OnlineMetals.com - Made With Metals Ep. 4 | Seismic Data Music Box

It really is an artist's dream to like have access to this kind of talent. Between the people and the machines, you know, this is a whole world that's opened up. - I'm Sam Stubblefield. I'm an artist. And I work a lot in architecture, music and fine art. And I like combining those and seeing what happens. This is the scratch track I sent them. - On this project, Sam reached out to me because he wanted to build this housing I guess we could call it for this digital sound installation. Ultimately, this thing's a housing for a computer. So the computer will pull in data from seismic sensors and from train line movement all over New York, making music out of that motion. Of course I was on board making something cool. It goes to, you know, New York recording studio sounds like a cool project to me. (upbeat music) - This whole object was made from 304 stainless. I wanted something that had that sort of materiality, the train. I wanted something that had a sort of lasting kind of quality. - Joe is the perfect person for this project. - A lot of times what happens is people are really creative and they get big ideas and then they don't know how to move that into reality. And so you really need someone who's on both sides of that. - Working with Sam is fun. He's a very collaborative person. He's very interested in hearing people's ideas and is very dedicated to the final product. - And when I came to Joe, the finish was pretty wide open. - What I like about this is... - The cool thing about it is that, you know, through the process we're kind of testing different finishes looking at different stages. You know, that's where collaboration gets really cool. And it's like not only a collaboration between a couple of people, but also just the process. (machinery sounds) - Some machine parts, in fact, a lot of machine parts are just sort of super gratifying. That guy is Sean, who's our shop lead. Actually finished the whole part for us. You know, it was funny when the part was done. You just didn't want to give it up. You know, it's like, come on, dude let go, let go. - Came off the lathe and it just looked so gorgeous. Just looked just right, so we really haven't done a whole lot to it since then. - We set it up for a really tight weld joint just a 16th by 16th on eighth inch material, which means that we had to notch it one 16th of an inch to let it over. (knife sharpening) The idea of creating a very small weld zone, so we have a very small weld and bring it out to a very sharp corner. - You know, just the way that it was sawed through in the front end. It was just this nice, like, you know fold it up and click it into place. - Now going back, once that clicked together, it was really nice. - This is a removable face. - Okay. - In this particular project here, I wanted to bring in Nate. He's an expert welder and he's also a friend of mine. (welding sounds) So basically he ran all the tig welding on this thing. (machinery sounds) (garage opening) (machinery sounds) (welding sounds) There was a few trips back and forth from the welder to the sanding table, back to the welder, back to the sanding table. Just kind of the nature of this type of welding where you're trying to bring a weld to a super sharp corner. - Now that I've seen it at this point, I'm definitely on board with making it ridiculous. - And that seamless look is always important to try to achieve to me at least. You know, if you can make things look great versus just good, you know, that's always a good option. - I'm just gonna apply a little, a little pressure. - You know working with a record label for this project, It was really cool to think about the potential for this connecting with so many people. This piece will live in the record labels' studio space. - Plugging it in now so we will be ready to roll - When it finally gets put together, hours and hours and hours of work that all comes together this to this final part, that's like, yeah, exactly. - Very nice. - It does give this sort of appearance of, you know, difficult to make. You know, that how did you make this is like the best part of this piece. This thing is going to be completely enigmatic. - Couldn't be more excited about seeing it come together. And you know, the biggest problem is I've got to give this thing away. - Yeah. Sometimes we make two of the things we like, just so we can have one, but not in this case, it's a bit much. - Little bit much. (upbeat music)