digitaldeities

more scissor mandalas in SolidWorks

20 - 30 foot in diameter drawings of proposed installation with thousands of scissor recycled from airport excess

PARSONS SYMPOSIUM EXHIBIT PHOTOS (MAY 1,2,3 2009)

Here are the visuals from my thesis display exhibit at Parsons Design + Technology 09.

(just in case someone is seeing this work for the first time - it is all made with confiscated scissors from airport security measures.  I purchased them from ebay from someone who bought that them at an airport auction...)

I re-post statement here:

What brings people a feeling of safety and protection?  Do security measures at airports or spiritual connection?

Confiscated weapons of mass construction questions how protection manifests in our current cultural epoch.

Sculptures, wearable art, and large-scale installations (proposed for exhibition in an airport) are constructed with thousands of scissors recycled from confiscated airport security procedures.

Just like a pure resonant note shatters a glass, a visual imprint of beauty and perfection changes a viewer.

These circular sculptures hold an essence of the macrocosm and microcosm bringing harmony on an archetypal level.

more images coming soon of my classmates.. some amazing and inspiring work!

SFO art

My airport observations of current art and large spaces at SFO. 
Very soon I will superimpose an installation of scissors (confiscated weapons of mass construction) on the empty space below!

 I liked this one one below... probably because it uses recycled materials.

A sister city projection on the floor... simple set up.

 

Installation on the way to Bart Station ... twinkling circular metallic experience.

progress ... the Van Alen Fellowship project proposal

Tying together many of my previous posts and research .. I was able to complete and send off a Fellowship Grant to Van Alen Institute on March 6, 2009.  We will see.. what opportunities my future holds!

The project area I focused on was CULTURE AND POLITICS here is what questions they ask.. that I tried my very best to explain below in my proposal!

This project area refers broadly to the ways social forms, norms, identities and institutions are constituted by and through spatial practices in the public realm. The Institute seeks a range of investigations that engage the following questions:

How is public architecture alternately constructed and occupied as a site of freedom, exclusion, resistance, control and uncertainty? How are public spaces made and unmade through social struggles over rights and access? How are they shaped by cultural conflict and political debate over representation? How does design in the public realm variously operate as a vehicle for historical, social, cultural and political meanings and values? What space do different kinds of bodies, behaviors and emotions take up in public? How do they belong or not belong in public life and how might we imagine alternative forms of belonging?

Topics in this project area may include monumentality, collective memory, propriety, property rights, everyday urbanism, identity politics, biopower, homeland security, defensible space, civil liberties, citizenship, geopolitics, multiculturalism, spectatorship and tourism.

Project Proposal – Culture and Politics - Carrie Mae Kreyche

Confiscated Weapons of Mass Construction is an installation of large Yantra symbols, geometrical combination's of circular diagrams used in meditative practice, made with thousands of recycled scissors confiscated from airport security procedures. Constructing these Yantras out of confiscated airport items and placing them back into public spaces, blends together the layers of ancient ritual and modern culture, bringing to the public realm reflections on safety, protection and the role of security measures.  This proposal illuminates how valuable the visual environment is to either soothe or disrupt the emotional and spiritual state of a viewer.     

Public spaces such as shopping malls, airports and motorways are what author Marc Augé calls ‘non-spaces’.  They are public space where individuality is left behind and everyone, especially after passing through security procedures at airports, is on the same level of identity because these public spaces are both everywhere and nowhere.  The public spaces of airports were redefined when the FAA began searching people in airports in 1972 and since 9/11, security measures have been tightened even more thoroughly.  The need for security and the public’s fear of attack makes current airport spaces fertile ground for stringent rules and regulations.  The accessibility and process of national and international travel has become an uncomfortable inconvenience or struggle for many passengers.  The lines are often long and personal space is invaded with random body searches and the confiscation of personal items.  

Most airports are built as spacious urban palaces, with high ceilings, modern materials and cutting edge architecture.  Many cities take pride in the architecture of these high traffic centers and more and more, numerous airports have also begun to hold art exhibitions and rotating shows in glass cases around the terminals.  John F. Kennedy, San Francisco and many other smaller city airports have commissioned artists to build provocative installations in the spaces.  Design in this public arena can operate as a vehicle for social and cultural dialogue. Whether immigration law, ecology or reflection on security regulation, the topic of an installation can bring cultural values to the forefront.  Barbara Kingsolver once wrote that the artists’ role is to be the canary in the coalmine, and when art is silent it means trouble. It is my goal to design an art installation for these public ‘non-spaces’ that will engage people in a deeply moving way. 

When people travel through airports and other busy public urban environments, they are often rushed and stressed.  In a group discussion about airport security lines, my research discovered the metaphorical comparison that the ritual many current day passengers experience while preparing for traveling is similar to the spiritual and cultural rituals that some ascetics have.  As an example, Gandhi owned only 12 items when he died.  (See Image 1 below).

Image 2 – The twelve items Gandhi owned before he died and a modern day suitcase 

The mental process of getting ready for a flight can parallel the preparation for your own spiritual journey (special packing, special clothes/shoes). There are also many traditions of ancient cultures that send deceased ones to the grave with special swords, weapons and other sacred items to ward of evil spirits. Our culture would strip away everyone’s ability to hold these items sacred.  We have even taken it to the absurd extreme as to take away craft and cuticle scissors. Blending the common set of scissors into ancient symbolism offers a playful and provocative (upon closer inspection) visual cue piquing the viewer’s awareness of modern rituals and rules, while offering a moment of harmony to a busy public space.  This project engages one to see and possibly imagine a myriad of other alternative forms to help feel a sense of belonging and to reclaim the materials they once lost in a security search. 

Placing a large symbol that is an archetype of unity in the collective memory of most cultures, touches people on a subconscious level.   Just like a pure resonant note can shatter a glass, the imprint of the beauty of perfection changes the mind and thoughts of a viewer.  Buddhist monks create large sand Mandalas, sacred geometric circular patterns, believing that as a result of viewing them, an imprint will be left that may help one to find greater compassion, awareness, and a greater sense of well being.  These symbols hold the essence of the macrocosm and microcosm, taking the viewer both inside themselves and outside to the world at large.  Circles bring harmony on an intuitive primal level and this is the language and depth this project speaks and creates from. 

The Confiscated Security Symbols Project uses scissors that were confiscated from passengers and then sold at auction to sellers who re-sell them on e-bay (See Image 2 below).  Currently, seventy-five pounds of recycled scissors from airport excess were purchased for this project from e-bay sellers and it is planned to attend an airport auction for direct purchase of larger quantities of thousands more scissors.  

Image 2 – Bulk confiscated scissors purchased from e-bay 

The two main goals of this fellowship are to complete a solid body of work to exhibit in the gallery during the final weeks and to complete more research about sonic theology, historical use of sound with Yantras and in sacred temples, from both the use of Mantras and older temples designed as acoustic resonators.   I would also continue researching the reoccurrence of sacred geometry and circle shapes in ancient cultures versus and today.  Advertising, pop culture and modern political times have changed the spiritual and ritual value of art.  In Walter Benjamin’s famous essay ‘The Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ he speaks of this shift where ‘mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice – politics.’  Today, modern art critique’s first evaluate the quality of a piece of art on its exhibition value.  My project hope to reverse this function back to Walter Benjamin’s observations and first view the role of art as an instrument of magic and second as an work of art with high exhibition value. 

A larger collection of scissors will be purchased with part of the stipend, along with other materials used to build smaller prototype sculptures.  Gallery size sculptures and installations, which will test and explore different materials, attachments and styles.  These sculptures will be exhibited in the Van Alen exhibition gallery.  Below are some of the current prototypes of construction I have worked on this year. (See image 3 below).

The long-term goal of this project is to build a large-scale installation of thirty feet or more for an airport commission, an airline terminal or another public space.  Building these installations and eventually installing them in modern public spaces, such as airports, would allow a visual dialogue with the symbols that could touch thousands of people.  The result of this fellowship would also allow me to present my iterations, ideas, and prototypes to architects and engineers for collaboration to seamlessly install these works into a final chosen space.   Included below are some digital sketches I drew in 3D with the modeling program SolidWorks and a diagrams to scale in Adobe Illustrator. (See Image 4 below). 

 

My own artistic exploration began with creating mandalas out of found objects and sculptures that reflected my own personal need for boundaries and self-protection.  This focus has shifted away from my personal needs and now looks at these issues on a much broader scale - the scale of our entire nation and even our collective world memory. The concept of how protection has infiltrated our culture now interests me. What makes people feel safe? Security measures at airports? Spiritual support? Something else? What service do physical boundaries provide? 

My research answers this question: What brings a feeling of safety or protection? My own meditation practice profoundly changed me, giving me the ability to heal and to create my own personal definition of protection and boundaries.  Bringing these symbols to the public has a healing affect and helps people feel more uplifted, safe and centered in public spaces.   

Another deliverable, besides the scissor sculptures, is a well-formatted talk or panel discussion.  This discussion covers the historical uses of Sacred Geometry in temple building, Yantras, Mandalas, visual meditation tools and how symmetrical forms in nature all touch upon the universal mystery of perfection. A concept that recently inspires me is how the architecture from the Cistercian Order achieved its visual beauty through designs that conform to the proportional system of musical harmony.  These churches were acoustical resonators that transformed a human choir into celestial music and the founder St Bernard of Clairvaux said of their design, ‘There must be no decoration, only proportion.’  As much of my artistic pursuits have been about decoration, discovering the fundamental template with which the building of temples and Yantra symbols are organized, brings me a new level of understanding of their depth of perfection.

The Yantra comes from Vedic and Hindu cosmology and signifies the cyclical forces in nature, astronomy, and the worship of deities that are given abstract forms.  These forms and their meanings center and ground my current research and life work.  I am passionately drawn to the symmetry and perfection that the circles visual offer. 

Image 5 – Picture 1, Sri Ganash Yantra from http://www.artoflegendindia.com/details/HJAAB003_Shri_Ganesh_Yantra – Picture 2, Mark Pottenger’s planetary mandalas made by tracking with computer algorithm the planetary movement of Jupiter and Uranus from http://www.ccrsdodona.org/m_dilemma/mandalas.html - Picture 3, a diagram of the true stars which are aligned within the Jewish symbol titled ‘Star of David’ from http://www.jesus-kashmir-tomb.com/YantraStarofDavid.html. 

The studio space, publicity, and support of the Van Alen Fellowship would bring the artistic advantage of focus, clarity, and freedom.  A twelve-week residency would allow the necessary space and time to experiment further with different materials and construction options.  This experimental freedom is the foundation for the further success of this project. Through giving a workshop or public talk about this project, the public would be invited to look at the work in progress and dialogue about these important topics of homeland security, monumentality, and collective memory.  The publicity through Van Alen would bring valuable attention to this project to help me reach my professional goal of future collaboration and installation.

confiscated security symbols

My most recent experiment with confiscated airport scissors arranged in cement circles.

how it started...

user diagrams ..beginning of proposal ideas/charts

 

scissors pointed center

black twist tie recycled scissor circles

success in the studio today!! 

a form with the scissors and the perfect suggestion from zach to use twist ties to hold them together.

those were photo shopped from these two images ... wanted to get a sense of the complete circle.  I will make the whole thing but I did not have time tonight to finish putting them altogether.

recycled scissors from airport excess.

corporate logos as occult symbols

Today I was searching the internet for corporate symbols that are popular, easily recognizable and people have some sort of familiarity, association or reaction to them.  The corporate meme** is some how felt by viewing the symbol.  I will use these to lead a discussion on how mandalas, circles and yantras create a feeling and hold a space of consciousness.  This is an easier angle to share about then my previous presentation were I bumbled in trying to discuss the types of deities that are used and felt in Vedic and Tantric Yantra ritual. 

examples below of popular symbols from screen shots off the internet.

**meme |mēm|   noun
an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation

            
    
  
     
    

  

row 1(left to right)
Trojan condoms, Nike, BMW,

Chanel Fashion
row 2
Louie Vuitton, BP - British Petroleum,  McDonalds,

the musician Prince
row 3
Olympic games, swastika, deputy sheriff belt buckle,

deer crossing
row 4
6 pointed star, NA - Narcotics Anonymous, celtic cross,

Yin Yang Symbol

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tonight I also came across this awesome post below from this blog: http://illuminatusobservor.blogspot.com
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Corporate Logos as Occult Symbols, The Vesica Piscis

The Vesica Piscis, two interlinked circles, is also known as "the Yoni". The name "yoni" refers to the middle portion of the interlocking circles, is derived from the Sanskrit meaning, "divine passage". That the yoni is the feminine, the yoni should be viewed such that the divine passage becomes a correlation to sex, or male/female union. It is this correlation, and its relation to rebirth and regeneration that remains a basic truth at the very core of Occult structural foundations.

And seeing how "vice" is used as a means to advance and preserve the philosophy, what better vice than that of "materialism", and what better symbol of "materialism" than that of "the MasterCard", which enables materialism beyond many a person's economic means?

However, this symbol is found in many a corporate logo. How about Chanel?

The famed Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California?

And of course, KOOL Cigarettes

It is all very cool when you begin to see that things are not as they appear, and the reality of the Construct begins to burst open like a bud before your eyes.

Imagine a clever code for G-d hidden here, in the corporate symbol for Gucci? And some would only see the Vesica Piscis!

Posted by Dennis Fetcho

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a comment from this blog also mentioned:
Other names for it include the mandorla and the marriage symbol, and other advertising examples include double tree hotels, the band "double o," yoga booty ballet, DC shoes, dolce and gabbanna, candlewood sweets, and too many more to list. 

.............in order, I looked them up below

   
         

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and of course.... VANDANA JAIN mandalas ... mandalas made entirely from corporate logos

from  artcodex.org

John Kessler ..crazy quirky pcomp installation

I saw this installation back at the end of September..  at the Democracy in America exhibit in the armory building.  I loved this interactive creative meddly by John Kessler.  Totally fun and quirky and clever.  I took a video (kinda poor quality) and some images below.

He set up a whole random 30' x 30' area with lots of cameras running to a wall of random screens showing the movies of little army guys in the midst of different activities.  The movies looked quite real and freaky ...great idea...  just my style..  playful and compelling... a bit gritty. 

John Kessler art installation from carrie mae on Vimeo.

swing swing swing SPACE

words for my Swing Space application that is going out tomorrow via FED EX after final revisions from my helpful teacher, chris prentice.  definitely getting easier to talk about my stuff...
This is one of the the questions below that I am answering and then attaching my 10 images along side for a 3 month work space grant... it will be their first intro to my work. 249 words

Swing Space is a space grant program that connects artists and arts organizations with vacant commercial space downtown. Studio, rehearsal, office, installation, and exhibition space awards are typically for two to four months and are accompanied by a project stipend of $300-$3,000.

WORK SAMPLE DESCRIPTION
Please provide a brief description of the images, introducing the works and providing context for the panel.
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My work is made with found objects, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. My recurrent themes and explorations ask the question - What brings a feeling of safety or protection?  I first began exploring the physical side of boundaries with a miniature suit of armor inspired by the agave plant.  This desert plant survives under extreme circumstances and protects itself with radial pointed leaves.  The shape of the agave inspired me to begin making mandalas, circular forms, with the dried leaves.  The circle signifies perfection and the cyclical forces in nature and many Yantras, geometrical diagrams used in meditation, are made with a combination of circles.  My meditation practice has profoundly changed me, giving me the ability to heal and to focus on the notion of protection on a much larger than personal scale.  I now am working with recycled, confiscated scissors from airport excess and building ancient meditation symbols of them to place into modern airports.  My vision is to place these large-scale installations behind security checkpoints to give a moment of reflection to traveling passengers.  This offers the audience an opportunity to contemplate upon what makes them feel safe, the security measures at airports or spiritual support.  The blending together of scissors and symbols offers a playful and provoking visual cue that brings awareness to modern rituals and rules, while offering a centering solution and harmony to a busy public space.  These images show my past work and a few beginning explorations of my work with scissors. 

.guest3 .guest4 .guest5 .guest6 .guest7

Number3 and final post about the different guest lecturers that Zach Lieberman brought into our Algorithmic Animation course- aka: makingthingsmove.org/blog this last semester at Parsons.  An amazing and inspiring selection of his friends and colleagues.  Zach was a fellow at EYEBEAM this last year and a creator of OF openFrameworks and regularly travels the world sharing his coding and artistic skills with the world.  He is an excellent teacher and mentor... and his guests re-inspired me each week.   awesome awesome awesome.

joel gathein lewis .guest3

www.joelgethinlewis.com

daito manabe .guest4

www.daito.ws
face sensors
I posted all his way cool videos earlier.. I couldn't wait until now. I was too excited about them.  search for daito in my search box.. you will find them all.. okay here are two other ones of daito's ..one that I did not post before and one that I did... he is worth sharing again.  he is even my facebook friend!

I used electric stimulus generators and myoelectric sensors. I tried to control my friends' face by using my face. I need more practice ,devices and time..

新しい楽器みたいなものだと思って下さい。 Experiment with myoelectric sensor.

theo watson & emily gobeille .guest5
funky forest 2007

Working together with the amazing Emily Gobeille, we created the interactive installation, 'Funky Forest' which premiered at the 2007 Cinekid festival in the Netherlands. 'Funky Forest' is an interactive ecosystem where children create trees with their body and then divert the water flowing from the waterfall to the trees to keep them alive. The health of the trees contributes to the overall health of the forest and the types of creatures that inhabit it. Made with openFrameworks.

videos and info here http://muonics.net

don paluska .guest6
absolut quartet

ABSOLUT QUARTET  (2008)
Jeff Lieberman and Dan Paluska
Part of the Absolut Machines campaign.

 As seen in the beginning of the video, the visitor enters a melody on their computer keyboard. The machine then uses this melody to generate an original and unique 2 1/2 minute piece of music.
Find more information at http://bea.st/sight/absolutQuartet

You will see this melody played by three instruments. The main instrument is a ballistic marimba, which launches rubber balls roughly 2m into the air, precisely aimed to bounce off of 42 chromatic wooden keys. The second instrument is an array of 35 custom-tuned wine glasses, played by robotic fingers. Finally, an array of 9 ethnic percussion instruments rounds out the ensemble.

Jeff's Site: http://bea.st .
Dan's Site: http://plainfront.com

 Fotron2000, A robotic sketch artist/photobooth [Fototron2000]
www.fotron2000.com
The Fotron2000 is currently installed at Christopher Henry Gallery in New York City.
127 Elizabeth St (Soho/Nolita)
11-6pm, Wednesday - Sunday.

from the fotron website:
ABOUT: The Fotron2000 is tomorrow's answer to today's mall photo booth. At its heart is a robotic sketch artist whose medium is LED light and whose canvas is long exposed Polaroid film. The robot draws quickly, rendering a line drawing of its subject which he or she gets to keep. This work was inspired by the classic time-lapse nighttime highway photography, the Photoshop "glowing edges" filter, and "drawing" with sparklers. The piece is a simple exploration of the ability of a robot and a computer to automate the creation of art. We are interested in the ability to provide visitors with a permanent record of their experience and engage robotic technology in an impractical way. The robot provides us with precision capabilities beyond our own, allowing us to create in ways not possible without technological assistance.

he also recommended us all to go see arthur gansen's sculptures exhibited at MIT museum

amrit pitaru .guest7

he created a digital drawing tool/musical instrument that is beyond an easy description.  this video might tell more.. but not much.  he was a very inspiring guy.  I will take a class him and zach lieberman will co-teach this spring about audio-visual systems.

Scissors Spider

on another google search for confiscated scissors.. I came up with this unexpected find...

Christopher Locke has made spider-sculptures out of scissors. Those scissors are bought from the TSA auctions, the confiscated scissors. The big spider is made from barber scissors and the smaller ones are from cuticle scissors. More pictures after the jump.

[via Boing Boing]

milk scanner .guest1

Now that I am on break (kind of) I have a tiny bit more time to make some interesting posts.  The expansion and amount of information that has been poured into me from graduate school is astounding!!  It has fully changed my life and it will take the next few years to full absorb, integrate and regurgitate all the ideas and creative juice that I have been given.. and paid well for!!

I am going to make a series of posts about the different guest lecturers that Zach Lieberman brought into our Algorithmic Animation course- aka: makingthingsmove.org/blog this last semester at Parsons.  An amazing and inspiring selection of his friends and colleagues.  Zach was a fellow at EYEBEAM this last year and a creator of OF openFrameworks and regularly travels the world sharing his coding and artistic skills with the world.  He is an excellent teacher and mentor.

The first week guest lecturer was Friedrich Kirschner .. this is what the eyebeam website says about him:

Friedrich joins Eyebeam as a fellow in the Production Lab. He is also a filmmaker, visual artist and board member of the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences, and re-purposes computer games to create animated narratives and interactive performances. Friedrich’s work has been shown and performed at various international animation festivals and it occasionally spreads into the physical realm as well, where he investigates the impact of milk and other liquids on computer graphics.

http://www.zeitbrand.de

What inspired me most was his MILK SCANNER idea:

The Milkscanner is an easy way to scan 3D Objects using household devices like Milk, a tupperware bowl and some LEGO.  For more information on how to build one yourself, please visit the Milkscanner instructable!

Freidrich mentioned that he is not a great illustrator and needed a way to create digital 3D objects and so he took a long walk and came up with the idea of the MILK SCANNER.. quite brilliant.  The video shows the basics below. 

Friedrich also has created a tool that is a bit over my head.. but very interesting non-the-less.

The other project he presented is a drawing tool that gamers can use to create their own 3D characters and scenes in UNREAL:

Moviesandbox

Moviesandbox is a graphical filmmaking tool in progress for the Unreal Tournament engine. It allows you to easily create your own characters, sets and poses and direct them in the way you imagine.
Please visit the Moviesandbox webpage for more information, downloads, news, video tutorials and the development wiki!

Moviesandbox is an Open-Source graphical filmmaking tool in progress, formerly developed for the Unreal Tournament engine and now based on C++ and OpenGL.

It allows you to easily create your own characters, sets and poses and direct them in the way you imagine. It is also an open project, which means that all the code and tools are free and open for people to change or add to, and, where possible, licensed under the lesser GPL. Development started in early 2006.

notes from colleen

I just found the email from colleen about our reviews.. she took good notes. Here they are...

Carrie Mae 

Colleen: Very clear and interesting concept! Focus on the site. Instead or before going phys/comp, really go for and investigate the site, how to make a proposal for an airport or respond to an RFP, and make many many mandalas to really work with the material and mounting. (studio time, yay!) 

Eric: Art making background -- is user surveys/design process all new to you? How has it influenced your work? (a project that could relate to more people, larger scale). Large-scale public installations are on the border between design and art. Need to think about a commission of people who are not artists, look at how to make a big commission to work. Not one to undermine the security apparatus. Need to think about the viewers and the people with the $. Christo, ephemera, to be in galleries. Maquettes, prototypes, sketches. Better when the scissors carry the aesthetic weight of the piece. Choose your battles. 

Bobby: on board with the physical manifestation of protection in the yantra with the confiscated objects, think it is smart and very clear. Use of technology feels like a veneer. Like there's expectation of this here. How does tech relate to your idea? Number of scissors in a work could relate to the amount of scissors confiscated in a year, etc... use statistics. Terrorism is the anomaly. Don't do it in a gallery. Do it in the hyper-protected airport space. To put sacredness in a non-place is a really nice move. Christopher Janney.  

Zach: Agree with reviewers about technology. Not to think about tech in the final output, but in the in-between point. Coding, interaction, etc. to produce the visual output. Interested in the context. the interaction is asking the question of the person in the airport. What are you asking the person in the airport to do? Meditate? Specific meaning to the interaction and installation. What is it that you ask of people?