Museum Interactives


I have been doing interactive exhibition design for over 20 years - helping museums and educational centers surprise, delight, engage, and inform their audiences.

I have designed and built custom electronic circuitry, motion control/robotic devices, and embedded/stand-alone software for clients including The Please Touch Museum, Madrid Abierto, The New York Hall of Science, The Independence Seaport Museum, The Gulf Coast Exploreum, and The Franklin Institute.

This work has benefited from synergy with both my medical electronics career and my fine art practice.
My goal is always to create robust, reliable assemblies with responsive and satisfying user interfaces, designed to power up and function with little or no ongoing support or maintenance.

I am also available for electronic art restoration and conservation projects.

If you have a project you think I can help with, feel free to contact me at:
267.991.4204

Complete the Circuit

Touching the two contact spheres completes the circuit and lights the lamp. Two people can complete the circuit by holding hands or can put themselves in series with both halves of the exhibit to light both bulbs.

Part of the Franklin Institute Electricity Exhibit

 

The Crane Game

Complete overhaul and replacement of the motion control electronics and software.
Diagnosis, restoration, and repair of all hardware.
Software rewritten in PIC-C to replace obsolete firmware.

The Crane Game lets the user control a scale model, 3-axis wharf crane to load and unload a barge and train. When the train has been loaded, it rolls into the shed.

Independence Seaport Museum

 

Static Electricity

Specified, built, and tested 100,000V generator for activating static electric exhibit.
Consulation and analysis of electrical safety and leakage issues

Users press down on the steel ball to turn on the generator and charge themselves with static electricity.
They can then activate the surrounding static electricity demonstrations (or shock their friends!) by touching them.

Part of the Franklin Institute Electricity Exhibit

 

 

Tool Symphony

Custom hardware and software design.

Activating each tool triggers a related sound sample. A sequencer stores, overlays, and repeats the samples to create unique percussive loops.

Morgans Wonderland

Generator Comparison

Hand crank generator lets visitors compare the energy required to illuminate incandescent, fluorescent, and LED light bulbs.

Part of the Franklin Institute Electricity Exhibit

 

Franklin Key

Custom electronics.

The key delivers a static electric shock when touched and simultaneously triggers a lightning flash and thunder sound.

Part of the Franklin Institute Electricity Exhibit

Recreation of Billy Kluver "Dial Y for Sculpture" phone interactive.

Recreated for the "A Happening Place" retrospective at the Gershman Y

By dialing different numbers, visitors can hear artists in the exhibit (including Peter Agostini, Chryssa, Letty Eisenhawer, Cristo, Herb Gesher, Robert Indiana, and Lucas Samaras) discussing their work.

Sample Conservation/Restoration Project

Lila Katzen Light Sculpture

Rewired and installed new electronic ballast to replace original inductive ballast and starter. Added electrical safety enclosure. Cleaned and reused original wiring after inspecting to verify integrity.


Chris Vecchio
Christopher Vecchio

steam punk, steampunk, contemporary art, electronic art, new media, kinetic art, installation art, engineering, chris vecchio, the new craft tradition, steampunk, steam punk