The vulture pictured above is a virtual model that I created with a program called Rhino 3-D. When this sculpture is complete it will exist in real space and intermittently flap its wings, move its head and beak, and periodically let out a shrill cry.
Some of the vulture’s parts will be made with a rapid prototype printer and some with a CNC router. I’m collaborating with a small team: Steven Shooter–a mechanical engineer, Joe Hass–an electrical engineer, and Aurimas Liutikas–a computer science grad student. Steven is currently working on the mechatronics that will enable the bird to move about. Once we have put all of the vulture’s physical components in place, Joe, Aurimas, and I will work to program the microcontroller Arduino “brain” so that the motors will actuate at fixed intervals.
Just as an individual person’s existence must eventually come to an end, it seems likely that human-kind too will eventually cease to be. Looking at the fossil record isn’t terribly reassuring; there are a prodigious number of creatures that used to exist, but are no more. When one pauses to consider the array of events that could interrupt humans’ heyday, it’s a bit surprising that we’ve lasted this long. At any moment, our planet could be struck by a gargantuan asteroid that would turn our skies black and create megatsunamis thousands of meters high–effortlessly leveling all of our human constructions. Or we could become victims of our own innovation by a gradual extinction through the effects of global warming, or a more immediate annihilation through biological warfare or a global nuclear meltdown. Or, as is supposed by some religious doctrines, we could be done in by a supernatural intervention of some sort. This list of festive grand finales could go on an on, but this short one is probably sufficient to remind one that we are fortunate to be in existence at all today.
While a typical cuckoo clock cheerfully demarcates the forward progression of time, this vulture clock will measure a countdown to the eventual demise of humanity. Such a sinister responsibility couldn’t possibly be assigned to the benign cuckoo, and so the vulture will serve as a stand-in, measuring the progression of time not with melodic cooing, but with shrill screeching, with the flapping of its ominous wings, and with the brandishing of its awful hooked beak.
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