[Shemker394]

dear friends,

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-992...eed&subj=crave

be well, be love.

david

arcattack brings singing tesla coils to the masses

arcattack's performances include two singing tesla coils, a robotic drum set and a pvc pipe organ.

when you think of things related to science, music may not make the top of your list.

but the folks involved with a small collective called arcattack would like you to change your associations.

arcattack is all about one thing: building singing tesla coils and crafting entire musical performances around them. for some time, at events like dorkbot and other geekfests, the team--joe diprima, oliver greaves, and tony smith--had been pulling off straightforward demonstrations of their creations. but they were synchronizing the machines to other people's music and not adding much in the way of their own innovations besides the singing tesla coils themselves.

now, however, arcattack has a whole ensemble mixing science and music and plastic--the tesla coils, a pipe organ made from pvc, a robotic drumset--and putting it all together in short concerts with original music.

"we've got a solid 45 minutes or so of original content," diprima, an engineer at the university of texas, told me recently, "and sometimes we'll incorporate themes from popular songs or do mixups with video game music.