Career break
2013 – 2014
Over the course of about six months I meandered around the southeastern United States on a motorcycle. I would ride for a stretch and then spend a few weeks or months in each location to immerse myself.
I spent an absolutely gorgeous autumn riding through the Appalachians, and gained a deep appreciation for the natural environment, the people, and the music there. This ride was the direct inspiration for my later work on eye-controlled cameras.
As the cold weather began to set in, I decided to head south in search of warmer climates and live music. I scoured the local music scenes from Nashville to Memphis to Clarksdale to New Orleans, and ultimately back to Nashville.
My companion on this adventure was a 2001 Suzuki SV650, a reliable road bike that I tried to pretend was a dual sport. Since it seemed like no one else was interested in mounting hard cases to an SV, I improvised by chopping up a rack for a different bike and welding adapter brackets to it. Thank you to Caribou Luggage Systems for providing some very hackable kits for converting water-tight Pelican cases into motorcycle panniers.
I also designed and built a device charging system into one of the cases. This relay-switched, multi-output DC regulator kept my laptop, phone, and spare batteries powered off the motorcycle battery while riding.
In New Orleans I found some time to do a bit of crude woodworking. The colors and patterns around the Marigny neighborhood are lovely.
