| May 10, 2004 |
Musical Shock Therapy
This idea came to me in a daydream. I was listening to some wonderful classical music. I have this special way of listening where I let the music control my body and if I get it just right the music makes my body spasm. It like a direct connection between the music and my muscles.A few months back, I went to my chiropractor. She has these new machines that administer electro-shocks to the back muscles. I was wondering if I could design an interface between musical output and one of these machines. Imagine putting on a tight body suit (like a wet suit) with these electrical pads embedded in the suit. The electrodes would fire in relation to the music's note register and volume. This sounds like a salable product...I'd sure like to own one. May friends think it is too weird... |
| April 1, 2003 |
3-D History
For years I have been trying to find a way of visualizing history in 3 dimensions. I've built timelines, explored horn shapes, spheres and rotating discs. I think I have finally stumbled on to an elegant solution. It took cyberspace, the PORT show, Saddam Hussein, Will Durant and an ill-fated cruise in the Caribbean to germinate this idea, but here it is. |
| December 15, 2001 |
Sand Painter Robots
Five steamroller-like robots draw with colored sand as they continually flatten out the sand canvass. |
| November 11, 2001 |
RatRodeo
The idea is to create a small robot vehicle with a video camera that can be controlled by a web page. This RoboRat will inhabit an installation/rat's den with a family of rodents. |
| August 1, 2000 |
Talking to the Dead
I'd like to try to animate a human spinal cord...the kind you see at Chiropractor's offices. The base of the scull might hold a video camera. Several of these strange-looking backbones facing each other may be a very bizarre sight, especially if they appear to be in conversation. The video could be live on the Internet and maybe the movement could be controlled from the Internet. |
July 1, 2000
This ideas fulfills one of my lifelong dreams...to fly like a bird. This was also Leonardo DaVinci's dream too, which leads to the title. |
Leonardo's Dream
 The Robotic Arts Club plans to build a 24' long by 6' diameter blimp using K'Nex construction kits. The blimp will be controlled remotely via a radio control system. The blimp will be installed with two small video cameras with a wireless connection to a virtual reality headset. The pan and pitch of the cameras can be controlled by the tilting of the head. |
| June 15, 2000 |
Backhoe Ant
A giant ant could be built by mounting six backhoes together on a specially-made chasse. A simple Logo Computer Brick could be programmed to operate the backhoes in such a way that the entire sculpture could walk like an ant. (Budget $10,000) This might seem difficult, but it's all doable and fairly easily. I could see this sponsored by Lego or John Deer. |
May 10, 2000
This idea formed while building the remote-control mechanism for Under the Volcano. |
 Water Spiders for Waterplace Park
The idea is to organize a group of 10 to 15 year old kids to build a series of styrofoam water spiders with built-in robotic brains using the Legos Mindstorms Robotics Invention Systems. Click image to see proposal. |
December 25, 1999
This idea came to me while flying home after bringing my daughter back to West Palm Beach. |
Providence Lights
I have a new idea that I'm considering for Convergence XIII. I've been wanting to do something on a large scale, something that a lot of people will see.  When I was flying into Boston this Christmas, I was trying to identify the city of Providence out of all of the clusters of lights along the eastern seaboard. If you were looking on a map, you'd identify the capitol with a five-pointed star. My idea is to recreate that abstract symbol in the real world with blue lights. All I have to do is talk 30 home owners in to placing a blue light on the roof of there home.I was also considering getting the power and electric company to sponsor the project by giving each home-owner a hundred dollar rebate on their electric bill. |
October 8, 1999
I got this the kernel of this idea while visiting the DeCordova. |
iMac Ring
The iMac Ring is a chandelier of 12 iMac computers programmed to display a variety of colorful animated graphics, text messages and periodic sounds.  This is the kind of work where the initial programming (created by the artist) is just the beginning of what is possible. A community program can be developed to train participant to create their own graphical displays on the electronic mobile. |
| August, 1999 |
  Performance Sculpture
Design a 40-foot tall sculpture that can be erected and removed during a 1-hour long performance by four carpenters and a conductor. |
July 28, 1999
These ideas came out of my sketchbook entries while visiting the Louvre in Paris. |
 Brick Ruins
Build a corner segment of a brick foundation with a window and wooden beams, similar to the one in the renaissance painting by Xxxx Xxxx. Use it to grow forms of ivy. 3 Ruined Cubes
Continue the cement tree series, but this time as a ruin. Use a polymer concrete mix and a layering technique to make the blocks lighter. Use the same size, a total height of 6'. |
Staff Wall
Create a 6-foot tall king's staff out of PVC pipe and a wooden top. Experiment with a series of staffs to make a rose trellis.  These king staffs might make an interesting fencing device to grow roses on. |
Cycladic Idol
Recreate the Cycladic idol as seen at the Louvre approximately 6-foot tall. Use it as a jumping off point to something else.  This image is of the same period and feel, and might be useful in this piece. |
 Wine Bottle Mechanism
Create a mechanical-looking contraption to hold 8 wine bottles in place forming 4 hour-glass shapes lined up in a row. Use this as a railing fill structure, or a jumping off point. |
 Glass Urn
Create a scaffolding-like structure that holds in place 6-inch square plate-glass tiles in the shape of a Grecian urn. The prototype should be approximately six feet in height, but the structure should be scalable to around 20 feet. |
 Cement Cloaks
Build four headless cloaked figures on a wooden armature covered with old rugs and impregnated with polymer cements. |
July 2, 1999
This ideas developed out of my sketchbook entries while listening to an outdoor marching band concert at the Seekonk Public Library. |
  Stone Sphere
Use tumbled cement paving bricks to form the bottom 5/8th of a sphere. Create the top 1/4th of the sphere out of cast concrete formed against a Styrofoam form. Use copper tubing to hold the top in place high enough to form a perfect sphere. Pump water through the copper tubing and restrict the ends at the surface of the top cast so that the water covers the entire top cast and rolls down to the bottom brick catch basin. |
  This piece has gone through several alterations and influences and is turning into something with potential. |
 Slab Pyramid
Create seven concrete slabs and separate them by copper spaces. Possible embed text in the edges of the slabs. Maybe have top 3 slabs taper back down. |
June 1999
This idea sprung out of a conversation with my parents around the diner table. And I think the upside down roof also started there. |
 Grandfather's Rose Trellis
Recreate grandfather Campopiano's rose trellis. This is a very strong image from my childhood. It is a connection back to a grandfather (my father's father) that I never knew. He died when my father was a teenager. My mother found a tiny picture of the trellis in the old photos shoe box.
 August 15, 1999, I reconstructed the trellis in a CAD program. In September I started building it. Click the thumbnail sketch to see views of the CAD model and a little about my ancestry. |
Up-side-down Roof Structure
Design a roof-structure that can be constructed upside-down and askew to the ground plane. It should be designed so that the trusses can be fabricated at a truss-fabricating company and assembled by an experienced contracting company. The wood should be allowed to weather naturally. |
April, 1999
I've been fascinated with dead trees for years...not sure when this ideas germinated |
 Wall Circle Tree
Find 6 small dead trees (or large bushes) approximately 15 feet tall. Fabricate a steel wall bracket with 6 tree-trunk holders that allow the trees to fan out in a circle 60 degrees apart.
Upside-down Hanging Tree
Find a beautifully shaped dead tree about 30 feet tall. Build a simple tripodal structure to hold the tree upside-down with the top of the tree inches from the ground. Strip the bark from the tree, if it isn't already bare. Experiment with different finishes...possibly linseed oil, oil paint or gold leaf. |
March, 1999
Spring starts with the burning of the brush. This piece evolved out of the burn pile. |
 Burnt Coversation
Imbed 5 burnt logs into the ground creating a 5-foot diameter circle. Attach an additional smaller burnt log to the top using wooden pegs. Dig a small hollow into the ground between the logs and cover with 1-inch red stones. |
1997
This idea came out of a conversation with Marek Walczak just after Port at MIT. |
Ant Table with VRML Counterpart
Create a white table approximately three foot by five foot and 30 inches tall with 2" Plexiglas sides to contain 100 hundred ants. Fix a camera to the ceiling above the table looking down on the surface. Create a program that will translate the positions of the ants in the digital video to VRML coordinates and send them over the Internet. Create a VRML world where large bricks move around in place of each ant. |
1996
This idea started back it the 426 Broome Street storefront where me and the boys did some art experiments in the window...we called it land. The idea developed further in November of 1999 through conversations with George Fifield. |
Ants Under Foot
Create a museum room-size installation where you walk on clear plastic tiles that are raise off the floor about a foot, under which you see a colony of about one million ants rearranging a cone of sand approximately six foot tall in the center of the room.
 This idea was picked up by a curator at the DeCordova Museum, went through a series of alterations and then, selected to be in the DeCordova Annual this Summer, which adds credence to this "open method of presenting ones ideas on the web." The final proposal can be viewed here, and the finished installation here. |
1980
This idea goes a long ways back to a funny story about my first day in graduate school. |
 Clock
This idea is to create a hanging Clock that uses it's own weight as the power source. The clock is multi-colored and kinetic. In addition to the movement of the hour, minute and second hands, the entire clock moves from its top position to its bottom position in the period of one week. |
