The Kite - AKA- Hawk Eye

            The Kite is a 3.5m2 Double Parasled Kite. Its made from Blue Nylon, and Fiberglass Spars. I downloaded the Basic Pattern here http://www.kites.org/tmr/parasled_engl.htm  Lindsey and I cut the pattern while adding seams where necessary and with her instruction and expertise took turns sewing it all together.  Lindsey’s prior experience with shirt sleeves helped greatly because planning all the seems was complicated involving flipping it inside out over and over again. We used scrap canvas and a tarp grommet kit to reinforce the tie points, then a simple swivel clip was used to attach it to 200lb kite line. We then improvised two very simple tails on the road. These are made of two strong nylon ribbons and are attached with safety pins to the end cells of the kite. The ribbons worked well to stabilize the kite in flight, with them in place and a little experimentation with the leads we were able to get the kite into stable flight. It pulled great in high-winds to a point where both hands were needed to hold the reel. After a few minutes of stable flight and some good lift we would attach camera and rig.

A few shots of making the Kite.

Lindsey plotting the pattern

Learning to Sew

The Kite in Flight 

John Ruskin

We want one man to be always thinking, and another to be always working, and we call one a gentleman, and the other an operative; whereas the workman ought often to be thinking, and the thinker often to be working, and both should be gentlemen, in the best sense. As it is, we make both ungentle, the one envying, the other despising, his brother; and the mass of society is made up of morbid thinkers and miserable workers. Now it is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labour can be made happy, and the two cannot be separated with impunity 


John Ruskin, The Works of John Ruskin ed. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn (39 vols.) (George Allen, 1903-12) vol. 10, p. 201

Cedric Price - The Fun Palace

The Fun palace: An unenclosed steel structure, fully serviced by traveling gantry cranes the building comprised a 'kit of parts': prefabricated walls, platforms, floors, stairs and ceiling modules that could be moved and assembled by the cranes.

Cedric Price's central thesis was that a building should (I think he meant would) only last as long as it is useful.

"Choose what you want to do - or watch some else doing it. Learn how to handle tools, paint, Babies, machinery, or just listen to your favorite tune. Dance, talk or be lifted up to where you can see how other people make things work. Sit out over space with a drink and tune in to what's happening elsewhere in the city, Try starting a riot or beginning a painting - or just lie back and stare at the sky."

 -Cedric Price via Design museum

The Kite Rig

Here it is in all its glory.

Its made almost entirely of scrap aluminum bent, drilled, and bolted together to make a camera rig that can pan and tilt. The Camera is a Cannon Power shot loaded with a CDHK intervalometer script which allows it to act as a time lapse camera set to take a picture every 5 seconds. I have a 2 channel Traxxis 2215 receiver with a 27 mhz crystal which controls the two servos.

The large gears were custom made on the laser cutter downstairs, the smaller ones were salvaged from an old Tyco RC car that I had lying around.  Then I used key rings and fishing swivels to attach the suspension to the strings. 

Close up of the Receiver and Power supply. 

This is the blocking used to quickly attach the rig to the kite string. 

Abstract - Revised

Hack / Renovate/ Reuse

Since the advent of human evolution we as a species have made technological innovation our primary survival technique. Over the last one hundred thousand years humans have used technology to exploit and over come almost every aspect of the natural world, we have become a species of inventors and makers. The making of complex tools can be traced back to the first forms of ritual and could have led to the development of language as a means of managing the manufacture of tools over complex supply lines in early human history.[1] This development of technology gave birth to civilizations, cultures and cities.

In the last two hundred years the fabrication of tools has evolved into a massive manufacturing industry that puts the user at odds with the maker. This conflict has led to capitalism, globalization and a civilization based on an unsustainable cycle of mass production, consumption, planned obsolescence and mass disposal, where we continue to convert precious natural resources into refuse. This self-destructing cycle has also led to a number of distressing socio-economic situations including the growing wealth gap, the deskilling of workers world wide, increasing proletarianization, as well as a global state of unhappiness and ignorance.[2]

The thesis explores the design, and manufacture of complex tools within our contemporary civilization. These tools range from industrial buildings through to robotics and computer programming. However, the thesis will examine these tools through the lens of the current global Do-It-Yourself movement, a movement based in the ideas of reskilling, collaboration, re-use, renovation, invention and repair, in order to frame open-source practices and collective invention as a conduit toward individual autonomy.

The thesis will then extend the lessons of the desktop DIY movement towards an open source architecture and urbanism. Where the residents are in charge and capable of making the places where they live. This extension will allow the thesis to re-examine the role of the architect as facilitator, mediator, coordinator and teacher within the emerging open source culture. In this culture, the maker is also the user and the collective becomes the inventor and benefactor.

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[1] Taylor, Timothy. The Artificial Ape: How Technology changed the course of human evolution. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. P 139

[2] Gautier, Julien. Manifesto 2010. October 5, 2010. http://arsindustrialis.org/manifesto-2010 (accessed September 13, 2011).

The Kite - 1

The kite worked!

During our August road trip Lindsey and I managed to fly the kite 4-5 times with the rig and camera, once we forgot to the camera on, but the other 4 times we flew it worked. The Launch with the Rig and camera attached was at the side of highway 13, somewhere in Saskatchewan. This was the time we didn't get shots from the Air, Lindsey Did take these of me testing the wind though.

The next day in the eastern block of Grasslands National Park we flew it again. 

We then drove to the west block or Grasslands and flew it there also, We flew it twice, the first time the wind died before we could really launch the rig.

 I tried again the next morning and the wind held. We got the rig up about 200', these are great photos! 

On the way back we had a little extra time getting to the next camp site and flew it one more time over a random farmers field. 

I will try to document the rig later. 

-DS