Sunday 15 September 2013

LEVEL 8 - 'Disco Kid'



LEVEL 8 - Budget £128

After the last sale 'level 6 Pete' mentioned that its snowballing, I liked this analogy as its positive to think of the project like a snowball rolling down a hill and growing steadily rather than trying to climb a mountain. He sent me a graph to demonstrate this idea...
...he said its like falling off a cliff.             Peter Goddard's photo.

When I bought the level 7 box from the closing down Bishopston Trading Company, I also bought some cheap slightly creepy mannequins they were selling off. The child size one was just £10 and the male torso was £30. I think these are expensive new and bent the rules slightly buying these for future levels.

 

 I thought it would be cool to give the small one a mirrorball head and holding its own light. I love mirrorballs but they are not that easy to rig up and I thought it would be great to have a sculpture that is all in one... mirrorball, motor and light.

I sourced a mirrorball and motor from Maplins for £33

I went away for a weekend break in Pembrokeshire to visit my friend Ivan who is a brilliant kinetic sculptor I met at Kinetica. check out his website www.ivanblack.co.uk he makes amazing spiralling sculptures. 




Ivan has a studio/workshop and gave me a hand fitting the mirrorball motor to the kids neck.



We used the top of the existing motor casing as a plate to connect the motor to the neck. Ivan cut the top off the motor casing on the lathe. It flew off just as I took the picture you can see it fly away to the right.


Then he drilled out the mirrorball spindle so we were able to connect it to the upturned motor.


He then made a perfect base for it even creating a pin that goes up one of the feet. Thanks to Ivan for his help, I help him out on one of his projects creating an CGI animation, Its a good way to work with other artists like this.


I visited many fancy dress shops in Pembrokeshire and Bristol in search of a disco costume. In the end I found a silver space suit at Costumes R US wholesale in North Bristol. The suit was too big so I got it fitted at a tailors in Gloucester Rd called Brunel Tailoring.


A few days later I picked up the mannequin with a perfectly fitted silver suit which looked great. The suit cost £12 and the tailoring was £20 I put the kid in the boot of the car and wondered if there was anywhere that I could get some shoes from.
I turned round and by chance I was parked outside Oddsox a childrens shoe shop.



The girls were very helpful and I bought a pair of grey shoes for £11 in the Sale and I took the home and sprayed them silver.



I went to B&Q and found a remote control LED light for £15 and Lamp holder for £4.



I put it all together and everything worked perfectly. the Mirrorball motor and the Light fitting both have the same power requirements so it was easy to wire up. I ran a cable from the lamp up the sleeve and through a hidden drilled hole in his left shoulder blade.

After leaving the 'Disco Kid' running I notice the motor getting very hot and eventually the Mirrorball started to droop and almost fell off completely in the end due to its size and weight and not designed to be mounted upright. 


I found an 8 inch mirrorball for £2 in the Marie Curie charity shop where I bought the vases which was a result and I fitted this one instead. I drilled some ventilation holes into the top plate to help with the overheating problem. Everything seems to be working ok now. Im really pleased with 'Disco Kid' he looks great and sprays light all over the room. The light covers the whole mirror ball and projects a cool Halo effect on the wall behind.


I ordered some mirrored 3cm acrylic letters from the internet. this cost about £12.
I glue the mirrored letters around the base spelling 'Disco Kid' and a badge spelling 'OOM' I add a switch in the mains cable that comes out of his ankle.



I added some velcro to his right hand so he can hold the remote control when not in use.




I sign the back of the base... 

Orders Of Magnitude, Level 8 15th September 2013 Stuart Warren-Hill


Heres a vine clip... https://vine.co/v/hnjzXxBBre9



DISCO KID 
"Wherever there's Disco Kid, there's a party!"
For Sale £256

Contact: Stuart@hexstatic.tv

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