Last week I participated in the Midwest's local regional Burning Man, called Lakes Of Fire, for the seventh time. For those who don't know, Burning Man is a week-long annual art festival with more than eighty thousand people. Lakes Of Fire is 5 days long and gets 2,300. At both of them, near the end, a giant wooden artwork (the Effigy) is burned to the ground along with a show of fire spinners, fire breathers, and fireworks. But it's so much more than that. It's a worldwide movement with branches in 36 US States and 32 countries, as a social experiment based mostly around ten principles: Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-reliance, Radical Self-expression, Communal Effort, Civic Responsibility, Leaving No Trace, Participation, and Immediacy.
I encourage you to read the 10 principles in full. They are not a list of rules that make you superior. Not at all. They're things that tend to happen more at burns than outside them (what Burning Man participants, or "burners", call "the default world"). The principles are practical advice for getting people to be able to build bonds, and learn to rely on each other and trust themselves more, creating a massive amount of value for themselves and each other. Sometimes quick bonding is good and sometimes it's bad. But now I've come to recognize that I've seen these ideas at work in every volunteer organization I've ever been a part of, even when they were not expressed in these ten concise ideas.
The above is the sign at the entrance to Lakes Of Fire 2024: Imaginarium Aquarium. I submitted my own concept for the entrance sign, although the one above was chosen, and rightfully so because it looks great. Here's my concept art, which you can click on to see it enlarged:
The previous five or six weeks had been very hard for me in a lot of my friendships and volunteer-organized groups, so I was counting on the trip to replenish my stress level and rejuvenate my enthusiasm. I'm happy to say it did so.
Last year, I and a team of friends at i3Detroit maker space built a giant parade puppet of a life-size brontosaurus, with materials paid for by the Lakes Of Fire art grant program.
camp sign by Dan "Pups" Welcher
We happened to camp next to a theme camp named Frequencia. They liked us so much, they asked us to officially join their camp this year! It's great to be part of a theme camp. We were able to charge our batteries from the camp generator, and use the camp kitchen. Best of all, we made new friends.
giant oyster created by Oscar Bee
I didn't create another puppet this year because I joined the Art Grant Facilitators team. As someone giving out art grants, I couldn't receive one. I was assigned several artists, but they didn't need much help from me, and I got info from them smoothly. On the one hand, I brought value in that they knew if they emailed me, I would respond promptly. There's value in that. On the other hand, I didn't have much to do, and I wanted to be put to work to support this organization that exemplifies my priorities in life.
"Seahorse Surprise" by Melissa Larson
It occurred to me it would feel more natural to move up into positions of greater responsibility within the subculture if I had a burn name. That's a nickname that burners give each other. You're supposed to be given one through circumstances that occur at a burn. This year, not having a burn name began to be bothersome. Years ago I already knew what would be the perfect burn name for me, but I was attending with people from Penguicon and i3Detroit, to whom I'll always be Matt, so my suggested name just never took. I related that to my new campmates, who didn't know me from any other social context. They enjoyed making it their mission to call me by that name in front of everyone.
My burn name is "Epcot".
I went to Walt Disney World in Florida every year of my life until I was twenty, and Epcot was my favorite place in the world. In 2008, I invited some people who made giant musical Tesla coils to Penguicon. I sat on the front lawn of the hotel in an audience of more than a thousand people, while a pair of giant singing Tesla coils made music with lightning. I thought ... "I'm creating something like Epcot. It's really possible." It was a dream come true. I try to bring some of that to my maker space as well. And what we make at our maker space, often, is art specifically to bring to Lakes Of Fire. That spirit that I felt is alive at burns. I wanted a burn name that reflects the animating spirit that drives me when I'm there.
The contrasts, and the similarities, between Lakes Of Fire and Epcot are meaningful to me personally. Here are a few of the similarities.
The style of parade puppets I create was inspired by the puppets in Epcot's Millenium Parade.
Both places are known for geodesic domes.
Like the pavilions of World Showcase in Epcot, the pavilions of Lakes Of Fire surround a lake. In both places, they light up beautifully around the lakeshore each night, filling the surroundings with a laser light show that reflects off the glistening water.
Epcot is the only other place I've seen a fireworks show accompanied by dramatic music and inspirational speeches and performances over the PA system.
So much walking.
It's not commonly known that EPCOT is an acronym that stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow, which sounds like a great description of Burning Man. Lakes Of Fire is run by GLEA, which stands for Great Lakes Experimental Arts.
Now for the contrasts. The approaches to an experimental prototype community of tomorrow are very different. Before it was a theme park in Florida, Walt Disney intended Epcot to be a utopian city where residents actually lived and worked. It was an exercise in total centralized planning. The eventual theme park was conceived as a World's Fair. Black Rock City, created during Burning Man in the Nevada desert each year, takes the opposite approach. An experimental prototype community of tomorrow, as decentralized as possible. And it's working.
People at Epcot are divided into the guests, and the staff, called the "cast" (cast members have been consistently wonderful people, in my experience). Whereas at a Burn, it's co-created together by unpaid volunteers, with the "no bystanders" principle of Participation. When you attend a burn, you are creating it. There's no one who you can turn to and say "I paid for you to give me an experience, now where is it?" We're all responsible.
At burns there are people wearing khaki called Rangers who are walking around as our collective eyes and ears, for anyone to go to if they need help. They're not staff, they are from among us.
Burns are for amateurs, so even if you're a professional, you collaborate with amateurs in the principle of Communal Effort.
The staff of Epcot have prepared things for guests to do. Those are the things you are supposed to do there, and if you do something else, it's out of place. You are not supposed to:
read poetry at a cooking class.
play basketball in an art gallery.
sell handmade crafts at a tech conference. (Unless it's my convention Penguicon.)
Each of those things has a point. But a burn is beautifully pointless! There's nothing you are supposed to do! It gives you an intimidating level of choice which confronts you with having to ask yourself questions about what you want, that maybe you normally avoid asking. I can just watch new people as they go through disorientation, wondering what to do, slowly changing as something amazing opens up and they get more in touch with what they do and do not want.
We're getting free chocolate chip cookies hot out of the oven while standing in line for free ice cream out of an ice cream truck mounted on a bicycle. The ice cream truck is made to look like a giant shark. When suddenly a stranger standing in line dressed half in ninja-gear and half in scuba-gear asks if we want to hear him recite a poem, and we say we want him to, and he recites it, and it's perfect! How did that moment happen?
While both Disney World and Burning Man have sophisticated systems for on-site emergency medical care, Epcot is tailor-made to remove as much danger as possible. And burns are not benign. But do not misunderstand that as recklessness. We are at Lakes Of Fire to get better at danger. Not to avoid it. We are as safe as necessary. But not as safe as possible! What would be the point? There are physical risks, such as setting the art on fire. Most commonly, there are emotional risks. (Remember how I said forming quick bonds with other people can be either good or bad?)
We burn not to be as safe as possible, which would mean staying home and doing nothing, but to get better at danger.
There are real stakes at a burn! That's why every weird choice you make is so potent! You are outside your comfort zone. The stakes are usually sane ones, but they are real.
(By the way, this year's theme was Imaginarium Aquarium, which put me in mind of Ada Palmer's progress metaphor of fish tanks in the above article.)
There are so many ways Burning Man's decentralized and empowered societal changes can thrive where the centralized societal changes of World Fairs and Walt Disney can't keep up. But both of them want a future that's different and better. In the late 20th Century, and in this century, many people have given up on the idea that the future can be different and better. At Burning Man events, there is no requirement that participants want progress. It's not one of the ten principles. But when you're participating in the principles, you're burning, and you're doing what progress is.
And you're doing it whether or not you care about it. What you believe is not my foremost concern, and what I believe about progress need not be my fellow burner's foremost concern. "Action, not language, is the fundamental unit of meaning at Burning Man." That's from "The Scene That Became Cities: What Burning Man Philosophy Can Teach Us about Building Better Communities", by Caveat Magister, from whom I have cribbed several points here. If people can be in love with a book like they can be in love with a person, I'm in love with that book.
The Burning Man movement shows how the future can be different and better, through a method that I've devoted the past 20 years of my life to, in every organization I've been a part of. Instead of forcing people to contribute out of fear, get out of their way, and encourage them to make the contributions they want to make, that they see right in front of them, because they are the eyes and ears on the ground who know what needs doing. We get satisfaction from contributing to things we're intrinsically motivated to do, when it directly provides meaningfulness to us and those who are doing it with us. This is the realization of the dream of an experimental prototype community of tomorrow.
Friday night, 8PM: FoolMoon, a parade of luminary sculptures on Washington Street at Main Street. It's a branch of FestiFools, an event two days later.
Saturday afternoon, noon to 5PM: Work on the TuxTrax site for Penguicon, at All Hands Active hackerspace, 525 E Liberty. Lunch is provided to developers.
Saturday evening, 6PM: Nerdsplosion, a concert of nerd music at Cavern Club on 1st Street at Washington, sponsored by Penguicon.
Sunday evening, 5PM: FestiFools, a glorious parade of giant puppets on Main Street. My past FestiFools reports:
The flesh of Model Magic compound is not yet applied. The framework insures some things before the sculpting begins and the air-drying timer starts ticking: The body segments are sized in the right proportions for a specific character (female and male puppet frameworks have different proportions in their blueprints); The joints, weights, and string attachments are all aligned in the desired axes and planes that any human puppet should have; The puppet adheres to Dwiggins' principles which enhance naturalistic movement.
I am documenting this to show all those who want to help build the six puppets for The Trouble With Deathtraps. There are many more closeups, and drawings of the character, in the photo gallery. I'd be happy to show you the framework in person before applying the Model Magic.
1) Aluminum cotter pin 2) Quarter-inch poplar dowel 3) Half-inch poplar dowel 4) Keychain ring 5) Wooden axel pin 6) Screw eye 7) Leather 8) Balsa 9) Three-eighths-inch poplar dowel 10) Waxed high-strength upholstery button thread, for spine and side-stays 11) Half-inch slotted headless steel screws, for weights 12) Wire 13) Strings held in with toothpicks for pegs
Strings will attach to the top horizontal dowel, behind the ears. That dowel will also serve as the axle for the jaw, deep inside the head. A less-important string embedded in Model Magic is needed either on the forehead or back of the head, depending on which way the head tips without it. You pull the string to nod, and let gravity do the work to tip the other way.
The cotter pin running down the center of the chest block serves as a loop for the neck attachment. Where it emerges from the bottom, the two ends are bent sideways under the chest to support the weight of the puppet from the head. I've got to leave them exposed in little trenches in the Model Magic, in case I need to take the puppet apart for work.
Chest, belly & pelvis are separate segments. Flesh on the segments will be shaped with flattened cones at the top and bottom. The spine cord will run through the tips of the cones. His torso will be able to flex naturalistically.
I had to string the side stay strings through wooden axle pins, because screw eyes could not get a grip inside the balsa.
This is the leather shape used as a joint. Leather is held in routered notches, and wrapped around the dowel, bonded by wood glue. The slots in the arms were routered out with 60 degree differences-- shoulders, elbows, and wrists must bend on different planes.
The leg dowels are ground down behind the knees, and use the flat front for stops to prevent double-jointedness. I failed to do that for the elbows, so I'll have to make stops of Model Magic to prevent double-jointedness there.
I sanded big grooves into many of the dowels to keep the Model Magic from slipping or spinning, since it doesn't stick to anything but itself. Wire coils run through holes in the leather wrists and feet to keep the Model Magic on.
rbradakis and sheryl67 gave me this puppet to improve. It was little more than a decoration, with bulky strings and almost no control. I attached strings to the sides and back of the head and the lower back. I re-used the original cross controller for the head, connected to the back-post by an elastic cord to keep it aimed forward. It can now look around, nod, shake its head, and bow.
Originally the hands were glued to the ends of the orange sleeves. I made jointed arms and black sleeves. I think the controller ergonomics are pretty good, but could still stand improvement in future versions. It was a great practice for making original puppets.
Inspiration for this controller design is thanks to Tony Sinnett.
Michigan's new summer relaxicon had 52 attendees, although that's only who I saw. There were 38 others either within the core of fandom, known to consistently attend relaxicons, or close to the Castle Bradaki social circle, who I was surprised weren't there. In most cases that I've heard of, they had a schedule conflict. Next year I may need to say "Hey, are you coming to ConStruct?" to more of them.
The food was great. They fed hot breakfast and dinner! The right snacks and drinks were in abundance. I played an astonishing number of board and card games. The pool and hot tub were constantly full of fun activities. But what makes ConStruct so clever is that the programming is all user-generated content, signed up on the day.
My marionette-making workshop was a success. We made puppets from a scarf, clothespins, paint stirrers, blank cardboard Christmas ornaments, tape, and string. The kids were between seven five and eleven, with a variety of attention spans and skill levels. The workshop requires the ability to tie string. It was a dry run for KidFusion during ConFusion, but I'm sure I can't do it on that large a scale without recruiting helpers. (Any takers?)
I presented a puppet to the AASFA board at the meeting they held at ConStruct, and they awarded me reimbursement for my expenses. They said they had very low expectations due to the crude materials, but the minute it started moving it won them over. They wouldn't talk to me, only the puppet. The most rewarding things about the project were teaching how to get particular maneuvers from the puppets, and when Man of a Thousand Names told me he really liked the expressiveness. He is with an actual puppet troupe.
SMOFcamp was scheduled for several hours on Saturday. The good part about holding it as part of ConStruct was that SMOFcamp didn't have to pay for function space. The bad part is that it is an automatic schedule conflict between SMOFcamp and ConStruct, which has a clear-cut winner and loser. During that time I did have one conversation about running conventions, but that was the extent of it. I seeded the SMOFcamp schedule with several topics, but no one else did. Many people who told me they were going to show up to ConStruct in order to attend SMOFcamp never did. Others who had expressed interest looked at the schedule board, and kept walking to all the other things happening at ConStruct. SMOFcamp needs to be at Midwest Construction, the conference about running conventions.
I put a Tetris Tournament on the schedule, but there was no interest.
I put "Get Your Portrait Drawn" on the schedule and drew one portrait, that of Man of a Thousand Names:
His random concert was a hit, as was his game of randomness. Think of a dice-rolling quest of missions that lasted all weekend all over the hotel, but with no time commitment. That definitely has to happen again. There was also a workshop on how to do impromptu comedy, a beading session, a class on how to make armor, a picnic, a movie room, Rock Band, and things that I don't even know about.
For a relaxicon, this was tremendously active! Fifty-two is the right number for an active ConSuite, and people hanging out on the fringes of it, and so several of us moved our events to the open Atrium outside the Consuite. It's all about how to attract and direct attention. I think next year there should be no function space, just the Atrium set up with tables and chairs set up like booths so they can be walked through like a fair. When preparing events, it's crucial to pick ones that can be participated in for a minute or two at a time.
I operated a puppet in Festifools with hardly any back pain at all! What fun it was. Photos behind the cut!
I got to operate one of the puppets I helped to build a few weeks ago, assisting the artist, Melissa. It was part of a set of sun and moon, who battled each other until you had to ask the question "who is orbiting who?"
I'm deeply grateful this year to have worked with Melissa's team, because they gave it 100% into playing the characters and being energetic. Some kids were selling lemonade on the side of the street, and they gave me some, which was fantastic because I work up a raging thirst doing this.
I like operating an arm, because there's so much opportunity for expression and interaction, and the rest of the time I can swing it in time to the drum beat. You can twirl it clockwise and counterclockwise, or jab it up into the air like a lance without over-exerting yourself. It helps to pay attention to the whole puppet and coordinate movement.
But also pay attention to the crowd and see which children are reaching out to touch the hand of the puppet. At the same time, take care not to bring the character in close to children randomly. Unless they have made it clear that they want that to happen, they are just as likely to feel intimidated.
I went to the "Festifeast", an outdoor food festival to follow up the event; but I got wrong directions so often that I wandered all over downtown Ann Arbor on foot trying to figure out where Kerrytown was. Starting at Main and Williams, I walked to Liberty at State, then to Huron at Division, then to Ann at First Street, and finally got correct directions.
My back is the only part that isn't sore right now. But it's a good kind of sore. Next year, when I'm not Penguicon conchair, I am determined to make a puppet! Preferably themed around Linux or the internet. You guys are all invited to help operate it!
Thanks very much to Shoshana Hurand and Mark Tucker for organizing this event once again. ( Read more... )
Today is Festifools! April Fools Day will be celebrated with giant puppets from 4 to 5 PM on Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor!
Unfortunately I'll have to be a spectator. Somehow I hurt my back Friday night, and was in tremendous pain all day Saturday, which persists a little today although it's improving.
I have been looking forward all year to participating in Festifools again. I considered pumping a lot of ibuprofen and muddling through, but realized I would only bring the event down if I try that. I will be there cheering them on, but I have to put off puppeteering until next year. I'm both disappointed, and sorry to let the event down.
I'm scheduling a get-together soon for those who want to work on making puppets, sets and props for the new marionette play "The Trouble With Death Traps", adapted from the short story by Marjorie James. The current invitee list includes me, Randle Ball, Allison Anderson, and Karen Corbeil. Let me know if you're interested in helping and learning interesting artistic techniques, so that I can try to arrange the session around your schedule.
Puppet builders will get the chance to look at the booklets published by the eccentric genius, master puppeteer, and inventor of the term "graphic design", William Addision Dwiggins (WAD). There will be six puppets. If we have time and develop sufficient automation, we might innovate a group of three or four additional puppets hanging from one control mechanism, a nameless entourage who are all operated in tandem.
The visual style will be inspired somewhere between Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" (costume photo gallery) and Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove". We'll just need to be careful with flamboyant headdresses and capes, that they aren't built in such a way as to restrict the strings. Google Image Search "Mochica" for some good visual references.
atdt1991 posted a video of a Maypole. Penguicon managed to dodge all kinds of holidays for next year's weekend, but May 1 through 3 falls right smack dab on Beltaine, or so I'm told. So I asked the folks from ConVocation to create/preside/run/sanction/administer (or whatever the correct verb is) a Maypole in the parking lot or atrium or something. They are very happy to do so.
The video is enlightening. I thought they were supposed to skip merrily around the pole while strewing flowers, or something. Space seems a little bit tight for skipping merrily, to say nothing of strewing of any kind. They have room to walk sedately, in accordance with fire regulations.
It reminded me I had not reported my experience of participating in Festifools! It was a fantastic way to spend April Fools Day! I cut loose operating the arm of a giant parade puppet. Skipping, jumping, twirling, rythming, jiving*, narrowly dodging collisions with the crowd, and acting in a ridiculous manner. Making the puppet gesture to the crowd, pick its nose, and join me in acting like a fool. Which was, you know, the stated point of the event. I cut loose so much that the arm came off, and I was soon trying to keep it waving around in the general vicinity of its ghostly, invisible joint.
Unfortunately my fellow puppet operators did not cut loose at all. Some of them were there to get a grade. Some, I suspect, were there because a girl who needed a grade asked them for help. They strode meekly like the pictures of dignity, and did not really accept the concept of acting like fools in public.
You might be noting at this time, that I really don't grok dancing. So why was I "dancing" here (if you can call it that)? I am quite happy making a fool of myself in the context of goofing around. It is the main criteria applied to the definition of success at Festifools, hence the name. Not true of the dance floor. (In fact, the only time I've gotten out on the dance floor, it was using a puppet/costume. It creates the context of play.)
What fun. I can hardly wait for next year's Festifools. Wow, I really ached afterward from all the running around. I have fairly good endurance for holding my arm aloft for puppeteering. Not as much as Jim Henson, but I do alright. Next year I definitely want to build my own giant paper-mache puppet.
This year's Penguicon included the fulfillment of several of my long-standing ambitions. There is so much more ground to cover in each of these ambitions, but momentum is well and truly rolling now.
One of these is organized puppetry, which I haven't done since childhood. We did a rollicking performance of a marionette adaptation of "A Shoggoth On The Roof". Over the past year I, Jer, and Allison, have become good friends with Naia, Andy, and "He-Of-The-Daily-Changing-Name". They are the Dreamland Puppet Troupe of Dreamland Theater in Ypsilanti. Rehearsing with them was one of the most enjoyable parts of helping to organize the convention. We plan to do another show this year: "The Trouble With Death Traps". We have received the enthusiastic support from the author, Marjorie James.
That was an example of the type of glittery theme park attraction that I love. Another is the Giant Singing Tesla Coils. You have to hear them in person to get the full effect-- it is not for nothing that they are known as Zeusaphones. Thanks to Steve Ward and Jeff Larson for inventing this glorious thing. As I sat on the lawn listening to one of their concerts, I realized (1) it felt exactly like being back at EPCOT Center, (2) by helping us to bring things like this together in one place, I am doing what my life is about.
Another thing I have wanted for years is to meet Eliezer Yudkowsky of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Not only did I get to meet him, we became friends, had a lot of fun chatting with Vernor Vinge, and Eliezer and I are now "fans" of each other. Meanwhile, He-Of-The-Daily-Changing-Name decided I was his guru. I can never tell whether HOTDCN is serious about anything or if it's just performance art. Eliezer and HOTDCN caused a snowball of ersatz toadying which accumulated downhill into absurdity from there. Soon I was leading a large crowd of people from room party to room party. We must get Eliezer back soon! He has proposed such wonderful panel discussions as "World's Funniest Dystopias".
I also was lucky enough to receive an invitation to the Lingerie Party. It too was an exploration of long-standing interests, which for me are so obvious and uncomplicated as to require no further comment. Thus ends the checklist.
The convention swept me along like a whirlwind: a conga line, a pretty face, a phone call, repeat.
Saturday afternoon I stood in the bright sun by the Brazilian Beef grills, listening to the chatter of geeks in paradise, and declaimed a desire to holograph that moment in my mind and freeze it for all time. A lady named Lauren who had accompanied her son to the convention overheard this. She told me it was possible. She then taught me how to create a permanent memory by focusing on all my senses of standing there in that moment, and bringing it back up every hour or so. Whenever she saw me the rest of the weekend she reminded me to focus and concentrate on all the senses of that moment to lock in the memory. The moment is still vividly fresh I am tearing up a little.
The playtest of the lavish prototype for my new board game "Lemuria" was well received. I had more applicants than available play slots, and received valuable feedback from a different audience than those with whom I had previously playtested it. More on that later.
In other news, misfortune befell my Coffee Ritual almost completely across the board. Saturday I had to cancel it and Sunday we soldiered on. At least there was coffee, but that was all there was. Everyone enjoyed it, actually. I converted it from parody High Church to a Pentecostal revival meeting and invited the whole audience to testify to their love of coffee. David Bloom from Ann Arbor SPARK particularly entertained me with his trembling supplication, on his knees asking for more coffee. My "testimony" was the story of a few weeks ago, pulling an all-nighter at Tracy Worcester's place, working on the Penguicon program schedule. I was worthless after about 3. I started to have psychedelic visions and passed out at 8 in the morning. This is why I don't stay up past about 2 usually.
Speaking of soldiering on, Allison Anderson broke her toe doing Program Ops! She is now truly a Penguicon veteran with the injuries to prove it. Fortunately it was not serious and she decided to soldier on, in a wheelchair. We're so grateful to her.
I enjoyed the discussion of "Sequencing the Genome of Fiction" with two of my favorite Penguicon presenters, Sarah Elkins and Catherine Devlin. I asked to do this panel to basically provoke interest in replacing fiction magazines the way Pandora.com has made music radio obsolete (it just doesn't know it's dead yet). netmouse was in the audience and I asked her to tell us about her cool related project.
At the Dead Dog party I finally got to sit still long enough to meet Jono Bacon, the community manager for Ubuntu Linux. He loves Penguicon, and we made many fine plans. That is all I will announce... for now. ;)
Thanks to all the new people who have come forward to play a larger part in Penguicon. Brian Robinson. Phil Salkie. Mark Lenigan. Austin Howard. Nathan Jiskra. Limey and Amy Zrnich. Dan Diebolt. And many more. I have enough business cards to wallpaper with. The existing concom and staff positions are all but full, and now I'm creating ones that never before existed. But keep volunteering!
To sum up on how I feel, here's the lyrics to the music that was in my head this weekend, from "Meet The Robinsons". If you have the song, listen to it while looking at Penguicon photos. SRSLY.
The future has arrived Nobody can doubt The future is what every thing's about It's better for you and it's better for me It's better than what everybody thought it would be
The future has arrived The future has arrived today
The future's arrived, as light as can be Just open your eyes, it's as plain to see Just don't be afraid, just keep going on One step at a time, and you can't go wrong
It's time to CREATE time to GROW, if you feel right The world yeah she's changing And life's rearranging To make you feel ALIVE!
THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED TODAY THE FUTURE'S ALIVE THE FUTURE IS ALIVE TODAY
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The flesh of Model Magic compound is not yet applied. The framework insures some things before the sculpting begins and the air-drying timer starts ticking: The body segments are sized in the right proportions for a specific character (female and male puppet frameworks have different proportions in their blueprints); The joints, weights, and string attachments are all aligned in the desired axes and planes that any human puppet should have; The puppet adheres to Dwiggins' principles which enhance naturalistic movement.
This is the leather shape used as a joint. Leather is held in routered notches, and wrapped around the dowel, bonded by wood glue. The slots in the arms were routered out with 60 degree differences-- shoulders, elbows, and wrists must bend on different planes.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
