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Data Visualizations Show @ Cerritos College Art Gallery

My new 3D printed hyperobject “A Segment of Approximately Twenty Two Thousand Four Hundred Miles Over Approximately 16.28 Days” will be in the Abstracted Visions: Information Mapping from Mystic Diagrams to Data Visualizations show curated by James MacDevitt, opening on August 25, 2015. The piece itself is made from GPS data logged during my North Pasadena to Valencia commute that I drove daily from 2010-2013. The piece will also incorporate the ambient soundscape from the drive as heard from within the vehicle and a custom LED fixture illuminating the form. The show will run through September 24, 2015 at the Cerritos College Art Gallery. Don’t miss it if you’re in LA!

The piece has been made possible with support from Airwolf 3D, Cerritos College, Electronic Countermeasures LLC, Butch Allen, Michael Day and Kerstin Hovland.

Speculative: Futures, Origins, and Everyday Staples Video Finally!

28 Jun ’15

I’ve finally finished all the preliminary mixes for Speculative: Futures, Origins, and Everyday Staples and cut together a video that attempts to encapsulate the madness of the 6 hour+ epic that unfolded over the course of three weeks in the summer of 2013. Here’s the video as a bit of teaser before I release full length mixed recordings for each week. Enjoy!

“Lamentatio Solastalgia i. Ablatae” Now Online

8 Mar ’14

Kerstin Hovland’s animated short, Lamentatio Solstalgia i. Ablatae, created for the CATALIN show at The Contemporary Austin is now online. I had the privilege of working on the piece with her contributing the 3D model from databerg, D6: THE IPV4 EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT CLOSES AS TEMPS AND TAKEDOWNS PLAGUE NETIZENS WHO TAKE SOLACE IN STABILIZING LEGOS, along with doing sound design and mixing the sound for the piece. The sound was created almost entirely with my newish Arturia Minibrute analog synth, with a little help from my Korg MonoTron Delay. The second piece in the series should be up soon as well, which features another 3D model and more sound work.

Databergs @ The Contemporary Austin

8 Feb ’14

Finally photos of the 3D printed Databergs on view at The Contemporary Austin for the CATALIN show. I have to tell you they look amazing in person and nothing beats being able to walk around them. It was an uncanny experience for me since not being able to just tumble them and rotate them in space after spending so much time in C4D working on them doing just that. The prints aren’t flawless, but they’re pretty damn spectacular and people seemed to think so too. Take a look and if you are in Austin make sure to check out the show which is up until April 20th at The Jones Center.

Fountainhead On View in Dallas

29 Dec ’13

Some video documentation of Fountainhead, the interactive sculpture by Charles Long that I worked on by way of Electronic Countermeasures LLC. I was responsible for building out the particle system for the “money water” that flows over each sculpture face, along with the various patterns they create. There were around 1200 dollar bills per face, 5 different patterns, 3 different gross speed modes, 6 different particle groups with different behaviors, and each particle also had its own variation of speed/steering/etc. I also built the sound playback system, network triggering system, and the network for the piece. Kerstin Hovland animated the splashes and built the iPad app that integrated with the PayAnywhere card readers that allows the public to donate to one of three local Dallas charities, Bookmarks, Dallas CASA, and the North Texas Food Bank.

Fountainhead is currently installed at the Northpark Center in Dallas, Texas as part of the Nasher Sculpture Center’s Nasher XChange exhibition. On view October 16, 2013 through February 16, 2014.

End of Summer 2013 and Coming Soon

3 Aug ’13

It’s been a very busy summer and looks to be a just as busy fall. So, here’s a quick recap of what has happened this summer and is coming up in the fall.

Mounted the multi-disciplinary show, Speculative: Futures, Origins, and Everyday Staples, which may be the first show about Bitcoin, using Bitcoin, and derived from Bitcoin. First?

I’m confirmed to teach a new class at CalArts this fall, FE503: Remix | Mashup, that will use remixes and mashups to look at post-post modernity, aka digimodernism, aka fill in the blank with a name, the new aesthetic, digital natives, network culture, and how it is changing the way we make art, animation, film, sound, video, etc. I’ve been pouring over tons of old things I’ve read along with new things. I’m excited but hard at work writing up the syllabus and trying to find a structure that works for this type of topic. This may be my last semester teaching at CalArts for awhile since I’m not going to be back teaching Digital Path for Animation. We’ll see.

I will be back at Woodbury’s Media Tech program as a participating adjunct, doing directed studies and writing curriculum again.

There are a number of things stewing on the business front with Electronic Countermeasures. We’re closing in on completing work on, The Fountainhead, for Charles Long’s commission by the Nasher Sculpture Center. I’m currently working on the dollar bill particle system for the piece. We install in October and the piece will open at the NorthPark Mall in mid-October.

We will be working with Charles Long once again with his show/curation of a show for the new Austin Contemporary. No details to spill on this one, but it will be coming in early 2014.

Hopefully I’ll be dropping tidbits of news more regularly, but if I don’t you know why. Signing off for now.

Speculative: Futures, Origins, and Everyday Staples Wrap Up

3 Aug ’13

Speculative: Futures, Origins, and Everyday Staples, wrapped up quite nicely. First, want to thank the artists who took part in this crazy endeavor including, Samuel Bruce, Sean Buckelew, Kerstin Hovland, Jason Kunke, and Robert Dansby. Second, I want to thank Steve Wong and Chris Espinosa for helping make the event possible and for donating to the opening and closing. Lastly, thanks to everyone who came out to experience the sounds of the Bitcoin market, MinerOne, the Bitcoin/Churro Mining operation, and the performances. It was a lot of work but I had a lot of fun working on the project. Documentation will be coming together slowly, but in the meantime check out pictures from the closing http://www.flickr.com/photos/astrobuddha/sets/72157634443100695/

Speculative: Futures, Origins, and Everyday Staples

22 Jun ’13

I’ve been working away on a new show that opened last week, Speculative: Futures, Origins, and Everyday Staples. The show is a series of generative soundscapes, visuals, performances, and reports about the origins and future of the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The works explore the feasibility of Bitcoin as a daily currency, the long term future of the currency, its impact on monetary exchanges, nation states, and food staples. A number of other artists are contributing as performers, writers (traditional/coding), and sound artists. These include Sam Bruce, Sean Buckelew, Robert Dansby, and Kerstin Hovland, Jason Kunke, and others. If you want to come and check out the show info is below.

Performances
Speculative: Origins I – 6/13 @ 6:30pm
Speculative: Origins II – 6/15 @ 6pm
Speculative: Present I – 6/20 @ 6pm
Speculative: Present II – 6/22 @ 6pm
Speculative: Future I – 6/27 @ 6pm
Speculative: Future II – 6/29 @ 6:30pm

Gallery Hours: Wed-Sat 11am-3pm or by appointment

Parking: Lot 2 on Main Street before Cesar Chavez or Lot 5 on Alameda are the best spots to park.

Made possible with support from: CalArts: School of Film/Video, Chinese American Museum, Electronic Countermeasures LLC, El Pueblo De Los Angeles, and Yáuhjagwái Holdings Ltd 油妖控股公司.

Structuring Strategies Presentation @ CalArts

6 Mar ’13

I have been invited to present my work as part of the ongoing visiting filmmaker/artist series, Structuring Strategies, at CalArts. It will be a split evening with animator Eileen Reynolds. The event will take place on March 19th from 7pm-10pm at CalArts’ Bijou Theater. More details on the screening order to be announced shortly. Hope to see you there.

Chinatown Abecedario: A Folk Taxonomy of L.A.’s Chinatown

17 Aug ’12

I had a chance to be the Production Advisor for the new video piece Chinatown Abecedario: A Folk Taxonomy of L.A.’s Chinatown by Audrey J. Chan. The piece uses the 26 letters of the English alphabet as the base structure for the piece combined with alliterative sentences that discuss an aspect of Los Angeles’ Chinatown. For each sentence there are corresponding illustrations that forefront aspects of Chinatown’s past and present cultural climate. Each letter and sentence is also accompanied by text and narration in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Cantonese. I worked with Chan on the production and post-production side of the project, primarily finding a workflow that would enable her to complete the 13 minute animation in less than two months. It is currently part of the (de)Constructing Chinatown exhibition put on by the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, which runs through October. For more information on the project please visit audreychan.net.

“Pet Sounds” @ Madison Square Park

8 Aug ’12

Early this summer I had a chance to work with artist Charles Long on his public interactive sculptures, Pet Sounds, for Madison Square Park in New York City. I helped solve a number of problems that they were facing such as, how do we make the sculptures touch sensitive, how do we network the sculptures together for interaction between sculptures, how do speakers get integrated into the sculptures without breaking their form, and how do we make this robust enough to survive New York City’s summer weather. The sculptures will be in Madison Square Park until September 9th. For more information on the project please visit:

http://www.madisonsquarepark.org/things-to-do/calendar/mad-sq-art-charles-long.

“EULA for a Chain Letter” @ Family Business

11 Apr ’12

EULA for a Chain Letter, is currently part of the “Itsa Small World After All” show put on by Internet personality Hennessey Youngman, at Family Business, in New York City. The show features over 500 artists in the new Family Business art space in Chelsea.

More information on the show at
http://www.familybusinessgallery.com/

More info on the EULA Project at
http://www.emerymartin.net/eulaforablank/.