November

In early November there was the Praxis/Poiesis show at Alfa Art. Curated by Jen Park and myself, it contained the work of Ariana Barat, Alexander Conner, Olivia Kaufman-Rovira, and Matthew West.






I helped Pete Edwards aka Casper Electronics teach a circuit bending course at Harvestworks.



Work on Bud Spotch continued. By the middle of the month we finally got an input signal into the TVs and spent way to much time in home depot looking at stuff.







In October Eric Drasin invited me to collaborate on some live visuals for an experimental percussion ensembles performance at Monkeytown in Brooklyn. We had a simple goal of using hi-tech and lo-tech gear to make a complex network of feedback loops that could be controlled and manipulated with a laptop and physical objects. What that means is that I went up to Purchase with a car load of junk, multiplied it by a car full of Erics junk, combined that with Benton-C's sweetashell hacked video mixer, and finished it off with some fancy studio gear courtesy of PTV.

PTV studio


The first system


Second system


??? system


Final set up at Monkeytown (more junk outa frame)


This is the view of Monkeytown from the video booth. What was on screen was just some random videos they put on before the show



One day at Harvestworks I built an Audino, a synthesizer made out of 5 pots, some code and an Arduino.




To end November there was a huge push to finish Bud Spotch the TV Robot by December 2nd.




There was metal cutting with Dremels late at night. I would like to take a moment to honor the two unsung heroes of this entire project: clamp lights and rotary tools.


Inevitably Tom got a metal splinter


On a side note, Tom has a really nice terrarium


Finished the head and successfully attached it to the torso.


Colin stopped by and hung out in the chaos


wiresssss


Testing out the bottom shelf with 2 TVs


Installed the first TV which had to be mounted upside down. Both middle TVs had to be hung upside down to make room for all six circuit boards. Logistically a nightmare. Aesthetically, pretty rad.


After we installed the top middle TV we attached the head to the torso because we werent sure if we were going to be able to put it on again after all the TVs were mounted.


Then we installed the bottom middle TV. It was much more difficult than the top because we had to mount it into the plexi glass shelf. This was very stressful because we needed exact alignment for drilling holes and exact measurement to make sure it wouldnt interfere with top TVs. The drama was heightened even more because one bad drill or cut with the plexi and it would break.


Thankfully it actually went really smoothly.


Plexi is sexy


Installing the third TV




And the 4th





At this point it passed midnight and officially started December. To be continued....

2nd 1/2 of October

Work continued on the TV Robot. Tomislav dubbed it Bud Spotch. Both of us being vidiots we learned how to cut plexi-glass the hard way: spending a whole night using a dremel and then trying the score-break method (which is MUCH better for many many reasons) and saving ourselves several hours per cut.

Sunglasses for safety


This is the head frame we built that would hold the TVs. We originally planned to use four TVs, two up top, two on the bottom. The plexi shelf isnt fully installed yet.


Top down view of head with plexi shelf.


Then there was a pumpkin carving party at Mikes house. From left, my pumkin Unky Punky, Carsons Check Engine Light, and Andy's incredibly Obama.

Get Excited

email for more info! time is running out!!!!

lots and lots and lots

Its been a while since I posted on the blog. Not because of laziness but because of business. Now is catch up time.

Here is the first half of October.


I started a large scale video sculpture project with Tomislav Butkovic. The idea came about simply enough, he had a bunch of four and half inch gutted B&W T.V.s he got from Hasan and I found a mannequin torso in the street one day, so we decided to do some simple addition and put them together.

One of the T.V.s


The entire project would need some serious fabrication to build a strong enough stand and head-piece. This meant a lot of trips to home depot.



Then there was an incredible pot luck at the warehouse in Newark.


Saw Marie and Ryans aquaponics system which is brilliant and beautiful.









My two internships collided when Benton-C played at the Harvestworks Benefit show at Galapagos in Brooklyn.

(there was an open bar, so naturally only 1 image wasnt crap out of the 20 I took)

Lenny organized a Box Wars Melee at Eyebeam, which could be one of the best days EVER. Check his site for more amazing images and video.
My costume was modeled with Katamari in mind and had TWO faces. One you could see normally, and a secret face that you would only if I was about to kill you.

Random Selection of Pictures: On Tour With Screaming Females

Smallest Space, Awesome Show: Souix City, Iowa


All Night Drive Antics


Tracking the Big Red Pig


Flannel, Stripes, and Too Much Make-up Party
Screaming Females chose the Black Metal Make-up Motif


Trash Sculptures on Landfill Peninsula in San Francisco Bay


Marissa Throws Her Guitar on Her Back for Guitar-free Rocking


Mike Watt (Minutemen,) King Mike (Screaming Females,) Awesome Drunk Dude (Croatia!)


Mike Looks Superfly at the Beauty Bar, Las Vegas


Dinosaur Bites a Man's Head Off, Arizona


The Scariest Things: Idiocracy in the Present:
"take your BIG AZ TACO"


Truck Accident 1: Big Screen TVs


Less than 20 miles away
Truck Accident 2: Blown to Bits


Ghost Town on Old Route 66


Jesus Rules


We Paid Less Than 2 Dollars for Gas


Lisa Frank'd Guitar!


Mike's Underage at the Bar Tats


Yes, I Saw Hulk Hogan Get on the Jaws Ride


Horror Nights at Universal Studios


The Red Ranger and I Flashing Gang Signs

Praxis/Poiesis

Jen Park and I are curating a show at Alfa Art Gallery that opens Nov. 7th. Just finished the postcard with exactly two weeks till.

colin drew this

and it makes my day.

Screaming Females

I am on tour with Screaming Females right now.

Check out their blog for some pictures I have been taking.

I will put more pictures up here when I have more time!

finishing a thought

Cleaning my room I found an unfinished sculpture project from my sophomore year and decided to finish it. From what I remember, I think it was supposed to be a pixelated paper lantern version of something. A unicorn? A T.V.? Self portrait? Cant remember. Either way, there were a few hundred pre-cut unfolded cubes that I am going to recycle, and just enough already made small paper 'pixels' to make a boring ol' cube. I put a 60 watt bulb inside and it didnt really shine through to well. I worry if I put anything higher its going to burn really quickly. Oh well.

electric animals