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Here's Michael Sailstorfer's drum kit made out of a German police car that I posted about.
And below is another piece from the same Munich gallery, homeroom, that my friend Courtenay Smith runs: Martin Wöhrl's Cowboy Door. He did a series of several saloon doors copied from various Western movies. Courtenay said the found designs varied a lot more than you would think.
No particular reason for posting this, just wanted you to see it.
Tom ~ after days of not realizing that my webmail account expired - fixing my energy on 'what the heck is wrong with my computer' - i am finally paid up, renewed, and able to post again!
this week i went to the new testsite opening and realized for the first time that the testsite installation stays up and running until the next install. that's cool in so far as otherwise it would feel like a short run for a lot of work, but it also adds a wicked burnout to my production plans. a screeching hault. resulting in the need to come up with an altogether different plan. the lounge thing can still work, but not the animation.
the writing and art collaboration was taken to new and exciting depths. the artists organized a town in the space and the writer wrote the town charter and a list of violations against the town officers (mayor, etc.). audience could write up and submit a complaint. it was pretty cool. maybe there will be pics up soon on the website.
i am going to have to gather new ideas this week. and i'd like to consider pushing the collaboration a bit more. let me do some brainstorming. i'm also meeting with Laurence and Liz this week.
The vacuum cleaner idea sounds good. I like the phrase "more lived vantage point."
Re: equipment. I'm still kind of mulling it over. I'd like to travel as light as possible, so now I'm thinking I might just bring two Disc-men (and/or Rio players, depending on what I find out about that) and CDs/minidiscs.
Most equipment rental places have packages for DJ'ing, where you get a sound mixing board and turntables, an amp and speakers. I could work with any analog mixer, I think; I've never used a CD mixer but I could probably pick it up.
A lot will depend on our budget. We're also talking about needing a Mac and Windows computer. I think Windows XP (which includes Internet Explorer), Winamp 5 and a CD-R drive is all I need to download mp3s and burn them to CD for mixing. The Rio player probably requires a USB port on the computer. Not sure I'm ready for "iPod mixing" but I guess that's the coming thing.
Also a projector and/or screen, and cables from the computer and/or DVD player to the projector.
Tom - could you post about the portable audio system you are considering bring down to Austin? i am sitting in my living room in New York thinking about bringing down my video mixer. i've been planning to for weeks, months, as well as my mini video camera. this stuff is so small yet it's so much to commit to considering that i'm also dragging down a bag full of art materials and catalogues i've collected (this i did not plan! i'm hopeless). i think i'll stick with the plan and bring the mixer.
i've been thinking more about my animation idea. one idea is that i attach a spycam to the vacuum cleaner to get a feel for the living room from a different, more lived vantage point. the straight walk through relates well to the architectural model idea but i'm onto the phase of departure from convention.
Tom - for the sake of documentation, I wanted to write into our weblog my current fake 3-D animation idea - even though we discussed this in person.
I shoot a video walk through of Laurence's home, capture the footage and export a series of stills (8 - 15fps). I then reduce the information to larger blocks of color, shade,...perhaps at 16 or 32 color depth. Using cut paper I'll layout the frames and reshoot them on video. Some frames would be semi-transparent - that way I could layer them on top of one another (similar to an animation program with an onion skin feature). I hope to achieve a virtual model or 3-D environment effect. Actually, the reverse of a virtual architectural model in that the architectural model is generally crafted before a building is erected.
This could get extremely laborious even in the testing stage so I will try a dry run in my own apartment and see what kind of paper I can find in Austin.
March 2004 emails
I'm posting relevant portions of our emails to date, in the interests of documenting the collaboration. These have been edited slightly since they weren't originally written for public consumption (Everything's subject to further editing). These are the March emails; Feb. ones were posted below.
Kristin, 3/4/2004:
I put together an animated gif of some of our work. Let me know what you think. I didn't work too hard on it. I think we could text around the gif or supply them with a url rather than an image. It's late and I've had a rough day so this may be highly unsatisfactory.Tom, 3/4/2004:Tomorrow I teach 12-10pm. i'll be working very hard to catch up with art-related matters over the weekend - getting materials to Laurence and Liz as a priority. I'm in New York for Spring Break March 10-22. Let's definitely get together, maybe a couple of times even to talk more about the collaboration.
I say 'dude' a lot now.
Kristin
Hi, Kristin, I like the .gif you made--it's dynamic and fun and gets across the music/video focus. Do you want to do the honors and send it to Liz, et al? I was planning to send them a link to my blog, FAQ page and online "critic cv"--I'll do that today and mention that you're sending the gif. Let me know if and when you're ready to start a collaboration page. It can start out as a private page and then be "launched" later. Best, Tom
Kristin, 3/4/2004:
cool, i'll send the gif. you can start the private page, although i won't be able to get going until saturday probably.
kristin*i'm so busy this week. guess i put everything business off and it's all built up. i'll survive. actually i would really like to just do my own work right now! teaching is fun but time-consuming.
i'm making my freshman perform today. i'm going to make them play, rewind, ff, stop and record with only thier bodies.
Kristin, 3/7/2004:
Tom, Liz... here is the final animated gif that i made for the image page on fluent~collaborative's site. it's simpler and smaller in bytes. i think it flows better. KristinTom, 3/7/2004:
Hey, Kristin, The GIF you sent me before, which I put up on the provisional blog page was a lot smaller --156 kb, as opposed to this one, which is 364kb. It's sharper, but it really slows down in my browser. I actually like the graininess of the 156kb one. Can I keep using it on the blog page? Tom
Kristin, 3/7/2004:
yeah, sure, use the one on your blog page. it's way fewer frames in teh second one. sharpening really added to the byte size i guess. i wonder if i reimported it now and compressed it further if it would be smaller and still look great.???i haven't been to our page yet because i couldn't get ANYTHING done this weekend with the weather this awesome. i now GET IT... that Austin hangin' out thing.
i'm practically worthless until sundown!
kristin
Kristin, 3/8/2004:
i had to give the designer a still image. i guess they do it in flash and the designer might not be so enthusiastic about putting it together as a shockwave flash. we'll have to do our animations for the weblog.still bannerby the way, if i want to post anims and pics on the weblog do i need to send them to you?
here are a couple images that i sent. i cleaned up the one from your blog with a more clean image of my deejay movie.
Kristin
another still banner:
Tom, 3/9/2004:
Hey, Kristin, The pics look good. I wondered how they'd handle the moving gif. I notice they have a Flash and HTML version of the flue-collab page. I linked to the html version from the blog. Re: uploading pics and video-- Pics and animated gifs you can do now with your login. I can explain it online or over the phone at a time that's convenient. Jim's working on a new file system that will accommodate video files, and he's redoing the music-uploading system we have now. It should be in place in the next month or so. He knows about our collab. Glad to hear you're getting nice weather! Tom
Kristin, 3/10/2004:
this bird has landed in nyc. let's get together. kristin
Kristin, 3/10/2004:
yes, saturday is cool. i'm performing on the willy b bridge in the early afternoon. let's get together after that. want me to call when i wrap it up? it's more of a testing the water perf.Tom, 3/11/2004:tues thru thurs is good to know. maybe we will benefit from a second and third meeting. even if it's officially more of a hangin' out austin style type gathering. kristin
Let me know if you want a testing the water audience and I'll come. Otherwise, sure, please call when you're done. Where should we meet? Would it be better for me to show you how to image-upload etc on an Apple (ie your computer)? This is assuming your logon works and you have the page powers you're supposed to have. Best, Tom
Kristin, 3/13/2004:
hey Tom,Tom, 3/14/2004:
i think i'm performing around 3pm along with one of my students who agreed to participate. we were going to walk dogs while wearing homemade uniforms but now we're playing the parts of both the humans and the dogs. we're going to walk over the williamsburg bridge and back wearing special 'sniff squad' uniforms, caps with stuffed animal dog ears sewn onto them, communicating to one another by walkie talkies and taking notes. we'll ask people if we can sniff their bags and gravitate toward conversation about missing civil liberties. it will be obvious that we are not 'cops' or 'intelligence agents'. i'm trying to find us kid statue of liberty sunglasses and our names will be something like 'Snoopy' and 'Pooch'. i do hope we are not arrested... or we'll have to reschedule our visit!you can swing by if you are curious. i also wanted to do a performance where i selectively scan people's backpacks and bags through a series of cardboard boxes as they come on and off the bridge. i won't be doing this one saturday. i would rather test the water with the sniff squad first.
would love to get together after that. i'll give you a ring. joe says he can show me how to upload images. i'm sorry that i haven't been aggressive about getting started after we meet. i've got a lot of ideas to run by you.
ok. looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.
kristin
Hey, Kristin, It was nice seeing you last night. Turns out the N train goes to WTC after hours, contrary to the map and what I thought. I stood on the Prince St. platform for about an hour, watched another N and 3 Qs go by, and ended up walking downtown to the PATH, and got home at 1:40 am. Ridiculous. At least I had the Octavia Butler book to read. I am posting a Piserchia chapter and will notify you when it's up While you're in NY, can we make sure you can get on the Tree and can use the testsite blog? Here's the URL: http://www.digitalmediatree.com/testsite04.3/ Once you're logged on and your machine(s) have cookies, it's an easy way to communicate. I'd like to try it out and make sure there aren't any bugs.
Best, Tom
PS Thanks for the New Humans link. I'll keep an eye out for them.
February 2004 emails
I'm posting relevant portions of our emails to date, in the interests of documenting the collaboration. These have been edited slightly since they weren't originally written for public consumption (Everything's subject to further editing). Here are our February emails, and I will post March separately.
Kristin, 2/4/2004:
Laurence has invited me to work on a collaborative project through Fluent~Collaborative and this generally means pairing up with a writer. You can find out more through the website. Google 'fluent collaboration'. If you are interested in working collaboratively together (it is very open, can even be virtual - all up to us), get back to me when you've had a chance to think it over.Tom, 2/5/2004:
The collaboration idea sounds interesting--I'll see you Saturday, and I look forward to discussing it.
Kristin, 2/11/2004:
Laurence asked me if we had talked and I said we had a lot of ideas - that you were interested. if you have reconsidered, please let me know. Laurence would like to meet with me soon to discuss this collaboration further and probably suggest possible dates. i'm planning to set up my computer in my office - it will arrive next week and then i'll have hi speed access.Tom, 2/11/2004:
Yes, definitely count me in. Have you seen the show at Freshup Club in Austin? Cory Arcangel has a video in it. While looking for online references to Fluent Collaborative, I found someone who gripes about Cory twice on his page ( http://www.cinquehicks.com/blog/ ) as the embodiment of all evil in the art world. I'm curious why Cory's video set him off. One idea I've had for Testsite: a chill out room or lounge type space where we can spin records, show video, and post on the Internet. Not terribly original-sounding, I know, but depends on what we do with it. I forget, is Laurence living there? He might object to the sound. I can probably come down for a couple of weeks.Tom, 2/15/2004:
Hey, Kristin, Re: my earlier suggestion about Laurence's space: In doing my post on the Killer Instinct show I was reminded that you'd done a "lounge"-based show recently, so you might not be ready to revisit that. I'll be curious to hear what comes out of your subsequent discussions with Laurence. Best, Tom
Kristin, 2/16/2004:
Laurence has been out of town but I'll likely have lunch with him soon. I like the idea of a lounge. You could curate some music for the lounge and i could go out and find the records with the honorarium (simultaneously building a record collection for Laurence(!)). or you could mix some music and forward it. I could burn an mp3, aif, or wav to disc. Any other format would do too, I have access to a lab at school.Beyond the audio, I could imagine responding to the music with imagery for playback on DVD (option to synchronize)- there are many possibilities. If you make mp3s, they could be accessed by an audience outside of Austin through our page.
Foremost - the orgins of the project must stem from the experience of access to Laurences home. I am looking forward to the lived day-to-day experience of this project.
None of my forementioned ideas are set in stone. I think it's good to start with some ideas and see where the experience leads. I am hoping that the collaboration can contribute something performative during its development - no ideas yet.
I could adapt your writing/entries into ((some abstraction)). Even if it's based on entrys and correspondence. I would contribute to the page with updates on what I am up to at Laurence's place and you could feed off that. You could translate what I write in any number of ways.
Forgive me. I have no identifiable structure to my practice other than to dive into the abyss until a structure forms naturally in the making. I know that you have more structure to your practice. Forcing ourselves to the edge of our known comfortable limits in art practice may produce the most interesting results for this collaboration - even though it will surely present challenges. --Kristin
Kristin, 2/19/2004:
Hi Tom, These are the potential dates for the collaboration. Do these dates work for you?Tom, 2/19/2004:Installation week:
3 - 7 May(Monday - Friday)
7 May, Friday Opening Gathering
Sunday 9 May - Sunday 13 June testsite is open from 1 -5 pm and during the week by appointment.I have to ask for certain, but I believe that our exchange would occur mostly over the installation period. I hope we have some extra time before that too. I've also inquired about the budget. Let me know about the dates asap. Thanks, Kristin
Those dates are great. Plenty of time for me to give notice at work, and I'll have lots of leeway on either side of that week depending on what we end up doing. I got your last email and I'm glad you like the idea of some kind of sound-based, lounge-based thing. Absence of structure isn't a problem at this point. I don't know what I'm thinking of yet, really, but I like that you referred to dj'ing as curating. Best, Tom
Kristin, 2/20/2004:
Coolio. I'm glad the dates work for both of us. Actually it will be a weird time for me because my final crits are that week! it'll all work out though.I'm meeting Laurence tomorrow to go over more of the structure, details.
I'll get back to you after that. Joe just called from the airport. His first trip to Austin. We're going to see Penny Arcade perform tomorrow and then roller derby on Saturday. Kristin
Kristin, 2/25/2004:
Hi Tom, Here's the lowdown on testsite. Would it be possible for you to work on the collaboration the following week. I guess the renovation schedule is behind and Laurence hopes that works for us. Actually I would be out of school altogether that week so it would work well for me. I'd return to New York just after that. You mentioned that you were able to be flexible about dates still, but please let me know. You would need to fly down here - You would stay at testsite.Tom, 2/25/2004:The honorarium is [...] [I]f you need turntables we could find them. We're not far from a record shop called 33 degrees and we are within walking distance of a bike shop with rentals, a Thai restaurant and Austin's food co-op with a great deli. I'm going to bring my mixer down over spring break. mabye we could do a performance. Laurence is into the idea of webcasting. i've not done this before and am not 100% what it entails, but there is time for some research. I would like to put media up on a server and have it stream from your blog. We can discuss further whether you want this as part of you blog or if we set up a separate page.
As a writer you would be responsible for writing a statement/press release about our collaborative. That can develop as our ideas do over correspondence. I'll find out from Liz how early they will need the text - also they would need for us to settle on an image before the residency (???).
Laurence would like us to exploit the internet as much as we can since none of the previous artists have and we both work with it in our practice. We have hi-speed access and he has a wireless hub. I can bring my Mac over to work with and we can rent you a computer if that makes sense for you. We so far have 100MB server space to work with but that can be increased.
And as we talk more about our collaboration, Laurence was hoping he could retain a copy of the emails for his records to note how the collaboration evolves. He's just started doing this with another collaboration. We would have to agree to this. Or suggest that we excerpt from emails, more relevant info. Any thoughts?
Laurence would like Liz to send you a packet with floorplans and other materials. Please send me your address and I will forward to Liz.
Time to take off to school. I'm trying to set my computer up for hi-speed access there and will soon spend most of my time there. Kind of depressing to be in a room with no windows but i am also looking forward to it. Soon, Kristin
Hi, Kristin,Tom, 2/28/2004:
Quick answers to some of your questions: May 10-14 as the "install week" sounds fine. My address for sending floorplans, etc is PO Box 1666 New York, NY 10101-1666Longer answer: It would be easy to set up a blog page which we could use instead of (or in addition to) email to discuss the collaboration, with the page just continuing through the end of the project. It would be on the DMTree server but could link to anything voluminous (mixes, media) on Laurence's server. But Laurence would probably prefer to have the documentation on his server. Unfortunately, Jim Bassett says the blog scripts aren't really portable. [W]e could discuss getting his help with: (1) getting blog content onto Laurence's server (2) streaming, webcasting, uploading issues. I'm a bit leery of webcasting for a temporary project, though. It seems like something that requires a lot of trial and error and finetuning (and bandwidth), which is fine if you're a radio station doing it year round but maybe not for us (I know people at WFMU and hear they went through a lot of agony over "the streams." Also I've been trying to stream audio from someone's home server and it's been a bit of a hassle). I hate to promote anything that people can't easily access. I guess what I was thinking was that I would keep doing mixes in mp3 form that could be downloaded in Austin and further mixed "live," with a turntable component, videos, and whatever else, in the space. During the performance (I'm envisioning sort of a marathon, but not an endurance contest because I'm a wimp) the blog would be used to post set lists, pictures, links to mp3s and video, with a talkback feature in the comments. That way the internet is used not so much for the vaunted "media convergence" of the late 90s but keeping it as lo-fi and accessible as possible. This is just me rambling so please let me know what you think.
Best, Tom
Hey, Kristin, Based on your idea of a screen grab, I just did the attached. What do you think--something like this? Don't know if there are size limits, if they're reducing it, or what, but it might be a way to get both of us in, and the music connection. -Tom
Sniff Squad photo cred from March 13, 2004 Williamsburg Bridge intervention.
Image Upload Instructions
Click [image upload], use "browse" to find the pic on your hard drive, click "upload image." This should take you to editpic where you will see the image and can change the name, etc. To post it, copy the code at the top < [xxxx] > and paste it into your next post. To create a folder scroll to the bottom of the page and type in a name where it says "optional - add this image to a new album".
You can always find the images you've uploaded by clicking [images] on the navigation bar. You should see your name on the list. Click on it and you'll see a table of your images which you can edit (link on far left) or move around in folders.
You can find these instructions again through the archive at the top of the page under "Image Upload Instructions."
Tom, I'm in still trying to figure out how to set up an image folder, but I'm through the door!.