click for footage of the Lufkin || mov 11.0 MB

Lufkins are a series of small audio organisms, each encased in a 2-3/4”x2-3/4” hand-built wooden cube. The sound they produce is determined by a gene, a series of numbers representing audio samples as in a digital sound file or Compact Disc. These 'genes' are folded back on themselves to create a specific timbre. Viewers can affect the sound produced by the organism by handling the box. This interaction with the sculpture will change the way the 'gene' folds back onto itself thereby changing the sound. The original gene will determine the finite group of sounds that each organism is capable of producing.
The volume of the internal speaker is at a level that requires the handler to bring it close to their ear. Listening to the different sides of the cube changes the nature of the sound as well.
Lufkins are a physical realization of my other gene/delay feedback work; deaf lufkin and stringbeans.
The brain of the Lufkins are SX 28AC microprocessors from Parallax with a noise table and delay feedback loop programmed in Assembly language.

Lufkins will be shown as part of the Newtown Arts Hugely Tiny Festival, February 9 & 10, 2008.