Junked LCD Tableau, Continued

By MichaelColombo on Uncategorized

Progress was made on day 1 – I slapped together the frame out of scrapwood, and documented myself doing this with IStopMotion. Enjoy this short video: (and if anyone can tell me why my embed code is not working I’d appreciate it).

Though I have done several assemblages like this before, this presented a new challenge since I needed to take the size and placement of the screens into account. This required some planning for a process which had been very much spontaneous for me in the past.

After the frame was completed, I used a router and hand saw to carve out spots for the LCDs to sit. Once done, I hot glued them in on the edges, then set about wiring them up.

Here’s where I ran into problems. Some of the LCDs had existing circuit board hanging from them, which were a cinch to solder to. Other ones only had the thin ribbon connectors attached to them with tiny foil connections. These turned out to be basically impossible to solder to. I tried hot-gluing the wires to the foil, but this did not work. What I’ll try next is to make the connections with conductive epoxy. If this works I’ll continue with the build.

What remains is to enclose the frame along the sides and install back-lighting for the LCDs. I’ve gotten a lot done so far and am excited to continue working on it. I’m taking a mixed media sculpture course at Steinhardt this semester, so perhaps I’ll complete it as an assignment for that.

January 20th, 2011