Pretty cool.
August 2, 2009
Questions… (Why have you done this?)
My previous post adressed the primary question posed to me by those who experience my work. This question being:
“What does it mean?”
Having aswered that, the second question, almost invariably is:
“What is it, and why have you done it?”
(And no, I couldn’t possibly have lifted this response from an application to a certain funding body that is due tomorrow.)
August 2, 2009
Questions…
This last week, my work has been subjected to the delighted musings, scowling glares and vacant expressions that commonly accompany the art that I produce.
And so, for anyone who is interested in my responses to the common questions I have been asked, I have written down the answers. Not in order to inform or educate, but in order that in future I may be more articulate about the things that I do.
This is the first in a series of posts ‘answering’ those questions. They appear in the order that they are usually asked, as I stand outside my studio, in my overalls, dripping with a delightful mixture of white paint, sweat, glucose and water, or later in the Korean restaurant that I frequent far too often, or as I am put on the spot in a lecture room full of young, aspiring artists (not THAT much younger than I):
August 2, 2009
Video Of Strange Earth
This is a fragment of my work here. The whole piece is over 20 minutes long, but in this clip, I have included two of my favourite sections.
(It looks best if you view in HD – visit the YouTube page by clicking on the logo in the bottom right-hand corner).
August 1, 2009
Steampunk Goodness.
I want one of these… So Bad.
The Cybraphon is a MacBook powered, Arduino-based mechanical band housed in an antique wardrobe. Including an organ, cymbals, a motor-driven Indian Shruti box (played with 13 robotic servos, no less), and a gramophone, it relies on infrared motion detectors to sense when it has an audience. A number of factors, including the amount of attention it gets on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, help the device determine its “mood,” which in turn determines when the “band” plays, and what material it selects. According to one of the artist / inventors, the Cybraphon is a “tongue-in-cheek comment on people’s obsession with online celebrity. We modeled it on an insecure, egotistical band.” That’s our favorite kind! And you know, the thing doesn’t sound half bad.
Full Article at Wired.
July 30, 2009
Stepping Over
So, I have been really bad at posting the last few weeks. Have been super busy with my installation performance work. Have only one show to go now, and two more days of ‘open studio’ (pretty much where I get up before 10, stumble around my studio, turning everything on, opening the door, and crawling back into my bed, where I am subjected to the looping soundtrack of my show).
Changdong isn’t exactly the cultural hub of Seoul, I manage maybe 10 visitors at most per day, and about the same again at night to see the show.
But it is worth it. Have had some great discussions with Koreans and Foreigners alike about my work, and art in general.
I will be posting more and debriefing as the week continues to settle down.
Working on getting the support material together for our big application to Arts Victoria for Gaudete (which is now a working title, we are still voting amongst ourselves as to what we will end up calling it).
That reminds me, I have finished the new version of our Red Moon rising Website. There were calls from the girls to make it more simple, understated and clean. Which suits me just fine. Can’t quite get the news section to work yet, but everything else is there.
Oh, and the rest of the pics of Strange Earth are up on my Flickr.
What else?… Video coming soon… I go home in three weeks.
Oh, and Paul has taken some amazing pictures also (damn him and his HDR), hopefully he’ll whack them somewhere public soon.
July 11, 2009
Koreans Are Weird (Sometimes)
Now, while I recognise that that may be taken as an inflammatory remark, I must say, that in my extensive experience, Koreans are a little weird.
Maybe not even as weird as Australians. But Still.
My Saturday did not exist before 11.30am. That is because I went to bed at the unholy hour of 4.30am. I decided to celebrate my late rising on this cloudy Seoul day by watching 3 episodes of Media Watch.
I then leaped out of bed, ate some home-made Sultana Bran (this + this + this), responded to many emails from Ellen and started writing the music for my installation.
I then decided that I needed some more substantial forms of sustenance, and, after encountering Sookong and Vikki in the kitchen, discussing my sleeping patterns, loneliness, slight sickness and the liters of orange juice left by Kushana (who left for New Zealand last weekend), I decided that I needed some nutritional rice porridge.
July 10, 2009
Top Tupperware sales… man?
I KNEW I should have taken up selling Tupperware. $100,000 US a year?
