Completed project: Assert Your Dominance
I put up a prototype video of this, but it’s finally done and getting presented at a mid-res review tomorrow. Check out the video and some photos and the code if you’d like over on my portfolio website.
Completed project: Jessica’s Words
With the coding help of Rob Vella, Jessica’s Words is now a working site, where anyone can add words to a library that Jessica can access through an admin backend and decide whether or not she knows them. The ones she does know show up on the front page in an very, very long column. Thus, slowly but surely Jessica can build her personal vocabulary lexicon. Click the photo to access the site and participate!
Back story: Our class submitted ideas to the e-flux unrealized projects project, then traded ideas and built prototypes of that idea for another classmate. My prototype was for Jessica’s unrealized project — to create a complete list of every word that she herself knew. Help us out by submitting words you think she may or may not know!
Project Prototype: Assert Your Dominance
The environment for this will change in time for a second showing in January. It is currently being shown in the Mumbo space at CalArts. It will be taken down Friday, Dec. 15 2012.
The piece is comprised of a box with a microphone in it on which is written the word “Bark,” and a monitor. On the monitor a video of a dog barking at you loops endlessly. If you bark back at the dog loudly enough (via the microphone) the dog will get scared and run away. The piece was made using a SparkFun electret microphone breakout board, an Arduino, and Processing, and was built as part of an ongoing MFA in Art & Technology and Integrated Media.
This piece was made with the help and mentorship of Tom Jennings. The code is available to anyone who would like it.
Current project: Solenoid Xylophone
This project is a collaboration between Matthew Allen, Raphael Arar, Danielle Bustillo, Ting-Ju Chen, Bram Glik, Cassandre Jahnke, Jessica Li, Eli Skipp, and Yi Zhang. It has progressed much further at this point and will be documented fully upon completion, roundabout the first week of December. The project features two matching xylophones, one that records key hits via piezo buzzers, and the other then plays back the key hits as well as those that came previously via a sequencer code. This video shows the first working solenoid & driver in its frame, playing via the blink example code.
Moving to LA.
I know I mentioned this in my last post, but I wanted to mention it again. It’s been a Hell of a couple of weeks, filled with lots of excitement and even more stress and a little bit of embarrassing insanity. It seems like once I got the announcement time sped up, and I’m going to miss the wonderful relationships I’ve built in Miami — you know who you are!
At the same time, this is a wonderful adventure. The time next week, I’ll be settled into a new apartment (probably in Rampart Village) and start exploring a new city. I’ll have studio space, so keep your eyes peeled for new projects. If anyone lives or lived out there, let me know about your tips and experiences. What hidden gems does LA have to offer? Aside from Ricky’s Fish Tacos.
A sketch and some news!
Here’s a quick owl sketch I did last week. It’s nice enough. Here’s the news:
In February this year I was accepted into the CalArts Art & Technology MFA program. I’ll be moving to Los Angeles around July 20th and studying from Sept. 4 2012 until June 2014.
The program only accepts about four people a year, and they’ve offered me a substantial scholarship to attend. Aufregend! If anyone lives in Los Angeles, maybe we could get together for beer and chit chat. Yee-haw!
Mix CD, case and cover.
Earlier this year I was invited to participate in a mix CD exchange (took place throughout the US — my recipient was in Utah!) and I took it fairly seriously. I made a good mix of very WTF music and then named the CD after my preferred track by Melon Boat. The CD was named Organic Euthanasia.
The track names were written on a merchant slip, and the CD was inscribed using LightScribe (yes, I still have a computer that does that). The cover was made on a spare piece of stretched muslin using embroidery thread and spare book cutouts. It looked just lovely. If anyone wants a copy of the playlist and the music, let me know.
Stout-Cured Drinking Horn
Built from a hollowed out steer horn. Top was cracked and splintered, so had to be sanded down. Inside was cleaned A LOT. Filled for 24 hours with Souther Tier Mocha Stout to cure it (better option than wax or plastic). Finished with a brown leather strap.
A link to build your own: GoHeathen.com
Ada’s Nyan Cat Dress
A short while ago, Miss Jen Savage (also the taker of this lovely photograph) commissioned me to embroider Nyan Cat onto a dress for her adorable daughter, Ada. Here’s the finished project!
It took a little while and I ran into some issues, namely that baby dresses seem to be infinitely stretchy. This issue was fixed with some creative interfacing use and a bit of patience. In the end, I think the result is pretty cute — and it looks like Ada and Jen approve!
materials used: interfacing, embroidery thread, thread, embroidery hoop, embroider needles, needles, pins.
A doodle that I like.
This doodle that I did over the summer makes me happy. Here it is, so that I can remember it always.
New portfolio site.
Oh fauns, it’s been a tumultuous past couple-a months. In the meantime, though, and with the help of Fin, I’ve put up a proper portfolio site to aid in all of the graduate school applications I have to finish this month (to NYU, RISD, CalARTS, SAIC, and SFAI). Rest assured, I have not abandoned you. Here’s a link to the new site, should you be interested:
Lady Rainicorn Scarf quick video.
Here’s a quick video of the scarf, with the LEDs blinking and fading. Pretty sure this is one of the cutest things I’ve ever made.
Lady Rainicorn LED Scarf.
Lady Rainicorn is a character from Adventure Time. I built this scarf as part of a Halloween costume for a friend, and threw in some LEDs for extra cuteness. It took a few days and a lot of cutting and sewing and cursing at the conductive thread, but overall I’m happy with the outcome. Here’s pictures of it, and a video will come soon (to prove that there are five LEDs altogether, lest you doubt me).
Pardon the time spent away.
I apologize for being away and not posting recently. I’ve been a little out of it, and in the meantime I’ve been tasked with setting up a second website to show a portfolio for my upcoming application to Die Angewandte. At the very least, I did do a bit of doodling on Corel Painter 12 (which I recently got). That’s all I’ve got to show right now, though.
Photos from some abandoned train tracks.
Fin and I took a bike ride over to some abandoned train tracks (and also an abandoned rail station?) nearish to Praterstern a few days ago. Photography has never been something I’m particularly good at, but here’s a small set of photos from that outing anyway.
Laser cutter fun: Antler necklace test.
This was actually put together prior to CCCamp011 but I’ve been busy and distracted, I suppose. Thus I’ve still only printed out the yellow acrylic test of this Illustrator sketch. The antlers fit into both the stag and the rabbit, and later I hope to make more heads and attachments, to make an acrylic paper-doll sort of thing. I am fairly proud of the quality of the illustrator vector file as well — shoot me an e-mail if you’d like it for any reason.
New project: Semaphore bot.
Thanks to a hilarious comment by one Mr. Jeff Gough during a quickly nose-diving talk at CCCamp2011 (“They should conduct this talk in semaphore,”) I’ve had semaphore flags on the brain. Projects like this have been done previously, but never with the complete alphabet/vocabulary. Thus, having ordered the parts and started the sketching process, fin & I will be building a semaphore bot that will, hopefully, read out in semaphore the various correspondences my grandfather had during WWII. Woohoo!
A portrait of Adora for growabrain.tumblr.com
I was recently asked by Hanan Levin to do a portrait of his daughter, Adora, as part of a series wherein he hires two-hundred artists to draw her portrait. What an honor! I threw together a portrait of Adora as queen of the minifauna (is that a word? alas) and it was put up on the site today. Cheers!
Sketches since I’ve moved.
Since coming to Vienna, my tools have been somewhat limited (mostly by access – still haven’t managed to find an embroidery hoop/Stickrahmen) and I’ve been working on getting back into drawing (especially because the majority of my fine arts stuff recently has been digital and that gets super boring). Please enjoy the ensuing sketches, which will hopefully continue!
New business bugs!
With the help of one mister Stefan Kernjak, I built my first properly successful business cards today. Originally they were going to come flat, to be built by the recipient, but they’re delicate, so people will receive them pre-made. I’ve taken the rhinoceros beetle as my unofficial symbol for some time now, ever since I had one tattooed on my left thigh. So here they are in semi-3D, built in illustrator and on the Metalab laser cutter, and using Stefan’s custom made font for the text.
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