OVO

Trevor Blake: Floating Bathtub Stopper.  Corks, chain, stopper.  2010.

Previously: Make an Enlarging Projector.

First, find an abandoned projection television in 2008. Remove a lens with a hammer.

Lens removed by hammer.

In 2011, mount lens on cigar box base.  Mount video source upside down on cigar box sliding lid with Erector Set pieces from thrift store.  Sliding cigar box lid adjusts focus.  Image is mirror reversed, something that will be accommodated with a mirror in a future video projector – or, it could be used as a rear projector on a transparent screen, or projected from a mirror onto a screen.  This device works well in complete darkness but I don’t have a camera that can take a picture in complete darkness to show you.  Come by and I’ll show you in person.

Cost: older ipod ($79), cigar box (free), lens (free), Erector Set pieces ($2).  TOTAL: $81.00

Acoustic Amplifier for MP3 Player. Prototype. Plastic bottles, foamcore, glue, mp3 player, headphones. Works better than nothing.

This article by Michael Byrne uses (with my consent) a photograph I took in July 2009 regarding a home-made swamp cooler I blogged about in August 2009.

Wikipedia, Carcassonne: “Carcassonne is a tile-based German-style board game for two to five players, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede and published in 2000 by Hans im Glück in German and Rio Grande Games in English. It received the Spiel des Jahres and the Deutscher Spiele Preis awards in 2001. It is named after the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne in southern France, famed for its city walls.”

My microcarcassonne is made with magnets, sewing pins, paper and a candy box.  Scale is one half inch per background square.

Tape fragmentation consists of interrupting the audio input to a tape deck from the take deck. That is, using the tape deck to fragment an audio input.

I often record my environment for source material in audio collages and for cassette correspondence. The portable recorder I use has a pause button that slurs when turned on while recording. I decided to see what it would sound like if I turned the pause on and off rapidly while recording. The results cannot be explained by someone who wasn’t there. The sound is alien and familiar at the same time.

My home recorder has a pause function that is exact and without slurs. Using this deck, I fragmented sounds from the radio (mostly classical music and speech), other tapes I’ve produced and sequences programmed into my synthesizer. I also tried unplugging and plugging in the power cord to the tape deck while recording, but the results weren’t satisfactory.

I believe the best fragmentation comes from speech. One can recognize voices and an occasional word, but the overall effect is the destruction of language. Words are cut apart and re-combined in new and unpredictable ways.

Fragmented tapes are very easy to ignore. If you set your mind to something else while listening to a fragmented tape you will find it easy to block out. It is the kind of destroyed sound that you hear when there is a television on in the next room, or when a radio is playing in a passing car. This background noise effect and the ease of creating fragmented tapes makes them ideal audio accompaniments to performances or exhibits for those with limited access to expensive recording equipment.

from OVO 1 (1987)
reprinted in Sound Choice issue 5.

Trevor Blake: Orrery. Cardboard, glue, string, tape. 13 November 2010.

Trevor Blake: Redshirt.

Tricorder.

Tricorder with blinky light.

Mossarium. Portland, Oregon USA. 31 January 2010.

“I couldn’t find a folding bicycle I liked. So I made one myself.”

Student Invents Bicycle Which Folds Into 26-Inch Wheel Circumference For James Dyson Prize | UK News | Sky News

May 1991. 12 pages, 8.5 inches by 5.5 inches. Black and white photocopy.

Pagan Kennedy, Men in Black, Dreamachines, fascist/anti-fascist art.

• Review of Keith Wade’s book Anarchist’s Guide to the BBS. I was shocked that a publisher would send me books to review, but took it as a sign that as I took myself more seriously that others would as well.

OVO is a collection of new works in the public domain edited and published by Trevor Blake since 1987. New issues are in progress.

October 1989. Approximately 300 numbered copies. 84 pages. 11 inches by 8.5 inches. Black and white photocopy.

Dreamachines, copyrights, censorship, Muzak, abortion, Mike Gunderloy, Kerry Wendell Thornley, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, Walter Alter, Ryan Gray, Marko Constans, Tom Chan, secret theater, Hakim Bey, Liberating Wednesday by PM, Who Am I? by Jim Scianna, Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, Jeff Holland, Miserablism and Anti-Miserablism in 1986 by Penelope Rosemont and Joseph Jablonski, Texas Department of Corrections Correspondence Rules.  First publication of Ringing Denunciation of Surrealism by Hakim Bey, later published in T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone.

Front cover depicts Human cells infected with HIV.  The following year, Ronald Regan would apologize for neglecting AIDS during his term as President. See also Lunalogue from OVO 3 1987.  Text was written on a typewriter then enlarged on a photocopy machine.

Advertisements for AMOK, Autonomedia, bolo’bolo, Custom Screenprinting, Dendrite Tapes, Factsheet Five, Grey Area, Industrial Workers of the World, Mutilation Graphics, Out-Of-Control Data Institute, Reality Now, Re/Search, Sound Choice, SubGenius Foundation, and Zontar.

• The Meta-Network by Mike Gunderloy.
• Don’t Talk to Cops by Robert Zeuner. This may or may not be sound legal advice; consult a professional before following any of the suggestions made here.
• Ringing Denunciation of Surrealism by Hakim Bey. This article was produced with an electric typewriter. Essays on surrealism were hard to come by in 1989 (at least for me) and I was glad to have the chance to print one, even an argument against surrealism. This is the first publication of this essay, later published in T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone.
• Apple/Pineapple by Chris Cilla.  See also OVO 15 SPERM (February 2005).
• The Gentrification of Pain by A. Z. Dippe.
• Liberating Wednesday by PM. This is the first and so far only time this essay by the author of bolo’bolo has been published. In a letter dated 16 June 1989, PM wrote “On the ‘reformist’ side one of my newer ideas was to push for a non-economic Wednesday [...] Feel free to use the idea and/or the text. It would be much better to write a text that fits in your specific situation, of course. I’m trying to spread the idea worldwide (together with bolo’bolo, it’s all linked) [...] I hope your ovo-bolo will transform into a big bird, like an ostrich or so.” The idea of an annual ‘buy nothing day’ became popular years later, but liberating Wednesday is an idea fifty-two times as challenging.
• Lights = Camera = Action and Densest? by Walter Alter. Background is television listing from local newspaper. This text was on the first I ever received on computer disk (a 5.25 inch floppy for PC, which I couldn’t use for years). Walter also hosted one of the first BBS I ever called.

OVO is a collection of new works in the public domain edited and published by Trevor Blake since 1987. New issues are in progress.

Swamp Cooler / Homemade Air Conditioner. Fan blowing over ice in plastic cups. Plastic cups in bowls which collect condensation. Scientifically demonstrated to be better than nothing. Trevor Blake, July 2009.

numerous plans for rocket kits that are no longer being manufactured as well as other non-kit plans and out-of-print rocketry publications.

Ye Olde Rocket Plans

“A delicious source of fiber! My family have them almost every morning. Great healthy muffins! You may substitute dates for the raisins if you wish.”

Classic Bran Muffins – All Recipes

How to make a solar iPod/iPhone charger -aka MightyMintyBoost

I’ve put together a set of markers for the deluxe edition of Steve Jackson’s famously awesome future war-game, OGRE. You can download a .PDF of my OGRE marker designs

Make: Online : MAKE: Projects – Shrinky-dink gaming minis

Could humans at any point in history, given the right information, construct an electronic communication network? An attempt to build a functional electric battery and telegraph switch from materials found in the wilderness, using no modern tools except information

http://immaculatetelegraphy.tumblr.com/

The combination of this panel and battery can produce enough energy to easily charge a laptop / cell phone / ipod, inflate an air mattress, power a boom box, recharge AA batteries, run lights and charge power tools.

Voltaic DIY Solar | Charge Car Batteries with a Voltaic 15 Watt panel

Regular maintenance will cut down on the “ugh” factor. After all, one-hour cleaning increments are much easier to deal with than five-hour cleaning marathons.

Apartment Therapy Re-Nest | Spring Cleaning Tip #10: Make A Cleaning Schedule