Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Persistent Dreams of Flight




Mostly we were inspired by H. G. Wells. Well, we're always inspired by H. G. Wells. And we got this very cool plasma bulb. And madness ensued. Madness of the Most Excellent Poppet sort.

And that, dear friends and co-conspirators, was that.



This is our second bell jar. The first is Spencer's Brain and the third, which you'll see soon, belongs to David Kirkpatrick.

Yes, of course we noticed the video is sideways. We made coffee, then We pondered whether to fix the video or get right back into the studio...









11 comments:

Stacey said...

ooooh! Saw this on ebay (I have your store on rss) before I popped over here to see if you wrote about it. The first thing I thought of was the time machine and it's many incarnation in TV, movies and comics. Very cool.

Anonymous said...

***gets out list of goals***

Update: to goals dealing with money, add "Earn enough to commission a Bell Jar Laboratory of my very own."

Most Excellent, indeed!

Drinne said...

I think the Poppets have twisted our brains . . . . Alex and I looked at the bell jar lab this morning and he said " We have a plasma ball, I wonder if we can build our poppets a lab . . . . . it would have to be at the end of the park . . . ." and I said "Well since you mention it, I found a shell that uses a hot air balloon as an elevator and I was sizing that up for the Steampunk Poppets . . . ."

Hmmmn, inspiration vs. acquisition . . . .
(Inspiration and acquisition?)


I love H.G. Wells. but I don't think Alex has read him yet being more a visual type than a reading type - is there a good H.G. Wells Manga or graphic novel out there? He loves Call of Cthulu, but he grew up with that.

Totally love the blackbirds scattered throughout.

Dan Guy said...

Oh, WOW! That is so incredibly cool.

mordicai said...

Plasma....bulb? They come in bulbs?!

Stardustgirl said...

I echo Dan's comment. It IS incredibly cool. The more I look at it, the more I discover.

Anonymous said...

Ooh yeah... plasma streams and poppets. Who knows what their inspired little minds are scheming up? HG would have been proud!

Truly outstanding work!

@ Drinne: There were Classics Illustrated versions of many of HG Wells' novels, but most have been out of print for a long time. 'War of the Worlds' was done a few years ago, however, and might still be available in comic shops. More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics_Illustrated

Stacey said...

Drinne: Time Machine (and several other classic stories) is available in graphic novel form in a series called Graphic Revolve. I don't know that I recommend them though, as they are really like the "Little Golden Books" of comics, and the story is disappointing.

Little Book of Horror graphic novels have some classics, and they are much better, sadly, no Time Machine. I believe War of the Worlds is available in that series though.

lisa said...

everyone: I'm really pleased you like this one. Spencer and I were inspired by Alan Berliner's "Wide Awake" documentary (see earlier post) and tying it into the Wells-inspired lab made something much more personal. It's great that you're talking to each other and sharing information. All we need now is a fireplace, comfortable chairs and coffee. Maybe one day. We dream of hosting workshops here in the desert...

Ed said...

Infinitely Awesome...

I believe the Most Excellent Trio can accomplish just about anything in such incredible workspace!

Marjorie said...

What Syd said. This is awesome. And such fun, too.