Recipie for Firefly Environment Part TWO

An earlier blog talked about the building of the actual fire flies. This continues from that posting (4/26).

After the LED's had been soldered and heat shrunk to commincation patch wire, the other elements needed to be built. A shallow 4' x 4' box was constuced out of the 1/2" ply and the 1 x 1's using 45 degree angled corners and wood glue/ nails to hold. It is just like building a frame or shadow box. After the build, the top soil or potting soil was spread into the box and 1lb of seed (Rye or Oat grass) was spread evenly over the surface making sure to cover the entire area, especially the sides and corners. After a heavy watering, a tent was construced over the box with the clear drop cloth to form a make shift green house to accelerate the growth of the seed. Rye grass takes about one week to really look good. Oat grass is about the same, only wider blades. Here are a few photos of the planted box with minimal growth. A standard clip light with outdoor flood bulb was added to increase the heat in the greenhouse (I had less time to grow the stuff for the opening).

Now that the grass was underway, the 3 fans were painted flat black to prep for the installation. They were hung from the ceiling by their bases (upside down) on the three walls surrounding the piece. They are there to move the LED's hanging from the wires attached to the ceiling at varying lengths. Also, the speakers were hung the same way, just high enough out of the viewers site line. All al the wires were coated with liquid shoe polish (black) to hide them and create more of an illusion. Also, the two larger speakers were attached to the meeting of the floor and wall in two opposite spots in the installation. The idea was to create a "surround sound" of crickets to fool the senses of the viewer. Here are some pics of that and the grass at 4 days growth.

And lastly was the actual installation. Each of the LED's were stapled to the ceiling joists at random lenths and spaces with the breadboad and LOGO chip in the center of the room. Each LED was connected together and paired into 16 units to connect to the 3 chips. Muaz did this part really, so check out his blog as well (http://techartsound.tripod.com/). The grass box was placed on the floor off to one side and the CD player was connected the speakers. And B-24, BINGO! Here are a few more pics for you.

Recipie for Firefly Environment, Part ONE

I'm not really sure how to list the information for the Firefly Environment that Muaz and I produced for the WIRED show at Shift Space. Since much of our piece relied on hiding the technology and utilizing more art installation, it it difficult to show step by step. And overall, due to the low light of the piece, it is difficult to show in a photo. Here are the basics for your recipe:

48 Yellow LED lights

1000-1500 feet of communications "patch" wire

Breadboard, LOGO Chip and components (resisters, switches, etc)

Heat shrink

Soldering gun and supplies

5 computer speakers (small 2" round)

4' x 4' sheet of 1/2" plywood

16' of 1" x 1" pine (any wood really)

1lb of Rye or Oat grass seed

8-10lbs of top soil or potting soil

H2O spray bottle (for watering grass during growth)

Large clear plastic painters drop cloth

3 oscillating fans

2 cans flat black spray paint

CD player and reciever/amp

Sound clip of outdoor evening sounds/cricket sounds burned to CD

Wood glue and nails

Electrical tape

Staple gun and staples

So, go out and gather all of this shit, um, I mean stuff. When put together with some persistance and luck, you will end up with the following environment. Really.

Oh… not that. You might feel like that, but it won't look like that. More like this:

Review of “Semina Culture; Wallace Berman and His Circle”

I would like to write about some discussion this show has started in my immediate circle of friends in the graduate department. To give you a bit of background, the following information was taken directly from the Ulrich Museum's web page:

"This international traveling exhibition documents the community of creative people that coalesced around Wallace Berman (1926-1976), the quintessential visual artist of the Beat era. Showcasing the artists and poets who contributed to "Semina", Berman's free-form journal published in California in the 1950s and 60s, this multimedia exhibition includes rarely seen collages, paintings, assemblages and films by Toni Basil, Jay DeFeo, Allen Ginsberg, Walter Hopps, Michael McClure, Dean Stockwell, and Berman himself. Particularly exciting is the inclusion of works by two artists with Kansas roots. Bruce Conner was born in McPherson, grew up in Wichita and attended Wichita University (now Wichita State). Actor and filmmaker Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider, Blue Velvet) was born in Dodge City and as a child attended art classes at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. "Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle" has been organized for the Santa Monica Museum of Art by co-curators Michael Duncan and Kristine McKenna."

The show is extremely large and engulfs the entire gallery space with over 200 pieces of printings, photos, multi media collage, film and objects. These pieces, though really quite fascinating are not really the basis for this writing. Instead, the areas of Berman's photographs of each artist involved directly with his "circle" were the most interesting and provide the catalyst for the discussion that follows. Berman, took photos of each artist he was in contact with during the printing of the Semina Culture journal. Each artist is presented in their own environment or if you will, as a visual biography of that very second in their artistic lives. This is the part that I found most interesting.

I have always been fascinated by the ideas that the Beat culture revolved and grew from. The ideas that produced manifestos, writings, happenings and "beat" events seem to have been long forgotten in our modern society. Especially the idea of the artist as a viable subject for the artistic portrait (mind you, not the artist SELF portrait). The art society of today seems to have long displaced the ideas of being photographed as important figures for historical preservation and for the promotion of their work, ideas and lifestyle. These portraits taken by "outside" artists have been replaced with digital imagery that can be controlled by the self and relies on no one but the artist alone. It leaves out the view from the "forth wall" that an outside viewer can provide. It leaves out the content that the artist has decided to manipulate or ignore due to the belief that it is not important to their art making or personal invention. It leaves out the inner soul that they may not be aware of.

My fascination with this generation and many others for that matter has generally revolved around these photographic biographies that visually link their artistic culture with my own and seem to provide their "certificate of authenticity" in the world of art history. It is my firm belief that this documentation needs to find resurgence in our current artistic culture in order to facilitate the same authenticity for future generations. While present day art historians have no "ism" to place the current culture of artists and possible movements into, without these portraits, they will loose much of the historical documentation that will form that very "ism" in our history. And in all honesty, we as artists will loose the very stitching that binds our values, ideas and processes into one form, one movement, one generation. Berman had a vision of his artistic world of friends and thought it necessary to "speak" of visually. The generation of today needs the same voice. It needs the same vision of it's own future to be documented. It needs to be held in reserve for the next generation of voices to look upon one day.

Sleep

Long day.  It's 4:53 am and I just got home from Shift Space.  Everything looks great.. except the chip decided to not work at the very end of the test run.  It did fine all evening, but stopped.  So, another chip will be put in tomorrow afternoon.  The "flys" look great… but I am wondering if I need yet another fan… totaling 4.  I'll sleep on that one.  Tomorrow is going to be very long I have a feeling.

Wednesday

Tonight was spent gathering some items for the installation.  Two oscillating fans were purchased, grill guards removed and sprayed flat black to be installed on the ceiling rafters.  This is to give the "fireflys" a gentle push for some movement.  Although, I think I need a third.  I also placed the small speakers (two on the floor and two on the ceiling… there are supposed to be four on the ceiling, but I stepped on them… oops) and finished up the wiring on the "fireflys".  All that is left is to connect all the "flys" to the logo chip and BOOM… magnificent, lol.

Thursday will be spent tidying things up and troubleshooting.  And the grass will come along on Friday afternoon after getting another day of good, hot sunshine.  I also have more pics to download of todays events. 

Second stage of Firefly environment.

After some discussion, it was decided to add some sound to the piece. So I downloaded a great MP3 file to use. It's a summer evening sound bite. I will be using 5 small speakers hanging from the ceiling and on the floor. Each speaker was mounted to hang by using electrical tape to decure the wire onto the back and then taped around the magnet to secure the entire thing. They are small speakers (2"-3") and incredibly light so there will be no problem with their weight.

The space has been hung with 45 "fireflys" from the ceiling and there will be 3 on the floor in the capture jar. The grass is also growing nicely in a container that was built for the installaion. People keep asking what illegal drug I am growing to subsidise my graduate career. I will post some pics of it later after they are downloaded off Steve's camera. I will also take some pics this evening of the space to post.

It all seems to be coming along nicely.

Pictures of “fireflys” being built.

My high speed has been down at home for a week and couldn't get pics downloaded. And god knows I'm not doing it at WSU in my studio with dial up. But here are some pics of the "fireflys" being constructed at Henrion. Each of the pics are listed from left to right below. All together there were 50 "fireflys" constructed, 48 will be used in the installation.

1. Cutting the LED wires down to cut down on heat shrink tube.

2. Cutting heat shrik.

3. Using soldering flux on the wires.

4. Soldering the wires to the LED posts.

5. Affixing three pieces of heat shrink on the fireflys. One on each LED terminal post and ove around both wires to keep from pulling apart.

6. Pile of finished "fireflys".

7. "Firefly" detail.

8. "Firefly" detail.

Shift Space VII: Rent Event Fundraiser, An open letter and review.

So, if you haven't recognized it, there is soap box under my feet. A very large one at that. As the event coordinator for Shift Space VII, I have a few open wounds to bandage up and some words of advice for the WSU Art and Design students as a group. This past Final Friday was an attempt to save an excellent off campus art venue; WSU Shift Space Gallery. And you know what… I did it. I raised over $6000 in 7 hours. Now that single "I" should not be as far as I am concerned. Don't get me wrong, I had help… but it was the same help that always steps up to the plate and follows through. Is this a problem? You bet it is!

The event, which took several months of extremely indepth planning and hundreds of hours, was attended by an estimated 1200 people. This number is almost three times our usual attendance. Over 450 artworks were donated by WSU students, faculty and staff and sold for the unheard of price of $20 or less. It was a raging success in my opinion and provided a continuation for Shift Space.

Now, what is my gripe with the students of the WSU Art and Design Department? Many of you are lazy, complaining, non-follow through excuses of artists. Yes, I said it. Does it piss you off? Good, it should. Many of the 450 works were donated by the same people who always follow through with events at WSU. Many of you donted over 10 pieces of work, some even 20. And several of you, put in countless hours of volunteer work for the event. Where were the rest of you? I continually hear complaints on our campus of nothing going on and nothing to get involved in. Well, I am here to tell you that you are blind as bats. Our department has countless events that happen throughout the semester that are poorly attended by the students of WSU. Not general students either, art and design students. Event planning and guild meetings are extremely difficult to have due to poor attendance as well. Overall, almost anything in the Art and Deisgn department is difficult and discouraging to have due to poor attendance and a general lack of interest from the students.

So here is my words of advice to you. Get off your butts, quit complaining and take charge. Plan an event. Participate in events. Get involved with the Art and Design Department at WSU. Finish your homework on time, attend your classes with a positive attitude and be glad you are in school and not working a dead-end job somewhere.. that will happen soon enough in your life most likely. And most of all, VOLUNTEER your time and FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THOSE TASKS. I ended up doing much of the work for this event that was deligated out to students who fell through. And this seems to be a constant at WSU. Do you think that the real world is going to put up with such things? I can tell you that it will not. You will loose jobs, miss out on opportunities and generally be thought of as a flake due to such actions. You are the only person in your life that will drive your abilities and opportunites. Take advantage of this and open your eyes. Prove me wrong and make me eat some crow. Believe me, I am hungry from it so start cooking.
Now for those of you who continually volunteer, attend events and participate… THANK YOU! You are the backbone of our department and the future success stories of our society. If it weren't for the select few at WSU that continually participate, this event would not have been possible as well as many other events. You give me some hope that people are good natured and care about other things than their own selfish ideas. Congratuations on a huge underdog win for Shift Space. We are here for another run of excellent shows and opportunites for the students of WSU.

Fire Fly Environment

Muaz and myself came up with another idea for the final project. The mason jar idea is something that there really isn't time to do the correct way and I don't want to show them half evolved. They can come along at another time.

Muaz had said something about lights in a past discussion, which got me thinking about a more visual idea instead of auditory. The Fire Fly Environment will be 50 LEDs hanging from different lengths from the ceiling, each lighting randomly like fire flys do. There will also be a hint of an outside environment with a plot of grown grass on the floor (probably 4' x 4') with a jar or two on it… full of fire flys. This is a simple idea to evolke feelings of childhood and summer evenings. There was also so discussion the other day to put some sapling trees in a couple of spots for another hit to the outdoors.

R.I.P. Logochip

My logo chip seems to have kicked the dirt. As in dead, corrupted and not working in any way, shape or form. Hmmmm. Steve A and I spent the evening working with my chip to get me more familiar and to play around with his "vibrating pole". My chip did fine and then stopped existing. We swapped out chips on my breadboard and his worked fine…. R.I.P. Logochip. Here are some pics of the motor at the end of the rod. It is the vibrate feature on a cell phone battery… pretty cool!