Lee.org

Update 9-15-08: “Gears are turning and plans for the relocation of NIMBY are in the works” on the NIMBY website!

Update 4-13-11: NIMBY continues to rock!

NIMBY is  was is an incredible space  for art. The place has ENERGY! I worked on Colossus there. I’ve got friends that work on art there, including the Dance Dance Immolation crew. The Serpent Mother is being stored there. And… Therm, Kinetic Steamworks, Simnuke, The Disgusting Spectacle, Tom Kennedy. Those are just the artists and groups I know personally.

I spent my first summer in San Francisco grinding away at the sharp edges of Colossus. I had seen Corbett Griffith and Zachary Coffin and Daniel Bauen at the Desert Arts Preview at the Crucible in July. Corbett said something like, “it’s been entirely designed and most of the parts have been cut out. Now we just have to put it together.” I was all over it. I walked up and gave them a good hunk of my summer. One highlight that summer was that I got to see…. take a read.

The next summer, I got to attend an incredible Fight Party

local version:

A groovy panorama of fight night. Click me!

And here’s a video walkthrough I did of NIMBY when I was working on Colossus in 2005

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

RIP NIMBY – April 1, 2004 to Sept 11, 2008.

posted by admin on Sep 11

As of September 11, 2008 the City of Oakland has regretfully closed the industrial art space known as NIMBY. For the last 5 years NIMBY has been a center of creative collaboration and artistic expression for talented mis-fits.
What happened?

Early morning on September 10th a fire occurred in a studio space in the NIMBY warehouse. An unattended candle that was being used in a digital photography project has been cited at the cause of the fire. Several NIMBY tenants who were working late (or early) attempted to put out the fire themselves, but the fire got out of control. Two calls were made to the Oakland Fire Department – one from the nearby Tork systems, and one from NIMBY brought a quick response. The fire was successfully put out, leaving NIMBY in fair shape and smoke free. Property damage was confined to the studio space where the fire originated and some sky-lights in the buildings roof.

However, the Oakland Fire Department was then obligated to further investigate the cause of the fire and conditions in the shop space. Following the fire NIMBY tenants were ordered to vacate the premises and were only allowed supervised entry to access tools that they needed.

A complete inspection, with representatives from four different city departments, followed on September 11th. The inspectors and fire fighters were too numerous to count and they scrutinized every inch of NIMBY. The inspectors loved everything; the hot rods, the glass blowing, the fire sculptures, the tile work, and the wood working. However, they were aghast that all of these projects were being done in the same space. They hated to shut us down, but couldn’t find any way to legally let us continue.
burned out containersWhen they left, they let us know that our only option was to vacate the space and start fresh somewhere else. Jail was an alternative if we chose not to comply. Bringing everything up to code in the current building – ain’t gonna happen.
What next?

The city of Oakland is doing everything they can to support the relocation of NIMBY in Oakland. They want to keep us here and support the arts – but they are going to make sure that we do it to code. We are so pleased to have this unexpected outpouring of city support and we have already looked a number of potential new buildings.
What can you do?

Donate! Funds are needed to support the relocation effort. Even though the city is helping – they won’t be forking over the bucks it takes to move over a thousand tons of bullshit to a new location. So help us.

The rest of the NIMBY website on 9-12-08

Tomorrow morning I’m on my way to the desert for a week of craziness. Be back next Tuesday.

I’ve been working a lot on SWARM.

In the last few weeks I:

• complied the audio tracks for the sound system (a mix of editing, creating, and working with a novel sound playback system)
• fixed up the 6 sound modules… swapped out a bad amp, adjusted volumes on all of them, installed new firmware drivers for the mp3 players
• made 2 new chargey plugs (some were lost)
• tested batteries
• installed IMUs (inertial measurement units) in 6 orbs: cut stainless steel pieces to be mounts, tapped holes (a PITA, I couldn’t finish, grr), welded in place, sprayed IMUs with clear paint, mounted, made ribbon cables, cut holes for cables
• made gussets to reinforce the arms of the canopy on the mothership
• helped manage arrangements with Virgin Festival (though they bagged at the last minute, jerks) (Niladri ran point and did a lot!)
• managed getting insurance for Virgin Festival (that we didn’t need because they bagged at the last minute, jerks)
• had lots of meetings and discussions to figure out exactly how to get our art to the Virgin Festival in Canada. (Dawn did a LOT of work. She’s become an international shipping expert overnight)
• Kept up with SWARM’s In the Media updates
• Got 1/2 way though (fimed, partially edited) creating a video piece for Make TV
• Kept up with our finances. We continue to be in the black.
• Went to a lawyer with Dawn to talk about licensing & patenting SWARM
• A million little tasks like keeping our shop space livable with a cadre of messy mechatrons running around in it, finding new boxes for Virgin took 1hr+, paint for the IMUs 1hr+, ordering TIG supplies 1hr, finding a good deal on rechargable batteries and chargers for the remotes 1hr, …

I got this today. San Francisco is so [insert modifier here]

Subject: Zombie Migration Alert: This Saturday, August 16th

Zombie Alert: This Saturday

Friends and countrymen, it is with a heavy heart that I report on the state of Zombie Activity in our fair city of San Francisco. The time has come to once again activate the radio-attraktor towers to funnel hundreds of zombies through downtown to a secure location. This is a risky maneuver, as evidenced by carnage enshrouding last year’s event. Rest assured, we have made improvements to the technology.

We will turn on the radio-attraktor towers at 2:05pm on Saturday, August 16th. All zombies in the area will be telepathically compelled to march down a route which we will disclose in a future email. The radio waves will also cause undead to crave duct tape instead of human flesh. If you are unfortunate enough to be standing along the route with a duct tape “X” on your torso, you will be attacked and consumed by the horde, after which you will be one of them. Don’t wear your favorite shirt.

Please, please tell your friends and family not to be anywhere near the route at 2:05pm this Saturday! Have them sign up for updates ( http://eatbrains.com/announcements) or follow the movement live on Twitter with up-to-the-minute zombie migration forecast, Beijing Olympic protest style ( http://twitter.com/SFZombieMob). If we loose radio control of the mob, the result will be catastrophically gruesome!

The Zombie Wrangler
http://eatbrains.com

State ban on serving trans fat first in U.S.

California became the first state to outlaw trans fat in restaurants and food facilities Friday when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning the artery-clogging oils and shortenings.

The bill, by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia (Los Angeles County), had started heated debate in the Legislature. But many Bay Area restaurant owners say they don’t use trans fats, and others say complying with the new state law will not be burdensome.

I was going to make a T-Shirt that reads “Outlaw Trans-fats and Only Outlaws will have Trans-fats”. But reading into the issue further (IE, the second paragraph of the article) it’s more of an issue of closing the barn door after the horse has left. Or to be more gentle about it, codifying a trend in law.

This reminds me very much of what Mary Ruwart, Libertarian presidential candidate said about child labor laws. On 7-6-08 she spoke on Marty Nemko’s radio show about libertarian issues. She had said that child labor laws in the US followed on the coat-tails of trends at the end of the industrial revolution. The laws didn’t stop people from hiring child-workers. The trend of children not working in factories had already taken place.

Given the choice, people would rather not send their children to work in factories. After enough wealth had been generated, it stopped happening.

She talks about child labor law starts at 44 minutes, 10 seconds.

Here is the whole radio show (30 mb, 60 minutes), Work with Marty Nemko, July 6th, 2008.

Similarly, it’s (apparently) not difficult or more expensive to make non-trans-fat oils. Individuals, restaurants and manufacturers have already made the switch.

I said it before and I’ll say it again

Harumph!

Governor William J. Le Petomane: HOLY UNDERWEAR! People murdered? Innocent women and children blown to bits? We must do something to protect our phoney-baloney jobs people. Harumph! Harumph!
All of the governor’s lackeys but one chant along with him: Harumph! Harumph!
Governor: I didn’t get a harumph out of that guy.
Another lackey: Give the governer a harumph!
Lackey: Harumph!
Governor: You watch your ass.

I just took over administrating the QBOX Events mailing list. Laughing Squid is apparently getting out of the Mailman mailing list business.

This from the mailing list itself:

Charles Gadeken charlie@NOSPAMcellspace.org
Wed, 08 May 2002 16:51:13 -0700 (PDT)

• Next message: QBOX Events: QBox Events
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

---

Welcome to the QBOX list. This list is managed by Charlie Gadeken, if you have
any questions about how you ended up on this list feel free to ask me.
charlie@NOSPAMqbox.org If you do not want to be on this mailing list please follow the
link at the bottom of this message and unsubscribe yourself. 

This is the very first mailing for this new list. Many of you were on the My Old
Burningart Presents list, some of you are just my friends, others have requested
to be on this list directly. 

On the list you will hear about Events focused on mechanical, kinetic and
electronic art in the Bay Area. I expect to send out about one or two mailings a
month. All of these posts will be related to performance events, lectures and
gallery shows that support mechanical, kinetic and electronic art in the Bay
Area. I will be sending out an announcement for a show this Sunday "Power Tool
Drag Race after Party" which will follow this message.

Thank you for listening and i look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming
events. 

charlie gadeken
director: QBOX
http://www.qbox.org

You can subscribe to the list via qbox.org or here.

SWARM has some new stickers in the mail. Not only will they protect you from the robotic singularity that is to come, but they are really cool (and shiny, we like shiny!).

So the next time you see me or a killer^H^H^H^H^H^H beautiful spherical robot approaching, ask me for a sticker!

The folks at StickerGiant did a very nice job on them :-)

They got into our art project so much that they commented about us on their blog and gave us a batch of stickers fer free :-)

Rock on Stickergiant.

Coreyfro and I will be making a 10 minute presentation about SWARM at the Burning Man Desert Arts Preview. Our presentation will be at 9:45 p.m. They might stream the video on the Burning Man web site but I don’t have any more information about that.

Here is the schedule…

Burning Man
2008 Desert Arts Preview
Thursday, July 17th
Burning Man Headquarters
1900 3rd St. @ 16th, San Francisco, CA

Masters of Ceremonies: $teven Ra$pa and Bettie June

6:30-7:00 Wine reception

7:00-7:15 Welcome & Overview of Burning Man 2008 Theme and Artist Grants by LadyBee and Beth Scarborough

7:20-7:30 Mike Thielvoldt and Lira Filippini — Lepidodgera

7:35-7:45 Michael Emery — You Are All So Many Of Me

7:50-8:00 Gene Cooper — Heart of Burning Man

8:05-8:15 Jared Gallardo — The Amazing Jellyfish From The Year 12,000

8:20-8:30 Philip Raiser — Babylon

8:35-8:45 Dadara — Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia

8:50-9:10 Intermission

9:15-9:25 Crimson Rose — Black Rock Arts Foundation

9:30-9:40 False Profit Labs — Pyrocardium and the Hydrogen Economy

9:45-9:55 SWARM — Lee Sonko and Coreyfro

10:00-10:10 Flaming Lotus Girls — Mutopia

10:15-10:25 TuckerTeutsch — Basura Sagrada

10:30-10:40 Questions and Answers

I have been talking with the person who wrote “The Best Thing I Read All Day“. the project that he is working on is pretty sweet. From Sasha:

Here is our artcar project this year: http://urbanabsurd.com/reelmobile2008/ (don’t miss the “night view” :)) and the previous one, “dust2music”, several years ago: http://www.urbanachiever.com/gallery/Burning-Man-2005/aav
Trainspotting was this train station I made – http://www.urbanachiever.com/gallery/Burning-Man-2005/aaw – with sound, light and motions from the passing “phantom” trains – when the batteries that ran the whole thing were fresh, that is, which unfortunately was far from 24/7. That was my tiny BM claim to fame that was burned – apart from the laptop and the lamp with the servos that swang it – at the end.
http://www.urbanachiever.com/gallery/SashaBM2005/abq

The truck burned too – the engine ignited on the freeway – http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximbo/739460049/ – and we all took a break from BM last year, for the first time since 2000, to “mourn”.

P.S. Btw, I found this – http://lee.org/blog/2008/06/05/san-francisco-rent-strike – particularly, I guess, encouraging and refreshing? — since the views on topics like this by the majority of SF (or Berkeley, etc.) BM attendees are depressing to even think about.

Cracked Magazine did a piece called
5 Works of Art That Can Probably Kill You
By Robert Brockway

I’m proud and jumping-up-and-down happy to be part of a group and project that could read like that! W00t!

Below is the Serpent Mother portion of the article. If you click on the image to the right, you’ll see an image of the entire article. It’s funny and oh-so endearing!

Go read the whole article

You can right-click-view this strip-looking screen capture of the original Cracked.com page

.

.

————————————————–

The Serpent Mother is an interactive sculpture, originally designed by The Lotus Girls for the Burning Man Festival which, for those of you who don’t know it, is essentially a bunch of filthy hippies getting burnt off of their asses, stripping naked, and then welding monstrous devices out of scrap metal in order to dance around them. Kind of like combining a Phish concert with the A-Team, if that helps.

The Serpent Mother is 168 feet long, 20 feet high, includes 41 separate flamethrowers, and a hydraulic head and jaw. The sculpture is fully interactive. All flamethrowers and crushing jaws are controlled by the audience that, up until this point, has mostly been made up of ‘shroomed out hippies who would sooner eat a steak than harm a fellow human being. It is now, however, attempting to go on a tour which promises to look a whole lot like the biblical apocalypse.

The artist claims:
From the website: “There has never been a sculpture like the Serpent Mother. The warmth of her fire and her circular design create an experience in which over 1000 people come together–drawn in by her embrace … She prompts her audience not only to interact with the art, but also with one another. Wherever she exists, she creates new communities … The Serpent Mother challenges the traditional art perspective by creating an interactive experience which is the opposite of passive viewing. Unlike an unapproachable painting in a prestigious museum which invites only an intellectual admiration, the Serpent Mother invites viewers to physically engage in her art.”

Our explanation:
The above explanation could be considered fairly accurate. It’s just that it ends that last sentence a tad bit early. It really should read “the Serpent Mother invites viewers to physically engage in her art, by lighting them on fire and devouring them, so that they might be consumed amongst the ravaged steel of her burning guts.”

The audience control over The Serpent Mother extends not only to the flamethrowers that run along her spine, but also to the hydraulics of the head and jaws–all fully operational. They also control the blue flame jets that burn from her teeth, as well as the directed bursts of steam she shoots from her nostrils. Watching this video of The Serpent Mother in action should make you more fully aware of the size and scale of the thing.

local version:

It is truly, awe-inspiringly massive. Also, it will serve as incontrovertible proof that the devil exists, as only he could finally combine three of the greatest fears of man throughout time–fire, giant snakes, and deadly robots–into one enormous monstrosity. Word is that the artists, in an attempt to more completely expose your darkest, most secret fears, are currently upgrading The Serpent Mother to make it shoot thousands of poisonous spiders that tell everybody about your impotence and how you cried that one time while watching The Little Mermaid.

Danger level:
The real danger of The Serpent Mother comes from its audience participation. As the video makes clear, there are no safety measures around it. Anybody can and does crowd around. It can be walked in, crawled through and climbed on with nobody there to warn you when the flamethrowers kick on. Who would be stupid enough to climb on it? Well, drugged out hippies for one.

For two, its head is mobile–controlled by a joystick in the audience. This joystick also works the jaws, flaming teeth, and jets of burning steam that we mentioned earlier. Thus far it has only been controlled by peace loving flower children, but we remind you once again that it’s going on tour and if there’s anything that Bruce Willis has taught us, it’s that organized terrorist cells are waiting literally everywhere to take over anything that could be used as a weapon.

The fact that you made it a snake–Jesus, you might as well just send a fucking handwritten invitation to Cobra Commander. And, you know, good luck handling C.O.B.R.A with your crack team of barefoot vegetarians, Burning Man.

Learn about some other things that you wouldn’t expect to burn your eyebrows off until it’s too late with Mr. Brockaway’s rundown of The 10 Most Terrifyingly Inspirational ’80s Songs. Then go read Dan O’Brien spew vitriol in the general direction of Hannah Montana.

You can find a whole site full of Robert Brockway’s writing at IFightRobots.com.

Nice. (via)

Taylor Square is a new public artwork created by Paul Ramirez Jonas and installed in front of the renovated Engine 8, Ladder 4 fire station in northwest Cambridge, at the intersection of Huron Avenue, Sherman Street, and Garden Street. Taylor Square is the smallest public park in Cambridge, measuring only 57 square feet, and has locked gates. It is a communal space through the distribution of 5,000 artist-designed keys and the invitation to the public to duplicate them endlessly.

Each key, embossed with the phrases “Taylor Square” and “Copy Me”, were mailed to Cambridge households along with the artist’s words, “Here is your key. It is one of 5,000 keys that opens Taylor Square, Cambridge’s newest park. The park and the keys are a work of public art that I made for you. The park has barely enough room for a bench and a flagpole; please accept this key as its monument. Add it to your key chain along with the keys that open your home, vehicle or workplace. You now have a key to a space that has always been yours. Copy it and give it away to neighbors, friends and visitors. Your sharing will keep the park truly open.”

Further distribution of the keys and, thus, the sustained life of the park is the task of the public. In the artist’s words, “Taylor Square belongs to the public. It is closed, yet simultaneously open, re-emphasizing that the ownership of public space resides in the public itself.” The keys for Open are a tangible symbol of this relationship between public space and the public.

Paul Ramirez Jonas’s work has included museum and gallery exhibitions and public art projects throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rhode Island School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the International Studio Program in Sweden, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the International Studio Program in Sweden, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, among others. Ramirez Jonas lives and works in New York. For more information, visit: www.automat.com.