Video Maker Joe is a 'Maker' Sculptor (Video) 16
Joe Gilmore: I am Joe Gilmore. J-O-E G-I-L-M-O-R-E. I display art under the name of Maker Joe.
Tim: Perfect. Joe, in this booth here at Maker Faire, you have some very interesting sculptures. Can you talk about their origins? How did you come to be making these?
Joe Gilmore: The story I give people is I tell them this is what happens if an engineer gets an art degree because he is too lazy for math. So I’ve always been making things my whole life, by taking things apart, just have a pathological curiosity about how things work. So I would take things apart, see an interesting piece, and see how I can use it in something else and just these things just kind of grew organically from that.
Tim: Can you show us some examples of what you made?
Joe Gilmore: Sure, this is probably one of my most popular pieces at the Maker Faire. I call it the most important machine ever created. I don’t know what it does I just know it is important so.
Tim: What are some components that went into that?
Joe Gilmore: This is the result of scavenging from typewriters, sewing machines, a lawn mower, the motor came from a photocopy machine. The base and the dial over here came from an old television set.
Tim: And when did you first make this one here?
Joe Gilmore: This one was completed about two years ago, but say the whole process of making it took about a year. Because it is not a linear process, just start to finish. There is a lot of trial and error, and trying to improvise, putting pieces together, taking them back and apart, trying to find things that fit.
Tim: Can you talk about this one behind you on the wall over here?
Joe Gilmore: Sure, this is what I like to call my creepier side, but I’ve taken apart a lot of things, but I don’t limit myself to mechanical imagery, I wanted to get more organic and the center piece here is this is a skull of some animal that was found in the woods, just kind of a biomechanical conglomeration.
Tim: One of my favorites here is this one here, the wooden triangle? And these pieces are bicycle pieces.
Joe Gilmore: No most of these structures came from typewriters. There are the chain is actually a smaller piece from a standard bicycle. This is the only part I actually specifically purchased. It is hard to find. The rest of it was scavenged parts. It is probably one of my favorite of the kinetic sculptures.
Tim: Are most of yours kinetic?
Joe Gilmore: No, not most of them. The kinetic ones take so long to build because of the trial and error process of getting things to fit, but they do seem to get the most attention obviously so.
Tim: You got any more favorites of the ones you got on display over here?
Joe Gilmore: I am very proud of my epic pun here. It is a skull made of resistors. So I call it ‘Futile’. Because resistance is futile.
Tim: One that I saw yesterday that I really liked is this one you call the quantum centrifuge. It looks to me like typewriter parts. Is that what these are?
Joe Gilmore: Yeah, these are scavenged keys from about three IBM Selectric typewriters. The names and the fake science that goes along with it, they come along after the fact, I don’t build these with an intended title in mind. I just kind of made that up, just to add some interest to it.
Tim: Would you take apart a working Selectric for it?
Joe Gilmore: I have. I have sacrificed them. But fortunately my son collects vintage technology and we have about three working Selectrics right now and now we have sacrificed a few too. Because there was a time when you could find them at thrift stores for $5, and I snatched them up.
Tim: Are there any really unusual places that you have gone here for raw material?
Joe Gilmore: Just things that I have taken apart around the house. Sometimes I am walking down the street and I see a piece of rusty metal on the ground and I will pick it up. Just anything is fair game.
Tim: Is this your full time day job?
Joe Gilmore: No I have a day job now I work for a company building 3D printers, Hyrel 3D. So I build machinery. That’s how I pay the bills. And this is more of a passion I do this because I have to—it is an obsession.
That's real art right there! (Score:3)
As bedazzling and cool that is however, very few takes us electronic artists seriously. I have been exhibiting my art (I've done that stuff for years too, just like Maker-Joe), except...I have my own variation where every gadget must "live forever" and be alive somehow. People think it's cute, the kids love it - but the "elite", you know...those people "who-understands-art"...or at least THINK they do, are the ones that deems all of that for amateurish gibberish if you haven't attended some well known famous art-academy.
It's like those people who can pay millions for a white canvas with some red paint splattered onto it, something that took the "artist" 1 minute to do. And the "Elitist" will see and read just about anything into the "could-have-been-done-by-a-3-year-old" works of "art", and the poor misunderstood artist can live a lavish life on the emperors new clothes, and his kids too.
Do I sound like a bitter failed artist to you? Not even close, the thing is...just like Maker-Joe...and thousands of fellow makers all over the world, I'm just having fun when I make these things. It's what makes me tick, and makes me want to wake up in the morning, dirt poor perhaps...but at least we have fun!
Re: (Score:2)
It's like those people who can pay millions for a white canvas with some red paint splattered onto it, something that took the "artist" 1 minute to do. And the "Elitist" will see and read just about anything into the "could-have-been-done-by-a-3-year-old" works of "art", and the poor misunderstood artist can live a lavish life on the emperors new clothes, and his kids too.
It's a lot more complicated than that. Expensive art is an investment, and it has become quite sophisticated over the years. In the 70s and 80s, people were buying art when they believed the value would go up over the next few years. Now, prospective buyers have to think about what people who may buy from them later on will think of their own potential buyers (etc.), because nobody is interested to be at the end of a buying chain and be stuck with an overpriced item. It's like the castle in the air theory o
Re: (Score:2)
Expensive art is an investment, and it has become quite sophisticated over the years. In the 70s and 80s, people were buying art when they believed the value would go up over the next few years. Now, prospective buyers have to think about what people who may buy from them later on will think of their own potential buyers (etc.), because nobody is interested to be at the end of a buying chain and be stuck with an overpriced item. It's like the castle in the air theory on steroids - everybody knows that everybody else is in the business of buying to sell later, and the market goes nuts.
Not arguing against that, if you're referring to Monet masterpieces and its likes, but not the art any monkey could have done.
Re: (Score:2)
Expensive art is an investment, and it has become quite sophisticated over the years. In the 70s and 80s, people were buying art when they believed the value would go up over the next few years. Now, prospective buyers have to think about what people who may buy from them later on will think of their own potential buyers (etc.), because nobody is interested to be at the end of a buying chain and be stuck with an overpriced item. It's like the castle in the air theory on steroids - everybody knows that everybody else is in the business of buying to sell later, and the market goes nuts.
Not arguing against that, if you're referring to Monet masterpieces and its likes, but not the art any monkey could have done.
Modern art is like penny stock. Most of it is garbage (financially speaking) but a single hit can make you a fortune. A Monet painting is more like a blue chip. Low risk, low reward.
Joe may never... (Score:2)
create a Mars colony, build the tallest skyscraper in North America, run a marathon, take a shower, get a girlfriend, be employed, move more than 50 meters at a time,
eat healthy, have basic decency, or grasp what "personal space" is but doggonit, I think he's great!