Tags: animal intelligence, London Zoo, paper wasp, strange jobs, uses of RFID
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What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever been asked to make at work? Installing a new exhibit at London Zoo today, I met all-round troubleshooter Dave Hitchcock. He’s been asked to build everything from an electronic ejaculator for gazelles to a tiny tracking system, just like an Oyster Card, for Panamanian paper wasps.
Do you worry about your pet chicken getting lonely when you’re away? Well researchers at the Mixed Reality Lab in Singapore certainly do – and they’re tackling the problem with tactile computing.
Sarah Angliss is a musician, engineer and writer.
Her band Spacedog mixes theremin, musical saw, vocals and laptops with Sarah's home-spun musical robots.
Soho Shorts Festival (July 2010) - Spacedog will be performing live with the Ealing Feeder, as part of ArtHertz' Electricity and Ghosts - details tbc
Uncanny Valley - a new live show from Spacedog, Prof. Elemental and assorted robot friends, Marlborough Theatre, Brighton, 5 May 2010
Spacedog with Jane Bom-Bane and Nick Pynn, Bom-Bane's, Brighton, 13 May 2010
Electricity and Ghosts - live performance at Battersea Power Station (date tbc)
Spacedog play Hastings Museum and F-ish Gallery, 20 March 2010
Electricity and Ghosts preview at the Kinetica Art Fair, 5-7 February 2010
Shift Run Stop - podcast interview, January 2010 Demo at Dorkbot Recording live onto a wax cylinder, using an original Edison phonograph, Catalyst Club, Brighton, 10 December 2009 Clog dancing as early noise music, with Caroline Radcliffe, Central, London, 4 December 2009 Robin Ince's Darwin birthday bash Transfer New multimodal effect, in collaboration with Punchdrunk
Sleigh ride (Troika), from Prokovief's Lieutenant Kije, played on the robotic bells
This bell rig is regularly used in live performance - this is the Mk III version, built December 2008.