OTR_Nursery

cover version

wheeling out the record

i've got a group show coming up at uni in a couple of weeks, curated by the inimitable doctor michael vale. he's the sort of teacher you always remember coz he loves what he is teaching and he loves to see you enjoying the thing he is so passionate about. makes you wanna get better at what you do.

anyway, it's called beautiful volcanoes and it's gonna be at monash uni in the faculty gallery. there's a killer lineup and i'm pretty stoked to be included.

here's the first rough sketch of the sculpture i'm putting in.

it's a reworking of my series called Off The Record which has a few various iterations to it now. the series centres around the idea of nature as archive, with a central thematic totem of a log made into a turntable.

i've been in my studio tonight sketching up the mathematical logistics of all the component parts, trying to recycling materials i already have at hand, as i'm rather broke, a perennial artist situation really. nonetheless, after several pages of calculations and adjustments, i've got the plans all set and now have just under 2 weeks to build the whole thing. this is the daunting part, where there's the possibility you misjudge your segments by 2mm or you break a saw blade at the wrong time. but, all the while you're loving the joy of constructing something completely new from what was once a vague idea floating around in the catacombs of your mind. and then, of course, there's the fear that you'll fuck it up and look like a total arse in front of your friends and the professorial contingent of academic brainiacs you're trying desperately to win tacit approval from. but it beats about a million other things i could be doing so i'll crank up some crunchy beats and get the drill out.

yee-ha!

resurfaced

just found this image floating around the internet. it's my sculpture - charging, 2010 - from the dianne tanzer show late last year. I didn't get a very good image of it myself, so this is nice to find.

butterflies are thoughts

all the bits and pieces of the artwork, like the component elements of a mini-system, are all constructed, soldered, drilled, tied and taped.

all four speaker-lamps built:

starting to look a lot like a system now

once constructed i needed to tested out how the lamps are going to look when i set them out as an apparent grouping of behaving objects.

first i set one up and just looked at it, to get a sense of its feeling, or effect/affect.

of course, there's a particularly anthropomorphic element, 
not least thanks to a particular digital animation

but then once they are grouped, another dynamic comes into play. a structural, systematic, amplification of the repeated behaviour, however that 'behaviour' may be implied to any given viewer.

   

 starting with 2 speaker-lamps 

(the log here will actually be a large bluestone cobblestone)

 

a third speaker-lamp, increasing the sense of implied power and implied network

introducing the slightly different speaker-lamp,

the one directed at the cobblestone protruding from the wall of the gallery

all four speaker-lamps, 
all mounted on structural pine (another infrastructural material reference)

the last image is taken from down lower to try and describe the feeling of intimidation that i feel like i'm getting from these objects that seem somehow to be with some sort of agency. the brick in the middle has replaced the log so i could get a better feel for the materiality of a rock.

here's hoping that there is a decent sound coming from the contact microphones on the pipes. even if not, i think the sculptural form of the work still carries some of the desired feeling i had hoped to evoke.

happy with this layout prototype i'm now all ready to take the whole lot of pieces into the gallery space and set them up to suit the dynamics of the architecture with which it will exist. tomorrow is install day.

  
this is everything all sorted out so i can pack it all up and take it into the city on the train

proof of concept

i've decided that the mixer is not the best way to amplify the signal from the pipes, instead i'm going to build mini-amps for each pipe. that way each of the 4 speakers i'm planning to use will each be individually the sound of one of the pipes. one pipe, one speaker. 4 individual pipes, 4 individual speakers.

 i found this sound mixer, with 5 inputs, in the rubbish!

 this is a rig up for testing 

- speaker at left, mini-amp in the middle (circuit board),

power off to transformer at top, contact mic at right.

 close up mini-amp, built from an electronics kit

this contact mic was made by artist Riki-Metisse Marlow

drawing out some ideas, considered mounting amp on pipe

getting a feel for how the 4 pipes would look with the 4 amps and 4 speakers,
and trying to figure out how to get the power to each amp

decided here to run the power cables up the pipes and into the roof,
creating much cleaner lines in the 'system'

sequence of developed ideas through drawings (left to right)

i'll have to make 2 more mini-amps, as i have 2 left over from an artwork i exhibited last year. and i'll need to get 4 desk lamps. that should be all i need to purchase to complete the work.

re-charged

i wasn't completely happy with the presentation of charging at its recent outing. i think the plinth was just too much. i don't really enjoy plinths much at all anymore but was thinking it might be ok for a commercial gallery setting - some sort fo fetishising of the object.

once i got the work back to the studio i took some photos of it sans-plinth. 

so now that work can be put to bed, probably the last sculpture with living plants in it for a while i think. in some ways this work feels like a transitional one, as if it is a step into some new work. more system influence, as with the elements combining to build something functional; less plant oriented from now on.


there are some plant drawings yet to come, but sculpturally for now, plants are a concluded material.

process insights

so, for the upcoming show at west wing i started off with the idea of plant robots. 

you can see a pot plant robot clinging to the pipes in this sketch

but after some thought i decided to drop the whole anthropomorphic element and just let the system of interconnected parts speak for itself. i'm always keen on evoking a sense of intelligence in systems, and i think producing robots is a little too didactic - in terms of that evocation of articulated thought.

 just mapping out the parts - you might be able to see i thought about building a pipe that i could tap, drawing water out from it for the seedlings, but i think that is a bit too much trickery for my work now.

there's a few elements i need to consider now:

 - what sort of seedlings should i use (i'm contemplating weeds at the moment)

 - how to build the speakers to elicit a sense of nurturing (i'm thinking about building the speaker cones into desk lamp shades)

random sculptural event

pressed flowers 

+ 

a book about indoor plants 

(that i'm using to appropriate some instructional drawings from)

= 

sudden unplanned sculpture.

 

resolved and completed

charging is complete and ready for the show. 

 putting the plinth together

 test and configuration of electronics

 complete!

 plants rigged up with wires connected to copper probe inserted into soil, with aluminium probe on the other side of the plant

 this is the networked electronic detonation device - 

the plants are apparently running the clock device (at right),

which turns and breaks the connection on the electric eye (light bulb),

which triggers the voltage fluctuator (rear),

which also registers on the counter of the 'dynamite' branches.

glitches and redesigns and thinking out loud

working with new techniques and unfamiliar technologies always creates the possibility of error or glitches. turning my hand to amateur electronics brings with it equal part exciting new discovery and hair-extracting torturous malfunctioning of sculptural potential. so far i've been successful at constructing component electronic circuits that function perfectly well - a flashing LED light, a variant voltage fluctuator, a counter and an electronic eye. that much has been fun and felt like quite an achievement. 

now, publicly declaring the difficulties one encounters in one's art practice is a risky undertaking, as it exposes the trials and tribulations the artist encounters in his/her creative process and lays bare their decision making acumen. this blog is designed to provide an insight into my practice, including the manner in which i think through my material creations, particularly for the benefit of current owners of my work and potential owners, and declaring my failures is a risky affair. however, i think it's important to reveal these inner workings, to show the dead-ends of studio research together with the successful achievements. whether these current glitches result in a cul-de-sac that i have to reverse out of, or whether they prove to be small hurdles to be overcome, only time and hard work will tell!

the tricky part in this particular construction has been combining the disparate electronic components into some sort of integrated system that serves to enhance the sculpture i'm working on. a network of components that is a functioning, interactive ensemble of circuitry that creates the illusion of a working detonation device for a homemade 'bomb'. one major issue is that the combination of the elements results in a substantial increase in consumed power and a resultant drain on batteries. the consequence of this is that the electrical parts of the sculpture function only for a day or two, before batteries need to be replaced. now this would be perfectly acceptable, if this sculpture was indeed a home made detonation device for a 'bomb'. however, it is actually an artwork and must last at least the length of a standard art exhibition which is 3 to 4 weeks. so further investigation/consideration is required in this area. 

the burning question for this particular work is this: how close to an authentic simulacra of a detonation device does it need to be?

this question has played on my mind for years with these sorts of sculptures. at what point does illusion need to be overcome by actuality? specifically for this sculpture, it is never actually ever meant to be a 'real' detonation device. in fact, it is never intended to ever really appear like one. the 'dynamite' is clearly and obviously only cut up branch segments. the sculpture is always itself only a simulation. other sculptures i have made have been created to actually appear to be authentically doing something, that in actuality they are only 'pretending' to. in contrast, this sculpture isn't really pretending to be what it appears. it is very much propositional. as if to say, imagine the power of nature.

so, in that light, pursuing authenticity beyond a particular point becomes unnecessary. one must make a judgement call about where that point is. i do not wish to give up on some of my ideas - such as having the viewer trigger the detonation counter by their proximity to the sculpture - but at a certain point, the technicalities of achieving some of these elements becomes untenable or impractical.

such are my frustrations with the work at this stage!

visually - the 'dynamite' bomb section, consisting of wired up trees branch segments, LED counter of home-made electronic circuitry, the artificial grass covered platform/plinth, the pot plants as the detonation device and the overall composition of all of these elements is very pleasing indeed. i find myself now entangled only in the finer technicalities of the last few little fragments of the work, having to resolve minor glitches and making some important judgement calls. 

and this process of thinking through this final stage, has me leaning toward a more pared down expression of the sculpture - editing out the unnecessary and perhaps ornamental aspects of the work. in which case, interactive elements, overly complex networks of circuitry and additional configurations of electronics is not going to add to the sculpture's productive meaning. these things will have their chance in future work. thinking on it further, i feel that the interactive elements are more suited to installation contexts. this sculpture is very much a stand alone piece - one work in a group show of works, presented on a plinth and designed to evoke ideas of dormant power in nature. for that end, i'm thinking now that it should be simply and clearly produced as just that.

measurement lessons

today was the day to get the plinth together for my sculpture for the dianne tanzer show and i got straight into it with constructing the framework.

 just a basic rectangular number, woodchip panels and pine struts

now, the measurement lesson came when i rolled out the artificial grass i had recently purchased and discovered i did not buy enough! rather frustrating, of course, especially with a car at the insurance assessors after the recent crash. one must always check and recheck measurements!

so, on to the next step in the preparation, which was securing the bundle of branches (for the simulated dynamite) with some rope. in order for the rope to be secured permanently and to avoid knots that look messy and upset the way in which the bundle sits, i decided to sew the rope together. i'm always amazed with the new skills one must acquire in the pursuit of one's art production!

a few more minor adjustments are required for the electrical circuitry that makes up the detonation device, together with a series of batteries to power it - so that's the next step. here is a little test of layout:

the plinth will be completely covered in artificial grass, including the top. but you get a sense now of the complete work. i have to wait until thursday to get the artificial grass from bunnings but the final touches on the circuitry can be completed and i'll have it all ready to go to the gallery!