The machine to think of Gladys

“The fridge’s control knob showed 3 (mild cooling) and the water bottle had a sealing plug, a plastic one; in the dining room, a big clock was wind for several days, while the table was cleared; In the library, I must have turned the amplifier off, someone left it on but the turntables stopped playing all of a sudden; the ashtray in the armchair had been emptied; The machine to think of Gladys was on and purred softly, as usual...” Mario Levrero. Uruguay. 1970.

Hardly resisting the temptation to imagine, infer and complete, here it is the machine to think of Gladys, based on Mario Levrero's short story.

The machine has a continuous vibratory sound and a blinking light. A light with patterns that could be decoded to words changed every 12 hours in a positive-negative framework.

The machine to think of Gladys was mounted in a repurposed metal electronic enclosure that used to be part of a communication device, with his own vibrations, desires, ambiguity and misunderstandings.

Parts used

• DF Arduino Uno
• 2 leds
• 220v AC to 12v DC transformer
• Sharp DC motor
• Custom 3d printed parts

Demo

Code snippets

Timer

Serial.println("Reloj cucú: "+String(hours)+":"+String(minutes)); 

   // increase time
   if(millis()-lastTime > 60000){
      minutes++;
      lastTime = millis();
    }
    if(minutes > 60){
      hours++;
      minutes = 0;
    }

  if (hours==(hoursIteration-1)){    
    
    if (currentStory==0) {
      Serial.println("Cambiando a negativo");
      currentStory=1;
      }
    else
    {
      Serial.println("Cambiando a positivo");
      currentStory=0;
      }    
  }// time limit 

Word arrays

char *positiveWords[] = {"casa","camisa","canilla","ventana","persiana",
"lata","cocina","perilla","botella","reloj","mesa","amplificador","tocadiscos",
"cenicero", "ventanita","cigarrillos","puerta","despertador","almohadas"  
};

char *negativeWords[] = {"ventana","caballo","bañera","canilla","enredaderas",
"lata","cáscaras","yerba","botella","vino","moscas","cucú","serpiente",
"mesa", "bombacha","habano","pared","cama","cajon","preservativos","piyama",
"ropero","ambulancia"  
};

Links

Short story by Mario Levrero

Rayuelomatic The Klausner Machine Nyctograph Raymond Roussel Rolodex