Initial Reaction to The Last HOPE

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Over the last four days I've probably spent over 50 hours in a conference hall at the Hotel Pennsylvania.  If there's one thing I've learned form the experience, it's this:  Hackers are cool. Like, seriously cool people.

So for all of you who took my business card and are reading this right now - thanks for all your support and excitement and insightful ideas.  Your input is definitely going to change the future of the Wiremap.

I've got one last favor to ask.  If any of you post photos or videos or articles or interviews or whatever, I'd love it if you could drop me an email to let me know.  It's third person material like this that helps bring the Wiremap to other events.  I plan on compiling all the links on a big list at http://wiremap.phedhex.com,

One of the highlights that many of you didn't get a chance to see was when a coder named Max (don't know his handle or last name) decided to build a new program for the Wiremap.  He thought about it for a night, came back, and within two hours whipped up a beautiful and captivating ripple effect.  I took some video and will be posting it in the next coupla days.

I'm in the process of setting up a mailing list, also.  I promise I'll have a link for that on my blog within a week.

See you at The Next HOPE.

Cell phone picture of Saturn

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So, when I was staging Calvin's Island, the script called for a telescope.  We borrowed one from an astronomy student up at Columbia, and ended up not using it because it was too big. At any rate, when we returned it, he took us up to the observatory and showed us the night sky.  It was beautiful!  It was also weird to be looking up there and seeing all this stuff really close up.

Anyway, he shows us Saturn and we laugh in disbelief.  It looks almost like a cartoon version of what you think it might look like.

So, with my geekery in optics and cameras and POV and all that jazz, I get the idea to try to capture Saturn with my cell phone picture.  After all, if you get the camera in the hot spot with the telescope, you should be able to pick up whatever the eye is picking up.

I put my phone up against the telescope and looked around.  The camera had to be in just the right spot, but when it was there you could definitely see Saturn.  After a couple of missed shots, I got this photo:

Saturn far cell phone pic

Here's a closer image:

Saturn medium cell phone pic

And an a ridiculously close zoom:

Saturn close cell phone pic

Turns out I'm not the only one who's done this.  Dave Pearson has been doing this for a while and has a couple of very cool photos of the exact same subject as well as a few others.

DEMF '08

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I've been dancing on and off for about ten years now - the last couple of years being "off".  Nonetheless, for a little while now I've been involved in two online dance forums, reflective.net and floasis.net.  Reflective has been around for quite a while, and the group is comprised of poppers mostly from the East Coast (as far as I can tell).  Floasis is a group that's only a about a year old and is comprised of people doing liquid. Alongside realizing that I don't really enjoy theater as much as I thought I used to (see two posts ago), I've come to the realization that I miss dancing.  Like, I really miss rocking out to good music.

DEMF is the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.  This year I went out there and met up with a few people at Floasis.net, and learned my ass off.  Yeah, they were all very skilled dancers - very very skilled.

We took loads of video, mostly of dancing and some experimental footage that I want to play around with in the same vein of the liquid cam video I made a while back.  I'll post that as soon as it's up.

Wiremap at HOPE

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So this is a nice follow-up to the last post. Before I figured out that I don't really like the installation art world, I got an email from an administrator at HOPE '08, aka "The last HOPE." HOPE is a hacker convention held annually in NYC (Hackers On Planet Earth). My brother blogged about the '04 HOPE convention over at his site.  I'm excited. This is the first time the big Wiremap will get a public viewing.  If this conference is your cup of tea, registration is 75 bucks.

I got word that they were looking for submissions through Christina Olson. She sent out word through the Dorkbot mailing list, and I thought that the large version of the Wiremap would be perfect for this venue. One full day of setup time, and three days of exhibition. I will also hopefully have the opportunity to leave my station for a few minutes to check out all the other cool happenings at HOPE, including a Segway racing track.

So yeah, if you come out swing by my tent enclosure or whatever they've got me set up in and say hi.

Dear theater: thanks but no thanks

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First, let me start this blog with the obligatory, "Surprise, I'm still alive!" It's been over two months since my last blog post, and I'm doing well. Since my last post over two months ago, I've come to a number of startling revelations. First, I don't really like New York City. Second, I don't really like theater. And lastly, I don't really like installation art.

If I were the next Wooster Group, if I got a piece into the Guggenheim, if I got a good writeup in the Times for all my work, I'd be unhappy. Why? These creative goals don't really appeal to me.

I close my eyes and imagine the happiest I could be in the theater world. I'm opening a show at BAM that did phenomenally in previews. I really believe in the work, I am proud of my cast, crew, and all the collaborators on the project. I can already taste the stagelight.

And in this perfect world, I can't help but see myself as bored, exhausted, and overworked. My collar and shoes are uncomfortable as I shuffle around awkwardly and politely talk to patrons about things that bore me - the future of the theater company, where the ideas came from, how who met who.

Same thing happens when I think about installation art. The curators and the clout, the people who are dumbfounded by your work and have nothing to talk about and the people who immediately "get it" and walk away unimpressed.

Please don't misinterpret this to mean that I think curators, patrons, theater artists, or installation artists are boring people. They're fascinating and they generate a wealth of culture. They also happen to be fortunate enough to enjoy that part of the art world that I dread.

So yeah, right now theater and I are on a little break. Also, save for this upcoming event at HOPE (I'll be posting about that in a coupla hours or so just to keep posts separate), I won't be actively pursuing the installation art career.

This doesn't mean I won't be doing cool stuff still.

: )

I've got a pot full of interesting ideas, a few regarding liquid dancing, and a few regarding augmented reality. So do continue to check in.