Stanford Arts Grant Projects

AllOfUsNow

2011-10-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

Very happy about the Party on the Edge, the turn out and the excitement over all of the projects. Just as a closing note, we're posting a link to Greg & my blog with a page about the robotic mind mapper and a few images of the prototyping process and from POTE last Thursday.

Enjoy!

allofusnow.com/brain-child

Explorations in Mind Mapping

2011-10-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

Some more work this weeked. The wall is finished, and surprisingly, didn't rattle when the motors were attached! The little cubic artwork is controlled by the EEG input. As the user's attention increases (cooresponding primarily to stronger alpha and beta activity), the pen moves right, if it decreases, it moves left. Up and down movements depend on meditation values (theta-wave activity).

Here's a little video of James using the machine:

The final version draws in circular patterns, and there will be automatic limits so the robot doesn't run off the paper!

Purple Robot Blood

2011-09-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

A few big hiccups have been tackled with the EEG-controlled drawing robot.

1.) We've built a wall! Greg had a good idea involving caster wheels, 80/20 and plywood. We have to make our own since we can't mount to the walls in the Cantor Center.

2.) Figured out a control scheme for the robot, which adjusts motor speed to get the pen to move as desired (and not along curves of the belt radii).

3.) Prototyped different drawing mediums.

This photo shows the wall half-built (on left), and the robot drawing on paper with charcoal. It drew a lot of stars before I fixed a bug to get it to draw circles...

4.) Prototyped painting methods, including paint markers and a syphoning IV of purple tempera paint. A tube carried paint from the suspended bottle to a hollow paintbrush at the robot end-effector (pen position).

5.) Made the robot move in spirals! This was getting to be quite a challenge, but I'm really happy we figured it out...

This image shows more progress on the wall, and the robot's IV drip.

Next, we have to figure out the best way to deal with the paint - getting the right viscosity to get the paint moving, but not make a watery colorful mess. Else, we'll settle for the paint pen with an actuator to keep it against the wall. The wall needs to be sanded, and the motors and electronics will be transfered to it. Most importantly, there will be integration of the brain control code with the spiral drawings.

Gia Đình Bùi: Mẹ và Con

2011-09-10T00:35:00.000-07:00

Bùi Quang Nhat - Con cá
55cm x 46cm

Bùi Phan Thu - Mẹ
55cm x 46cm

Bùi Phan James - Con út
65cm x 54cm

Time Lapse of Final Painting

2011-09-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a time lapse of my final painting.

2011-09-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

This is a piece of a man carrying a load of yogurt hanging from a bamboo stick (kind of like a primitive scale). I know it's hard to see, but I drew the pencil outline first. I am using colored pencils to finish it and hopefully it'll turn out well! I saw this man at the Boudhanath temple in Kathmandu and thought it would be interesting to show others.

Chang on Project Subject While in Papua

2011-09-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

Change on Project Subject

I had thought the interactions between the doctors I was traveling with and the local patients would be the focus for my project, but after arriving, I was much more interested in just the subjects here. Every year the team is sent to Papua New Guinea to run clinic and educational curriculum with the local health workers then Dr. Murphy uses these experiences as insight when consulting with the government on PNG's national health plan. This year we were sent to Meline Bay to see what the best health care in the country is like. The doctors and staff that run the provincial hospital and rural health centers do a good job, despite the lack of supplies and facility.

I decided to focus on all of the people engaged in health care in Meline Bay rather than photographing the team at all. The patients, families, and doctors gave me a full picture of human disease and care in the province.

Patients

For thousands of years, people have been isolated because of rough terrain and impassible jungles. Throughout history, this helped over 800 languages develop in these isolated communities. In the modern day, rough terrain and lack of infrastructure continue to make getting around the country difficult. As a result many people get sick, then can not make it into the hospital until late presenting as much more complex cases.

Family

I was also interested in the wantans that make up Papua New Guinea's society. Wantans are extended family based on marriage and friendship that act as large extended families in Papuan culture connecting villages together. After getting to know the people around me, many of them told me about just how interconnected everyone was and after a quick look at the hospital verandas it is easy to see they are right. All of the patients here each have part of their family living with them until they get better. Family members have to travel long distances by foot, dingy, or public transport then camp out at the hospital and take care of their loved ones. They do not leave until the person they care for is treated. Throughout the stay the family members take turns caring for their patient, cook, clean, and do laundry. In ERs back home I see people come in a lot without a family member with them or the family member will leave for sometime. In PNG I felt the families were much more connected than back home. I decided to look at the family members that help care for their loved ones because they are an important component of the healing process for these patients.

Doctors

In the hospital and traveling to the rural health clinic I was able to observe and volunteer alongside some of the resident physicians. Despite lack of funding, poor facilities, and restricted lab testing, these doctors do so well. They rely on well-developed clinical skills and thorough reason to work through complex cases. Through nights out together getting dinner at the lodges, their houses, and our apartment I formed friendships with a few of these resident doctors. Besides being sociable and inviting, these people were just amazing. They completed an MD in a country that only graduates 60 students a year, some of them have started families, they all have a deep respect and care for their patients and each other, and all of them aspire to be leaders in directing the country's future health. I was grateful to get to know these people in the short time that I was there.

Facilities

The doctors did all of this with facilities in poor conditions and supplies sometimes short or nonexistent. The facilites contrasted with the beautiful landscape many of them were located in, especially the rural health outposts.

2011-08-25T18:11:00.001-07:00

This is a preview of my second unfinished piece.

Nepal

2011-08-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

So, this is the beginnings of a pencil drawing. I was in Patan Durbar Square, a historic section of Kathmandu, and there was this lady selling corn to feed the pigeons. I thought she represented the hard work people in Kathmandu put in to make a living. I will probably add colored pencil accents but otherwise it's going to be straight pencil. The picture isn't of the entire drawing, but I haven't reached that part yet.

Brain Child

2011-08-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

A bit of Background

My arts grant project involves a large-scale brain-controlled drawing machine. I've made another brain-drawing machine, known as RedGreenBrain earlier this year. It was shown at CCRMA's Modulations and Maker Faire. Still need to compile all the video from those events, but it was a hit. The robot used EEG technology from Neurosky. A pen moved based on the user's attention and meditation levels, and the resulting patterns were very geometrici yet appeared to have a human touch.

Photo: The RedGreenBrain at Maker's Faire, May 2011, San Mateo, CA.

And Now...
The new Robotic MindMapper that I am working on will have a more challenging control scheme, and will move in spiraling patterns so long as the user concentrates. I acquired some 80/20, timing belts and pulleys for prototyping. Right now I'm trying to figure out if the motors from RGB can be used. It would have been easier to use steppers to position control the motors, but since I'm using timing belts and encoders, I thought maybe these big DC motors would have a smoother motion.

First, I mounted the motors to a wall, about 6ft apart and 7ft from the ground. The base in the center of the belts will soon house the drawing medium and a mechanism to keep it against the wall in drawing mode. It doesn't look like much yet, but with my supply of 80/20 and by ordering longer timing belts, the workspace is limitless.

It actually took me three days to debug this setup and get the motors to move as desired. I am using a motor driver (the Procyon v.1 by Pascal Stang). And unfortunately the documentation was wrong on the example pin outs! Luckily, I got it moving on an example loop. These videos show the range the can be accomplished, by driving the motors alone, together, and clockwise/counter-clockwise.

And Next...

Things that will get done this week:

1.) Talking to the POTE organizers and filling out display requirements. Will have to figure out if I should make a fake wall for the exhibit or some other way to mount the robot.

2.) Testing the motor motions with the encoders. Using the encoder to draw out a circle.

3.) Order longer belt material to reach more of the 6ft workspace if possible.

That's it for now!

Pre-trip Post

2011-08-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Woops

I forgot to post as I was working, so this will mostly be a recap of what I was doing Spring quarter / beginning of summer. I probably put this off too long. I am new to photography and decided to do this Arts Grant project because I have always wanted to give photography a try. I had worked with painting, drawing, design, video, ceramic, and sculpture before, but never tried photography seriously.

Project Description

I propose creating a photo essay that documents and explores the intimate moments of empathy, suffering, and care where traveling physician and patients briefly connect and change each other forever. This project is inspired by my experience in the International Humanitarianism in Surgery class, in which guest lecturers recounted moments of intense human connection with their under served patients. These physicians would travel to the far reaches of the world to deliver care to hundreds of patients in dire need. Even with modern training, many times these physicians were pitted against logistical, cultural, or time constraints preventing them from alleviating suffering of patients and their families.

I intend to create a photo essay to capture these humanizing moments of suffering, empathy, and care caused by the juxtaposition of wealthy modern medicine and impoverished patients. Through focusing on the experience of the traveling physician, I will capture these poignant moments that demonstrate the brief but intimate connections between the traveling physician and their patients. Conceptually I am interested in how these moments ablate cultural and socioeconomic divides between a physician and their patient, creating purely human experiences where patients and their physicians intimately connect and change each other forever through alleviation, appreciation, empathy or any other number of exchanged emotions facilitated through these moments.

I plan to approach this concept through a photo essay heavily influenced by “Country Doctor” of W. Eugene Smith. Using digital photography I will capture moments focused on the physician and the patient, family, and community entrusting him. Contrast, lighting, and depth of field will be key to highlight emotions of physician and patient captured with focus on the subjects’ faces and body language. I aim to capture these expressions in compositions endogenous of the poverty perpetuating this medical need but preventing its proper alleviation.

If this project is approved, I will be following Dr. Kao and Dr. Murphy on their trip to Meline Bay Papua New Guinea to educate community health workers of neighboring villages and run clinics at the request and under accommodations of Ambassador Paki. I will attempt to “fade into the wallpaper” as Smith says, to capture the moments mentioned above.

Information on W. Eugene Smith

Wikipedia Page and Magnum Photos Page

The two essays that most influenced me to attempt this project

Lambarene - Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Country Doctor

Equipment

For the project, I am borrowing a friend's Nikon D70S to take to Papua New Guinea with 18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses. Using a 16GB card and backing up all photos onto my computer and external hard drive. Also bringing along three extra batteries.

Location

We will be visiting the hospital and rural health outposts of Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. We will be staying in Alotau.

Farmer's Market Practice - How to use a Nikon D70 with giant lens?

After playing around with the camera in the Cactus Garden, I tried to think of ideas of where to try out photographing people interacting with each other in a crowded environment, similar to what I might experience in clinic on the trip. So, I tried out the farmer's market on California st.

For my first try with the camera, I left it on Auto mode. My main goal was to just get comfortable photographing strangers going about their lives, which is a pretty odd thing to do if you have never tried. I took hundreds of pictures, then played around with cropping and straightening the photos for practice with composition. A few of my trials are below. I did not do editing with values, hues, or anything else, just tried to notice and capture interesting contrasts of values and hues as I found them. I will learn photoshop skills later.

Farmer's Market Round Two - Aperature Mode

The big 300mm lens is great at creating a depth of field when I'm shooting about 25 or more feet away. The manual scroll lets me adjust what is most in focus as I'm shooting so I can edit how much of a composition remains sharp, letting me layer planes to create depth, or flatten them. A small focus allows for sharp edges that contrast the rest of the frame and draw the viewer's attention to it. It is a pretty interesting feature to play around with.

After meeting up with an advisor he suggested that I put the camera to Aperture mode, allowing me to set the F-stop manually with the camera automatically adjusting shutter speed. Shooting with a small F-stop allows me to bring in a lot of light, after playing with a low F-stop I found that the pictures appeared softer and I was able to shoot multiples of the same subject to different values and shadow fills in situ rather than post with editing. Editing the F-stop as I'm shooting lets me reflect on the best setting to use in that situation and I don't have to use flash as much, which I found creates harsh shadows and a sharp white / blue color.

He also gave me a pointer to turn the grid on in the viewfinder so that I can better straighten and arrange the composition as I am taking the picture rather than post shooting. It helps me pay more attention to lines and movement in the composition as well. This is great because the camera only has so many megabits, so excessive cropping and enlargement makes the pictures not as sharp. Additionally, I have found that the grid and Aperture mode setting have made me much more aware of what I am trying to capture as I take the photographs so I am more able to reflect on what exactly I am trying to do as I am taking the photographs.

Thanks for checking out this post, I will put an update on what happened on the trip soon.

Day One: Painting One

2011-08-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

The supplies finally came in last week so I guess it's about time I started. I probably won't post any finished works up here, but I thought I should post a work-in-progress picture of some sort to prove I didn't use the grant money to buy gummies. And yes...I did blur out the rest of the sketch on the canvas. Swag.

POLYSCAPE

2011-07-13T08:44:00.001-07:00

POLYSCAPE prototype, assembled and suspended in the studio.

Assembling each hexagonal flower.
Six 3D pentagons, get linked together with aluminum jump rings by hand, very time consuming!

Layout of tessellation test

Growing poly stacks fresh out of the injection molder!

Adjusting pressure and temperature settings, a little better but not quite right!

Firsts attempts of injecting the mold, not so successful.

Battenfield Injection Molding Machine:
with my aluminum mold in the mud base! Ready to mold!

Part 1 of 2 part mold... just CNCed to gleaming perfection! *

Running the 4 hour long HAAS (CNC) program to mill out part 1 of the mold.
Lots and lots of coolant! Cleaning this up is a nightmare! One smells like coolant for at least 24 hrs after!

Ran the Hass program on a piece of Modulan, a dense pink foam, very east to machine.
A good way to test your code and make sure there are no errors in the CNC milling process.

Bridging the gap between design and manufacturing: PROTOTYPING
Wax pour (green) and FDM 3D print (white) from CAD files to test scale and shape. Its nice to be able to touch something you've created only in virtual space!

Solidworks: CAD mold bottom

Solidworks: CAD mold top

Solidworks: CAD pentagon design

POLYSCAPE proposal image!

Choreography is movin' right along

2011-03-14T00:27:00.000-07:00

[Photo Credit: The fantastic fox, Mr. Ben Cline]

It's going exceptionally well! Which is very exciting. See [!].

I have lost, however, the video component to the project.
The conversation I am having with the sculpture is taking up all of my time, and it doesn't feel all that close to being done.
Rather than open up a much more complicated and confusing dialogue (adding the questions of time, image, layering, and meta layering that video provides in it's affordances), I am going to focus on the very tangible conversation I am having between myself, the materials, and the forces of nature acting on all of us.

In working, I've entered a flow state for longer than I have experienced before, giving the work a sort of inevitability the feels right right right. It's also very clear to me when this is not happening, and I have to constantly remind myself that it need not be frustrating when I am not sure what to do next.

When I listen to the different forces, the Thing To Do almost always shows itself. I can see it when I get my monkey mind out the way.

I am currently thinking about how and where to display the piece in addition to visioneARTh, which is additionally exciting.

Project Update March: Interactive Fluorescein Installation --> Seek

2011-02-27T00:10:00.000-08:00

NEW DESIGN!

This month, I received the shipments for many of the electromechanical and optical components of the piece. I was particularly thrilled that the

waterproof strand of 250 UV lights were segment-able, allowing for a much easier install. Among the great news is that each of the component lights operates at 6-12V which makes a fully Arduino-controlled installation feasible. :)

So, current status.

Lights have been constructed

. (64 lights) Photo to be posted soon.

Decided to use a Max/MSP to Arduino firmware for easy interfacing and control of lights for prototyping.

Tested infrared and pressure sensors. (Work great!!!)

Developed a MAX external that will allow me to program animation frames given triggers (sensors)

What remains:

Construct light array. Decide on animations. Program sequences to triggers.

MAX PATCH

Prototyping the Diver

2011-02-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

Week 6 of the quarter came fast. I have prototyped a unit of the piece and gotten it to work more or less the way I want it to- lots of room for playing with little details but most of the heavy design work is done. These photos show the rough prototype- lots of duct tape etc but it served its purpose of giving me an idea of what the forces involved in this piece will be and what it will look like.

There will be 10 of these sections in total, connected end on end and suspended from a large, 10' tall by 20' long triangular frame, and the collective mechanism will be driven by a small motor. I am currently in all-out production mode, having fabricated most of the components to make the birds and soon to move on to making the individual crank shafts and gears for each bird section. Lots to be done but I think I can get it done in time for the spring show. Definitely love losing track of time and self in the shop designing and fabricating this sculpture.

Dead Towns: Looking at different display options

2011-02-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

I’ve got the first draft of my story written. I’m going to get it proof-read this week to make sure everything is clear and not too disjointed (seeing how the story appears in 100-word snippets rather than a continuous chunk). I’m quite excited, because I think the story explores several themes where ghost towns can function as a metaphor or at least as a suitable setting: namely as desolate, isolated, nowhere towns.

I’m having a bit of trouble conceptualising how I’m going to showcase my project, though. I could have it as a display, but that might make the work sterile (if easier to read). I could also go with the original idea and have it be set up in a section of the living room, and the story presented in a journal or some kind of scrapbook, a storytelling method that feels more “lived in” – but only one person can read the scrapbook at a time (ie. Could be impractical).

Here are some ideas that I have:

The main question I have is: if it’s so deliberately on display, does it detract from the whole “lived in” experience that I want the living room to be, and does that even matter?

Der Zauberberg: Sketches and First Block

2011-01-24T17:05:00.000-08:00

How to vizualize a 1,000 page novel in twelve images? I spent December and the first part of January trying to figure that out. Right away, a dozen or so crucial scenes popped to mind. But then when I started sketching, I quickly realized I didn't want to portray "scenes" in the typical book illustration fashion, for which I have neither the technical competence (of drawing inanimate objects) nor the interest. But I was definitely not interested in the opposite-- some kind of interpretive flight of fancy where I draw a pile of crap to express my own personal feelings about the novel. I still wanted to represent identifiable characters, experiences, and ideas that Mann put into the novel, but in a more iconic portrait-heavy way that suits my own aesthetic inclinations and abilities. After selecting source material from old photos, books, and the google image machine, I came up with twelve images plus a 'frontispiece' to make up a series of thirteen woodcuts. At this point I have ten more or less workable sketches, two rough idea-based ones, and one carved woodblock. Hoping to carve one a week and print one a week from here on out.

Here's a pictorial log, from early brainstorm debris to carved and printed block:

My tentative list: a baker's dozen of prints

crude sketches

Rejected!

Peeperkorn sketch-- face is wrong

So I slapped a new one on.

study for Naphta--based on Georg Lukacs

Naphta sketch with cake-- a little too Lou Reed-like.

Final Naphta sketch

Rough doodle for Settembrini

Italian writer Giovanni Verga--looks just how I imagine Settembrini

Final Settembrini sketch

My friend Simon. I think his Germanic high cheekbones and sober gaze will work well for Joachim.

Final sketch for Joachim--on his death bed (must add gold coins over eyes)

Frontispiece/Title print-- I found my image for the protagonist Hans Castorp in a 1912 recital program of a Norwegian Men's Singing Society, which performed in SF at the Swedish-American Hall (oddly enough, where I got married). Bought the program at an antique store, but now it's gone missing, so I can't scan it to show you.

This old timer, a prominent German citizen of 19th-century Indiana, is just as I picture Hans's grandfather, Hans Lorenz Castorp.

Mazzini, the natural grandfather image of the liberal humanist Settembrini.

Sketch for the Two Grandfathers-- living genealogical tree.

Naptha's suicide at the Duel

Dueling pistols-- reminds me of the end of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler: "There she goes, playing with those damn pistols again!"

Hans and Dr. Behrens in the X-ray room--- my somewhat fabricated though factually-based imagining of a pre-war X-ray machine. The novel takes place in a Swiss sanatorium from 1907-1914, so I want at least one image to portray the medical environment.

source image for the dining hall. I think this is somewhere in Wyoming.

Final sketch for Walpurgis Nacht

rough sketch for the Lindenbaum chapter- the bare linden tree coming out of the record player as a symbol for the morbid Romanticism Hans has to overcome.

rough sketch for Hans's catarrh- fueled fever dream of Mdme Chauchat as a lusty personification of life.

I'm using bygone supermodel Tatiana Patiz as my model for Chauchat. She has what Mann describes as Chauchat's "Khirghiz eyes"

another rough sketch for Hans dreaming Chauchat as lusty life. Here she looks way too much like a stilted version of the bikini model she's drawn from.

photo of real Swiss sanatorium patients taking the rest cure outdoors.

final sketch for 'the horizontal'-- the rest cure.

the carved and inked wood block after the first test print.

First test print of the block. Reasonably satisfied.

Stay tuned for more...

Dead Towns: Developing ideas

2011-01-16T20:03:00.000-08:00

I discovered that I want the project to be centered around a fictional story that I create about people visiting ghost towns. I think this idea raises several questions – who would visit these random little towns in the middle of the desert? What quirks would they have as characters to motivate them to do this? What would they observe as outsiders about these ghost towns? Are there particular details that stand out?

Hopefully, I’ll be able to answer these questions in the story.

What I’ve been doing this week is finishing my impressions of the towns and picking out the photographs I might want to use for the project:

I took multiple shots of some fascinating places and it's quite hard picking the ones I'd like to display.

I also edited the original proposal and Stephanie and I had in mind to see what would be feasible for me to finish as a solo project.

Of the features of the previously proposed project, I’m going to adopt these:
1. Travelling arbitrarily to little towns (except in SoCal rather than NorCal).
2. Using 100-word snippets to match every photograph (except maybe for one last longer piece that links all the photographs together and gives a bigger picture.)
3. Using photographs to illustrate features of the ghost towns (only I’m going to use a disposable rather than a fancy analog camera that was proposed).
4. Recreating a living room space (a limited rather than entire one).

Questions I have: What section of a living room space should I use? What furniture should I buy? What would most effectively showcase my project? I'll figure these out soon.

Fluorescein Matrix Interactive Display - Cesar Torres - Progress Report

2011-01-15T17:22:00.001-08:00

Hey everybody,

Just posting a bit of the progress I've made with the Interactive Matrix Display. A large part of the project is waiting for materials, but the electronics behind it is relatively tame, so I have posted a couple of conceptual sketches.

I was able to acquire the fluorescein chemical from a river studies company. Apparently, the chemical is used to dye river systems and check for flow and contamination. This translates into a relatively small amount of dye (10 mL for every gal, roughly) and it produces an amazing effect. See video :)

So, after careful deliberation, I realized that the fluorescein has to admirable properties. It can fluoresce under the proper condition very large containers and it is able to create very intense and aesthetically pleasing flow patterns, however this is ephemeral. The circulation of water through either filtration or a pipeline to some water source would be outside the budget of the project. Hence, I have decided to use the apriori property: container lumination.

I have decided to use these PVC jars

that I found at a very reasonable price. They have the stability to endure holes and wires and such; plus the are relatively easy to transform into some other assembly than the one I have drafted further below. As the diagram says, I will be making about 64 modular lights from the water+fluorescein mixture and a UV Leds.

I plan to finish making the modular lights by the end of the month.

The more difficult part will be wiring the pieces to a MAX7219 chip, which I have done before, but on a smaller scale. Once this is wired, I need to code the serial input (translating what I want each light to display) and then make some UI so that I can easily change the image displayed.

I will be connecting proximity sensors and pressure pads to be the input mechanisms for the matrix display. To be decided still.

FILM WORK.

2011-01-11T13:18:00.000-08:00

Over the break I began the first part of my documentary project: meeting with the organization which I hope to collaborate with. As a reminder, my documentary will be on how ethnic youth and recent immigrant generations have created a sense of belonging and history in the city of Richmond, CA. My objective is to recruit 2-3 youth participants and one adult for interviews. I specifically interested in recruiting youth artist from an immigrant family, as well as immigrant participants. My intention is to parallel their experience, either the youth's creation of sense or the immigrants adaption to America, with the migratory experience of Richmond in the 1940's during World War II.

I met with the executive director of ArtsChange, an arts organization for social justice that allows and mentors youth artistsand helps develop the artist's theme or message in their art. In our meeting we discussed my interests for making the documentary, the planned projects for the organization, and ways the documentary process can benefit the youth artists. Being that it was winter break, all the youth and staff of ArtsChange were on break and would return after the winter break. We agreed to schedule a meeting where I could pitch my project to the youth artists.

After our meeting, I sent out a letter explaining my interest and project to be solicited to the ArtsChange youth artists. I am hoping that with the newly formed team of ArtsChange youth artist activists, the documentary can be moved further.

Why youth artists and why the topic "sense of belonging"? The reason being is that Richmond is undergoing a change in preserving its history, however the World War II history, like all histories are turned into narratives, nostalgia and myth. Growing up in Richmond, I, as a latino, queer male, and son of immigrants, felt that my presence, and those belonging in the various communities I identify with, thrived on the margins. Immigrant history and youth culture in Richmond is not recognized, and often met with negative reactions and media coverage. My purpose is to provide a space, a product that will contribute to adding these stories to the narrative of Richmond. The city has focused its efforts in recognizing the past and its participants, that is has forgotten about the youth and immigrants and their perception of and history in Richmond.

I will be posting more updates throughout the quarter, possibly uploading idea photos, and video clips as production starts in mid february. Below I have included a summary of Richmond history. I will also post my Urban Studies Senior Project paper which is the first part of my Richmond project.

Peace,

E.

Richmond History

Richmond is best remembered for its involvement in building liberty ships for the military. Along with other East Bay cities and ports such as San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo and Marin, Richmond underwent radical changes in the influx of population. The large incoming wave of black, asian, and latino migrants from all over the U.S and California altered the landscape of Richmond. The war skyrocketed Richmond's population from 23,000 in 1940 to over 100,000 in 1945. The large diversity of people intensified racism and racial tensions, xenophobism, rebellion of youth and women challenging socio-economic and gender expectations. The industry sector on Richmond's waterfront developed. Among the notable companies that resided in Richmond are the Ford Motor Company (closed in the 1950's) and Chevron, still in operation. After the war, industry declined and against all guesses, a large number of the diverse migrant groups remained yet, restrictive convenants, removal of urban "blight" and segreationist practices in labor, schools and housing continued. However, during this time, progressive civil rights coalitions emerged ensuring housing, education and fair labor laws for racial minorities. Since then, the current history of Richmond has been marked by the decline of the city's center, minorities on minorities crime, gangs, disparities in education, and health.

In the last ten years, Richmond's Redevelopment Agency has enacted numourous projects to revive these once-commerical centers. In addition to the improvements, a cultural and public art component has memorialized the Richmond of World War II. As part of my senior paper, I analyzed the historical narratives created by the public art, and the values it tried to emphasize. What I concluded is that the Agency has managed to revive their center through a strategy of history, nostalgia and collective narratives/memory. Stories of long time residents define the urban spaces. In addition, the inclusion of recent latino and asian immigrants in the public art functioned as a way to unify and discourage community tensions, by emphasizing on everybody's shared immigrant narrative. A problematic function of the public is that the racist history and events of Richmond are remembered, but gleaned over for the "positive" effects of discrimination, meaning the oppressed person's determination, formation of community, communal sacrifice, collective action, and their culture's social and artisit capital such as musical and art contributions.

Dead Towns: Lots of uncertainty

2011-01-10T22:20:00.000-08:00

So the project begins…on a poor note. The very night Stephanie and I were supposed to embark on our road trip to take photographs and write notes on Northern Californian ghost towns, Stephanie had personal problems and had to back out.

As someone who cannot drive, had no way of getting north during winter break, and had no other time to head north aside from winter break, it looked like I had to seriously modify the project. I booked a plane to San Diego the next week where a friend offered to drive me around – albeit for only a shorter time period. There, I took photographs using disposable cameras, took as many notes as I could, and decided to reconstruct a project from what was salvageable from the old one.

Right now, I’m in the process of recreating my memories of SoCal small towns and writing them into paragraphs. Here are some images from my notebook:

In the following weeks, I plan to edit the scope of the project. Originally, we were supposed to recreate a living room with objects and impressions from Northern California. As I don’t think I can do that alone, I might recreate part of a living room from Southern California as described to me by my friend. I might also take the project in a more fictional or symbolic direction and not be bogged down by realism. I guess everything is up in the air.

Designing the Diver

2011-01-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

Back from a quarter in Australia- tried to design the piece to the greatest detail possible while Down Under- these are some of the rough models i made to get an idea for how the piece would look.
The overall layout of the piece involves a flock of segmented, origami-esque pelicans flapping and gliding in a helical motion. The scale is large- approximately 20 feet long by 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide, with each bird having a wingspan of 4 feet. Most of my time has been devoted to designing the mechanical details of the sculpture, but I have also been collecting materials for the past two weeks with great success. I am trying to use mostly reclaimed materials- using stock PVC pipe and fresh cut timber would be in direct conflict with the narrative of this piece- and I have been traveling to scrap yards and building materials wholesalers throughout Santa Cruz and the SF Bay Area to ask for damaged material or scrap. I have been really impressed by the generosity of the people I have encountered, from Gary at Gary's Plastics who gave me a TON of material for $20 to the kids of a sign maker who gave me a TON of aluminum. I went to Alan's Steel in Redwood City for the first time the other day and it blew my mind- a sculptor's candy shop to be sure. This piece has already been a great experience for me, and I haven't even started building it yet!

Snagging a subdued and Bound Rcok

2011-01-06T12:32:00.001-08:00

2) Rock Retrieval (December 16th)

I went to Middle Town, Ca to pick up the rock.

It was just hangin' out. Slope: All sorts of trouble

Window, Foreshadowing

Backing it up

Near death by crushing.

Really Pleasing Layers In the bed, in the cage. Such is the rock.

Nick, Matt, Palo Alto

Over thought desire to get the rock >> Stress in moving maybe not being able to get the rock >> massive satisfaction in having got the rock/relief

That's what this process produced in my brain.

Creating Space

2011-01-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

My goal was to have the space ready for dancing by the new year.

Tasks:

1) Painting

2)Rock Retrieval

3) Curtain hanging

1: Painting (December 12-19)

Photo Credits: Reed

Preparing the space required painting the mauve walls white. White white.

Model Credit: Reed

Makin' art makin' art. I do love a triptych.

Photo credit: Rachel

Painting white white.

Makes a body wonder: WHAT CAN IT MEAN!>?

It's about simplicity, not purity. Purity? Ha!

[Maybe control? And flexibility.]

Also: I am practicing my dance moves. Yeah.

Hello from Spain!

2010-10-11T15:51:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of the photographs that'll be included in my

POTE exhibit. This post is coming very late because the location I carried out my project was isolated from phone and internet, in the heart of New Mexico. Immediately after putting all the pieces together (photo selections, enlargements, mounting, etc.) I was off to Spain, studying abroad! Below are a couple of photos which will be included in the full exhibit that I wanted to share a little bit about. The project is its entirety will contain 4 series of 10-12 photos and one more along the bottom showing the faces of Aragon.

The first morning in Aragon, I awoke to one of the most powerful experiences of the trip. During the night, a nearby rancher lost his best horse, and the foal she carried, to birthing complications. He sat up through the night tending to his longtime companion, but ultim

ately the animal died just before sunrise. Soon, we had buried the mare and the day proceeded as normal. It was really eye-opening to be face-to-face with the reality of life and death which is so common in the lives of rancheros in Aragon.

Branding the season's calves is another unique window into ranch life. Seeing photographs of what would would appear to be painful action carried out against wide-eyed baby calves may give mixed feelings to some, but witnessing it is something else entirely. It really is an impressive exhibition of expertise and care towards the well-being of the animals.

I'll post in a little while with some shots of the organization and selection process, just before mounting.

I'm extremely disappointed that I have to miss POTE and all the wonderful artwork that everyone created this summer! A friend is taking photos of the entire night for me, so I'll at least get to see that eventually. Bueno Suerte with the event! Have fun!

-Nick Mendoza

Second Piece - Photography.

2010-10-11T14:57:00.001-07:00

Photographs of my sister for my Second Piece on Henna. Need to decide on Three.

Sorry that it's a little messy - the post wouldn't let me edit it around too much.

Oops - I meant Third Piece!

2010-10-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

Working on the Third Piece

Oops! On my last post I said this was my second piece when it's my third - the second is in process still, since it's a photography piece. Being developed as I write.

For this one, I switched it around from what I originally planned. At first I was going to have the whole face showing but I decided a close up of a face from a profile view would be better. Decided to use tissue paper to give the painting texture and a suggestion of hair, and to convey a sense of spiritual fragility through the delicate material. I still have to section off the subject's face to show deterioration.

I'm now debating though whether I want to include fabric as I originally planned, or whether this would make the painting chaotic. Hm.

Started with a Basic Outline.

Then began with the tissue work. Used white tissue, which I then painted over with acrylic to get whatever color I wanted. The acrylic also helped as a glue.

Was considering whether I wanted to leave some white to get this rocky texture to give the painting harshness. Decided against it though, as it was too overpowering.

Adding color. Almost done - just need to section off the face and write in the text!

Post 2 - And should've posted a month ago!

2010-10-11T14:37:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys - this was the planning I did for my second piece. It's not a self-portrait, but I wanted a reference of some sort so I used myself as my Muse ;). I took a lot of different photographs, but the ones that I was decided between are displayed, with the cropped close-up being the chosen one.

Musical Elements to Brain-Machine

2010-09-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks, we've been building up some of the musical elements of the piece.

Now, introducing the guitar playing robot!:

We're working on tweaking the song so it sounds good. We programmed it so that as a user's attention level is high, the song will play at speed (and actually sound like real music.) Excited to see it come together...

I forgot to post this earlier, but here is a video of of early prototypes of the instrumentation. We tried playing Thermin, thumb pianos and even a flute...

An early mallet prototype for striking marimba bar elements.

updates

2010-09-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

Here are some more images from my project. The third one is a lithograph. The entire image didn't scan but you'll see the real one at Party on the Edge. Been having a lot of fun working digitally on my traditional pieces... it's also fun to be working with the end goal of making something completely out of my own head. Lots of imaginative stuff. All your projects look amazing, I'm really impressed!

Tibet Painting Series Update

2010-09-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on my project, a series of nine different paintings all reflections on my trip to Tibet and China. I tried to incorporate my own style with Chinese propaganda and Tibetan influences. This is where I am. I have been working on all paintings concurrently and am just about done with the project. I will be putting the final touches on these paintings in the next few weeks. Here are some pictures of my work spaces these past few weeks. Sorry about the low quality images. When I am done, I'll take some nice, high quality photos for a later post.

Ariana's blog on art

2010-09-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
Just a reminder to check out my artsblog at koblitzarts.wordpress.com for continuing updates on my project process.

My camera broke down and so I'm working on it at the moment, so most recent photos will have to wait, but being back on campus means I finally uploaded earlier ones!

Cheers,
Ariana

Update on Pop-ups

2010-09-20T16:07:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

This summer I've been busy refining my pop-up book about how seeds grow into flowers. I've improved my paper engineering skills by researching other children's pop-up books, practicing various techniques, prototyping mechanisms, and applying them to my book. Each of the mechanisms in the final version should be more intuitive and functional.

Here's a sample of the refinements made to the book.

BEFORE

Problems: The pull tab sticks out beyond the boundary of the page and it jiggles up and down instead of moving in and out smoothly and consistently. Also, the "flow" of the water works nicely/somewhat realistically as you pull the tab out, but not as you push it back in.

AFTER

Solution: Using a wheel allows the water to start, flow, and stop in a more realistic way

Blog 2 Pablo CA and China

2010-09-20T01:13:00.002-07:00

I just returned from the Deep Springs Valley in eastern California, where I found and sampled an incredible variety of rocks and minerals. Work to do, things to do, rocks to cut apart. Here, however, are my newest micrographs of serpentinites from Livermore, CA., and sandstones from the Gansu Province, China.

2010-09-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

In exchange for my temporal absence in this blog, here is a small summary of how my project developed throughout the summer.

I just had a plan and an ambitious idea; I wanted to make a series of huge charcoal portrait drawings (and by huge I really mean big). The beginning was very frustrating. It turned out to be extremely difficult to get the paper I needed for the drawings in Mexico, since I was living in my hometown this summer, Mexico City. After searching literally dozens of art stores for a roll of paper bigger than 1.5m tall I managed to find the one I needed in a little art shop in San Miguel de Allende, a small but beautiful town north of Mexico city filled with new artists. I was happy and ready to start drawing, now that I had my “big paper”. Of course the next problem was where to draw such a big piece. After discussing with my mom I took control of a room in my house where I could do everything I wanted. This is a picture of the room, with an adapted drawing table and the paper.

Everything was ready now, except I didn’t had a subject to draw. I knew I wanted portraits, and I wanted to mix them. After thinking a while I decided to make my own portrait, since I had never drawn myself and it felt exciting. So I started…

The way I do my drawings is buy first painting the paper as dark as I can with the charcoal, until it ends like black velvet texture, then I begin “painting” the light with an eraser; so I basically do it the other way around, draw the light instead of shadows. After two weeks and a loooooot of charcoal I finished the drawing.

It was time to start the second one. I decided to make a portrait of my best friend. I thought it would be interesting to have both portraits mixed, for he is like my brother and we have twin souls.

The next step was not easy. I was afraid of cutting the drawings. If I did one wrong movement, that would have been weeks of hard work destroyed. My hands were shaking, but I manage to do it. I cut both drawings in small squares of 10x10cm. Each drawing ended up in 300 small pieces. I then began mixing them, like building a puzzle. It was very interesting to see what new faces came out. Each new drawing had a unique expression, some were happy, others angry, other neutral. It was very shocking to see myself in those drawings, for I could recognize myself, but also my brother at the same time; it felt very creepy, but also extremely captivating. I mixed them a couple of times until I was satisfied with the expression. These are the final drawings:

These drawings have a special meaning. The drawing represents the two souls together; two friends united by experiences, dreams and hopes; two souls that are one and who’s image only exists in our minds and a new spirit which I hoped to capture in this drawings.

Here is a picture of me (left), my brother (right) and the finished drawings; to give a better idea of the size of the drawings.

I hope you like it.

Jorge

Almost done!

2010-09-19T16:57:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of all four of my portraits! The last two are in progress, but I'm hoping to be done really soon. They're about 9 in. in diameter, and I'm planning on installing them within the embroidery hoops that I used.

Visual Windchime progress

2010-09-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Jason, Kiran, and I have been hard at work making a polished version of our Art Affair piece. To give you some background information you can check this out to see what we built last winter. Since then, we've gotten the go-ahead to rebuild it to install it in the new d.School (Peterson, bldg 550). If you haven't gotten a chance to check out the building, we would highly recommend it. It's quite design-y and meant to foster creativity.

To install it, instead of having a dark box for the environment, it will be free-hanging from the ceiling. Thus we needed to hide the wires in the tubes, make the lights visible indoors, and choose wood that would match the ambiance and decor of the d.School.

We're in the midst of construction, but we think we solved all those problems by frosting all the tubes/lights and then plugging the light part with polyethylene to light pipe the LEDs. So when you run your hand across the hanging tubes/lights, two inches of the each of the tubes light up (rather than just a point like before). The light is much more visible and the wires are hidden. As for the wood, we chose a nicely finish apple-ply (which is another type of Europly). It matches wood seen throughout the d.School.

As for how far we are, the holes in the wood have been cut out by a computer numerically controlled machine (CNC router) and all the lights are complete. It's now a matter of assembly and some more touching up.

Water in the West

2010-09-18T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a productive spring and summer. I was able to go on a couple of roadtrips to Yellowstone and through the southwest, so I took the opportunity to broaden the scope of the project and shoot outside of California. I'm really got I got this chance, since one of the more interesting angles that I'd never have thought of on my own was the Native American perspective. Most of the exhibits in museums and public art dealing with Native American issues uses a very romanticized, out-dated image of tribal peoples:

It's interesting that a river is depicted in this commissioned public mural, since with the exception of a few tribes, most Native Americans have lost the rights to the water flowing through their lands (ie the Navajo traded Colorado River rights for a single community center, not knowing that in the next 50 years, the buyers were planning to expand development Las Vegas and Phoenix, and the water would be worth much much more). Much of their livelihoods depend now on tourism, either to casinos or places like Antelope Canyon or Monument Valley, which hold sacred significance:

Another perspective I hadn't thought about previously was the geologic one. Our understanding of the fossil record, of the past is dependent on the presence or absence of water to preserve remains when catastrophic natural disaster strike or when creatures die naturally. It's ironic that it is sometimes development that unearths some of these geologic records.

I also had a chance to see Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. We rely on dams and resevoirs for energy and flood control, and they are a great visual representation of how we've altered natural landscapes.

I also want to include a couple of photos from California, touching a bit on the politics and everyday implications of water use for agriculture in a natural desert.

I've just started to develop and scan a couple of last trips out to the valley, and there are still a couple of photos of agriculture and livestock I want to include. I am also trying to put together a short photo book of these photos, and may end up putting more photos into that than I display at Cantor. All that's left is to edit all of them into a coherent whole!

Island Story

2010-09-16T01:41:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my vacation in Sri Lanka. I've been researching Sri Lankan traditional art and have tried to create a fusion of traditional folk art with western painting styles. Here are the painting's I've done so far:

Blue Water Lilies

Dancer

Monks

Lotus Motif

The Last Stilt Fisherman

Magdalena's Update

2010-09-14T14:25:00.001-07:00

http://lublinprojectgateway.blogspot.com/

Prototyping for Brain Noise Machine

2010-09-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple months, we did more development with the MindSet EEG headset by NeuroSky. We were able to print out attention, meditation, and blink values with a parser written in C++. But, we wanted an easier platform for mechatronic prototyping so we started using Arduino. Unfortunately with Arduino, there is no MindSet support for returning blink values (myoelectric signals produced when moving the muscles in your forehead).

Anyway, we built a simple program to turn on a light brightly when a user had a high attention level:

Later we went to musical prototypes. We decided to extend on our project from last spring and develop a more complicated robotic band. This system would let two users play the instruments with their mind, and change the rhythms based on their attention and medication levels. A quick video of some ideas including strumming a guitar, playing a thumb piano, adjusting a Thermin, and blowing air through a flute are here.

2010-09-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

This is three different minerals. To me, however, it's a tiger eating an ant bear.
And this is two naked bodies.
And this looks like a forest fire.

I have been working on my project all summer, fetching rocks from mines and mountains, to cut them and make them thin, so thin that light can pass through them to see what you see.

summer work

2010-08-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hello, art blog! Here are some of the pieces I've been working on. I have been exploring the differences between my original pieces and their digital counterparts, that is the same piece after having been photographed/scanned and then edited using photoshop CS3.

Also, some randoms from my sketchbook.

sketchbook randoms

work in progress

photoshopped version

original

photoshopped

more to come! hope you're all having a great summer.

My First Post: Rumi Painting

2010-08-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

So finally getting my first post in, and I'm going to cut straight to the chase! Just completed my first painting of the series of 5. This is a short description:

The first will convey a desire for spiritual unification. I will create a black-and-white acrylic painting of my palms covered in poetry by Rumi, using a poem about his desire to unite with God. Here my choice of style was inspired by artist Shirin Neshat, who used Persian poetry and photography to portray the struggle of women in the 1979 Iranian revolution (Look her up! She's awesome - she actually came to Stanford in June).

I made a few changes - instead of palms, I have my hands clasped to convey the idea of unification. In the design stage, my drawings had the hands covered in writing while during execution, I decided have no writing on the fingers. I didn't want the text to be overpowering, and I think it helped. Below is pretty much the final product - still needs a little tweeking, but that's basically it.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions for improvements?

Onwards to Piece 2!!

An update

2010-08-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some photographs of the first portrait I'm working on. I've started with the embroidery and I'm going to add in scraps of cloth and more of the fabric pen later. I'm trying to incorporate common Indian textile patterns and the bright, almost extravagant, colors in movies and media. More soon!

My final prints so far!

2010-08-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of my summer working in the good old photo lab! It's been a pleasure helping out the summer students, especially because so many of them are high schoolers and international students with an unusual level of enthusiasm and commitment. I took some snapshots of my final prints--hope you enjoy! Scans to follow when they're all finished...

Photo book thoughts part 1

2010-08-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

July has passed and I am finally back home, in Lomé. I’ve visited tema, Accra, Aburi and Korkrobite (and am hoping to find the time and plan a quick visit to Benin’s cities and villages). I’ve had the time to enjoy the new sights, the people and the influence of football (soccer for the USA) in various aspects of people’s lives.

My project has taken a different turn. I was expecting to find a lot more evidence of the World Cup 2010 in physical forms of art such as sculptures, jewelry and paintings. But that was based on my experience living in Lomé in 2006. I underestimated the impact of modernization and globalization that has taken place here in Africa. Indeed, I soon found out that graphic art is much more present here in Africa. So I've been thinking about how to slightly change the direction of my project.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in a few days...

First post!

2010-08-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

Hello blog!
I'm currently in Oxford, en route to India, where I am going to create portraits of my grandparents. My family is very spread out around the world, so I hope that through these pieces, I'll be able to capture the combination of alienation and familiarity that defines these relationships.
I was initially planning on creating these portraits on canvas, and I wanted to incorporate embroidery and ink to make them personal, domestic and real. After shopping for supplies, I fell in love with the idea of making the portraits directly on fabric and framing them in embroidery hoops. This idea feels very right, so I'm very excited to get started. Expect to hear back from me in about a week!
Surabhi

2010-07-02T01:32:00.000-07:00

I'm still sketching, still experimenting… here are some examples I've put together on my computer.

It's been fun trying out all sorts of different elements. Different sketches line up differently... and so there'll be more coming soon. Here are examples of the figure sketch as well as a corner design. The corner design will probably be etched into the plane.

I've begun gathering random materials to fuse on to the glass, including some gold finishings, smaller scraps, etc.

As much as I value the "just go" attitude, I need to be thinking about how to make this project presentable. The actual glass panels I will purchase at a costco-foroartists this coming week.

Questions still running around my head (which I've found someone to ask-- himself a freelance artist and a newly minted founder of a design start-up, Paul Gleason is a great contact to have in Berlin):

How fuse together the panels?
Will I need to make a frame (wooden/acrylic?) for each individual panel?
Can I just glue the edges?
How heavy do I dare make it?

Musings on glass versus acrylic: this will have to come down to testing. I think both are viable options… I imagine the acrylic will be easier to etch, but render not-as-nice effects as on glass. But I might scavenge extra pieces lying around to test these.

Things I'm testing:

Functionally:How the mix of media looks.
Design-wise: How busy to make it--> keeping in mind I want to make it purposefully busy.

More Brainstorming

2010-06-30T22:21:00.001-07:00

A couple more ideas that we discussed tonight relating to the mind control project:

1.) Grilled-cheese making machine. If you do a bad job concentrating, your grilled cheese sandwich will come out half-made, or worse, it will have the plastic still on the cheese slice!

2.) Rube Goldberg type music machine, in which certain brain activity activates part of the machine, bring cohesive tunes to otherwise chaotic noise.

Other ideas involved intricate light displays or audio effects. Next week we start prototyping mechanisms and soon we'll work with the developer's kit and learn how to measure the brain activity.

Ciao for now.

Brainstorming for the Brain Project

2010-06-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Since our mini-grant project for An Art Affair was so well received, we decided to carry on with an an even bigger interactive mind-control exhibit for Party on the Edge. Last time, we used an EEG set that could measure concentration level, which we basically used as one input. Now, we'll have a more sophisticated pair of headsets which can measure focus/concentration, meditation (which is characteristically composed of different waves than focusing), and blinking (myoelectric activity). We will also be using the developer's kit, so instead of just hacking into a toy, this time we'll have access to a lot of raw brain wave data...which has the potential for all sorts of interesting art!

Soon, we will have narrowed down on a concept. For now, here are some ideas we're throwing around:

- Mindcontrol fireworks. (Perhaps will use an LED display to mimic the pyrotechnics).

- Orbs with changing light intensities (focus), that levitate (meditation), and move in circles (blinking).

- Environmental vibrations based on brain wave patterns.

- Large platforms which move the participants: closer to each other, levitating, around each other.
- Old school TV with static which clears as the users focus (revealing a surprise).
An image from this site relates to the first two ideas (3D LED display): http://www.vimeo.com/1762821

Basically, we want to go for something engaging on a large scale. Here are some sketches of more ideas:

Lublin Project Gateway

2010-06-22T22:20:00.001-07:00

http://lublinprojectgateway.blogspot.com

2010-05-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

I was interested in the new Arizona Immigration Law, so I found some information on the topic that I'd like to share:

One from fox news (arguably pretty conservative):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLGtShVY0dg

and the article from the New York Times about the new law (pretty informative):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html

Hopefully these give us a little background info on the topic!

Ariel Mazel-Gee

2010-04-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

I guess the whole project has come to an end. A good ending. It was a lot of sleepless nights, scanning, sketching, inking, photoshoping, etc. But I'm happy the book turned out well. Here's the link to my artworks.

Enjoy!

ComicBookProject

1000 ships made out of manila folder

2010-04-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

http://manilathousandships.wordpress.com

-C. Paula de los Angeles

Noise Machining

2010-04-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, we collected a lot of parts and did most of the physical building. Also hacked the Jedi Force Trainer toy. Last night, debugged the code and setup the noise machine. Here's an update from Greg:

Drivetrain

Added a plastic spool to hold the string in place on the broom.
The spool is held in place on the broom by bicycle grip tape.
The string is wrapped around rubber bands on the spool and motor, for friction.
It works!

Code

We did some debugging and found that we were reading noisy signal between 0-300 (approx.) when the LED was off (into the analog input). When it was on, we were reading all 0's.
We switched the polarity of the LED leads to the analog in so we could read a positive signal. Now we are reading the same when it is off (0-300 noisy) and about 410 when it is on.
The threshold in the code is set at >= 405, which seems to be working.
It seems to be too easy to concentrate at level 3, so we tried switching the leads, but I guess the voltage threshold would be different for LEDs 4 or 5... we don't know what those values are.
We had some problems with the headset/base station, either getting stuck or losing signal, or just generally being wonky. Might need new batteries? Might need to try Akshay's?

Music elements

We had some happy accidents with the way we arranged things... worked and looked great! We still need:
Ways to affix/stand the pots on the table
To fix the hanging objects to the dowels
More objects hanging and on table, another dowel, possibly more table space?

And now, for the fun stuff, breaking news from Joel... videos of the prototype!

Ones that shows the kinetic glory in action :

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwiAbIq7w7E)

another that shows the EEG action:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsY8rfbXpiY)

these are not the droids you are looking for...

Driving a Motor with Arduino

2010-04-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday Jakob & I broke out the Arduino to see if we could drive a motor with it. The issue - we're running a high torque motor that draws around 40mA, and the Arduino can only handle 20mA. It's also a Duemilanove model, so the maximum power output is 5V--not enough for the motor if we wanted it to move with any speed, it was enough h0wever, to drive the gate of a MOSFET and separate the control board and motor circuit. Got some tips from my friend Matt, a mechtraonics TA, and borrowed a MOSFET and pull-down resistor to do the job. Initially used a 9V battery to drive the motor and turned it ON and OFF with a button switch (later to be replaced by the EEG input).

I used two digital pins, one as an output to drive the gate and another as an input from the button switch. Here is a photo of the setup, and it worked!
Only a few more things before we get mind control going...

The Purge

2010-03-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

Finally, the quarter is drawing to a close and I am nearly done with regurgitating my half digested thoughts into some kind of communicable form. This is my first experience of the academic quarter system (we don't have such a thing in Australia) and so far I have decided that it is something akin to being a goose stuffed for academic pâté.

Which segues neatly into the work that I have produced for my art project. Entitled The Purge, the work consists of a toasting oven that spews out white foaming soap. Placed on a pedestal that has been clad in kitchen flooring vinyl and accompanied by a video of a the same burnt out toasting oven smoking against a lush backdrop of leaves, The Purge, is designed to reference the dometsic space of consumption and cleanliness and the aesthetic of 'the end' that is so central to American cultural mythology, particularly in this time of economic collapse.

The making of the installation involved getting on top of a host of things that I had never done before in a fairly short period of time. It was a crazy couple of weeks over the summer break leading up to the Devil-May-Care exhibition that opened on the 12th of January, where the work was premiered. One of the things that I found the hardest to figure out was a good system for restocking the soap (hidden in the pedestal) and how to get the consistency right so that it didn't just run everywhere. I ended up adding large amounts of laxative powder (a readily available source of polyethylene glycol) to make the soap foam, which I thought was appropriate given the subject and title of the show.

I am looking forward to have an opportunity to fix it up a little for the next run. Below are some images of the work installed in the Devil-May-Care exhibition.

update

2010-03-08T22:53:00.000-08:00

Hey Blog,

Sorry to be out of action for a while. I've been working on a lot of things involving art/writing, and attempting to bridge the gap between the two in different ways. One way is through comics/graphic noveling, so I have a one-page strip here that's an autobiography of sorts. Each panel is a haiku.

I am working on a few larger things, one of which is also below. I am putting a lot of focus into my sketchbooks because that's where I feel I have been able to unify words and images most successfully and with the most interesting results. I have included some samples from my sketchbooks here.

KZSU photographs and prints

2010-03-03T01:51:00.000-08:00

I'm working on photographs of the Stanford radio station, KZSU, documenting the interiors as well as some of the more long standing DJs and personalities. For the past few weeks I've mainly been shooting and processing film, both medium and large format. I've finished scanning and digital manipulation on 3 prints, and I've begun making 17x22" inkjet prints of them.

My target is to show 10 prints. The following are rough scans of several of the other photos I'm considering. I have a couple more batches of film to go through. I was originally planning to use 5 portraits and 5 interiors, but the sprawling messes I've found in the nooks and crannies of the radio station are turning out to be more fascinating to me.

Meanwhile, I've also received my frames and have to assemble them. I've never framed "full bleed" before, so it will be interesting to see how the Framespace spacers I ordered will look.

Oglesby Progress 2/23

2010-02-23T01:38:00.000-08:00

We (Jason, Jimmy and Kiran) have been spending the past month ramping up production on our of our exhibits, Twinkly Lights. Below are some pictures of us splicing and soldering wires, resistors, LEDs and magnet switches for the light array we're planning on building.

12 piece fashion collection

2010-02-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

Here are just some pics of my collection so far:

Photos from Chile and California

2010-02-16T13:15:00.001-08:00

While I was abroad in Chile, I was inspired by the diverse, beautiful landscapes in front of me and it made me wonder if Chile is unique in this regard, or if I have just come to overlook the natural beauty that is in front of me everyday. When you are abroad, you are taken out of your element and everything you do and everything you see is isolated in your mind as something extraordinary and unique. However, while I was in Chile, I kept being told that Chile and California are much more similar that I realize. So I decided to find out for myself. Since I have been back, I have been traveling around California and exploring the many landscapes that exist right here that up until now I never really took the time to absorb. Everyone has seen the Golden Gate Bridge, but how often do you sit there, look out on to the bay, close your eyes and feel the breeze hit your skin, open your eyes and see the monumental structure in front of you, and finally allow yourself to feel connected to this moment in some sort of way.

Especially at Stanford, we do not allow ourselves to take the time to stop, breathe, and open our eyes and just simply allow ourselves to be consumed by the beauty around us. This beauty comes in all forms, from deserts, to cities, to graffiti, to oceans, to mountain ranges and so forth. It is everywhere and it has been a life changing process, learning how to slow down in order to discover something magical.

Mirror Mirror

2010-02-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

Our project entitled Mirror Mirror is going very well. We collected more than 20 monologues from the community about body image. We have cast more than 30 actors (some are double-cast) and have 6 directors rehearsing the monologues with our performers. Tickets have gone “on sale” although tickets are free and they can be reserved by e-mailing stanfordmirrormirror@gmail.com. We are already reserving lots of tickets so we are very excited. Performances are Friday February 26th 7pm and 9pm and Saturday February 27^th 7pm and 9pm at the Nitery Theatre. We also plan to perform in more than a dozen dorms the week leading up to the project, during National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, and we are currently scheduling performances with PHEs in dorms.

Right now the things we are working on are:

1. Getting financial co-sponsorships from campus organizations so that we have enough funding to print our posters.

2. Collecting information for the program

3. Designating our House Manager and Front of House Staff

4. Getting ready for our first all-cast rehearsal on February 20^th, with costumes

5. Publicizing the show

6. Selecting and contacting people to appear on our post-show discussion panels

We’re so grateful and excited to have an Arts Grant!!

Amanda

2010-02-15T13:17:00.001-08:00

Salut,

I've been experimenting with many aspects of my

project in the last month or two in Paris. It's been fascinating tracking down the exact street corners and angles that Eugène Atget stood almost 100 years ago. I'm learning so much about Paris, let alone this photographer.

As I lack a digital camera and can't really find one where I'm staying, I will try to illustrate my progress with a few thoughts. I have completed one of my photo/painting/multimedia projects and experimented with a few others. I have decided to make frames for all of my pieces with "found objects" that I collect from each Parisian site - tickets, records, posters, or just ideas for colors and shapes and lines. I will most likely build the frames for each over spring break, as transporting rigid pieces is a problem.

To visualize one of my pieces: imagine a combination of the below two elements, with the pen and ink drawn directly into the photograph, and lots of other randomness occurring in the sky behind the tower of the church (St. Etienne du Mont).

I am hopeful about how creative my project is getting. I have never worked in anything but pure oil paint, and this is a challenging and refreshing change. Warm wishes from where I'm sitting, in a tiny café sipping a café crème in the heart of Montmartre!

Bisouxxx

Sasha

Painting Photographs

2010-02-13T15:43:00.000-08:00

An update:

I've been photographing a storm and making large fiber-based prints. All is progressing smoothly, and my main challenge at the moment is to develop all the film I've shot. Luckily the days aren't too nice yet so I don't mind spending 4 hours at a time in the dark room. I'm working mostly with large images (so large in fact that most can't be fully scanned in on this scanner), and I've had the privilege of shooting with a view camera in addition to my 35mm, so some of the prints are deliciously detailed. Here's an example of a view-camera negative:

The process of adding color to black and white is really interesting because I'm finding that each time it's really difficult to break the simplicity of the b&w image, but the added layers of tones, accents, and textures are well worth it. Here are some examples of colored prints.

Looking forward to making more!

Prototyping

2010-01-28T22:21:00.000-08:00

Our team is in the midst of prototyping our exhibits before we shift into full-blown building mode. Below are pictures of prototype pastes/gels for our Squeeze Tube piece, and a miniature array of our Twinkly lights experience.

We've been playing around with a variety of materials and construction styles, and we currently have proof-of-concepts for 5 of our pieces.

Last weekend we also got two HUGE boxes of used disposable cameras which we'll use in our Flash Explosion exhibit. We'll be spending some time with the camera circuit boards, and keep you all updated (provided we don't shock ourselves too badly).

"Undone": Progress on our Film

2010-01-22T22:57:00.001-08:00

Hey guys. Nicole here. Yun and I are in pre-production, trying to secure the different aspects of our film that need to fall into place before we actually start shooting, which will hopefully take place in a week. Things seem to be slowly but promisingly coming together. Thanks to some back-and-forth skyping between China and NY we managed to write our script over winter vacation. We've since finalized it, and have been devoting our energies to casting, storyboarding, figuring out crew and shooting locations, etc. As far as the visual arts element of our project is concerned, I've been working on some sculptures that will be incorporated into the film as props.

As we move forward, Yun has been sharing many film-experience pearls of wisdom with me, a film-making neophyte (it's so incredible to collaborate with someone whose artistic vision you really trust!). So far I've found the process of getting this thing off the ground totally all-consuming/rewarding/terrifying. Both Yun and I are excited to move on to the filming stage to remind ourselves what all of this planning and preparation has been for.

As you can see, I've included some images of the sculpture-props I've made.

G-mail chatting it up

2010-01-20T14:26:00.000-08:00

Hi!

My project has been quite the process! I didn't expect it so time-consuming, but nor so fulfilling. I'm reaching over 100 pages on my novella, which is in gmail-chat format. I still have to add more stuff, but I'm hoping to minimize it so it won't be such a challenge to bind...

But overall, my project is tracking two Asian American high school seniors in Southern California (2008-09) through their college application process and their navigation of senior year--you know, that year with the drama, activities, and anticipation of where one would be going to school next year.

To get more perspectives on the college application process, particularly with a emphasis on Asian Americans, I send Facebook/ e-mail/ and one-on-one interviews with Asian American high school seniors or those recently graduated (college freshman/ sophomores). There was an impressive response and interest in the subject. I noticed that there was a significant disparity between perspectives of the college application among different backgrounds, but a unifying connection was--stress!

I hope I do the stories justice! Here's a small excerpt (formatting changed from the copy and paste...)

from:
Amy Nguyen xXaznprinxessXx@gmail.com to Gabrielle Chen gwchaing@gmail.com
date:
Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 7:42 PM
subject:
Chat with Gabrielle
mailed-by:
gmail.com

7:26 PM Gabrielle: :I
me: oh math crap.
7:27 PM Gabrielle: ?
me: i suck at calc
Garbrielle: i just cracked open the book. The tutor is like blah blah blah. Don’t understand shit.
________________________________________ 5 minutes
7:33 PM me: ughh
7:37 PM Gabrielle: garble garble
me: mumble mumble
natasha bedingfield - the one that got away <3
me: youtubingngnggg
7:38 PM me: :) the chorus
7:40 PM my dad is being a dickhead.
he blocked youtube on my computer
Gabrielle: ....
why? College app season? x)
me: 'cause he's an ass ?
he thinks he's a god by controlling what i can and can't see
7:41 PM or whether or not i can even use the net
7:42 PM Gabrielle: D:
7:43 PM me: i'm actually trying to do the online quiz for calc like a good little kid. XD
Gabrielle: ah!
i should do that
okay, i'm going to let us all go
hm
me: you reminded me by doing im-ing me
Gabrielle: the mix is better, i think, than the original?
me: yeah dancy one right ? cya later….at math.

Comic book- brainstorming, panelling, sketching.

2010-01-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Here are some of the finished drawings of my comic book which I'd done last quarter. I've finished writing the story during winter break, when I was in UK. Currently, most of my stuff are still in sketches and panels; yet to be inked. I need to get more work done by this weekend!　がんばつて! By the way, my style is pretty manga-ish =)

Rainforest

Beginning

Classroom scene

Now that I've shown a preview of my work, I'll write a little bit about how this project first surfaced. It all started in Fall 09-10 (last semester). I took the class ARTSTU 14A: Drawing Comics for Non-Majors with Juan. I've always liked reading manga since I was young and I do draw some fan arts and bits of sketches every now and then. However, I've never really found the time to produce a proper comic book. I've been reading a lot of "drawing manga books" but until I took this class, I've never done any inking, paneling, character design, story boarding, etc. Juan was simply amazing, allowing us the freedom to produce whatever comics that we want for the class's assignment (yes even abstract comics!).

And with this grant (which I'm very grateful for as materials and printing are very expensive), I am planning to expand my comic book to 20-30 pages. Most of it will be in black and white but there will be some pages which will be colored. I'll be using mixed media: markers, pens, water color pencils, acrylics. All of my work will be hand drawn and I'll only be using Photoshop for touch ups and maybe some effects.

Till next time,

Cheers!

Mei Yueh

Beginnings

2010-01-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to break-in the soles of my feet and dance during the winter break while I was home in Boston. (nice way to stay warm!) I took classes in Flamenco, Ethno-Hatian dance, American Tribal Style belly dance, Tribal Fusion belly dance, and Middle Eastern dance. Unfortunately I was never able to take classes in Kathak nor Tahitian dance as I had planned; it was really difficult to get in touch with dance instructors and schedule classes during the winter holiday.

Through my experience thus far I have had the opportunity to reassess and reignite my creative development as a dancer. There were many more moments than I expected where I found myself hitting some walls: Are there limitations that came with a dance’s expectations, rules, and etiquette? Will different aspects of dances contradict each other? Can a fusion/collaboration be created while keeping intact the integrity and authenticity of the individual dances?

I attended a lecture at the beginning of my break in Boston titled: “The History of Belly Dance: From the Sacred to the Profane.” It was presented by Naraya of Vadalna Tribal Dance Co. based in Boston. Naraya is absolutely amazing, she is not only the founder and artistic director of Vadalna but she is also a wife, mother, and Ph.D candidate at Brandeis in the field of Anthropology. Her lecture peeled away layers of hidden history. Belly dance is a product of creative imagination and it continually changes with what the dancer want to take away from it and give of it. But the beginning of “belly dance” is not exactly clean and clear cut. Its origins derive from profane paintings of women in which explorers claimed danced for men in North African and Middle Eastern countries in which they had explored and eventually colonized. The idea of belly dancers were further explored at Chicago’s world’s fair where Middle Eastern culture was exploited, misrepresented. Colonialism, exploitation, male dominated sexual desires drove the thoughts that began the ideas behind “belly dance.” Even today belly dance does not get the respect it deserves from general audiences despite the evolution it has seen. As much as dancing has been an outlet for artistic expression it has also been a means to speak my mind and demonstrate my power as a being and as a woman.

I’m in the process right now searching for music and creating the troupe and solo choreographies for Arts Affair in the spring. I talked to the ladies I teach on the weekends and we may do a rehearsal performance for Stern Hall in a common space in front of the dining hall if we can get permission to do so before spring break.

progress!

2010-01-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

Hey ho. Here's some paintings I've finished.... trying to get more focused on exactly what I'm doing, I think I'm going to include my whole moleskine sketchbook since I just finished one and have begun another. Grappling with subject matter since I want to move away from portraiture, or at least direct my work with some kind of bent. I have enjoyed shifting styles, which wasn't entirely intentional for any of these, but it just turns out that I get restless doing one thing for too long. Undecided as to whether any of these is particularly more successful than the others. Though they do look cool sort of hanging out together, like a painting party. Not really a lively one, however.

Overall it appears that I am sort of groping around. But I am getting things done... I have a lot of smaller digital pieces and sketches that I'm not sure what to do with. Here are a few..

Cheers!

Final Copies

2009-09-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

These are the final pictures of my pieces.

Chris

Last One... Down is the new Up

2009-09-15T19:20:00.001-07:00

Hey guys,

Here's a pic of my last piece, Down is the New Up.

Chris

Finally, some uploads

2009-09-11T03:02:00.000-07:00

A great tragedy has occured: my mother accidentaly wrote on one of my CDs that I burned with pictures.... with a ball point pen. Some of my awesomest photos from Bhutan are probably lost forever!! Anyone have any experience with this? Advice?
Anyway, I'm heading back to SF tomorrow. Here are some of my shots.

examples of CD graphics

2009-09-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

After finishing the 6 songs, I also designed my CD label, 4-page insert, and tray liner. Below is the CD label and tray liner:

two untitled recents

2009-09-09T13:41:00.000-07:00

My two newest pieces. The small blue one may not be totally finished. The other is large (5' x 3'), which I mention because the photo may be misleading.

You are my center when I spin away

2009-09-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

This is the newest piece I've been working on. It's about 95% there, just needs a few touch ups. Anyway, it's called "You Are My Center" based on the song Videotape.

Chris

fundon

2009-09-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

so i've been painting 9am-5pm at the slade in london for 3 weeks, initially with a focus on the process of painting, and now with a more literal, figurative approach in a life painting course.

anyways, since my grant is mainly based on thinking through abstract art in terms of materials, process and concept, i've decided to upload images of the ones i think do that best. and because my work is about thinking, i want to include my three small moleskin sketchbooks from this summer to compliment the processes in my paintings.

ps these images appear in the reverse order i did them...if that matters.

2009-09-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well its been awhile since I last posted but now I've got another piece to put on the blog. Watercolours were much less forgiving than the oil paints I used for the most part of this year. I will hopefully do a couple more watercolours so I'm not left with three oils and this one sitting on its own. Not really sure what to call this one, but 'Free Your Mind' (with accompanying song lyrics) just popped into my head. I might let it stick, or I might not. Only time will tell.

Tripp

rough studio recording MP3 of Muse

2009-09-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

Based on surveying musicians and studio owners for their recommendations, i found what seems to be the most prominent, award-winning recording studio in town. I also convinced the very kind, friendly, and super baller sound engineer to charge me half his usual rate, so that it is the same rate and even cheaper than the other studios. Yay! Here is an example of a preliminary MP3, the one based on Pygmalion and Galatea. I think it sounded better from his studio speakers... its seems a little echoey for some reason... I will listen to these preliminary recordings in detail and make a note of parts I need to rerecord. I will also add other instruments later, including percussion for some of them.

2009-09-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Here are some pics of my newest piece, based on the song Four Minute Warning. I haven't come up with a title for it yet.

Chris

Highland dancing and the music hunt...

2009-08-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

Hello! Since my last post I have been dancing lots, and also starting to think about the final performance, which has consisted mostly of a massive search for appropriate music. Due to an early-summer camera malfunction, I haven't had a chance to take pictures for a while, but I will post some soon, and describe things in the meantime.

First, the dancing. While I have been taking Kathak class on Sundays and practicing with Vanisha during the week, I have also been going to Scottish Highland dance class twice a week at the San Jose School of Highland Dance. I danced Highland competitively throughout middle and high school and a little in college, but hadn't been to class in about a year, let alone competition. It was a little frustrating at times getting back into it, as my stamina, especially, was way below what it used to be and I'm getting corrections on things I had fixed years ago, but after many evenings of sore legs (and lots of bananas!) I feel like I'm starting to get back into the groove, which is a great feeling. In general, I am THRILLED to be dancing again, the teachers are wonderful, and I am hoping to keep doing Highland at least intermittently through the school year, to the point where I might be competition-ready in the spring or summer.

And now, the great music hunt! Since my final dance will be fusing Highland and Kathak, I am hoping to use a piece of music that at least gives a nod to both cultures. As you can probably imagine, this search has been interesting! After perusing youtube videos of pipe bands in India and dholis jamming with bagpipers, I contacted a band called Delhi2Dublin, to see if I might be able to get a copy of their track "Dil Nachde" without lyrics, and they emailed back, which is promising. This band's name pretty much describes their music, and this track consists of an upbeat celtic fiddle tune with a dhol drum beat behind it. It's not strictly Scottish or at all what Kathak dancers actually dance to, but I think it may work for what I am trying to communicate with the dance. My other contender is a piece called "The Spark" by Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and his band Skyedance, with which I would blend Kathak beats.

Molly

late start, but finally moving

2009-08-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

Sorry to be posting so late--i've spent the past two months almost completely off the grid in New Mexico, and took a while to get going on my project. But I am now unemployed, drowning in all the source material I've collected, and itching to paint, so have finally gotten started. Uploaded pictures of my makeshift studio, first painting (still a little wet..), and sketches for the next one.

Everyone's work looks so incredible--can't wait to see/hear/read it all in a few weeks!

peace,

Nell

Chris Winterbauer Project Update

2009-08-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

These are some shots of the first piece I've completed, titled "Your Eyes (Weird Fishes)". My apologies for the poor lighting/image quality. Should have more up by Monday.

Chris

Animation Project Update

2009-08-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hey all. Figured I should post an update on what I've been up to lately. I'm mostly filming these days, and it's one of the most stressful things I've ever done. I may actually be able to pull this off though. Wish me luck!

Photos:

My sister got bored so she made a domo. This has nothing to do with my project. I just think it's cute.

2009-08-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

Hi friends-

I just finished translating/transcribing interviews and stories, so now it is major writing time. It's taken me a bit to get into re-writing stories (I've been only into poetry and non-fiction for a while now), but here is one example of a longer rewritten ancestor story (still in drafting mode, keep in mind, so comments are welcome!). Also is a poem and a quote from an interview to show you guys the different types of writing/editing I'm working on. Cool. Everybody's project looks fantastic and I'm stoked for October...
cheers- Christa

1) How Coconuts came to Karkar
Sun glowed from behind a thin layer of fog as it approached dusk, a circle of orange that could be looked at straight on, though their mother told them never to try. The sun didn’t like to be stared at, the sun was naked and it was indecent to stare at something so round and beautiful.
So Peter and Malek, as they paddled toward the center of the channel, looked forward or down to the light reflected in the small waves which built with every hour. Their paddles and canoe, made out of the dame diwai (tree) when their grandfather was Peter’s age, held and moved the ocean well.
When they reached the deepest point they knew of, the water was smoother with current and they knew that by sundown they would have drifted halfway around Karkar. With motions betraying instinct, the older brother, Malek, slipped pieces of abus (meat) onto rusted and voluptuous hooks, which Peter hopped toward the bow of the canoe and cast.
It was the kind of day where seagulls descend in giddy non-formations toward the froth of the upsurging schools of fish. Peter hardly had time to cast a line into the melee before a silver-shriek uplifted the water and swallowed their hooks whole. Malek, his feet swimming in fish scales that made the bottom of the boat squiggle in translucence, bit the heads of the fish quickly, their tail drop, their fins fold, the brain crushed under the practiced weight of his incisors. It was that kind of day. It was that day.
When the boat was cramped with creatures, the two pulled in their last line. The fish, a large tuna, when flung into the canoe, was half a fish. Her tail had been bitten off. Her eyes already rolled to a stop. It was then Peter and Malek felt the boat jolt.
They knew from stories their grandfather told. Soon enough, Malek pointed to a shark fin the size of his head part the water a few feet from their stern. The shark’s shadow dwarfed their little canoe, and as he swam toward their boat again, a wake formed around the top of his massive forehead. The boat tipped, some fish slid over the side and into the waiting jaws of the shark.
This gave Malek an idea. He told Peter to paddle as fast as he could as he threw the fish out, far away, to distract the shark. One fish, 5 meters toward shore. Two fish, 10 meters toward shore, 3 fish, 15 meters toward shore.
The shark kept coming back and back. The froth behind him was bloodied and shimmering with scales, his teeth buai stained red, like the boys’ own. The shark came back and back until Malek threw the last fish in the water and they were still 50 meters from shore. Malek thought for a moment, for only the space between two of Peter’s oars, and said,
“Because you are younger, you haven’t experienced so much about this life, i will give you the chance to live. You cut every piece from my body and feed the shark and keep paddling.”
Peter would not. He looked into his brother’s face and kept paddling, but said nothing, and did nothing. He would not. So Malek pulled the knife from his belt, cut off his left hand, and without a wince, threw it behind him. Before passing out, he handed his knife to his brother, and then closed his eyes.
So the elder brother gave himself up and every time the shark came to the boat, Peter cut off some part of the elder brother’s body to feed the shark. He kept paddling. His brother’s foot. He kept paddling. His brother’s arm. He kept paddling. His brother’s stomach. He kept paddling. The shark kept returning until all of Malek was gone and only his head remained, rolling on the floor of the canoe, luminous with fishscales. It was then that the canoe ran aground on the beach and the shark, kept at bay by the waves of the shallow reef, could not follow.
Peter put his hands around the head of his elder brother and carried him against his chest, onto the beach. Weeping until he washed all of the blood away, Peter dug a hole and buried the head of Malek.
Every day from then on, Peter would come to the beach and lay his cheek against the ground and cry, until one time, he came to visit the grave and found something strange. A small, green shoot growing above the sand. Peter came back, at dawn when the seabirds would scratch it away, or at night when the other kids would trample it playing in the surf. He looked after the shoot for one year, then two years, on and on through his marriage and child and mother’s death and the building of a small dock from the curve of the beach.
After a very long time, the shoot became a tree, and the tree bore fruit, and after Peter saw the first fruit fall off, he took it in his hands and he removed the cover of it and found the inside part of it and saw the two eyes and mouth, and said, this, this is my brother’s head. The village people came and took the dry fruits and drank them and ate them and called them coconuts, and to this day they sustain Karkar Island. So when you look at the coconuts now, you can see the eyes and the mouth and that is the head of the elder brother, Malek, who gave his life.

2) The bats left Madang town

Migration

And every time Susan says it in Tok pisin
No gut bats. No sawe bats stap lo where?
No one knows where the bats went.
Not the elders who saw the volcano
Birth the island, Not the university
Dwellers who sent their electrodes into
The trees not even Susan not even me.
The plague? Heat wave? Tsunami?
Stomach knocks into a stone, I’m not
Superstitious, not at all, but the bats fled
like too many soldiers filing out to battle.
The bush hut settles into a strange silence;
What God means
When he talks about warnings.
You should have known! He says
You should have had faith in my creatures
As if I could see a migratory anomaly to mean
I was sinful, needed to obey the holy ghost,
Practice abstinence and repent, repent, repent.

Exodus

Lucy fled to the highlands
Roger stayed Australian put
Susan prayed, Selfi shrugged
Her shoulders, like, God loves
Me, no worries, chill out, little
White girl with the nervous face on.
But I know nothing about faith
And resign myself to apocalypse,
Which may be the same thing.

Diaspora

When the bats sink toward the Sepik, believers
May curl into our own colonies, curl the messengers
Into our untrembled elbows and rinse ourselves in the din

The safe surrounding of galip nut-sized brains,
Who still hear the earth shudder and take her seriously
I will remove parts of my cerebellum

Until I return to instinct, or belief, or both, or
Whichever comes first. Remember how to
fight or flight and learn how to flock in formation

The white girl left with the flying foxes they would say
Grow black leather wings from my triceps and armpits,
Toenails long enough to grip, a taste for overripeness and
Exoskeletons.

Ghost Town

Trees black coral spires
Against midnight.
Outside crickets
Howl lonely,
Insects flutter
In glee. Fruit
Left rotting
The island smells
Sweet and dead
Already.

3)PNG time

PNG (Papua New Guinea) time is phrase to describe a conditioned behavior pattern that has just erupted because of the laziness of the person to understand the Western system that was in place. In traditional times before the first white man came, Papua New Guinea used to live a lazier life, a nobody cares life, like everything that I have is right in front of me and I take life as simply as I can. Move the way I like, sleep whenever I like, and eat whatever I like. When the first white man came, they introduced health solutions, this education system, and eventually this government system with us, hoping that it would be better for us to adopt these styles. I don't know. Maybe, but I don't know.
-Jared

2009-08-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

yo. just realized that I didnt have the photo attached. here tis :]

2009-08-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

I know it's taken me ages to post - but its been a pretty hectic summa. I'm in Kuwait right now but I'll be back in good ol'California on the 14th of Sept.

So, I'm including a couple of pictures of the portraits I did/have almost finished @ Stanford. One is of my roommate/good friend Sheilan and her mother. The other is also of a friend of mine, David Geeter (i've also included the photo that I used).

My project is basically a series of 6 portraits of faces around Stanford. They're all 36x36 (just so you guys have an idea) I'm pretty much done with the three others that I started in Kuwait. I'll add those soon enough, now that I finally have this blog up and running...

Anyway, everyone's work looks incredible so far :] Hope you all are enjoying what remains of our summer.

-over'n'out

Bhutan

2009-08-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hey friends!
After three days in Kolkata, I've arrived in Bhutan and am greatly enjoying the mountain air and dried yak cheese.
In Kolkata I visited a district where they make statues to immerse in the Hooghly river during pujas (ceremonies) in autumn and got some okay shots there, though the light was not too good. It was hard to find craftspeople in such a big city, and there was definitely more marketing of handicrafts than there was making. Our driver didn't understand what pottery was so we didn't really make it to the potter's area. Bummer.
I am planning on having better luck here in Bhutan. :-)
Tomorrow we will see some weavers at a textile museum, and some thangka painters and royal blacksmiths. Crossing my fingers for a non-rainy day... I really need this lighting thing to work out!!
Mkay, that's all for now. I'll try to upload shots if I can. Eventually. Later.

watercolor portraits underway

2009-08-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

This is the beginning of my first watercolor portrait. (Things have been crazy this summer) As you can see, I just have the face, but I've spent so much time mentally mapping the composition that I think it should all go pretty smoothly from here.

I was very surprised by my materials in starting the project. I used much of my grant money to buy brand new high quality watercolor paints, and I couldn't believe how differently they behaved from the student quality box-set I had bought in high school. It took some getting used to, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.