Blog vacation ends in mid-June

Any regular readers out there may have noticed I've been not updating my blog much lately. The habit fell off due to wedding preparations (I'm getting married this Saturday!). I'll pick the pace up again when I return from my honeymoon.

Thanks for reading!

CCNY Electronic Design BFA Thesis Show

This is the post card for my students' thesis show... The opening reception is at the City College of New York, 1617 Amsterdam Ave (at W. 140th) on May 19th, 5-7 pm.

R. Luke DuBois's "More Perfect Union"

R. Luke DuBois has an interesting Rhizome Commission proposal. His More Perfect Union creates averaged photos of online dating participants as categorized by congressional district.



DuBois writes:

According to a 2006 Pew Research Report, 20 million Americans make use of online dating services, and nearly a third of Americans know someone who has used one to find a partner. In the three years since this report was published, this number has surely only increased, and represents a significant trend in how people find romantic connection in the Internet age. As a specialized form of social networking, online dating is a well-established and well-studied phenomenon in the United States, dating back to computer dating services in the late 1970s. A significant part of the ritual of online dating consists of preparing a profile, in which you describe yourself, your personality, habits, hobbies, tastes, and, on most services, include an image of yourself. You also use the service's API to describe (either in narrative or using multiple-choice fields) what you feel your want in a romantic partner. Online dating forces us to engage in a vulnerable act of articulating our self-identity in a semi-public forum for the express purpose of being wanted, and to read a thoughtful dating profile is to read the precarious expression of someone else's desires.

A More Perfect Union consists of a large hybrid artwork based around the information found on online dating sites in the United States. I've already begun studying this data, downloading 16.7 million online dating profiles this summer and studying the information for artistic inspiration. The project takes the form of a census, where the profiles are sorted by zip code and placed into the appropriate U.S. Congressional District. The profiles from these districts are then analyzed for trends and will incorporate text, statistics, maps, and imagery drawing from the photos people include in their dating profiles, derived in inspiration from the gestalt image work current in computer graphics (image morphing), but dating all the way back to Francis Galton's composite portraits, made in the 19th Century.

Incidentally, you can see my own Rhizome Commission proposal here.

Edith Kollath's "disport."

Edith Kollath has a series of works about breathing.  Here's her disport. (2009, mixed media installation):

Kollath writes about disport.:

As you approach this room installation (diameter app. 14'2", height app. 10'6") you'll recognize an organic   movement resembling a breath movement executed by free-flowing textiles.  These textiles form a cell, which is based on the shape of a pentagon. Its walls consist of white transparent chiffons organized in layers within a trapezoid.  Each trapezoid module continually slides away from the center and returns again in a regular rhythm. Opening - closing, inhale - exhale.... Simultaneously, the light inserted in the central pentagon shape shifts from a warmer darker tone to a brighter cooler white.

You are invited to enter the cell. How do you perceive the room, how do you perceive yourself? How does the cell affect the encounters with other people? By creating an immersive accessible room installation fully controlled by an Arduino Microcontroller I explore phenomenological questions.