Thursday, September 19, 2013

The GolemDrone Project is a presentation of ceramic figures as if they are a new form of self defense weapon. Tod3d Industries is the small arms manufacturer of the GolemDrone self defense system, please find the complete story further down in this post.








The GolemDrone
GD132013001
FOR YOUR PROTECTION




I first came across the story of the Golem while reading a contemporary novel. In that re-telling of the Jewish Myth, a rabbi formed the Golem from clay into a 9-foot tall giant and then brought it to life by writing the name of god or life on a piece of paper attached to its forehead. This was to protect the town of Prague and its people from anti-Jewish forces invading the village. Until this reading I had never heard of any reference from the Judeo-Christian religions “animating” anything. The more that I researched this mythology, the more my interest grew. The Golem was promised as a creature that was unstoppable, defense-only, and easily controlled.  The myth concludes with the Golem vanquishing the enemy, but he also falls in love with a woman, becomes jealous, kills some of its own people, and eventually has to be stopped by changing the word on his forehead to death, or removing the paper completely.


At the same time that I read about the Golem, the United States “lost” one of its Drones in Iran. The Iranians claimed to have hacked and plucked it from the sky.  In the photographs, the drone resembles a large toy plane, and is the color of clay.  I began rethinking the promise of the drones: they are unstoppable, they are defense-only and could never be used against us. They are so technologically advanced that only we can use/control them.


Continuing my research on the Golem myth, I learned of a Golem story that gets re-told in Czech in the 1920’s as the play R.U.R, or Rossum’s Universal Robots. This is the first time the word Robot is used, and in the play the creatures are more like cyborgs, flesh and machine. They run amok and throw a rebellion. I think this is our collective fear of Drone rebellion.

Becoming more aware of the need for a better security system at home—the rise of bike thefts on my street, the continued break-ins into cars—I took note of other defense systems from the past:

-The Terracotta Army of Ying Zheng
-Voodoo dolls of West Africa and New Orleans
-the Six Million Dollar Man
-Car alarms of the late 1980’s


When people of many different times thought about the advances of the future, they thought “bigger, better”. As we have seen from examples like computers, space travel, and power-tools, the future will be smaller.  By a process that we call Mystical Miniaturization, we are able to present the GolemDrone at only 36” in height. The Golem/Drone (GD132013001) has a target window in its forehead. Every device comes with its first defensive target “Factory Set”, however it is a scroll, with room for 3 or 4 more targets to be inscribed.  Targets are to be of things that you or your community need PROTECTION FROM.  Targets can be vague and general (evil, sickness, death) or can be very specific ( ex-wife or husband, badge # 36721, the tumor in my head, the rats in the attic). In many ways this could be compared to a voodoo doll, but with better results.



GD132013001-GD132013100

The Golem/Drone is a personal and community defense system. Shipped to you in a wooden crate, and packed in excelsior. Every Golem/Drone is 100% made by hand by me. Each package comes with one figure, one controller, one wall hanger, and one manual. The GD132013001 is cast from liquid clay and fired to over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Here at TOD3D INDUSTRIES, I specialize in a process called “one of a kind mass production”, which means that they are all the same, and they are all different. The expected production run of the Golem/Drone is 100 units.








Saturday, April 30, 2011


Much work is happening here in preparation of the fair and festival season. Large bikes are getting new parts, and street tires, and the truck is being made ready to transport the contraptions.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Next show is at Flying Goat in Healdsburg.

This show is going to be all Light Boxes made of Steel with LED lights. Show goes up end of January.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Swarm Wall


The show at Swarm Gallery looks good, this show was an experiment for me to see if people really want "cheap art", or at least lower prices in the recession. I will hold out final judgment until the show comes down, but initial readings say that all people want are T-shirts... other people's T-shirts.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Roots of Motive Power






We went up to Willits CA. this last weekend to see the grand "Steam Up".
The place is a collection of steam engines and other turn of the century
equipment, most of which still works. "Big" is an understatement for some
of the stuff there. Some of the wheels were awe inspiring.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Google Street View


When my friend Benjy and I were doing an installation in San Diego,
we spotted the Google Street View car coming down the road. We
waved, and they finally posted the pictures. I think they fuzzed out
our faces... but Benjy is wearing one of my T-shirts, the one with
the Jager-woman on it.