Arc Attack, a singing tesla coil troupe from Austin, Texas, has released on online simulator of its increasingly well-known act. The group is going on tour in Europe and Abu Dhabi.
(Credit: Arc Attack)If you've never seen a singing tesla coil, an 8-foot-tall mash of circuitry and electronics that matches firing lightning bolts to the beat of DJ music, you are seriously missing out.
These days, your best bet might be to catch Austin, Texas, troupe Arc Attack as it plays events like the anime festival Metro Con in Florida. Or, if you happen to be in Abu Dhabi, you might be able to see the group do its electric best there.
If you can't hop an A380 to the United Arab Emirates, however, you can still get your singing tesla coil on. And right in the comfort of your own living room, in fact. And that's because Arc Attack has just put the finishing touches on a singing tesla coil emulator that, while not quite life-threatening, can still give you a sense of what the instrument is all about.
I first saw Arc Attack do its thing at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin in 2007, and then got a chance to see the group during the Interactive Festival there again this year. In both those cases, however, Arc Attack was playing with just one coil. But while in Austin for SXSW this year, I got taken to a warehouse out along the back roads of Austin--somewhere I could never in a million years find by myself--where they were testing out their dual coil setup. (See video below, which is dark, but gives a good sense of the power of the dual singing coils.)
My ears are still ringing from that demonstration.
Well, the simulator isn't quite that powerful, but it's a lot of fun to play it using the provided electronic keyboard interface. And just like in real life, you need to be careful with it. If you go too far with it (heating it up too much), it explodes, blowing a transistor, and then displays the message, "Replacing IGBT." I'm assured that's an inside tesla coiler joke that "will definitely invoke some nerd snorting."
So, crank up your computer speakers, pull out a can of Red Bull, and rock out with your own private singing tesla coil. You might want to wear earplugs.
On June 22, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation, and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and South and North Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
AUSTIN, Texas--If you wanted to see tesla coils rocking out, Dorkbot was the place to be Saturday evening at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference here.
The local art collective Arc Attack had its singing tesla coils turned up loud and it put on several demonstrations of its machines at this celebration of "people doing strange things with electricity."
The highlight of the group's show was either a rendition of the "Dr. Who" theme or perhaps the Imperial march music from "Star Wars" (see video below--and give it a few seconds to get past the head sticking up in front of the lens).
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."
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