Media
Channel 87 UHF
My lo-fi media network: original shows, VHS-style mixes, oddities, and analog broadcast experiments. It’s where the static leaks out—in a controlled way.
Front Desk
Artist, musician, writer, systems tinkerer.
I make things from scratch: music, video, signals, stories, gardens, bots, and experiments built from whatever tools I have on hand. This site is the front desk for all of it.
About
I’m an artist and systems-builder based in Arlington, Texas. I work the way I grew up: DIY, hands-on, and guided by a mix of punk ethics and pragmatic imagination. If I can grow it, prototype it, record it, or hack it together, I usually will.
My work spans music, lo-fi media projects, bots, garden experiments, and the wider Arlington Field Lab ecosystem—including Bot City, my ongoing effort to build useful, creative automations that make life run smoother.
Everything I make points toward the same idea: you can build your own world, one piece at a time.
The Work
A quick map of the things I run.
Music
Sign Guy Records
My independent label for DSJ releases and side projects. Indie rock, lo-fi electronics, and soundtrack-adjacent ideas that don’t quite fit anywhere else.
Field Lab
Arlington Field Lab
The umbrella for everything: garden builds, sustainability projects, small systems, and prototypes. It’s also home to Bot City, where I’m developing automation tools, scrapers, crawlers, and other scripts that support both daily life and creative work.
Radio
Radio Free Arlington
A narrative radio project from the edge of the Field Lab. Quiet signals, late-night transmissions, and an ongoing story told through audio.
Music
I write indie rock, lo-fi electronic pieces, and cinematic tracks shaped by memory, Texas heat, and the golden age of late-night TV.
Recommended starting points:
- All Japan 1995 — indie rock with wrestling-era heart.
- Songs About Presidents — concept albums with humor and teeth.
- Recent singles — ongoing experiments and sound sketches.
Field Notes
Current projects and obsessions from Arlington Field Lab:
- Rolling out new Channel 87 videos & seasonal mixes.
- Building and expanding Bot City, my personal automation suite.
- Developing tracking, scraping, and creative bots.
- Growing the patio garden + chill zone.
- Recording new music under Sign Guy Records.
- Prototyping small experimental systems (hardware + software).
This changes often; that’s the point.
Contact
For collaborations, licensing, creative work, or anything odd you’re cooking up:
Email: darrel@arlingtonfieldlab.com
Social: @darrelsmithjr across platforms
If you’re here, you’re already part of the signal.