This weekend I took the bus over to NYC to attend a conference at the New York Academy of Sciences titled: Biology and Art: Two Worlds or One? I was initially hesitant to go as I have to be ready to install my thesis show in two weeks but I decided to go to refresh my brain a bit.
Highlights include:
Theo Jansen whose kinetic sculptures blew me away with their delicacy, enormous scale and charm.
Dr. Jonathan King’s discussion on how his students learn from visual representations of cellular proteins. King brought up the extremely important point that his students, despite being brilliant MIT kids, still had to be taught how to read images, or how to actually assimilate and understand what the electron microscope was telling them. I thought this was so important mainly because I was getting this vibe from the other scientists that they felt like art needed to be straightforward and easy to understand. But art is like any other image or language. You need to learn how to see before you actually start seeing it. Similarly science is also not that straight foward or easy to understand. Scientist may think some things obvious but it is becuase they are fully versed in the language and thinking of science.
I also enjoyed the talk of Dr. Andrew A. Bienwener on the kinetics of animal movement. I remember discussing in my Kant class last semester the amazing lack of consciousness in animal movement. It was astounding and beautiful to see mountain goats effortlessly climb and the resulting very creepy and uncanny robots built to mimic these movements.
I got the feeling that a lot of scientists with the exception of Dr. King felt that art was obligated to be within a certain aesthetic paradigm. If you are contemporary artist, generally the question of this type of aesthetic at this point is considered tacky and bourgeoisie. Interestingly I ran into a similar problem with a scientifically inclined friend of mine who also expressed concern about aesthetics. And I think this is a huge communication problem that probably cuts both ways. And there is going to have to be some learning on both sides as to what we can expect from art and what we can expect from science. Frankly I am always for pushing the envelope and forgetting old rules and forgetting what makes you feel happy and comfortable. For example the Cloaca art project, which is essentially a glorified shit making machine that mimics the digestive system. Utterly fantastic.
I am happy I went. It helped me reinforce why I like being an artist. There was this moment at the reception held afterwards where I was stuffing myself full of prosciutto and cheese and on my third glass of wine looking out into a fantastic view of the city (we were on the 40th floor of a brand new high-rise) chatting with a woman who was working with a neurologist, researching the 8 things that the brain and the human eye find pleasing and it was very affirming. I am doing the right thing.
A few blogs have written on this already but I absolutely had to join in. Wired Magazine featured a project called the 100 mile suit and for reasons I will elaborate further, infuriates me. (see wired story) In brief the 100 mile suit is a project undertaken by educator Kelly Cobb and her class to create a suit only using materials (including the sheep from which wool was used) within a 100 mile radius. Unfortunately it yielded the ugliest hippy looking thing imaginable. See the link above for pics. It makes me suddenly want to own a hummer and not recycle.
What is even more crazy in my mind is that it took Cobb’s group and entire freaking year to make this. I don’t get it. Cobb couldn’t find someone who knew how to sew or knit or weave decently? I am also disturbed by the fit. The jacket barely fits the guy. I could overlook the aesthetics if the fit was decent and the outfit didn’t look like it was thrown together. My grandmother has a woman who lives in her neighborhood who is a superb weaver and seamstress and makes her own swanky jackets–so while dwindling in number, there are people who do have serious skills and craftsmanship. Why didn’t Cobb enlist skilled people?
It disturbes me that this amatuerish project is garnering so much attention. Especially considering that there are people all over the place doing this exact thing and doing it better. Case in point I present you my beautiful pleated skirt that was hand-made by the Otavalo Indians of Ecuador.
They do all of their work from raising sheep, to weaving to designing to sewing within a 100 mile radius. And they sure as hell don’t take an entire year to fabricate one garment. Where is their big presentation at the ICA? We should not be getting our ideas about sustainability from silly experiments like Cobb’s or the 100 mile diet. The people to learn from are generally from poorer countries that have actually had sucess in maintaining their own sustainability.
This is already old hat by Internet standards but I have to post the link anyways because it celebrates the simple clever idea. An enterprising dude has found an alternative use for all those CD spindles: a perfect holder for your bagels.
Getting past the fact that god only knows what kind of CD spindle chemicals are leeching into your bagel sandwich (and personally as an artist who used to do some welding to the point of minor nosebleeds and flecks of ash in my snot–eh I feel I am already pretty exposed to the chemical elements of the modern era) I love the simplicity and niftyness of this idea. Simplicity can be enormously charming. And I like all those things very much. Simplicity, charm, and cleverness. I strive to keep my artwork in this manner. But I never seem to get all three. I think I am good at getting charm and cleverness but I struggle with simplicity. And it is the simplicity that keeps things buoyant and light. At times I wonder if I should just embrace my sloppiness. Maybe in time I will hit all three notes.
My thesis show is rapidly coming up and I just have to say: I really love my Dremel. I don’t use it all that much. But every now and then I will look into my kit and discover a new attachment or use. Today I finally figured out how to use the circle cutter. It was perfect! I am surprised it went through the thick wood so well. Props to my cool landlord too. He has a pretty complete wood-shop in the basement and is nice enough to loan me tools.
These are some of favorite tools that I have repurposed for other uses:
1. Any object can be a hammer.
2. Seam rippers are fantastic if you are harvesting wire from cat 5’s or something. It strips the outer sheeth so nicely.
3. sewing pins are useful if you are building small models in foam-core.
4. A $5 soldering iron can be used as a wood-burner or stencil cutter.
5. Emory boards are great if you need to smooth-out something small or delicate.
