Robbie Lynn Hunsinger

with guest collaborators

Patrick Becker
and Steve Ghertner

"We are turning Seed Space into a sentient space that reacts to exploration with
skitters and flutters of nearly invisible but audibly reactive objects."

Robbie Lynn Hunsinger is very excited to be working with two brilliant local makers, Patrick Becker and Steve Ghertner. They met through the Middle Tennessee Robotic Arts Society, a wonderful free resource in Nashville for those interested in pursuing robotics, technology and programming. We are exceited to announce that Steve Ghertner will be using the Raspberry Pi in this exhibit. An arduino will be employed as well, and we will max out its pwm and analog input capabilities.

Skitter Flutter grew partially out of Hunsinger's Arduino and Sax duet for robotic drummer that she premiered at Soundcrawl 2012.

Skitter Flutter is also heavily influenced by Hunsinger's years of pre-dawn bird rescue in the Chicago area as Founder of The Chicago Bird Collision Monitors program, a very successful conservation effort in which volunteers save injured and stunned migratory birds that have struck buildings.

She became fascinated with the idea of creating an invisible array of reactive sounds similar to small mammals, insects or birds but created entirely by motors. Sounds pull the viewer in but dissipate upon investigation, much as crickets grow quiet as we approach.

The mirror neuron creates a reaction in an observer which reflects the chemical changes in the person actually experiencing an event firsthand.
which seems to manifest the neurological existence of empathy.

"You get hit, I flinch." These interactive sound sculptures encourage this type of response.
They are as much felt as seen or heard.

collaborators

Patrick Becker is a graduate of ITT Technical Institute with an associate's degree in Computer Electronics Engineering Technology. Since childhood, he has been “making,” using toys such as Steel Tech and Legos as his first media. Patrick has a passion for building one of a kind gadgets, and joined the Middle TN Robotics Arts Society (MTRAS) in 2008. Patrick's projects Pyro Jam Can, Turn an Old PC into a Working Aquarium, and other novel projects have been featured on several notable websites, including instructables.com, hack-a-day.com, and lifehacker.com.

Steve Ghertner has degrees in electrical engineering and business from University of Texas-Austin and Georgia Tech. He has been tearing apart, building and “making” since early childhood. He was an avid amateur radio operator (WD4CFN) during his youth and liked to build radio equipment. He designed manufacturing automation systems following college. He has a patent for a water saving device and enjoys building hobby robots and other assorted “maker’ projects. He is one of the first members of the Middle Tennessee Robotics Arts Society (MTRAS), and has gained some notoriety in the small but highly enthusiastic, chicken raising community for his internet connected coop.