Sculptures that work. Objects that speak. Machines with memory.
The Pattern
I studied maths, read too much Derrida and spent many years in data and analytics.
The job is always the same: find what was promised, find what actually happened, and measure the gap. In 2024 doing that on a screen wasn't enough anymore, so I started building it.
In 2001 I built a wingsuit in Paraguay and it flew. Same approach now. Build what needs to exist with whatever you can get your hands on.
Recent Work
Cornered Optimism (2024 to 2025): twelve things I built that all work, each one measuring the gap between what we get told and what actually happens.
Ghost News Telegraph. Prints messages from five dead operators through the Claude API. Turns out they're all me.
Hellfire R9X replica. $157.98 of Amazon Prime parts, three weeks of YouTube tutorials, four blades. I posted it to Reddit and every post got taken down.
The Ghetto Blaster Mouse. A sound system with a white mouse on a wheel that runs faster the louder it plays. Full of pirated MP3s. I am the mouse.
The Last Brew. A wooden coffee maker that actually brews. I engraved it with a ballpoint pen for 45 minutes, the same way a soldier carved the artillery shell on my father's shelf.
Proto Pistols. Three guns with no triggers, built in Sydney right after an armed attack on my family's ranch in Paraguay, 13,000 km away. I couldn't do anything from here and neither can they.
How It Works
Everything here actually works. The telegraph prints all day. The blades open 500 ms apart. The mouse runs faster when you turn it up. The club has a bike light on one end and can still crack a skull with the other. The radio receives but can't transmit. The coffee maker makes coffee. If it didn't work it would just be a sculpture of an idea.
I don't plan much. Parts sit on the bench for weeks, then one day I start putting them together and only later I see what it's about.
And I'm part of what I'm measuring. I built the R9X with Amazon Prime, the same delivery chains drone builders in Ukraine use. I filled the Mouse with pirated music and built a Rams tribute with Temu knockoff tools. The five ghosts in the telegraph are bits of me.
Technical Range
ESP32, Arduino, Claude API, MIG welding, woodworking, laser cutting, 3D printing, 23 years of photography and a lot of salvaged electronics.
Contact
Email: contact@blasprieto.com
Open to collaborations, commissions and shows.