The Computer Head - Origins
There's always a project happening. Sometimes it's just brainstorming a story. Sometimes it's opening a music rehearsal space in my hometown. It could be playing with model trains. Whatever, ya know? I like doing things. I really like learning things. I also like attention. I'll admit it. It energizes me. I mention liking attention because of the conflux of attention and doing things.
That conflux? Cosplay for no reason. Sure, going to anime conventions or whatever is cool, but what if you could just go downtown dressed up like Sonic the Hedgehog for no reason? That's probably a little ambitious for my taste, but hey. So I created my own computer head. What is a computer head? It's when your head is a computer. The computer head is a part of "object heads." The most notable example I can think of is Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill series. I don't know if he exactly counts, but it's still a good example. Oh! What about Mac Tonight of McDonald's fame? He had a moon for a head. Another notable example is Yoko Taro, a Japanese video game director. Here's a list on TV Tropes of Non-Human Head characters.
We have to fast forward a bit because I am on on the third iteration of my own computer head. The first version was a Macintosh SE from around 1987. I am sure someone out there will be upset about this, but I bought it for "parts," ripped those parts out, and threw them away. This left me with just the shell. For the screen I took some tinted plexiglass and glued it in place. To give it an authentic curve to the screen, I used a heat gun to heat up the plexiglass and let it sag a bit. I thought that was pretty smart! And it looked authentic too! The problem was it was extremely heavy. Not great for wearing for any period of time. This one was basically just a prototype. I never ended up wearing it out and about for this reason.
Next up was what I called Mk I. I wish I had started this writing back then and had better documented the process. It was a very fun thing. The biggest hurdle to MkI was that I wanted to 3D print the computer head. My assumption was that the 3D printed version would be much lighter. The issue was that I had no idea how to do 3D modeling. Except, not an issue. Again, I love to learn.
The first step was figuring out which program to model in. I don't remember the exact series of events that lead to my choice, but I eventually wound up choosing Fusion 360. The first real hurdle was figuring out how to use Fusion 360 for free. I really hate the "product as a service" thing that is so prevalent. I get it, I just hate it. Anyways, maybe I'm just dense, but figuring that was difficult. They definitly want you to pay for it. Luckily after some trial and error I got it sorted, legally (they offer it free for limited use), and managed to save myself something like $80 a month. That is insane.
Learning Fusion 360 wasn't particularly difficult, but it was (and is) very time consuming. And make no mistake, what I have learned in Fusion 360 is very rudimentary. Creating a basic cube, my first goal, was not at all obvious. I like to poke around and try things first, before I start Googling answers. I was hoping for a "cube" button. No such luck. Off to Google I went. I like doing things this way. It lets me get a picture of what I'm working with so that when I start actually looking for answers, I will know what those answers mean.
Without getting deep into the details of how I Google, I got Mk I finished. In the end it was just a cube with a screen on the front. Not a real screen, just a tinted bit of acrylic. It really is very basic. The inside has some foam stuffed in there to make it sort of comfortable. I mean, it isn't at all, but that was the goal. I got to wear the Mk I out to a public event. Had a lot of fun, people asking for pictures etc. It even culminated in local musician and full time cool dude inviting me to be in his music video.
Next time I'll get deeper into Mk II. I'm currently working on it and am excited to share some of the build process with you.
