a change of direction

so the project has taken a total change- but, going with the theme of my original idea- i'm just a product of crazy coincedences and i figure i might as well flow with them and see where they take me. this one took me to working with Marie. we realized that we were both working with electricity and had similar ideas so I decided to apply something that I was working on as a side project to her original idea. my original idea will shift into the backburner, only to come back another day, though.
her project idea ties in with ALOT of my own ideas about technology. her ideas are these (this is a huge summery, check out her page for the whole deal): to make a TV in which the viewer makes their own entertainment. she was using a paperclip or steel wire dancer figure and two electromagnets on either side of the dancer so that the viewer can (via a switch) the turn the magents on and off at their will. she also is planning a spotlight over the dancer. the idea has to do with self-dependence, making your own shit, taking into your own hands. Also the idea that we made the TV and know how to work it and fix it.
This lends well into my own idea about technology- which has led me, in the past few months, to figure out how things work. the idea is just that its ridicuolous how much people use in their lives and dont understand. wake up using an alarm clock, bathroom (plumbing), electricity, cars, computers, traffic lights- the list is insanely long. reaching into how foods are made, how products are made, etc. its leading to a society that is so far from any raw materials and is totally codependent. while on one side it makes the society progress quicker and develop, it also loses alot. think of the way societies formed- people lived in houses they built, ate food they hunted/cooked/farmed, used only the products they made- there is something attractive about living in a society that you made. i figure that the way we live is too far from that- but there is noreason why we can't make attempts to understand- this led to my current obsession with www.howstuffworks.com - its great.
this idea lends to the TV- something that SO many people enjoy, use, obsess with, etc- but probably something like a few hundred people in the whole united states actually understand how all the parts work- and so we will be making a TV that we understand. it wont be as complex or, ill behonest, exciting as a real TV- but i made it, i understand it, i can fix it- there will be a pride in it that most people dont have in anything. I amnot by any means a marxist, but marx wrote about worker alienation and one of the important problems with the way society was progressing was that no one owned their own work- in assembly lines people only do a part of the final and no one owns the final project- except for the big bosses and CEOs who don't even know how the product works (thats a good irony and come full circle).
so my part of the project will come from a side project of mine which has developed alot in the past week- it has to do with taking apart little kids musical toys and manipulating the sound, its called circuit bending. the first thing i took apart and starting playing with was a toy guitar, which i found- and started playing with it before i knew what circuit bending was and someone taught me. anyway- that guitar toy will be used a remote control to make music for the dancer. I also might try to make lights in additional colors- in addition to the spotlight.