The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for the ‘Art’ Category.
A Victorian trans-Atlantic viewing tunnel revitalized for the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge.
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The ends of the telectroscope had been sealed off for more than a century, forgotten… almost.
Find out more about the Telectroscope here and here. I found out about the Telectroscope when looking over my blog logs. A Metafilter article talked about both it and my Alameda-Weehawken article.
Here’s more images from SWARM at Coachella.
This first set is from JDV
Lisa and Mills and a totally awesome robotic sphere
An orb cheering at the Kraftwerk show
The orb whisperer
A very pretty orb indeed!
I shot these next pix
The orbs were quite popular with the ladies
We’re like famous!
Most of the crew (taken by Dean Gray of the Desert Local News)
It was a really nice bus ride. Jimmy from Green Tortoise drove us down and back again. Highly recommended :-)
I got back from Coachella Monday morning. The weekend was tremendous fun.
High-points:
Kraftwerk – I’ve heard bits of their music for years but their super-low-key on-stage performance was enthralling.
Prince – He’s an incredibly talented guitarist, an incredible singer, terrific on the piano, an incredible showman and choreographer, a fantastic songwriter, and incredibly expressive and sexy on the largest stage. He even transposes cover songs to be his own phenomenally. (and I’ve had a crush on Sheila E since like 1988)
Brett Dennen – If she is on my top 3, I obviously don’t belong at Coachella but a folk festival. She should headline one.
Walking around with an orb following me – Marcus drove the orb while I interacted with people interacting with the orb. This one lady kept asking how they worked and I strung her along until she demanded “I am an Electrical Engineer. Tell me how it knows where it’s going!” She was crushed when I told her it was remote controlled though I tried to console her with our plans of full autonomy. I also thoroughly enjoyed driving the orb while Marcus played with people.
Serge Tankian’s performance was fun if inaudibly loud, standing about 5 rows back with Marcus.
Fatboy Slim is such a presenter, I loved the first several minutes of the show. Then he turned the bass to 11 and I couldn’t bear staying in my spot 250 yards from the stage :-(
Low-points:
Roger Waters – The music sounded too similar to how it did 20 years ago, I’m not a fan of stagnancy or living on your laurels. And I have to admit Floyd reminds me of some difficult times in my life. His new song “Leaving Beirut” was…. it wasn’t a song but a 4 page high-school essay on what he did on his summer vacation. And he read it as such. Apparently, Pink Floyd’s members make better music together than apart.
Roger Waters at amateur night
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Here’s SWARM running around during Kraftwerk :-)
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Charlotte and I have been learning poi spinning recently. One thing we’ve been doing is watching videos on the intertubes. We came across this video that introduced us to Nick Woolsey. Nick is pretty amazing. His videos show his excellent teaching, a puckish grin and an earnest streak 2 miles long. Oh and also that he is a freaking amazing poi spinner.
Introductions done, here’s the video Charlotte found that introduced us to Nick. You can find more about this video on his site and find him at Playpoi.com. Nick’s Youtube page is worth watching.
high quality .mov version: beauty_of_ashes
From the first time I spun fire, a few weeks ago.
And I’m the named artist. :-)
Of course, SWARM is actually a rag tag fugitive fleet of about 25 people. But this is still pretty dern cool.
For the last 2 months or so I’ve been taking poi spinning classes with Jon Dickinson of Fire Arts Academy and Fire Arts Collective. All I’ve got to say is that he’s really good… a very good teacher in a good physical space with good students and… well, if you’re going to learn to spin poi, I highly recommend him.
Here’s his recent flier. If you missed these sessions, never fear, the cycle will repeat at some point!
Fire Arts Academy is offering sessions of Poi & Staff classes in Oakland. FAA is now taking registration for poi & staff classes in Oakland starting Tuesday March 11th. Private classes in San Francisco and weekend workshops are available, please contact us or check our website. Continue reading ‘I Spin Poi’ »
Internet Explorer viewers of this blog can now see what Firefox viewers have been enjoying for the last year or so…
The green bar behind “Lee.org” at the top of the blog wasn’t visible in IE til I fixed a .css file. Actually, the issue was that IE didn’t follow CSS specs, but it’s hardly worth griping about. IE 6 doesn’t see the background image in my CSS file when it reads as such:
background-image: /* url("http://lee.org/blog/images/reason-villege-old-spring-green.jpg");*/
url("http://lee.org/blog/images/reason-villege-old-spring-green-right-justified.jpg");
I suppose it’s because IE sees the text being on 2 lines (there’s a carriage return in there) as being 2 elements. But I’m not going to spend any more energy figuring it out.
The writing actually phonetically spells my name in Japanese. Logically, it’s an odd collection of thoughts… “Lee” sounds like “Reason”. Then “Son” and “ko” sound like “village” and “old”.
I have to thank Miki Kawabe for the translation. At Burning Man in 2004, we won the Second Annual Semi-authentic Finnish Wife Carrying Event. We won her weight in beer.
Yes, really!
I just received this (wonderful) announcement. Put the PTDR on your calendar!!
Ladies and Gentlemen, please brace yourselves for the following
double-barreled announcement.You Said It Would Not Happen!
You Said It Was Better Last Year!
You Said There Was No Way You Would Stand In Those Concession Lines AgainBUT IT DID. AND IT WASN’T. AND YOU WILL.
Assorted parties are PROUD to present
The One And Only
POWER TOOL DRAG RACES
TWO WEEKENDS. . eekends. . . eekends. . .eekends
At The Maker Faire. . .aire. . .aire. . aire
Maker Faire Bay Area
May 3rd and 4th 2008
http://makerfaire.com/And then AGAIN at ACE! International Speedway. . .eedway. . .eedway. .
.eedway. . .
Check out our art project, Mutopia.
Ripped from the page:
In 2008 we are creating Mutopia our latest collaborative project. It will celebrate the innovation and spirit of our community. Infusing form with greater dynamism and interactivity. Every participant brings new ideas to the work which manifest in fire and animation.
STRUCTURE
- 13 Seedpods
- 97’ x 60’ installation footprint
- Made of cast aluminium, steel, copper, fire, and light
- An interactive LED illumination system throughout installation
FIRE, STEAM, & ELECTRONICS
- Ambient flame effects throughout the installation
- 6 computer-and-participant controlled multi-directional propane poofers
- 6 computer-and-participant controlled Promatic effects (propane pneumatics)
- Liquid fuel canopy misters
- 3 x 50 foot multi-dimensional liquid fuel fire effects erupting out of 3 central Seedpods
- Sound wave driven propane flame effect
- Sonar activated proximity sensors, giving Mutopia awareness
- Steam seeping throughout installation
- Proximity activated video nodes
- Human activated movement controls, via hand cranks and levers
INTERACTIVITY
Mutopia is a participant controlled fire art installation. An individual can initiate sequenced patterns for the fire effects, LED lights and steam. Interactivity is multi-layered in the installation activated via custom buttons, sonar sensors, hand cranks and levers.You are going to LOVE it!
My favorite part (thus far, nothing is built) is the “Liquid fuel canopy misters”. It’s not too different from a wonderfully dangerous effect I was playing with that I call Fire Fog. Rosa Anna and Mills’ idea is safer than mine but it’ll rock nonetheless!