Clutch of Clutches

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During my first week of the residency one of the artists who has a permanent atelier space here, Pierre-Alain Zuber, kindly delivered a whole collection of motor devices, speakers, two gigantic printers and a whole host of other objects that were generously donated to the project by Pierre Veyser.

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While going through the collection, I found a number of these electromagnetic clutches. When testing them with various voltages I found they only function with at least 12 volts and when they do they make a characteristic clicking sound. I discovered four almost identical looking clutches that when tested had a slightly different sound.

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Lining them up it was clear that they should be presented this way, possibly with an LED inside the central hole. The LED lamp fits perfectly.

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The box I have mounted them on was used to bring various components and tools with me from Marseille, but gently amplifies the sound of the clutches when they activate.

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The video documents the clutches activating with a simple random Arduino programme. However I still need to modify this in some ways.