I had been approaching the establishment of a generative system for making as a divination of chance, similar to soothsaying and the I-Ching. Such a practice places serendipity in the forefront, the mother of invention.
However, upon reflecting on past experiments I found that pure chance is not the apple of my eye, but the unforeseen fruits of combining that chance with communicative interchange with others. The potential for the spaces between everything else in the world and myself to be charged, to be activated, is where my motivations lie. It is here that the everyday is raised up from the realm of the mundane.
Friday, November 09, 2007
this entry is a power point presentation that supplemented a conversation with my professors about where I am in developing a practice for myself.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Today's Findings
I've been doing some research concerning my studio practice this semester.
i'll post my contract that outlines this work next week. Until then here are some discoveries I've made.
these guys build objects that combine traditional woodworking and
homemade electronics.
Shown here is a performance of their Log1k units, featuring spinning
wooden disks run by micro controlled stepper motors creating rhythms
and sounds. In the contesxt of electronic music, they are designed to
replace laptops. Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the main
page and check out the personal websites of the three collaborators.
www.owlproject.com
I saw Charlie observing
the struggle of a red ant dragging around a black ant carcass
which led me to the thought of using an ant farm in one of my homemade
instruments. I did some research and found that the study of ants is
myrmecology.
Ant photography by myrmecologist, Adrian Alan Smith. This species is dolichoderus.
I also found that Ant Farms are called formicariums. This one is jelly based.
Tito witnessed Charlie and I observing the ants and mentioned how crazy army ants are. I'll do what he did and tell you to youtube it.
i'll post my contract that outlines this work next week. Until then here are some discoveries I've made.
Owl Projects
these guys build objects that combine traditional woodworking and
homemade electronics.
Shown here is a performance of their Log1k units, featuring spinning
wooden disks run by micro controlled stepper motors creating rhythms
and sounds. In the contesxt of electronic music, they are designed to
replace laptops. Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the main
page and check out the personal websites of the three collaborators.
Mrymecology and the Formacarium
I saw Charlie observing
the struggle of a red ant dragging around a black ant carcass
which led me to the thought of using an ant farm in one of my homemade
instruments. I did some research and found that the study of ants is
myrmecology.
Ant photography by myrmecologist, Adrian Alan Smith. This species is dolichoderus.
I also found that Ant Farms are called formicariums. This one is jelly based.
Tito witnessed Charlie and I observing the ants and mentioned how crazy army ants are. I'll do what he did and tell you to youtube it.
Monday, December 25, 2006
peanut butter and chocolate
i unwrapped the foil of my mini reese's p.b. cup and found that it had to little paper rounds to keep it extra safe.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Jules Verne Interactive Character Map
Here's a link to digitally intensified 1896 poster of Jules Verne personalities
Character Map
New Purpose, a Census
Here's the deal:
I am borrowing this laptop (the one on which this text is being birthed)
from the design department I am in at school in order to meet the needs of said department.
The thing is that here isn't a normal word processing program on here.
So, I am using this thing to conduct a census of the ideas that
populate the territory of my mind, a cup that spilleth over.
so thus begins another andrew-thomas escapade.
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
andrew-thomas attepmting to read Sartes to chuck e. cheese.
chuck responded somewhat diffidently.
-mgmnt
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Yukio Mishima
I have discovered another Japnese suicidal that intrigues me. I discovered him after reading about a Daniel Menche album inspired by this novel, Sun and Steel. The first japanese suicidal that I dicovered was Yutaka Taniyama. Mishima commited seppuku, the ritual suicide of the Samurai in 1970. Just as in Taniyama's case I was drawn into his world. They both gaze back at me from whatever feeble photograph was taken of them, and a plane infintum shoots through their eyes, and continues through my own. Taniyama emphasizes if not symbolizes the power of combining two seemingly diseperate parts. Mishima has done so with the idea of physical transformation, similar to that of Taxi Driver and Fight Club.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Transcription: 1/28/06 Goat Island Workshop Writing Exercises
GOAT ISLAND WORKSHOP
LINK’S HALL, CHICAGO, IL
( I am asked to describe my self in an a motion, actual or imaginary, possible or impossible.)
(My initial entry is a drawing resembling wood grain or cellular tissues of the brain drawn diagonally across the page)
As I sit, never still, the same place
is always different, made different.
I swell, I start, I bur, I jump
in my skin and leave memories
of myself in my container, my
atmosphere. I twitch and
pulsate, I sweep, I am striking
out in extensions of my movement
(I am now asked to describe an unexpected interruption of this movement)
(there is a small letter sized scribble and “I” scratched out by a 11/2 in. long scratch. Also, written lightly and diagonally over the above text is “VIBRATE”)
A swift turn and my
movement sinks quickly
into me like escaping
octopi. A streak
of the …
(this is where the drawing interrupts the text, the following is written diagonally, below the drawing)
…head meets with the bold streak of another. My eyes
fly from behind me and enter unto their rightful place
then exceed it and streak. My heads turns sideways
on a vertical axes, cocked. The eyes vibrate. I throw my
head into a space and as it plummets back towards me
my neck catches up with it and I am hurled, I return
to my undulation, My frequency shrieketh.
I wrap around. I am forceful, I glide
with a curving upward thrust and
steam with my reaction. A
strong wavering follows my
head in it’s motions.
( I am now asked to write about an occurrence that is the opposite of the previous accounts as one)
(I scratch a line below the previous text, below which is an arrow pointing right, below which is written “over” The following is on the backside page of the above, written horizontally)
A slow rush is gathered up in my (small scratch)
possession, in my gait’s perception (below this is written in parentheses, “Posession?) (small scratch)
I sink, soft-crushing in to the crop, my crop, where glowing embers
(below the “e” of “embers” is written in parentheses, “a”. below the “s” in “embers” is written in parentheses, “ / ”) lay and I am liquid upon this.
(I am now asked to write about an interaction with a stranger, I make no evident interruption between the entries)
on the outward side of our shell, there’s
a crunching and smooshing of ground,
bodyweight liking a gravitational
ends to a means. This is an outsider,
No face to us. We are Splashing,
the embers and I, in a soft, creamy
warmth, a grasping union, a layer
of sweat.
( I am then asked to write a question, an answer, a date, a time, and a place as a reactions to the total of the above writings. The question and answer arre to be derived from the text, the rest may or may not reference the occrunses accounted for in the text)
Q: Why doth my frequency shreiketh?
A: a grasping union, a layer of sweat
(scribbled out is “Sep” followed by) Sept. 25. 3:30am
halfway above and
below the ocean,
sky and sea both
known to us.
LINK’S HALL, CHICAGO, IL
( I am asked to describe my self in an a motion, actual or imaginary, possible or impossible.)
(My initial entry is a drawing resembling wood grain or cellular tissues of the brain drawn diagonally across the page)
As I sit, never still, the same place
is always different, made different.
I swell, I start, I bur, I jump
in my skin and leave memories
of myself in my container, my
atmosphere. I twitch and
pulsate, I sweep, I am striking
out in extensions of my movement
(I am now asked to describe an unexpected interruption of this movement)
(there is a small letter sized scribble and “I” scratched out by a 11/2 in. long scratch. Also, written lightly and diagonally over the above text is “VIBRATE”)
A swift turn and my
movement sinks quickly
into me like escaping
octopi. A streak
of the …
(this is where the drawing interrupts the text, the following is written diagonally, below the drawing)
…head meets with the bold streak of another. My eyes
fly from behind me and enter unto their rightful place
then exceed it and streak. My heads turns sideways
on a vertical axes, cocked. The eyes vibrate. I throw my
head into a space and as it plummets back towards me
my neck catches up with it and I am hurled, I return
to my undulation, My frequency shrieketh.
I wrap around. I am forceful, I glide
with a curving upward thrust and
steam with my reaction. A
strong wavering follows my
head in it’s motions.
( I am now asked to write about an occurrence that is the opposite of the previous accounts as one)
(I scratch a line below the previous text, below which is an arrow pointing right, below which is written “over” The following is on the backside page of the above, written horizontally)
A slow rush is gathered up in my (small scratch)
possession, in my gait’s perception (below this is written in parentheses, “Posession?) (small scratch)
I sink, soft-crushing in to the crop, my crop, where glowing embers
(below the “e” of “embers” is written in parentheses, “a”. below the “s” in “embers” is written in parentheses, “ / ”) lay and I am liquid upon this.
(I am now asked to write about an interaction with a stranger, I make no evident interruption between the entries)
on the outward side of our shell, there’s
a crunching and smooshing of ground,
bodyweight liking a gravitational
ends to a means. This is an outsider,
No face to us. We are Splashing,
the embers and I, in a soft, creamy
warmth, a grasping union, a layer
of sweat.
( I am then asked to write a question, an answer, a date, a time, and a place as a reactions to the total of the above writings. The question and answer arre to be derived from the text, the rest may or may not reference the occrunses accounted for in the text)
Q: Why doth my frequency shreiketh?
A: a grasping union, a layer of sweat
(scribbled out is “Sep” followed by) Sept. 25. 3:30am
halfway above and
below the ocean,
sky and sea both
known to us.