Welcome to the Spider’s Lair
"Will you step into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly;
"'Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to show when you are there."
-by Mary Howitt (1799-1888)
Imagine given an opportunity to take an average normal everyday lab, and transform it into what Hollywood has led the general pubic to believe is the norm. Movies like Hackers, The Matrix, and even Johnny Mnemonic was the basis for SpiderLabs' Razor/Blade lab transformation.
The Razor/Blade lab was only a year old when this project was started in December 2012 as SpiderLabs' just moved into the new office space the end of December 2011. It took 6 months to complete this project as various items, or "ingredients", needed to be purchased, shipped, and put together.
Ingredients:
Paint
LCD Monitors
Keyboard
Decorative Sheet Metal
Tubular Crin
Needle & Thread
Wall mount Articulating Arm Brackets for LCD Monitors
Neon Dry Erase Markers
Black Light Reflective Ink
Black Light Gaffer Tape
Black Lights
Color Changing LEDs from IKEA
Before project start…
Workbench with shelves.
Wall between bench and closet.
Back wall and rack.
Dry erase wall.
The side wall next to the work bench had everything removed from the wall, holes patched, and repainted a darker blue to create a blank canvas.
The short wall next to the rack was also painted a darker gray than the original for additional contrast.
The workbench area had color changing LED lights from IKEA added under the shelves to add light once the room was darkened. Decorative baskets were added to clean up the bottom shelf.
Opticz UV Black light Reactive Blue Invisible Ink was used on the dark wall. This was hand painted on with the help of a LCD projector to trace the design. A foam brush was used as the ink has the consistency of water. And a little went a long way. We'll be ableto have raves in the lab for years to come.
Three LCD monitors were mounted on the shorter wall by the rack with wall mount articulating arm brackets.
Black light reflective gaffer's tape was used to create a spider's web on the back wall behind the rack.
As Johnny Mnemonic and Tetsuo were called out explicitly for design inspiration, tubularcrin, which is generally used to create cyberlock hair pieces, was used.
Once more the gaffer's tape was used to make the monitors" pop" off the wall.
Then, the ordinary lights were removed, and replaced with black lights.
What was subtle with normal light, is amazing with black light.
LCD wall with black light.
Rack and back wall with black light. At some point in the future, a second rack will be added to the back wall area and the network equipment moved off the top shelf over the workbench.
An old unused desktop was setup to play The Matrix, Hackers, and Johnny Mnemonic on a loop on the top monitor.
Additional tubular crin was added to the monitors and taken up to the rack.
Moreover, a keyboard tray was made from particle board, painted black, and gaffer's tape added to the trim. Then it was mounted onto the wall with an articulating arm bracket.
The arm is tilted downwards to simulate the keyboard being up on legs. Velcro was used to mount it directly to the tray so it won't fall off.
Additional gaffer tape was run along the overhead wiring rack.
Two clamp-on lights were attached to the wiring rack to provide actual light as needed in the lab.
LCD wall finished with black light.
And what fun would a dry erase wall be without neon dry erase markers to draw on it?
[Disclaimer: This is probably the cleanest work lab ever seen due to pictures being taken for this blogpost. Please don't expect to ever visit it and have it look this organized again.]