Casper Electronics

I’m showing a new piece Bit Shifter and a reworking and scaled down version of Kosmos at the Contemporary Gallery at the Center for Art & Theatre at Georgia Southern University.
The show also features the work of Roger Chamieh and Nathan Ethier.
Runs from January 17th through February 26th.

Reception and talks by Roger Chamieh and myself on February 1st at 5pm.

I’m working on a new installation for a show at Georgia Southern University. There’s a lot of layers to this piece that I’m pretty excited about. I’m using a simple modular synth (The MFOS sound lab ultimate with added ring mod) as a complex feedback pattern generator. I could talk about this part for a while. The oscillators are feeding the ring mod and sample&hold modules, then they are feeding the frequency input of the oscillators. Its a tangle of feedback signals that results in extremely varied and surprisingly animated patterns.
Then I’m using several voltage outputs from the system (oscillators, sample&hold, ring mod out, etc) as control voltages to feed glitch gate transistors in the nintendo video brain. With some tweaking I’ve been able to get a pretty broad range of visual patterns and I’m really excited about the frequency alignment patterns that are emerging when the control oscillator frequency and video rate frequency align at various harmonics. There’s a lot of potential depth in this layout that I’ll be spending the next 2 weeks exploring.

Here is a schematic I made for an 8 step 4 channel programmable step sequencer for a Make magazine tutorial. I’ve been waiting till the article is done to post the schematic but it’s taking longer than expected soooooo….. here it is now.

New page added.

Experimenting with the CD4089 binary rate multiplier chip (thats what is sequencing the drum beat). Thanks to Eric Archer for the suggestions/inspiration/schematics

I’ve got more to write about than I have time to write but I’m so excited that I had to draw up the quick sketch above and write a little something about what I’ve been up to. The circuit above is a transistor based loop/retrigger circuit. I’m not excited about what this circuit does as much as I am that it was very easily achieved with a single transistor and a few resistors. I’m finding more and more that transistors are the key to truly advanced and exciting circuit bending.
You can read details on the circuit HERE.

My residency at Steim has been amazing. I’ve made a ton of progress on a number of projects involving micro controller based experimental pattern generators. This video shows the Benjolin Light Synth being controlled by a simple bread boarded digital sequencer. The high frequency flashing light in conjunction with the low frame rate camera makes for some amazing patterns.

I’m teaching a workshop at Steim in amsterdam this weekend called Advanced Circuit Bending with the Arduino. I’ve been learning lots of cool things during my residency at Steim and I’m excited to share it! Come learn how to hack with the arduino.

Specter is on view by appointment at the Silent Barnin Brooklyn NY.
The Silent Barn has hosted thousands of performances over the past few years. It was home to the wildly successful DIY video game arcade Baby Castles and the pioneering life/show documenting installation PartyLab. A few weeks ago The Silent Barn was heavily burglarized and essentially demolished from the inside out. They are currently fundraising to help replace stolen equipment and start a new space in the near future. Check out their kickstarter here.

A message from Lucas Crane of the Silent Barn:
We here at the silent barn believe strongly in the principle of “Stunt Booking” If you think it won’t work, try it anyway. Does that music not make sense together? Put them on different floors! Urban Lemons into High Octane Lemonade. Well, what’s the best way to use a broken and defiled venue? Our Phoenix ready to rise with all the love and support we have been receiving? Let’s install something that we believe speaks to the tenacity, hope, art and dialogue that the Barn has always been about. An interactive Sound/Light Installation!

Thank you
G Lucas Crane