dead insect

I build unique objects and environments which are sometimes described as art. My work has a theme of hacking – taking simple or everyday objects and re-purposing them to inspire and entertain people. Some recent creations are here:

“Escape”: Installation at the V&A

Escape by Anthony Goh and Neil Mendoza from Neil Mendoza on Vimeo.

In city life, we are constantly surrounded by our own and other people’s mobile phones, which endlessly bleat for attention. This installation takes these familiar, often stressful and annoying sounds, and creates an inverted reality in which these noises pique people’s curiousty, and make them want to use their phones in a playful manner. It’s about taking the worst of modern life – disposable unwanted phones and unwanted noises – and turning them into something beautiful.

Users dial the birds, which ring, and in turn call the other birds in the tree, starting a chorus of mobile birdsong.

“Escape” is consists of a number of individual, autonomous mobile phone bird robots each constructed from parts of old discarded mobile phones and a microcontroller.

Featured on CreativeApplications.net

Collaboration with Neil Mendoza 16b.it

Temporosaurus

“temporosaurus” by Anthony Goh, 2011, 2.5m x 1.5m x 2.5m high, discarded pallets

Temporosaurus is constructed from unwanted forklift pallets. These pallets are temporarily rearranged to give life to a creature of myth – a tyrannosaur – whose purpose is to be ritually burned. From the audience perspective, the fire marks the start of the creature’s life, but as soon as it is lit and becomes alive, it is also simultaneously dying as the flames consume it. So it illustrates that to die beautifully whilst giving warmth and light to others is also to live fully.

Haunted Typewriter

Haunted Typewriter close up from anthony goh on Vimeo

Haunted Typewriter is a 90 year old typewriter, brought to life and imbued with senses and personality, using a microcontroller, 30 odd actuators, and an aggravatingly large number of wires and little bits of metal.

It uses sensors to react to people who approach it, or look at it and communicates by typing. Most of the time it is a fairly grumpy and misanthropic machine.

Read reviews on the BBC News, London Design Festival, and hear an interview with the typewriter on Radio 4

Collaboration with Neil Mendoza 16b.it

Thermoelectric Butterfly LED lamp

This is a lamp made from scavenged parts which uses heat from one candle to generate electricity to power 6 ultra-bright LED butterflies.

Michael Jackson Billie Jean Light Up Shoes

These are shoes attached to LED floor tiles, equipped with a pressure switch so that they light up when you step, just like the Michael Jackson Billie Jean video.

Featured on gizmodo.com

Sum of its pArts

So I now have video from Neil of our installation in action. It’s built on our home made multi-touch screen, which allows users to paint or draw using their hands or an empty brush.

Sum of its pArts from Neil Mendoza on Vimeo.

recycled toy jewellery: triceratops de los muertos

This is a recycled art dinosaur ring, made from unwanted toys found in car boot sales across London. Hand painted in a Mexican style.

LED Jellyfish Costume

This is a visually stunning fancy dress costume using LED rope lights and a plastic washing basin to create a deep sea bioluminescent jellyfish. Designed for a music festival, so good that it spawned a number of clones the next year.

Junk Safety Glass Earrings

The first piece of a plan to make a series of 13 items of jewellery – one representing each Inner City Borough of London, using items I find on the floor in each Borough.

The first piece is these Sterling Silver earrings made from chips of car glass from an accident next to a bus stop on Grove Road, Bow, Tower Hamlets, London.