Segways, Mentos and Microwave Madness

On Wednesday. June 21, Fishbon Event Lab operatives evaluated Segway Human Transporters under the watchful eye of Santa Barbara Segway partner Jerry. After brief learning curve manuevers, all agents were able to operate the excellent two wheeled vehicles and vowed to incorporate them in future forays. Later in the evening, a hitherto Secret Microwave Oven was put through its paces with marshmallows, CDs, bars of soap, lightbulbs, eggs and other items not approved for street use. In an exciting finale, Nathan and Erin led a Diet Coke and Mentos Fiesta that began with moderate six foot fountains and then, when modified, resulted in a 20' blast to the amazement of all assembled.

Jerry demos Segway HT

Waiting for a turn

Spinning out of control

Alan aboard the Segway HT

Operatives in leisure mode

Diet Coke powderkeg
waiting for Mentos

Dominique does Diet Coke
and Mento setup

Fabulous Structures and Fashion Cell Show

On Wednesday, June 14th, Fishbon Event Lab commandos were treated to "first look" presentations of Fabulous Structures ideas for this year's Burning Man Festival in Nevada. Silas showed his beautifully executed Emboss-O Wheel that leaves a continuous trail of text that says "Playa Love Playa Live..." when mounted on a bicycle. Pope showed his Pram design and Michael brought models of his Magical Pavillion. A brief review of Gerard Minikawa's Starry Bamboo Mandala slated to be prototyped at the Pescadrome followed. Later in the evening, operatives learned about the Fishbon Event Lab Fashion Cell Avatar Show at UCSB Museum of Art's opening for Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator. The obligatory "hands on" segment featured structure design with excellent oversized legos and plastic dinosaurs.

Pattern Language
poster with
Fashion Cell tag

Mandala Elements

Gerard's Starry
Bamboo Mandala

Silas' Embosso
Wheel

Embossing
the Playa

Pope
Mobile 2

Ingenious magic
triangle

Michael's Pavillion
Structure models

Erin moment
redux

Structure
Prototyping

Interactive Video and Bad Machines

On Wednesday, June 7, Fishbon Event Lab opeatives picked up where they left off last week-- taking parts liberated from a failed office copier and using them to create indisputably Bad Machinery. While some looked impressive, a panel of technical experts confirmed that none of the devices could be expected to serve any practical use whatsoever. In fact, the suggestion was made that none of the teams return to the drawing board. Later in the evening the crew caravanned to the Pescadrome, Fishbon's new studio and performance space in Santa Barbara. There they were greeted by an impressive montage of Interactive Video Projections developed by Wes, Lance, Graham and Mad Dog as part of UCSBs Media Arts and Technnology graduate program. The custom software processed video feeds and the result was a stream of audio and video that changed with user input.

Live Processed Video

Vid Image

Wes at the Pescadrome

Deconstructed cube madness

Routine Hijinx

Event Lab R&D

Reconstruction

Bad machinery

Chatterbots and Copier Demolition

On Wednesday, May 31 undercover operatives of the Fishbon Event Lab gathered to perform Emergency Radical Copier Repair on the donated Kyocera copier. After removing most moving parts and driving a 3 inch nail trought the LCD display, the now hopelessly inoperative device was declared no worse off than it was when the work began. It still didn't work, but as it had been stripped of superfluous parts, was much lighter. Service victory! Later in the evening agents experimented with AI (artificial intelligence) Chatterbots. These talking head marvels responded provocatively to a wide range of questionable statements to the amusement of the assembled.

Copier in need of Radical Restoration Surgery

Michael at work

The final blow-LCD improvement

AI Chatterbots 

Moonviewing 

Paul's fabulous Fish Marquetry piece 

Rope of Fire 

Fire Fiesta 

Streubaphones and Avatars

On Wednesday, May 24 agents of the Fishbon Event Lab gathered to investigate Clandestine Musical Instruments and tools for creating Virtual World Avatars in Second Life. The evening began with a demo of a wind instrument invented by Dominique and Alan Streubing for the Summer Solstice Celebration. Using a weather balloon as a membrane, the PVC pipe device was able to produce a range of strange didgeridoo-like sounds that mesmerized the operatives in attendance. Later in the evening, Alex demoed Second Life tools and templates for avatar creation. A pattern was photographed, imported into a template and uploaded into Second Life where it was mapped onto an avatar. The result was surreal. The Fishbon Fashion Cell Avatar show will be featured at the opening of the University of California at Santa Barbara Museum of Art show Pattern Language: Clothing as Communicator.

Jeffrey plays the Streubaphone 

Misha at the controls 

Clay talks about the Fashion Cell Avatar Project 

Alex's Second Life designer friend Megan 

Real Life Avatar Wear