WW5: Ah, Motherland!

Hi!  I thought this staircase might inspire Maya.

Also, where did you guys say I can get a towel embroidered?

Thanks!

I thought of Sarah when I came across this in my research. It is is an interactive datavisualition of all the US soliders killed in the war.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20061228_3000FACES_TAB2.html

Also this is a great blog for datavisualization.

http://infosthetics.com/

Hey, gals! I really missed you all this week.

We have started construction. My roommate is great at woodworking & currently has a job with a shop. This glass factory in my neighborhood (see the video I made about them here) is cutting and donating the mirror, but I don’t have it yet. For next Sunday, I should have the whole video-mirror-medicine cabinet set up in a freestanding structure, and my roommate can help me Sheetrock the strucuture during installation.

I ended up buying a TV, because a monitor would have required a computer and speakers. The TV has speakers, but it also has all kinds of audio inputs, so if anyone has computer speakers or other small speakers that I can borrow, I would like to try to use them to create a stereo effect, or maybe have them under or above the medicine cabinet so you hear the sound outside as Maya suggested. Please let me know ASAP so I can design for the size.

This week I am going to experiment with the mylar to see if that works.

I need to decide what products to put on the shelf — there will be a 6 inch tall shelf above the mirror cube. Any suggestions? Also, there is a drawer below, which I still fantasize about putting real dirt in and a towel rack (if anyone has an awesome hand towel, I’m looking for one of those too).

Also, I need to decide the title — I like the idea of the date & number, but I feel like it needs something else.

This may be of most interest to Sarah but a new “nothing happens” starts live in NYC on Feb 5th. Remember that this is a real object that is slowly being affected by web click.

http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/nothingHappens/act1/index.html

i like the energy today!  (though we were all missing gwen & melissa, of course).  i completely forgot to mention this insight that my roommie ingrid of wonder women founding fame had when i described amanda’s project to her.

she immediately saw the lemons as a metaphor for people — that a bunch must be sacrificed in order to destroy another (or i would say, extract the juice of another, could be a metaphor for oil).

anyway, everyone might not see that, but it’s pretty rad!

Here is the link to Nothing Happens:

http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/nothingHappens/index.html

These are the recorded pieces. In real time you would visit the site and click a bunch of times. You would not see anything. The objects were set up each click made a very small impact. The results was that it took a lot of people apply very small moments of effort to make something happen down the road.

Now, that I write this, I realize this also relates to my piece. Which is to expose the small things that are idicators if not direct contributors to the larger events that eventually happen.

Infinity Mirror Room Yayoi Kusama

Infinity Optics Light Show

hey, what do you guys think about the title “compartment” for my piece? i was thinking about the unique way that we have all been able to compartmentalize this war in a way that was not as possible in the past and how the box makes a good metaphor for that.

and i’m totally for field tripping to the water exhibit!

For our residency, I will be developing an piece based on a war memorial in my hometown of Lafayette, CA. After meeting with the group, I am really excited to go forward with the mirrored box idea. I love the idea of a person sticking their head in a box for all its metaphors, and hope to turn this image inside out, by creating a meaningful experience inside the box. Inside, video of the actual memorial will be projected on all five sides using mirrors and a screen. Rather than the one-to-one ratio of the actual memorial, the repetition suggests the infinite and ongoing cost of war. The person’s head will block some of the imagery, and i’m also wondering if their head might repeat infinitely! Either way, the person getting in their own way of seeing the information is important to me. I will also make a looping soundtrack from some of the documentary footage, which I imagine will be abstract (this needs some further thought).

It was such a wonderful first meeting and I can’t wait to see you all again.