Got a working square wave oscillator soldered onto a board now – it’s output seems to be quite hot, but that can be solved later down the line if needs be. Now ideally I would build a VCF and then a triangle wave oscillator to slowly modulate the VCF. And then do it all again 2 more times.

Once the VCF and triangle oscillator are operational, replicating them should not be difficult – maybe an afternoons work? I hope to get the filter down today, the triangle oscillator can wait until tomorrow.

[written 4 days before gallery install, meant to be posted then. how funny it is, seeing myself thinking that I can realistically design and make a VCF and triangle wave oscillator in that time, when it took every ounce of my being to build just two square wave oscillators in time]

The installation of my work went fairly smoothly, in hindsight. I made some decisions that seemed natural at the time though I would’ve completely forgotten about them had I not documented my thought process and physical progress within the space.

Here I am, pictured setting up my workstation for the week. I spent most of my time at the gallery soldering and testing these two oscillators; they gave me a lot of trouble. I had created a schedule for myself – finish soldering the oscillators on Wednesday, work on setting up the train sequencing on Thursday and Friday, stay late to finalise the looks on Friday evening. By Thursday daytime I was over-schedule and had not yet completed the oscillators, but managed to get one working well and one juuuust working enough to sound.

I altered my idea somewhat during the installation process, simplifying some aspects and altering the aesthetic choices slightly. It began as a project about early memories, but as I constructed it I realised that this had almost nothing to do with any of my own early memories – I never played with toy trains, and it didn’t take me back to my childhood at all. However, setting up my oscillators and making them work with the train felt like a liberating form of playtime that I hadn’t experienced for a while. Hence the adjustment of my concept to focus on childlike playing, casting off the shroud of adulthood to rekindle the curiosity and glee of my more diminutive years.