La teoria delle stringhe - La Badini (collettivo perforante)

Performance piece from La Badini entitled La teoria delle stringhe (String theory). Winner of the 2010/11 Arte Laguna Prize, Performing Art section.

 

My first Processing program: algorithmically-generated plant

I have been meaning to try out Processing (a.k.a. Proce55ing) for ages, now.  Processing is a Java-like language which includes a simple development environment which makes generating graphics, animation, and sound simple. You can see some impressive examples at the Processing site's exhibition page.

I played with Processing for the past week or so, and my first non-trivial "sketch" is a modification of the Penrose Tile example written by Geraldine Sarmiento included with Processing. It is an algorithmically-generated plantlike form. The iterative method used is called an L-System, introduced by the botanist Aristid Lindenmayer (hence the "L"). 

Back in the 80s, when fractals, cellular automata, and other iterative and recursive things were the rage, this beautiful book (which I have a copy of) was produced: The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants, by Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz and Aristid Lindenmayer.  It is out of print, but you can download a full high-resolution copy at that link, which also lists correction.

Click here for my sketch.

Kobi Levi footwear

I like footwear, as you may have surmised from some of the pictures I’ve taken. It started out as a simple exercise in seeing: I don’t know what to shoot, so I’ll just look down. Anyway, I like quirky shoes, and this designer named Kobi Levi specializes in trompe l’oeil footwear. Warning: some of his shoes are NSFW.

Sign parts

I was stupidly happy when I stumbled upon taking pictures of parts of signs. Little things.

Film is alive and well

I love shooting film, still. Some of my favorite pictures were shot on film. 

I just discovered a Tumblr blog called I Still Shoot Film by a pro photographer who takes beautiful pictures on old cameras, occasionally doing things like cross-processing. And posting eBay deals on cameras.

 
 

 
 

Hand-drawn maps

via www.slate.com

The map shown here was drawn by Alexander Calder. Many more hand-drawn maps at the Hand-Drawn Maps Association.

Merce Cunningham performs in Nam June Paik’s “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell”.

Interview with Araki

FLY has an interview with Nobuyoshi Araki, one of my favorite photographers. (NSFW - nudity.) The video shows some of the first pictures of his career, ones he took of his wife. It’s an excerpt from Arakimentari, a documentary by Travis Klose.

New Photography 2009 at MoMA

Just returned from a visit to NYC and Boston. While in NYC, I went to see the New Photography exhibit at MoMA. It featured six photographers: Walead Beshty, Daniel Gordon, Leslie Hewitt, Carter Mull, Sterling Ruby, and Sara VanDerBeek. They all work very differently, though a couple had similar methods. The unifying feature, though, is that the photographic process is used as a medium itself, and sometimes recursively (photographs of photographs).

Walead Beshty is the most “painterly”: he takes a very large sheet of photographic paper, and exposes parts of it to various colored light, masking out areas by using the sheet itself.

Leslie Hewitt’s work departs the least from traditional photography, and I found it very evocative. He photographs other photographs which are placed within a setting of common objects, sometimes with some personal significance.

Anyway, will write more about my trip soon.

New York City trip

I'm just back from a brief trip to NYC. A painter friend had her first solo show at the Bowery Gallery in Chelsea.

Mostly I slept a lot, and ate out: Franchia (a vegan Korean restaurant, with some really fancy tea -- favorite place of the friend I stayed with), Corrado, a ramen/sushi place (run by Koreans), a cheapo sushi place. No street meat this time around, though.

I didn't go to the Guggenheim, as I usually do, but they've finished the renovations so it's not covered up. I did go to the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum: they had a special exhibit on felt. Watched some cool videos of Mongolian felt-makers making it the traditional way with ponies.

There was a surprise art stop at the Niagara Bar. My friend Marissa who I stayed with runs a weekly music and art show there, and some of her artist friends know Nara. He did some graffiti in the bar, which is now preserved behind plexiglas sheets. Unfortunately, he was arrested for doing graffiti in Union Square station.

Sarah wasn't the only Boston friend who happened to be in NYC that weekend. Some other friends happened to be playing in Brooklyn.

All in all, a fun, short vacation. Sucks to be back, since I came back to a ton of broken things.