pour. This is a very old, old, uh, form of machine machining tool. And as time went on, I got this big boy over here is called a CNC machine. And it's a very old ha I'm sure everyone gets a kick [00:03:30] out of the old, uh, the screen here. But what this machine has allowed me to do is, um, I figured out how to write the programs, design the stuff, put it in the machine, basically hit start, and it kicks out exactly what I need, uh, you know, for, for parts and components for all these pieces.
Speaker 1: My first Pharaoh [00:04:00] fluid project was in grad school. I did a, um, a sculpture called machine effect and effect, and it was this big sphere. And in that sphere was a magnet that would move around. And when you would walk up to it, the magnet on the inside would grab some of the fluid and move it on the outside of the sphere. And I always wanted to see this hanging and, um, you know, obviously I've gotten a little bit better at building things since 10, 12 years ago. Hold on, [00:04:30] get comfortable guys. I gotta rotate it a little bit. What typically happens for me is I have an idea of, oh my gosh, how cool would this be? If this could do this and use, it takes me down a whole road of just frustrations and hair pulling. And once I start doing an experimenting and, and testing over and over and over, it kind of just naturally comes to me what, what the shape and the sculpture's going to be after kind of proving my concept with some of the technology side. [00:05:00] I'm never seen this hanging and, uh, it looks pretty cool. This is how I have to design and build all these, you know, little parts and components. The, this is the huge magnet I got. So the motor right here rotates the magnet in 360. And on top of that, these [00:05:30] slides that enables the whole magnet down here, uh, to go up and down inside the sphere. So you could get the effect of picking up the liquid and dropping the liquid
Speaker 1: [00:06:00] On a lot of the collaborations with companies like Google and Microsoft and red bull. Um, each one was very different. Um, so sometimes I was more just hired to like solve certain issues and problems within a bigger scope that they were doing, you know, multiple artists, uh, multiple people involved, um, and some were more, very selective on, you [00:06:30] know, just me and a couple other people's skillsets. Um, with Google, we were, um, we had to make this large countdown clock for the IO conference and they said that they wanted it loud and, and shocking. And it was this artist that had designed the concept. And so me and my friend, Steve Eski, we designed and built this in one month and it was literally shaking at the Mascone center so violently that they [00:07:00] were nervous, but it started the whole show and it did exactly what they wanted it to do. I think what I really want to accomplish with my work is just kind of blowing people away. I'm trying to use every type of material I'm trying to really get a sense of [00:07:30] interacting with people, mediated through the sculpture and, and actually people interacting with each other mediated through the sculpture. I don't even need to be there, you know, and my job's done.
