This entry was posted on
Friday, November 7th, 2008 at
1:56 pm and is filed
under Guy Fawkes Night.

So who’s going on the bonfire this year?

You are.

That’s right; you, ya bastard.

You are going in the fire, and you are going to burn, and you are going to like it.

More below the fold.

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Meet Bob:

Bob is your personal conduit to a better appreciation of Guy Fawkes Night, and he has been created using the following materials:

|| Limbs & Torso – Standard newspaper-stuffed construction with some recent innovations; we stuffed a pair of tights and then inserted the hips/legs in/through a sleeved leotard, allowing for an easy and flexible merger of the torso and all limbs. Work gloves with elasticised gauntlets provided hands, and the whole unit was then clothed in disposable decorators’ overalls. A cardboard tube, firmly attached to cardboard shoulders, extends into the body as a spine. A slightly smaller tube that supports the head fits into this so the head can be detached for purposes of maintenance, convenience, or discipline.

|| Head – The head is made of a variety of black cardboard boxes that Woolworths was using to display their Halloween tat. Inside the head is a working CCTV camera.

|| Receiving Station – The CCTV camera we settled on is wireless, and broadcasts to a 9 volt receiver. Video capture doodads are then used to transfer and decode this data directly onto a laptop, where the resulting footage is recorded.

The equipment claims a range of 20-70m, “depending on obstacles”; we conducted a field test (in a real field) and managed a clean signal from 35m away.Our only enemies are extreme cold and rain, either of which may banish us to shelter that lies just outside of our optimal receiving range.Bit of drama. Knew you’d like that.

Oh, and there’s this too; for any of this to work, ‘Bob’, his head, and the camera inside of his head all have to be consumed by the flames.Yeah, Bob was a little surprised when we told him about that part, too.

The purpose of the exercise is to (hopefully) capture footage that will allow you to see Guy Fawkes Night from a guy’s point of view – i.e. you will share the experience of being cast upon a bonfire, pelted with flaming torches, and cleansed by the purifying flames.And not before time; you have so been asking for it.

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UPDATE – It worked! And here’s how it all turned out, boys and girls:

Camera in a guy’s head: Guy Fawkes Night 2008

(There you go; I told you you’d like it.)