ArcAttack's performances include two singing Tesla coils, a robotic drum set and a PVC pipe organ.
(Credit: ArcAttack)
When you think of things related to science, music may not make the top of your list.
But the folks involved with a small collective called ArcAttack would like you to change your associations.
ArcAttack is all about one thing: building singing Tesla coils and crafting entire musical performances around them. For some time, at events like Dorkbot and other geekfests, the team--Joe DiPrima, Oliver Greaves, and Tony Smith--had been pulling off straightforward demonstrations of their creations. But they were synchronizing the machines to other people's music and not adding much in the way of their own innovations besides the singing Tesla coils themselves.
Now, however, ArcAttack has a whole ensemble mixing science and music and plastic--the Tesla coils, a pipe organ made from PVC, a robotic drumset--and putting it all together in short concerts with original music.
"We've got a solid 45 minutes or so of original content," DiPrima, an engineer at the University of Texas, told me recently, "and sometimes we'll incorporate themes from popular songs or do mixups with video game music.
When you see the singing Tesla coils, it takes a minute to really understand what you're watching. At first, you don't hear the tunes in the crackling of the electricity. But after a few moments, you realize what you're hearing and it's startling--especially if you have any experience with Tesla coils--to see these scientific wonders spitting out little bits of lightning with a beat.
"I've always loved music--playing it, and electronics too," DiPrima said. "I've been in a lot of bands, along with the other guys in the group, and this is probably the most fun we've had out of any other project we've been in. The way people respond to the coils playing real music with other instruments involved is amazing. People love it."
In particular, DiPrima suggested, ArcAttack's performances give their audiences--both in person and on the Web--a sense that music and science can indeed blend in a way that teaches something.
For many people, music is not the first thing they would associate with a Tesla coil, but ArcAttack has managed to build entire performances around its singing versions of the geek-favorite machines.
(Credit: ArcAttack)
"It's...a great way to get people interested in the science behind it," he said, "to present a Tesla coil, not just (as) an 'air core resonant transformer,' but (as) an effective tool for high intensity music."
AUSTIN, Texas--If you happened to be in Brush Square Park Saturday evening for the South by Southwest edition of Dorkbot, the gatherings of artists and engineers in various cities that work with electronic art, I sure hope you saw the singing tesla coils.
I did, and it was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. First of all, I love tesla coils--disruptive discharge transformer coils that shoot out bolts of electricity--to begin with. But this took the concept to a whole new level: Two small, side-by-side versions of the electricity-spewing devices that were working in tandem, producing music.
Was it real music? Well, I suppose that the definition of "music" is always open to interpretation, but in this case I'd have to say yes. After all, there was a beat, a rhythm and before I knew it, I found myself doing a little head bob. To the singing tesla coils.
So, I asked the creators, Oliver Greaves and Joe DiPrima of The Geek Group, about the wondrous creation they said it took them a year to build.
"We figured out we could do it when we started playing with solid state tesla coils," said DiPrima, adding it wouldn't have been possible without help from mentor Steve Ward. "We were the first group to document it."
I asked him to explain the concept to me, definitely in layman's terms, as I was a little afraid of a lengthy explanation involving different kinds of waves and spectrometers and things I would never understand or be able to pass on to you, my wonderful readers.
DiPrima was very patient with me.
"We're using a computer to modulate the tesla coils," he said. "They're digitally controlled. We built (what we call the) 'Disruptor,' which takes music and turns it into digital pulses."
I asked him how much it would cost to build a version of their invention, and he said that it would only cost about $100, though his group had spent several thousand dollars on research and development.
He also said he wouldn't be proprietary about the design.
"I figure, if someone is smart enough to understand how it works," DiPrima told me, "then I'm willing to share the information."
Now, The Geek Group is working on a larger version of the singing tesla coils. The current version shoots out electrical pulses about a foot long. But in a future version, the bolts will be around six or eight feet long.
I can't wait to see it.
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