The woman and the computer person
did
seem to be having a typical conversation two strangers would share.
The idea behind this musical
instrument
was that mice would run on the wheels, which would trip solenoids to
ring the bells. I can't report on the quality of the music because
while I was there none of the mice were up for giving me a performance.
There were a number of other "wild
edges" in the room. The only one that was impossible to photograph with
my equipment was a sculpture that had been built using integrated
circuit techniques. To the naked eye the artwork looked like a grain of
sand. There was a high power microscope you could look at it through.
That way, it had some resemblance to a cross between an Anastazi cliff
dwelling and a grand piano.
Looking at this stuff, I remember
visiting the Lace Museum in The Old Mill back in the early 1980s. The
placards had explained how much of a labor of love making good lace
was. I got to thinking that it was possible to make a lace making
computer driven machine. Then I thought about how I would be putting
all those craftspeople out of work. Being an electrical engineer lost
some of its luster for me then.
