Modular Performance Stick

(c) 2012 by Electrical Movements in the Dark (EMD)

You can use many different methods to spin an orb. JanLeonardo Wöllert for example uses a long planting rod. So you can spin very slowly instead of high speed spinning with a row or a cable. But there is one big problem with the long planting rod - the length! Sometimes it is not very easy to transport the rods in a car. So we decided to modify the system - we wanted a modular, pluggable version with a large number of additional light tools.

Normally the rod has a length of 2 meters. You put a flashlight with a diffusor on the one side and a counterweight (e.g. some old batteries) on the other. For the modular version you need two thin plantings rods (0.90-1.2 m) and a thicker one (normally 2m). Cut the thicker one into a piece of 42 cm, now used as the middle part of the performance stick. Then you can plug the thinner ones into the middle part. Take a marker and make a mark on the thinner ones with a length of 21cm (2 x 21cm = 42cm) and also a mark the center of the middle part with some tape. Take some tape and wind it around the 21cm mark of the thinner sticks so that you can put them into the middle part (but not too much tape, you have to remove the sticks again...).

So this is the modular principle - a middle part and two thin sticks which you can easily stick together for spinning:

The next step is to use the rest of the thick rod for mounting the light tools on the performance stick.

Cut out some pieces with a length of 8 -10 cm. You can fix them onto your light tubes and flashlights with some (transparent) tape. Then you can pull them over your thin sticks an put them on the right place. So they are always removable and changeable. You can prepare some more tubes or tools with these parts of the rod.

For the outer light of the orb you can do the same - take a piece of the rod and tape it on a small flashlight - but so that you can fix a part of the rod piece with tape on the thin stick.

Now you are able to change your inner and outer lights of the orb a much as you want. It is very easy to combine these parts - you’ll only need some tape to fix the parts on the rods.

Get some old batteries and tape them on another piece of the rod - use them as a counterweight on the opposite side of the stick:

Finally, when all parts are attached, you have to hold the performance stick on the marking of the middle part. Move the counter weight along the rod until the performance stick is balanced, then fix the counter weight with some tape.

Finally, when all parts are attached, you have to hold the performance stick on the marking of the middle part. Move the counter weight along the rod until the performance stick is balanced, then fix the counter weight with some tape: