Author Archives: Fabrice Florin

About Fabrice Florin

Multimedia innovator Fabrice Florin has led the development of many pioneering projects in education, news and entertainment, working with a wide range of organizations such as Apple, Macromedia and Wikipedia. He is co-founder of Tam Makers in Mill Valley, where he teaches maker art to children and adults, helping them create interactive art projects like cities of the future, haunted houses, poetic robots and time machines. He is also a co-founder of art collective Pataphysical Studios. Previously, he was product manager at Wikimedia Foundation, where he helped build new tools to help users contribute productively on Wikipedia. His previous ventures include: NewsTrust.net, a nonprofit social news network devoted to good journalism; Handtap, a wireless content service for mobile phones; shockwave.com, a web entertainment site at Macromedia; Apple Computer's Multimedia Lab, a new media R&D group; and Videowest, a producer of rock journalism for ABC, MTV and public TV. Learn more: http://fabriceflorin.com/about/

The ‘Pataphysical Time Machine

We are creating a Time Machine at ‘Pataphysical Studios, our art collective in Mill Valley, where surrealism meets the maker culture.

The ‘Pataphysical Time Machine invites you to travel through time and meet characters from the past, present and future. We hope to engage our guests in a fun interactive experience that combines art, multimedia, theater and technology.

This 3D fly through video illustrates the experience we are creating. We invite our guests to go through a short interactive ritual during their visit: walk around the exhibit, step into our magic portal, pick a time to visit, travel to that time, meet its characters and return back to the present.

Through this experience, we hope to enchant guests of all ages and cultures. We typically host time travel expeditions with small groups of up to six people at a time, lasting between 10 and 20 minutes. To insure we don’t disrupt the delicate fabric of time, we ask that our guests do not exit the machine during our time travel journeys. We usually return our guests safely back to the time they came in from. Time travel is not for the faint of heart! 🙂

Press the buttons on this time travel dashboard to jump to different periods, which are shown on the illuminated screen above.

Exhibit

Our Time Machine exhibit is inspired by steampunk and art movements from the early 20th century: Pataphysics, dada and surrealism.

Here are some of the artifacts we’re now building for our exhibit:

a mysterious, glimmering time capsule and cockpit
a violin-shaped dashboard with time travel buttons
an illuminated main screen to view scenes from distant times
animated figures of Anubis and the Creature from the Future Lagoon
frescoes of hieroglyphic characters from across the ages
crazy clocks spinning at random and singing about time
collages of time travel images and stories against the walls
mechanical iris portholes revealing mysterious apparitions

… and many more time travel artifacts!

To see our work in progress, view photos below, and our photo album for the Time Machine. To learn about other artifacts, visit our exhibit design spec for the physical structures. To learn more about the interactive experience, read our time travel design spec.

If you liked our ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine, we think this new art exhibit will transport you even further. Fire in the hole!

Animated figures of the ancient god Anubis and the Creature from the Future Lagoon are here to guide your journey through time.

To make our art come to life, we are now developing new media and technologies that will animate the exhibit with animated characters, lights, sounds, motion and videos of the different times you will travel to.

Media

Our growing video library already includes dozens of short clips for different time periods, to create the illusion of time travel.

This Belle Époque video takes you back in time to Paris at the start of the 20th century, when the arts and sciences flourished, along with a “joie de vivre” (joy of living) that is music to our ears.

This short video is just one of the scenes you can visit with the Time Machine, and its authenticity is confirmed by copious historical footage from a variety of sources. Other scenes in our prototype include videos of the Big Bang, Dinosaurs, Ancient Egypt, the French Revolution, A Trip to the Moon, Dada Cafe Voltaire, Trumpocalypse — and many more. Here are some of the other time scenes we‘re considering for the next version.

Meanwhile, our sounds library now includes many time travel soundtracks, as well as musical quotes about time (e.g. “Time!” by the Chambers Brothers, “Crying Time” by Ray Charles, etc.).

To learn about our multimedia plans, visit this media overview.

Technology

We will combine many different digital technologies to support the Time Machine experience: Arduino and Raspberry Pi for artifact devices, NodeRed for the central host, MQTT for the messaging protocol, EasyESP firmware and other tech.

Learn more in this infrastructure document, programming guide and technology overview.

Meet the team

About a dozen creators are building the Time Machine together. We’re artists, engineers, makers, performers, poets, organizers and multimedia innovators. Over the years, we have grown into a world-class troupe of interactive artists, who like to make things together and learn from each other. Most of us are members of Pataphysical Studios and listed in this community page.

We work in small creative teams to design and build the different parts of the Time Machine, combining interactive art with lights, sounds, motion, and videos of different times. Besides Pataphysical Studios, some of our fabrication work takes place at at Tam Makers, our community makerspace in Mill Valley, where we use a wide range of tools, from laser cutters to CNC routers and milling equipment.

Learn more on our planning page and project lists.

Join us

This is the most complex art project that our team has taken on, and we could use more help. We are now recruiting a few more creators to contribute to our community project, so we can complete it together in coming years.

If you would like to help build this interactive art experience with us, email us at info@pataphysics.us. We’re particularly interested in collaborators who you live in the Bay Area and can join our weekly work sessions in Mill Valley on Saturday afternoons. But if you live outside the Bay Area, we can also collaborate on a variety of tech and media projects. Let’s talk!

It’s a true pleasure to help new teams come together to design and build the various parts of our Time Machine. That’s what collective art is about. We can’t wait to see what it will look like in a year!

For more project updates, we invite you to subscribe to our mailing list — and/or follow us on Facebook. Learn more at pataphysics.us. We hope to see you soon, online or in person.

Vive la ‘pataphysique!

Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio)

On behalf of Pataphysical Studios

_____________________________________________

PHOTOS OF THE TIME MACHINE CREATION

To see more photos of our work in progress, visit our photo album for the Time Machine.

The ‘Pataphysics of Dada

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dada art movement, ‘Pataphysical Studios is presenting a special exhibit on the ‘Pataphysics of Dada during the Dada World Fair, organized by City Lights in San Francisco in November 2016.

Update: Here are our photos from this exhibit, as well as videos of our four special events:

Opening Night (Nov. 3)
Pata Dada Haha 1 (Nov. 5 – 6:30pm)
Pata Dada Haha 2 (Nov. 5 – 7:30pm)
Pata Dada Haha 3 (Nov. 12)

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine, our poetic oracle, will be on display for ten days at the Canessa Gallery in North Beach, San Francisco. We will also present a new collection of paintings, sculptures and mobiles — as well as premiere our shadow puppet show called Ubu’s Dreams .

We will host these special events at the Canessa:

Pataphysics of Dada – Thursday November 3rd, 6-8pm (Opening night)
Pata Dada Ha Ha 1 & 2 – Saturday November 5th, 6-8pm
Pata Dada Ha Ha 3 – Saturday November 12th, 6-8pm

Join us for an evening of pataphysical art, theater, music and poetry, featuring Ubu’s Dreams, our new shadow puppet show — as well as special artworks, readings and performances by members of Pataphysical Studios and friends (see below).

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine is a community-created poetic oracle that invites you to face mysterious ‘cabinets of curiosity,’ ask about your future and get words of wisdom.

Open one of twenty “wonderboxes” for more inspiration: each box is a portal to another world, sparkling with lights, playing sounds, or spinning surreal objects. This collaborative art project is inspired by Combinatorial Poetics, Dada and Surrealism, and Maker-ism.

Learn more about the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine.

‘Pataphysics of Dada

Before Dada, there was ‘Pataphysics, the “science of imaginary solutions”. Many a dadaist has sung the praises of its founding force, French poet Alfred Jarry, best known for his farcical and revolutionary 1896 play Ubu Roi.

To celebrate the ‘Pataphysics of Dada, ‘Pataphysical Studios has created and curated a special exhibit for The Dada World’s Fair. The Canessa Gallery in North Beach will be our setting — adorned with our Pataphysical Slot Machine, plus assorted paintings, mobiles, kinetic sculptures, infographics about ‘Pataphysics, Alfred Jarry, Père Ubu (appearing in life-size form!) and the collective impact of Pataphysics on the future movement of Dadaism.

Pataphysical artists include: Howard Rheingold (Dr. Rindbrain), Fabrice Florin (Dr. Fabio), Freddy Hahne (Dr. Really?), Stephanie Levene (Dr. Truly!), Donald Day (Dr. Igor), Marshall Smith (Dr. Skidz), Tim Pozar (Dr. Heatshrink), Janey Fritsche (Dr. Tout d’ Suite), Mark Petrakis (Dr. Zboon), Justin Hall (Dr. Sane), Ilyse Iris Magy (Dr. EyeEye), Phyllis Florin (Dr. Phylora), Jean Bolte (Dr. Figurine), Natalina Frederick (Dr. Canard) & Priscilla Wheeler (Queen of the Desert).

Meet the artists who are creating this exhibit.

Ubu’s Dreams

Don’t miss the world premiere of Ubu’s Dreams, a set of original ‘pataphysical’ shadow plays. The plays star Père Ubu, along with many surreal characters from his unconscious: including big faces, talking ravens, exploding cows and other creatures from the wild ubu-beyond. Ubu’s Dreams explores new ways of telling stories with shadows, combining laser-cut wood figures, mechanical automata, a rich musical soundtrack as well as video and multimedia scenery.

We will present this show on three separate evenings at the Canessa Gallery:

Pataphysics of Dada – Thursday November 3rd, 6-8pm (Opening night)
Pata Dada Ha Ha 1 & 2 – Saturday November 5th, 6-8pm
Pata Dada Ha Ha 3 – Saturday November 12th, 6-8pm (Closing night)

This experiment was created by Mark Petrakis (a.k.a. Dr. Zboon) and Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio). Special props to Edward Janne (Dr. Mekano) for his magical automation skills, to Dan Cantrell (Dr. Bellowhead) for his incredible musical compositions, to Phyllis Florin (Dr. Phylora) and Jean Bolte (Dr. Figurine) for their wonderful set decor — and to all our friends at Pataphysical Studios for their generous support.

Learn more about Ubu’s Dreams.

PataDada Ha Ha!

Join us for an evening of pata dada art, theater, music, fashion and poetry, featuring Ubu’s Dreams, our new shadow puppet show — as well as special artworks, readings and performances by members of Pataphysical Studios and special guests.

We are hosting this event on two separate nights at the Canessa:

Pata Dada Ha Ha 1 & 2 – Saturday November 5th, 6-8pm
Pata Dada Ha Ha 3 – Saturday November 12th, 6-8pm (Closing night)

Here’s the lineup for the first night, curated for the evening by Dr. Zboon:

Mary March (#DadaTaroT Medium)
Allison Lovejoy (Accordion)
Deborah Sciales (Fashion Statements)
Erik Davis (PataDad Rap)
Drs. Figurine & Canard (Theremin / Digeridoo)
Ernesto Sanchez (Mask Dance)
Ubu’s Dreams (Shadow Puppets by Drs. Zboon, Fabio and Mechano)
Beth Custer (Clarinet)
Stephen Kent (Didgeridoo)

And here’s the lineup for the second night:

Cello Joe (Cellist) & Toni Tone (Singer)
Dan Cantrell (Accordionist)
Dr. Fabio (Ubu & Trump, Alfred Jarry reading)
Dr. Canard (The Pataphysical Slot Machine poem)
Drs. Figurine & Canard (Theremin / Digeridoo)
Ernesto Sanchez (Mask Dance)
Ubu’s Dreams (Shadow Puppets by Drs. Zboon, Fabio and Mechano)

Canessa Gallery

The Dada World Fair ‘Pataphysical exhibit will be at the Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. It is at the foot of the Pointy Building in the formerly bohemian, yet still quite interesting, North Beach district. See Google Map.

Exhibit Hours / Showtimes

Here is our schedule for this free exhibit and special events:

Opening Night Event / Ubu’s Dreams	Thu. Nov. 3rd – 6-8pm
‘Pataphysics of Dada Exhibit	Fri. Nov. 4th – 6-8pm
‘Pataphysics of Dada Exhibit	Sat. Nov. 5th – 1-4pm
PataDada Ha Ha! Event / Ubu’s Dreams & Special Guests	Sat. Nov. 5th – 6-8pm
‘Pataphysics of Dada Exhibit	Sun. Nov. 6th – 1-4pm
‘Pataphysics of Dada Exhibit	Fri. Nov. 11th – 4-7pm
PataDada Ha Ha! Event / Ubu’s Dreams & Special Guests	Sat. Nov. 12th – 6-8pm

Email us at info-at-pataphysics.us with any questions or comments.

Dada World Fair

This exhibit is part of the Dada World Fair, a series of lectures, roundtables, performances, film screenings, and art installations organized by City Lights and its partners in November 2016, to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the emergence of Dada.

We wish to thank organizer Dr. Peet Maravellis and Canessa Gallery owner Zach Stewart for so graciously inviting us to be part of this event.

Learn more about Dada World Fair.

For more project updates, we invite you to subscribe to our mailing list — or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Learn more at pataphysics.us .

Hope to see you there!

‘Pataphysical Studios

Join our upcoming Pataphysical events

Bay Area friends: we’re hosting several Pataphysical events that might interest you, if you’re in town. Hope to see you there!

Pataphysical-Slot-Machine-Exhibit-Cropped-Large-720x480px

Experience the Pataphysical Slot Machine – May 28

Come see our surreal art exhibit in Mill Valley at a special showing for friends and family in Mill Valley on Saturday, May 28th, from 1pm to 5pm.

The ’Pataphysical Slot Machine is a fun and educational art experience: you’ll get to ask our poetic oracle for instructions from the future — and open our many magical wonderboxes.

And you’ll learn more about ‘Pataphysics, the “science of imaginary solutions” that inspired dada and surrealism. You’re welcome to bring friends and family — including children ages 6 or older.

RSVP here for directions to this exhibit.

Tam Makers Meetup – June 8

Members of Pataphysical Studios are starting a new makerspace in Mill Valley called Tam Makers, to build cool things with our local community and learn from each other.

If you are interested in working with us or taking our adult maker classes in Marin, join our welcome meeting at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, on Wednesday, June 8th, 6 to 9pm.

You’ll meet our community, see our makerspace, hear about our maker classes for adults and teens, and discuss next steps for this community initiative. Learn more here about Tam Makers.

Sign up here for this free event.

Pataphysical Talk – June 15

Join us for a special presentation about Pataphysical Studios at UC Berkeley on Wednesday, Jun. 15th, 2016, at 7pm. This talk will be given by senior ‘pataphysician Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio) at the Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) meeting.

In this talk, Fabrice will discuss how Pataphysical Studios came about, what we discovered together, and how our art project has grown into a “peer learning network”. He will also share findings from his maker art classes, which help students create their own interactive art.

Learn more here about this free presentation.

The Pataphysics of Dada – November 3-12

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dada movement, we are hosting a special exhibit of the Pataphysical Slot Machine during the Dada World Fair, from November 3rd to 12th.

The exhibit will run for ten days at the Canessa Gallery in North Beach, San Francisco. Save the date for the opening night presentation on Thursday, November 3, 2016, from 6 to 8pm. We will also host other presentations during the Fair. Stay tuned for upcoming attractions.

Learn more here about this free presentation and exhibit.

We hope you can make it to one or more of these events, if you’re in our neck of the woods. Email us at info@pataphysics.us with any questions or comments about these events.
For more project updates, we invite you to subscribe to our mailing list — or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Learn more at pataphysics.us .

Hope to see you soon!

Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio)

and the Pataphysical Studios crew

Unveiling the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine at the Mill Valley Library

Last month, we unveiled our ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine exhibit at the Mill Valley Library, and we hosted a range of events and workshops about art and technology, described below.

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine Exhibit

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine is a community-created poetic oracle that invites you to face mysterious ‘cabinets of curiosity,’ ask about your future and get words of wisdom. Open one of twenty “wonderboxes” for more inspiration: each box is a portal to another world, sparkling with lights, plays sounds, or spins surreal objects. This collaborative art project inspired by the maker culture, combinatorial poetics — and ‘Pataphysics, the “science of imaginary solutions.”

Hundreds of visitors came to see this fun and educational combination of art and technology. They seemed to really enjoy this magical experience — and their faces tell the whole story in this photo album! We were on hand to demo the exhibit and share what we learned building it.

Here’s just some of the feedback we’ve received from our guests:
“Very magical! See your future in lights!”
“Mesmerizing and inspiring.”
“This was the coolest thing ever.”
“This is enlightening — as in ‘lighten up’ … What fun!”
“Thank you Ubu! Thank you pataphysicians!”

Based on all this positive feedback, we are now looking for a new home for the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine, where it could be available to the public on a long-term basis. If you know a local venue that you think would be interested in hosting us in 2016, please email us at info@pataphysics.us .

We also hosted some fun educational programs this month, to complement the art exhibit. Check out the photos and videos of these uplifting events.

Unveiling the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine was unveiled at the Mill Valley Library’s popular First Friday event on October 2: it was a full house, attended by hundreds of local community members, friends and neighbors. Our team at ‘Pataphysical Studios gave what a friend called “the father of all demos”, including a project history, live interactions and artist stories — and a bit of theater. We all had a blast and the audience seemed completely engaged: thanks to all of you who joined us for this memorable occasion! Check out this photo album, as well as this first video of the full 90 minute presentation, with unedited footage from just one of our video cameras (other camera angles can be found here).

Pataphysics and the Real Alfred Jarry

On October 15, we hosted an art lecture and group discussion on french poet Alfred Jarry, the founder of ‘Pataphysics — the art movement that inspired surrealism and dadaism. Check out the photo album and this first video.

Create Your Own Art Wonderbox Workshop

On October 17, we hosted this 2-hour workshop, to show kids ages 8-12 (and their parents) how to make their own art ‘wonderbox’ — using simple electronics to bring characters to life with sound, lights and motion. Check out this video and our photo album, as well as these workshop instructions.

Arduino 101 Workshop

On October 24, we hosted this 3-hour workshop, to show adults and teens how to build simple interactive systems with the popular Arduino platform. They learned to make lights blink, motors move, and sounds play. Check out the photo album for this workshop, as well as this online guide.

These free events all took place at the Mill Valley Public Library:
375 Throckmorton Ave.
Mill Valley CA 94941
415-389-4292 ext. 3
millvalleylibrary.org

This unique art project was created by ‘Pataphysical Studios, a collective of artists, engineers, teachers and students based in Mill Valley. Our group includes veterans from a wide range of organizations: Apple Computer, Bill Graham Presents, Black Rock Arts, California College of the Arts, Industrial Light and Magic, Jim Henson Company, Rex Foundation, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Whole Earth Catalog, Wikimedia Foundation and Wired Magazine.

Learn more about ‘Pataphysical Studios in this wonderful article from the Marin Independent Journal. Journalist Paul Liberatore wrote a great story about our art collective: it captures our vision for this project, and the passion we share for making art together.

For more project updates, we invite you to subscribe to our mailing list — and follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Learn more at pataphysics.us.

Thanks to all of you who came to visit and support our work!

Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio)
Howard Rheingold (a.k.a. Dr. Rindbrain)
Freddy Hahne (a.k.a. Dr. Really)
and the ‘Pataphysical Studios crew

This page was updated to include descriptions of all events after they were hosted, along with links to their photo albums and first videos.

Make Your Own Art Wonderbox

Workshop participants will learn how to create a Halloween Wonderbox like this one, which features a blinking skull, a spinning wheel and a talking spider, as shown in this video.

Pataphysical Studios and the Mill Valley Library invite you to join the “Make Your Own Art Wonderbox” workshop, on Saturday, October 17, 2-4 pm.

This two-hour workshop is aimed at kids ages 8-12 (and their parents, if they want to join). You don’t need any technical experience to participate, and the class is designed for up to 12 children (any number of observers are welcome). Update: this workshop is now full.

This session will show you how to create your own interactive art — like the Halloween Wonderbox shown above — using simple electronics to make characters light up, move and/or play sounds — even speak to you!

The workshop will be led by Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio), who was a multimedia pioneer at Apple Computer (and more recently for Wikipedia), and who is one of the founders of Pataphysical Studio. Other teachers are Jean Bolte (a.k.a. Dr. Figurine) who worked on the X-Ray Skull with Dr. Canard, and her daughter Natalie Frederick (a.k.a. Dr. Canard) who built the X-Ray Skull and is our resident poet at Pataphysical Studios.

Fabrice Florin Natalie Frederick and Jean Bolte

We will start with a demo of a working wonderbox we created at Pataphysical Studios. We will then show our Halloween Wonderbox Video, introduce the wonderbox kits. Participants will then break up in small groups of 2-3 to work together, using these instructions. The goal is for each group to complete a first rough wonderbox by the end of the workshop.

The Mill Valley Library will provide all materials, including kits from our partner KitHub, to support these goals:

LEDs to light up your box
Switches to turn them on
Motors to make things move
Sound chips to play/record audio
Diagrams with easy instructions

A ‘wonderbox’ is an interactive art experience that features playful characters in miniature dioramas. Characters include singing flowers, alien invaders, X-ray skulls and more. Each wonderbox twinkles with lights, plays sounds and/or makes characters move. These scenes take place in boxes that are 9” by 9” by 6” — the standard size used for the Pataphysical Slot Machine.

Pataphysical Studios is a community of artists, technologists, teachers and students.We are part of a growing ‘art maker movement’ that is changing creative expression, technology and education everywhere. We are inspired by ‘Pataphysics, “the science of imaginary solutions”.

We will exhibit the Pataphysical Slot Machine at the Mill Valley Public Library every weekend in October 2015. Come see see it during open hours, Saturdays and Sundays from 1pm to 5pm!

These free events will all take place at the Mill Valley Public Library:
375 Throckmorton Ave.
Mill Valley CA 94941
415-389-4292 ext. 3
millvalleylibrary.org

We hope you’ll join us — and learn how you too can become an ‘art maker’!

Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio)
Jean Bolte (a.k.a. Dr. Figurine)
Natalie Frederick (a.k.a. Dr. Canard)

Experience the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine at the Mill Valley Library this October

Join us for the world premiere of the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine on October 2nd at the Mill Valley Library.

We’re happy to announce that our ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine will be unveiled at the Mill Valley Library on October 2, 2015, for our first-ever public presentation and a month-long exhibit.

If you live in the Bay Area, this is a unique opportunity to experience this fun and educational combination of art and technology — as well as learn how to create your own interactive art.

We invite you to save the dates below — and subscribe to our mailing list, to be alerted when online registration opens in mid-September (we expect these events to fill up quickly).

• Introducing the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine – Friday, October 2, 7pm
Visionaries from Apple, Burning Man, ILM, the Whole Earth Catalog and the like will unveil the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine, our poetic oracle, for the first time ever. This special presentation will include a project history, a demonstration, artists’ stories and a bit of theater.

• ‘Pataphysics and the Real Alfred Jarry – Thursday, October 15, 7pm
A lecture and group discussion about french poet Alfred Jarry, the founder of ‘Pataphysics: his art movement inspired surrealism and dadaism and is also known as the “science of imaginary solutions”.

• Try out the Slot Machine – Open hours on Saturdays and Sundays, 1-5pm
Our art exhibit will be open every weekend in October: Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 5pm, in the library’s downstairs conference room. Our team will be on hand to demo the slot machine, share what we’ve learned and show you how to build your own interactive art projects.

These free events will all take place at the Mill Valley Public Library:
375 Throckmorton Ave.
Mill Valley CA 94941
415-389-4292 ext. 3
Online registration to these events will start in September, on their site:
millvalleylibrary.org

The ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine is a collaborative art project made possible by the maker movement — and inspired by ‘Pataphysics and many other cultural influences. Our community-created poetic oracle invites you to face mysterious ‘cabinets of curiosity,’ ask about your future and receive whimsical words of wisdom. Open one of twenty wonderboxes for more inspiration: each box sparkles with lights, plays sounds, or spins surreal objects.

This unique art project was created by ‘Pataphysical Studios, a collective of artists, engineers, teachers and students based in Mill Valley. Our group includes veterans from a wide range of organizations: Apple Computer, Bill Graham Presents, Black Rock Arts, California College of the Arts, Fandor, Industrial Light and Magic, Jim Henson Company, Rex Foundation, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Whole Earth Catalog, Wikimedia Foundation and Wired Magazine.

For project updates, we invite you to subscribe to our mailing list — and follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Learn more at pataphysics.us.

We hope to see you in October!

Fabrice Florin (a.k.a. Dr. Fabio)
Howard Rheingold (a.k.a. Dr. Rindbrain)
Freddy Hahne (a.k.a. Dr. Really)
and the ‘Pataphysical Studios crew

The Pataphysical Slot Machine

Behold The Pataphysical Slot Machine, our community-created poetic oracle.

This unique art exhibit engages people of all ages to inquire about their future and act on it. It encourages creative exploration by combining visual arts and new technology, the ‘maker spirit’ and ‘combinatorial poetics’.

Here’s a short video of the Pataphysical Slot Machine in action.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_PyKBboQVI; w=640&h=480&rel=0]

Visitors are invited to sit on the Pataphysical throne, facing three mysterious cabinets of curiosity. You can ask Ubu, our patron saint, for “instructions from the future”: he shares surreal and whimsical words of advice (e.g.: “Embrace purple sky”), which are printed on your receipt — and spoken with a thick french accent. .

For more inspiration, guests can then open one of 20 “wonderboxes”. Each box contains a different art scene: a singing flower, an alien invader, a red devil, a happy buddha or a native shaman, for example. Some of them sparkle with lights, some speak to you, others are animated robots — and an ‘olfactory clock’ tells the time with scents of cinnamon buns or blueberry pie.

These slides show what the art exhibit looks like. To see the many ways in which people interact with the Pataphysical Slot Machine, check our photo stream on Flickr.

The art is inspired by many world cultures, the steam-punk movement — and by Alfred Jarry, founder of ‘Pataphysics, the “science of imaginary solutions.” The technology is based on Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms, networked together — and soon to be connected to the Internet. See our interactive specs.

We are a team of artists, technologists and educators based in Mill Valley, California. Our members include Fabrice Florin (@fabriceflorin), Howard Rheingold (@hrheingold), Freddy Hahne (@arewereally), Stephanie Levene, Donald Day, Tim Pozar, Janey Fritsche, Mark Petrakis, Jean Bolte and many other friends, family and neighbors. Meet our crew in this ‘day in the life’ video.

We work together as a ‘peer learning network’: we teach each other what we know, across all levels of expertise. To share what we’ve learned, we maintain an extensive online documentation, and sometimes host online hangouts, to show you how to build your own interactive art — like this ‘geekout’ on motors and Arduino, held by video conference last fall.

We are preparing our first public exhibits of the Pataphysical Slot Machine later this year, in two Bay Area locations where visitors will be able to interact with Ubu and friends. Even if you can’t visit in person, we invite you to create your own interactive art, wherever you are.

Collaborative art is a wonderful thing. Join the movement and start a Pataphysical group in your neighborhood. And remember to have fun with it: ‘pataphysics is the art of not taking yourself too seriously’ 🙂

Fire in the hole!

Video, photos and narration by Fabrice Florin. Recorded at the Rheingold Room in Mill Valley, California, in February 2014. Music by Erik Satie and others.

A ‘Pataphysical Poem

Docteur Canard, our youngest pataphysicist, is now a regular contributor to our art club, where she is creating an interactive skull with X-ray vision. As a gift for for Docteur Fabio’s 60th birthday, she wrote this poem about why she keeps coming back. We’re so glad she’s part of our society, and thank her for inspiring us with her fresh perspective on our madcap adventure.

The Pataphysical Slot Machine

As you enter, gods and demons stare down at you.

Pataphysicists are the makers of dreams, and the future rests in their hands.

Golden question marks show the end of the unknown question.

Purple coats flash past.

The Pataphysical Slot Machine is a place of art, laughter and imagination.

Singing flowers, the Devil, a skull with flashing eyes, the hand with the All Seeing Eye.

Always in the process, never done.

Pearl and Lulu.

Two yipping, barking explosions of joy and energy, both worth twice as much as 1,000 pearls.

UBU.

You can be anything you want to be, do anything you want to do, nothing is impossible here.

What do you want to know? UBU can see your future, and he will tell you.

Hidden away, a small miracle in the vast and troubled earth, a place of gods.

This is Really and Truly the most Fabulous place in the world, where Figurines come alive and Canards call from every corner. A place filled with Pizzazz, where the Day never ends, and Tout d’ Suite the Rind of your Brain is being Flashed with ideas you once thought impossible.The science and art of imaginary solutions.

Written for Dr. Fabio by Dr. Canard

Why, thank you kindly, Dr. Canard! We too enjoy our time together in this ‘place of gods’. We look forward to many more creative explorations with you 🙂