ANIMATRONICS AND KINETIC SCULPTURE
Harnessing the power of movement to create automated art.
Piz(Za) Leader
LOCATION — Convergence Station | LEAD ARTIST — Everything Is Terrible | ROLE — Engineering & Design | MATERIALS — Steel & Vinyl
When LA based art collective, Everything is Terrible, proposed their twisted take on Chuck E Cheese's Pizza Pals Playzone for Meow Wolf's Denver location, they knew they wanted to include an animated figure, but needed assistance to bring it into reality, which is where I stepped in. The space had been provided with a pneumatic line during early development, so I designed all of the animation to run off of a single linear actuator with 1.5” of travel. This motion is transferred through a series of linkages to move all three sets of Zas arms at different rates. The mechanical system was designed with as many repeated parts as possible in an attempt to simplify maintenance- the same bearing appears over a dozen times, and because all of the arm assemblies are identical, they can be removed and swapped out as needed for maintenance.
Movie Theater Attendant
LOCATION — Convergence Station | LEAD ARTIST — Chadney Everett | ROLE — Engineering & Design | MATERIALS — Steel, Vacuformed Polycarbonate, Fabric, Plastic Hose, & 3D Filament
On C Street in Convergence Station, a robotic attendant greets guests from his window in front of the movie theater. Creative Director Chadey Everett had provided us with concept art that included a very mechanical arm scooping popcorn, a moving head, mouth and torso, and an internally lit soda dispensing attachment. The popcorn arm utilizes a visible 4 bar linkage to transfer rotational motion in the shoulder into raising and extending the popcorn scoop. Off the shelf parts and clear coated steel allows the mechanical language of the piece to shine through. The face went through several phases of development. Originally conceived as a traditional cast silicone animatronic skin, we scanned the face of a coworker and developed a 3D printed mold. The resulting skin was a level of terrifying that went beyond the uncanny valley, so we pivoted to a "Ventriloquist Dummy” style rigid head, 3D printed from the same scan data.
Princess Peach
LOCATION — Universal Studios | LEAD ARTIST — Nintendo | ROLE — Engineering & Design | MATERIALS — Aluminum & Silicone
For the Universal Studios Nintendo expansion, I worked with the Universal Creative Engineering team to develop a patented system for animated character heads that didn’t impose on any existing technology. I then transitioned to Animax, where I spend a year developing the mechanics of Princess Peach. The face has moving eyes and mouth as well as an E vowel mech that allows the character to smile. The major challenges of this project centered around the safety of the human performer wearing the costume. All motors and moving parts had to be located such that failure could not result in injury to the performer. The resulting head also had a significant weight, so I spent time developing a universal mounting system that could be used with all figures to redirect the weight of the head to the performers hips and lower back to avoid neck strain.Curved aluminum tubes connected to the top of the head and traveled inside the structure of the characters hair to a receiver on the performers back where they terminated in turned aluminum pins which are inserted into a unit with integrated detents. This was mounted on a lightweight carbon fiber backpacking frame.
Pinata Poaching
LOCATION — Orlando Cardboard Art Show 2016 | LEAD ARTIST — K80 Correll | ROLE — Design & Fabrication | MATERIALS — Cardboard & Tissue Paper
My installation for the Orlando Cardboard Art Show imagined a world wherein pinatas had been hunted nearly to extinction- taken from their homes and sold in cages to be beaten to death by children. Utilizing a 2 DOF pivot motor unit from Adafruit, I developed a series of pinata templates that could be cut from cardboard, folded, and attached to the actuator. Finished pinatas were mounted in metallic painted cardboard bird cages and hung from the ceiling of the venue, inviting guests to walk amongst the victims as they turned their heads and looked around in terror. Each cage featured a tag stating the species of pinata and location of origin.
Kinetic Reliquary
LOCATION — Convergence Station | LEAD ARTIST — K80 Correll | ROLE — Design & Fabrication | MATERIALS — Steel, Glass, Foam, Crushed Velvet, Rhinestones, Cast Acrylic Teeth, & Historic Cow Molar
Within the Shrine of Clean on C Street, devotees worship The Cycle. 10 rotating drums with clear glass faces were created and thoroughly tested with weights placed in the center, off-center, and tumbling to ensure that the mechanical system could handle any weight distribution within the load limit. My contribution, Kinetic Reliquary, takes inspiration from ornate baroque reliquaries in cathedrals across Europe. Instead of having to make a tedious pilgrimage to visit the relic of a specific saint, the Kinetic Reliquary gives the worshiper thousands of saints to choose from in one convenient location. An ornate pattern of tooth cutouts and rhinestones forms the front and back of the enclosure, supporting matching “scoops” radially placed around the unit. Foam wrapped in red crushed velvet cradles 1300 cast acrylic human tooth replicas (and a few donated baby teeth and pet teeth from coworkers) as they tumble with the motion of the drum.
INTERACTIVES
Fully immersive storytelling experiences.
Lightning Room
Location — The Real Unreal | Lead Artist — Meason Wiley | Role — Interaction Design, Creative Direction, Engineering, & Design Oversight | Materials — Steel, Found Electronics, & Polycarbonate
When lead artist Meason Wiley conceived of the Lightning Room, he wanted to create an interactive space in an abandoned lab that invited visitors to discover the purpose of the equipment being used there to harness lightning and slow time. I worked with a team of technologists, writers,and concept artists to turn vintage electronic equipment rescued from Los Alamos into a series of interactive puzzles arrayed around the space that allow the user to activate an “event” that sends a pulse of light through illuminated conduits throughout the room, turns the clocks backwards, and awakens a creature in a tank. We began with paper playtesting in a mockup of the space, and I was hands-on with the development process through installation — including creating the grimy paint treatment on the walls and mossy growths on some of the equipment.
PUPPETRY
Figures manipulated by live performers.
Bernice
Location - The Addams Family (Broadway - 2010) | Lead Artist - Basil Twist | Role - Fabrication | Materials - Foam & Fabric
I had the opportunity to intern with legendary puppeteer, Basil Twist, during the fabrication phase for the Broadway debut of The Addams Family. Each 20’ tentacle that made up Bernice, the giant squid, consisted of an internal structure of stacked foam fabricated vertebrae. Cables running through the outer edges of the vertebra units allowed the performer (standing below stage level, with the base of the tentacle mounted to a backpack frame) to control the curvature of the tentacle, which was also supported from the grid above.
Sven
Location- Bolingbrook, Il | Role - Design, Fabrication, and Performance | Materials - Cardboard & Fabric
For a community theatre production of Frozen, I had just 5 weeks to build and rehearse the comedic, silent, reindeer character, Sven. The body and head are built around an armature structure framed out of cardboard tubes, which attaches to the puppeteer's body with backpack straps. Contoured ribs form the actual outer shape of the puppet, which is then covered in strips of vintage calico cut into fringe. Everything used to fabricate this puppet was scrap derived from recycling.
Techno Babel
Lead Artist- K80 Correll | Role - Design, Fabrication, & Performance | Materials - 3D Printed Shells, Sensors, & LEDs
Techno Babel is a tabletop and marionette puppetry piece performed by a team of 3 puppeteers. A marionette with acoustic sound making capabilities is offered a series of “upgrades” which replace its acoustic limbs with sensor-enabled alternatives. The new limbs contain bend sensors in the joints that illuminate the limbs and send data back to the computer where it triggers the addition and modification of musical tracks composed by Jennifer Jolley. The puppets head contains a distance sensor in place of eyes and a 3 DOF tilt sensor, and the puppeteer controlling the body wears a pulse oximeter which controls heart lighting in the body and contributes to the musical evolution. With the replacement of each limb, additional layers of sound are added, each separately controlled and manipulated by the limbs as the puppet moves through the space. Overwhelmed by the cacophony, the puppet removes its new limbs until it is left knocking its head against the stage, attempting to regain the simplicity of its original acoustic life.
Norm
Location - Convergence Station | Lead Artist - Quinn Tincher | Role - Engineering & Puppetry Advisor | Materials- Wood, Foam, Fabric, & Found Objects
As a promotion leading up to the opening of Meow Wolf's Denver installation, we purchased a small food truck trailer and converted it into a newsstand, manned by an alien lifeform named Norm who traded zines for visitors' memories. Norm was designed and fabricated as a creative sprint, with a team of artists and fabricators lead by Quinn Tincher collaboratively creating parts of the puppet in an improvisational “yes and” format. As a puppeteer, I advised on mandible mechanics (built off of a bicycle hand brake system) and continuously tested the performer ergonomics.
Black Box
Lead Artist- K80 Correll | Role - Design, Fabrication & Performance | Materials - Fabric & Found Plastic Parts
Black Box was developed at the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference in 2015 under the guidance of Phillip Huber. The octopus itself is designed around a Starbucks dome lid with a toy machine capsule mounted on a pivot inside that allows the octopus to dump black glitter “ink” on the stage at the conclusion of the performance. The marionette interacts with a sonar “Theremin”, which maps various notes to different distances from the sensor, allowing the octopus to perform their own accompaniment.
Polling Place Theatre
Lead Artist- K80 Correll | Role - Design, Fabrication, & Performance |Materials- Fabric, Fruit, Paper, & Found Objects
In 2015, I purchased a retired Datavote voting booth on ebay (the classic “Dimpled Chad” booth of the 2000 presidential election). The booth provides a platform enclosed on 3 sides and even contains built-in lighting- I only needed to add a curtain to turn it into a portable puppet theatre. Utilizing extendable rods sold for roasting marshmallows, I was able to quickly write, perform and release weekly episodes based on White House press briefings for the first 6 months of Trump's first term. The visual language relied heavily on household objects and hand made paper props to accompany the main orange.
SCENERY AND THEMING
Set design and placemaking.
Tree Island
Location - Toruk: The First Flight (Toured 2015-2019) | Lead Artist - Cirque Du Soleil | Role - Engineering & Design | Materials - Aluminum
The finale of Cirque Du Soleil’s Avatar show featured a large inflatable tree that grew magically from a platform in the center of the arena. The tree itself was stored in one of 4 curved units that formed a “donut” around the central platform. The decking and truss on the top of these units locked together and contained anchor points on the top surface that allowed performers to secure rigging lines dropped from the ceiling. Performers remained on the deck as it was lifted, pulling the tree up as it was inflated, and then puppeteering the branches of the tree from the elevated deck.
Cosmohedron
Location - Convergence Station | Lead Artist - Parker Jennings | Role - Engineering Oversight | Materials - Steel & Polycarbonate
The most show stopping feature of Numina, the swamp world of Meow Wolf's Convergence Station, is the 3 story freestanding Cosmohedron. The platforms and supporting beams for the structure were designed and constructed as a part of the overall development of the building, and my team worked with an engineering firm to develop modular steel panels that created the armature of the geometric structure and allowed for the attachment of the outer vacuformed polycarbonate skin and internal art theming.
The Propellor
Location - Taylor Swift's 1989 Tour (2015) | Lead Artist - K80 Correll | Role - Engineering & Design | Materials - Aluminum & Acrylic
The stage for Taylor Swift's 1989 tour consisted of a modular runway extending from the front of the stage that could be configured to different lengths based on the size of the venue. A team of 5 engineers worked in parallel on the different axes of motion— I focused on the linear motion of the unit driving through the venue and the chassis that carried the overall assembly while my coworkers developed the mechanisms to raise the platform, tilt it on an angle, and rotate it 360 degrees. While the show was in rehearsal at Rock Lititz, I came in to work one day to find Taylor's keyboard lying on my desk, with the challenge of designing a custom railing for the end of the stage that both matched the original railings we had designed and securely held the keyboard and its related equipment. It was designed, fabricated and in rehearsal the next day.
SCULPTURES
Stationary 3-dimensional art works.
Bearett
Location - Convergence Station | Lead Artist - Caity Kennedy | Role - Structural Design | Materials - Steel, Acoustic Foam, & Wool Felt
The Bearett is an 18’ tall lanky creature who greets visitors as they enter Numina, the swamp environment in Meow Wolf Denver. The artist had created maquettes of the sculpture, and was very adamant about the body forming a compound curve. In order to give this soft sculpture structural stability both to support itself and endure guest abuse, I designed a modular steel airframe structure that would form the body surface of the figure when wire mesh was stretched over its ribs. This process of using tab and slot construction with laser cut 10g steel to create a hollow structure of intersecting ribs became our standard procedure for generating sculptural armatures for future Meow Wolf exhibits.
Teeth Lamp
Location - The Real UnReal | Lead Artist - K80 Correll | Role - Designer | Materials - Steel
To create a series of lasercut metal lamps for the forest canopy of The Real Unreal, we designed a standard light fixture that could accept any folded steel lamp an artist chose to design. For my design, I decided to continue the teeth motif I’d used throughout my time at Meow Wolf, arranged to create some organic shapes and break up the rigid geometry of the overall lamp shape.
Cowboix Hevvven
Location - Radio Tave | Lead Artist - Cole B. Wilson | Role - Engineering Oversight | Materials - Steel & Polygem
Sculptures at Meow Wolf start with an artist creating a sketch or maquette and gathering all the required teams (Tech fabricators, welders, sculptures, etc) to discuss the functional needs of the project. The first question I like to ask an artist is “What do you want the view to experience?” Then, if tweaks need to be made to the design to improve structural integrity or accommodate the placement of lights or interactive features, I’m able to offer a handful of options that try to stay true to the artist's intent. A rough 3D model is then created to represent the side and shape of the final sculpture, and an armature is designed consisting of interlocking laser cut steel ribs. Once welded together and painted, the required tech will be installed before it is given back to the artist to apply a layer of wire mesh and sculpting epoxy. Based on the concept of an airframe, these armatures loosely define the outer profile of the sculpture, but take on more strength once lathe and sculpting epoxy are applied to create the finished surface. Armatures for the Cowboixx Hevvven area in Radio Tave were designed with posable joints so that the artist could adjust the pose of the figure before beginning the sculpting process.
Eloc
Location - Radio Tave | Lead Artist - Cole B. Wilson | Role - Engineering Oversight & Effects Prototyping | Materials - Steel, Fiber Optics, Mineral Oil, Fabric, & Instamorph
The character of Eloc was conceived as a demon cowboy sobbing in a phone booth, with visible flowing tears. After considering the logistics of placing a water feature in the exhibit, it was determined that a variation on an Oil Rain Lamp would demonstrate the flowing tears, but not provide an environment for bacterial growth. After dissecting a vintage lamp, I performed some early stage prototyping using various gauges of fiberoptic cable and 3D printed grommets to determine the correct opening size and required standing liquid level to accurately produce the effect of consistently spaced large oil droplets running down the cable. Further testing was performed to ensure that the proper pump could be housed in the sculpture without overheating during the required open hours of the exhibit.
COSTUMING
Garment design and sewing.
Frankengown
Year - 2020 - 2023 | Materials- Vintage Wedding Gown & Found Fabrics
After being given several vintage wedding gowns in early 2020, I set one up on a dress form in my studio and began modifying it and adding fabric that was on hand from previous projects. Established as an ongoing improvisational doodle, I have no overall plan for the final look of the dress or the alterations and additions it will receive- instead deciding in the moment what modifications I will be giving it. In 2023, La Photographie visited my Santa Fe warehouse and photographed me in front of my wallpaper collage.
Holtzmann
Year - 2016 | Materials - Fabric & Found Objects
Costume and proton pack hand made to match the aesthetics of the 2016 all female Ghostbusters reboot. I already happened to own a white 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood Miller Meteor hearse, which had to get in on the fun.
Lew Zealand
Year - 2023 | Materials- Fabric, Badge Reels, & Curtain Weights
Classic background Muppet, Lew Zealand, performs his “Boomerang Fish Routine” with the assistance of custom retractable fish poi mounted in the center of both palms. A badge reel on my hand returns the weighted fish when thrown, allowing me to perform poi tricks. Created for a burlesque performance to Bolero by Ravel.
Pennywise
Year - 2018 | Materials - Fabric
A feminine interpretation of Pennywise from the 2017 It movie created for a burlesque performance to Quote/Unquote by Mr. Bungle.
Glam Goblin
Year - 2024 | Materials - Fabric & Foam Prosthetics
Photoshoot conceptualized in collaboration with La Photographie and shot in her studio. Utilizing foam prosthetics and bald cap originally purchased for my Dobby act, I wanted to contrast the lovely soft glam vibe of the vanity set with the awkwardness of a little bald goblin.
Tank Girl
Year - 2015 | Materials - Fabric
My first ever cosplay. Photographed by Chris Jackson.
Tinkerbells
Year - 2016 | Materials- Fabric & Steel Wire
Linkerbell, Tank Girl Bell, and TinkerBela Lugosi, created as a series of punny costumes for DragonCon 2016.
