The PROGMOD is a seven and a half foot tall welded wire and plastic, programming module that electronically duplicates the Century of Light. Like the downtown sculpture, it uses radar, a microphone, and a photocell to sense, hear, and see things. In response, it creates abstract patterns on its ruby red screen (which duplicates the CENTURY OF LIGHT'S mandala,) while displaying data on its video monitor.
The front of the PROGMOD is designed for sitting at and writing programs. Its monitor and keyboard are right at hand for easy programming and editing.The creation of the electronics and the program for these two sculptures was a collaboration between systems designers, Rene Vega, Randy Mims, and myself. The program involves a high level interpretive language created specifically for this project. A central feature of the program is what the collaborators call the Score.
The Score is a list of instructions that determines what patterns will
be created, in which sequence, for how long, and on what sensory data they
will be dependent. The Score is written in a fairly understandable, yet
versatile language and is easily modified. It is anticipated that many
different Scores will be written by the collaborators and others in the
years to come. Once a Score is written on the PROGMOD, it can be transferred
to the CENTURY OF LIGHT.
In
addition, the PROGMOD can be connected directly to the CENTURY OF LIGHT
for convenient "on site" program modification. For extended programming
seesion, the PROGMOD includes components to sharpen pencils and make buttered
popcorn. In addition to its function as a programming module, it can ring
its bell, rotate is Yin Yang and inflate its giant blue tube.
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