Pendulum and Egg Dance in Artist's Curious Contraption

At the intersection of digital and mechanical technology lies artist Neil Mendoza, a living cross between a tinkerer raised on the Commodore computer, Mr. Wizard, and Saturday morning cartoons. Which is to say, his persona is as rad as his artistic creations, which include an Electric Knife Orchestra, a girl-boy toy called the Ponytron, and a “magical hair creature” for Adult Swim.

For his latest project, Eggsistential Angst, Mendoza investigates balance and survival as an egg and pendulum “weave a never ending dance.” Like his other artworks and projects, there’s a Rube Goldberg vibe to this Eggsistential Angst, but only if such a contraption were extremely minimal.

Eggsistential Angst from Neil Mendoza on Vimeo.

“The pendulum is in perpetual motion and alternates between moving freely, swinging itself until it is inverted and balancing whilst it is inverted,” Mendoza explains. “All the pendulum actuation is achieved using a reaction wheel (commonly used to adjust the orientation of satellites).”

“The reaction wheel is driven by an Applied Motion StepSERVO that is controlled with an Arduino Due,” he adds. “The Arduino also sends the pendulum position over Bluetooth to an openFrameworks program which uses two more Applied Motion stepper motors to move the egg.”

Click here to visit Neil Mendoza's website.

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