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After several months, there is a happy ending to a great and fun adventure for the five Hitchhikers in the Valley of Heart's Delight and all the people who got involved.

Probably none of those collaborating in the Hitchhikers in the Valley of Heart's Delight Project had any idea of the amount of activity, participation, interest and press that this project was destined to generate.

If you haven’t read the other stories in this series you probably should. It has been a marathon and an adventure. Now it is over–well, almost over.

The other articles in the series can be found here:
  • Hitchhikers in the Valley of Heart's Delight Art Project here
  • Technical Side of the Hitchhikers Art Project

The full adventures of each of these five stalwart Silicon Valley pioneers can be read here on the Ylem website (http://www.ylem.org/Hitchhikers/) in blogs kept by Julie Newdoll (who, HP notwithstanding, has a fine sense of humor!). And they make for some hilarious but also instructive reading. It’s well worth following the blogs of each of the pilgrims and grokking the full scope of their peregrinations from the moment they were set free to the point when they reached their final resting places. Their journeys say a lot about the world we live in and the people "out there"—and it's a very different world than that portrayed by the media with their focus on bad news. These stories are about real people–the people who make up the 97.5% of the population who are never part of the news.

The Hitchhikers

None had a totally adventure-free ride, that's for sure.

[Author's note: Not only did I get to meet several of the hitchhikers in person and take their picture, I also had the hands-on honor of carrying Messrs. Hewlett and Packard across the street and into the Office Depot where we managed to quickly grab a few shots of them in the store's printer cartridge section before we were politely thrown out. They were HEAVY. Julie is a real trooper, I tell you. My hat is off to her and the others involved. A lot of work went into this project. Definitely not ivory tower art. This is hands-on, across the country, sweat and muscle kind of art with so many facets and complexities and involving so many people. It's also very educational and helped introduce a lot of people to the history of Silicon Valley and its founding fathers.]

Here's a quick summary of the hitchhikers' adventures. You really should get the full story at http://www.ylem.org/Hitchhikers/ and enjoy Julie’s marvelous blogs as well as getting the background information on them from Mike Mosher.

Lee de Forest
Jim Pallas created the wooden hitchhikers and sent Lee to Julie Newdoll's San Carlos, CA studio. He traveled without a GPS unit. This was installed by Julie's husband, Mario Wolczko. Then Lee was let loose outside the California Theater in downtown San Jose. He soon disappeared! True to form, however, he was picked up by the lovely Liliana with whom he spent the night. Everywhere he went it seems he met friends and they were happy to help him on his way. He made it to his final destination, History, San Jose, with only minor excitement on the way. He is in the lobby of what used to be the Pacific Hotel, last seen eyeing the ice cream lady. This guy was certainly one for the ladies He is for sale! In fact you can help buy this guy for permanent installation at History, San Jose. Contact Julie New at or (605) 591 7999.
(He would prefer to be bought by a lady.)

Frederick Terman
Jim Pallas crated Terman and shipped him, full armed with working GPS unit, to MIT in Cambridge, MA. After a very pleasant stay at MIT, with lots of tours and sightseeing, Fred was taken to Boston for a SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group in Computer Graphics) conference and there abandoned to his own devices. He got a ride with Harry and Sandra in their mobile home on the way to San Diego: barbecues, cook-outs, Air Force Museum, Medinah Country Club, farms, the P.G.A. golf tourney in Chicago, Missouri, Denver–Fred had the time of his life. He was given a royal welcome at Stanford Engineering Department (he was warmly welcomed by Stanford’s Dean of Engineering among others) and that’s where he now is, with only a small scar on his hip to show for all those miles and adventures.

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard
These guys had perhaps the roughest experience of all the Hitchhikers but they too had a happy ending to their journey. They were twice rejected by the company they founded. Can’t get worse than that. However, there are redeeming features to their story. I know where they started because I was involved in their release. After a quick stop for photos on a carousel in San Jose they were carted unceremoniously across the road to an Office Depot store where for sure they would be made welcome since their company’s products were filling a healthy amount of shelf space, right? Wrong! No photos (we got some anyway before we were told not to do it) and basically get them out of here and don’t leave them on the sidewalk outside! Boy, talk about rejection. In all fairness, the manager and the other employees at Office Depot were very friendly and would have loved to have been more helpful had not immutable and humorless corporate policy dictated otherwise. The fear of losing one’s job is a powerful incentive. But poor H & P had already been rejected by HP Corporate on the basis that they had nowhere to put them. Fortunately they still have friends and were looked after and taken care of and received quite a tour: Computer History Museum, their old home, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, Lick Observatory, Buddhist meditation retreat, KFJC radio station, finally to be deposited outside HP Corporate Headquarters in Palo Alto where for sure they would find a home. End of the story, right? Oh no!

HP officials declined to be "involved in a public remembrance of their company’s founders." They wouldn’t even let them into the lobby. Dave and Bill were homeless. Thank goodness Sun Microsystems stepped in and decided to salvage the situation. They paid $6,000 for the sculpture and put the boys back on the road, hoping that they would help HP regain its corporate sense of humor. Well, the story found its way into the press and TV and created quite a stir.

Bill and Dave eventually received a warm welcome at Stanford and have been invited to stay. Of course it’s up to Sun. HP have probably got bigger things on their mind right now than trying to regain lost face over this incident.

William Shockley
William was also shipped to Julie Newdoll's by Jim Pallas. He received the same operation at the hands of Mario that the others did and was then let loose at an Any Mountain store in San Jose. Any Mountain called it a "stupid art project" and ordered them off the property. He made it back to the site of the original Shockley Laboratory without any major excitement which might well have followed in his wake, based on the philosophies he espoused in his later years.

Robert Noyce
Due to his porcine proclivities in his younger days (you can get the full story on the Ylem website or in the earlier articles on the FAR website) Bob began his hike by being delivered from Jim Pallas’s studio to Dan Specht's Iowa organic pig farm. After a lengthy, but far from boring stay in Iowa, Robert Noyce disappeared. Actually he disappeared more than once. He was last seen standing outside the Budget Inn in Adair. To this date Robert Noyce is missing. He is registered with the Fine Art Registry and has been listed as stolen so it will not be easy to sell him. Anyone hearing of his whereabouts should let us know at FAR or contact Julie Newdoll or Jim Pallas please.

Robert has already been promised a warm welcome by Intel (and they did this before the HP fiasco.) Let's bring Robert home. (Stolen art link.)

ZeroOne

The Hitchhikers project had a booth at the IESA ZeroOne festival in San Jose. This was no ordinary booth: Mike Mosher’s hypertext kiosk featured an image of Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel and later CEO and Chairman. All the participants in the project (minus Jim Pallas, the sculptor himself) were present at the show, along with Fine Art Registry CEO, Teri Franks and Lynn Orlosky. Unlike a number of the displays, the Ylem Hitchhiker kiosk was manned constantly either by the artists involved or by Ylem President, Torrey Nommesen, or the organization's founder, Trudy Myrrh Reagan.

L-R: Julie Newdoll, Teri Franks, Lynn Orlosky, Michael Mosher,
Torrey Nommesen, at the Ylem ZeroOne kiosk


L-R: Teri Franks, Torrey Nommensen, Michael Mosher, Julie Newdoll

The Project Members Have a Final Say

Jim Pallas-the Sculptor
The Pioneers Hitchhiker project is not over until they all show up or we get tired of waiting for them. The "shares" concept and maybe the GPS voyeurism enabled me to experience what really happens when the 25 or so Hitchhikers I've done in the past have hit the road. People have fun with them and things happen to them that I could never anticipate. It has always been the out-of-control factor in the Hitchhiker activity that has kept it interesting to me. The Pioneers Hitchhikers have validated that factor. That Terman is photographed among pigs when it was Noyce who has the pig connection, that Terman gets "kidnapped" by a senior couple who are in no hurry to get him to the west coast as they leisurely poke their motor home around the golf courses and factory outlets of the nation's heartland, and that David Hewlett and William Packard would be summarily rejected by the corporation they founded, then snatched up by a rival company to be employed in a clumsy corporate "punking" to the delight of all of Silicon Valley–none of these fascinating surprises could have been predicted.

What's the larger message? Well, in art that’s always up to the individual observer. But it is obvious that our country is filled with a variety of imaginative, sincere individuals who, given an opportunity, will engage in an energetic celebration of the inventive spirits that have contributed to the exciting culture we enjoy.

[An article on Jim Pallas, FAR registered sculptor, has appeared or is about to appear on the FAR website. It’s well worth reading. There is a lot more to this artist than hitchhikers. Read the article here.]

Julie Newdoll–the Organizer and Manager
(Director of Exhibits, YLEM)
These notes are from a couple of emails from Julie, included here in full without changes.
I don't really have time to breathe, but thought I would take a moment to reflect on our project and results. You know, when you sit there or lay there having a sort of daydream of what could happen with your art project, and thoughts of publicity on both coasts pop into your head? Well, this surpassed all thoughts I had of where it would go! All but one. I had this thought that America would be tuning into the news and on it, the current location of Terman would be tracked.

They would all be watching for Harry’s mobile home to drive through their gas station, diner or town. As he approaches the San Francisco Bay Area for a drop off, there are crowds waving him into the Bay Bridge park and ride area. He scans the crowd to see who might be a good person to hand him off to. The crowd parts, and Gordon Moore walks up with an assistant and my uncle Ed (who is actually in a wheel chair as he is recovering from his recent knee operation). My uncle sold Intel their first insurance policy when they were a company of only ten people, and has been watching Noyce like a hawk as best he can. However, he can’t really do his computer right now due to his knee operation, so I have to call and tell him what is happening.

"Darn," says Moore, "I thought this was going to be Noyce," as he gets a look at Terman. His assistant flinches: "Oops, I must have clicked on the wrong icon," he mumbles. They scramble off to their car to look up Noyce, who is also arriving on the same day by coincidence. Someone with a “Berkeley Bears” baseball hat on grabs Terman and disappears. We can only hope they let Terman escape to Stanford eventually. . . .

On Sep 18, 2006, at 11:14 PM, Julie Newdoll wrote:
Noyce is back on the road, but stopped communicating shortly after his return. Also, it looks rather stormy in the skies from the latest photos. Jim did not have time to put any extra sealing on the sculptures to weather proof, so I do not know what will happen if he gets really wet. I asked that perhaps the next person could outfit him with a clear raincoat, but we will see. Logs updated for him lately. Terman will be heading to Petaluma Thursday, then will be handed off to a person that will take him to Stanford. Yeah! H and P were missing but have been found!. If you want to include where they will end up, you will have to wait until after September 20. At least they are safe now (see log).

Shockley's in my garage - de Forest is having a great time at History San Jose. They all have potential homes, but can’t say until after September 20 (and they show up, of course). Noyce is a big question mark. I just don’t think he is going to ever work. He seems to flake out a couple days after each recharge for one reason or another. I am so tired of worrying about all the potential pitfalls of the hitchhikers. For the next batch (if there is one) we have to somehow just zap the lights on the phones, and get phones that do not have all these interruptions, or build our own system. Solar would be nice. Maybe we have to wait about 10 years for this to be done inexpensively and not with so many headaches. But that is what cutting edge art or anything is all about, isn’t it? It is done at a time when all the pieces are brand new and/or very expensive.

Things are touchy, fragile, etc. Then, in a few years, everyone is wearing the same sorts of devices in their earrings, or injected with them at birth.

We made our statements, and were very well received by the community. I got nothing but smiles from most people. I am still learning about the history of Silicon Valley from this project, and perhaps will compile everything for some sort of publication at some point. I learned a bit about electronic art. It turns out the greatest aspect for me was writing. I thoroughly enjoyed making the travelogues. What a great feed for writing ideas–new pictures and adventures coming in over the web. I could make a career out of this–later. First I have a few paintings to finish and bills to pay. So far, publishing things on a web site does not earn you much.

Perhaps FAR can advertise Noyce as missing, but he hasn’t been missing that long yet. I hope he makes it in his own good time. He was a feisty one.

[You can read a full article about Julie Newdoll, a FAR registered artist, here:
Julie Newdoll, FAR Featured Artist]

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