The Things We Miss

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

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

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

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?

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

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*