Squidartha - a Burn-Bot for Burning Man 2018

A wood robot sculpture built by Alexander "Wolf" Griffin for Burning Man 2018. It was located at the 2:30 point of the Man Pavilion.

What is Squidartha?

In early June 2018, Burning Man Arts put out a request for proposals (RFP) for Burn-Bots to be displayed in The Man Pavilion. They will subsequently burn with The Man on Saturday 9/1. Though the RFP called for humanoid creatures, I wanted to do something ocean-themed.

Squidartha is as much a serene and introspective project, as it is a silly one. Though I guess only the name is silly. The inspiration comes from my days scuba diving in shallow waters and seeing live squid, and being mesmerized by their intelligence and curiosity. Squidartha will have light strips on the main body that will flash colourful patterns similar to how real live squid do. It is believed to be one of their ways of communicating with each other.

Story...

"Squidartha was built by man after the ‘Age of Insanity’ as a way to communicate and make peace with the ocean sentients, apologise to them for all the damage Mankind had done to the oceans and for previously hunting their kind. Squidartha served this task well and as some robots do, eventually became self-aware. It began exploring beyond its programming, discovering rivers, lands, mountains, deserts. By the time it found its way to the desert it had become quite spiritual, and somehow got the name Squidartha. It now stands vigil with The Man and mechanical brethren, awaiting the fires of consecration...."

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Whimsy and I (Wolf) played "tour guide" at the Man Pavilion on select nights, usually rather late (2am'ish). Mostly I narrated the story above, and answered questions about the construction. Below are the most common questions I received.

Q: What was it made of?
A: Squidartha was almost entirely Western Red Cedar, which were 5/8" fence boards purchased from Home Depot and laser cut with a Boss model LS2436 150 Watt CO2 laser. The rough cut sides were left deliberately exposed because it had a nice "seaweedy" appearance that fit the oceangoing gestalt. The upper planks were steam-bent (a technique Wolf had to learn along the way) because without the treatment they likely would have cracked in production or in the desert. The control panel was Alderwood made from a firewood log harvested in Portland. The black bands were suede covered with copper foil tape. A couple of screw fasteners and steel rods for structure, the rest was electronics and some wood glue.
Q: What other sculptures have you made?
A: This is my first ever sculpture. No kidding!
Q: Is this your first honorarium (funded art piece)?
A: No, this is my fourth for Burning Man. I've produced funded art for regionals on both east and west coasts as well.
Q: Why a squid? What was your inspiration?
A: I'm an avid scuba diver with over 800 dives, mostly in Caribbean waters. I've seen live squids several times, and they're rather curious about divers. They hover around us and flash patterns of color across their bodies, trying to communicate with us, I think. That was the inspiration behind Squidartha's lights - to show communication in a robot by something other than sound or movement. Squidartha's design is a combination of antiquity, fantasy and nightmare. The latter can be seen in the legs and claw designs; lots of sharp points. It was never supposed to be menacing, but I supposed any robot that needed to survive the harsh conditions of the ocean had to have some sharp elements.
Q: "Squidartha" is rather clever, did you think of the name first?
A: The idea for a cephalopod robot came first, then the back-story (see above). The name "Squidartha" which is a play on Siddhartha (the child-name of Buddha) came about a week later. When that came to mind I knew I had to propose it to Burning Man.
Q: There were twelve robots ("burn-bots"). How many people applied?
A: I was told there were 127 total proposals. I am not surprised, really, even with the short time frame we had to build them. Making and presenting art at the Man Pavilion is a great honor, and a lot of work. Despite the odds, I believe at least four of the twelve 'bots were made by first-time grant recipients. In my opinion, ALL of the burn-bots were really well done, and I'm thrilled with the variety and diversity Burning Man chose to circle the Man for this year's theme, "I, Robot."
Q: How long did it take you to build?
A: All the artists were told July 6th whether or not we got a grant. That gave me 44 days to complete the project. I finished on the 40th day and presented Squidartha to our local burner community in Portland that evening, at our weekly social at A Roadside Attraction.
Q: I love the eyes! What's their story?
A: Whimsy spent a couple of days first sketching/drawing, and then painting the eyes. Wolf did the carving of the facial lines. Our goal was to provide the sense of self-awareness, while still showing Squidartha was a mechanical being. We found that practically every nuance in the drawing mattered: size of eyes, proportion of pupil, eyelid design, shape and direction of "age" lines, eyebrow curves. One funny anechdote: when the eyes were finished, we turned the face upside down and were amused to see the expression change to something more crazed and demonic!
Q: Who did the lights?
A: I (Wolf) did. I'm an electrical engineer and specialize in animation patterns using Arduinos and programmable LED strip. There were nine patterns in Squidartha's coding; four were made specifically for Squidartha, four were adapted from "Temple To Valhalla" which was the temple at Portland's SOAK regional in spring 2017. The last pattern was "Fire 2014" adapted from Arduino code off the internet.
Q: The control panel had funny writing on it. What was that?
A: In the mythos of Squidartha, the writing was "whale-speak" and the control panel was what mankind wanted to tell the cetations when Squidartha encountered them. The writings actually spell out meanings in English; they are a cryptogram. The key can be found on the panel!

Control panel showing "whale-speak" - Click for details!

Physical Description...

(excerpt from the original proposal to Burning Man Pavilion Arts Committee)

“Squidartha” is an upright squid-shaped robotic sculpture standing approx. 6’6” tall, with two segmented tentacles (arms) and four support legs. These appendages will be arranged in a Lotus posture (or at least as best a squid can do). Tentacles will have robotic pincer claws at terminus.

The body will consist of bent wood planks over a circular bulkhead framework. Three or four lateral bands with rivets will stretch across the planks, giving Squidartha a somewhat robot steam-punky aesthetic. Program sequenced LED lights will be installed laterally on plank edges, and will gracefully display rippling patterns across its body, as real squids do as their way of communication.

Materials: Primarily solid wood (maple, pine, cedar) – no plywood will be used! Hardware limited to screws, washers, and 3/16” steel rod for animatronic axles and leg stiffeners. Many parts will be laser cut for precision. We will use blue & brown milk paint to give an aged appearance. Some metallic paint may be used to accentuate parts. Wiring will be minimal, only enough for lighting and motors. We will source LED components that use only minimal plastics.

Comments on Building Techniques...

The legs and body panels will be cut using an industrial laser cutter, then shaped by hand on a bandsaw and sander.
Electronics will probably feature the Teensy 3.2 with OctoWS2811 library, so that fast parallel updates across the 200-300 LEDs will facilitate high frame rates for smooth pattern changes.
Probably very little glue will be used. The bolts/rivets used for the steampunk look on the body panels will likely be functional hardware holding the body to the bulkheads.
The model (shown above) took three days to build, really just a scattering of an hour here and there. Since the model's body panel and legs were prototyped as laser cutter vector files, it should be possible to simply scale the vector files to make the actual scuplture.
Red cedar has been chosen for the predominant wood for three reasons: (1) it is plentiful and inexpensive here in the northwest; (2) it cuts very well in the laser cutter; (3) of the American softwoods it is one of the most flexible.

Challenges...

Very tight timeframe. Between proposal acceptance and DP-day (departure from Portland day) is only 44 days.
Relatively small budget. Although material expenses should not exceed grant amount, a lot of travel expenses will be out-of-pocket.
No plywood can/will be used. As this piece involves curved wood, thin plywood would have been a natural choice. Instead, a thin solid wood (probably cedar) will be used with kerfing, steam bending or some other standard woodworking technique.
Electronics design constraints. Must use minimal amount of plastic. Also route wires to avoid any visitor exposure to high AC voltages. Possibly put power supply(ies) in the plinth under the sculpture.
Moving (animatronic) parts. Must be designed to operate in harsh desert conditions for one full week, 24 hours a day. Note that animatronic movements are momentary, not continuous.
Transportation 500+ miles PDX->BRC.

About the Artist...

"Wolf" is an artist originally from the D.C. area who moved to Portland, OR in early 2017. He's been to Burning Man every year since 2009. Skills include electronics design, LED animation sequence programming, woodworking, metal fabrication, laser cutter art. He has an Electrical Engineering degree from Virginia Tech. His previous Burning Man Arts honorariums are:

Hall of Mirrors Arcade (2015)
Macabre Penny Arcade (2015)
Emotional Journeys (2017) with Whimsy

In addition to Burning Man, Wolf's art pieces have appeared at Playa del Fuego (DE), Freeform Arts Festival (PA), PEX Summer Festival (MD), The Hermitage Museum (VA), SOAK regional burn (OR) and SHIFT Festival (OR).

More about Alexander "Wolf" Griffin (click here)

Progress...

Monday, 18 June 2018 - Model completed, proposal 2nd draft completed
Wednesday, 20 June 2018 - Proposals due
Friday, 6 July 2018 - Notice of acceptance received
Sunday, 8 July 2018 - Materials purchases began; wood, lights, steel
Monday 9 July - sourced Teensy 3.2 and began prototyping some patterns on a flat panel
Tuesday, 10 July 2018 - this cheap-n-simple web page was created and first published
Wednesday, 11 July 2018 - Full scale prototype construction began (body and first tentacle)
Monday, 16 July - Acquired steam bending machine and made steam box. Successfully bent the body panels.
Monday 23 July - First partial assembly of body, 3 of 4 bulkheads
Tuesday 24 July - prototyping the leg segments, tried 1/4" steel rod but will move to 3/16"
Wednesday 25 July - remake Bulkhead #3 (2mm larger) and design/cut Bulkhead #4. Discovered "lath screws" at Home Depot!!
Monday 6 August - "head" section made from 6/4 cedar plank (literally, an 8' 2x6 used for fencing) by forming into an octagon and cutting it round
Tuesday 7 August - struggling with the FastLED library, trying to make the lights dimmer! They're so bright....
Wednesday 8 August - Legs assembled onto head section. Initial prefit where legs, head and body stacked for first time.
Thursday 9 August - decided not to paint the body, but will use copper tape to accentuate the lateral banding. May still tint one side of tentacles.
Friday 10 August - lateral banding complete on body, with copper accent. Fin prototype designed and being fitted. Teensy programming continues...
Saturday 11 August - designed, programmed and built the Control Panel (interactive component) all in one day - whew!
Tuesday 14 August - Squidartha complete! Presented to Portland Burner community that evening
Monday 20 August - Wolf left for Reno
Saturday 25 August - Squidartha installed at Man Pavilion at 2:30 point
Saturday 1 September, approx. 10PM - burned with The Man.

Final Notes

I am *very* grateful to the Burning Man Arts committee for supporting arts on such a large and generous scale, and for giving artists such as myself the opportunity to dream and build what we dream.
My partner, Whimsy, has and continues to be supportive of my art endeavors, for which I am eternally grateful. An artist herself, she has made many contributions to Squidartha and to many other projects the past two years.
Wolf has been listening to: Trap, Heavy Metal, Punk, R&B, Deep House, EDM Chill, but mostly Dutch House ("Dirty Electro") during the project's construction.