Archive for the ‘Art’ Category.

Oh The Places You’ll Go at Burning Man

This is incredibly beautiful.

My heart is full and my intention strong.

Log in to Youtube to watch it, the video is age restricted.

local version:

Damn onions!

————————————————–

I need to say Thank you to the people that made this happen:

Dr Seuss
Teddy Saunders (www.tedshots.com)
Parker Howell (www.parkerhowell.com)
William Walsh (www.wbwalsh.com)
Produced and Edited by Teddy Saunders
Digital Effects and Color by Parker Howell
Original Score By Darius Holbert
Sound Mix by Tyler Payne
www.facebook.com/tedshots

Looking for Kinetics & Electronics Teachers

Hi, I’m Lee Sonko, the Head of the Kinetics and Electronics Department at the Crucible in Oakland. Right now we have a wide range of classes ranging from Mechanical Sculpture to Arduino Microcontrollers to Flame Effects. In the past 6 months we have had students (literally) from age 8 to 80.

Take a peek at our current offerings as an example.

Would you like to teach some of your art and science? Do you have an idea for a class? It’s not a full-time job but it pays some and it’s rewarding. If you think this might be for you, I’d love to hear from you. Contact me at Lee at Lee dat org.

Lee Sonko
Crucible Kinetics & Electronics Department Head

OrbSWARM Roll at Cal Academy

We had a great roll at Cal Academy last Thursday night

Here’s a totally sweet video of the event from Octotod

local version:

Flame Effects Workshop in Los Angeles, November 5 & 6

Update: this class has sold out! If you want to be alerted to future flame effects classes, please drop me an email at Lee at Lee dat org!

I’ll be teaching an intensive Flame Effects workshop on the weekend of November 5 and 6 2011 in association with Machine Project  in LA. Wanna go? Sign up on the Machine Project website!

————————————————–

Flame Effects Workshop

Saturday, November 5th & Sunday, November 6th
10am — 6pm

This workshop is NOT taking place at Machine Project.
This workshop is instead at Keystone Art Space, address below.

Taught by  Lee Sonko


Photo Credit: David Nichols
Members — $275  (all materials included, with take-home final project)

Non-members — $300  (all materials included, with take-home final project)


Become a  Machine Project Member  and receive a discounted rate on all classes!


In this hands-on weekend-long intensive class you will learn how to make safe, effective and beautiful propane flame effects art. You will learn many different ways of manipulating fire in sculpture including accumulator “poofer” effects, plumbing, ignitors, fuels, colorants, and actuators including electronic controls. We will design and build flame effects sculptures in class and get hands-on, flame-on experience with the sculptures created. Possible projects include a bucolic sand fire pit, a hand-operated fire torch, a giant “poofer”, and other creations. At the end of this weekend, you will know how to use fire in entirely new ways.

All of the parts needed to build your flame effects devices are provided. At the end of class, you will take home something awesome to show wide-eyed friends and family.

Requirements: Participants must wear natural fiber clothing and not be squeamish about loud noises. Participants must be 16 or older unless special permission is given.

Instructor  Lee Sonko  is the Head of the Kinetics and Electronics Department at The Crucible in Oakland, CA where he teaches classes including Mechanical Sculpture, Arduino Microcontrollers, and Flame Effects. Lee is a founding member of OrbSWARM, a San Francisco based mechatronic art robot group. He is a member of the  Flaming Lotus Girls, a large scale Bay Area fire art collaborative. He is also a teacher, student, hacker, baker, and geek.

Directions:

Keystone Art Studios, 1755 Glendale Blvd, 90026 (though the entrance is around the corner at approximately 2225 Aaron St. Enter through the black gate. You can either park on the street or in the lot uphill from the aforementioned gate).



Refund policy:
Please note, all class fees include a non-refundable enrollment deposit of $25 that will be deducted from your refund if you sign up for, then drop, a class. So, for example, if you sign up for Machine Sewing 101 and pay the $155 class fee, but then remember that you have trapeze school final exams that conflict with the Sewing class and shouldn’t have signed up after all, we will refund you $130 of your tuition payment.

Gift certificate purchase:
If you have a Machine Project gift certificate you’d like to redeem for a class, please email us at machine@machineproject.com and let us know.

 

IndeBENdence Day Party

Ben Cowden is setting out on his own in the kinetic art world. Good things and great art will come of this, I am sure. But first, he threw a great IndeBendence Day Party with a panoply of home brewed beers, ducky races and the like!

from the invite:
-Eight different kinds of home-brewed beer!
-Cocktails from the Corpse Reviver!
-Handmade Bavarian pretzels!
-Diorama making!
-Rubber ducky races!
-Raffle of sculpure and cool stuff!
-Piñata!
-Et cetera!

If You Introduce a Flame Thrower in the First Act… Bellflower

I’ve got 2 tickets to see Bellflower, a new indie movie with love and flamethrowers. I can’t go. But you should. Email me.

BELLFLOWER Screening
Monday, August 15
7:30 PM
One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level
San Francisco, CA 94111

See the Trailer

This is a preview screening of the movie… first come first serve.

Creating Reuben Margolin’s Nebula – Part 4 of 4 – Beauty

Here is the final of 4 parts to Wired’s video “Creating the Nebula” by Reuben Margolin.

Watch it!

Watch part 1 first.

I just wish there was more professional video footage of the sculpture. I want part 5!

Creating Reuben Margolin’s Nebula – Part 3 – aaaaah!

Wherein The Nebula Crew form alliances and someone is voted off the island.

Oh my Oh my Oh my Oh my Oh my!
Art. Engineering. Drama.

It will take nerves of nylon coated stainless steel to pull this one off.

Nebula video – Part 3 of 4.

Watch parts one and two first!

Swing higher and higher … right back to childhood

A couple weeks ago I went to Paolo Salvagione’s closing event of his “Competitive Swinging”. It was great fun*. A reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, Sarah Adler was there and interviewed me :-)

View the full article here

Here are bits of the article archived locally

Sarah Adler took some nice photos of us on the swings. Thanks Sarah!

Former artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, conceptual artist and sculptor Paolo Salvagione was invited back in April to activate the gymnasium space. Calling it “Competitive Swinging,” he created a sculpture for the old military barrack by utilizing the existing ceiling hardware once used to hang climbing rope for military exercises. He combined that with the basketball court’s geometric grid to hang and linearly place 10 swings (five on each side).

Recalling the squeaky swing set of his childhood, Salvagione designed the swings to avoid any audible reference; rather, participants swing in silence, feeling the breeze off the Marin Headlands.

On the last day of its installation, folks gathered to swing as pendulums and relive the playfulness of their own childhood swing sets.

– Sarah Adler, sadler@sfchronicle.com

David Calkins, 43

Profession: Robot builder

Neighborhood: Mill Valley

When was the last time you were on a swing?

A few weeks ago because Emma (his 2 1/2-year-old daughter with him at the gymnasium) loves to play on the swings.

What is your first swinging memory?

In the park by my grandma’s house growing up. There was a set of swings with big tall metal posts – you could get really high up.

How do you feel when you are swinging on a swing?

You get that almost flying sensation. But it’s hard if you don’t swing on a regular basis; you’re surprised by how many muscles you don’t normally use.

Other favorite piece of playground equipment?

My favorite is whatever Emma’s favorite is. Right now, she likes big slides. (Danger is her middle name.)

Lee Sonko, 41

Profession: Teacher and artist

Neighborhood: Mission

When was the last time you were on a swing?

Three or four years ago in the middle of the night. Before that it was 25 years.

What is your first swinging memory?

In my West Milford, N.J., elementary school playground. We had a giant swing set.

How do you feel when you are swinging on a swing?

A little dizzy. A lot free. A little in control. A little out of control. Ridiculously silly.

Other favorite piece of playground equipment?

There was this spinning table thing; sort of a merry-go-round. It was a 4-foot circular table that you spun around and it always felt really dangerous to be on that because you’d spin so fast and then fly off into the mulch.

————————————————–

*except for the great/crashed OKCupid date, but I digress

And I have to say thank you to to Simone Davalos of Suicidebots et all for posting the event to Squidlist. It was just my kind of event :-). Paolo and Jennifer are terrific.

Colussus at Maker Faire

6 years later, I helped Zach Coffin and friends bring Colossus out of storage and into the hearts of Maker Faire attendees.

Colossus captured on real film (!) by Brody Scotland

Previously