Talismachine Draft

Here is a proof-of-concept draft I made last night, for the talismachines. The print was designed in Inkscape and laser-printed onto cotton letterhead, then hand-painted over with Bare electrically conductive paint. It includes a coin-cell battery, on-off switch, and white LED from the LilyPad Arduino family. The inverted triangle in the upper-right is an alchemical symbol for blood, and contains a drop of (my) blood.

Talismachine Draft 2

The magical purpose of the talisman is to give “great knowledge and wisdom in mechanical arts,” and it features the sigil of the Goetic demon Barbas (or Marbas). It shows also the hammer and anvil of Tubal Cain, and a classical symbol for fire indicating Hephaestus/Vulcan. Its practical purpose is to experiment with the media. The proper talismachines will be screen-printed on parchment or canvas, and will include a LilyPad microcontroller for more interesting interactions. I may need to run conductive thread behind the parchment, because the Bare Paint rapidly increases its resistance over the lines.

Talismachine Draft 5

Click here for more photos.

Bare Conductive Paint Has Launched!!

Related articles: Conductive Sigils

Bare Conductive creates electrically conductive paint (Bare Paint) and body paint (Bare Skin). I first wrote about BC in 2009, and have been waiting since then for it to become available, which it now has—well, sort of. Bare Paint is available now, and Bare Skin is scheduled to go on sale at the end of the October (according to their website).

This opens up a vast dimension of possibilities for magic sigils and art that interact with electronic components and system.

Electronomicon Preview 1

Here is the first in a series of previews of the Electronomicon that I will be presenting at this year’s Esoteric Book Conference. Click the image to view it full-size in a light box.

Electronomicon Plan

Tickets to the conference are still available, and the art show and book fair are free to the public, so even if you are not ticketed, please feel free to come by and see me and the other artists there.