a little somthing that I have been up to...

check out http://corntracking.blogspot.com/

there is a doc screening of King Corn this weekend at Red Vic if your around.

site up dates

have made a few changes to the site, so check it out. there are also some images of new work lying about...follow the Balloons link from the main page. also, the Merced project has changed again, you may want to tune it as the parameters have shifted a bit.

cheers,

funny sounds no more

helium shortage, its an old article but the situation hasn't changed much, several suppliers have it posted on their sites. below is a copy of the article if the link doesn't work. -cheers



Helium shortage grips suppliers across Texas, country
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/06/2006

AMARILLO — The second-most abundant element in the universe is suddenly getting harder and harder to find. Party stores and florist shops grounded in the balloon business are caught in a helium shortage gripping suppliers across the country and in Texas, where one-third of the world’s helium production is overseen.

Supply of the noble gas — second only to hydrogen in the universe but rare on Earth in terms of quantity — has depleted while production from two large international sites is temporarily down.

Not helping matters is scheduled maintenance at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s National Helium Reserve complex in Amarillo, which will curtail production for 10 days starting Wednesday.

“We’re so close to the edge now, and every molecule counts,” said Leslie Theiss, manager of agency’s field office in Amarillo. “We’re walking the tightrope right now.”
Businesses that depend on helium have met with shortages from suppliers. In downtown Houston, American Balloon and Novelty Co. owner Deborah Muse said there have been times when she couldn’t get helium for weeks.

Mike Havard, co-owner of Havard Welding in Galena Park, said he’s kept his customers supplied but acknowledged that demand is heavy.

“There is a shortage. There is some concern of allocation,” said Havard.

Scientists and industry officials say the shortages should be resolved soon. There’s another domestic source is Exxon Mobil’s plant in Wyoming. Helium also is being captured at massive natural gas liquefaction plants being built around the world.

But in about 20 years, experts say most of the federal government’s helium reserve should be depleted.

Near Amarillo, which prides itself as the “Helium Capital of the World,” the government began using old gas fields in 1960 to create a reserve.

But after helium storage racked up $1.4 billion in intragovernmental debt, Congress passed a 1996 privatization bill that called for steady liquidation of the reserve through 2015. Theiss said it probably will take until the mid-2020s to complete the liquidation.

Helium now appears to be a finite resource that could soon disappear in Amarillo. The reserve is supposed to keep 600 million cubic feet, but workers at the facility are skeptical that will happen.

“Our equipment is designed to produce 6.1 million cubic feet per day, and we’ve been pretty successful at getting that done,” said Theiss. “But demand is outstripping the market right now.”
Helium is produced by radioactive decay of elements such as thorium or uranium.
Robert Park, a University of Maryland physics professor and officer of the American Physical Society, worries that helium will one day be scarce at a time when mankind really needs it.
“Nothing is really being done to save helium from being lost forever,” Park said.

©Laredo Morning Times 2007


ps: there is this as well

Sculpture Magazine Review of Aven Project

In the September 2007 edition of Sculpture Magazine:





Pont Aven, France
John K. Melvin
Centre International d'Art Contemporain

John K. Melvin’s The Aven Project wound upriver through the town of Pont Aven (often called the “City of Painters”) in southwest Brittany. For Melvin, his sail-like transparent scrims, which cast light and shadow on water and shore, acted as paintings. For most viewers, however, the project did not seem painterly; instead, the scrims approached architecture or sculpture, redefining space and inviting us to consider town and river in new ways.

The thousands of tourists who swell the population of Pont Aven in the summer months look mostly at the river as part of nature’s bounty—plants, fish, and sometimes small eels flowing smoothly in the water and over rapids with large rock formations called chaos. Melvin challenged us to consider other interpretations and views: how art interacts with nature to bring the viewer into a changed relationship with the surrounding world.

Attracted by light and color, artists have visited Pont Aven since the mid-19th century (beginning with a group of American painters in the 1860s, followed by Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard, among others, in the 1880s). The quality of light in Brittany is quite different from that in other parts of France—even green gives off tints of bluish light. Melvin’s stark white scrims enhanced that bluish tint. Different times of day and different skies caused a variety of reflections and moods.

In the center of town, the scrims enlivened the fast-flowing river and flowering plants while attracting viewers’ attention. Crowds leaned over the rails of a small bridge to question whether this installation was art or something practical such as a hydroelectric project. Melvin’s project was public art at its most engaging. It raised questions of “is this really art” while challenging the viewer, but offered little to disturb, except for those few who resent any intrusion into nature. Although somewhat reminiscent of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work, Melvin’s fabric banners were more about exploring the Aven than calling attention to a space. The scrims followed the river from the more populated area of town to the less populated edge of Pont Aven and the Bois d’Amour. Children and adults jumped from rock to rock and walked along the river’s banks in their explorations.

A small bridge—one of two in the installation’s path—offered head-on views of Melvin’s work. From this vantage point, the scrims seemed to form layers floating above the river, pointing toward the town center. Lyrical and flowing, the delicate-looking, though incredibly strong scrims floated and danced over the water. The beauty and elegance of the forms complemented the picturesque town and its river.

Boating, especially sailing and fishing, has long been central to life in Pont Aven, and Melvin acknowledged this in his installation. The Aven Project, in the planning for over a year, was sponsored by CIAC, the Centre International d’Art Contemporain, and was accompanied in the CIAC gallery by Melvin’s drawings, paintings, and a documentary video. An artist/mentor, the artist’s father, and a handful of townspeople collaborated on the installation of the scrims. For most (and for me), this was a compellingly successful project that will be remembered in Pont Aven for years to come. —Ann Albritton



And as a note from me personally, thanks again to everyone who made the Aven Project dream come true.

cheers,

Jessye Norman speaking about the need for the arts

Burning Man's Books...

Interesting read at SFGATE on Burning Man, excerpt:

Burning Man's books
The Black Rock Arts Foundation began in 2001 with a $30,000 loan from Burning Man founder Larry Harvey. For the next five years, the nonprofit continued to raise money and issue grants to artists, including David Best, who joined the board of directors in 2004 and received a $10,200 grant for the Hayes Green Temple the next year.

The ledger, 2001-05
-- Total revenue: $296,620

-- Total expenses: $301,702

-- Total grants awarded: $82,307

(Total grants awarded to David Best: $25,200)

How the numbers stack up
Charity Navigator, a New Jersey-based nonprofit watchdog group, compared the Black Rock Arts Foundation to 341 similar charitable organizations.

-- Amount of budget spent on grants by average charity with similar goals: 65 percent.

-- Amount spent on grants by Black Rock Arts Foundation: 27 percent


read the whole article here.

Inflatable Solar Collectors

see more at http://www.coolearthsolar.com/

public art processes

sorry its been so long, have been moving about, and settling in. for the meantime, here's something concerning public art commissions from aesthetic grounds to chew on:

"It is time to add a new method to our systems of commissioning new work. In certain projects, pre-plan the artwork as the visual priority. Imagine the RFQ for the A&E: "Artists will be selected to create works for the project. These artworks will be the main visual focus on any exterior plazas, main façade and/or lobbies. Site planning, architecture, landscape and lighting throughout those areas will be designed to reinforce the priority of the artwork."
Or perhaps the artist is selected before the A&E firm. In addition to the A&E contract, the building program would include the following: " The public art program selected an artist based on past work to design an artwork for a façade, plaza or whatever. The artwork will be the main visual focus on the façade, plaza or whatever. The design of all aspects of that area of the facility will assist in making the artwork the pride of the community."
A value exists regarding the location of the artwork. All the "generals on horses" have the best places in the plan of the city and punctuate the roadway vistas. The fountains in Rome animate the plaza. The Virgin Mary hovers above the alter and on axis with everything in the basilica. "

read more here.

a good read from the flyover blog on culture and whatnot in america and beyond:

"The role of culture, however, must go beyond economics," Gioia said. "It is not focused on the price of things, but on their value. And, above all, culture should tell us what is beyond price, including what does not belong in the marketplace. A culture should also provide some cogent view of the good life beyond mass accumulation. In this respect, our culture is failing us."

How did we get to this point? Gioia places blame squarely on the writers, artists and thinkers he wants everyone to celebrate. Since the 1960s, academics have gotten good at taking to each other about arcane ideas but bad at talking to the general culture, a position also argued persuasively by Greg Sandow in his provocative (his word) assessments of the future of classical music.

One of things that academics have gotten good at talking about among one another is the ideology of multiculturalism. This was touched on briefly in a recent Times piece by Edward Rothstein concerning the ubiquitous indifference to the plight of orchestras and the decline of classical music among average Americans.

"Why, in other words, should we care?" Rothstein writes. "After decades of arguments asserting that different cultures just have different ways of expressing themselves, that distinctions and assertions of value are tendentious, and that Western art music deserves no pride of place in a multicultural American society, it may be that even the problem is no longer clearly seen."

read on here.

SFLM7-10v8c1

conceptual animation relating to public installation under development

Modv3Obj_m1

cardboard model of modular component in larger installation that is currently under development.

SFLM7-10v8c

conceptual animation relating to public installation under development

moyers links

sorry, forgot the links...

more on the impeachment http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/watch.html

and then, last nights...http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07202007/watch.html

BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Impeachment Panel Excerpt | PBS

google kingdom...

if'n you didn't see it...Google is waxing philanthropically with wireless bandwidth...

"In January, the FCC will hold a public auction of the vacated radio spectrum -- it's known at the 700 MHz frequency -- and traditional communications companies such as AT&T and Verizon are salivating at the chance to grab up the space.
The 700 MHz airwaves will be used for data; wireless companies talk of a fast, robust, nationwide wireless Internet -- but that's exactly what's so worrying about the prospect of the spectrum going to the telecom firms, which have not generally favored openness on their networks. On today's cellphone networks, wireless companies won't let people run the applications or devices they choose -- all major carriers, for instance, prohibit their customers from adding Skype to their cellphones, and they frown upon letting you use phones that also do Wi-Fi (because if you're using Wi-Fi, you're not ringing up minutes on the cell data plan). "

lighters, matches and scissors oh my!!!

the closing lines of this article today concerning the lifting of the ban on lighters from domestic flights...just made me crack up...

"Congress has permitted the change after initially ordering the lighter ban. It is set to be lifted on August 4. Torch lighters, which burn hotter and tend to be used for pipes and cigars, will still not be allowed in the passenger cabin.

Reid, convicted and serving a life prison sentence, tried to light explosives hidden in his shoes on a transatlantic flight with matches. They have never been banned from commercial aircraft."

they banned lighters but allowed all smokers and for that matter anyone else to continue carrying matches...and now they decided its a waste of time, and have lifted the ban...I love it...if it were Orwellian doublespeak it couldn't be better...its all just so unbelievably hilarious...the next administration if there is one, is going to have so much junk to deal with it'll be a wonder if anything gets done at all....

blatant self promotion...

but whatev, I haven't done this in a while, seeing as I sorta exhausted things with the Aven Project...nonetheless, I digress, go check out the Crackle page, I am going to use if from now on as the format is a lot cleaner, and channels are easier to navigate...so look for videos there, watchem, postem, rate-em and just have fun.

after all, according to Vonnegut you're kidding yourself if you think otherwise...

cheers folks,

Modv3_Obj10_v3

something worked on last night...also trying out a new video share...

From Crackle: modv3obj10v3

Crackle's a Sony corp, but the layout is fairly clean. as for the animation, you may recognize a few things, but as usual, am thinking in circles again. enjoy

Richard Serra Talks with Charlie Rose

site maintenance and other things

have updated a few things on the site, started a video page and uploaded a few other things to the youtube page. this one is a bit of teaser, it is only 20 seconds, but hopefully, if'n I get my act together, I should have a one or two minute version available soon. As I'll probably be loading things twice with the low-res going on youtube, feel free to subscribe to that page. nonetheless, any and all comments are appreciated...there will be more to come in the next few weeks if all goes well with the studio practice...

cheers,

Object10

sorry about the quality, had to change up the format for youtubers...the original can still be accessed through main page...cheers.

45% say impeach

a poll of americans on whether or not to impeach Bush.

read on here.

mainstream gets wise

NY Times Editors ask for an end to the war in Iraq.

many of us already have this opinion, but is it refreshing to finally hear it from the bastion of the mainstream press...

"This country faces a choice. We can go on allowing Mr. Bush to drag out this war without end or purpose. Or we can insist that American troops are withdrawn as quickly and safely as we can manage — with as much effort as possible to stop the chaos from spreading."

read the article here, and if that link doesnt work try here.

this made my sunday...hope it does yours.

cheers.

berlin

the search for a center...perhaps there is none. from an article on the art scene in berlin:

"The zeitgeist these days is more commercial. Galleries serve sushi amid prattle about hedge funds and economic indexes. Berlin has become a production center for works sold from Portugal to Dubai. Rents are going up. The dilettantes have departed. The foreign purveyors have nestled in. What remains is less the innocent verve of the past than an atmosphere that — although aesthetically adventurous and more open to experimentation than in most cities — has matured with a shrewd eye toward marketing."

read on here.

art in second life

"With over 7m registered users, Second Life—an online virtual world complete with land, residents and a growing ­economy—is developing one of the largest art communities on the internet. "

read on here.

and they decided to say that video games aren't addictive...strange.

news from the lake

view from the lake....

the day after...

for those who were a bit confused about the symbolism of yesterday...

"History shows that people will tolerate injustice they are accustomed to, rather than doing what it takes to get rid of a familiar system which oppresses them. Amen. And so it is with the dim, fading shadow of this formerly great nation. As long as we have our couches and our TVs, we will do nothing about tyranny in this land. So long as we are enslaved in comfort, we do not resist."

read more here.

education - Sir Ken Robinson

go watch this http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/66

its a talk by Robinson on education and creativity. its fantastic!
here's an blurb if the link doesnt work:


Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says.


cheers,

conceptual desert installation

re-working this one, there will be more versions to come, but this is perhaps the cleanest so far...

wise murdoch

words of wisdom:

"Video is increasingly important at the top social-networking site because users want it and because it keeps them around to watch more ads."

my-space now owned by news corp adds video to compete with youtube, full text here.

culture econ 101

a decent read from London by the guardian...

"The financial power of the creative industries - comparable, we're told, to the financial-services sector, and growing at twice the speed of the general economy - was the subject of a report from the Work Foundation published the day before the change of premiers. This was partly because of the risk that the foreword by culture secretary Tessa Jowell might have a sell-by date, but also because the celebration of entertainment - or "knowledge economy" in the report's coinage - feels instinctively more Blairite than Brownite."

read the full text here. it has always been difficult applying market economics to art & culture, and after a few reads, the circular nature of this article reveals that very truth...

Michael Moore's SiCKO (official trailer)

don't forget to go see michael moore's new film sicko opening tonight...

a sense of materials

stunningly speechless work by Tara Donovan

the above is a detail of a larger piece done completely with scotch tape in 2002. see more of Donovan's work here.

asymptote - architecture

read the article here in the times, and be sure to take a look at the pics.

article is about some new lux condos designed by Asymptote in west village priced between 2 and 11 million...

gaming

little morsel from article here about video game addiction:


Nearly 70 percent of American heads of households play video games, according to an Entertainment Software Association study released in 2005.
One of them is Neil Kight, a 34-year-old shipping and receiving clerk who unwinds by playing his Xbox 360 for two or three hours a day after work. He said he doubts that video game addiction exists, and he chuckled when told that playing two hours a day could put him in the danger zone.
"Well then, I can quit anytime I want," Kight said sarcastically.
"They've been doing research into the harmful effects of video gaming for quite some time," he said. "It's funny. I don't see them bring up chess or any number of games. I find the argument specious at best. They don't seem to have much scientific study or backing to reinforce the idea."
The media add to the hype, he said.
Kight says he and his gamer friends are all well-adjusted.
"I do have friends who are very, very serious" about gaming, he said. "I've had friends literally put aside paychecks to get new games. You can spend way too much money, but I think it's like any hobby."


addiction is addiction is addiction is addiction.

super!

now what.

MacArthur looks at the virtual world, from the new york times (registration required):


The goals are to gain insight into how virtual worlds are used by young people, to introduce the foundation to an audience that may have little exposure to institutional philanthropy and to take part in and stimulate discussions about the real-world issues that it seeks to address.
"This is not just some fad or something new and interesting that we've grabbed onto," said Jonathan Fanton, MacArthur's president. "Serious conversations take place there, people are deeply engaged, and that led us to think that maybe a major foundation ought to have a presence in the virtual world as well."



at last...

WSJ zaps Venice.

fairly scathing review of the Biennale in Venice and its curator R. Storr...

read on here.

oil from plastic

a good friend sent this to me:

"A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level – turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas.
All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave and – hey presto! – a mix of materials that were made from oil can be reduced back to oil and combustible gas (and a few leftovers).
Key to GRC’s process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials. As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas."

read more here

cheers,

re-worked after a walk...

am liking this one better...

more on this later...

this is something that i am in the midst of working on, the spheres would be as you see them, filled with helium suspended above the lake...

at this point, would really appreciate any comments or otherwise...

laters.

roundabout cutout

video by Nudelita documenting a temporary work by Richard Wilson.

read a review here...

cheers,

box o' paintings

yuppers, its been a while since i last saw this old friend. if you can believe it, this is a painting that i did nearly five years ago, times change i guess. about two weeks ago, went to boston to pack up an old studio, shipped it back west, and now there are a whole bunch of old paintings...feels good to have them around again.

cheers,

Vik Muniz: Art with wire, thread, sugar, chocolate

enjoy.

home again, home again

some recent photos...SF area, lake merced, Las Pulgas, san mateo county, etc...





and no, the last image isn't a badly shot image, just a documentation of county codes...

works in progess

ok, so with a nod towards the youtube culture, i have begun to upload some of the video work. not all of them are there, but soon they will be. as time goes, check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JKMProductions

be well,

cheers.

look closely

take a second look...

I'm only using the aven as specific background; I am actually more curious to apply the concept to another site. the material would be about 40% transparent but also reflective, hence the image...

cheers,

tis the season...

although it may be early, in case you forgot, there are some sites out there dealing with voting reform...

a brief list:

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages/explanation.php

and,

http://instantrunoff.com/

in Washington: http://www.irvwa.org/

finance:

http://www.washclean.org/

nationally: http://www.publicampaign.org/fact-sheets

happy voting!

cheers,

for those who deny peak oil...

a very good posting at Econbrowser:

"Northern Ghawar is in decline

If you end up being surprised by the big story of the next decade, you can't say, "nobody told us." Instead you'll have to say, "we didn't listen."

Stuart Staniford (Ph.D. in physics) has been conducting a very careful and detailed investigation of all that is publicly known about Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, which is by far the world's largest and most important oil field. This field has been managed by injecting water below the oil, which causes the remaining oil to rise toward the top of the reservoir where it can be more readily pumped out. "

and

"If Stuart's analysis is correct, it seems very likely that production from the northern part of Ghawar must have already entered a period of sharp and irreversible decline, which would account for the otherwise unexplained drops in Saudi Arabian oil production over the last two years."

read more here.

its good that this is being reported, as for sure it may not get into mainstream for a bit...

cheers,

news from lake wobegone...

pretty interesting counterpoint to our wide but specific range of information:

"Today, a universe of choice offers anyone of any political stripe the opportunity to get information from outlets that will reinforce their opinions and biases. Don't like the way CNN delivers the news? Try Fox. Think your local newspaper is in the thrall of its advertisers or slavishly serving some overarching ideology? Head for the blogo-sphere.

But that universe of information is becoming so vast that everything seems destined to orbit an absent sun. There's no centering gravitational pull, and the people on the different philosophical planets have lost the ability or the will to talk to each other anymore.

One of the things arts can do - the performing arts in particular - is to hold a group of people captive for a period of time, exposing them to ideas that might be foreign or unpleasant, and then allow time and space for conversation. This - and overpriced chardonnay - is why theater lobbies and intermissions were invented. "

read more here: http://www.twincities.com/stage/ci_5865014?nclick_check=1

cheers,

wiki wonders

some rather relevant criticism of wikipedia...

"The problem is that Wikipedia forces its contributors to come to a consensus, and building consensus with a crank is a fool's errand. "

read more here, the comments are rather interesting as well...

bio thermoforming

for those interested in non-petroleum based plastic that can be used in thermoforming applications as well as a variety of others check out http://www.cereplast.com/ce/

they are doing some great things with bio-starch derived plastics that are completely biodegradable but can also withstand the temperatures in thermoforming. actually, the resins require less energy to fabricate as well as manipulate, thus further resulting in lower eco-impact.

cheers,

earliest animation

too cool for school...

http://www.artsjournal.com/bookdaddy/2007/04/one_of_the_earliest_animated_f.html

cheers,

choice generation

just finished reading this, Next Deal, its a book by Andrei Cherny who was most notably the writer for the 2000 democratic party platform. the book is a good read, there is a fair amount of political insight as to the workings of capitol hill. Cherny is convinced that this generation, what he calls the choice generation demands a new form of government then we have been used to. rather the reforms that need to be made are fairly radical, and coincide more with what the Internet culture provides with instant decisions, collaboration, and participation. sadly, he seems to leave out considerations of our consumeristic culture. specifically, the thought that went through my head, was how can it be called the choice generation when their "choices" are packaged via the consumer driven industries. most of his ideology I can agree with in principle, it is just some of his applications that i am still turning over. his site, provides a fair amount of excerpts and I'll leave the rest to you.

next book, is Michio Kaku's Parallel Worlds, a book about M-theory and related...word of warning, his site is a little hokey...which worries me about the book, we shall see.

if you've been wondering, my computer is on the flip, and ram or that lack thereof is seriously impeding my digital work...so these days, reading, analog drawing, and writing...

cheers,

21st century thinking...

although his writing has been around for a few years, I just found out about this.

Willaim McDonough and Michael Braungart published a book Cradle to Cradle that puts forth thinking that has more to do with mindset shifting then methods.

McDonough has several websites that are pretty substantial if you have the time.

enjoy

weekend art notes...

a few articles of interest, the one on LeWitt is good...

more here at the modern art notes, then of course here.

cheers,

Rove et Crow

in an exchange last night at the correspondents dinner, between Sheryl Crow and Karl Rove...

...Sheryl abruptly responded, “You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us.” Karl then quipped, “I don’t work for you, I work for the American people.” To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, “We are the American people.”

read the full story here.

cheers,

Youth dada or data

more from a favorite site of mine, civicyouth.org

"The research on youth volunteering trends found that 50 percent of young people between ages 18 and 25 who volunteer grew up in a family where someone spent time volunteering;
while 65 percent of youth who do not volunteer followed their non-volunteering family’s lead. Further, the data showed that 60 percent of young people who volunteered came from a household where politics was discussed."

text from the press release found here. I had difficulties downloading the report, if someone else can, then let me know.

and just in case you missed it last time I posted it, here's the data on youth voting from the mid-terms.

FYI, youth voter turnout for ages 18-29 was 24%. and that's up from 20% in 2000

cheers,

more on energy

from the Gallup poll...

"The importance of energy as a concern for Americans rises and falls with the price of gas. When the price of gas goes up, concern about energy goes up. When the price of gas declines, energy costs become much less salient to Americans."

read more here.

the syntax is interesting in that it portrays a certain antiquated view towards energy, that is to say, that Americans see energy as gasoline. it questions whether in Americans minds there is any other form of energy...

energy is the solution

in a conversation today, the topic came up, among others, about how influential energy consumption is in our world. solving energy problems is the road to solving most if not all other human problems.

sadly, there is further proof that Europe is ahead of us. go ahead and search for yourself, but here is proof as to the progress that is being made in hydrogen fuel cell research. try googling solar powered hydrogen electrolysis and browse the results. puts an end to the ethanol and bio diesel debate, me thinks.

In some cases, it is even possible to generate the hydrogen through renewable methods without consuming natural resources.

daily humor

its good to laugh, even if it is at ourselves...

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/21/tds-jason-jones-refutes-an-inconvenient-truth/

enjoy...

art Hist 101

found this a few days back, but forgot to share with everyone.

its a good article on some of the progress and otherwise that has or hasn't been made.

enjoy...

cheers,

good stuff on OIL

watched this documentary last night. it reminded me a lot of the Crude Addiction t-shirt that my sister gave me back in the late 80's...which was the one with the hypodermic needle filled with Crude Oil, and if i remember correctly it was jammed into the USA...along with some text on the borders relating to wars and what not relating to maintaining our oil addiction, sadly the t-shirt didn't make me any more popular. nonetheless, the film talks numbers and very harshly about the realities of how much our addiction to oil pervades our society. some of the subjects we have heard before, peak oil, wars, energy economics...but this time around it goes further and speaks to an apocalyptic demise to the economy being just around the corner. one interesting factoid was how OPEC manipulates their published reports of reserves where in effect, the amount they produce in a given year is miraculously replaced by years end; thus there is no real way of knowing exactly how much is left. however, in the film, there are a few that have been able to bring reality to the numbers, and it looks, well, it ain't good. like i said, a really happy, lift your spirits up kind of movie. maybe disney will make a version.

evolution...

how much longer will we tolerate acts of violence? and when will we begin to see the connections to culture, politics, and daily life? there is no mystery as to how these things come about, the only mystery is why we continue to condone violence.

simTrans

check this out, its a bit of new art, by a couple of folks that are making some interesting interactive art...

http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/simtrans/index.htm

Behind the Screen

a bit of re-memory here, one of the projects of documentation that we did for the Aven Project, was a documentary film that contained interviews, footage of the project, and shots of some of the fabrication/installation that took place. It took a lot of work, and it was a lot just to make the film, especially considering all the time and effort that went in to it. well, i have finally gotten around to making some short web versions, so for those that are intersted you can check it out here. enjoy. feedback is always appreciated.

a call for patience...

very interesting article in the times about modern life and our collective inability towards understanding things out of context.

pearls before breakfast


worth the read....

cheers.

cartoons

political cartoons...

http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2007/04/saturday-cartoons.html

3 phase updates

have finally gotten around to updating the 3 Phase section of the site. there are now, slideshows, more animations, and re-formatted text.

check it out here.

cheers.

and now for something promised...

finally, it seems that other less serious chores actually enabled me to solve the problem on this little bugger. so here we are with something i hope is a bit more serious, I will get around to burying it within the main site, but for now you can find it here.

its an animation that this still, which i had posted before, was taken from earlier...

I apologize for the video quality, a sacrifice that had to be made in order to get it online. even still, it doesnt bother me so much. the sound file is not mine it comes from here.

someone was asking what the blue squares were all about. they are a panel that rotates due to the gyroscope forms you see (those circles surrounding the blue squares). this rotation or manipulation would be done by a remote viewer through an internet interface (phone, computer, pda, etc.). the square framework that the gyro-panel is in facilitates a modular methodology that allows a large matrix to be constructed.

cheers,

lapsing realities...

it seems so much these days is being said about science, religion, politics, and the like. i suppose it is a good thing that these subjects are being talked about. just as long as the dialogue remains open and there are no pre-concluded realities imposed upon it.

in the spirit of all this, and also, at the bidding of a friend who has been very supportive of my healing, i have posted the following for whatever. (it may be slow in loading, so be patient)

there will be more serious animations posted at a later date, it is just that there exist a host of technical difficulties, and this little video has done wonders for frustration. so many frustrations, that i would really rather not get into it. but hope that the computer doesnt crash today, and i am able to accomplish something more serious.

nonetheless, enjoy some of my insanity, ahead of april fools day of course....

cheers.

phbbttttt.

the great and wonderful sound of making a raspberry, perhaps quite perfectly the sound of frustration and utter boredom. take for example the caged orangutan, with nothing to do but watch the same routines, and the same people, the orangutan speaks the only sound that has relevance to the situation. phbbttt...bill the cat knew this too. of course, i suppose if one wanted, this could also be a euphemism that speaks to current cultural, economic, and political situations if one were to go that far.

in the meantime there is this, a part of more to come.

some lite symmetrical reading...

a friend send this to me today, puts a bit of a dull light on those of us still thinking in 4 dimensions...

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/e8.html

in all actuality pretty exciting stuff, now of course the challenge is to see how it applies.

more images of the 3 phases

or at least one, of phase 2 from the 3 phases idea, the blue panel is manipulated by way of the gyroscope contraptions surround it. thus, it is a modular system with some possibilities...

surgical adventures

for those that may not know, i had to have surgery on my left knee as i had managed to re-fracture it a few weeks ago as a result of stubbornness and being too aggressive with the physical therapy. surgery was yesterday, and now there will be permanent hardware consisting of two screws and some cable that will hold it all together. recovery is set at six weeks with some pretty strict restrictions on movement, a leg brace is to be worn at all times, along with the assistance of crutches for limited moving around. some of you may know that i was planning on taking a few trips this spring, it looks now as if that will be delayed until the early or mid part of the summer. luckily, the arms work very well, and as long as i manage to keep the leg raised, i will continue to work some with sketches and computer work.

repetitive breakdown...

having difficulty exporting the current work...oh well, it seems that there just isnt any hope for hard-headedness.

as for other acts of hard-headedness, and the blind leading the blind, had a thought yesterday, nothing earthshattering, but in a perfect world we would have leaders that were calm and rational in the face of terror. thus, enabling them to make clear and responsible decisions...

alas...

i speak with many people, however, they are in the minority of friends and even more so they are generally forward thinking and rather progressive for the most part, thus the collective opinion is rather skewed in terms of proportionality, but nonetheless, many of them are rather curious just how long it will take for leaders to be proven guilty and for the masses to rise up in true force, not the percentages that we are seeing but larger, think landslide.

nailbiting, and edge of your seat stuff, even though for some it may seem obvious but it really must become a chant, especially for the younger generations. vote, if you do nothing else, vote.

and if you dont believe me, go here, the circle folks have compiled some great data on youth voting...and remember your favorite medicine cuz it is going to hurt, things are getting better, it is just taking a while.

repetitive in motion

oh this is fun...some stills from new matrix

breaking...

hasnt been much news to report on this end, as for the most part the news in the papers and world has been a little bit more interesting and perhaps more relevant. however, there has been some new work posted to the site, checkitout on the main page, specifically the link to 3 phases. am trying to see if a web project or something will come out of all this...will keep it posted if anything distills.

cryptic and crypticosity prevail...am going back into surgery for the knee, managed to re-break it a few weeks ago, so more metal going back in and around the patella.

oddly, being back in the united state of amnesia has resulted in far more existential dilemmas than the time being in france. nothing specific to report, just the usual quandary discovered in a society that is over-connected. funny, the forest for the trees...and the choir for voices really does leave more to desire.

for those that were wondering the latest animations were done with a freeware combination orginating with Google Sketchup...fun little thing that just keeps going.

be well...

London...Call Waiting

so voting begins...05-03-2007 9 AM GMT, and thats the euro format of dating which means this coming monday in the states...but you can still look around the site and make Saatchi happy.

London calling...again

bit of blatant self promotion here, but if you are in the neighborhood, saatchi is doing another contest. this time around the winner gets a 1000 pounds and a chance at an expo. so, starting this monday, check out the your gallery page at saatchi and rate the works.

here's the link

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/ShowDown.php

and remember, its monday that the contest begins, but that doesn't mean you cant browse the art this weekend...

a chilling reminder

Visited a museum today that had an exhibit on WW 1 & 2, in it there was a small little placard that showed the wars between the two "great" wars. It showed that there wasn't any real peace time between the two wars. Doing a bit of a dance with history, I was quickly reminded that there really hasnt been a time when there wasn't a war in some corner or all over the planet...are we really making any progress?

I'll write more on this, but for now...it seems that we have clearly proved that applying the same solutions will definitely yield the same results every time it is done...business is business, and damn aint it good for war...or is it the other way around?

organism(s)

The human species has a particular advantage over other species that is often forgotten…I was reminded of this in an article on creating a way-station for scientific research on mars, in the question of what the buildings should be made of, scientists were recommending mud and waddle huts instead of something more akin to futuristic sci-fi ideas, shocking at first, but then, incredibly genius. The idea being that it is far more practical to work with what you have, rather then it is to introduce an unknown.

And the reasoning is completely logical, the advantage that modern man has is that we have a good 5000 year record of civilization and 1000s more than that in the record of the species…this record contains millions of experiments, some successful other not, however this record gives society a massive amount of information…and we should draw on that vast information base when thinking of solving contemporary problems.

Further to the point is the concept at the heart of all is: we have not come this far alone.

The idea may be simple, but the implications and ramifications that stem from this are earth-shaking. In truth, we function like an organism, the individual has a role and a specific importance, however, that role is part of the larger whole. One individual’s success is dependent on those around them. The great leaps that we have made in the last few centuries have only come about due to the greater efforts of the global community.

Singular vision does not exist in the human community, and for that matter, nor does singular success.

These realizations beg a different model and a different application of theory. The great chasing of personal wealth that is typified in the great American dream is quite frankly impossible and the illusion of it is what in many ways is destroying our culture and dooming our environment.

Socialized and institutionalized applications of redistribution are what will lead us to greater accomplishments in science and technology; they will also lead to better infrastructure that will enable the support that society needs…That redistribution can be defined as financial, informational, and simple yet necessary raw sustenance, as they will lead to stabilizing and strengthening the base that supports us all, allowing society as a whole to make gains. Many of these things have become buzz words in contemporary politics: socialized health care, improved education, and greater funding for academic/cultural development. However, like all other concepts they need to be contextualized, so that we may be able to implement them and go forward; the more that humans understand the organism principle the better.

My personal frustration lies with the question of delivering this contextualization: when I consider that we are a species with incredible powers of communication and the tools to disperse said communication, oddly, we still seem to have many difficulties. Why is that when I read the daily news, there seems to be a significant lack of focus…or in other words, only a minority of people seems to be keeping their eye on the prize. Perhaps we forgot what exactly that prize is. Fighting each other be it by business or war, does not further our development, or for that matter, our survival.

Art & Politics

Reading the news and observing American culture, something I have not had the option to do for some time, I have noticed that there seems to be a bit of duality going on here. There seems to be a two-headed snake in the grass.

Sometimes there are news articles in which hope for a new century is founded and then other times it seems that we are on some dangerous path. Nonetheless, change does seem to be in the air, but it seems to me that we are going to have to be mindful of how those changes come about. An example here locally, is that a school board has decided to ban the viewing of Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" on the grounds that Global Warming is theory. Why are there pockets of America where the virtues of science are still being questioned? Or better yet, what happened to common sense? Even if we were to debate as to whether Global Warming is theory or not, the fact of the matter is that the fundamental message in this film is that we have one planet with limited resources. If one were to take a business minded approach to viewing this predicament, it is clear that it is not a conservative approach to continue using natural resources that are not replenish-able. It is by far, more logical to utilize and procure resources that are renewable. In fact, it is very logical and financially secure to obtain and develop renewable resources as this leads to a market that has no foreseeable end; a far more sensible business plan. As entrepreneurial capitalism seems to be leading this country more than anything, why is such logic so difficult to understand? What furthermore does not make any sense, and especially in this particular case, is that it is seemingly the people that are standing up for big business, further proof that our system is corrupt.

And then there is this: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/environment/jan-june07/climate_01-22.html. Several Chief Executives of some major corporations pressed Bush to place federal mandatory caps on carbon monoxide. Quite a shocker, as it is seemingly against conventional wisdom expounded by bleeding-heart environmentalists that the corporations are to blame. Or is it? Is it perhaps evidence of something else? To para-phrase Ralph Nader, the consumer has the power in our economic system. More simply, as the dollar controls our society, then the one who has the dollar is the one who controls the system. We are often lead to believe that is some mystical entity that actually controls the dollars when in fact, as we are a consumerist society, the control really does lie with us. Spending that dollar is an act of endorsement. Buying a hummer supports the war effort. Installing and purchasing Green Power takes money away from the coal-fired power companies. They loose money and they start to listen.