Word Vomit

Show/ The Rattles

2011-12-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

Alright, I had a request from someone else for more information on the Rattles, how they were made and what they were made off. In posting these so late I did not include a whole lot about them of that nature. So here we go:

So the first one, is the one hanging slightly farther up--the spider web one. This project started out from the idea of doing cocoon's and cocoon rattles is where it went. That particular rattle is made out of Mawata (Silk Hankies), that are made from silk worm cocoons. They were stretched across the branch and then with liberal use of spray starch and a bit of glue they stayed on. However, beneath them are two key components that give it more structure: string was wound around the branch first in various direction to give some added mesh another layer for the hankies to stick to, strung from the strings were a number of silk rods.

I'm not sure that you can see the silk rods on the inside (they are a golden color next to the white of the silk), inside of the rods I sewed bells. Thus when you pick it up and shake it the whole thing jingles. The over all affect was nice but rather quieter then I wanted it too be.

The second one was made out of the silk worm cocoon's themselves, I purchased all that Shadeyside Farms had. The nice thing about these were, I did not get the good ones. I purchased all of their discolored or deformed cocoon's. They were very nice people if you ever need anything I would suggest getting it from them. I was not disappointed, prompt email responses, etc.

As you can tell from the image many of these were dipped in red dye to give them a little more contrast--a decision I'm not overly fond of not as it just looks like blood--against the white wall in the gallery space. All of these were threaded on a red string and wound around the branch that they were attached to.

Which brings me to where the idea for this piece started for me and that was with silk worm cocoon's themselves. I had purchased a couple off of cocoon's and rods from Larkspurfunnyfarm, out of curiosity to see what they looked like. The one thing that really intrigued me was the fact that--with the dead bug inside of them--they rattled. (I actually have ideas and plans to make a dress that has these all over it so that it rattles when you move but we'll see how that goes.) I was so intrigued by this phenomenon that I wanted to do more with them and so it went from there.

Now, we get to the good part. So I was paired up with a Ceramists by the name of Chris White. Chris did a lot of the wood gathering, and helped build/mount the piece that goes on the wall as well. On this last one he also created ceramic tiles that look like little bits of bark.

The under bits of this cocoon are actually made from stitched piece of wool. I was going to make it from undyed silk rods; however, it was not large enough to contain the tiles or the weight at that point. I dyed the wool roughly the same color as the cocoon's and then cut it into similar sized pieces and stitched it with red thread. After it was put together it was stuffed--with raw wool roving--and bound onto the stick. The ceramic tiles were then loosely stitched onto the wool base, so that they over lapped with each other.

Thus when this piece is shaken it is the collection of ceramic tiles hitting one upon the other, that makes the noise.

Over all the project was a lot of fun, though the end result was rather quiet. Unfortunately give the viewing space, it did not have as much effect as I would have liked but--they do not usually have a radio blasting in the corner either. So it was what it is. I hope that, that answers any questions people might have about the production and the collaboration of this project/ exhibit. If you have more feel free to ask. Cheers! J

So Catch up: Collaborative Shows

2011-11-30T04:44:00.000-08:00

Since the last time I posted in here, I have participated in a couple of smaller collaborative shows which have been fun. I'm going to put up a few images here, beginning with the oldest and moving on to the one that happened on 11.11.11 (at the start of this month.)

BFA Collaborative Show: Rattles

These are images from the collaborative BFA show, that happened last year actually. *chuckles*. I was paired with and worked with one of the ceramic's BFA's and he created the lovely ceramic (the ones that look like bark), tiles that created the rattle part of the center rattle. Over all it was a fun project.

Textiles Artists Assembling Show: Forces

The theme behind the TAA show was 'Forces', I played around with a circular weave and the way that the wool constrains that when it's felted. The idea was the way that we conform to and confine ourselves to forms within society for various reasons and in various ways. In the end I just liked the form and wanted to try making it.

Eventually I would like to see these things much larger and a whole lot more of them. I would also like to incorporate something coming into or going out of them in some way as well--possibly with a larger or longer fringe on the end of the weaving's.

Cheers!

Black and Yellow

2011-02-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

So, this is the jacket that I did for my final weaving project last semester. While I like what this is, it isn't exactly what I set out to do. This project began with one of the other weavers doing pleats. I thought it would be neat to have a jacket with pleats down the back that got consecutively larger.

I wanted the pleats to be made out of something see through, so that you got a layered effect. (I have been thinking about trying the pleats again and scratching the visibility idea, just because I still have this image stuck in my head of what I wanted it to look like in terms of form... which is this but isn't this.)

I tried a number of different things. The one that ended up working the best was the fishing line. Though my original idea was to use plastic, as I did with the garment in the previous post. However, even if the plastic was cut in very narrow strips, the visibility was lost when it got bunched up in the weave.

I'm currently planning on doing a set up that includes both this piece and the plastic/trashion piece as interacting with each other. Similar in some respects to what I tried to do with this scene. In this scene I plan on working with the silhouette as I did in weighted. The difference being that in this current scene, I would like to attempt to try and make the silhouette look as if it is wearing the garment hanging out in front of it.

I'm going to try a set up that includes on the heads, hands and feet of the silhouette and not the entire thing. The problem that I can see right now, is the fact that different people will be viewing it from varying heights, as we are all different shapes and sizes. This will mean that if I line up the garments and the outlines for my height, it will be off for everyone else.

Though I suppose some wiggle room could be added in there... there is some work that needs to be done, and things that need to be played around with. I'm hoping to get some time in the study this weekend to see what I can do. I thought about going in today but... I can't carry everything I need with me and that's the only option at this point.

Anyway, I need to figure out how I want to model for the silhouettes for me. Doing myself is hard and easy at the same time. There is something in that thought, of doing to silhouettes of myself. Hmmm... has a different meaning though.

Alright, that's it for now. Outwards and onwards. Poofs.

Trashion, ReFashion

2011-01-30T08:21:00.000-08:00

So, for a few months now I've been playing with the idea, working on the idea and sometimes getting somewhere with it. I planned this piece out last semester actually and then did a couple of thing's wrong. Anyway, the idea was to use a great deal of the trash yarn/cord that I have. Unfortunately I spaced out on that when I was setting up for this project. However, all things considered it turned out fairly well. ;)

The above are some images of the top modeled by my friend Clara. ;) The top is made out of cotton and wool, the pleats down the front are plastic (the same plastic that's used for the skirt bellow). The top is all of one piece at the moment, depending on who's going to model it for the show, I might have to make it a bit smaller. We'll see. ;) So that was all done end of the semester last year. Over the break I started working on the monstrosity bellow.

The skirt is made out of trash plastic and was going to be all one layer. However, the single layer was not poofy enough for what I wanted. So I ended up fashioning a fathered under-layer. You can see the under-layer as modeled by myself at the end of the collage. The lamp shade model is wearing the entirety of the thing as it is right now. I plan on fashioning an adjustable waist band of some sort today. Vanishes.

What?

2011-01-27T07:31:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to figure out the last few days, why certain images appeal to me. Why do I find one more evocative then the other? What is the element that hooks me and draws me in? I'm not sure what it is, but usually it's because I read an emotional content into it. An emotional content that feels truly expressed in some way. Though, in truth I'm not rightly sure how to show that or to put it into words in other ways.

The reason for attempting to do this, is linked to another problem. I have not posted images of this work, but I've been working in hanging garment forms in my textiles work of late. In creating narratives between these disembodies garments that become representation of people, stories and lives. So in trying to figure out what appeals to me in an image, I'm hoping to try and better express that feeling or thought in the scenes that I create with these garment forms.

I'm also working with pairing specific garments with silhouettes on the walls. Where in this gets a little harder because you have less and more to work with. The trick now is figuring out what the relationship between the silhouette and the garment is. Does it change based on objects and arrangement? Does it always contain some of the same inherent properties? What is the story, image, or emotion that I wish to convey?

To give you some examples, here are a few images of some of the pieces that I worked on last semester. Though the locations are not exactly ideal for displaying these garments without background interference, it is what it is. :)

For some reason I'm having a hard time figuring this out. I was hoping that writing this might help but I still have no answers. Hahhaa. Alright enough wasting time on the computer. Cheers. vanishes

Weaving Chaps

2010-10-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I've had a few curious comments from people. So, my last weaving project for BFA was a woven pair of chaps. Which seems to boggle people's minds just a little bit.

Thusly, here are a few images from said project. Pardon the unedited versions of images, I'm still having issues getting CS 4 or 5 to work in any form and haven't had the time to sit down with my computer and try anything that takes more time.

So basically, they were woven all in one long piece on the loom. The wool was inserted into the weave and locked in place by further weaving. Once everything was woven, one long piece was taken off the loom and cut into sections, legs and waist. The sections were then sewn together to create the chaps.

I realize now I don't have a good frontal view of them, only the side view. But this gives people an idea. ;)

Anyway, so yeah. Now two weeks before the next critique because everything has been shoved together. So, I need to go and start working on that, not to mention reading for my other class and another project for the weaving class (for that kinda got shoved out of the way in the need to finish the chaps... which subsequently too much, much longer then they were supposed to.) But yeah, I will post a few Feast pictures eventually. vanishes.

Conversation/Creak Monster Romance

2010-06-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

Original Image Note: Lake Griffy, earlier on this year before the foliage busted out all over the place. I would like to go back down there now that it's more greened out but we'll see if that happens.

The creak that runs into the lake is just really beautiful, I love the color of it and with the colors of the slowly wakening forest it was beautiful. This is first of two images that go together titled, 'Creak Monster Romance', one of the top twenty places to take your creak monster sweat heart. A location that is sure to woe her and make her fall head over heels in love with you. This prime location is good for a number of reasons. Deeper water near by to hide from, a fair number of unsuspecting visitors around the water and in boats on the lake, and it includes a number of small water ways and marshy areas that are perfect for birthing baby creak monsters. The lake is also located in an area that contains large amounts of lime stone, a rock that creak monsters find quiet taste and is key in the growth of the young creak monsters after they are born.

V. Yes, the creek there on the right looks like prime territory. I like the green stuff and the way it ripples away in the distance.

J. I can just see a pair of googly eyes peeking up out of it, floating slowly closer to you.

Honey, is that a log?

Yes, of course dear what else would it be?

A few minutes later: It's moving towards us... are you sure there aren't any crocodiles in here?

Sweatheart we're in the middle of the United States for crying out-loud there are no crocodiles or alligators up here.

What... what about that movie?

What movie?

Lake Placid.

Dear, that was a movie nothing more. It's not real.

But that log... it really is getting closer.

Shall I poke it and roll it over for you? (rummages around for a stick) Will that make you feel better.

Honey it's got eyes!

Finds a stick: Of course it does dear (pulls on stick and it doesn't come up), just give me a minute over here. Wow that was one stubborn stick, I didn't think I was ever going to get it up. (finally managed to break the stick with a well placed hiking boot and a strong arm) Now, dear I'll show you it's just a... log.

conversation/Rainbow Waters of China

2010-06-14T08:40:00.001-07:00

V. Oooh, how mysterious. I suppose it's something for hauling stone? Out of a quarry? But wait! What is that long hose thing that's being held up by three little beige benches!? Mysteries abound!

J. I think it's a run off from the plant into the hole. But I'm not really sure, I didn't get any closer to the water it was creepy.

V. Yeah, looks kind of creepy and maybe dangerous to go out too close to the edge there.

J. The water was all frosty and glazed over but some times the color was a little odd. It was quiet like something might come bursting out of it and gobble you up.

V. Oh hoho. I know what you mean... That suspicious color that looks a little too chemical... might harbor some radioactive beastie with glowing tentacles...!

J. Yeah, exactly that odd color. Like the bright green lakes in the middle of nowhere... I'll have to stop and take pictures the next time I see one of those. I think the home owners have made made lakes and add chemicals to them to keep the algae from growing. They are the oddest color.

V. Yeah, I think they have lots of those in Florida! Reminds me of a news snippet I saw about blue water pollution in China from blue-jeans factories... Hmmm...

J. Is the water the same color from the pollution or does it just tie in?

V. ust ties in, I guess. The water turns blue, like jeans...

J. And then when you start getting into colored jeans you get some really interesting stuff.

V. Mmm, yes... The "rainbow waters" of China. We could make a whole tourist trade out of it.

J. Ahahha, the new eight wonder of the word. Go for a swim and you might find yourself cured and able to walk again or you might find that you have a few extra feet and three legs instead of two. It's a gamble and so many people would go for it.

This conversation was conducted on DeviantArt between my friend vanilla-vanilla and myself krazysidhe. For it and other conversations feel free to hunt around, we hope you’ve enjoyed today’s installment.

conversation/The Ranks of the Ghost Squirrels

2010-06-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

V. Squirrel? Looks like ghost of squirrel past.

J. Ah you know how those ghostly squirrels are, they just never got away and they are always chattering but you can't quiet hear them. So most people dismiss the noise as nothing but really... it's the ghosts of all those squirrels that get run over every year, they come back with a vengeance. But unfortunately their imaginary nuts, just really don't have much impact on the people or the cars that they throw them at. Thus you end up with a lot of frustrated vengeful squirrels. Eventually they get rather tired of running around neighborhoods and play chicken with the cars that killed them in the first place--after all dead ghostly squirrels really aren't that much smarter then living squirrels--they migrate slowly into the more wooded areas. They live in communes together in the forests and eventually one by one they fade. However, there is always more of them to replace the others--rather like the rabbits. After all they breed like bunnies there are always more of them... living or dead!

V. Oho, this is why there always seem to be more and more squirrels everywhere! Like my back yard, where they keep forgetting where they buried the nuts, so they have to look everywhere... Maybe you'll run across a squirrel commune when you have your camera. After you take that picture of new batteries.

J. Ah but did you know the real reason that they forgot where their nuts where? That's because all of the ghost squirrels, confuse the living squirrels so much that they can't find their nuts. Because the dead ones know where they are but they are so frustrated that they can't eat the nuts--they can't even dig them up poor things. That they usually decide that if they can't have the nuts then those who can actually eat them sure as hell aren't getting a hold of any nuts.

V. Oh! I saw one yesterday afternoon. I was driving, and this tiny little juvenile squirrel darted into the middle of a busy street, then sat looking wildly about and turning in circles as cars zoomed in all directions, and ghost squirrels tried to pummel it with nuts...

J. Poor little squirrel, he so did not know what hit him. I can just hear all of the ghost squirrels cackling from the side walks. Because after they're dead they are much smarter and quiet a bit nastier. At least most of them. I'm sure somewhere there is the few lonely little ghost squirrels who try and do good but their voices aren't heard over the chatter of the others.

The second photograph has been edited by vanilla-vanilla. This conversation was carried out via DeviantArt, by my friend vanilla-vanilla and myself. Feel free to browse around this conversation and for others which may or may not appear here at a future date. I hope your day/evening is a good one.

conversation/The Pine Tree Guru's and Urban Foraging

2010-06-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

V. Something nice and "crispy" about this picture, too. Hair of the beast that ate most of the thing that now lies beneath the snow?

J. Ah but you see, it's vestiges of the weeds from the back of the creek monsters. In the snow and the ice he can make it just that far away from the creek. However, what he didn't realize is that he sluffed off some of his concealing creek weed on the fence along the way.
Or perhaps it's simply the little creatures who live in fences. They snuck down to the creak in the brightest light of the day--for that's what creek monsters are slowest of course at least in winter--and carefully plucked creek weed from the back of the creek monster so as to frame him for that which lies beneath the snow. However, little do they know what all that lies beneath the snow is dead grass and nothing at all incriminating. So, instead of framing the creek monsters as they wish, because he enjoys snacking on the little creatures who live in fences when he can't get hiker.

V. Ah, your folklore is getting richer, now populated with more little creatures... with ulterior motives!

J. Conflicting interests. But the poor little guys who live in the fence really must talk to the air headed creatures who live in the pine trees. You know sniffing those pine fumes all day, that's really the best way to figure out what it's all about.

V. !! I love it. Wow... Pine fumes. Hmm, reminds me of teenage years... Hmmm. I feel a picture coming on...

J. Climbing pine trees and getting the sap stuck all over your hands and never being able to get it off. Though it did smell rather nice.

V. Ah, haven't done that for years. Near where I lived as a kid was a row of 5 or 6 enormous fir trees and we'd often climb into them, way up near the top, where you sway back and forth in the wind. Sometimes pretty scary; great views.

J. Yeah, pine trees can be great. I used to climb mango trees over seas, they had a similar sappy problem. But when left they could get ginormous, and made the best climbing trees. Sometimes on the biggest ones we couldn't get up the trucks so we'd pull down the lower branches and climb up them. Mango's aren't overly strong but they bend quiet a lot before they break.

V. Oh, now I have to find a mango tree to climb!

J. You really should. Though I'm not sure how much luck you will have finding one in this country.

V. Yeah, I don't think I've seen one, but maybe in Hawaii...

J. I think you would in Hawaii, though I can't remember seeing one when I was there. That would be closer to the right climate though. Maybe it's like most fruit trees they don't tend to grow them in the cities or populated area's because of the fruit mess. I haven't been much outside of Honolulu, in a while.

V. Heheh, yes, the fruit mess. People around the neighborhood here tend to have orange and lemon and olive trees, and then instead of eating the fruit, they let it rain down and rot on the ground... I had an apricot tree that died a few years back, but when it fruited, it gave the best apricots in the whole wide world.

J. Yeah, I never understood the idea of having a fruit tree and not at least eating or using some of it. I know a number of people around here who have apple trees and they do that. We had a neighbor who had one and we'd made tones of apple sauce every year because she didn't want the apples. I can understand having more then you can use yourself but to just let it all sit there.

V. I also have an apple tree, in front by the driveway. The fruit isn't very good really, and we only eat a few each year... But not because it falls and rots. It never gets as far as falling or rotting. People come by in the middle of the night and steal it! Once last summer, I woke up in the middle of the night to some sound out front, and when I cracked the blinds to look, it was interesting. For half an hour I watched a woman with a flashlight going around the tree, picking apples and stuffing them into a bag. When it was full, she departed. Another time in the dead of night, I saw a family of people stop their car, all jump out, pick a bunch of apples, then pile back in and drive off. Jeez-o. If they really need the apples, they're welcome to them!

J. Urban foraging. There is a map floating around of this city and where the fruit trees and berry buses are in town. Someone on one of the groups I'm on was complaining about urban foraging, that because of the amount of it, people aren't leaving anything for the local wild life to eat.

V. Wow. I feel like a total dolt! It never even occurred to me. I guess it goes on here, too: [link] I guess my "old home town" Berkeley is a hot-bed of this activity. Who knew? Ha ha, maybe this is why all the 'possums have disappeared. But the squirrels and crows seem to do well here with all the oranges. The back fence is always littered with orange peels dropped by plump squirrels who eat the innards and leave the husk.

J. *chuckles* It's rather interesting. For instance I wouldn't have thought about all of the smaller urban animals that rely on that as a food source. I was reading a conversation going on between some of the members of the local Permaculture group (email), [link] [link]

The second photograph has been edited by vanilla-vanilla. This conversation was carried out via DeviantArt, by my friend vanilla-vanilla and myself. Feel free to browse around this conversation and for others which may or may not appear here at a future date. I hope your day/evening is a good one.

conversation/ Hatch

2010-05-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Image Note: So, I couldn't resist. I found this on my campus walk and well... It really rather does look like an Alien Egg, sitting on a stump just waiting to be hatched.

V. Wow! What a wonderful surprise it will be when it hatches! (Or maybe we don't want to be hanging around?)

J. *sits on the ground in front of it and starts changing* Hatch, Hatch, Hatch, Hatch, Hatch, Hatch...

V. Yes, chant hard... But don't sit too close!

J. I think I shall beat my hands on my knees and make faces at it.

V. Oh! In my crystal ball, I see... an indie film. The Dangerous Pastimes of Weavers... Make sure it doesn't have a mother lurking in the trees.

J. With numerous musical numbers and really bad subtitles as of course the whole thing is in French.

V. Ah, lovely. Sounds like my kind of film, sort of...

J. It has potential but will it be realized or not? That remains to be seen.

V. Maybe someday a movie poster might be made, though...

J. What comes to mind is old school cover art for books or pulp fiction magazines. ^^:

This conversation was carried out via DeviantArt, by my friend vanilla-vanilla and myself. Feel free to browse around this conversation and for others which may or may not appear here at a future date. I hope your day/evening is a good one.

conversation/Human Addiction

2010-05-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

V. Something lurking down there, but can't quite tell what it is... Oh, wait! It's moving!

J. Slowly inching it's way beneath the snow.... it's the river monster attempting in vain to escape from the confines of the river, to breath out while there is snow upon the ground because only then can he walk on dry earth. The snow creates a buffer layer between him and the cruel water sucking earth that would normally be fatal!

V. Getting ready to pounce, I'm sure! Or is he just dying for someone to read him a story?

J. That story was just so good, it made me so hungry that... well, I just couldn't resist a little nibble and after a nibble, well you might as well go for the mouthful.

V. Exactly, that's how monsters succumb to "human addiction".

J. Ah yes the dreaded ''human addiction'', it is afflicting more and more creak monsters of late. Their natural food supply is simply diminishing and the tasty but addictive human's are growing more and more abundant giving the poor creak monster little opption.

V. Another instance of human encroachment on wildlife habitat! Well, at least humans are edible, eh...!? And if they're also addictive, well, that's a great bonus! Helps cut down the human population and feeds the creek monsters...)

J. Only perhaps then we might end up with an over abundance of creak monsters and then were would we be? When their hunger and their addiction gets so bad that they try and creep out of the creaks more? In the winder when it snows enough to allow them to travel farther and farther from the safety of the water? Mmmm and the down fall of the human race has been found.

V. When the city streets and parks are crawling with creek monsters! Aaagh!

J. Lions, Tigers and Creak Monsters! Oh My!

V. :)

This conversation was carried out via DeviantArt, by my friend vanilla-vanilla and myself. Feel free to browse around this conversation and for others which may or may not appear here at a future date. I hope your day/evening is a good one.

conversation/Creak Monster Munch 2

2010-05-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

Creak Monster Munch 2

V. There's that river monster again, just below the surface... This one also has a nice mood; I like the almost b/w quality.

J. Ah, but you know now the river monster doesn't feel the need to break free because he can come up and breath whenever he wants to. So he's not as restless as he is when the river is frozen over completely.

V. Tis the season where he loves to stick his neck out and stretch after a winter under the ice...

J. He's like, "MMmm... I can just smell all that freedom and all those tasty hiker toes in their yummy stinky hiking boots... and I can't wait to eats me some of those!"

V. Oh, I have a pair of hiking boots he can have... I'll keep my feet, though!

J. There you go. Fishing for creak monsters by taking off your hiking boots and dangling them in the water instead of your toes. You are definitely one of the smarter hikers around.

V. Hopefully that'll keep me out of the monster's belly for another season.

This conversation was conducted on DeviantArt between my friend vanilla-vanilla and myself krazysidhe. For it and other conversations feel free to hunt around, we hope you’ve enjoyed today’s installment.

A Return To Nashville, 2

2010-05-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

Alright, so the opening of the show down in Nashville was Friday. It went quiet well, over all. At least I was impressed with the turn out as compared to last year. Here are some of the over all images I took of the work that went up, mine as well as others.

Over all, we got some really good comments and we saw a few people who weren't out here last year as well as a few people who weren't friends or friends of friends or family, so that was nice. As compared to last year, I also think that over all things look a lot nicer this year... though I have yet to put my finger on why that is.

Alright, so that's it. I hope you have a good day or evening. vanishes

conversation/Creak Monster Munch

2010-05-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

V. Nice… It looks very soft and inviting. Maybe go for a swim…

J. It’s warmer in here, come and jump in you know that you want to. That’s the water monster whispering to you, telling you that you really do want to go for a swim. And he wants a snack.

V. Probably wants to nibble my toes…!

J. AH but the problem with a nibble, is that creak water monsters are deceptive. The creak might not be very deep but they are really very big and long because they smoosh down and spread out. So that in the end a nibble for water monster is actually very large bite for you and me.

V. You mean big like no more toes? or off at the knees?

J. Rather somewhere in the middle I think. Rather like off at the ankle but you might not realize it right away because he has very sharp teeth. So, you’d probably be trying to walk away and fall over flat on your face because you don’t have foot that you thought was there, only it wasn’t really there… And then maybe all of you would fall through the ice if you fall hard enough and that’s when he gets those nice big meals that keep him fed throughout the year.

V. OK, I’ll keep the tootsies out of the water!

J. Just dabble them in the edge while you lean over and put the boot in the deeper water. Then you can get your feet wet and not get your toes munched off—though I can’t guarantee your creak monster won’t have bigger teeth and take off your whole arm—and it will be all good. Save for the walking back to the car or trail head without two boots, which could prove problematic depending on what type of trail it is.

V. Yes, I can see myself limping back down the trail with one boot and one arm…

This conversation was conducted on DeviantArt between my friend vanilla-vanilla and myself krazysidhe. For it and other conversations feel free to hunt around, we hope you’ve enjoyed today’s installment.

conversation/What Students Are Drinking

2010-05-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

Image Note: Recycling bin at school for drink cans and bottles. Among other things... apparently.

V. Ha hah... What!? Hey, dudes, who's drinking the hydrogen peroxide!

J. Hahaha, that's what I wanted to know. Along with all the alcohol on campus? Though that probably came from an opening event at the gallery down stairs, it still amused me.

V. Mmm, yes. The new martini? 2 oz gin, 1 oz vermouth and a splash of hydrogen peroxide?

J. It's quiet nice, I had one the other night. It has a wonderfully fizzy after taste that kind of lingers in your mouth like rabies. I was quiet sure that Mr. I.P. Freely over there was going to kill over the first time his date started foaming at the mouth, it was really quiet impressive.

V. Wow! "lingers in your mouth like rabies" OK, whew. I had to cover my mouth to keep from spewing tea all over the monitor...

J. *evil grins* I must admit I was rather proud of myself when that line came out. It just worked wonderfully. Just don't ruin your monitor that would be rather sad.

V. Yup, it was a great moment. Almost makes me wish I had been too slow with the hand-mouth coordination so I could have taken a picture of the spewage to post.

J. That would rather be funny in a sad kind of why, I must admit I was drinking coffee when I read that... tough, luckily I didn't get so bad.

V. Yes!

This conversation was conducted on DeviantArt between my friend vanilla-vanilla and myself krazysidhe. For it and other conversations feel free to hunt around, we hope you've enjoyed today's installment.

I Agree...

2010-05-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

"I'm really increasingly disheartened by people pretending that digital technology creates real emotions. I'm tired of people saying, 'I have facebook friends.' I have friends." -- Alexie Sherman

Digital tech. has it's uses and its good things. But it becomes nothing more then a crutch. It creates emotions but really they don't last. I've been part of this digital world for over ten years now. I've thought I had good friends and maybe I did at the time. However, there isn't a single person I talk to regularly online any longer that I knew even a year ago, now.

There are two people that I keep in touch with off and one, but it's casual it doesn't really mean a great deal. Where as the people that I've kept in real life that I've become friends with in person, face to face. Some of them I've known for over ten years. They end up being the people that come and go, those that matter return. Now, perhaps this isn't always the case but it does seem to be a trend.

While networking and such online might be a great thing and have it's benefits. Reaching a diverse group of people, more people around the world and such. However, much of it is changing, fleeting and unstable. It is just as easy to unfriend someone on facebook as it is to friend. After all what in the end does a friendcount mean when you don't even know anything about most of them, you just add them so it looks like you have lots of friends. It's an illusion, like people putting well known books on their book shelves in public rooms in their houses so that visitors think they've read them.

So much is a facade, perhaps even more so online then it is face to face. While, I use facebook and I find it fun at times and no offense to those of you that I enjoy talking with online and there are a couple of you. But I would rather have friends. This is a dichotomy that I become in creasing aware of the older I get. I used to think my online friends would be there forever. However, there comes a time when things change when those friends you thought would always be on the inside of your screen disappear. People do it in real life to, don't get me wrong. But what I have found is that people in real life come back and those who vanish from the ether rarely return and when they do... it's never the same.

Cherish those friends around you, make they last. Talk to people online be friends. But remember it's the people you can see, you can year and you can touch that really matter. The internet is but a crutch that allows us some measure of safety. It allows us not to be forced into the vulnerable situation of social interaction that can tie our stomach in knots and make us want to throw up. Living is tying yourself up in knots, it is throwing up a little, it is getting hurt and it is reaping the rewards for your nerves. vanishes

conversations/ABCD Soup

2010-05-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

V. Nice branches... Poor tree!

J. Makes a nice image against the snow though.

V. It does make a good image. Hope the bigger trunk part has some branches, too...

J. I think it's probably dead, poor little thing. That was all of it there was. It's one of those smaller trees in a fairly dense canopied area, that probably will not make it to maturity because it hast to fight too hard to reach up high enough to get to the sunlight through all of the other trees.

V. Too bad, but, it happens...

J. It does and that is why we have cannibalistic trees because they feed off the decaying bodies of the young that have been spawned by themselves and their neighbors... Now there is an interesting theory for how we might cut down on over population. Follow natures example...

V. Ah, yes. It would work very well... Following natures, example, Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal". Scroll down for example to: A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

J. *chuckles* It has possibilities, though I suppose most would resort to cats and dogs first. Mmm Swift, I haven't had to delve into that in a long while.

V. Mmm, we could make a 3-meat stew! I'll bet that would sell.

J. Soup of the day ABCD!
A Baby, Cat and Dog Soup.
Just $2.99 A Bowl.

V. Wow! A bowl of 3-meat soup for under $3! Yay!

J. I know. That's what you get when you use cat and dog, though I suppose baby might up the price some...

V. !! Yes! Maybe that's why it's not $2.95...

J. Yes, those special four pennies added onto the end. Little do people know that they are actually the very secret intermediate that adds magic to our soup. We very carefully take those last four penny's and we add them to the tithe that we pay to hell. The one that allows us to add little baby's and defenseless animals to our soup without fearing four our souls. Instead we just put everyone else in jeopardy but FEEDING it to you. Mwahahaha!

V. Oh, wow! I'm seriously laughing all over... I love it! :rose: (Hmm, maybe someday 3-meat soup will appear in a deviation... "For only four cents, we throw in the baby, and you can take the bath-water home!")

J. It's guaranteed to cure all manor of allurements from the common cold to crabs and maybe even aids. Would you like to try some bath water now? Just remember you can not guarantee that your soul will survive in one piece.

V. Ah, yes...

This conversation in all it's glory and others took place over here, between vanilla-vanilla and myself. It has not in any way been edited for grammar or content but left as it originally appeared.

A Return To Nashville

2010-05-13T08:47:00.000-07:00

Alright so last year we did the first annual Textiles Show, out in Nashville (and no, not Nashville, TN). And we decided to go ahead and do it again this year. Here are a few of the images from the show last year, just for the fun of it. ;)

The event takes place in a framing shop down there. It was fun to get out of town and the lady who runs the show is really nice. So it should be a lot of fun. Now, I need to finish up some things for the show. *laughs*

Anyway, the show should be fun. I think we're also going to try and have a few nicnaky things to sell as well. Since part of what the framing shop wants to do is sell things and a lot of our work isn't really the kind of things people out there buy. There was also talk of doing some demonstrations or something, but I'm not exactly sure what is going on with that.

Slide Show Event

2010-05-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

So, I've shown you some of what went into putting this project together. Here's some of what went on that night. Most of these images are mine; however, there are a few that were taken by a friend of mine. I'll mark those. ;)

Here's some of the shots I took of the work it's self. Remember, is sort of a collage of memories and a visual representation of the way that we remember things. I've been thinking a lot about how we remember things lately. For example, I'll be talking with a friend about something that happened years ago and what she remembers of the event is completely different from my own memories. So, the idea was to create windows that are windows but overlap and cross over in a way that makes it no longer simply a window. The second and underlying idea was about childhood and reading books beneath blankets at night. So the piece is actually made out of old bedsheets, that are worn to the point of being see through. The slides represent a different sort of window, a visual window. That glimpse into another world that we get through memories and through books.

I'm not and wasn't completely happy with the lighting system for these piece. However, I did what I could with what I had at the time. Which was mainly four clip lights set up behind it. In the future, I think I'd prefer one main light or a more seamless lighting system.

The slide towers were created by Sara and Candace. Sara is the one in the window, Candace isn't in this set of images. They were created out of old slide trays, filled with slides and then lit from the inside and zip tied together. :)

Here's a few shots of people who came to the event, and of the larger space. And below are the images that were taken by my friend Mica (the girl in black in the first frame above in the center).

So my piece decided to fall down about half way through the night. This is me fixing it with the help of my friend Jim and my mom.

And then here are just a few more images, all of which were take by Mica. The first one is me wearing Amy's piece. The second one is Candace and the third one is Amy and Sarah, both wearing bits of Amy's piece. ;)

So, that's the update on that. Enjoy and I hope that your day or evening is a good one. ;)

Slide Show Project

2010-05-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Alright, so a bit late but so it goes. I spent last Thursday finishing up the piece for the 'Slide Show Project'. Here are a few of the work in progress images. I'll post some images from the event later or tomorrow. ;)

So this project has rather been in the pipe all semester, though of course everyone is just now putting things together for it. I guess that's the way things go. *chuckles*

Anyway, it started with the fact that the local university is scanning and decommissioning all of their slides, which they were then putting out on the free table. During the course of a number of conversations we decided it would be interesting to do something with all of these slides. As things progressed we ended up working with the Sculpture department in it as well, so it became a joint show between the textiles department and the sculpture department. :)

As you can see the event actually took place last Friday. ;) All things considered the event went well. For being the end of the semester, the last day of finals.

Above the Creak Monster

2010-05-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

V. You know it's lurking there, ready to grab any stray boots!

J. MUNCH!

V. Aaaagh! My $200 dollar boot! [dives in to retrieve the expensive snack...]

J. Do you make an even more expensive snack? How does your life compare in value to the half of a pair of $200 dollar boots?

V. Ah, OK, it took a couple of days to do the tally, and the verdict is... The boots are the most expensive part!

J. I don't know i would think that the feet are rather more irreplaceable then the boots.

V. Turns out, however, that I have magical feet that keep growing back after being chewed off. Only they always grow back in pairs, so I always have an odd number of feet. This week it's 7. I suppose I could even them out by having two chewed off at once, but that would still be odd.

J. Hahahah! Next time you should try and hand and see what happens with that. You may magically end up with an extra pair of helping hands for the trouble.

V. Ooh! Yes, then I'd have 7 feet and 4 hands, which would be a trifle odd...

J. Aye, it would be rather odd; however, it could be mighty useful as well, or they might just get in the way... I wonder if you could roll around on seven feet instead of walking. You'd probably end up going in circles and looking like a deformed clown balloon.

V. Wow! I'd almost like to try that, but people might be a little hesitant to approach me...

J. Ah but they would be so shocked and amazed by what you can do that their mouths would drop open all the way to the ground and their eyes would get big and round like dinner plates. Then you could roll up to them and go 'Boo' in a very small voice and they would fall over backwards. Thus you could approach them because they'd be in awe and unable to run away.

V. That would be quite a social advantage!

J. Not to mention always having a helping hand when you need it.

V. And helping feet, too. I would be a one-man dance team. Play two pipe organs at once.

J. You'd be a really great tap dancer and just imagine what you could do to the piano. I saw a duet one time that was two guys playing the piano at once, that was really neat.

V. Oh, yeah! Wow, I'd be like Fred Astaire, squared! Oh, and the piano... I'd be able to play all of the Schubert "piano, four hands" literature on my own... [Not sure if you know, but there's a whole genre of piano music for two people at one piano; it was popular in the days when people had pianos in their parlors and everyone knew how to play, so married couples and sweethearts often played such pieces, I think...]

J. I actually didn't know anything about that. But, I found that there was something very moving about watching two people playing together. There was something beautiful about it, even more then the dance piece that was going on--which wasn't overly inspiring.

This conversation in it's entirety took place here and was conducted by vanilla-vanilla and myself along with a number of others that may eventually find their way here.

Furniture Sex and Fungi

2010-05-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

V. A giant comb, and... Ooh, wait! What's that!? One ultra-rare photograph of picnic tables mating... :-) Wow, do they allow this stuff on DA?

J. I don't know. I think might have to put up a mature content warning on this one. I hadn't thought of that until you said something. Amazing, I captured that moment without seeing the obvious... I wonder how big we can blow up the image, print it and plaster it around campus. Everyone will be totally amazed! They won't know what hit them. Heheheheheh!

V. Great idea! Won't the faculty be surprised...

J. Unfortunately, I'm afraid we might have to include diagrams to that people truly understand what is going on. Other wise they just might miss the awesomeness of the moment and that would really be sad.

V. Ah, yes, must include the detailed, educational diagrams without which any discussion of other-species mating rituals is so incomplete.

J. People get so bogged down in the details that they can not truly comprehend... after all most do still firmly believe that such objects are inanimate and thus incapable of such actions. That, I know a great many people when faced with such a truth have not been able to handle it.

V. But now, with your photos and diagrams, and the video out there on the net, they'll just have to believe! It'll open a whole new world.

J. And then no one will ever believe that I managed to do anything else with my life in the future. Because all they will remember is mating pick nick tables.

V. Oh, yes! You do not want to be one of those authors/artists who do one really big thing and then everyone forgets that they ever did anything else. Like Carl Orff. J.D. Salinger. Harper Lee. Pachelbel... ;-) So, I agree. Better to bury the mating tables, and let someone "discover" it after you're gone. Then people will say, "Wow, that J did all of that and this fabulous undiscovered work, too!"

J. Of course then there is the risk that they will somehow try and name this variety of mating pick nick tables after you and that can be a rather scary thought as well.

V. ! :lmao: Oh, yeah! But that could be lovely, couldn't it? Doesn't every woman want to have a species named after her? ;-) (Hmm, OK, you have to wonder about guys who name gross little parasitic worms after their wives and stuff... I mean, a species of flower is one thing, but.)

J. "Honey, I'm home."
Kiss, kiss, "Welcome home, sweatheart. What did you do today?"
"Well... I got a surprise."
"Oh, what is it?"
"Here," Hands a photo.
"Mmmm... and what is this little wormy thing?" Tries to sound polite and interested.
"That my dear, is the new species I named after you today. Isn't it great," Pulls out a wad of papers from his pocket, "See, I have a certificate of authenticity and everything. You my lovely are looking at the new form of fungus, the Mildred. Or as I call her Milly for short."
Btw, on a side note these things are cool [link].

V. Yes! Exactly! The next frame is where she beans him with a frying pan! "Is that all I mean to you?" :crying: "Frank's wife got a new rodent named after her..."
And those fungi! Ooh, they look so incredibly ALIEN! Wow! And to think some of them are only
down the road from Santa Banana. I might be able to see some in real life.

J. Poor Bob, he just couldn't do much to please Mildred... besides it would've served her right to have a rodent named after her. Frank's wife was much to pretty to be named after a rodent but ahhh a fungi. She would make a beautiful one.
I know aren't they.

V. LOL, she would make a beautiful fungus...!

J. Fungi just have so much more class then those stinky pooping and eating little rodents.

V. LOL...!

This conversation in it's entirety took place over here, and it was conducted between vanilla-vanilla and myself.

Bob the Brownie Alien From Outer Space

2010-05-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

V. Strange... What is it?

J. It's a little brownie house. Or perhaps it's the little alien's from outer space that just wanted to be left alone. So they came to earth and made themselves a little tiny house out in the middle of no where so that it could be left alone.

V. Very cool. Maybe you can hang around and try to get a photo of the little guys... Probably best not to poke 'em with sticks though... ;-)

J. Yeah they aren't very nice when they get mad. Their jaws elongate and then they have teeth that seem to come out of nowhere and they go ONOMNOMNOM!

V. But all those teeth do have their good points...

J. Aye true, they are very good for munching up limestone rock to get the minerals he's needs and for scaring off annoying woodpeckers that come to bother him. However, at least woodpeckers are as insistent as alien sales men are; all you have to do is show them a little teeth and they don't come back again.

V. I can see him now, baring teeth at the poor woodpeckers!

J. Oh yes, and if the woodpeckers aren't fast enough... well they are at least a mouth full. However he doesn't like the feathers because they get stuck in his teeth and it takes forever to gather each one of them up to bury. Because he can't just go around leaving mounds of feathers all over the place, people would start to wonder and being a recluse he'd rather not draw attention to himself. Besides he's much more a vegetarian most of the time--except when things piss him off and then he forgets how much he hates feathers in his teeth--but his favorite food is pond scum or river weed. It's nice an ripe.

V. Oh, I like this! I think you just about have yourself a once-upon-a-time story going here!

J. *grinz* I'm rather enjoying this. Now he just needs a name, something rather absurd but fun at the same time...

V. Yes, I'm sure you'll come up with a fun name. You're keeping track of all this, right? Maybe you have a smash hit in the making.

J. Lol yeah, keeping track of the comments. Lol not sure what to do with it yet but it's there. *chuckles*

V. Oh, good. Someday it'll all gel and you'll have something fine.

J. lol eventually the pygmy alien and the creak monster will meet and have beautiful children...

V. Oh, I can't wait to see 'em. Maybe I'll have to try drawing one. Oooh, a family tree...

J. Hahha... Would that be a pygmy creak monster? The one that fits in the little creak-lings and thus makes no place on earth truly safe from the creak monsters?

V. Yes! Pygmy creek monster!! LOL...

J. It runs around--because being part pygmy alien it can walk on land at least for a little while--trying to eat birds. Because it has decided that it like it's farther prefers bird to human; however, it's mouth is so small that it can not eat a whole bird.

The actual form of this conversation can be found here and was conducted by vanilla-vanilla, and myself.

Remember, 2010

2010-05-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

So, the semester is mostly over now. The Textiles department in tandem with the sculpture department is doing a joint show at the end of the week. Well, this weekend I finally got down to work on the piece that I'm going to show there.

Over the course of the semester the school has been switching over to digital art images and discarded all of their slides. The Slide Show Project, us utilizing all of these discarded slides, and creating art objects that use them in some way.

I went through a fair number of project ideas, in trying to approach this project. Finally I settled with the idea of memory and the way that we remember things. The way that I remember things vs. the way that someone else will remember it and how that can change over time. The idea went with the image of a child reading a book at night under the covers.

Thus this project is made out of old bedsheets that have been sewn together to create a miss-matched window pattern across the surface. The second step is to sew a number of slides onto it. I'm going to go with the smaller sets of four and not the full pages of slides. This last stage is the one that I'm currently working on.

Teleporting and Nose Wiggling

2010-05-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

V. The only problem with both of these concerts was the one-hour drive on either end of each concert so, all in all, it was not a very green weekend, and I feel guilty about that, so I'll probably stay around Santa Banana for a while, holding in my carbon emissions.

J. We really must perfect the teleportation device. Or strengthen our minds enough that we can do it with a Ooommm, a blink of the eye and a wiggle of our noses. ^_~

V. Yes! Teleportation! Knowing our universe, however, it would probably be more polluting than oil. Nose-wiggling, however, is probably entropically neutral, so to speak...

J. Physic pollution, everyone popping in and out here and there, falling on top of each other, exploding into each other in mid air. It would be a chaotic mess! And all that nose wiggling, man... people would start developing little twitches and itches that they couldn't control until their noses would start wiggling on their own. Then you'd have people who would start popping in and out of their houses at night while they slept because of their facial twitches. Though I suppose people popping themselves into oblivion is one way to deal with over population.

V. OMG! That really gave me a laugh. Wow, I guess people don't think about how chaotic it would be. Thanks for warning me before I hit the switch to turn on nose-wiggling in your universe!

J. *grins* I guess we'll just have to settle from some other--probably less entertaining--form of chaos.

The entirety of this conversation can be found here, and was carried on by vanilla-vanilla, and myself.

Crisco and the Combs

2010-04-29T06:32:00.000-07:00

Ice Walk 3, 2, 2010 by *krazysidhe on deviantART

V. This is pretty cute. Hmmm...

J. It was really random is what it was. *chuckles*

V. Crisco at work. Look for combs popping up everywhere!

J. Hahhaa.... Only he's not working to scale yet. He's got a bigger one here [link] but he failed in his placement and rather got it too far into the ground so that no one can tell what it is. I'm sure if we keep looking we can find many other examples of his great 'Comb' experiment. ;)

V. !!! LOL Yes! I totally missed that one. I bow to your superior powers of obsertation!

J. Now, on that note see how many examples of something that might be an artistic version of a comb you can spot in the next couple of days. I bet there are quite a few of them out there, once you start looking for them. After all we humans have a fondness for straight lines and so it was quiet easy for Crisco to slip his subversive comb's into our midst's without us noticing it for after all he does have a sense of humor sometimes. It is quiet fun to see just what you can get away with without the indigenous population notice.

V. If I only got out and about more! I'm notoriously shut in because, believe it or not, I work from home. But I'll keep my eyes open for combs in the environment and send a report.

J. Hmmm perhaps Crisco has been at work in the home as well as in the wider world... Oh well, I keep forgetting to look when I'm out and about so I can't say a whole lot.

This conversation can be found in it's actual format here, and was conducted by myself and my friend vanilla-vanilla. Stay tuned for more such inanity in the future, some butter and some probably worse. :)

Alien Antenna

2010-04-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

Anteni 2, 2010 by *krazysidhe on deviantART

V. I know you posted this antenna series a while ago and I've looked at 'em several times. I guess they're moss of some type? Anyway, they look really cute and fun and vigorous, all jumping up in the sun through that snow.

J. Yeah I posted those a while ago. There was something wonderful about that rock just sitting there next to the path, mostly unnoticed and then you look closer...

V. Yeah, they're really amazing little things...

J. Yeah. Something amazing about this tiny delicate little thing growing out of the snow, just pop. Hi! Hello! Yep, here I am! And I'm not leaving. At least not right away.

V. [cure eerie music] Not leaving until I've covered the earth with my alien spores and invaded every pore of every creature. Mwa ha ha...

J. *giggles* And I must look fabulous while doing so.

V. Oooh! I feel another marvelously huge Crisco project coming on... ;-)

J. You know that Crisco he's never still. ;) Always planning or doing something monstrous.

This conversation can be found here, and was conducted by vanilla-vanilla and myself krazysidhe.

Dreams and Forgotten Ideas

2010-04-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

Paleontology Bumper Sticker by =vanilla-vanilla on deviantART

This conversation took place in response to the linked image above. This work is not mine by belongs to my friend Vanilla-Vanilla.

J. I do so love dreams most of the time. *chuckles*

V. Dreams are great fun! Well, mostly.

J. lol mostly dreams are great even those that are scary can be interesting in their own right. What scares you other then the obvious? I had a friend who dreamed about a raccoon chasing her around with a gun and one of the worst dreams I ever had was about giant flesh eating grasshoppers...

V. When I have nightmares, which isn't often, they seem to involve just general spookiness, and sometimes werewolves. (I hate werewolves, and horror films in general anyway.) The other scary thing is sensations of inability to move, being "tied down" and/or squished.

J. I had a waking dream one time where I was asleep and I couldn't move but I was in my room and I could hear people outside. That really freaked me out.
Mostly it's the unknown, something in the dark. Something I term a 'monster' but I don't usually see it. I simply know what it is that it's there.

V. Yeah, the "can't move" sensation is a weird one. The Japanese call it "kanashibari". I actually have the feeling of being squished and paralyzed sometimes, often associated with bad dreams, and wake up making weird noises. Hmm. Not a good topic before bed-time!

J. Wow, that's really fascinating [link] and there are stories from all around the world as well. There is something in that. I shall sit on that and put it in my ideas folder for now.

V. Ah, good. In the ideas folder, where it will lurk, ready to pounce at a later date.

J. Or be forgotten. I have some random things in there. I have gone back through it on occasion.

V. Ah, right, the folder of forgotten fantasies..

J. Brilliant title, for something. But yeah something like that. Though It end to have the Note book of Forgotten Fantasies, which just doesn't have the same ring.... how about FlipBook of Forgotten Fantasies?

V. Mm, the flipbook of forgotten fantasies. OK. Sounds interesting.

J. Could be a fun visual as opposed to something you're actually meant to read. With the flipbook being often a momentary diversion to look at for a short time set aside and usually forget about.

Orange Dots and Alien Artists

2010-04-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Artist's Comments
So, a while back I posted a journal entry about train tracks and why they seem to fascinate so many people. Well there are lots of train tracks around the place but I admit I've never paid them much attention. I decide every so often I'm going to take a walk along a different stretch of the tracks and see what I find. To get out of the studio and do something different yesterday I walked along a stretch of tracks near campus.

Here's one thing that jumped out at me, bright orange dots. ;)

V. These are fun! It looks like 7 or 8 different locations... Hmmm.

J. Yeah I enjoyed it. Same tracks just different spots along it. I don't know if it was someone having fun or someone marking something.

V. It would be nice to think it had something to do with Morse code for aliens or an art project by a devotee of Christo and Jeanne-Claude but it's more likely to be railway folks marking ties that need to be replaced... ?

J. *chuckles* Well it's not really on their scale at least the stuff of theirs that I know. Though that would be interesting and I suppose in some way it could be a massive scale. I think I'll vote for alien code, I like that answer. ;) Or maybe it's the squirrel's, it must be the squirrel's fault.
Yeah, I wondered about the replaced ties, though most of them didn't look any worse then any of the others at least as far as my uneducated eyes could tell.

V. Hi! My name's Crisco. I'm an installation aahrtist from Alpha Centauri. Last week I painted each railway tie with a bright orange dot from Bellingham WA to IN. I usually work bigger, but I've been a little sick. You should see what I did in 1054. Oh, wait, I guess you can see it. One of my finest "plasma balloons"...

J. LOL. That just made my morning. *giggles*
So, Crisco while you're here can I ask you a few questions?
Are you here to take over the world with art? Or is the whole alien domination and take over thing rather over done?

V. Oh, dahling, we don't just take over worlds. Our motto: "We'll annihilate anything for Art." Nothing gets your blood pumping in the morning like a supernova. And, as Joan-Clod says, "lasts longer than a box of radioactive Sharpies."

J. Hmmm... I see. Well then let me pose one of the fundamental questions to you, what is art? I've always been under the impression that supernova's and such were naturally occurring. If you consider the creation of one art; what is heart to you and your people beyond the limitations of Earth?

V. Ah, Ah. As I, Crisco, have written elsewhere in one of my many books available through Rip-Em-Right-Off-Press: Art is {all the stuff you draw/make/write/sculpt/sing/weave while you're trying to become an Artist} minus all the bits involving feces. And the latter is sometimes negotiable, as you demonstrated brilliantly: link. For example, the Trooblinquat Bemquine tribe of Beta Centauri IV produce very interesting and colorful fecal sculpture hundreds of meters tall and it has been hoity-toity art among them for 10,000 or so Earth years. And supernovae are far from naturally occurring, Grasshopper. You really have to work at one. They take several billion Earth years to actually bloom.

J. Well, then you must've perfected the art of longevity as it seems we short lived humans have missed out on much.
(You know perhaps it's not so much about what artists make it's about the fact that they make it and they present it as art. So it comes down to the presentation such as Duchamp's Fountain. Or for example fecal sculptures; are made and presented as art and thus become art over time because they have been presented that way. We become defined by what people previously have declared as art. Lol as a side note this came up in my search for the above as a picture from Burning Man. lol or link.)

V. Yes, humans do miss out on much with your short lifespans. Someday perhaps you'll live long enough to see some of the art that other species have been making all around the galaxy for eons... :-)
(Ah, Duchamp's fountain. I never learned whether he made the fountain or just presented it. I'd have to argue, personally, that if he didn't make it, it isn't art, no matter how he presents it. In some sense it trivializes the creative act to simply take an object and present it unadorned. This separates goats from Goats dressed in tires and paint [link] a la Rauschenberg. Yes, it's also true that we become defined by what people previously have declared as art as you say. Burning Man. Ah, never been to it, but I keep hearing about it year after year...)

J. So, then you have not uncovered the secret of ever last life? You are simply blessed with long life spans?
(He simply presented it as art. I don't really care for him or the idea or the Dada movement; however, the observation I think stands. Simply in terms of what we present as art then can become viewed as art. So it's those who present things who begin to define what art is. Which doesn't persay answer the question but it is an element of some sort in the whole mess.
Hahha poor goat.
Yeah I haven't been to Burning Man though I to keep hearing about it. It would be neat to go.)

V. The secret of everlasting life? Don't die. Very simple. The trick is living through the next "big fizzle" or "big collapse" and through the "big bang" that follows it on the other side. :-)
Anyway... Dada can be fun in some ways, but it was mostly similar to what young people were doing in the 60s: doing whatever it takes to annoy the establishment. :-)

J. *chuckles* Well in terms of art, and just people in general there will always be some element of that. Annoying the establishment, doing what they think is, 'shocking', but may or may not be anything that's really new.

V. Exactly. It's mostly been done in one form or another through the ages, somewhere on Earth.

This conversation can be found here and was carried on by myself and vanilla-vanilla.

The Ribs

2010-04-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

V. Interesting photo, and also interesting subject matter. I like the amusing comment on the lower ribs. Hmm.

J. Yeah, that was what caught our attention. The lower rib thing.

V. Yes, rather wild and interesting. Strange ideas those ancients had...

J. *chuckles* It always makes me wonder what people a hundred years or so from now will say about us.

V. Right. I think, if they're around, they'll have some rather awful things to say about us, but those comments will probably be censored by the corporate screwballs who control the media and the supreme court. Heh heh.
But the question always reminds me of that scene in Woody Allen's "Sleeper" where he wakes up in the future and the doctor is smoking ciggies like a chimney, telling him "we used to think smoking was bad for you, now we know it's healthy"... :-)

J. *chuckles* It's one of those eternal questions that has no answer and yet still we wonder. I think I shall invent a time traveling pair of moon shoes.

V. Ooh! When you do, stop by and pick me up... :-)

J. I shall make two pairs and we can pretend to be skipping down the yellow brick road in moon shoes, skipping through time... never knowing what we will find. Perhaps it will be the emerald city and perhaps it will be a fuzzy caterpillar smoking hookah or maybe it will be a pygmy alien with a taste for birds and a preference for creak monsters.

V. :laughing: Oh, yes. That sounds like so much fun!!

Original conversation can be found here, the images were taken as part of a collection visit that was set up as part of a class.

Krazy Conversations

2010-04-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

V: Nice... It looks very soft and inviting. Maybe go for a swim...

J: It's warmer in here, come and jump in you know that you want to. That's the water monster whispering to you, telling you that you really do want to go for a swim. And he wants a snack. :)

V: Probably wants to nibble my toes...!

J: AH but the problem with a nibble, is that creak water monsters are deceptive. The creak might not be very deep but they are really very big and long because they smoosh down and spread out. So that in the end a nibble for water monster is actually very large bite for you and me.

V: You mean big like no more toes? or off at the knees? ;-)

J: Rather somewhere in the middle I think. Rather like off at the ankle but you might not realize it right away because he has very sharp teeth. So, you'd probably be trying to walk away and fall over flat on your face because you don't have foot that you thought was there, only it wasn't really there... And then maybe all of you would fall through the ice if you fall hard enough and that's when he gets those nice big meals that keep him fed throughout the year.

V: OK, I'll keep the tootsies out of the water! :-)

J: Just dabble them in the edge while you lean over and put the boot in the deeper water. Then you can get your feet wet and not get your toes munched off--though I can't guarantee your creak monster won't have bigger teeth and take off your whole arm--and it will be all good. Save for the walking back to the car or trail head without two boots, which could prove problematic depending on what type of trail it is.

V: :laughing: Yes, I can see myself limping back down the trail with one boot and one arm...
:-)

This conversation and others can be found on my gallery, Krazysidhe or on V's, Vanilla-Vanilla

Little Robyn Hood and Pinch the Drier - End

2010-01-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

See here for: Part One & Part Two

Now for part three - The end. This is the story of little Robyn Hood and Pinch the drier that could not get enough red socks;

However, Pinch’s joy could only stop up his ears for so long. Though he began to drool—water pool behind him on the floor—he couldn’t help but hear what the other drier’s were talking about. They were always talking, always bothering him, why couldn’t they just let him enjoy himself once and a while? So, what if he liked red socks? Missy had a thing for panties and Tac simply loved wool while but his sister DeDe couldn’t stand wool.
"She's never going to use you again after this," One of them mumbled.

"Poor girl won't have anything left to use after this," Another one said, "It'll all be lint by the time he's done with it."

"And just her and her Gran up there all by themselves in that house. She's got so much, cause they can't often afford to come in here."

"It's not right."

The gloating tempo of Pinch's motor slowed a little as he listened to the talk of the other driers. Quickly he looked away staring out the front windows of the laundrymat; nothing was going to stop him from enjoying all of the lovely red. He could taste it already, flavored nicely with detergent and a little bit of fabric softener. He was practically salivating as Robyn struggled to get the last of the wet laundry into his belly.

Reaching up she found that she couldn't reach the drier door to shut it. Jumping she still just missed. She was skinny under the over sized red coat and boots she was wearing. Pinch watched feeling worse and worse as she tried to climb up his side to reach the door. Finally she turned over the laundry basket and climbed on top of it, jumping from there as Pinch wiggled his door down low enough that she could grab it.

Robyn got the door closed but she ended up on her behind in front of the drier her feet up against the bottom of it. Pinch watched in dismay as she bit her lower lip and her eyes filled with tears but she didn't cry. Instead she rubbed them away angrily and got up, standing on tip toe to on the laundry basket to turn him on. That done she sat down in front of him and leaned back against the washer to wait.

Even with all that wonderful red inside of him, the little girl sitting in front of him ruined Pinch's appetite. In the end he couldn't eat more than one pair of red socks; though he gruffly told the other washers that he wasn't feeling good when they started teasing him as little Robyn Hood struggled out the door with her basket of dry clean laundry. Pinch almost smiled when Mrs. Wash sent her boy Jeremy out to help the girl and together the two of them walked away into the deep red glow of the evening. ~ End

Robyn Hood and Pinc the Drier Part 2

2010-01-06T07:49:00.000-08:00

Part 1 of The Story, The story of little Robyn Hood and Pinch the drier that could not get enough red socks;

Part Two: Pinch could hardly hear anything over the rumbling laughter of all the other driers but he could see Robyn struggling to push the over sized basket of red away from him quiet clearly. She struggled and she heaved but she got nowhere. Standing up she looked at the old man who'd fallen asleep in a chair by the window once more and then towards the back where Mrs. Wash was talking on the phone--finally she looked up at Pinch once more.

"You'd better work," She muttered as she began to throw all of that mouth watering red back into Pinch's belly. The other driers grew silent at his gloating rumble; oh yes, he was going to enjoy himself this day.

Oh, yes! Oh, yes! Oh, yes! Pinch was so elated he couldn't hear anything else the only thing that existed in his world in that moment was that wonderful pile of red he would soon destroy...

~ TBC

Woven World

2010-01-02T12:40:00.000-08:00

There is something beautiful about the weaving process, often I find the actual work more appealing then the finished product. This is a project that I warped out actually a number of months ago but finally put it on the loom.

This is a photo series on the weaving process and progress of one woven piece.

The Things We Miss

2009-12-30T06:12:00.001-08:00

Life goes on, it slides past us no matter how tightly we try and hold on to it. People talk about the past often as if it was this great thing but not always. Each of us has one thing that we tend to fixate on, a moment, a year, an age, a person or a place. That can be what inspires us, what drives us forward to do whatever we do but it does not have to be.

There is also one great thing that you miss this most, it can be the same thing, person or place. However, it does not have to be.

I find often what I miss most changes from time to time as life changes. Yet, there is one great thing that always comes back to me. The things that we return to are those that are of the most importance to us. I find that I miss the ocean most of all, the sound of the waves upon the shore, the vast space open and yet full of uncertainty, awe, fear and joy. I don't want an over crowded beach with silly people sunbathing, kids screaming and music blasting.

I want an empty beach, a beach that's quieter. You don't often find that at least not around the places I've had a chance to visit of late. It's like here, almost no matter where you go out in the woods or the country the sounds of people intrude into the quiet. The birds, the car horns and the sound of the wind all go hand in hand.

Still, perhaps we miss what we miss the most simply because we do not have it. If we had it, it might not mean the same to us. *disappears*

Video Footages

2009-12-19T09:37:00.000-08:00

Alright here's a link to some of the video clips, I took Thursday night before the performance to document the current form of the light up shirt. I'm not going to leave these up forever but for now I'm not sure where else to put them.

FaceBook - Video Files

Unfortunately the video option on Blogger doesn't work and I don't care for the YouTube, stuff. Alright no a lot of word vomit for today, just a bit.

Seva

2009-12-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

Seva is a word meaning service in Sanskrit.
Seva may also refer to:

Volunteer work; selfless service; work offered to God (in Indian Religions)
Seva, in Indian cuisine, a snack food made by deep-frying strands of chick pea flour dough flavored with chili powder, salt, and sometimes coriander
The Seva Foundation, a non-profit foundation that fights blindness and poverty
Seva, Barcelona, a municipality in the comarca of Osona, Catalonia, Spain
Abbreviation of rare east-slavic name Vsevolod
Seva (Puerto Rico) is a fictional town described in the novel Seva by Puerto Rican author Luis López Nieves.
Seva (short story): by Puerto Rican author Luis López Nieves.
Seva in Tirumala: Arjita Sevas at Tirumala Venkateswara Temple.

SEVA may refer to:

Stand-up EVA, an extra-vehicular activity in which an astronaut partially emerges into space

Link: Information copy and pasted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Last Of The WIP Images

2009-12-14T09:09:00.000-08:00

Alright so I don't have a great camera and it looks rather worse when there isn't enough light. However, it was fun and I rather enjoy the quality that the video footage I took came out as. I'll post some video links later, I'm still waiting for those to upload--slowly one at a time.

This is group project documentation, this documentation was not of the actual event but of some of the work leading up to the event--the night before.

Artists Involved: Adolfo Cifuentes, Amy Burrel & Jay Garst
Link: Poster & Fuller Space

All of the above images were taken Thursday night December 10th 2009. This was video/photo documentation for class as we decided not to use the light up shirt during the actual performance on Friday. Actually we decided not to go with white clothing at all. So this was a practice run, trying to get the kinks worked out of the surveillance camera, the projection and a few other little things. Ahaha, I must've tried putting that projector all over that room before finally settling on it's final location--though unfortunately I didn't take pictures from Wednesday night.

Anyway, I have some pictures from the actual performance night and some video from both Thursday and Friday night that I will post--once I finally get it up. *disappears*

What is Technology Meant To Do?

2009-12-10T00:08:00.000-08:00

I'm bothered by the assumption that technology is meant to wow us. I understand it and I agree that to a great extent it is out there; and that's what people expect. However, it bothers me. Why should technology have to wow us? Why can't something simply be just as beautiful and elegant?

I don't think that technology should have to amaze people in fact I think that, that is a great fault in a lot of the tech or digital art that I see. People try and do too much with it. It's fun to play with, it's fun to do something spectacular that wow's people. However, the danger that I think a lot of people fall into is creating something that is too busy.

If you create a technology based art work that is too much it detracts from the work, from your meaning or whatever you were going for. If you go for simply wowing people, then it doesn't have any greater value then that.

Wow, art is fun. There is a lot of it out there because that's what people like. Things that pop, things that catch their attention; but does art like that hold their attention or have any real lasting value beyond the moment?

WIP Shots

2009-12-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

Alright so I know these images suck, the lighting is bad at home and not much I can do about it but I wanted to post them. Having issues sewing on the inside of the arms because they're too small to fit well with the sewing machine. I think I'm going to have to put the last bits on by hand, but still a pain to sew in the sleave.

Anyway, it was decided that even the LilyPad components are probably going to snag on the fabric and rip it or at least create problems with. So I've been thinking of various ways to cover them. I like having the component's visible--though I have not fully figured out why that is, I think it has something to do with enjoying the ability to see how things work. Which at this point I can go either way on. I also decided to back the components on the inside of the shirt because some of the little bits on the back were poking threw and were a little sharp.

We also got the hangers up yesterday in the space. Inbetween holding things and passing tools, I took a few quick snap shots.

Alright that's it for now. Other things to do and finish and yeah. At least it hasn't snowed again so far. *disappears*

Inside & Out

2009-12-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

Alright just real quick other things to do, other places to be and it had to go and snow last night. My sister loves it but man I'd really rather it hadn't done that. Yuck.

Alright that's it for the moment. Someone else who got snow enjoy it for me. *disappears*

Success

2009-12-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

So, despite previous failures and despite previous issues... there are some good things. You learn from failing at least some of the time. We're still not sure about the eventual outcome of this pieces, it might be used in the show this Friday and it might not. Still working with it; however, at least it works. :)

Aspiring Artist's Dabbling in Electronics

2009-12-06T09:20:00.000-08:00

Aspiring Artist's Dabbling in Electronics: Another item of note for those artists who are dabbling in electronics.

If you purchase a mixed package of resistor's thinking you will get the one's you want. The resistor's within that package are color coded. They are not all, 45 ohm to 65 ohm (or something to that effect), resistors.

So in other words you can't do what I did; just pull any of them out of the package and use it and think that everything will work out just fine.

Both images were taken from Wikipedia - Electronic Color Code, if you would like more information then is in this post, it can also be found on the Wiki. I didn't read it too in depth because a great deal of it went over my head--part of the problem for any aspiring artist dabbling in electronics--well, if you lack a technical and math side to your brain anyway. *disappears*

Problem's Post 1

2009-12-06T07:28:00.000-08:00

So... I keep running into problems with the electronic stuff. Every time I figure it out I think, 'Why didn't someone mention that?' Why isn't that on a list somewhere of what to watch out for or to be aware of when creating an electronic circuit/soft circuit really? Well, there probably is somewhere, on one of the various websites that deal with circuit's and the Lilly Pad, I haven't had the time to look. (Hahhaha time what's that?)

So, what I decided to do is start listing the problem's I've had and why I've had them. Start my own list and then I'll see if I can't find something later. If I can find it great if not well I have my own (though some of this is conjecture and not being a tech geek, will only go so far.) Still, I have only run into a very small number of techy people who seem to be able to converse on the subject of electronics in a way that makes sense, who can understand what I'm saying. Everyone else I feel like we're speaking different dialects of the same language and getting no where; curious that.

1. Adding extra stitching doesn't help your cause, it doesn't make better connections. The added stitching/conductive thread adds extra resistance to your circuit and can actually cause it not to work. So going back over everything to make it more conductive actually isn't a good thing. For example see: Attempted Glove Light Project

2. So apparently you don't need a resistor with the LilyPad LED's? I added one because I had six LED's and with the other ones I needed a resistor for about every five LED's. However, it didn't work. So I took the resistor out and now it works perfectly. So I went to the LED Calculator, to try and figure it out. Either I'm not understanding the spec's on SparkFun - LilyPad LED's, correctly or something, because according to the Calculator with what I put in there the 1.5 vol AAA, battery shouldn't even power the six LED's, let alone anything else. I guess I still need a dummy's guide to electronics. (Really the whole power source thing is confusing and I ask people to explain it and they don't want to. Though the general consensus is you shouldn't hook up a larger battery to the lilypad.)

2a. EDIT: The LilyPad LED's do have a built in resistor on them. You do NOT need to add a resistor to the circuit with those. I appropriated the image from SparkFun, because in this image you can see the resistor on the little board. (see the little black thing next to the LED light with the green/yellow'ish lines on it. According to another smart man I know, that is a resistor that has been placed on the board.) If you try and do something one way and then do it this way that is a GOOD thing to know.
Some of this stuff really comes across as being at cross purposes for me and not being easy. The LilyPad stuff almost tries to make it too easy without any good explanations. So that if you do one and try and do it the other way you run into a whole separate set of problems. Hahaha the Data sheet above for this LED light doesn't even explain it right, we had to do the math... anyway, yeah.

Issues, problems, uncertain questions that why I try and voice them come out all wrong. Either that or apparently I just don't speak tech. Never had this big of a problem communicating on something before. Anyway, enough rambling more work to do. *disappears*

What is Art?

2009-12-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

I keep coming back to this question over and over again lately. So I'm going to post a bit that came up yesterday during the final critique for the Engaged Art Class, and FiberAwareness Project [link] (which I think I will actually try and keep going for now in some capacity). So, anyway no long rambling word vomit today, too much to do and too many places to go that are not sitting in front of my computer.

I've been thinking that perhaps the question is wrong. What is art? Art is a generally broad term, it's rather like human. What would you say if I asked you what is human? Human are people, animals are animals, plants are plants, humans are sentient, etc. However, what we do is we do not necessarily define the 'state of human' we categorize it within another definition within another label, within another state. So what if the question is not really, 'what is art?', but something more along the lines of, 'What categories should we put under art?'

Until more recently I've always rather told myself that I considered any form of creation art. However, in taking classes that look at art and work in a different way and different bodies of work and different ways of considering art; I've had to ask myself if that statement is true. My reactions to some of the stuff in my Digital class and in the Engaged Art class are, 'That's not art!' But what is being show is a form of creation, something that someone worked on, spent time on and made. Thus by the previous definition in my head it should be art.

So what is the socially ingrained response that says, 'this isn't art?' If that isn't art in my head then what exactly is it?

If art is this broad category that in its most simple form says something along the lines of; creation (action/experience) = art

Be it the act of snapping an image, doodling on the bathroom wall, mom cooking in the kitchen, my sister finger knitting, my dad fixing a car, or a weaving or a drawing, to a display of information, a website, etc.

Then what categories fall under the broader heading of 'art', the generalized, main stream, typically thought of as art. There are a few terms that come to mind but I don't really like them such as; high art, craft, etc. However, I feel that there should be something better...

Because Time Flies...

2009-12-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

And there never seems to be enough of it to do everything. I did a quick mock up for this because I wanted to try and remember what I was thinking. Since I don't think I'm going to get around to doing this.

We'll see what happens. *laughs* I would like to do something that succeeds with lights.

Okay, no time for major word vomit, other things to do.

And another more serious mock up to do before class later today. Not to mention many other things.

*disappears*

laughs The Glove Failure and Why

2009-12-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

Well according to the mildly helpful tech guy--who could not seem to understand a word I was saying when I tried to explain anything *sigh*--the problem with the glove. There were a couple. Not that I didn't already know that. I think we eventually managed to over come the language barriers. It's amazing how you can be speaking the same language and still not connect at all.

1. The extra stitching that I put on the glove added extra resistance in the circuit which means it needed more power in order to actually light up. (aka, I screwed myself over by over doing the whole thing. This is a habit I need to break, yet somehow I keep thinking... if I just do a little more it'll work!)

2. The little 3volt battery that I was using to power the thing wasn't really enough power to begin with. So with the added resistance in the circuit it really wasn't enough to power my ten little LED lights.

But who wants a great big battery hanging out in odd places? There hast to be a better power solution. Yes the triple AAA battery isn't that big but... Oh well. Anyway out of time and a big crit this Friday I need to finish stuff up for. And I have see the light! Hahhaha, about like saying I know what it's like to take a break or 'down time' what's that? *disappears*

Completely Irrelevant

2009-11-30T08:59:00.000-08:00

I need something silly, something foolish, something that had little to no bearing on anything else. And this is what happened:

Once Upon a Time in a land far, far away there was a drier with a taste for the odd. Now this drier it loved nothing more than to eat peoples socks; however, this particular drier was picky. Unlike the other driers it wouldn't eat just any old sock, it liked red socks above all others.

This drier--whose name was Pinch--would watch each of the inhabitant's of the land of Linen as they came through the door just waiting for someone with red socks. The other drier’s would hic-up, burn and otherwise not dry anyone's laundry if they had red socks. They did not want to listen to Pinch bellow and complain about how they stole his red socks any more then they had to.

One day a little girl came in with a basket full of stinky smell linen. She pushed back her red hood and Pinch; oh yes, Pinch could see the red socks peeking out of her basket as she talked to Mrs. Wash who owned the Laundry Mat where Pinch and the other driers worked. Yes, she'd come straight from Grandmother's and Yes, she'd go straight back to Grandmother's just as soon as the laundry was dry.

Opening up the basket as she talked, Pinch watched in wide eyed fascination. There was so much red in the little girl's basket that he could almost imagine how it would taste and he rumbled softly--happily ignoring the groans of the other driers. Oh yes, Oh yes, Oh Yes!

The little girl in the red hood talked with Mrs. Wash but Pinch he had eyes only for all the wonderfully delicious red that was spinning around and around and around and around inside the washer. He began to hum with sheer joy at the thought of the feast he was going to enjoy. Indeed he was salivating so much that the load in his tummy didn’t get dry. The little old man—who hadn’t a stitch of red anywhere in his laundry—pulled it out in frustration and put it into the drier next to Pinch, complaining loudly the whole time. Couldn’t Mrs. Wash make sure that her machines did their work properly? He remembered how things used to be before, everything worked properly and on and on and on.

Finally, little Robin Hood—as Mrs. Wash had called the girl with all the red—was pulling all that wonderful red out of the washer. It felt in one mouth watering pile in her basket and Pinch was purring again. Robin tried to pick up the basket and failed, finally she dragged it along the floor right over to where Pinch was waiting. The first few arm loads came in landing in the back of his belly.

“I wouldn’t use that one if I were you,” The old man said from where he’d finally lapsed into silence by the window with a day old paper, “It’s not working,” He glared at Mrs. Wash who was pointedly ignoring him.

“Oh, okay,” Robin said with a brief flash of a smile for the old man, “Thank you.”

He harrumphed and Pinch groaned in frustration, as Robin began to pull all that lovely red out. Pinch would’ve turned bright red if he could as the other driers began to laugh at him.

TBC

Hahahha! I win...

2009-11-29T07:30:00.000-08:00

... Welcome to failure number 2! I'm on a roll here, apparently whether I understand it or not--to some extent--electronics and myself do not get along. I can mostly get the computer to do what I want to do with much effort and heart ache but it is just not working with my own circuits. Everything worked when the resistors and the LED lights were stitched together, on all the fingers. However, I get the rest of it all put together and connected to the battery and.... nothing. *sighs*

Okay, actually I need to find a smaller needle and connect the battery better. I'm hoping that'll do it but it is actually making contact and I'm not getting anything so... ha. Anyway, I'm going to stop looking at this thing for a while and try and stare at flash for a bit and I need to put together some screen printing screens in illustrator. *disappears*

Edit: I can't ever just stop working on something. It sort of works. I tightened up some of the connections. Not sure about the switch now or maybe I need to put something conductive over the whole back of the hand to get a better connection there when the beads touch... at least that would be easy to test.

Other Projects

2009-11-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

Alright well I haven't just been doing nothing--and I haven't just been doing the failed project in the past few weeks. *chuckles* Granted I haven't been playing around with Flash as much as I should but whatever. Anyway so I spent a good portion of yesterday watching Flash tutorial's and having fun and getting frustrated trying to figure out how to do what I want to do. Anyway, successes and failures the current one is getting the whole image to scroll together. *laughs* I actually rather like the fact that it doesn't all move together it creates quiet a creepy effected.

Dream Egg 1, Flash Attempt 1, Dream Egg 2, Flash Attempt 2, Zombie Fun 1, Flash Attempt 3, Zombie Fun 2, Flash Attempt 4 (A work in progress)

But yeah, I've also been working on the webpage project which I put aside for a bit in the beginning. I don't seem to be able to develop web designs that I like any more. Mostly I think because I can not present them in a sophisticated manor as I wish graphically. Anyway, this is the current mock up. So far I'm still actually happy with it. Still need to get some of the content up but yeah. Alright other work that needs to be done. *disappears*

Images Of...

2009-11-19T21:48:00.000-08:00

... the so far still a failure project. Ahaha, I have figured some things out since this. a) wire mesh from the hardware store while conductive is a pain to work with, it's sharp, it's hard to get a good connection and for what I wanted it's much too visible. b) connecting both ends of the battery to each other is a bad thing. c) voltage is important you either burn out LED's or you get no light or very little light. d) if you want to put more then three LED's together on a circuit you have to have a resistor or you simply get no lighting up.

So, I went from there to using wire when I wanted to sew the whole thing. However, after a few problems wire was a better way to figure out if it worked before sewing everything. Needless to say I did get it to light up when the wires were attached.

However, I'm not so sure I really like this set up for what I want to do. It's cute and it's fun but it really has no purpose and it doesn't really amplify the materials the way I wanted it to. Which could be worked with placement and type of LED's... anyway, trying to figure out exactly what I want to do. It is being difficult. For some reason with this class I have less ideas about what to do. I'm not sure if that's because it's simply not really a familiar medium or something else. Anyway enough ramble, sleep is needed and it's late. *disappears*

Fail # 1

2009-11-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

So while talking with Amy about our project, I've also on the side been trying to do something simple with LED lights for BFA class, simply to see if I can. Today was the first day I tried to get the first layer working and it failed.

Mostly I think because the connections weren't good enough but I'm not positive. Either that or not enough power (pokes little AAA battery). I was going to try a larger battery, after looking around on this website. However, while I know the screen mesh conducts and will light up one light it might not work with this. I mostly wanted to us it though because I couldn't find any wiring that wouldn't have shown up like none other (and I got the wire mesh for free from the hardware store when I went in there.)

If that fails, the conductive thread would probably work. However, I don't have any of that right now. I may have to try and fix that though. As that might be my best bet. Though I must admit I'm rather apathetic in the hand sewing department and this would have to be hand done. We'll see, I have until Friday to get it working... At the moment I'm just shooting to get the lights working, I would like to program the arduino to do some simple patterns to but I'm going to focus on it actually lighting up first. ^_^

Edit: Hahaha and this is why I'm doing this project because even going through the work shop... you sit down to wire your own circuit and it gets complicated really fast. How to Wire LED lights; however was much more helpful then the other link. Or maybe I just didn't read the other one carefully enough. Another link, Quick guide on how to wire LED's in a circuit. Oh and this was neat Resister Calculator but I'm out of time now to play with it.

Rambly Thoughts

2009-11-04T09:47:00.000-08:00

You know, I never really considered myself technologically stupid. Granted I don't really know how to take a computer apart and put it back together. However, I can switch out a power supply or a drive without too much trouble. I can usually figure out how a program works, it might take me a while to figure out some of the neater tricks but I can get to a point where I can get it to do what I want--usually.

I've always wanted to learn to do things a little more efficiently, to gain a greater understanding and skill base when it comes to technology/programs. *chuckles* Other things keep coming in the way, everyone probably has some idea of how that goes. I think in part I let it happen because I'm worried I won't be able to figure it out--silly, I know.

So, the Ardoino work shop last week, was insightful and yet rather daunting as well. Especially going from there, things just get more and more complicated. It's like learning a whole new language or perhaps a different way of thinking and looking at things. I'm not sure what exactly to do with it yet but I feel like it's good to know. I'm trying to do a project with LED lights for my BFA program right now, mostly to prove to myself that I can do it. We'll see.

I've been playing around with felting wool through fabric and the resulting gathering that you get. Anyway, I'm trying to create a layering of fabrics/wool and then working LED lights into the back layer to a series of switches that people can connect in different places to create different light effects. I was kind of thinking about how we wish on stars and something like that. Honestly though, I mostly want to do it to prove to myself that I can. Baby steps, I suppose. *disappears*

Electronic Links

2009-10-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.sparkfun.com/
http://www.futurelec.com/
http://www.Robotshop.us/

Boundries

2009-10-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

It's about the boundaries, the boarders between one thing and another. The boundary between fiction and reality, the places where nature meets man made and the line begins to blur. Places were the true magic of the world happens such as the line where the water caresses the shores of the land. Sunset and sundown a time when the world is neither in light nor in darkness.

enter interlude into fantasy/
"Oh, tell to me, Tam Lin," she said, "why came you here to dwell?"
"The Queen of Faeries caught me when from my horse I fell
And at the end of seven years she pays a tithe to Hell
I so fair and full of flesh and feared it be myself
But tonight is Hallowe'en and the faerie folk ride
Those that would their true love win at Miles Cross they must buy
First let past the horses black and then let past the brown
Quickly run to the white steed and pull the rider down
For I'll ride on the white steed, the nearest to the town
For I was an earthly knight, they give me that renown
Oh, they will turn me in your arms to a newt or a snake
But hold me tight and fear not, I am your baby's father
And they will turn me in your arms into a lion bold
But hold me tight and fear not and you will love your child
And they will turn me in your arms into a naked knight
But cloak me in your mantle and keep me out of sight"
/exit interlude into fantasy

Create a moment of magic a moment when two worlds cross and interact one with the other. I'm rambling again. That was the gist of the thought, I will leave it there for now. *disappears*

Polishing the Egg

2009-10-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

The distinguishing feature between a dream and a nightmare is what one is scary while presumably the other is not. At least when you ask people what sets them apart that is the most given answer, "Well, duh a nightmare is well scary." However, I feel that with dreams what often scares us is the odd, the strange, the out of place or the unknown elements. Which is often what makes up a dream. Thus a dream can be a dream or a nightmare or both all at the same time.

So, I put forth that a dreams are rather like eggs. You see an egg, you think, "Chicken!", or perhaps, "Yum, breakfast."

Dreams are like eggs, we know what is on the outside of them and we believe that we know what is on the inside. Yet, in truth we can nether see nor determine what is actually inside the egg. Is it a chicken egg, a goose egg or did the fair folk sneak in during the night and put a dragon egg in there? Or something much more mundane is it a good egg, an egg with a double yoke or perhaps did it sit in the nest too long and begin to produce a little living thing in there.

Once the egg or the dream is broken we can not put it back together again, we are left with the pieces. The good or the bad.

Alright that's enough foolish word vomit from me for tonight. Image from here. *disappears*

Dreams vs Nightmares

2009-10-20T21:30:00.001-07:00

What makes a dream a dream and a nightmare a nightmare? Are they mutually exclusive or can one become the other and vise versa? It all comes down to perspective and a persons perspective upon a thing can change; thus a nightmare can become a dream and a dream a nightmare.

Does this then make them the same thing depending on the viewers perspective?

One might argue that nightmare is frightening but then we are often afraid of that which we do not understand, that which is unknown to us. Thus the dark can be frightening even within the confines of our own living spaces.

So where does that leave us? I'm not sure, that's as far as I've gotten with the thought. Enough word vomit for tonight.*disappears*

Update, The Video

2009-10-08T05:46:00.000-07:00

Alright after a few different things I did manage to get the video file to upload onto Facebook.

So if anyone is interested, here is the link to the video: Gray Video/Audio

Okay that's it for now. Long day. If I can find the time between crit on Friday and working/class all day today. I was thinking about sitting up half of this again and re doing a couple of things but we'll see what happens. *disappears*

Gray - Video/Audio

2009-10-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

So I took a short video of the space right after I set it up. I attempted to cut down the audio file some what and put it together with the video file. Never tried doing anything like this, so it's probably not great.

Anyway it gives you a little better feel for things then just the images though. I apologize for the bad video, I just took it with my camera. Or I would if I could get the thing to finish rendering/saving or whatever it's trying to do. *sighs* Sometimes I really dislike technology, it's just more hassle than it's worth. So, video/audio thing another time.

I really do need to change the layout on here, I was never happy with it when I put it up... the more I see it the less happy I am with it though. I hope to get a chance to do that this weekend, among other things.

Gray Space – Augmented Space Project

2009-10-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

The Gray project was an attempt to illustrate an invisible space that exists for everyone through the use of an imaginary space and an imaginary character. The space was supposed to feel familiar to those entering it and yet unfamiliar and unsettling as well. Familiar objects covered—as with a house left—though the coverings were meant to be sheer almost as well as if covered in a film of dust, and the edges of the coverings were dyed a gray to appear dirty. As if they and the objects had been there for some time, but had also been used; the coffee stain on the desk, the book on the chair, the fact that the fabric on the chairs had been sat on.

My original intent was to create a sort of critique on the large roll that technology claims over our lives and how that can be detrimental. However, I was not opposed to other readings of the space which is why I did not wish to specify that negativity; perhaps in part because of my own feelings towards technology. I feel that it can be detrimental, but I also feel that it can be a great tool that should be used in a wide variety of ways.

The other element that I wished to include was the fact that I view art and books as a form of augmented space or a tool that can be used. They create a space that is differentiated from reality even if they do come in physical projects, though that my own opinion though that connection is shakier and varies. There are shades of gray throughout, not everything should be cut and dry that would be boring.

While the space was meant to be ambiguous the sound file was meant to be negative. The intent of the sound piece was to be the sound of someone typing, talking on instant messenger while the speaker attempts to get the typer’s attention. Since Gray exists in an imaginary space and is an imaginary person he/she cannot respond; however the cadence of the typing increases with the intensity of the voice (or that’s what I tried to do with it.)

Things That Did Not Work:
-   Covering fabric was not sheer enough, especially not with the lamp light that I used.
-   Lighting did not work
-   Sound file needed work
-   The carpet did not convey the intended cohesion of space and in fact detracted from it.
-   Items and placement needed to be more thought out
-   Seeing more people inside beforehand would’ve been helpful. (In essence more trails set up's and more testing before hand would’ve been a good idea. Editing.)
-   Implied items were a good thought but not all implications will read the same to other people. Consider carefully before implying things.
-   Over complicated, remember simplify.
-   Consider the delineation of space and the purpose of it (inclusion of the audience or apart from, though I feel with this piece the audience was meant to explore the space though other aspects were not clear enough as it is meant to be an illustration of a familiar and yet fictional space.)

Things That Did Work:
-   The sheet walls worked fairly well though they needed to be higher.
-   Use of the light source from the window and the inclusion of that outside influence something affecting the space and the structure that was unpredictable. (Unseen presents?)

Well...

2009-10-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

As I suspected a success only in that I tried something new. The thing that bugs me the most is a number of things I should've thought of and didn't and a number of things that I did which just didn't work.

Still I guess with anything you have to try and try again. It's about the trial and error process, as long as we're willing to work. I find it rather amusing how I can set out with an intention and a plan and it just doesn't come across.

The mental image in your mind is never what actually exists. Anyway, I'll post some pictures and more tomorrow I need to sleep now. Hopefully sleep. I haven't been sleeping well, this is a problem. *disappears*

On The Subject of Gray

2009-10-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

Gray is a fictitious character that was created solely for the purposes of this project. Gray is meant to be neither wholly female or male but an androgynous combination there of; though of course the audience will probably identify more with the male or female aspect of Gray.

The character exists in a world between our own and augmented space, in a limbo world that is neither here nor there. Gray is in essence the link between the two, the place where people begin to loose touch with reality. While Gray can hear us and see us he/she can not directly interact with us only through the medium of technology.

Thus I picture Gray being essentially a ghost that sits between you and your computer screen, between you and the TV or right inside your ear when you're on the cell phone. He/she is everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.

Reasons Why You Test Things

2009-10-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well I tried to do a test run tonight/today. It both succeeded and it failed.

I got all the fabric measured, cut and the edges dyed. The gray turned a little more green then I wanted it to; however, with the dimmed light I think it will work. Either way I don't really have time to re do it.

Lap top sound will not work. The speakers on my lap top are simply not loud enough. So unfortunately the sound check--the main reason I wanted to do this and spent all day trying to put everything up and together--failed.

Still, I have come to the conclusion that even if this project does not succeed the way I want it to, I have done what I set out to do with this class. I have tried something I never would've tried other wise. This project is of a scale and of a nature that isn't like anything I have attempted in the past. It's something I've wanted to do but I'm not sure my own initiative would've pushed me to do it--still who's to say what I would've done. It's rather a moot point now.

At least everything is on campus and mostly ready. I have the sound file in a wave format and an mp3 format so I can fuss with that at home tomorrow night some more. It is probably not the most sophisticated thing in the world but we all have to start somewhere. With those words of wisdom it's time for bed. *disappears*

Edit: On another note; however, I did figure out that I need to make the space smaller. The furniture that I have isn't going to nearly fill up the space enough. I think it won't be too bad though if I shrink the space somewhat.

Laugh, It is Good For you

2009-10-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

So I was running around yesterday doing things that needed to be done. I left the MP3 recorder with my dad and asked him to record some sounds of him on the computer, since I got some of my sister and myself. Lol, I just said sounds.

*laughs* This is the problem of trying to do something when someone knows they're being recorded. I snuck it in on my sister. ^^:

I said I wanted something that was more feminine (my sisters games, make rather feminine sounds with her off and on in the background.) So I finally sat down to listen to what my dad recorded for me today. *laughs* This is how it starts out, well mostly: A Real Man's Computer

(So blogger has an image option and a video option but no audio option, silly blogger.) Lol I did get some stuff I could use off the end of the recording though so it works.

And then the very end after all that about a man's computer, "Well my computers hung up, locked up. I either need to hit it or just leave it. I think I'll just leave it."

Edit: Of course about ten minutes after I sit down to see if I can't figure out SoundBooth, CS4 decides it's time to update.

Alright...

2009-10-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

So this project got put off until this coming Tuesday which was a wonderful thing. I have no idea how I would've finished it and gotten done with the piece for Nocturnal Accretions all at the same time.

Lotus is over with.

Nocturnal Accretions is over with.

Now it's back to work. Here is the plan thus far for the rest of the time remaining. To make use of it wisely (or to attempt to anyway.) Though the thought is often there, it is so easy to fail on the follow through.

1. Measure, cut and dye the fabric after turning things blue at Rowland's this afternoon.

2. Tonight/Sunday morning finish putting together the sound files. (Two tracks one more feminine and one more masculine, theoretically.)

3. Test run through Sunday early afternoon and then test run with Amy. Make sure everything is there for Tuesday; tall lamp, coffee table, books, small lamp

4. Monday final touches on sound files.

5. Tuesday do not forget computer.

Idea For the Future....

2009-09-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

So I signed up for a DeviantArt account years ago and I never ever used it. Recently I decided to start using it while I work on setting up a webpage and all that (something I kept meaning to do and never got around to doing). Anyway to keep this short, as I have a tendency to ramble on with ease... I've recently been talking to a few people on there about a few things. I've been using the journal feature on DA, to post observations about art/society/things of interest and the like not as an actual journal in the hopes of illiciting interesting conversations out of people. Mostly it hasn't worked unfortunately, people don't want to talk about odd observations (silly people don't they know what's good for them?)

Well recently I found someone who will actually comment somewhat on my little bits and pieces of things. It has been a lot of fun. The reason I put this in here is, I did a post after the Found event on how I found the audience more interesting to watch in this case. The audience became part of the art work which was an interesting thing to observe. I speculated on how you could work the audience into the art work make them part of the art work.

So that the art project is not so much about what is on display but on the reactions that illicit' from the audience. So perhaps you simply display a number of odd and random objects, or perhaps the objects are more considered then that. One of the suggestions that Vanilla-Vanilla, suggested was use of photographs of people holding random objects and then the work is photographs of people reacting to photographs. I also had the idea of perhaps using the digital cloth printer in the textiles studio--assuming it ever gets up and working--because I like the idea of taking one medium and turning it into another or working it in with another.

Anyway, future food for thought now back to the current project at hand. *disappears*

Edit: For future referance the entirety of the post/conversation can be found here.

Alright In Brief

2009-09-27T10:59:00.001-07:00

Just briefly (I know it's been a while); however, I hung up the pieced together sheets last Thursday in the room I'm going to be using for crit. Just to get an idea of how they would look, what sort of air movement I got in that room, etc. Anyway so I had other things I was going to put in here but honestly I have no idea what they were anymore. So let's see if I can get down what I do remember, not that I have the time but not the mental capacity to do much of anything. (I do plan on hanging it so that the end of the fabric is much closer to the floor next time, I don't want that much space down there. Perhaps if I flip it and put the uneven end up that would work.)

- The fabric structure will be at the end of the room closest to the windows. I decided to use the natural light from outside as one of my sources. There will be two entrances neither facing the door that people enter the room through -- so that the first view of the inside isn't readily apparently but a surprise. The first entrance will be on the right side, towards the farthest wall the second entrance/exit will be towards the inner wall of fabric across the constructed space (and since that probably makes no sense what so ever, I'll diagram it.): So that was all last week, now. I did a mini set up at home today just for the fun of it to kinda see how things might look. I got a lamp that I think works well with the idea to put on the coffee table, and I also got a good book for the rocking chair.

Back on topic what I did so far today, is I set up the coffee table in the living room at home along with the lamp and the tv remotes. Just to see what it looked like.

Okay there was probably more I was going to put here but it's lost now. Enough rambling as it is. Time to go back to trying to work on the sound aspect of this project. I think I've got all the bits, now to see if I can put them together. *disappears*

Brief Update

2009-09-23T09:54:00.001-07:00

As always running out of time, not enough time in which to get things done! Anyway, so just a quick update for now.

I hung up the sheet walls I made yesterday, took a few notes and a few pictures. Some of these I will post later. I needed three to four more sheets, I got those last night though I have not had time to put them together yet. I will probably try and get a couple of extra ones just in case.

1. I still need to get fabric from JoAnn's and test the samples they gave me yesterday to see if they will stain properly.
2. Image, do I want a framed picture or to paint a picture onto the sheets?
3. Two doors or one?
4. Must finish doing the sound file and try and do a test run this weekend to see how the sounds interact with the ambient sound from outside and the fabric surroundings, etc. (Hopefully get done this weekend anyway, see how Lotus fest goes. It will all be fine, it will all be fine, it will all be just fine!)

Just a few questions to think about:

1. I have permission to use the coffee table and the rocking chair (now I just have to figure out the desk.)
2. I found a friend who has a floor rug that I can use to help delineate the space.

Okay I think that's it. Now time to run and do work, gah sometimes I wonder if it's worth trying to do the work and the school thing at the same time. Oh well, I can't have one without the other I suppose, I will flesh this out as soon as I get a chance and post some of the pictures I took yesterday. Poofs out.

Possible Items To Use

2009-09-22T06:52:00.001-07:00

Just real quick, here are a few of the items I might use. I'm thinking about trying to find another desk, I don't really like the one that my sister's using. Though I'm not sure why, I just don't (even though you aren't really going to be able to see it. Hahaha, and my sister being like, 'What are you taking pictures of the coffee table for?)

The black book shelf will be easier to move then the cork board one and it will also show up better under the cloth, which I think will be nice. I'm not sure I'll be able to use the rocking chair but it would be easier to move then some of the other arm chairs and stuff... so we'll see. There is an office chair in the textiles bfa studio that I can borrow for the time being when I need it.

Which still leaves a rug. We have a number of small ones that I could use but I rather want something larger. Alright anyway must run now or I will not have time to go by Joann's before class.

Pearing Down

2009-09-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I feel like I can breath again now. Lotus fest isn't up but a great deal of the work I had my fingers in is at least done. Now, I must admit I feel slightly more optimistic about life and about this project in general. I wish my brain could deal with more things but there's just only so many things I can force it to focus on at once. I also spent an hour or so today talking with Rowland today, which helped me sort out a few things.

Pear it down into something more manageable was his suggestion and he's right. I simply have not been able to figure out how to do that. However, I think I have some idea now.

Implied presents, things that are implied through the use of other objects. Aka, coffee table implies a couch, tv remote implies at TV, etc.

List of things I need:
1. A large'ish rug of some sort.
2. A portable desk, (I can possibly use one from home.)
3. Coffee table, (Again I can probably use the one from home.)
4. Sheer fabric, (check and see what Joann's has--hopefully tomorrow.)

I got a number of old sheets tonight and sewed those together. I'm going to see if that will work as a surrounding/insulating backdrop tomorrow. And then we will go from there. Now I need to go pass out, I'm tired of being tired. disappears.

Thought on The Problem

2009-09-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking, that perhaps if I scale this idea down somewhat. From recreating an entire living room to something more like an office it might be more manageable. Realistically I would prefer to do the other because I think it conveys more of the idea that I want. This comfortable, semi familiar setting that we're all used to seeing to some extent--dorm life excluded. Only to have be uncomfortable to so extent because it is not what we might expect.

I was also thinking that I could contain it all within a room like fabric structure. I would like to have the sound playing--looping--through the three or four tracks. I want it to be audible when people enter the space, at least I think so. But it would be muffled by the fabric at least somewhat, which would change the sound within and from without a little. (Granted I have not tested this theory but it makes sense. I will hopefully be able to do that next week.)

Fabric isn't the problem, I can at least get that free and no money spent is a good thing. I need to get the sound's working and going somewhat more then I have so far. Now if only Lotus Fest was done and over with so I could get that omnipresent looming shadow out of my head, we'd be great. *Disappears*

How to...

2009-09-18T04:41:00.000-07:00

My biggest issue with this project is not the what of it so much is the how of it. How do you take a living room and re create it in another space, easily? There in lies the problem. There is no easy about it, not truly. Not without help in moving furniture--where to get the furniture from--into a space and out of a space.

I had an epiphany on the fact a couple of nights ago. I had been toying with the idea of doing a recreation with doll furniture, but I did not truly like that idea. I love the idea of having a space that people walk through that surrounds you, that is not entirely comfortable. Or perhaps it is comfortable, I have realized during my brief explorations into this idea that it could also be seen in a positive light and not simply a negative light. As I can see both aspects of this fact, I suppose this is not a bad thing and often works presented simply in one manor are much less interesting. You can put something forward with any intention and no matter what the intention the audience will always walk away with a different reading.

Alright since I am once again running out of time to get anything written in here, I will hurry the process along:

Idea - Make the room a back drop, use fabric/old sheets and paint the living room upon there. Then minimal furniture cure would be needed for this set up and the technology which is another problem. If done right this would still give the illusion of a space. (The problem is I really want to do it the other way I just don't see how to get everything into a space that could be used for critiquing purposes in terms of the class.)

Anyway, I'm out of time now. Off to see how much Mister smooth talking teacher who can't answer a simple question with anything but bull is going to annoy me today. *disappears*

Edit - Though I suppose if I could somehow create the shape of objects within a typical living room without actually having them there that might work. But that doesn't necessarily convey what I want. As the idea is to have such objects there but to have them disconnected from the rest of the setting.

Audience + Art Work

2009-09-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

How doe the audience affect the audio presents of the piece. When people gather together they are going to talk, it is going to be part of the art work in some way, so take that into account. The audience is directing and indirectly involved--always.

Do you want the audio to be private or shared and mingled with the audience? How do you want things to be heard and how much do you want it to be heard?

This applies to any art work but more specifically to works that include sound. Because the people are going to change the sound, what you here and how everything works together as a cohesive whole. *disappears*

In the beginning there was...

2009-09-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

Enters/ Lotus festival and it was a pain in the behind.

So there are a number of things I need to put up in here and I keep running out of time to do so. I will be very glad when next weekend gets here and this project is done and over with.

I could say a great deal more on the subject but I will refrain from doing so because it's not really pertinent to this blog... and some of it is not very nice. I am trying to be nice and think nice thoughts not explicatives that, well that's rather obvious.

Anyway I think I'm going to be late for class now. Sighs. So no more rambling time to start the running. Is today over with yet? :) /disappears