tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23462717980034977652024-02-07T19:33:56.649-08:00Firstdraft Gallery Studio Resident BlogAll images copyright of the artists and Firstdraft GalleryFirstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-49567852326075718482008-06-05T07:01:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:38:48.339-08:00Bad at the blog<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHqoJpk0P3BNkXnyWyevTw_AVd90r3IVg1iitEyN-g1JySxl8INJ8IV9SA_qxNb9miuBslNiw-0kOrKooG9NfxZaKXDCRCfpGJHQpWkr8VQSzHhZ7q2NOLGqqaePnJkoiXZwJafYHaoAm/s1600-h/sewing+machines+in+kyoto.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHqoJpk0P3BNkXnyWyevTw_AVd90r3IVg1iitEyN-g1JySxl8INJ8IV9SA_qxNb9miuBslNiw-0kOrKooG9NfxZaKXDCRCfpGJHQpWkr8VQSzHhZ7q2NOLGqqaePnJkoiXZwJafYHaoAm/s320/sewing+machines+in+kyoto.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208399645970759426" /></a><br />Well its almost over and i am only now posting a blog.... technical difficulties??<br /><br />The work is developing, maybe not in the studio... . . . . seems you always need more?<br /><br />This place was a sewing machine shop in kyoto.<br />If it was a garage there would have been full of really beautiful old porsche's, farrari's and an array of britsh cars from bond films and one big old american muscle car...... oh and in the corner under a tarp a sliver of a lambo showing its rims...Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-50080283526579199092008-06-05T05:39:00.001-07:002008-12-10T23:38:48.359-08:00StudioGoing between home, where the oven is, and the studio, where everything else is.<br /><br />My polyester draperies are lifting the tone of the studio.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFk5LjzmDIs9mI9o_bqmod1F6ODd-xSPaN_flvatJ3we4gcJ9SQORZDXjlVIGGhuMssluDux8q7KvWVmAZuvwy5xF4TJraHwLwImwL-cA3NX5qqJD8o8x5Dgietzg3GRpEcd3CcgVWzCzx/s1600-h/IMG_3653+%281%29.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFk5LjzmDIs9mI9o_bqmod1F6ODd-xSPaN_flvatJ3we4gcJ9SQORZDXjlVIGGhuMssluDux8q7KvWVmAZuvwy5xF4TJraHwLwImwL-cA3NX5qqJD8o8x5Dgietzg3GRpEcd3CcgVWzCzx/s320/IMG_3653+%281%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208376418787622642" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Here they are, effortlessly lifting the mood of a studio surface. Casual, yet elegant. If you squint you don't really notice the fraying.Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-49459187042623672412008-06-05T05:19:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:38:48.917-08:00Working/TeaserSo it's a bit late, but here are some pictures. These are my reference images du jour, not the work itself.<br /><br />I'm not turning gallery 3 into a shop exactly - it's not that precise an exercise - but I'm building two window display spaces into, well, the windows.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiydiwUh2M965B02qs3AVlDYqjJuY0MrahObQZLTTLz7v5tg_QYWqigOeqareyMxuNPDtWqtARdfec5AQLztnsrCPzfZfrrddxd7akm4Y_u9pwvFEnoFTlDGq2FO-7auCLg0v_ORc6a3O_-/s1600-h/IMG_3112.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiydiwUh2M965B02qs3AVlDYqjJuY0MrahObQZLTTLz7v5tg_QYWqigOeqareyMxuNPDtWqtARdfec5AQLztnsrCPzfZfrrddxd7akm4Y_u9pwvFEnoFTlDGq2FO-7auCLg0v_ORc6a3O_-/s320/IMG_3112.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208374056555609794" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vPQ55NOH4eJY4h_9xi1YRzm5kvVvc4kSfcthQfTU4HOjClQwvvd2MiN-MC4MAt8DT2GPnjA0QaGen26d1qkWZweBUmzQ50m1xNsoTn_lXx7RNvalC6dQfQt91lYgRWn8FQ1aedQD0BA_/s1600-h/IMG_2085.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4vPQ55NOH4eJY4h_9xi1YRzm5kvVvc4kSfcthQfTU4HOjClQwvvd2MiN-MC4MAt8DT2GPnjA0QaGen26d1qkWZweBUmzQ50m1xNsoTn_lXx7RNvalC6dQfQt91lYgRWn8FQ1aedQD0BA_/s320/IMG_2085.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208373330706136738" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I don't want to give too much away.<br /><br />The project was called Unfinished Business, but I've changed it. Now it's called Rise and Fall. I like it better. It implies something about empires, and also dichotomies. And it's narrative, for which I am a big sucker.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqYrhW4Eg138g85ndnjJX62qmvHjNDC1ChhhBLEFfGM6jqDB8gvfVznku6A7xPixJ7aQAhVpcVYn8OBLS3WRQ__GAjSo5jenx9Z9iHKZ28zw_05n0-iREp10md6r3eK22fImGxFyVWeGhJ/s1600-h/IMG_3756.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqYrhW4Eg138g85ndnjJX62qmvHjNDC1ChhhBLEFfGM6jqDB8gvfVznku6A7xPixJ7aQAhVpcVYn8OBLS3WRQ__GAjSo5jenx9Z9iHKZ28zw_05n0-iREp10md6r3eK22fImGxFyVWeGhJ/s320/IMG_3756.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208374705095671506" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Everything I'm making is becoming text. It wasn't supposed to be like that. But it's everywhere.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-h0qkeT7ac_iba5Hx9AuYnvAOWoYqY7fvPQtN6efa0xX-0WzA_x_xYCb6wCxxBQt9AxaPLqCkLXkmDeSRVIoHVaVxOC5He-J_IPSpvCCwl5il-mg_QZRu9THSC_B-_zWW9WMXWGWzG9xn/s1600-h/IMG_3791.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-h0qkeT7ac_iba5Hx9AuYnvAOWoYqY7fvPQtN6efa0xX-0WzA_x_xYCb6wCxxBQt9AxaPLqCkLXkmDeSRVIoHVaVxOC5He-J_IPSpvCCwl5il-mg_QZRu9THSC_B-_zWW9WMXWGWzG9xn/s320/IMG_3791.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5208375164657172194" border="0" /></a>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-38031076644223703652008-04-19T19:42:00.000-07:002008-04-29T19:43:09.864-07:00About, above: photos of exhibition<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2420668312_1f81f476e8_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2420668312_1f81f476e8_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />About above (part 2) - </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">installation view<br /></span><span style="font-size: 85%;">a camera obscura starmap, installed in a darkened room... the luminous image is created from a pinhole-and-screen version of <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/04/paths-through-dark-room.html">William Herschel's 17th Century depiction of the Milky Way</a><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size: 85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2401/2451541174_5a78555db8_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2401/2451541174_5a78555db8_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />detail - with direct sunlight in late afternoon<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2450674281_74f0db0784_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/2450674281_74f0db0784_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">detail - showing the park and trees outside the gallery window (image has been rotated 180º so you can see the park more clearly)</span><br /><br /></span></div>Some photos from the exhibition... all went well - good feedback, good attendance. I am happy with this little project.<br /><br />The <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/04/all-in-pinhole.html">camera obscura</a> effect created by the installation was something that I thought would be immediately recognisable to everyone that entered the darkened space - but not so, it seems... many people thought it was just light, which moved and got blurry sometimes (that 'blurriness' was the tiny upside-down pictures of trucks and buses passing by outside on Chalmers St).<br /><br />I really liked how, on a rainy day, the whole effect was this soft, blue light, with little flashes of colour (people passing by in brightly-colored raincoats). And on a sunny day, in the late afternoon, the setting sun created a brilliant array of points of light, a mosaic of tiny pictures of the actual sun setting behind the fig trees of Prince Alfred Park.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2269/2451483722_b6e37a4008_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2269/2451483722_b6e37a4008_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">myself and Fiona Hall inspecting the camera obscura for quite some time on a rainy afternoon...</span><br /></div><br />I even managed to drag <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/search/label/media%20art%20mentorship">Fiona Hall</a> along to see it and give me some feedback - we spent a couple of hours inside the installation, chatting and watching... Fi had a lot of thoughts to offer (as usual), which was fabulous - we discussed that fine line between over-explaining a work, and providing sufficient information so that the audience would have a sense of 'what it was all about'.<br /><br />What I love about Fiona's work is how her objects reel you in with their seductive qualities, and while you're examining it you start getting the actual point of the thing (which isn't just what it looks like and in made of)... yes yes, i know that's part of 'art making 101', but still - that balance between the beguiling surface and the layers underneath it is something that I think is very relevant, especially in this world that we live in, right now.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2042/2450753421_0dedf663ab.jpg?v=0"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2042/2450753421_0dedf663ab.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;">Artist talk time, on the last day of the exhibition - we turned the lights off once everyone was inside and I spoke about the work in the darkness with the starmap glowing happily - the most eerie artists' talk I have ever done...</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3269/2451538928_9a5cc986e8_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3269/2451538928_9a5cc986e8_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />detail - (cloudy day)</span><br /></div><br />So. The exhibition. 3 weeks of showing and an artist talk later, it's all done and dusted and currently being mulched at some cardboard recycling plant in southern Sydney. But permutations of the project seem to be putting out feelers - the <a href="http://www.ergascollection.com.au/">Ergas Collection</a> are featuring one of my <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/02/about-above-day-2.html">solar-powered cardboard planetariums</a> in a show in Melbourne in July. And it also looks likely that I'll be making some more for <a href="http://www.sydneyobservatory.com.au/">Sydney Observatory</a>'s 150th anniversary in June this year... so we shall see where where these cardboard universes take me...<br /><br />Photos of the installed exhibition are <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/sets/72157604584463373/">here</a> - and the cache of photos for <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/search/label/about%20above">About, above</a> as a project in its entirety can be found <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/collections/72157603757268313/">here</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2088/2450670229_74d4eecc88_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2088/2450670229_74d4eecc88_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;">detail - bus parked outside</span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2336/2451603872_13e0a6d208_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2336/2451603872_13e0a6d208_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;">view of Firstdraft Gallery 3, as seen from the street outside</span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2348/2450769599_dd9fce72ea_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2348/2450769599_dd9fce72ea_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;">view of street outside gallery, as seen from the west-facing window which contained the camera obscura... this was the view that made up the tiny pictures</span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2340/2419846135_a00e9ab8c0_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2340/2419846135_a00e9ab8c0_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;"></span><span style="font-size: 85%;">detail - showing the park and trees outside the gallery window (image has been rotated 180º so you can see the park more clearly)</span></div>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-74823157952591987012008-04-02T19:40:00.000-07:002008-12-10T23:38:49.366-08:00About, above: Exhibition<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3203/2306543003_693cd28977_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3203/2306543003_693cd28977_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">solar-powered planetarium, Hyde Park, Sydney, 22nd February 2008</span><br /></div><br />About, above: Exhibition<br /><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span></span><br />Kirsten Bradley<br /><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span></span><br /><a href="http://www.firstdraftgallery.com/">Firstdraft Gallery</a>, Sydney<br />2-19 April 2008<br /><br /><br />Artist talk: Saturday 19 April, 4.30pm<br /><br /><a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/search/label/about%20above"><span style="font-style: italic;">About, above</span></a> is a project that considers the plausibility of making natural systems out of cardboard. Drawing on our enduring fascination with the night sky and the space beyond, <span style="font-style: italic;">About, above</span> prods the viewer with gentle questions. The project explores ideas regarding our emotive reactions to natural systems, and investigate our relationship with natural pattern- recognition and our capacity for wonder, in the face of disbelief.<br /><br />A project in two parts, <span style="font-style: italic;">About, above</span> invites the viewer into a world of lo-fi nature through participatory sculpture and installation. A suite of solar-powered cardboard planetariums in the streets of Sydney, and a camera obscura universe at Firstdraft Gallery both draw in part on early texts and representations of the night sky, as well as ideas of pattern, navigation, simulation, geocentricism and the peculiar nature of light.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">About, above </span>aims to consider how we choose to navigate through our worlds, and how we choose what it is that we see.<br /><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span></span><br />Documentation and process of <span style="font-style: italic;">About, above</span> can be found <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/search/label/about%20above">here</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNs1DAP65YDow3jF1KmmgN0uUVHs-OLhoSat-MgWhCeflYqhnmxpSOwrEHUvs4xzO2-6gYmpVNKdMu7omPPGLIyCtJOUaWKe6rHGKJEx8_-WkTwKgVHGSuSmE-mad27VbciRmBCRx3YPUA/s1600-h/AA01.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNs1DAP65YDow3jF1KmmgN0uUVHs-OLhoSat-MgWhCeflYqhnmxpSOwrEHUvs4xzO2-6gYmpVNKdMu7omPPGLIyCtJOUaWKe6rHGKJEx8_-WkTwKgVHGSuSmE-mad27VbciRmBCRx3YPUA/s200/AA01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189362781278781618" border="0" /> </a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq93_BRnHB177hV-yY_PgIMQy7FaAP645YEaikUqiUCrJSnxOUKyPD6PmIPTDCDqoDCdC3-UI-OEpL27dfpeXmm-YkeYIPw9wtMQsB-IXyvCWODfS6soJI78NF1JXa7FVbgswCH3r3Q-kv/s1600-h/AA02.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq93_BRnHB177hV-yY_PgIMQy7FaAP645YEaikUqiUCrJSnxOUKyPD6PmIPTDCDqoDCdC3-UI-OEpL27dfpeXmm-YkeYIPw9wtMQsB-IXyvCWODfS6soJI78NF1JXa7FVbgswCH3r3Q-kv/s200/AA02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189362785573748930" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">About, above</span> room sheet: click each page to enlarge</span><br /></div><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">The artist would like to thank the Directors of Firstdraft for being such a sterling crew, Fiona Hall for her encouragement and mentorship, Nick Ritar for being himself, Jack Barton for his truck, Michelle McKosker for her enthusiasim, and Sofie Loizou for her floor and her friendship. Thanks also to John Power for his ongoing discussion and to Experimenta for facilitating the Fiona Hall mentorship.<br /><br />This project has been made possible by Firstdraft Gallery through their Emerging Artist-in-residence program, and by EXPERIMENTA through their Media Art Mentorship program. Firstdraft is supported by NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.<br /><br />EXPERIMENTA 's Media Art Mentorship project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Young and Emerging Artists Initiative through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. EXPERIMENTA gratefully acknowledges the assistance of CraftSouth to the EXPERIMENTA Media Art Mentorship Program.</span>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-10720175693022306262008-04-01T19:38:00.000-07:002008-04-29T19:39:28.159-07:00All in the pinhole<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/2412271719_09832723c3_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3057/2412271719_09832723c3_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">Installation view of my pinhole starmap at Firstdraft, prior to it being covered with a screen in order to create the camera obscura...<br /><br /></span></div>Camera obscura is something that I am rather in love with, and I have been ever since I made <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2007/07/forgetting-you-is-like-breathing-water.html">Forgetting you is like breathing water</a> and the <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/search/label/ers">Ever Rotating Sky</a> series, back in <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/search/label/Banff">Banff</a> last June... I do feel that this fundamentally simple yet gawkingly special technique is something that I could spend many years coming to know.<br /><br />The second part of <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/search/label/about%20above">About, above</a> is therefore a little marriage between the solar-powered-planetarium theme and camera obscura... in the form of an installation in the front gallery of <a href="http://www.firstdraftgallery.com/">Firstdraft </a>in Sydney.<br /><br />all in the name of exploring simplicity as an emotional experience, of considering light as a revered substance, and playing with patterns and tessellations and multiple images in order to create a small piece of contemplation... and, of course, the chance to create a cardboard grotto...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2389/2413109702_f60ba19369_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2389/2413109702_f60ba19369_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Gallery 3, all blacked out with cardboard - there are big windows behind said cardboard at center and at right. The starmap is holes in MDF, attached the window at the center of the image. All this needs is a rear-projection screen over the mdf (on a frame, which creates the necessary cavity between pinhole and screen), the lights turned out, and we're rolling - </span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/2412278095_d0ee847a5b_b.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3092/2412278095_d0ee847a5b_b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">my MDF-and-pinhole version of William Herschel's 1785 <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/04/paths-through-dark-room.html">depiction</a> of the Milky Way (prior to screen palcementover the top). There is an exterior window (west facing across Chalmers St) directly behind the MDF. The camera obscura starmap that is created will measure 2.5m wide by 1.5m high.</span></div>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-36092160092958802542008-03-25T19:36:00.000-07:002008-04-29T19:37:40.076-07:00Drawing the birds path<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2309/2342896206_fdaf86b945_o.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2309/2342896206_fdaf86b945_o.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">The Lund Observatory illustration of the Milky Way, completed in 1956. The original work is 2m wide. Click image for a larger view - it's absolutely scrumptious.<br /><br /></span></div>More Milky Way-ness. Like the <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2007/08/potted-history-of-orrery.html">Orrery</a>, depictions of the sky above have been something we have really tried hard to encompass. And so I must mention a couple of especially endearing representations...<br /><span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="on" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"></span></span><br />The <a href="http://www.astro.lu.se/Resources/Vintergatan/vintergatane.html">Lund</a> map of the Milky way (in which you can see the <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/04/birds-path.html">Emu <span style="font-style: italic;">dark cloud constellation</span></a> quite well) is actually an illustration, even though it looks very much like a photograph. Professor Knut Lundmark, in 1955 or something, had a team of astronomers sit down for what must have been quite some time and accurately map and depict the Milky way for all posterity.<br /><br />Apparently, upon completion of the grand task, the brighter stars had to be 'mussed up' somewhat and made a little more fuzzy. Though painstakingly accurate in their relative brightness to the rest of the illustration, the closer stars just didn't look right... too pointy and sharp. And so, the astronomers pulled out the 19th century version of the Gaussian blur and made everything a little more misty... less accurate, but more believable...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2298/2342072771_86a171cd76_o.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2298/2342072771_86a171cd76_o.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;"> The shape of the Milky Way as deduced from star counts by William Herschel in 1785; the Solar System was assumed near center.<br /><br /></span></div>My other favorite depiction of the Milky Way is by William Herschel. When I first saw this I assumed it was from way back, maybe the 13th or 14th century... but no, William made this one in 1785. It is a diagram he made while attempting to count the stars in the Milky way. You may notice that all the stars are all of a rather even amplitude of brightness... it would seem that William had the opposite problem to Professor Lund and his team...Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-91789581623165183352008-03-24T19:34:00.000-07:002008-04-29T19:36:02.192-07:00The Birds path<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2316957277_498bde11b7.jpg?v=0"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2316957277_498bde11b7.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">The Milky Way, as depicted by Goldbach, C. F. (Christoph Friedrich), 1763-1811, from somewhere in the northern hemisphere...<br /><br /></span></div>The <a href="http://canopus.physik.uni-potsdam.de/%7Eaxm/photo.cgi?Image=images/mwpan45s_full">Milky Way</a> is dear to the hearts of many throughout history, including me, always, but especially now. Known as the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Bird's Path</span> in the Baltic, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Path of Straw </span>in parts of Africa and Asia, and the <span style="font-style: italic;">Silver River System</span> in Japanese, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Milky Way</span> has, understandably, played a very important role in the Mythologies of our species.<br /><br />A couple of years ago, I was in Outback Australia, at night. A core group of us were camping together at an abandoned camel-train camp next to a dry creekbed, south of Alice Springs. We were getting to know each other because we were planning to make a theater piece together - <a href="http://www.ngapartji.org/">Ngapartji Ngapartji</a>.<br /><br />The main actor/co-writer of the piece, Trevor Jamieson - a young man from the Spinefex mob, suddenly stood up from the campfire and asked if we wanted to see the Emu in the Milky way? Um, sure... (I was expecting a constellation which required, like most of the European constellations, a fair bit of grace and imagination in order to make an image out of 5 disparate stars)... and so we plodded off into the desert night, away from the campfire... and looked up.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/AboriginalAstronomy/Examples/emu.htm">Emu constellation</a> Trevor showed us stretched across the entire sky, from south to north, and was completely, instantly, recognizable, once we knew how to look. The Emu's head rests on the Southern Cross, and its feathers and its body stretch across the sky, right overhead, down to its clawed feet on the northern horizon.<br /><br />Now for the clincher that had me in tears; it was an anti-constellation. It was the darkness that made the outline of the Emu, not the light. The Emu was made up of the voids within the Milky way, from its beak to its tail... to see it, you looked past the stars, past all that twinkly brightness, into the darkness beyond. And that was where the Emu was.<br /><br />A constellation like the Emu is what is known in Western <a href="http://www.le.ac.uk/has/cr/index.html">archeoastronomy</a> as a <span style="font-style: italic;">dark cloud constellation</span> - I've found a couple of references to cultures that encompass them within their astronomy.. mostly Indigenous Australian nations, cultures from Peru (where the sky is very clear) and some Pacific cultures where they <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/02/pulling-sky-past-you.html">pull the sky past them</a> while traveling.<br /><br />The idea of shapes and entities made up of voids... of light's role being that of a surrounding boundary, not the substance of the entity... mmm.Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-54950979727232673592008-02-23T22:07:00.000-08:002008-02-23T22:08:11.448-08:00About, above: Day 2<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/2286849481_f247ccb74e.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/2286849481_f247ccb74e.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">Belmore Park, 9am</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/2287709192_1f49b405e5.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/2287709192_1f49b405e5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">looking up and into the planetarium - you can see the stars!</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2189/2286858081_069f5b3298.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2189/2286858081_069f5b3298.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">curiosity got the better of them</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Belmore Park, 11.20am</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/2287654746_dc81754afc.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/2287654746_dc81754afc.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Belmore Park, 11am</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2051/2286867329_e013ced95f.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2051/2286867329_e013ced95f.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Belmore Park, 11.01am</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2287641548_9e48678dce.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2287641548_9e48678dce.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">matching shorts</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Belmore Park, 9am</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2286863497_5a7886ab07.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2286863497_5a7886ab07.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">kids just ran straight towards it, and got it immediately... they didn't need to read no tag...</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Belmore Park, 11.30am</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/2287648636_91d42063fa.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/2287648636_91d42063fa.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Belmore Park, 11.30am</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2344/2287687038_1ed630596c.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2344/2287687038_1ed630596c.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Camera obscuras of the leafy canopy above, seen from inside the planetarium</span><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Belmore Park, 3.30pm</span><br /></div><br /><br />Day 2 was so very different from <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/02/about-above-day-1.html">Day 1</a>... I had made this planetarium just over double the size of the ones I installed on <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/02/about-above-day-1.html">Day 1</a>, and the scale of this one turned out to be an ideal balance between largesse and seclusion.<br /><br />The crowds passing through Belmore Park (which is next to Central Station in Sydney, so quite a busy thoroughfare) were much more inclined to segue from the path and interact with this planetarium, it seemed... lots of people and kids running over to it, ducking under and staying in there for ages. We even had a line-up a couple of times...<br /><br />This planetarium was an experience that people could easily share with each other, which is what I had hoped would happen. Being more than twice as wide as the <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/02/about-above-day-1.html">Day 1</a> planetariums, this one fitted about 3 adults or 5 kids comfortably inside at once... which made for some great moments... lots of little kids being lifted up to see the stars, then put back down, then crying to be lifted up again and see more stars...<br /><br />Although I'm new at object-street-art (if that's what it is...?...), it is already clear to me that there is a fine line between an object which invites both curiosity <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> interaction, and an object that invites curiosity only... the <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/02/about-above-day-1.html">Day 1</a> planetariums were, for the most part, on the 'curiosity only' side of that line... people did occasionally duck inside to investigate, but it wasn't an immediate reaction. Clearly, small weird cardboard things that hang from trees are there to be photographed infront of. However, slightly larger weird cardboard things that hang from trees are there to be fully investigated, explored, enjoyed and shared.<br /><br />So it's the excitement of one's first fridge-sized box all over again. Only the box is impregnated with the night sky. And it's hanging from a tree.<br /><br />Stacks of photos from the day <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/sets/72157603974373747/">here</a>.<br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Thanks to <a href="http://www.spatnloogie.com/">Kat Spat</a> and her homeboy Kurt for adding to the documentation. Thanks to <a href="http://www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au/about-us.html">Nick</a> for being a legend. Thanks to <a href="http://www.jbdd.com/">Jack</a> for his truck. Thanks to Sydney for being the wonderfully curious and twisted town that it is.</span>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-4272097731046397372008-02-22T00:01:00.001-08:002008-02-22T00:01:31.356-08:00About, above: Day 1<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2282544883_d0abd74038.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2282544883_d0abd74038.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Cardboard Planetarium, Macquarie Place, 7am</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3223/2282541831_2f45b8d437.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3223/2282541831_2f45b8d437.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Macquarie Place, 9.20am</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2283318272_6cd6f71277.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2283318272_6cd6f71277.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Hyde Park, 10.30am</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/2283272562_8972182270.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/2283272562_8972182270.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Inside the Planetarium, 10.35am</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2284/2283346206_6cf99c1781.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2284/2283346206_6cf99c1781.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Macquarie Place, 10.50am</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2027/2283303626_456505383c.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2027/2283303626_456505383c.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Hyde Park, 8.15am</span></div>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-54888933729839778252008-02-21T23:29:00.000-08:002008-02-21T23:30:18.327-08:00About, above: Locations<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2173/2279749691_d9e74acedb.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2173/2279749691_d9e74acedb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">fliers for the event - made from scraps of genuine planetariums!</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><span style="font-size: 130%;">About, above: Part 1</span></span><br />solar-powered cardboard planetariums.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 100%;">Friday 22nd - Saturday 23rd February, 2008</span><br /><br />Viewing welcome at the following locations:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friday 22nd onwards, starting at sunrise:</span><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=110885995753211121089.0004469e563dc5ab96087&ll=-33.871627,151.212602&spn=0.020667,0.039997&z=15&iwloc=0004469e5dac0f38a7f15">Hyde Park (nr Park St)</a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110885995753211121089.0004469e563dc5ab96087&ll=-33.860652,151.212173&spn=0.020669,0.039997&z=15">Macquarie Place (nr Customs House)</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Saturay 23rd onwards, starting at sunrise:</span><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=110885995753211121089.0004469e563dc5ab96087&ll=-33.871698,151.212602&spn=0.020667,0.039997&z=15&iwloc=0004469e5a066cd2af4e5">Belmore Park (nr Central Station)</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Three cardboard planetariums installed throughout the Sydney CBD , rain, hail or shine. You are welcome to duck inside, and to stand for a moment (or as long as you like) inside a solar-powered simulation of the night sky. </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/02/about-above-invitation-to-planetariums.html">Full project description.</a><br /><br /><br />The planetariums are both delicate and temporary. Being installed, as they are, in public spaces, it is hard to say how they will fare and how long they will last. If you cannot find the planetarium that you have come to visit, it is possible that it has been re-purposed, or transplanted by someone... try visiting one of the other planetariums on the map.<br /><br /><br />Enjoy! Comments and feedback very welcome.<br /><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=110885995753211121089.0004469e563dc5ab96087&ll=-33.862828,151.216973&spn=0.010342,0.019999&source=embed" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;"><iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110885995753211121089.0004469e563dc5ab96087&ll=-33.87205,151.212164&spn=0.002473,0.004259&output=embed&s=AARTsJrj7LRZy0gEKP5HNqVoysPTjqIxAQ" frameborder="0" height="350" scrolling="no" width="425"></iframe><br /></a><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110885995753211121089.0004469e563dc5ab96087&ll=-33.87205,151.212164&spn=0.002473,0.004259&source=embed" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;">View Larger Map</a></small></small>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-57705779085200949742008-02-19T14:50:00.000-08:002008-02-19T14:51:08.460-08:00INVITE to About, above: Part 1<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2151/2275085575_a587cb7637.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2151/2275085575_a587cb7637.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Cardboard planetarium - first outing.<br /><br /></span></div><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 100%;">Please be advised that on Friday 22nd + Saturday 23rd February, 2008, there will be three Cardboard Planetariums installed throughout the Sydney CBD, rain, hail or shine. You are very much invited. Details of exact locations will be advised on this website on Thursday 21st Feb.</span><br /><br />The splendor of the night sky has been a source of wonder, discovery and agitation for our species throughout human history. The observation of the heavens has defined religions, revolutionized scientific thought, guided navigators, and inspired countless mythologies. It has been said that 'they who cannot see the night sky, cannot see...'<br /><br />In most urban environments, and cities in particular, light pollution renders the night sky down to a few of the brightest stars and planets, obscuring the majority of what has been so essential to our species' development. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Perhaps the stimulus of stargazing is not essential to a happy life. But just in case...<br /><br />The Cardboard Planetariums will be found throughout the city, hanging in space, rotating lazily around their central hanging axis. You are welcome to duck inside, and to stand for a moment (or as long as you like) inside a solar-powered simulation of the night sky.<br /><br />These cardboard universes, created with pinholes, contain a starchart accurate to 12 Midnight on Friday 22nd Feb, 2008. A solar-powered simulation of what is hidden, about and above, on a nightly basis.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">About, above</span> is a project in two parts, created by Kirsten Bradley during her time as Artist-in-Residence at Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney. Part 1 is the installation and documentation of Cardboard Planetariums throughout the Sydney CBD in mid-February 2008. Part 2 is an installation at First Draft Gallery in April, 2008.<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />About, above</span> looks at pattern recognition and simulation, how we view 'nature', and what constitutes 'the natural' at this point in western thought. In a world out of balance, <span style="font-style: italic;">About, above</span> also touches on points of Geocentricism, and asks how, as an urbanised culture, have we <span style="font-size: 100%;">chosen to see as we do, for all this time.</span><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /><br /><br /></span><br /></span><span style="font-size: 78%;">This project has been made possible by <a href="http://www.firstdraftgallery.com/">Firstdraft Gallery</a> through their <a href="http://firstdraftgallery.blogspot.com/">Emerging Artist-in-residence program</a>, and by <a href="http://experimenta.org/">EXPERIMENTA</a> through their Media Art Mentorship program. </span><span class="style13"><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;"><br />Firstdraft is supported by NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the A<span class="style14">rts, its arts funding and advisory body. EXPERIMENTA 's Media Art Mentorship projec</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 78%;">t has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Young and Emerging Artists Initiative through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. EXPERIMENTA gratefully acknowledges the assistance of CraftSouth to the EXPERIMENTA Media Art Mentorship Program.</span>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-39051244698646155422008-02-17T03:46:00.000-08:002008-12-10T23:38:50.549-08:00LEO COYTE<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbUGrruBsBnUfSE7h2V_cc6wedpnqI2vS9qL1IQLMB0EB18yPfbQyTQBtAPr-A6FNmzwK2pZtAgHTwZiDqO9FpFM0j2dIsGv6uEO1vRGbl5hCtlhuJcZ5IFLtRGXNUYZOFkafKJyKwN669/s1600-h/IMGP0362.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbUGrruBsBnUfSE7h2V_cc6wedpnqI2vS9qL1IQLMB0EB18yPfbQyTQBtAPr-A6FNmzwK2pZtAgHTwZiDqO9FpFM0j2dIsGv6uEO1vRGbl5hCtlhuJcZ5IFLtRGXNUYZOFkafKJyKwN669/s200/IMGP0362.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167914547947290578" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvY2T89hmZvWQ0K8doRW3vjF_N2hGpXTepsWrg5BFXlWUU3IRmvYQbzDXtMsAW32lUYHeYRjVvU3t9i-QdT9XReh2KushxYWPZl03rKM48hMs5aT-K1zvmTkj5XjAs9THpk0Uq6Zx7dGa0/s1600-h/IMGP0367.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvY2T89hmZvWQ0K8doRW3vjF_N2hGpXTepsWrg5BFXlWUU3IRmvYQbzDXtMsAW32lUYHeYRjVvU3t9i-QdT9XReh2KushxYWPZl03rKM48hMs5aT-K1zvmTkj5XjAs9THpk0Uq6Zx7dGa0/s200/IMGP0367.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167914595191930850" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGPUoBnR77C1M7Ws7z8PdPM4zOihYvI7q9ecSbSQMfT6lo2bkZWvs88day7XSQ9XrlxSGxP7EMPduH_351U1OY4dUnmnAx5fHZY_AlRB4jE61AMqZV2XLXwHdP526wp7m5BohMuF3uaqAx/s1600-h/IMGP0363.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGPUoBnR77C1M7Ws7z8PdPM4zOihYvI7q9ecSbSQMfT6lo2bkZWvs88day7XSQ9XrlxSGxP7EMPduH_351U1OY4dUnmnAx5fHZY_AlRB4jE61AMqZV2XLXwHdP526wp7m5BohMuF3uaqAx/s200/IMGP0363.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167914599486898162" /></a>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-66589427742975918902008-02-17T03:13:00.000-08:002008-12-10T23:38:51.306-08:00LEO COYTE<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjynAT1F4x2IOG0Fy5jFvV55GtDWmck5wSfEALZwgCQpK17fxkX6B2ym8k7ZZzYDVTu6ydBdZrtwKH6hI_PVgUXvgnpWQBvyshYlGuAcGr7Er7fVF7y5nB9aCrMnFFVtkib28G9xmAVJ0b/s1600-h/IMGP0361.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjynAT1F4x2IOG0Fy5jFvV55GtDWmck5wSfEALZwgCQpK17fxkX6B2ym8k7ZZzYDVTu6ydBdZrtwKH6hI_PVgUXvgnpWQBvyshYlGuAcGr7Er7fVF7y5nB9aCrMnFFVtkib28G9xmAVJ0b/s200/IMGP0361.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167911747628613538" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigoKQ47PsK5Q0Ss6WCJ30PkGdYYlLhOzZ2QsLSXN1J5T6LmTZopcb3HFteWcRFg9EAA7sBxhOSf4dRXlfkFApf91Ts2kPjfemwdRWahBtp1ALrjmVvcJHGaj2s1AqeT-VoU4azr8XHFlfm/s1600-h/IMGP0357.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigoKQ47PsK5Q0Ss6WCJ30PkGdYYlLhOzZ2QsLSXN1J5T6LmTZopcb3HFteWcRFg9EAA7sBxhOSf4dRXlfkFApf91Ts2kPjfemwdRWahBtp1ALrjmVvcJHGaj2s1AqeT-VoU4azr8XHFlfm/s200/IMGP0357.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167911747628613554" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfEXiasBEK6iHVxzvOiDZSn7I3cFVkbyUNCSvK-GJG645V3aKvw2_o1h6EQw3Jf_YY8RHbp0R7KksnIyeZiX2GNNw23YIN1snNdVMUCBcm0Oq_aWBnD3VohdKEpmxvZE7ikJAvIioKNKTV/s1600-h/IMGP0358.JPG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfEXiasBEK6iHVxzvOiDZSn7I3cFVkbyUNCSvK-GJG645V3aKvw2_o1h6EQw3Jf_YY8RHbp0R7KksnIyeZiX2GNNw23YIN1snNdVMUCBcm0Oq_aWBnD3VohdKEpmxvZE7ikJAvIioKNKTV/s200/IMGP0358.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5167911751923580866" /></a><br /><br /><br />Here are some more images of various source material. All is going well in the studio, I have completed most of the paintings and I am getting ready to start building a few structures/objects. Only a few weeks left now, I'll put some images of the actual work up closer to opening night.Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-8841511430146614382008-02-08T14:47:00.000-08:002008-02-19T14:50:18.073-08:00ouchy cardboard arm<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2306/2247365107_b40f7c4529.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2306/2247365107_b40f7c4529.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">my first two small cardboard spheres... hard-won little cardboard worlds that they are...<br /><br /></span></div>I have now two small planetariums mostly finished, after much, much, much cutting of cardboard circles, and the makings of a third planetarium, which will be double in size.<br /><br />As sore as my arm currently is, I must say there is no substitute for hard labour to familiarize oneself with the particulars of creation. I could now make 2v geodesic domes (that's the name of the particular geodesic structures I've been making) in my sleep, with my sore hand tied behind my back. Which is just as well, cause until you get your head around the construction of geodesic structures, they're really confusing.<br /><br />Thank crikey for a couple of essential online resources - particularly this fab <a href="http://www.cccoe.net/stars/2mdome.html">'how to make a cardboard dome for your classroom' </a>page, and this excellent <a href="http://www.desertdomes.com/domecalc.html">dome calculator</a>, which helped me get all the lengths right.<br /><br />Next innings, it's all about mapping accurate starmaps onto the domes. Which will be sweet confusion all over again, but at least i dont have to cut out anymore cardboard circles.Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-86988008942080707182008-02-07T14:45:00.000-08:002008-12-10T23:39:36.818-08:00Planetarium library<div style="text-align: left; font-family: times new roman;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpJdfAPo5mfvTj8a8sOiZqpFYr-vlzUcQlZg1Ajq3xtbqhnsVuBLmu1kfOZhqNRJMsnzMOxugPQ6T8dzEJ_NrEquqIs_glWwd8GOTUOWZKjOPl0nU8u5mL_xDXLY7_YeuONhZ1z6vKh94/s1600-h/nature+design2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpJdfAPo5mfvTj8a8sOiZqpFYr-vlzUcQlZg1Ajq3xtbqhnsVuBLmu1kfOZhqNRJMsnzMOxugPQ6T8dzEJ_NrEquqIs_glWwd8GOTUOWZKjOPl0nU8u5mL_xDXLY7_YeuONhZ1z6vKh94/s400/nature+design2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164108016828921010" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNqqcP78OxOk09ReStZ8HA0AOpjXtsyVeFRS58iVxHc92wyTeYWXjarMJ3rpxKCO7GN95vf7hPcyhh9fwZZAWPh121rgzoa0qwcRq9Pt5xDazxt1o4lac-CypbV0vmGr2sQ4CA7fB2DFYQ/s1600-h/forests.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNqqcP78OxOk09ReStZ8HA0AOpjXtsyVeFRS58iVxHc92wyTeYWXjarMJ3rpxKCO7GN95vf7hPcyhh9fwZZAWPh121rgzoa0qwcRq9Pt5xDazxt1o4lac-CypbV0vmGr2sQ4CA7fB2DFYQ/s400/forests.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164106736928666738" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqNOsuJkkBqeLTbVfKBg9PIEJrJequq25ehDRj-bwMavsS1_rGVHM5y422y9OFlKpcNZo3_JQy5VbsvBGTsysl6-oOabrW10lMRn3hR_Hy4bvszo6k0M4b0ZYzWGZdpm0ds4Xn8Z7NqPE/s1600-h/landscape+and+memory2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqNOsuJkkBqeLTbVfKBg9PIEJrJequq25ehDRj-bwMavsS1_rGVHM5y422y9OFlKpcNZo3_JQy5VbsvBGTsysl6-oOabrW10lMRn3hR_Hy4bvszo6k0M4b0ZYzWGZdpm0ds4Xn8Z7NqPE/s400/landscape+and+memory2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164107909454738594" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsQ8saUR4yg7jDhig7r8-ZLIdot5XrrR8-1WvBTS4nvV3e_BawpI9cfjV60R5YmHOvi4YWp6FrAXRwimH5UyfeAFl4iZizO1gAqEte5LPC0AGjpikOte_tyevvnnWurqx3ioYX_hl_LXwy/s1600-h/fieldguide.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsQ8saUR4yg7jDhig7r8-ZLIdot5XrrR8-1WvBTS4nvV3e_BawpI9cfjV60R5YmHOvi4YWp6FrAXRwimH5UyfeAFl4iZizO1gAqEte5LPC0AGjpikOte_tyevvnnWurqx3ioYX_hl_LXwy/s400/fieldguide.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164106543655138386" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6O_Gf4pfGPtWl9I26Sf6sAszfpRiwDlX0qeRVK5vR3U5VOQgp6nZUmKj7SzwdMZW6ir0EXcuIgtGctUQpb15LIuYDr7hBI54BNUiNjGDB63xrU0jCLZAB7e28Id_SaW99fGlUiTqNvVED/s1600-h/eyeofthelynx.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6O_Gf4pfGPtWl9I26Sf6sAszfpRiwDlX0qeRVK5vR3U5VOQgp6nZUmKj7SzwdMZW6ir0EXcuIgtGctUQpb15LIuYDr7hBI54BNUiNjGDB63xrU0jCLZAB7e28Id_SaW99fGlUiTqNvVED/s400/eyeofthelynx.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164106453460825154" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj291ZzCZyouzg-WCfTH2DnQinX7EwmRpJQnF2jPTDzpiZlWpBBgm62TWODL72Qyt4lDoRYqLUgP1v1DZtQrtxG4EBvFS8IJlBSlYSf2EBPi75HbFN47MPYDTZLDwwY1aBwfHQoMAhjs3UO/s1600-h/fionahall.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj291ZzCZyouzg-WCfTH2DnQinX7EwmRpJQnF2jPTDzpiZlWpBBgm62TWODL72Qyt4lDoRYqLUgP1v1DZtQrtxG4EBvFS8IJlBSlYSf2EBPi75HbFN47MPYDTZLDwwY1aBwfHQoMAhjs3UO/s400/fionahall.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5164106633849451618" border="0" /></a><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-size: 100%;">Reading list of all things helpful when trying to come to terms with object-making, geocentricism, the psychological role of nature in our history, and the aesthetics of rare experience...<br /><a href="http://www.museum-gestaltung.ch/Htmls/Ausstellungen/Archiv/2007/NatureDesign/natur_e.html"><br /></a></span><span style="font-size: 100%;" class="sans"><a href="http://www.museum-gestaltung.ch/Htmls/Ausstellungen/Archiv/2007/NatureDesign/natur_e.html">Nature Design: From Inspiration to Innovation</a><br /></span><span style="font-size: 100%;">by Barry Bergdoll (Contributor), Dario Gamboni (Contributor), Philip Ursprung (Contributor), Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (Editor), Angeli Sachs (Editor)<br />One of the *most useful* catalogs of natural patterning's influences on design that I've come across - lots of art nouveau examples as well.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bibliovault.org/BV.book.epl?BookId=116">Forests: The Shadow of Civilization</a><br />by Robert Pogue Harrison<br />Some really good thoughts on early Christianity's relationship to the concept and actuality of the forest and the open night sky of the plains.</span><span style="font-size: 100%; color: black;"><br /><br /><a href="http://www.thecityreview.com/books2.html">Landscape And Memory</a><br />by Simon Schama</span><span style="display: block; font-size: 100%;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);">A bit of a classic in the genre of 'landscape, and you'. Seriously interesting.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="display: block; font-size: 100%;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><a href="http://esposito.typepad.com/TQC_1/Field_Guide.html">A Field Guide to Getting Lost</a><br />by Rebecca Solnit</span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;">I keep coming back to this text. It is full of anecdotes, deliciously told, which feed into my projects and jack into that part of my brain that is unconcerned with everyday life. Yum.<br /></span><span style="display: block; font-size: 100%;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span class="down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link" onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);"><a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/14764.ctl"><br />The Eye of the Lynx: <span>Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History.</span></a><br />by David Freedburg<br />Very useful regarding the birth of heliocentric astronomy (versus the 'everything revolves around us' theory, as outlined <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/02/immutable.html">here</a>). The rest is probably good too, I just haven't read the rest yet...<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="http://brunswickstreetbookstore.com/index.php?id=42&backPID=42&begin_at=8&tt_products=218">Fiona Hall</a><br /></span><span style="font-size: 100%; color: black;">by Julie Ewington<br />Yes well the woman is also my mentor currently, but this book is just exquisite - very good overview of her work, with all its intricacies and political implications.</span></span>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-21003023015502497312008-02-04T00:32:00.000-08:002008-02-04T00:33:39.905-08:00pulling the sky past you...<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/2240503947/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2107/2240503947_854333c2a3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">a sea chart or stickchart of some of the Marshall Islands, showing the islands as the nodes (made of cowrie shells) , the swells as curved lines, and the currents as straight lines. This chart would have been used to teach navigation on shore</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/2240503301/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2240503301_8a6eeed88c.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">another stickchart of some of the Marshall Islands, this time made by a German dude as part of an exhibit... you can see that the cowries on the chart correspond (indeed, are actually linked with string) with a conventional map of the Marshall Islands on the wall behind... for the purposes of over-explanation...<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/2241297384/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2241297384_369b8e59d6.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">detail of chart outlining the relationship with swell and islands, again as a navigational tool... if you're at a point where the swells are behaving like (f), you are therefore able to calculate your relative position to the island...<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/2240503669/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2390/2240503669_219ba2d1e2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">another stickchart, again showing islands as cowries, curved lines as island-refracted swells, and straight lines as currents</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/2241298108/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2358/2241298108_8f70328eba.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">and another stickchart of the Marshalls... when I first saw these, I was a bit suspicious that they all had a boat outlined in them... me and my pea-sized brain... a boat is a refraction is a leaf is a swell-line...<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: left;">Micronesian navigation is something I'm looking at because it seemed to be a very intricate and yet a very pliable form of navigation... a set of strategies for dealing with travel on highways constantly in flux - i.e. the ocean passages between the myriad of islands that is the Polynesian triangle...<br /><br />The anecdote that nudged me in this direction was from my very wonderful friend, Annemarie Kohn, who mentioned to me the Micronesian navigational concept of a navigator or traveler remaining stationary in their canoe while 'pulling the sky past you', when traveling at sea. Apart from being an overwhelmingly romantic moment of magical realism, this concept really got to me.<br /><br />It turns out that the <span style="font-style: italic;">Etak</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Hatag</span> system only employs this stationary/contingent system of navigation as a device, as a way of thinking about distance when traveling from one island to another... you, the navigator of the boat, are stationary in the universe, and by having intrinsic knowledge of the ocean, currents and placement of the stars and islands which you have learnt since you were young, you can twist, turn and push the universe around and past you, until your destination island shows up.<br /><br />However... still within this system; if you figure out that your boat has gone off course, the universe becomes stationary and you become the moving object, until such a time as you have regained a sense of where you are in the system... at which point, you become stationary again, and continue to pull the sky past you...<br /><br />There are so many deliciously un-European aspects to Polynesian navigation that it is truly stunning... and it makes my brain purrrrrr.<br /><br />In sort-of but not-really complete contrast, all this has made me remember a reference to a passage by <a href="http://del.icio.us/kirsten_bradley/solnit">Rebecca Solnit</a> in her seminal book <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051121/gorra">A field guide to getting lost</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Malcolm... brought up the Wintu in north-central California, who don't use the words 'left' and 'right' to describe their own bodies but use the cardinal directions. I was enraptured by this description of a language and behind it a cultural imagination in which the self only exists in reference to the rest of the world, no you without mountains, without sun, without sky. As Dorothy Lee wrote, "When the Wintu goes up the river, the hills are to the west, the river to the east; and a mosquito bites him on the west arm. When he returns, the hills are still to the west, but, when he scratches his mosquito bite, he scratches his east arm." ... In Wintu, its the world that's stable, yourself that's contingent, there's nothing apart from its surroundings.<br /><br /></span>I've gathered the links I've found on <a href="http://del.icio.us/kirsten_bradley/navigation">micronesian navigation here</a>...<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: 78%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cicada/2241296964/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2253/2241296964_c608395869.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">what's happening at the Marshall Islands these days... US missile testing</span></div>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-24380435687966555822008-02-04T00:31:00.001-08:002008-02-04T00:31:56.242-08:00immutable<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Cellarius&CISOPTR=254&CISOBOX=1&REC=7"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://content.lib.utah.edu/cgi-bin/getimage.exe?CISOROOT=/Cellarius&CISOPTR=254&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=1024&DMHEIGHT=768&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=%22World%20maps%22&REC=7&DMTHUMB=1&DMROTATE=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span class="maintext"><span style="font-style: italic;">Moon in an eccentric orbit with epicycles</span> -</span><span class="maintext"> A</span></span><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span class="maintext">ndreas </span></span><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span class="maintext">Cellarius (c. 1596-1650)... </span>the orbits of the moon around the earth - rather convoluted to allow for the intricacies of sustaining geocentricism</span><br /></div><span style="font-size: 78%;"><br /></span>The shift in perception from an earth-centered universe towards a universe where we, the earth, revolved around something else, is a somewhat hairy patch within astronomical history...<br /><br />I'm still sorting it all out for myself, but the basics are as follows: until the early 1600's, it was accepted in Europe that the earth was the centre of the universe. All the planets (which the sun counted as one of), the moon and 'the rest of the stars' were all lodged within spheres of crystal, which rotated around the earth. The moon was wedged in the closest crystal sphere, followd by the planets in a slightly larger (and therefore, further away) crystal sphere, followed by all the rest of the stars, which were locked into a single third sphere which rotated around the whole lot.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/Cellarius&CISOPTR=417&CISOBOX=1&REC=10"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://content.lib.utah.edu/cgi-bin/getimage.exe?CISOROOT=/Cellarius&CISOPTR=417&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=1024&DMHEIGHT=768&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=%22World%20maps%22&REC=10&DMTHUMB=1&DMROTATE=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span class="maintext"><span style="font-style: italic;">Planetary orbits around the earth</span> - Andreas Cellarius (c. 1596-1650)<br /><br /></span></span></div>The heavens were immutable and permanent, the rotation and motion of the stars regular and un-ceasing. For the heavens were perfect and unchangeable, as god had made them that way.<br /><br />Until upstarts like Copernicus and Galileo came along and buggered everything up, by offering (and proving via observation) plausible alternatives to this system. And then in 1604 there was a supernova - (the death of a star - the star gets MUCH brighter for a couple of days and then phuts out completely) which added to the grief of the situation, because this particular star wasn't visible to the naked eye prior to going supernova, so all of a sudden there was this really bright star for three days, which then disappeared... and this didn't fit in with the bit about all things being immutable and unchanging, obviously...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2FCellarius&CISOPTR=301&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=1024&DMHEIGHT=768&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=0&DMOLDSCALE=18.75000&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMTHUMB=1&REC=1&DMROTATE=0&x=74&y=71"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://content.lib.utah.edu/cgi-bin/getimage.exe?CISOROOT=/Cellarius&CISOPTR=301&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=1024&DMHEIGHT=768&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&REC=1&DMTHUMB=1&DMROTATE=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span class="maintext"><span style="font-style: italic;">A depiction of the Copernican system</span> - </span></span><span style="font-size: 78%;"><span class="maintext">Andreas Cellarius (c. 1596-1650)... an alternative, heliocentric model. It took a while to catch on.<br /><br /></span></span></div>The thing that's tickling me at the moment is the lengths to which pre-1600 astronomers had to go to make all the motions of the heavens fit in with the geocentric idea (which was pretty much everything)... and the resulting charts and maps... great stuff...<br /><br />I often wonder if the position we've put ourselves in, as western society, doesn't seem to indicate that we still think everything revolves around us... however these days we don't need illustrated charts to prove ourselves as the centre of the universe.. we have so many other ways... and we certainly don't need the church to tell us that we are the reason for creation, now that we've got... well, the ability to satisfy our every want, i guess...<br /><br />Which brings me back to the night sky. Within a city, in the middle bit, the heavens and the general universe at large could be mutable or immutable or whatever they damn well please... it wouldn't make a jot of difference - you can't see it anyway, and it's not of any concern to you. Which makes me wonder about ways of seeing, and the perception of the world beyond the tops of the skyscrapers.. is there anything there? Maybe not. Or maybe only when the Goodyear blimp goes past does a pocket of the sky temporarily exist... and then fall back in on itself and revert to a blankness, with no relevance or meaning to us...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.usno.navy.mil/library/rare/rare.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.usno.navy.mil/library/rare/goldbachGEM.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"> Goldbach, C. F. (Christoph Friedrich), 1763-1811... I take it Christoph wasn't in the city when he sketched this one.<br /><br /></span></div>No that there's much to see in the sky above Sydney today... look up and you'll get a big fat raindrop in your eye... which, by the way, the very fabulous artist <a href="http://www.sfcamerawork.org/past_exhibits/TheImageAfter.html">Joan Fontcuberta</a> used as constellations onetime (raindrops, that is - with insects and dirt) in photographs of a windscreen...Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-4458277234453703422008-01-24T21:08:00.001-08:002008-01-24T21:08:41.514-08:00single-serve universe<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2282/2217475791_8899d12c2a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2282/2217475791_8899d12c2a.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">cardboard planetarium - draft of single size<br /><br /></span></div>they will hang. From tree branches in parks and also, somehow, in laneways. The light will come though, and the universe will rotate on its single string...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2398/2218268826_c987eef1c3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2398/2218268826_c987eef1c3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">universe for one...</span></div>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-87118323457462521332008-01-24T01:40:00.000-08:002008-01-24T01:42:34.796-08:00slice<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2337/2216427924_f0413c5f01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2337/2216427924_f0413c5f01.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">planetarium facets in progress - model test<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span></span></div>It is always best to finish off an idea before moving on. I don't want any un-requited projects haunting me when i get old, following me around the house and nipping at my old-lady slippers.<br /><br />So the forests need to wait a week or two before being allowed to cloud my vision entirely. I need to make that planetarium first.<br /><br />About 6 months ago, a Canadian artist, Shaunna Dunn, mentioned the phrase 'cardboard constellations' in my presence. The phrase stuck to me. And that turned into an idea for a cardboard planetarium, that could just sit, alone, in a laneway or a street.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2292/2216426272_0c7262db7b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2292/2216426272_0c7262db7b.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">the cutting room floor... many boxes met their death here today...<br /><br /></span></div>A cardboard dome, punched with pinholes. The sunshine comes through the pinholes, and becomes the stars. In this little dark cardboard place. It's a moments visual silence in the middle of the city. Stargazing as you would on a mountain top, but not. You're in some noisy laneway. In the daytime. But the stars are there too. Powered by the sun. A simplified simulation of what we can no longer see, where most of us live...<br /><br />So. Cardboard is me. I am cardboard. And paper binders. And starcharts of the sydney sky in summer.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2418/2216428054_007d30f910.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2418/2216428054_007d30f910.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">permanent curvature of the spine from 12 hours cutting corrugated cardboard with stanley knife in an un-ergonomic position</span><br /></div> <span class="post-author vcard"><br /></span><span class="post-timestamp"><a class="timestamp-link" href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2008/01/slicing.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2008-01-24T20:05:00+11:00"></abbr></a> </span> <span class="post-comment-link"> </span>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-59455420701374713182008-01-21T02:49:00.000-08:002008-12-10T23:39:37.021-08:00Leo Coyte... Checking-in<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQm7pLBDw1lCzIuW947VBzQlQlJ6qyxI0Lp01OTxo10cy2fFPeqcMrrF5eoo8lie7wXn1KFVLuH9FQ8kInZ0AOyDEXWBgD3khzHARjEkerkJGbYz6Ccn0H13oYv4R2JFhdgUB9yTRs1qPE/s1600-h/IMGP0360.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQm7pLBDw1lCzIuW947VBzQlQlJ6qyxI0Lp01OTxo10cy2fFPeqcMrrF5eoo8lie7wXn1KFVLuH9FQ8kInZ0AOyDEXWBgD3khzHARjEkerkJGbYz6Ccn0H13oYv4R2JFhdgUB9yTRs1qPE/s200/IMGP0360.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5157884190499858882" border="0" /></a><br />I've been set-up in the studio for almost a month now, here's some of the source material that I've accumulated and been working with over this time...Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-82906297588455132332008-01-11T16:47:00.000-08:002008-12-10T23:39:39.341-08:00cardboard-edness<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyh6QtsYFMYVCwiQ9674T3svt_zirZyMQAiBcj7ls9bYvM5QN7jBtlC2_nNC1GaBCfWwV0MKDfaj3cPg7ZwxT21OrzmhFvHsz5jBiLkoW0TI9zjCcwwELQulAwtdf1n398MiqY0htMlr79/s1600-h/tai.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyh6QtsYFMYVCwiQ9674T3svt_zirZyMQAiBcj7ls9bYvM5QN7jBtlC2_nNC1GaBCfWwV0MKDfaj3cPg7ZwxT21OrzmhFvHsz5jBiLkoW0TI9zjCcwwELQulAwtdf1n398MiqY0htMlr79/s400/tai.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154123623579050946" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><a href="http://www.taisnaith.com/">Tai Snaith</a> - of style mutual<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioJCJYG-s11x3qV-RejGT3NCXHUJl3EbzSWjCowSqiFbCpCwFkp4AU83JOvtdQximFCVpFlnKA-EuQmPi38Ybhmmt8xLdRUyga4sNwvNSMYvRdh31jnKvJWsd6ujKv1nH_qj1Wi0uu7fsB/s1600-h/autobus.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioJCJYG-s11x3qV-RejGT3NCXHUJl3EbzSWjCowSqiFbCpCwFkp4AU83JOvtdQximFCVpFlnKA-EuQmPi38Ybhmmt8xLdRUyga4sNwvNSMYvRdh31jnKvJWsd6ujKv1nH_qj1Wi0uu7fsB/s400/autobus.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154122953564152754" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><a href="http://sam3-security.blogspot.com/search/label/sculpture">Sam3</a> - parking packaging<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh70W_G_uFt5s90VBc_KFeOifxT0ijpI97eSkQklNEfMqYlKzsvDju21GOrOpQw1Qujnaf6_0T-triPRxVj1hx3wpyPUpi8K0hbgZmAjxsVp-KBHbX2kNkj_lgNh9tETf5FyXEJeck1RQ7l/s1600-h/SAM3_CAR_BLOG.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh70W_G_uFt5s90VBc_KFeOifxT0ijpI97eSkQklNEfMqYlKzsvDju21GOrOpQw1Qujnaf6_0T-triPRxVj1hx3wpyPUpi8K0hbgZmAjxsVp-KBHbX2kNkj_lgNh9tETf5FyXEJeck1RQ7l/s400/SAM3_CAR_BLOG.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154122760290624418" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><a href="http://sam3-security.blogspot.com/search/label/sculpture">Sam3</a> - parking packaging - DIY pattern<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1XNHxED9OX8KEhemB3gdrYAunuDb9QetCtVPGxLIvI8EgyBCu4oVz5URfwtsf5-F0RqJAhdAx6J_Cp5KQmJZREwtLamCmNgPqj5JvBSZSQqGvoh6Rst5AGKMRZm3e-HK2hPWXVxvxZC6/s1600-h/eduardo+vea.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1XNHxED9OX8KEhemB3gdrYAunuDb9QetCtVPGxLIvI8EgyBCu4oVz5URfwtsf5-F0RqJAhdAx6J_Cp5KQmJZREwtLamCmNgPqj5JvBSZSQqGvoh6Rst5AGKMRZm3e-HK2hPWXVxvxZC6/s400/eduardo+vea.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154122270664352658" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">Eduardo Vea - via <a href="http://www.neu-e.de/pages/page_007.html">box doodle project</a><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdmZGy2S7lfhyphenhyphen4vSDKTYD7YQ8jOoxKJcJYV6NPRT9oQdY-I2HpF6siFNFl9yjHVU2SM88i-3ARfe06qRSJmE4sBQl7ZsGStP5N0_7T6AOEMPA5bph0RHYw68lyD8SvGNqqnaWiV15UrWJ/s1600-h/2125217991_0070944dab.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdmZGy2S7lfhyphenhyphen4vSDKTYD7YQ8jOoxKJcJYV6NPRT9oQdY-I2HpF6siFNFl9yjHVU2SM88i-3ARfe06qRSJmE4sBQl7ZsGStP5N0_7T6AOEMPA5bph0RHYw68lyD8SvGNqqnaWiV15UrWJ/s400/2125217991_0070944dab.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154115952767460226" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/novisibles/2125219031/">no*visibles</a> - box populi<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEU3nuiQFqQ-Q4rh2BmKFsGTKnedzLsuD3rXKYsZAJam04npXUGRYl1KJP1sTQmqd3JWANIkQm4CiIyE_xUo6sV6p7_CHuKeD91sYI72h0XLM0KXOWOJS2YrAmN1I_pYMDotmiut6FLKm/s1600-h/2024251688_4f6131aaaf.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTEU3nuiQFqQ-Q4rh2BmKFsGTKnedzLsuD3rXKYsZAJam04npXUGRYl1KJP1sTQmqd3JWANIkQm4CiIyE_xUo6sV6p7_CHuKeD91sYI72h0XLM0KXOWOJS2YrAmN1I_pYMDotmiut6FLKm/s400/2024251688_4f6131aaaf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154115669299618674" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">lasercut street goodness via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejake/2024251688/">flickr</a> - ok it might be plywood but I'd like to think it's cardboard<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggrrmZfE8g7XvtOySvjUtgcpGMQ-kAdIdcekh_d4LCWUjqTrrzQkHdFtJqN3U2_NyPrUd1xoK9v-GkXRweJfkt4QzkuYPFRX5PHgtZDosHGP8LHLIbVR7vwTy8ilbxntiPQxnqVoq77DpO/s1600-h/1813001592_7f82a1a694.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggrrmZfE8g7XvtOySvjUtgcpGMQ-kAdIdcekh_d4LCWUjqTrrzQkHdFtJqN3U2_NyPrUd1xoK9v-GkXRweJfkt4QzkuYPFRX5PHgtZDosHGP8LHLIbVR7vwTy8ilbxntiPQxnqVoq77DpO/s400/1813001592_7f82a1a694.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154115372946875234" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/novisibles/sets/72157601947981296/"><span style="font-size: 78%;">el fin del mundo mirando al techo</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMvjePxn4J058Y64-dxgT1cQvXQ0gNg9cUczvE7FfFklKlKpBjEa4itatr9cqH_O0h5yZAvGnwSLa7ZQVG-QXCz5jF1dfIQsZEs2Mbfg-woZPK-t15b4J1WNn4MhUiyUsXjwEhVCXe6Ozd/s1600-h/1783439745_7fbe19ef86.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMvjePxn4J058Y64-dxgT1cQvXQ0gNg9cUczvE7FfFklKlKpBjEa4itatr9cqH_O0h5yZAvGnwSLa7ZQVG-QXCz5jF1dfIQsZEs2Mbfg-woZPK-t15b4J1WNn4MhUiyUsXjwEhVCXe6Ozd/s400/1783439745_7fbe19ef86.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154115102363935570" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">cardboard clouds - from <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7653848@N03/1783439745/in/pool-carton/">flickr</a><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdTd9_PC3aA1n1fqq1kCWUhxNCn1mvzjDU7QJxoLivXNBZhi6oFlrcCDpc2Uk9A9oTUcNUi7tuwIZoOWvE8e2rwlH1xtLgX1hCYyvRq32y3tOeSIT5PAJhyRWBsipjbnAst3TL3kFyPVlx/s1600-h/overtimepeoplewillrcognise-1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdTd9_PC3aA1n1fqq1kCWUhxNCn1mvzjDU7QJxoLivXNBZhi6oFlrcCDpc2Uk9A9oTUcNUi7tuwIZoOWvE8e2rwlH1xtLgX1hCYyvRq32y3tOeSIT5PAJhyRWBsipjbnAst3TL3kFyPVlx/s400/overtimepeoplewillrcognise-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154114900500472642" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">ghostpatrol - <a href="http://www.ghostpatrol.net/exhibitions/hibernating.html">overtimepeoplewillrecognise</a><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Ve30ezytO12LBhh0NB_tmdmSP9rbc9UGnHvr6UeamnEgwxPqZ7hfXX2TjX8nA3oYNyJbXPTZDZwlXAl_8QHirKqiF_eg5UhENYGWdW4dkP4W6Hl4lNvunyu7dBTjn0dgIS20zGQYdLwV/s1600-h/generalcolor_opti.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Ve30ezytO12LBhh0NB_tmdmSP9rbc9UGnHvr6UeamnEgwxPqZ7hfXX2TjX8nA3oYNyJbXPTZDZwlXAl_8QHirKqiF_eg5UhENYGWdW4dkP4W6Hl4lNvunyu7dBTjn0dgIS20zGQYdLwV/s400/generalcolor_opti.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154114707226944306" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"><a href="http://sam3-security.blogspot.com/search/label/sculpture">Sam3</a> again - cardboard man reclining<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHC-tfGfH8VE6IENMhH92VL4UdMvP1e6H8cF_yPsu_ni-k1t5R08aBXv4KrabII7ldjy5yrAMGmkXvE24YkMOaO-1LJswzFVxcH7UKidw867tvs702myUpBI5appnRXhC9Yduc0xqA5tDt/s1600-h/curly.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHC-tfGfH8VE6IENMhH92VL4UdMvP1e6H8cF_yPsu_ni-k1t5R08aBXv4KrabII7ldjy5yrAMGmkXvE24YkMOaO-1LJswzFVxcH7UKidw867tvs702myUpBI5appnRXhC9Yduc0xqA5tDt/s400/curly.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5154114080161719074" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">curly goodness - found on flickr <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/subhala/">here</a></span><br /></div><br />I love the tenacity of cardboard... always accessible, always democratic, always there for you. Cardboard is my friend. Until it goes slimy. And then it's mulch waiting to grow into something else.Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-38618998685313157912008-01-10T18:15:00.000-08:002008-01-10T18:16:39.226-08:00forwards to backwards<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/4/8593275_5fb2567871.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/4/8593275_5fb2567871.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">Installation view of <span style="font-style: italic;">Saltmilk and other wonders</span> at IASKA back on '05... my first foray with the actual as opposed to the purely projected</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/4/8593275_5fb2567871.jpg?v=0"><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span></a><span style="font-size: 78%;"></span></div><br />I have, so far in my practice, not had to confront the practicalities of nailing the <span style="font-style: italic;">object</span>. Through a lens, the object is always just your own version of a dream, anyways. The only time I've ever actually used objects (if i'm going to be correct about this) - I put them thru a series of lenses, which created the final imagery... the object becoming incidental, put there as a form of proof, rather than a necessity.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/5/8592419_d0aac694ee.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/5/8592419_d0aac694ee.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">a twig, backlit by a slide projector, going thru a plastic lens... which flipped the image and resulted in a distorted stand of tree-ish projections which moved in the breeze as the room was quite drafty...<br /><br /></span></div>Now, however, for my forests, objects are needed. And they have to be absolutely exquisite and exactly right in their actuality, not just in their recorded form. And I am now realising how much I have to learn to take this project from concept through to something that actually stacks up. I have to make tiny forests of trees. They need to be robust enough to survive in an underwater installation in a harbor. This will not be easy. Arg.<br /><br />Fortunately, I am hoping that my concerns can be off-set slightly by my new mentor, who I'm having my first meeting this this arvo. The further I go forwards with this project, the more I realise that Fiona Hall might just be sent down from heaven for my own wiley purposes... at the very least, she may be able to offer some advice on taking model making from much-loved concept thru to, well... a forest that doesn't look crap.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/5/8593105_d4cb7c4ae2.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/5/8593105_d4cb7c4ae2.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">my lens-trees.. made of dried weeds from the back of the old basketball court in Kellerberrin<br /><br /></span></div>I have accepted that I may need to make a great deal of awful models before I arrive somewhere useful with this forest thing... so I have begun, and I will endure. But there's many ways to skin this particular cat, so I'm trying to keep in mind that my abstract forest doesn't need to flow completely from my hands... it will be a process of modeling alfoil and wire, collecting twigs and somehow assembling something that can be molded and cast later on down the track, to result in the final objects... a fluid forest of metallic trees that bend in the ocean current.<br /><br />Anyway. It is interesting to embark on tree-making and realise that the shape of a tree, in my head at least, comes from my time making <a href="http://www.cicada.tv/projects/2005-saltmilk-and-other-wonders/saltmilk-and-other-wonders.htm">Saltmilk</a> at Kellerberrin - I did a <a href="http://www.cicada.tv/projects/2005-saltmilk-and-other-wonders/iaska-residency.htm">residency</a> there at IASKA in 2005. And the trees I met out on this deserted saltlake, they embody the quintessential <span style="font-style: italic;">tree</span> to me. And knowing this, I can now forcibly 'branch out' (heh..) into other tree-like forms, having identified my baseline...<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/97/241297541_bff22520f9.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/97/241297541_bff22520f9.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">saltmilk. an amazing place. that's caked salt on the ground, and these are the trees i mean...<br /><br /></span></div>The trees at saltmilk were long-dead. They still ruled the lake, though... they were black texta against the sky and the salt. And I spent a *lot* of time beneath them, wading around in the sulfurous salty slush that was that strange place... I was trying to make an animation that did justice the the yawning sky above saltmilk... and it worked.. kinda... <a href="http://blip.tv/file/316452">here 'tis</a>.<br /><br />So as a result i spent the other night making trees out of tinfoil which all looked like they were from that place... not intentionally... but i needed to start modeling trees so i could get the first few hundred disasters out of the way... and now i have. Started, that is.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2413/2176804201_738cd0226f.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2413/2176804201_738cd0226f.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">my first tree. it's a start.</span></div>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-48986961505269091752008-01-07T18:15:00.000-08:002008-01-10T18:15:41.851-08:00What makes a tree<div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2088/2173293276_8e7aa0daa2.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2088/2173293276_8e7aa0daa2.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">lichen with grand intentions, on a rock in Broger's Creek, near Kiama<br /><br /></span></div>it's quite a question. I was sure that I knew. But now, now that I'm trying to actually shape them, to abstractedly make a 'tree-like' thing (or several), I find that perhaps I didn't know quite enough. I mean, I can make a <span style="font-style: italic;">tree </span>easily enough that conforms to the basic laws of organic patterning, but my trees need to <span style="font-style: italic;">flow - </span>to bend in a liquid breeze as if they were in the airy wind.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2083/2172489601_23abdd7112.jpg?v=1199687527"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2083/2172489601_23abdd7112.jpg?v=1199687527" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">a sea sponge whose footing-rock got thrown up on the beach at the Boneyard, near Kiama<br /><br /></span></div>An underwater forest. Made of terrestrial-like trees, which behave in the ocean current in a way reminiscent of a strong wind in a stand of tall trees.<br /><br />So not only form is needed here, but solidity and strain and buoyancy and pressure and flow, all together, in the correct amounts. To re-produce nuances of the terrestrial within the land of aqua profunda. Hmmm. Start with form.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2111/2173299502_0ffc009344.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2111/2173299502_0ffc009344.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">more lichen - same patch</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2209/2173280544_3fd21b3d7a.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2209/2173280544_3fd21b3d7a.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">sea sponge washed up at The Boneyard - disconnected from it's rock footing<br /><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2350/2173297422_f5e5b79195.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2350/2173297422_f5e5b79195.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">a small stand<br /><br /></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2065/2172492471_84d7ce8ac4.jpg?v=0"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2065/2172492471_84d7ce8ac4.jpg?v=0" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">pared-back sponge</span>Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2346271798003497765.post-58771981639660304732008-01-05T18:13:00.000-08:002008-01-10T19:40:15.850-08:00The beginnings of a new project...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2077/2173555347_404c37bab5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2077/2173555347_404c37bab5.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />*sigh* - it is so exquisite to be back in a studio again... surrounded by grubby white walls, traffic noise, inadequate ventilation and detritus...<br /><br />Today is the first day of my studio residency at <a href="http://www.firstdraftgallery.com/">First Draft Gallery</a> in Sydney. It's your basic blank box/partition out the back of the gallery. A table, a cupboard full of other people's left-over junk, three chairs (two with no backs), a floor sprinkled with cigarette butts and ex-cockroaches, and a single overhead fluro. Paradise.<br /><br />This new project involves two basic components as i see it. Studio time, here in my little box, and <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2007/08/mentorship-project-with-fiona-hall.html">mentorship time</a>, with Fiona Hall (in Adelaide, Sydney, wherever). My plan is to be in Sydney every second week for the next three months, until the end of March, at which point two things will happen. Number one is that Fiona will have a major retrospective exhibition at the MCA here in Sydney, and number two is that I will have a (slightly less illustrious) exhibition here at First Draft Gallery. So I'm working and making and learning and thinking towards dual outcomes... and I am stoked.<br /><br />I have been fermenting ideas for this project for the past 6 months... there were kernels of ideas sortof knocking against my skull while at the <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/search/label/Banff">Banff residency</a>, due to all that wonderful cross-fire from my fellow artists there. The idea of diorama as unsettling device. Nature on a tiny, cultivated scale as an ironic landscape. Cardboard constellations. Fun with miniature worlds...<br /><br />So. I'm all setup here with my wireless modem, teacups, teapots, 4 types of tea, fruit and nuts, and a small stash of dried-out seasponge and some barnacles. And a couple of delicious books... a <a href="http://thejunefox.blogspot.com/2007/08/mentorship-project-with-fiona-hall.html">Fiona Hall</a> monograph, <span style="font-style: italic;">Dancing Up Country </span>- the art of <a href="http://www.gallerygondwana.com.au/Artists/biog_dn.htm">Dorothy Napangardi</a>, <a href="http://www.publishedart.com.au/bookshop.html?book_id=3095"><span style="font-style: italic;">Nature Design</span></a> and the most wonderful <a href="http://www.woostercollective.com/2007/07/announcement_new_wooster_on_paper_book_a.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">All my Friends are made of Paper</span></a>... and, at all times, I'm keeping <a href="http://www.bibliovault.org/BV.book.epl?BookId=116"><span style="font-style: italic;">Forests - the shadow of civilization</span></a> close to my chest cause it's really special and is a bit of a guiding light at the moment for me...Firstdraft Galleryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16768423019030352951noreply@blogger.com0