Pole Top Design

i.e. Creative (www.iecreative.ca), is the artist team we're working with to fabricate the Talking Poles. This blog post focuses on the design of the pole tops. There has been a lot of discussion as to what the design of the pole tops should be and how it will be constructed. We started with an engineered drawing produced by i.e. Creative and then we built cardboard prototypes exploring the circumference required to house the electronics. Our goal was to design a pole top that was both esthetically pleasing and functional - in the scene that it would provide a high level of protection from the environment and other elements.

The Electronic Schema

This blog post focuses on the design of the electronics that will embedded into the pole. The key idea behind the Talking Poles is that they >talk< and will play back audio pieces collected from area residences. Our artist team worked with Bobbi Kozinukto who drawn up the schema (to the left) of the electronic design. We initially started with a plan to draw to run the electronics by harnessing the EMF from the over head transmission towers. This planed to be too difficult to regulate so we have opted for solar power.

Site View

The Talking Poles will be placed North and South of 68th in between 125th and 126th Streets. The red dots mark the spot.

Kwantlen University College Visit

On Wednesday, Jan. 21.09 Lorna, Cease and I drove out to Kwantlen University College, Surrey Campus - 12666, 72nd Avenue, Surrey, BC just 4blks from the project site. We met with instructor Sibeal Foyle, and her drawing class to invite them into the design process. Students agreed to design the steel cutouts that would be welded on to the surface of the the Talking Poles. We left with the extreme excitement over the students participation, as they seemed like a very interesting group of people with exceptional talent. View our presentation to the class below:

Testing EMF

Bobbi Kozinuk, is the artist designing the electronics of the project. We drove out to the site Sunday Jan. 25, 2009 to conduct some tests to see how much power we could draw from the transmission lines. Bobbi coiled copper wire to measure readings. The voltage readings were all over the place ranging from .15 to 14.008. While out conducting these tests we met with neighbors curious with what we were doing. A man named Ovare, introduced himself. He had some very interesting ideas for building sound sculpture from plastic tubing. I'll have to visit him again. Bobbi and I left the site with a lot of questions. We will return next week to conduct more readings. The pictures below show Bobbi with testing materials.

Site Visit

On Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 we drove out to the Serpentine Greenway, Surrey, BC, CA for a site visit. We want to introduce Mike and Cheryl our fabrication specialists from i.e. Creative [www.iecreative.ca] to the locations where the Talking Poles would be placed. We were able to walk along the path North and South of 68th Avenue and make the final decisions as to why and where we would place the sculpture. Our rationale for choosing these locations was that they are the only places the City of Surrey would place benches without fear of vandalism.

We choose to place the pole within site of each other and made a conscious decision to do some tests to see how far the sound would travel and to involve the people living close to the poles for tests.

Holland Park Public Art

Our artist team has won a competition to build six Talking Poles along the Serpentine Greenway, Surrey, BC, CA. Today I went out to visit a sister site in Surrey called Holland Park to look at the existing sculpture. The image to the right is of one on the main featured pieces - I think it's made out of aluminum. It interesting to see how this type of metal ages - it seems to just turn grayisher. We are now looking into patinas for aluminum, if you have any suggestions - let me know.