Final Exhibition

Here are a few images that Kenny Mosher shot:

A Few Short Hours Ago

The Home Stretch

The work is coming together - due in no small part to the dedication of all involved - Nick, Melody, Sarah, Victoria, Alex, DeMarcus, Charvon - you guys are the best. The space at the Excelsior looks amazing (aside from the leaky roof) and Nick and I are hard at work on the center-piece - Nick is a madman welder.

Something that I discovered after group presentation on Thursday was the fact that it is sometimes difficult to switch back to 'conceptual mode' when I am in 'production mode'. I found it difficult to articulate some of the connective qualities that I feel are in the work - even though I know them quite well- as _I_ see them. It is also difficult to balance giving enough descriptive information about a piece such as this when I feel that it is really up to the viewer to decide for themselves. I feel that being too didactic doesn't serve the work well - it's a funny thing about intent - those of us that have worked so close together over the last 7 weeks have gained an understanding of the conceptual framework for what has occured - so there is something of a collective understanding, but having that information (in its entirety) isn't completely necessary for the experience (of course). In fact, I feel that the work may function very differently when one encounters it (with respect to the piece) tabula rasa. After all, it can be said that in part, this is about observation, how and when and why, and what may transpire, what may change.

LED Arrays: low-energy and highly directional

Wired in parallel these tiny (10mm) lights will illuminate points on the columns @ the Excelsior. Held fast by solid brass plumb-bobs (usually used as measuring devices) these floor-to-ceiling wire-sets are easy to build and provide very striking and dramatic effects for our paper and cast pieces.
Lighting shows us how to 'see' something; obviously film and flat-Art take advantage of this, and the technologies and how we respond to color can be taken into account - and used with conviction to both create a mood and to converse with our physiology.

The Next Generation: Tabbed and Double Crane

What are the components of transformative action? The hands create - as do the eyes - and the building processes themselves play their part in giving an object meaning. The elements that constitute an object's representative power can be transformed: When we take something virtual and give it dimension, weight, mass and volume, drive from it its inherent 'flawlessness' and make it tangible it occupies our space, is subject to our perspective and is also affected by time and material degradation. It becomes an object subject to physical laws and a material existence.

Digital origami seems ironic, humorous, pointless and painstakingly incorrect and corrected - mathematically modeled - then molded, cast, sanded, post-processed, carried and deposited as an analogue that never reaches 'crane-ness', but instead points towards something else.

Observation permitted by laser light: 635 nM

The light-scattering properties of nano-particles of colloidal gold provide us with a blood-red solution (the color determined by the size of the particles) in which the metal is suspended. The absorption of light at specific wavelengths, combined with the careful manipulation of the solution, can allow us control the depths to which different lasers will penetrate the column.

There are interesting variations in the sensitivity curve of the human eye during different lighting scenarios. Very sensitive to yellow wavelengths, the eye will perceive a yellow laser (561 - 594nM) as brighter and more intense than a red one (630 - 650nM) of comparable power. In the fading light, the experience of these intensities will change as the numerous rod photo-receptors in the eyes become more active.

understanding an accumulation of ideas

Thousands of origami. Voices articulating haiku and radiation traveling as far as it is able to given the presence of tiny particles of gold invisible to the naked eye. The information received from all of these events can drive us to investigate qualities of vision, the transformation of thought and materials and our notions of value and beauty.

A night sky holds in some sense, no less wonder than it did 1000 years ago, yet the wonderment has taken new shapes, is asking different questions. Far from wrathful deities, now time bends supernovae and dark matter exists at the edges of what we comprehend, filling the 'void' and the discovery itself transforming the meaning of the word. Similarly, when a flock of starlings takes to the air at dusk to harvest emerging insects, we no longer seek to know the smartest and most charismatic of these birds. This following of a simple set of algorithms now shows us a mirror. We look to ourselves and to the building of cities, rapid-transit systems and digital networks. We know that these things are related. Connected. That they are all the same.

The framing of our intuitive associations, (some perhaps built into our DNA) with the edge of our perceptive technologies asks us to delve deeply into self-reflection. When do we know things? Why do we feel compelled - through punishing failure and regret - to discover and create for ourselves ? We continue to forge ahead. To try to become new - to redefine ourselves through the advancement of our thoughts and technologies - we imagine, design, make, and we destroy - only to make again. And we accumulate associations as we do memories: as mutable shadows and flickering visions, as we continually develop our sense of the world - discovering over time, what meaning itself is - even as it continues to re-form and be re-defined.

Various On-going Experiments

A.Strathmann_BlueSky2009_

Early discussions of objects and transformation