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My freelance work is diverse and difficult to classify:
In May of 2010 the Three Rivers Arts Festival asked me to develope an interactive Donation Kiosk. It acceptwd coins and bills from passersby, and spoke to them. During idle periods, it goaded people with randomly selected messages, trying to persuade them to give more cash.

Driven by a microprocessor, it flashed its illuminated signs and buttons and "spoke" with a collection of prerecorded soundfiles on a Digital Audio Repeater. Using vending-machine technology, it counted the deposit of greenbacks and change until the participant pushed the "Donation Complete" button. The reward was a musical fanfare accompanied by a very polite word of thanks, stating the amount of the donation. My friend Dave Randolph assisted me with the construction of its shell.

In May of 2009, also for the Arts Festival, I designed and built eight windmills to draw attention to the Festival's Information Kiosks. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, which sponsors the Festival, subsequently requested five more, and featured all thirteen in its 25th Anniversary celebraton. The windmills have been used again in the 2010 Arts Festival, and to promote "Gallery Crawls" and First Night festivities.
At the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, I scripted interactivity, designed hardware interfaces for, and/or assisted with the general installation of such exhibits as "Coelophysis," "Wild Blue Planet," "Earth Revealed," "Extreme Earth," "Bog People," "Stuffed Animals," "Amazon Voyage" and most recently "The Horse."
In June, 2008 I designed and supervised the constructeion of "My Recycled Prayer," a giant (5-meter tall) animated praying mantis, for the Three Rivers Arts Festival. The windmill "wings" on his back drove a mechanical linkage causing his head to rotate back and forth, as well as a small electrical generator that lit up his eyes.

In keeping with the Festival's "transition to green" theme, he was made almost entirely of recycled and recyclable materials. When the Festival closed we dismantled him and, to the best of our ability, recycled his parts. (CREDITS, PHOTOS, VIDEO)

In April of 2008 I was the Technical Designer for "Space Available," an installation by Artist Kim Beck (no relation), a member of the Faculty in the Carnegie Mellon School of Art. Featured in the Pittsburgh Biennial 2008 exhibition, it's a 3-meter tall billboard with no display surface, sitting outdoors on the roof of the gift shop at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, at Fifth and Shady Avenues in Shadyside. (PHOTOS)
In January, 2007 Artists Upstairs selected a small group of mechanical puppets I designed and built in 1983 to be included in their SWITCHBACK exhibition in the Arts Festival Gallery at 937 Liberty Avenue. The theme of SWITCHBACK was "artists who create traditional art using untraditional materials and artists who create untraditional art using traditional materials." I was never quite sure in which category my work belonged. (PHOTOS)
For the First Night Pittsburgh 2007 festivities I worked with Designer Tavia LaFollette of Artists Upstairs, and Venise St. Pierre on a 3.5-meter tall puppet / float representing the River Muse. A large articulaated face on the belly of a three-headed, winged seahorse, it rolled down Penn Ave. in the First Night Parade. (PHOTOS)
In the Summer of 2006 Venise and I worked for Major League Baseball as "Propmasters" at the All-Star Fanfest. The job really consisted of maintaining supplies (bats, balls fielding mits and prizes) in the various competitive booths on the Fanfest floor.
For the Zany Unbrella Circus performances of "Tinker" at the 2005 Three Rivers Arts Festival, my friend and colleague Dave Randolph and I built a very cool bicycle, with inspiration from a design sketch by company member Alberto Almarza. It has an umbrella mounted above it, but when the handlebars are squeezed together (Arnold Schwarzenegger style), the umbrella splits in half to become a pair of "bat wings" that flap with the motion of the handlebars. (PHOTOS)
During the Summer of 2004 I created mechanical special effects for Lift, a charming 30 minute Romantic Comedy starring Dominique Pinon. The film was written, produced and directed in Pittsburgh by Jeff Garton and Hughes Dalton. (PHOTOS)
For German artist Christian Jankowski and the Carnegie Museum of Art, I drew on my early experiences with the Lovelace Theatre Company, bringing the Museum's mascot Art Cat to life in "Puppet Conference 2003." Derek was my "second hand," animating the right hand and tail of the cat.

In this "art video" Art Cat moderates a symposium in which famous puppets contemplate the historical role of Puppets in Television. The distinguished panel consists of Grover (Sesame Street), Fozzie Bear (The Muppet Show), the notorious but adorable Lamb Chop (accompanied by Shari Lewis' daughter, Mallory), and the turtle Mr. Shelby from 'The Magic Woods."

In 2002 I designed the sound for "Milton's Eyes," a short comic film directed by Greg Lehane.
For many years I freelanced in Carnegie Mellon's Media Design Center, which was headed by Videographer Ralph Vituccio until the University phased out the entire operation. My primary function was as music editor and audio mixer for a number of video projects.

I also designed computer animations for several projects, including a fund-raising video for the Purnell Center for the Arts, and I co-designed The Daily Challenge, an interactive introduction to Student Life, for the Carnegie Mellon Undergraduate Admissions web site.

In 1995 I collaborated with Producer Patty McKeown, Director Ron Hankison and Advisor Margo Lovelace on a pilot for "Doctor Zoology," a children's educational TV program. For this episode, known as "The Tamarin Mystery," I helped with script editing, supervised computer animations and designed and built real props.
updated 2/14/2011