In our digital world, I feel it is important to remember and celebrate our analog electronics. While digital electronics offer convenient, neatly packaged chunks of information, our world is analog. Information arrives to our senses continuously. Since our eyes and ears are imperfect sensors, digital electronics can model and mimic continuous information, but if our eyes were better, we could see the pixels or the 60 Hz refresh rate on a computer monitor. If our ears were better, we could hear the individual bits of an mp3. Analog electronics are necessary to interface with the world; they are in power chargers, cell phone antennas, satellites, defibrillators, pressure sensitive touch screens, microwaves, life support systems, cars, smoke alarms, heaters, stereos, somewhere within nearly every electronic we use daily. Analog electronics still deserve, and will continue to deserve, celebration.
In A Celebration of Electronics, the audience consists of transistors which are standing or using op amp and capacitor furniture to take in the show. Vacuum tubes take the center stage and play instruments for their adoring transistor fans. Capacitors and diodes make up the guitar, an ultrasonic transducers drum set keeps the beat, and the lead singer belts melodies into a resistor microphone. Six discrete LEDs above the stage provide concert lighting and the three headphone speakers make up the 'large' speaker box stage right. To unite all the components, several printed circuit boards (PCBs) serve as floor, stage, and backdrop---
Tyler Hutchison
