seansaidplay

2010-06-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

Pennisetum clandestium - Kikuyu Grass

Noxious weed - native to East Africa - prefers sandy soil - rhizomatous - drought tolerant - grows adpressed to ground forming dense mats - not edible - moderate shade tolerance - distribution CA, PR, HI, VI

2010-05-27T23:48:00.000-07:00

Lactuca saligna - Willowleaf Lettuce

2010-03-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

Polygonum aviculare - Prostrate Knotweed

2010-03-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

Gnaphalium luteo-album - White Cudweed

2010-03-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

Fritillaria affinis - Checker Lily

2010-03-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

Wolffia sp.

Floating along on the bottom half of the photograph is the world's smallest flowering plant Wolffia sp. at Point Reyes National Seashore.

2009-09-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

2009-04-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

2009-03-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

Vegetation sampling in the thick of dense Chaparral at Mt. Diablo.

2009-02-09T01:19:00.000-08:00

2009-02-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

Lulling Across the Country

2009-01-31T03:29:00.001-08:00

Fin

2008-11-17T14:05:00.001-08:00

It is all done now. What follows is some skipped over photos from along the way.

The last is kids refusing to leave after rushing the court to play during a timeout at the grand opening of the new basketball court in San Pedro. They even fruitlessly threw candy away from the court to get them to leave.

Arte Disponible

2008-11-17T13:52:00.000-08:00

Available Art

When advertisers stop making payments on billboards in Guatemala, this is the manner in which they are dealt. To prevent the advertiser from getting free space, the owners wash off the ink leaving what looks akin to a contemporary art version of the ad.

It was difficult to grab photographs as the only time you see these is when you are whipping by on a bus. These three are what I got. Occasionally, the ads were for political parties and the workers cleaned them in such a way to make a statement. Unfortunately, I could not catch any of these examples of second-hand culture jamming: art from dead ads.

Todos Santos Cuchumatan

2008-11-03T18:25:00.001-08:00

On the waning days of the trip, I was lucky enough to catch the yearly horse races at Todos Santos Cuchumatan, during All Saints Day. I cannot pretend to be an expert on the races and the importance/relavence to the town. I was just another tourist there and took some pictures. There is some literature out there explaining the town and the history of the races. Seek it.

Todos Santos is widely noted, though, for excessive alcohol consumption, to the point that the town was forced to go dry a few months ago. Plenty of aguardiente was blackmarketed in for the festival though, as drinking is an important part of the festivites. If I felt like, it I could have taken a million pictures of men passed out in the street. I didn´t feel like it much, for one reason or another.

Ok, I took one.

Here is what I took otherwise.

At the end is a sound sample.

The day was divided up into two sets of races. Clouds took over for the second half of the day.

Note whilst listening, the horses run back and forth along a half mile track. There is no keeping track of times or a winner. They just run back and forth for hours, a bit of a test of drunken endurance more than speed.

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Some

2008-10-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

randoms from along the way.

This landslide almost delayed my travels, except barely at all. Rumour put it at 3 hours. Just had to walk over and switch buses.

We made a kite. A death kite. Almost worked.

Back to the Lake

2008-10-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

Again. Here is on the way.

Here is there. I like San Pedro.

For a Change,

2008-10-14T18:55:00.000-07:00

here are some children climbing a store. The only reason I can imagine they would do such a thing is just for the hell of it.

The Last Photograph

2008-10-14T18:30:00.000-07:00

of a dog I will post, hopefully. At the Pacific at Las Peñitas, I came across some dogs who came across a dead turtle. Maybe they killed it.

For some different animals, note the cattle and pigs of Isla de Ometepe, both of which roam the island seemingly ownerless.

Dogs of C.A.

2008-10-07T15:30:00.001-07:00

A lot of dogs roam around the streets of Central America. Here are a few of them.

This Gentleman

2008-09-20T18:45:00.000-07:00

lives up the street from my hotel in San Pedro. He is always either in the window or out front greeting every person with a buenos dias, shaking hands, yelling it to people from behind if he has to. I wish he was on every street.

Facing Uncertain

2008-09-17T18:28:00.001-07:00

potential in Coban. A bit of an accidental self-portrait I must admit. Just a bit. If you had asked me, I would of agreed that this outcome might have been a possibilty.

I am almost confident that this is an example of graffiti

2008-09-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is some graffiti (?) from Nebaj I rather liked. I live and I will live.

As a photographer, in a photograph of graffiti I am supposed to include a person, preferibly blurred out a bit as they rumble on by. If it was an anti-capitalist message then the person should be a buisnessman. This would provide contrast and have the viewer think about the relationship between the message and the person.
You think: Does this person walking by think about what the message says? Do then even read it? If they do, does it make them second guess the decisions they have made in their lives that led them to this point? Or are they just disgusted with how out of control the city is getting with graffiti while they are on the way to the bank to transfer some funds before their banks collapses?

This photo doesn´t do any of that.

The Busdrivers of Guatemala

2008-09-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

I am not about to get in the buisness of stealing photographs and reviewing the various chicken bus drivers of Guatemala, tempting as it may be. This gentleman, though, seemed to me to epitomise what a chicken bus driver should look like. On the way to Nebaj we hit a 30 minute construction delay and he took a smokebreak, as I expected.

He also might have my camera bag and memory cards.

The Comida of Guatemala

2008-09-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

I cannot pretend to be an expert on much in Guatemala except maybe at eating vegan at various comedors across the country. I eat a slight variation of the same thing over and over again. I have not grown tired of it. I do find myself looking for the perfect plato tipico vegatariono though.

So, maybe occasioanly I will check with how I am doing on that venture.

This is from a comedor/tienda in Nebaj. I have had pretty good experience with tiendas that function as comedors as well. This was 15Q ($2) which is the norm. No guacamol or plantains but whole beans are a sad rarity and the picante was good.

I just got into Nebaj from Chichicastenago. Along the way I lost one of my camera cards containing a couple of other places (and everything else.)

In Chichi, in the market are a number of outdoor comedors. There, it was rice beans and tortillas for 5Q. They make blue corn tortillas out in the open as well. One of my favorite sounds from Guatemala is the endless clapping of the tortilla makers stamping out the dough. Again, with the lesser recorder:

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A Typical

2008-09-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

top of a volcano pic. I am not one for "scenery" pics usually but, whatever, I hiked the damn thing.

Along the way, we hiked by some areas where Mayan rituals are still performed. My better recorder gave out for a bit so I had to use the other hence the less then ideal recording. Nevertheless, this is one one sounded like:

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With the bus stopped in Quetzaltenango, a man jumped on selling some magic cream for healing about everything. I caught the last part of his sales pitch, right about when he was losing energy. No takers:

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At The Beach One Day

2008-09-02T17:59:00.000-07:00

I am on the slowest computer in the planet I think, trying to edit photos on MS Paint. Not exactly ideal but I shouldn´t complain.

This is from a few hours at the beach on Lake Atitlan.

Santiago Atitlan One Night

2008-08-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

I get iffy sometimes about taking photos sometimes, just out of respect, so i resorted to shooting from inside my bag at one point. Takes about twenty shots but eventually you get one worth keeping.

I browsed around for a bit recording. It is four minutes unedited as I do not have any editing software but it catches the whole array of sounds in Santiago at night; whistles from the game, dozens of tuc tucs buzzing and honking about, plenty of chatter, music blaring from tiendas and some cryptic chanting from patrons of a church towards the end.

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There was a basketball game in the park last night between some local teams. Younger onlookers don´t hesitate to take over during timeouts.

Barrio in San Pedro.

Canvas Minus Text Plus Paint

2008-06-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

This is a similar effort to a previous piece wherein I used a dremmel to take the gesso off the canvas. I painted it this time. I may have to go back and paint the other one as it looks a bit boring now.

Guatemala

2008-04-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

was a fine trip indeed, if not long enough. That is to be expected.

Some friends and a cow.

another text

2008-03-24T18:34:00.001-07:00

It looks like I am now down to just the lines.
I have been hoping to move on from the look the last few have been taking. This is one step.

an untitled text

45'' x 65''

colored pencil

Circuit Bent Video - My First Sony

2008-03-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

I have been hanging onto this thing for about a year now and finally got around to bending it. It was one of the easier bends I've come across as almost every connection results in a glitch. It merely is a matter of picking which ones you want. I noticed a few trends in the types of glitches connections could create so I'll go through and list them off. While one could likely bend the sound the unit makes, nothing worthwhile happened so it seemed it would be a waste of switches and pots.

No, the drawing tablet is not supposed to be outside the unit. I ended using more switches than I thought I would and did not have room to put the tablet back in the unit. I may just screw it on the outside where it should hold up ok or just build a box for it at some point.

The unit seems to have three basic types of glitches. The first and least drastic is the type which leaves the image somewhat intact. It generally gives a still kaleidoscope effect. The second type is that which fully distorts the image into a movie like effect. Drawing still affects the image it produces. The last kind causes an interference effect that looks like bad tv reception. These are controlled by the potentiometers. I used 2k pots for those but even lower resistance may have been preferable.

The circuit image below lists all of the connections I used. Four are connected through potentiometers. One pot controls two effects via a second switch. Three are independent switches and the last five are daisy chained. The "yellow screen" glitch fades the image into a predominately yellow color. The "gradual distorting" glitch results in the image slowly getting eaten away by distortion for lack of a better way to put it. Coming up with new terminology for hard to describe things can be tiring.

The tablet needs to be removed to realistically be able to work on the circuit. Luckily, it comes off fairly easy. It is considerably easier to get it back on if the board is not screwed down.

In the video below I go through all the effects rather quickly. One could leave it at any point and make more subtle changes as opposed to the more drastic ones which occur here. I initially go through all of the intact glitches before going through the fully distorting ones. At the end are the two interference glitches.

green/blue text

2008-03-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

and then I made another. It looked like this.

Circuit Bent Speak and Math

2008-03-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to receive this Speak and Math from a customer at Borders. Somehow we went from me inquiring about a book on Latin he had to talking about circuit bending and him offering me a speak and math in one latte purchasing transaction. I have been working on it between projects and finally called it done this week.

The unit has 5 glitches, 2 loops, a pitch bend, a circuit killer, and one glitch that seems to be self-propelled. It seems to continue to produce randomness indefinitely.

Here is a video of it with some gloved person at the controls. I cut it up to avoid the boredom of watching someone fumbles with switches.

While this site has the bends on the speak and math mapped out somewhat (under schematics/circuitbending), the schematic in mine varied somewhat. Unfortunately, I waited until after I was done soldering everything together to take a picture of the circuit. Nevertheless, one should be able to decipher the connections.

Thanks to Tom the kind customer and professor of philosophy who donated the speak and math.

Canvas Minus Text

2008-02-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

In an earlier post when I was discussing the various manners in which I have been taking font/text/symbols apart, 'eradication' was mentioned as one method. If ever one was a keen observer, they would note that this had not been out into practice. I, in the back of my mind, had some concept of what that could mean. Luckily, it meant having to buy a Dremmel and relieving the canvas of gesso.

If you were to have trouble seeing what is going on here, I will tell you. I naively bought some very cheap canvas at an art supply store only to find it was primed, rendering it fairly useless to me. That led to directly to this piece where I could rid the terrible canvas of its worse gesso. A Dremmel works perfectly for eliminating that 1/32" of gesso on canvas if you are ever wondering.

In the end, it is a work achieved only through subtraction. (At least on my behalf.) This manner should continue.

Gluten-free, Yeast-free, Vegan Banana Bread

2008-02-23T17:50:00.000-08:00

There is a recipe eventually i promise.

Being that I spend about as much time on cooking as art making it seems reasonable to concentrate on it here now and then.

There is a definite lack of resources for vegan, gluten free, yeast free bread making on the web. I suppose that should not be a terrible surprise. Such recipes seemed to fit two of those categories without fulfilling the third. As a result, I am setting out to figure out the best possible bread that can be made with such limits. The difficulty is finding a recipe that results in a bread that rises to some degree, stays stuck together, and actually tastes good. This can prove disastrous as we are eliminating most everything that makes bread bread.

In addition to making the bread edible, I wanted to make it more affordable. Gluten free flours can be expensive so for the bread making to be sustainable, I am going to try to concentrate on cheaper flours. Unfortunately, the cheaper flours are generally just starches which is not preferable for both reasons of flavor and health.

I initially made this loaf from the excellent gluten-free vegan blog. It fell apart on me pretty quick and tasted starchy. I decided to meld this recipe with another for banana bread. I used more brown rice flour ($2.00/#) than I would of liked. Buckwheat flour is considerable cheaper so I may try using more of that next time. Nevertheless, here is the recipe:

1c Brown Rice Flour
3/4c Buckwheat Flour
1/4c Tapioca Starch
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2c Turbinado Sugar
1/2c Walnuts
1tb Olive Oil
1tb Apple Cider Vinegar
3 Bananas
(Oh and add some amount of water/rice milk until it seems about right)

I do not know how long I baked it or at what temperature. 1 hour 350 degrees would be a recommendation.

It was good. It stayed stuck together. It tasted mildly starchy but completely bearable.

Next time I will mess with the flour ratio a bit. See what happens.

An Untitled Text

2008-01-28T16:56:00.000-08:00

This painting somehow took a rather graphical turn that, while I am not opposed, came about unexpectedly. I could stand for more things to come about unexpectedly.

an untitled text

acrylic

39 x 48

Texts Again

2008-01-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

This would be another painting in the series. I should be producing a streak of them in the near future. Hopefully, I can think of better ways to introduce the next few.

untitled

acrylic

31 x 39''

Masking Tape Minus Letters

2008-01-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

I had initially abandoned working with text as a concept, but, alas, it did not get far away.

untitled
masking tape on canvas
31 x 39"

This untitled piece fully abandons the word search as aesthetic device to ascertain the font/text as the focal point. As a whole, the series has been a disambiguation on manners in which to take text away from it's associated meaning(s). Each piece moves towards text moving further away from meaning.

Initially, this was attempted by merely hiding words in a word search to clarify and expose the hypocrisy of the viewer's assumed inability to attach meaning to them (the names of cities in Iraq) when current events (a war) dictated that this meaning should be obvious (i.e. one should know a country before they decide that they should bomb it).

This was followed by using the same technique of a word search to make an attempt to devoid it of it's very purpose. Solving a word search avoids the need to have knowledge of the meanings of the words which it hides. Success with the puzzle depends on merely having seen the words before. The word search, then, is an ideal tool to visually explore and take apart the connection between words and the concepts they represent. Words are entirely dependent on one another for deriving meaning. Similarly, the letters in the puzzle are dependent on the relation or lack of relation to those surrounding them. Eradicating the words themselves from the puzzle would put another puzzle in its place, that which letters can or cannot mean in their isolation.

The next piece barely hung on to the word search notion by layering letters on top of one another. This layering and erasure ignores the traditional form of the puzzle to create a version that on one hand simplifies matters and on another complicates them. Finding words in the puzzle is a simple process. The concern is that the viewer is left to put the letters together to form the words. The puzzle does not provide a organized manner in which to discover them. With the method absent, the solution is fully ambiguous.

end

Has someone been reading Derrida and Lacan lately? It would certainly seem that way.
Ideally, this statement will be updated as the ramifications of the series becomes more clear during the process and I sort out any hypocrisy that may or may not be present.

The following is a picture taken before the excess tape got cut out.

The photograph doesn't look so bad, but at this point I was really questioning what the hell I was doing. It seemed as though I may well have wasted $2 putting an entire roll of tape on a canvas.
I was content in the end, though. Another, strikingly similar, effort may follow.

This Painting Can Kill You

2007-12-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

might seem like a pretentious title but it is at least fairly true. More than any piece on the blog, this painting is more effective when viewed in person. It does not translate terrible well to the web. Adding to the problem is that my camera does not seem to like to pick up extremely dark green very well.

This image replicates what it looks like upon a glance at the studio.
The second angle is below.

This is a few of the 3000 pins stuck through the back. It is a little more intimidating in person.
There were held in place by shoving them through cardboard before the canvas. As a result they are fairly sturdy. So if this fell on you, death would be a potential outcome, if a little unlikely. That, though, is part of the point.

Emergency Brigade - People's History Poster Series

2007-12-15T17:20:00.001-08:00

The Celebrate People's History Project was started by the Just Seeds Collective to create posters which bring light to radical individuals and events that are otherwise ignored by the oft-taught version of history. While there is no arguing the potency and potential of the project, I felt that bringing the concept to a local level allows it to have a more significant impact. It is an important distinction because it stresses not only that anyone is capable of making significant change but that this has done repeatedly in one's own community.

This, then, represents the first in a series of posters devoted to informing viewers of the social justice history of Flint. To reiterate and expand all at once, here what was written to go along with the posters:

The Celebrate People's History project was begun by the Just Seeds Collective to create posters celebrating radical events and individuals throughout history. The posters bring light to those whose contributions to the social justice movement were ignored by a history which credits only single leaders. They represent the people who fought for the rights of all without reward or recognition for their efforts. They are intended for classrooms, homes, and public spaces: anywhere they can inform and strike conversation.

Celebrate the People's History of Flint brings this concept closer to home by creating posters concerning local struggles. These posters will explore Flint's deep history of union, civil rights and social justice activities. The posters are all silk-screened on recycled hand-made paper by local artists.
Each Poster costs only $5 and all profits are reinvested into supplies to facilitate the project continuing indefinitely.

When I was researching Flint's civil rights history for this project, I came across an article (shown below) written during the famed Sit-Down Strike about a riot 30 women precipitated. The women had formed a group called the Emergency Brigade to support and defend the strikers. This is the text I wrote to describe the group that appears in the poster:

Wearing red berets and armbands, over 60 women of the Emergency Brigade actively supported the strikers of the Flint Sit-Down Strike. Wives sisters and auto workers themselves, they brought food to the strikers and placed themselves between the attacking police lines and the strikers.

The brigade was organized following the Battle of Bull's Run. Early on in the strike when riot broke out in front of the plant the police took the upper hand by firing on unarmed men. In response, Genora Johnson spoke on the loudspeaker, calling to all women present in the onlooking crowd to break through the police line. Hundreds of women broke through and the police refused to shoot leading to a victory for the strikers. From this success, the women organized the brigade to respond to incidents where police attacked.

Weeks into the tiring strike, with the large engine plant no. 4 yet to participate, the women organized a plan. They leaked out that the attached plant no 9 was going to strike, leading the police to converge on it. The women marched to the plant, broke out windows, fought off tear gas and arrest. With the police occupied, plant no. 4 struck. The remaining Emergency Brigade blockaded the plant to prevent the police from storming it until more supporters arrived. With the engine plant striking, GM's hand was forced and they gave into worker demands.

After reading the initial article, I did a little further research and found out that a documentary film was made about the group in 1978.
It was nominated for an Academy Award!
You can watch the whole film at flinthistory.com!

It is an excellent film with insightful interviews and footage of the women brazenly attacking plant no. 9. I was continuously struck by the complete disregard the women had for anyone who attempted to keep them from accomplishing their goal of doing what to them was so obviously right. They fought off sexism from the police, the community, the strikers, and the union to play a deciding role in the strike, only to get ignored by history. There were many variables to their struggle into which the film could not delve, some of which are better discussed in this article.

On a personal note, this was my first full attempt at silk-screening. Luckily it worked out fairly well. I may have chosen a different color scheme in retrospect, but I cannot by any means complain. The paper is hand-made out of about two months worth of junk mail.

Thanks to Brooke for guiding me through the silk-screening-process, lending me equipment, and dealing with my incessant questions.

Hopefully other local printmakers will help continue the project. I will be forcing them to and post their results here.

"Hurling imprecations at the police" is a rather hilarious quote.

All My Friends Can Catch Good

2007-12-14T18:10:00.000-08:00

All My Friends Can Catch Good by
Tyson Schwertner is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Making this movie has been one of the more rewarding art projects I have embarked on. It has been a lot of fun collaborating ideas with all of those who participated. Many of the concepts for the most successful shots came from people who likely do not consider themselves "artists" in any traditional sense. Hopefully everyone garnered something positive out of participating.

Thanks to everyone who helped out and let me invade their homes and lives for a bit.

I should have my other works from the show last night up in the next few days.

A Post for the Sake of a Post

2007-12-11T00:15:00.000-08:00

It has been much too long without a post. Nevertheless, this is a post.
This video is merely outtakes from a video that will be up here soon enough.
It is just a short compilation of shots where I just hit the record button for a second accidentally or otherwise.
It is more of a test to see how things look when uploaded.

3 Circuit Bends

2007-10-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Here are three circuit bends that have been waiting around for awhile for me to get finished.

This would be my first bend. It has the least in the way of switches and such. That said, I think it is the most "usable", although i suppose circuit bending isn't exactly aiming at usability. It has the added benefit of three contact points and a nice little led flicker.

I had red spray paint. I used it.
It helps.
This has three tiny push button switches that I accidentally bought from jameco. Luckily they were useful. If pressed a few times they trigger some rather nasty unstoppable loops. They are quite unpredictable and sometimes just kill the circuit. One can hear an example of a non circuit killing loop towards the end of the sound sample. The sample is played on an annoying widget.
It has ads.
I have to fix that.

I about fried this thing ten times over but luckily it survived. This keyboard has a sweet sampling function that I was never able to fully exploit to make it do something other than what it was intended. Someday maybe.

The Last Painting of Letters

2007-10-12T08:23:00.001-07:00

This is the last in the short series of word search puzzles. Possibly.
It is not much of a word search at all.
It is about as subtle as can be.
It took a long time.
It is good that it is done.
It is untitled.
It was quite hard to tell when to stop. Usually I do not have trouble knowing. Being that most all of the letters were drawn and then erased, I stopped when the eraser was down to nothing.

Receipts Again

2007-10-05T16:18:00.001-07:00

These are even older than the other receipts.
I have quite a few more of these. I could make them all day if I desired. I have yet to.

The other ones are in an out of business sushi restaurant/club in Detroit that once they once showed in that may back in business soon - supposedly.

Either that or, even better, they are on the wall of the house of the owner an out of business sushi restaurant/club in Detroit that once they once showed in, that may or may not be back in business soon - supposedly.

bellyaches

daggers

houses on fire

originally this was titled 'shapes' when photoshoping these down i noticed they resemble steaks. kind of. so 'steaks'.

tanks

shopping bags or your boss asleep at their desk

asbestos filled walls

blams

Receipts

2007-10-04T20:11:00.000-07:00

These are receipts some sewn together by hand over a long period of time. Years in fact.
(actually 1.1 but the plural sounds nicer and it didn't really even take me that long anyway so i may has well add an s.)
Strange. I just got done having a conversation where I claimed to have never worked on any one thing for a year and then I immediately took a picture of something that took me somewhere near that long. I lied. I lie.

I did these awhile ago. I thought about continuing and making them gigantic but at some point you have to move on and do other projects that are completely unrelated.

These must be about consumerism. It is possible that is just too obvious to be true. Hopefully someone can think of a more nuanced interpretation for me.

Wordless Wordsearch

2007-10-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

There actually are words in it. This is impressively hard to avoid. I failed. You have failed at things as well. You know how it can be. So be it.

Pixel Graffiti

2007-09-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

One of the great video games ever is 'Bruce Lee' for the Commodore 64. Luckily you can still play it thanks to people other than me. I just put the characters on the wall with spray paint. I thought doing it one pixel at a time seemed more appropriate while allowing for more improvisation. Hopefully soon I will do something more complex. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe one of my plants.

The graphics in the game seemed to use full and half size pixels. I cut out some accordingly.

I always thought the ninja guy was the worst in the game. It makes me feel bad for him. I figured I could give him a bike (my bike) to help.

Word Search for Iraqi Cities

2007-09-06T06:57:00.001-07:00

This painting is the first in a series of word searches. In actuality, it is a drawing, as no actual paint is involved beyond gesso, but this is not relevant much anymore.

Matchbooks from Japanese Strip Clubs

2007-09-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

Some gentleman traveled to Japan and Taiwan, visited plenty of strip clubs, smoked, and returned home with some matches to spare. Somehow the matchbooks he collected ended up at a second hand store, wherein I purchased them at 10 cents each and three years later posted them on my blog. If he only knew.

This photograph

2007-09-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

I found a long time ago. I like it. Maybe you don't. Your loss.

Synth Noise

2007-08-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

This was my first electronics project. I finally got around to making a box for it. I chopped up a wooden dowel and drilled a hole in the back for the knobs (which are ridiculously expensive otherwise.)

The thing makes an impressive array of noise for such a simple circuit. You can find the schematic here at Music from Outer Space, an obsessively thorough site on building synths.

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Here is the mess inside.

How to Make a Giant Inflatable Walrus

2007-08-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

The fine folks at Crimethinc long ago put out a diy zine which contained instructions on how to make giant inflatables. My friend Nikki and I attempted it. I had yet to see a case of people trying it out online so I thought I would share.

(I should note at this point that you can also find almost thorough instructions in "Recipes for Disaster," a fairly respectable Crimethinc release.)

What you need:

a stuffed animal of your choice - something longer than tall would probably be best

painter's tarp - a shitload of it - wider the better - not the thin stuff - we used 4-mil. i think. just make sure it will hold air in. some thin kinds will not.

packaging tape - a shitload of it - we kept having to buy more and more tape - then we discovered the multi-pack - don't go cheap on this - buy the best quality you can find - 2"

scissors
graphing paper
time
a giant room
that is it. i think.

Step 1:

This is important. Draw or take a picture of your stuffed animal. You are going to decimate it soon. You need to know how thing went together. You'll get mixed up.
Label each section however you see fit. We went with letters as this picture proves.*

*this picture i mention seems to be missing. maybe i'll add it later. it's somewhere

Step 2:

Decimate it. Actually, just tear it apart at the seams keeping the sections intact. Write on the back of each piece the letter (or number) you label it in the corresponding drawing (or photo)

3:

Trace the outline of each section on to the graph paper. You might need to tape together a couple pieces of the paper. Just make sure the squares line up when you do. Again, label each piece appropriately. This is the end of labeling shit.

At this point you have to figure out how big you want this thing to be. I think ours was about 13 ft tall. Plenty large enough. I don't have the slightest idea how much tape and tarp we went through except to say it was a lot and we had to revisit the hardware store a number of times. If I were forced to guess, which I have not been, I would likely say we bought 5 100 ft rolls that were 10 ft wide.
Make it big as you can.

Nevertheless, you have to make a decision here and when you do, figure out a reasonable ratio for how much space each square on the paper will represent. We wanted the walrus to be about 25 feet long. If each square represented 6 sq. inches in the real world, the thing would be 27 ft long. That is what we went with. As you can see, we boxed out the drawings in 3 x 3 so each square on paper represented 1.5 square feet. You can now figure out how big your pieces of tarp have to be for each section.
I hope that makes sense.

4:

Now that you know how big each section is going to be, lay out some tarp. Clean the floor first.

Cut the tarp down to size keeping the rectangular shape. Find a crayon that draws on the tarp. (That is another thing you'll need. Crayon.) With the help of your graph paper drawing, redraw the section on the tarp. We did a lot of measuring and marking of where each curve took place to help guide us along. (As in, "The curve of the nose begins four feet down from this corner and two feet over from there. Let's make a mark there.") This helped quite a bit.
Or you can just recreate the whole grid if you want. That is a little ridiculous, though. Now that I think about it, we did mark each 1.5 ft along the sides. This helped quite a bit.

If your genes provide you with enough talent, you'll have a giant precise version of the drawing. Cut the thing up. Roll it up. Store safely. Repeat with each section.
And label each section.

5:

Taping. This is the part where you'll begin to dislike the person who is doing this with you.
Don't worry. When it works you'll be friends again.

The book recommends one person cutting tape and handing it to the other to apply it. This seemed sensible.
Using your drawing (or photo) of the animal, figure out which sections go together. Do the parts (arm, head, tusk, fin, neck, tail, etc) separately. Hope for the best.

Join the two pieces flat together. Put half the tape on one side and then fold the tape onto the other. Seal it good. We did a fair amount of doubling up on tape. Watch it though and your tape expenses can add up.

You would like to think everything lines up perfectly. Well, the world is cruel and it doesn't. It's better you go in knowing that. We ended up doing a lot of patching, so keep some spare tarp around. In the end though, there seems to be a fair amount of leeway in how far you can be off. You can always go back and patch parts that are too tight if you need to.

When you are half done taping it up, it will seem ridiculous trying to get the second half done as all you have is a giant mesh of plastic laying over itself. You will question whether or not this is all some cruel joke. You will blame whoever convinced you this was a good idea.

We just shoved a couple ladders in the thing to prop it up, so we could tape a little easier. Just do what you have to.

6:

I've done a great job of not mentioning exactly how this thing is supposed to work. Well you need a fan. A box fan. Just one. You'll be amazed at what one box fan can blow up.
Cut a hole somewhere in the thing the size of the fan.

As you'll see below, we created a little tarp tunnel to tape to it. (alliteration) Tape it well.
Turn it on. Watch it take shape. Make sure nothing will puncture it.
You'll note some seams burst. This is fine and expected to an extent. The air needs to go somewhere. Reinforce the area around these new holes with more tape so it doesn't get worse.
If some tears are too big, patch them up. Do not try to tape them back together.
We cut a little hole in back so we could enter it. Keep it small as possible.

Here are some other pics of it finished and out of focus. Focus is overrated.

Earlier I said I didn't find anyone who had done this before. Then I looked.
Here are some people who do. Apparently for a living. Must be nice.
They use an iron and other stuff. Who knows.

Questions anyone?