scripting short video segments, plexi drawings, griping about jury duty

Yesterday I started scripting short video segments. They'll have a cooking show format, and I'll make three foods that relate to the general themes of my project:

1) Celebrate: Biscochitos (Mexican Wedding Cookies) 10 minutes
2) Starve: Plumpy Piñon paste 10 minutes
3) Survive: Liquid food for stomach tubes 10 minutes

So far I've written the biscochitos segment and am looking forward to taping it, as I will get to eat more yummy cookies.

I've also been working on the website for the project. My critique group thought a website would be a good idea, and I agree--I'm incorporating a bunch of rephotographed old family pictures. I only know who two of the people in the pictures are (much younger versions of my dad and my grandpa) so I'm making up stories for the rest. The website will be at http://starvationseeds.performative.com/ . Working on it right now, so expect changes within the next few hours.

I made some plexiglass collages from bits and pieces of earlier drawings. Haven't finished or photographed them yet, but I mostly like how they turned out. I was hoping that my mod podge would dry clear, but it doesn't seem to clear up when sandwiched between plexi and transparency film. Maybe eventually. But I like how the clear mod podge brush strokes look on the plexi, and I like how the drawings look layered together.

I only had one meeting scheduled this week: studio visit with B. today at 5. So what happens? I have jury duty. I have a strong feeling I will have to report this afternoon--my number is up--numbers before and after mine have had to report. Even if I don't have to report, my day is still mostly ruined because I had planned to be working in my studio all day prior to B's visit. So even if we do meet, i'll be less prepared. OK, enough complaining about my civic duty...back to the website.

another food prep lecture: Louise Fresco

Boing Boing just wrote up Louise Fresco's presentation at TED2009. Apparently she made bread and baked it while giving her talk, which was about bread's history and our changing perception of "good bread."

Food prep + lecture seems to be growing in popularity! I wonder what other examples of this phenomenon are out there.

A practical matter

I've been invited to a conference organized by Eva Hayward, a former colleague of mine in histcon. It's called Meet Animal Meat, and it's May 21-23 in Uppsala, Sweden. At first I was worried I wouldn't be able to go, because this is our exhibition schedule:

KEY DATES
DANM MFA Exhibition, Part I
Install April 6(M)-16 (Th)
Dates April 17(F)-May 14(Th)
Reception May 1, First Friday
Deinstall May 15(F)-19(Tu) (during finals week)

MEMBERS OPENING APRIL 24

Part II
Install May 20(W)-28(Th) (during finals week)
Dates May 29(F)-June 24(W)
Reception June 5, First Friday
Deinstall June 25(Th)-June 28 (Su)
Final Walk-Through June 28

Locations, all assigned to DANM April 6-June 28:
Art Forum Gallery
Third floor lobby
First floor foyer
Sculpture garden
Exterior projections

However, I just worked out an alternate plan with Soraya, the curator. Because nobody in the first show is using my space (the sculpture garden), I will start my installation during the first show's deinstall week. I can at least get the greenhouse in place and test electrical elements.

two inspiring things

There is still more road trip diary to post, and I still have to upload all the pictures, but before I do...

I've been inspired by two ways of approaching plants in art. First, Adia Millett's installation at the Sesnon's Some Assembly Required show is really beautiful. Apparently it will change over time, but when I saw it, she had a floor covered in mulch (something that would really add to the greenhouse installation at the MAH, I think...) and a huge orb hanging from the ceiling with a light inside. It looked like papier maché, but it also had a latexy quality to it. There's a hole in the side, and when you look in, you see a tiny little seedling.

I've been really struggling to grow my piñon seedlings--out of my most recent batch of 12, only 3 sprouted, maybe 4. And of those, it is still early, it's possible they will not all survive. Next time I'm going to try really soaking them after i plant the seeds. Anyway, this trouble with seedlings made me consider more visually stunning ways of displaying fewer seedlings. This orb thing is really inspiring. Although I wouldn't do exactly that, of course, I definitely started thinking of ways to light the seedlings, etc.

This is another Adia Millett piece, a photograph, with a plant involved. More elaborate than her installation in the Sesnon, but similarly beautiful.

The Sesnon installation supposedly has a webcam component but I have not gotten it working yet: http://192.168.1.101:8080/webcam.html

Another art project I've been really into lately is Alison Knowle's A Bean Concordence. It's a book project, and basically collages together recipes, news items, stories and photographs about beans. I haven't finished looking through it, but at first glance, I'm really interested in producing something similar for this project, maybe incorporating my thesis paper/making a book that would be both the paper and an art work/collage.

road trip diaries 2

September 4: Navajo National Monument to Montrose (Four Corners, Ouray Hot Springs)

The next day, I left the campsit very early, at like 6 am. I was relieved to put it behind me, even though the area was gorgeous. I've always wanted to visit Chaco Canyon, and I imagine it would be very similar to Navajo, because the two are close together although completely different in culture & architecture.

I stopped at the Four Corners tourist trap hoping that my $3 would get me a decent bathroom. No, just portable toilets. Ugh.



Here I am standing between Colorado and New Mexico.

Once in Colorado, I had a frustrating day looking for but not finding coffee. I was sort of happy that there was not a single starbucks in any of the towns I drove through (I expected one in Cortez!). The lack of coffee prompted my stop in Telluride. While Telluride is undeniably gorgeous, in a beautiful setting, the town and the people who hang out there are so annoying. But they do have coffee shops—I counted five! I got a great iced coffee with an espresso shot in it and proceeded to get the heck away from the Patagonia-wearing yuppie freaks who populate the town.

Coffee in hand I went to Ouray, a town just as gorgeous as Telluride without the crazy people. There is a wonderful natural hot springs there. I went swimming for about two or three hours.

This is the hot pool. One of the prettiest settings for a swimming pool ever.



From Ouray, I drove the 10 miles or so to Montrose, where my dad used to live before he got sucked into working in Fiji. He still has a house there, full of chiles and very funky. People used to heat their house with a heater in the basement and a bunch of holes in the floor upstairs. Someone carpeted over the floor without filling the holes, so when you walk around your feet dip into these soft spots. It's a little disconcerting. I had dinner with his ex-wife Ginny, who lives two blocks away (he followed her, it was weird). We went to Montrose's only and great Himalayan place.



September 5: Montrose to Denver

Montrose to Denver is either uneventful or gorgeous depending what road you take. 70 is uneventful (unless you want to go swimming again @ Glenwood Springs). 285 is gorgeous. One of my all time favorite hotsprings is en route near Buena Vista (pronounced BEUna Vista). Cottonwood hot springs is just a few miles from Buena Vista, but I didn't stop. Ouray satisfied my hot springs needs. 285 runs along the Rio Grande, which seems surprising as people usually think of the Rio Grande marking the US/Mexico border. But it doesn't. Denver is as far north as I went on this trip. My entire extended family lives there except for outposts in Phoenix and Portland/Seattle. I also have a lot of family in New Mexico, but they are not my immediate relatives.