It’s always a little strange to get back into regular writing after even a short period of doing something else. There’s some very specific brain muscles that get developed when you write on a daily basis, and I think they tend to atrophy shockingly quickly. But it’s still healthy to take an occasional break and do something else, even if just for a few days, and I’m pretty sure I did just that. I’m going to tell you a bit about what I did, even though it doesn’t really involve cars. So don’t tell David.
There’s a public art festival around where I live called Uproar, where artwork is made by selected artists and then distributed around the area in public places. I’m a big fan of public art and think events like this are ideal for reminding people just how much better life is when you throw a bunch of art at it.
Anyway, this year, about a day before the deadline, I decided to enter a proposal, despite being way too busy and not really certain I’d be actually able to pull it off. Still, I assumed that my chances of getting chosen were fairly low, so what could it hurt?
Well, the selection committee must have had a moment of pity or a mild, collective stroke, because they accepted my idea, which was great save for the fact that I had to actually, you know, do it. The idea I came up with was one based around a favorite medium: repurposed arcade video game cabinets.
The concept was to take an arcade machine and make it a medium for something that was about as far from a video game as possible: live plants. Here was my initial sketch:
So, basically, the plan was to replace the screen of an arcade machine with a terrarium full of plants, but keep the interactive nature of an arcade game by providing controls for watering and giving the plants sunlight. I changed the joystick-operated sun-mirror-whatever to a far more manageable button for some grow lights, and retained a button that operated a pump to spray/drip water onto the plants.
Here’s it in action:
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I think I managed to stay pretty close to my initial vision, I’m happy to say. The whole thing runs on a car battery, so there’s a car tie-in, and this was a big impetus for me finally getting the flywheel fixed in my ’89 F-150, since I’m finally sick of starting the damn thing with a wrench.
I had the clutch replaced, too, and now it shifts smoothly and starts without having to roll under the car! Just like a Bugatti Veyron! It’s no different, except the F-150 can carry a whole arcade machine and a Bugatti can’t.
The cabinet started life as an Atari Tempest cabinet, and was then converted to be a Golden Axe cabinet at some point, complete with this deeply hilarious marquee art:
What is that dude riding? Is that some kind of griffin? A hawk-bear? And that dragon looks like he should have a piano keyboard under those claw-hands.
I replaced all the art and controls, and now there’s just HYDRATE! and PHOTOSYNTHESIZE! buttons, though you can also breathe your own CO2 onto the plants for a bonus.
I know next to nothing about plants, but I think the terrarium plants look pretty good! There’s even an orchid in there!
How long do we think that car battery will last? How many times a week will I need to refill that gallon-sized water tank? I have no idea right now. I just hope people like it and have some fun with it. If you’re around Hillsborough, NC, then please feel free to take a little walk to the Thomas Stevens Gallery, and try it out. Give it light and water! Experience hardcore vegetative action! You don’t even need a quarter!
I’ll get back to car-focused content, of course, but I was just excited that I actually managed to get this thing done in time, and I wanted to show all of you. Thanks for indulging me!
Great job ! It’s really creative. I especially like the fonts used, I’m not sure what they’re called but I associate them with the ones used in SpongeBob. It’s funny how a font can evoke a memory like that.
That dragon is actually pretending to be Journey’s Jonathan Cain playing air keyboard in the Separate Ways video.
That’s so meta considering that Journey had their own video game.
Love it!
Introduce some worms! They’re a critical part of the ecosystem and would look great up against the glass.
Or some mealworms. They’ll go through the hole worm-pupa-beetle-egg lifecycle.
Yum!
Fun fact: Ther are few worms in Florida because the soil is so weak and it’s so hot.
I just have one note here and it says “no notes!”. I love the terrarium as a piece.
Ah. I see you really did stop paying attention to video games after the 1981. You missed out on a lot of great 80’s arcade action.
Very very cool. If you ever do another you could use an old claw game mechanism with a grow lamp suspended instead of a claw. “Which plants are good and deserve more light? Which plants defied your will and deserve punishment?” Might be good for an installation in a Redder part of NC.
Or maybe instead of a grow lamp, use an arrangement of mirrors to direct light onto the area of the player’s choice, moved around by the claw mechanism.
I think my favorite part is the exclamation point. The entire cabinet is objectively excellent, of course, but that little piece of punctuation conveys excitement! and puts it over the top. 😀
It’s good to exercise different mental muscles. Most of my days are spent with technology projects, and getting into the shop and futzing around with tools and materials is a welcome gear change.
At the moment I have a bruised right foot from trying to kickstart a recalcitrant 44-year-old motorcycle and I’m working on a design for an hat.
The punctuationis great, very gameshow. Very Jeopardy!.
Love it!
That is a fantastic project, and I’m glad you shared it. I really like the initial idea of a joystick-controlled mirror, but I think the grow light solution is good for broader display purposes. I wish I were local to check this out!
Thank you! This creation makes my day!
Also: I have done the math. In our corner of the metaverse, the chance of another artist powering another arcade cabinet rebuild with a car battery? Less than 10 to the minus 29th!
Also also: Peter, Matt, the comment section would be so much better if it supported scientific notation! Please help!
Art and science together in one sweet package – I love it! As a chemist and educator, I’m always happy to see science and art team up to educate and entertain and enhance society.
This is awesome!
Jason, I don’t think ANYONE here would be bothered by another article detailing the build… Although it’s likely too late for that, since I’m assuming this barely came together in time just creating it, much less documenting each step with photos. I cannot help but think that this feels like a modern work by one of my heroes, The Secret Life of Machines’ Tim Hunkin… https://www.timhunkin.com/
I barely have a DVD player anymore, but I treasure my signed DVDs of his series.
Tim Hunkin who among other things built the flying pigs for Pink Floyd’s Animals tour.
Might want to get a current one while you can.
Software updates block many newer discs from playing on older decks.
If you haven’t seen it, Tim did a series on YouTube in recent years. “The Secret Life of Components” about the various bits he uses to make his contraptions. Features a lot of video of them, including the political art arcade games at his arcades in London.
Cool Beans
I love this, and I’m glad the cabinet wasn’t sacrificed while still containing Tempest, which was my go-to in the student center basement at college. If you ever have to cheat and replenish the terrarium with some high-quality fake plants, I won’t tell.
I love this piece, but if you ask me, the terrarium desperately needs some beetles, such as Eudicella sp.
It’s usually unwise to introduce bugs into a video game/computer system. But I get where you’re coming from.
Maybe some artwork of some beetles, perhaps a yellow one, and a gray one that’s upside-down?
The plants are happy but that truck is screaming out in agony for some soap and a bucket.
I know! it’s been so gross and rainy here nonstop. That truck needs a bath, badly
Moss truck. You know you want to.
Stealth Gauntlet reference or are my 80’s arcade memory neurons just overactivated right now?
I like washing cars in the rain, it means I can skip the rinsing and drying stages.
Why not make the F150 a mobile companion piece to “Botany!” And just slap on some graphics that say “Sloth Fur Ecosystem!”
Otto to the rescue!
That is a great concept, and completed brilliantly!
Although you should have powered the water spray with the 2CV manual washer pump.
You beat me to it – incorporating archaic French automobile features is how you justify posting about art around here!
That’s awesome and great execution! The graphics make it look like something you’d find as an interactive museum display.
I have some houseplants that I’ve kept alive for years by doing almost nothing, so I’m not a plant expert by any means, but as it’s something I’ve done wrong myself, I’d be concerned that people could overwater them. Maybe a misting nozzle so less water is released? Hopefully, some plant people can chime in.
Golden Axe is one of THE GREATEST video games ever made. The screams of the children, hopping on one of those swing-tail dudes, or one of those fire-breathing dragons. And the 8-bit music that played the entire time.
I think I always played as the elf-with-axe guy.
We had one in the basement of my college dorm. So yeah so much laundry NOT done with my quarters. The goal became complete the game on a single quarter.
IIRC, the dwarf had a hellacious summon lightning from the sky attack.
Yup, plus he was just the fastest. I also played as the Valkyrie, because she had good kicks.
That side-to-side shoulder move against those big red Roman things- wow.
Looks great! After its stint at the gallery, you can put it in the Wooden Nickel for us low-brow types.
Super cool, and I would be jazzed to find such a thing in the wild. These sorts of art pieces are what make downtown areas so much more engaging and fun than endless strip mall hell.
And taking a look, Hillsborough seems like a pretty nice little area.
That’s was a great idea and beautifully executed. It’s looks factory!
That’s awesome. My friend works in Hillsborough and is also an artist (painted the facade of a business in town); I’ll tell him to check it out and get photosynthesizing!
Amazing idea! I also like the formula. So many people don’t know that plants destroy water, and animas (including humans) create water!
Unfortunately, these people will probably not understand the chemistry behind it either.
It’s the circle of life. We feed the earth, the earth feeds us. Too many short-sighted people forget the first part and only think about the second.
Chemist here. Not really true, Martin – you might have meant “carbon dioxide” rather than water? Neither animals nor plants create or destroy water, but both use water in various ways. Animals do produce carbon dioxide, though, which plants use to create carbohydrates and oxygen through photosynthesis, so there is some great teamwork going on between animals and plants. The amount of water in earth is basically fixed (although we do lose a bit each year by losses into space and through photolysis in the upper atmosphere).
Both plants and animals use chemical reactions that use water. That’s why we both need a steady intake of water, or we’ll die fairly quickly. We both use water to produce various chemical compounds such as proteins. And also in cellular structures and as the medium for most chemical reactions that take place inside of us. And both plants and animals utilize chemical reactions that produce water, as well, by breaking down other molecules, such as carbohydrates.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-did-water-get-on-earth/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_water_on_Earth
https://bns.institute/applied-sciences/key-properties-uses-water-biochemistry/
“Chemist here. Not really true, Martin – you might have meant “carbon dioxide” rather than water? Neither animals nor plants create or destroy water”
Huh? Water is just as much destroyed as a reactant in photosynthesis as CO2 and created just as much as a product as CO2 in cellular respiration.
I think we have a different definition of “destruction”. Water is rearranged but not irreversibly. It’s still all there and can be re-generated by another process. If that’s what you and Martin mean by “destroyed”, then that’s fine, but I think of it as meaning to render it permanently changed or eliminated beyond recovery. In that sense, some water is destroyed by photolysis in the upper atmosphere when UV radiation causes it to become hydrogen and hydroxide or oxygen (depending on the processes involved) and some of the hydrogen is lost to outer space. Then, the water it came from has been destroyed for all practical purposes.
This is the same argument for “created”. We don’t create water or CO2. We produce it by rearranging other molecules. Some of that CO2 is then rearranged to form carbohydrates in plants through photosynthesis.
You might as well say you had “created” a lego structure by rearranging the legos. You only built it, you didn’t create it (from nothing).
Anyway, perhaps it’s just semantics but I like to try and correct any chemical misapprehensions I see. If people believe that water can be “created” by animals or anything else, they might not take water conservation efforts seriously. And they should because, apart from a few ice comets that might arrive on the planet, we’re not getting any more water on this spinning rock.
By your logic a book is not “destroyed” by fire, merely rearranged into smoke, ash, water and soot. A recreation of that book however is not the exact same physical object as the original book.
“Water is rearranged but not irreversibly.”
No. It is no longer water. It is destroyed, not”rearrainged”.
You can recreate it IF you put the exact same atoms back in the exact same bonds but thanks to entropy that never happens outside a thought experiment. You may as well hold your breath anticipating all the air in the room you are in suddenly concentrating in one corner, leaving you in a perfect vacuum.
In the real-world what happens is the atoms of that destroyed molecule of water are dispersed to maybe, eventually form bonds with different atoms to make a completely new and different molecules of water.
“You might as well say you had “created” a lego structure by rearranging the legos.
And in saying so one would be correct. In that scenario the builder did indeed create a Lego structure by rearranging the legos.
“You only built it, you didn’t create it (from nothing).”
You built it AND if its an original design you created it as well. If it’s not original you recreated someone else’s work.
There was no structure in the original pile of legos, only a pile of legos. So the structure was (re)created from a random pile of legos. What you are talking about is the creation of legos which is another matter entirely from creating a structure out of individual legos.
“I like to try and correct any chemical misapprehensions I see.
I applaud your enthusiasm but in this case you are creating chemistry misinformation, not destroying it.
” If people believe that water can be “created” by animals or anything else, they might not take water conservation efforts seriously.”
That’s the wrong approach. Water conservation isn’t about conserving the water in seawater, sewage, the earth’s mantle, ice, steam or in clouds. Water conservation is about preserving fresh, potable water where its available to be used by life.
And they should because, apart from a few ice comets that might arrive on the planet, we’re not getting any more water on this spinning rock.”
It’s not about getting MORE water on this spinning rock it’s about making sure we have enough liquid water without too much other stuff like salt, dirt, microorganisms, dangerous levels of radioactive isotopes, etc and that water is to be had where it is needed.
Where did you say you got your chemistry credentials again?
Plants also emit water through their leaves into the air when they take in too much through their roots.
animas (including humans) create water!
So does (ironically) fire.
This is amazing! It looks great and the idea is delightful.
I am glad you made this and it is out in the world.