User:Talldean

My name is Dean, and every time I write a blurb about myself, I realize it's kind of tough to do.

I'm originally from Pittsburgh, and moved away for work around 2002. After six years in DC, I'm happy to be back in Pittsburgh, and really enjoying the newfound renaissance I'm seeing in many areas of the city. While in DC, I wound up going to Burningman, which really touched off a desire to work on DIY art projects. My current project was originally described as:

I am interested in building an expandable combination of software and hardware to power a synesthesia effect built inside a geodesic dome. Effectively, every joint of the dome would have a full color low intensity light pointed inwards, and behind every joint would also be a speaker. The sound and light should wrap around three dimensions as a synchronized audio/visual screensaver. It should perhaps plug into something like Ableton Live, and perhaps have an easy way to add new patterns to the effect. This seems like a Lot Of Work, and is currently kicking around as an idea, and the very start of a work-in-progress. This will take me over a year. (It's been three years, and hopefully is getting started again soon.)

As a side project, I worked with a buddy and built a biomechanical power generator using a bicycle, trainer stand, car alternator, charge controller, and a 3" drill bit. Next plan up on that was to build a LED display showing visibly how much energy is being produced (without sapping all the energy!). I'll try and get the pictures up to show this one, as it was a one-day project, but really an interesting application. It kept our music playing while camping for a good amount of time.

Projectish work on the horizon for me:

Take an Arduino and some sensors, and build a robot that aims and fires a watergun at warm-bodied, cat-sized objects that try to get on my desk.

See if I can teach an introductory programming course in a language I know, but aimed at technology I'm not yet familiar with.

Learn to do more large (person-sized) art with metal; I've used metal shop tools to do small work (years ago), but never used large tools to do large cutting, welding, and bending.

Anyways, my biggest complaint on moving back to Pittsburgh was that there wasn't any equivalent of TechShop here. Tracking this group back from a Wired article has made me pretty damn happy, and I'm hopeful that this could turn out to be a really, really interesting group endeavor. I'm interested in doing more hands-on artistic work (metal and woodwork), but don't have the space or all of the tools for it; the reason I choose the projects I do is usually out of availability of resources, which isn't entirely in-line with my motivation. I'm hoping that a collaborative space will open up a few more opportunities all around.

As far as skills, I'm currently a back-end web developer with some front-end skills. I've focused mainly on Java and C#. I've been a system administrator, doing both Windows and *nix work, and am familiar with Apple as well. I've owned and ran a company throwing large parties at nightclubs, and ran a promotions staff of 30+ volunteers. I briefly owned and incorporated a tiny software company doing general webwork. I've driven a taxi, and am conversant with pretty much anyone. I spent three years working as an instructor, and can usually teach what I know.

If anyone's in need of contacting me, my wiki username at Gmail is what you want to use.