I got interested in installation art in college. It is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that often are site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space.
In August of 2014 I was allowed to exhibit an installation entitled "Assault On Liberty" in the Riverside Art Museum's Atrium. It addressed the issues of mass shootings, gun violence and how we are willing to give up personal freedoms in the name of security. I really enjoyed working on it.
After that I began to think about the idea of a portable installation. I wanted something that could be broken down and transported in a small red Nissan truck and erected easily by one or two persons. Simultaneously I was investigating the format of the booth. To me it had to be a self-contained space where a person could have some sort of privacy in a public space and experience something. I thought of photo booths and voting booths before arriving at the confessional. I am an agnostic but the Catholic ritual of telling your sins to a priest and being granted forgiveness has always intrigued me. Religion always seems to include a certain element of theater. When the first shamans were spinning tales around the fires of paleolithic man they had to be good storytellers. In America there is a long tradition of showmanship associated with our religious institutions. During the first half of the 20th century the tent revivals were very popular and evangelists like Aimee Semple Macpherson built empires based on theatrical pentacostalism. I decided to combine this with the idea of a carnival attraction. When I was a child my family would go to the Orange Show each year where I was both attracted and repelled by the carnival midway. In the Penny Arcade there was an animatronic gypsy fortune teller (I believe she was called Esmeralda) that would tell your fortune for a quarter. It was really cheesy but I was fascinated by the mechanism.
I started working with automata and incorporating movement into several art pieces with varying degrees of success. I originally envisioned this piece as a scale model. Installation artists would often construct and model and plans for a piece so that they could convince people with money who appreciated art to finance the construction. Building the model took a long time and a lot of trial and error. It was originally hand crank operated but later I was able to modify and use a motor. That was going to be the end. I really didn't think that I would ever make a full-sized version. The technology and resources seemed too far out of reach. About this time I was contacted by my high school art teacher, Don White. I had not heard from him in 30 years or so. We started getting together and talking about art. He had created artwork separate from his teaching career for many years and was still doing it at 85. I told him about my project and he urged me to go for it. Some time later, when I asked if I could use his face for the face of God, he agreed to sit while I covered his face with alginate and made a mold. Often I would tell him that some obstacle just seemed beyond my abilities and I wanted to give up. Try making some eyelids that open and close and you'll have some understanding of the difficulties involved in a life sized animatronic figure. But Don always encouraged me to keep trying.
What I then called the God Booth would have had a footprint of 46" by 96"and be 8.5 feet tall. Patrons would push a curtain aside and enter the booth. There would be a simple wooden chair where they could sit. The interior would be candlelit (battery powered) and feature burning incense. Soft calliope music is playing "Onward Christian Soldiers" or "Amazing Grace". On an altar opposite the supplicant is a life sized figure of Jehovah. I referenced Greek Orthodox iconography for the figure of the deity. After sitting for a few seconds, mechanisms would be set in motion (press a button, motion activation, coin in a slot?). The animatronic figure of God would speak briefly and dispense a blessing. I later decided that the booth idea had to many logistal problems and I might not live long enough to complete the project. I abandoned it in favor of the arcade fortune tellers who sit in their glass boxes and dispense advice at carnivals to those willing to put a dollar in the slot.
While attending a mini-maker fair at the Riverside Airport, I met members of the Riverside Robotics Society. They told me about the arduino and how it could be programmed to control lights, sound and motors. I thought this technology might be the solution to many of the issues I had with animatronics. So I started going to meetings and joined the group. I bought a copy of "Arduinos for Dummies" and watched a lot of Youtube videos. After making dozens of trips to the local electronics store, I eventually had the knowledge and materials to make my "robot" open and shut his eyes and mouth and move his arm up and down. Later, I found help from other robotics experts and got Jehovah to the point where I could call him "finished" and ready to exhibit. Of course, I had to build the cabinet and many other things to achieve the look I was after.