The videos on the site didn’t work on mobile for me. Found this YouTube video with some footage of the electric giraffe and an explanation from the maker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfG2Ur5TGHQ
I was lucky to meet this giraffe and its creator in 2016. It’s quite impressive and clearly a labor of love. Has strong home garage hacker vibes. The creator was excited to show us around and answered any technical questions we had.
One aspect which stood out was that the head and other parts had touch sensitive “pet” detector cells each of which consisted a short, inch wide plastic flap connected at its base to some internal circuitry and held out from the base at a slight angle to resemble a sort of robotic fur equivalent. When you brushed your hand on them, the giraffe reacted and either nuzzled its head a bit, made some sounds, etc
Anyway I only briefly browsed the site so I’m not sure if he goes into more detail there. It’s cool to see this blast from the past and I wonder what the creator is up to nowadays.
I often see this sort of thing and wonder a lot about the individuals involved. Things change, shit happens, people move on etc. Often fascinating, sometimes sad to hear about deaths or bereavements etc, but even in those cases it feels somehow "right" to enjoy their work after they've gone.
I wonder if the Electric Giraffe requires a Department of Mutant Vehicles permit to be on the Playa. It’s not technically an art car but that might not matter
