WEBVTT 00:00:12.455 --> 00:00:14.471 TIM HAWKINSON: It’s something that emotes 00:00:14.471 --> 00:00:17.819 and it’s motorized and it is an emoter. 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.302 I can’t make most of these faces myself. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:35.320 It’s using my face because  that’s readily available and 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:37.285 I have exclusive rights to my face. 00:00:38.080 --> 00:00:43.420 It seemed I guess honest to just use my own face. 00:00:44.760 --> 00:00:49.610 I just took my digital camera and held it out. 00:00:50.120 --> 00:00:51.710 Just took a bunch of shots. 00:00:52.800 --> 00:00:56.000 I took it into the developer  and he put it on a screen 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.920 and we Photoshopped all the features. 00:01:00.720 --> 00:01:04.240 We blanked out the mouth and  the nostrils and the eyes. 00:01:04.240 --> 00:01:09.280 So I had just this egghead, this, with  no features, just thinking that I’d… 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.080 I’d want to start with a blank face. 00:01:11.080 --> 00:01:14.360 And then I’d overlay the, the features 00:01:14.360 --> 00:01:17.475 and the other three kind of donor photographs. 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:24.120 The brain of the piece, or the driver, 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:27.520 is just picking up the light and  dark patterns on the television 00:01:27.520 --> 00:01:30.200 and there are nineteen of these little suction 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:35.600 cups that have little light  sensitive switches in them. 00:01:35.600 --> 00:01:39.040 So when a certain area of the screen is dark, 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:42.800 it triggers these different mechanisms. 00:01:42.800 --> 00:01:47.028 It actually triggers a motor in the face. 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:54.760 Sometimes the manipulations are very slight, 00:01:54.851 --> 00:01:58.182 Depending just on what’s  coming through the TV channel. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:06.093 When there’s a sporting event with lots of  activity, the face can be pretty emotional. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:24.040 I use my image or my body in a lot  of the work as a jumping-off point, 00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:28.760 but usually the end result  is so abstracted that I… 00:02:28.760 --> 00:02:32.483 I don’t really feel so  identified with it any longer. 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:40.480 It’s not about my identity, but it’s  about our identity and our experiences 00:02:40.480 --> 00:02:46.668 within our bodies and our bodies’  relationship to the external world. 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:31.720 Sometimes we do get rain in L.A., 00:03:31.720 --> 00:03:34.520 and a lot of us aren’t really prepared for rain. 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:36.840 So it was really great, just  walking into the studio one time, 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:40.940 and there were buckets around,  all catching the, the drips. 00:03:47.118 --> 00:03:49.616 It just had a great sound in the space. 00:03:51.160 --> 00:03:54.569 So I was interested in using  dripping water in some way. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:03.080 And I didn’t want just random drips, I  wanted something that you could dance to. 00:04:03.171 --> 00:04:05.000 Something kind of choreographed-sounding. 00:04:05.863 --> 00:04:11.512 So I ended up making this I guess it’s  sort of– it’s sort of a drumming machine. 00:04:14.760 --> 00:04:21.290 The signal is sent from the mechanism  over here to, to this cable. 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:24.016 To the different valves. 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:27.522 And then the water is collected in these buckets. 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:36.123 So I put in these little pie tins which create  sort of a resonator, really give a nice loud drip. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:45.800 The signal originates with these gears. 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:48.295 Each gear has a little knob on it, a little bump. 00:04:48.840 --> 00:04:51.780 Each gear also is paired up with a switch. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.576 Different switches come in contact with the  bump on the gear and give it a different pulse. 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:01.840 It’s not even electronics.  I don’t know what it is. 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:08.668 It’s wiring, I think what it  is is just making circuits. 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:13.360 The copper tape represents  all the different possible 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:15.477 permutations of three combinations of gears. 00:05:18.520 --> 00:05:24.080 Some of these pieces have become a little more  complex and they’re trying to do more things. 00:05:24.080 --> 00:05:29.240 And then it’s sent through,  I think this cylinder here. 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:34.880 Those are the main aspects of the work that  end up having problems and breaking down. 00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:39.401 So, maybe I need to go back to school  or actually take a course in it. 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:46.000 I was just thinking of this sort of creature 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:49.960 that’s allowed to grow in  a zero gravity environment. 00:05:49.960 --> 00:05:52.837 And now it’s being hung out to dry. 00:06:27.400 --> 00:06:31.280 This form kind of grew out as a three-dimensional  kind of expansion out of some drawings 00:06:31.280 --> 00:06:33.120 that I was working on. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.134 Actually using a drill to spin a pencil around. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.640 You can see that the pencil  lead was spinning around. 00:06:39.640 --> 00:06:44.040 And I was able to open and close  the diameter of the spin while 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:48.800 it was in motion. And so I was able to 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:54.819 create drawings that were almost kind  of reminiscent of intestines or worms. 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:34.292 There’s a certain freshness in a drawing where 00:07:34.292 --> 00:07:36.433 you’re seeing something for the first time and, 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:42.000 so in my work I, I tried to  maintain some of that freshness 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:47.360 and keep shifting what it is that  I’m looking at to see it differently 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:50.320 or creating a different  process of looking at something 00:07:50.320 --> 00:07:53.505 that gives me a new kind of interpretation. 00:08:00.080 --> 00:08:04.160 I don’t use preliminary drawings  for pieces. I, well maybe I, 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:11.000 I can’t think that far in advance and really  visualize the piece in a finished state. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:14.475 I find it much freer to go right  in and start making the piece. 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:18.816 I just said that I never make preliminary studies 00:08:18.816 --> 00:08:23.644 or anything but I did make models of balloons. 00:08:24.880 --> 00:08:28.600 That process involved being  approached by MASS MOCA 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:31.396 and they wondered what I would do with a space  00:08:31.396 --> 00:08:33.396 that was basically the size of a football field. 00:08:34.280 --> 00:08:37.247 I just came up with this  idea of using inflatables. 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:43.320 I think I was just a little nervous about  filling fifteen thousand square feet, 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:45.480 I didn’t want to get caught short handed. 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:49.337 So I felt much better seeing  these little models in the space. 00:08:51.245 --> 00:08:54.080 It was going to have a real  strong physical presence, 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:58.395 but I felt like it needed to  also have this audible component. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:09.078 There was a great moment when it  was finally up and, and playing. 00:09:10.160 --> 00:09:12.826 For me it was just like hearing the first horn. 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:19.600 I was really concerned that we  would have enough air pressure 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:24.760 to activate the reeds to really  get a good tone out of them 00:09:24.760 --> 00:09:27.475 but that we wouldn’t like pop any balloons. 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:34.960 Something that large really does have to be under 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:40.220 a tremendous amount of air pressure to  get, you know, a sound out of a reed. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:48.172 I used fishing net and tailored  that around the balloons 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:52.216 and I was able to further  define and cinch them in. 00:09:53.465 --> 00:09:57.844 It was neat—it really was a quick way  of controlling a huge amount of volume. 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:05.040 MASS MOCA was one big long kind of narrow space. 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:08.800 The gallery in New York was  divided into like six rooms: 00:10:08.800 --> 00:10:12.935 one gigantic room and slightly smaller  rooms. 00:10:15.400 --> 00:10:19.080 I was afraid that the sound quality might be lost, 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:22.334 but in the end I was really happy with the sound. 00:11:08.400 --> 00:11:13.240 Each whatever note this is just  plays one on the Uberorgan… 00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:21.560 There was a time when he made folk  musical instruments for instance. 00:11:21.560 --> 00:11:29.640 He took banjo lessons and that was, he  was probably about 12 or something. 00:11:29.640 --> 00:11:33.480 I’ve been interested in music  for most of my life I guess. 00:11:34.800 --> 00:11:38.200 At one point I thought maybe I  would be a musical instrument maker. 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:42.200 I’d made a, a mandolin and a guitar. 00:11:46.635 --> 00:11:50.680 The keyboard consists basically  of these photosensitive switches. 00:11:50.680 --> 00:11:56.080 So by covering one of the switches, blocking  out the light, you’d trigger one of the notes. 00:11:56.080 --> 00:12:01.334 So you can stop it at a blank space and play  it like a piano. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:11.680 It’s all based on a score that I put  together using lots of old church hymns 00:12:11.680 --> 00:12:15.201 and Sailor’s Hornpipe and Swan Lake. 00:12:24.840 --> 00:12:28.400 So I grew up hearing these old Protestant hymns, 00:12:28.400 --> 00:12:32.760 and some of them are really beautiful  and they have strong connotations, 00:12:32.760 --> 00:12:38.134 and also, you know, reflect faith.