Art projects I enjoyed

[moonbeam]

I would like to get more information and impressions about the following art projects I enjoyed immensely:

#1) I can not adequately describe this project but will try: a 15 foot high plate steel sculpture, carved with welders tools, with various arms and other projections. Inside is a small gas turbine jet engine which powers flames out the top and through the arm projections. There are many high pressure air valves controlled by computer. Also controlled by computer are various nozzles to inject chemicals into the jet turbine exhaust at various points to produce multi-colored flames. The sound is deafening up close and can be heard from a mile away. It is not pure sound of a jet engine, but a pulsing stacatto sound driven by turning high pressure air and flamable liqued injection valves on and off. What you see is a steel sculpture with intense flames and sound pouring out in a ever-changing pattern, musical in its quality. At one point it looks like the thing goes haywire and flamable liqued pours onto the desert floor and catches fire.

#2) In the desert stood a teacher's podium. In front of the podium were arrayed 10 students benches. I came upon this installation at night so it was quiet and dark and I was the only one looking at it. On the teacher's podium was a large TV. The student benches were filled with small TVs facing the large TV. A continuous video loop was playing of Scrooge McDuck, reveling in a large pile of gold, talking about all the things he was going to do for himself with this large amount of money. The McDuck kids were jumping with joy as well in an orgy of greed. This video was also playing on the small TVs, the large TV teaching the small TVs.

#3) a video camera and video projection system that turned my live image into an impressionistic painting. Then as I flapped my arms I became covered with feathers, then my whole body became built out of rotating gears.

#4) Mona Lisa -- A 6 foot high pole with a single row of RGB LED's
representing one scan line of a video output. An image of the Mona Lisa is output to the pole one scan line at a time. I didn't see anything except white until I turned my head. The motion of my eyes across the pole paints a picture of the Mona Lisa on back of my eyes very briefly. When I first approached the project I thought I might be hallucinating the subliminal image of the Mona Lisa.

I described the 10 ft by 6 ft wall of closely packed RGB LEDs and found it was done by Irrational Geographic and took 60kw of power! I learned this on the dorkbot list.

So far the resources I have found for starting my own project begin at http://dorkbot.org/ "People doing strange things with electricity," http://www.laughingsquid.org/squidlist "Underground Art and Culture from San Francisco and Beyond," http://qbox.org/ "Awww...It's a machine shop!," and http://www.makingthings.com "designs and develops modular electronic and computational system components for artists, educators, engineers, hobbyists and design professionals"

I would appreciate any more info!
thx

[gravy]

Un-fucking-real!!!! 'nough said.

[gemini]

I saw a piece of art being placed at the 3:00 keyhole and asked about it. I hope that if the artist sees this post, she will feel free to correct any inconsistencies I may have mis-remembered...

I encouraged her to find a way to make a placard describing her art because for me, hearing the story made her piece much more meaningful...

The piece began as a mannequin....

Then it was painted gold and transformed into a beautiful goddess, complete with braids and natural-fiber clothing.

The story is that the Goddess representation was to honor the artists aunt, an activist who was killed on the way to a demonstration this year. The piece was made to honor the way she lived her life and her values.

I was moved to tears as just across from that at Whistleworks was another story about another activist/burner who lost her life defending her beliefs....Rachel Corrie.

Amazing works....I just wish I had asked for the artists name so that I could thank you properly for sharing.

[moonbeam]

I did a little more research. The Irrational Geographic Society http://superdeluxe.com/igs/ did the amazing wall of LEDs. The wall of 12 by 12 RGB LED panels, about 28 across and 20 panels high, is about 10 ft wide and 6 ft high. The patterns and light from the wall move with music through flowing, sometimes sharply angular, or strobing patterns color patterns. One effect was to make all the red LEDs light up, really bright, as I stood about 6 ft away, then suddenly strobe all. The effect put me in a slight trance. My favorite moment came just after sunrise when I stood in front of the wall dancing listening to X.Press 2 featuring David Bryne in "Lazy," all of us early risers swaying in the new sun and LED flow.

I have hooked up with an old friend who is an optical engineer and toy inventor, David at http://www.rhinotoys.com we plan on getting something together for '04. Feel free to contact me or visit my website in a week or so for more Burning Man art installation technical development issues, resources, ideas.

Michael Watson
michaelw@eleanorrigby.net
http://www.eleanorrigby.net

[Lydia Love]

#3) a video camera and video projection system that turned my live image into an impressionistic painting. Then as I flapped my arms I became covered with feathers, then my whole body became built out of rotating gears.

Just off of Bollywood yes? This blew my mind in a really good way.

[moonbeam]

Yes, Bollywood! I find Bollywood music videos cool in an odd way so I loved the Bollywood camp with romantic Indian videos, 19th century motion picture technologies + 1 Flamenco dancer for added effect.

[bigiain]

I would like to get more information and impressions about the following art projects I enjoyed immensely:

#1) I can not adequately describe this project but will try: a 15 foot high plate steel sculpture, carved with welders tools, with various arms and other projections. Inside is a small gas turbine jet engine which powers flames out the top and through the arm projections.

that would be ThermoKraken - probably my favourite piece this year (and last year, even though it caught fire and broke down early in the week back then)

see http://www.therm.biz/kraken.htm for more details.

[moonbeam]

One I found very moving was a series of doors in frames only, lined up in the middle of the expanse of the desert. Each door was labeled "Trust," "Doubt," "Love," etc. Start at Doubt and walk through each door. The Love door was wired shut and said "Under Development", no doubt intentionally.

[chiefwagonburner]

I believe number one is the Thermokraken. It was there last year as well, one of my favorite things. I got a couple pictures and videos of it this year, I'm sure others did as well.

[chloe_dancer]

there was a white tent past the temple that had candels on the walls....it was peaceful and beautiful and we met great people there late one night! great job whoever did that piece!! so tranquil!

[debkakes]

Out in the far distance, near the fence in the Chandelier zone, was a small pillar containing a looped recording of what I call the Mantra of Insecurity, describing the difficulty in being oneself in the world. At first I thought it was a little bit of adolescent angst. Then I listened longer and it was not so adolescent. Then I read the entries in the "Tell Me Your Thoughts" book, and couldn't stop crying (even now I tear to think of it). It made me realize how I've become a bit smug of late because my life is going quite well...while at the same time, I am neglecting doing some very important work on my self (2 words). Truly my favorite piece this year, as far as emotional wallop per square inch. Thank you, and bless you, to the artist.

[barbu]

thermokraken was incredible, thank you!!!! perhaps the best, subtlest art i saw, were the unforsaken costumes, the art in motion of the simple fools, the little touch of magic hanging off the end of a braid, the goldfish in the highheels, so to speak. to all of you that went a little further, that added that last little bit of flair, straight out of office space, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

[nymphgonebad]

i was with krotus this year, in igs. the genius responsible for the tensor light board and such was our very own frostbyte, resident tepster, mit misfit and who now works for a digital light company in mass. all the stuff he did was put together from stuff he fished out of the trash at work. i will send him an e-mail to see if he has literature available re his work.


hrh - the princess

[sharpstick]

one night I spotted, at a distance, what appeared to be two wraithlike dragons in dancing combat high over the heads of dancers in front of the Space Virgins.
After determining that I was not hallucinating them, I chased one
down and had a short conversation with the man underneath. He was with
www.michaelcurrydesign.com (they do the epcot puppets. he may have
been the man himself for all I know) and said that they were trying
some new prototypes out.
The main body was supported by a curved support rod attached to a
backpack-like harness. There was a pole attached to each of his feet
that controlled the wings, and he held another that went up to the
head. The wings and body appeared to be a dark gauzy fabric. The head
was covered with scales and it had a large realistic looking eye(about
2 or 3 inches.)
I now regret not getting a better look at it. i am inspired to steal some of the design for a project next year. their website doesn't show these. did anyone get a better look at them, or pictures?

[MoisturePup]

Kicking this thread to the top...

I liked the alien light display out on the play past the Sol runway.