I had been working on the Urban Tumbleweeds,but Kevin McGill, my partner engineer from Minor the Mechanical Bull asked me a question: " Hey there is this show that I'm going to be a part of called the New Obsolete, and I thought it would be cool to use the Amplimaphone. You would be all over this show! Want to build this?" I was thrilled. I forwarded this message to Mark to show the currents of creative energy being generated by the project. Tom Merrigan had formed a band out of some of the Bulltown Strutters and Kevin had been combing the Scrap Exchange for Obsolete objects to beat rhythms.
The next day I built the frame for the batteries and amps, mounted the frame on a aluminum jogging stroller and mounted the Amplimaphone to the frame. The idea is that we could play mp3s through the portable sound machine. I felt like a bad kid for not having worked on the project and I wanted to make headway for Kevin's electrical finesse.
Kevin wires the Amplimaphone
I wonder if low tech might be better.
We're determined to make some kind of hideous sound!
Perhaps a combination of Low tech and High Tech.
One night at the 715 Space, we wired it together. After 2 hours of trying to make it work we connected the right ground and afro-beat started blasting through the horn!
After our rousing initial success, I brought the Amplimaphone back to Kevin's lab where he could do amazing things to it's electrical guts.
Part of Anomaly Inc.'s mission was to make the New Obsolete into a min- street festival with food trucks and performers. Because of the cold, we brought the street performers indoors. But the Amplimaphone blazed tunes into the night. Also some convenient and annoying sound apps could be broadcast into the Durham sky: a lion, a chimpanzee. We could roll the Amplimaphone in to the 108 and make gorilla noises to clear out the final stragglers. I brought it to the Durham Mardi Gras parade to play before the marching bands arrived and plug the Invisible show. This was especially satisfying because the State of Things bailed on the radio interview.
The Amplimaphone plays in front of 108 Morris Street as people gather for the show. Some people were actually attracted to the show by the music. I think I was playing Beats Antique and Cafe Flores.
Kevin installed a LED's to illuminate the wiring and I wrapped El wire around the bell.
The Amplimaphone plays sweet music to a Bulgogi truck and a Urban Tumbleweed.
