Foundry - Polygons in Bronze: Part 10 - Cloud Nine

With the base in a semi-acceptable state, I returned my focus to bronze.

I cut the remaining pieces of gating from the sculpture with a cut off disk and then used a grinding and flap disks to smooth out the bottom of the cast so that it would sit flat. Next, I used some carbide burs and a rotary tool to finish removing material from the ears and to touch up some of the fur texture that had either been lost in the crack fiasco or scuffed/grinded/damaged while working on the bronze. Once I got the surface to a state I found to be passable, considering the present time constraints, I sandblasted everything. This step cleaned the surface of any surface discoloration, created a uniform texture and shine (well lack of shine...), and also "opens up the pores of the metal" that is to say it roughs up the surface so that chemicals like paint or patina can adhere to the surface.

My plan was to patina the surface using liver of sulfur, this generally creates a blackening effect that, when polished or buffed leaves black in the crevices and creates a slightly grey-ish-brown-ish hue on the bronze. However, due to a lack of time to work on the bronze, I opted instead for a more natural finish at this time. I started off by wet-sanding the entire surface with 600, 800, 1000, and 2000 grit sandpaper. I then used a polishing compound, "Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish" which I applied using a rotary tool with a small wool buffing wheel. Then, I buffed the surface by hand with a microfiber cloth. The polishing compound left black residue in the recessed details which was exactly what I wanted from the patina so that was good.

I opted to not seal the surface of the bronze with wax or a spray on clear coat for two reasons:

1. I still think that I may give the surface a patina in the future and didn't want to have to remove something from the surface to do that.
2. For this artwork I chose to add an element of interactivity that relies on touch, I didn't want to risk a layer of something dropping the conductivity of the bronze.

Now, I will move on to the interactive nature of this artwork. I used an Arduino Uno and some additional arduino-based boards to add haptic and audio feedback that should trigger when a person, or any other conductive object, makes contact with the surface of the bronze.

I soldered a bunch of connectors and stacked an SD card data-logging board and capacitive touch breakout board to the arduino and then wired up a small 20w amplifier and 8 ohm tactile transducer to the audio output of the arduino. A tactile transducer is basically a speaker that turns audio into physical vibrations rather than the standard sound waves we would get from traditional speakers.

With the help of ChatGPT and Adafruit build guides, I frankensteined together some code. The goal here is that when the bronze is touched, it will trigger the haptic touch board and begin playing an audio file of a cat’s purr. This audio file, which I edited to accentuate the low-end, plays through the transducer which vibrates (creating a tactile sensation) but also has intelligible audio so long as it is touching something else. Because the transducer is mounted to the plaster, it reverberates through the plaster and into the bronze where it can be felt by the person petting the cat.

The effect is subtle. I think that I may have damaged the internals of the transducer when testing the limits of my volume controls but I also think that it has something to do with the connection between the plaster and the cat. A solid physical bond like a bolt would improve the quality of the reverberations transferring into the bronze.

For the finishing of the base, I painted the plaster with a water-based metallic pearl paint and then coated it with a craft sealer, similar to Mod Podge but I don't think it is PVA. The sealer went on thick and in multiple coats. It dried clear and glossy and looked surprisingly good in person. Because I didn't have enough time to allow the plaster to fully dry, this was only a temporary coating as it began to crack and flake off within a day or so before I pealed the rest off with a razor blade.

I still have a lot to learn when it comes to working with "studio-art" materials and also with arduino. That being said, I think that this whole endeavor was just what I needed. I had begun to feel bogged down by my work and, between eye-strain and back-pain, sitting at a computer all day and night isn't the greatest experience. I think that I want to find a good middle-ground for my work. I hope to continue to bring my digital creations into a physical space via 3D printing (or other methods of fabrication) and I want people to have an opportunity to interact with them in some capacity. Interactivity is a big part of what makes artwork memorable for me. You can look at a something on your phone or on a wall, but you can't touch something through a screen.