Kevin after his critic

Final Project 2

Process 2.3

These photos share the unique capabilities of the material I working with which is iron powder. 

When placed out on the table the powder references sand like material and I immediately started to think about sand art and sand divination (geomancy) 

Process 2.2

http://www.brucegray.com/htmlfolder/html_subpages/suspmini2st.html

Project Process 2.1

Interesting website on all things magnetically related.

http://www.coolmagnetman.com/magattr.htm


Artist Working with Magnets
Sachiko Kodama
http://www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/spiral/

“Morpho Towers--Two Standing Spirals” is an installation that consists of two ferrofluid sculptures that moves synthetically to music. The two spiral towers stand on a large plate that hold ferrofluid. When the music starts, the magnetic field around the tower is strengthened. Spikes of ferrofluid are born from the bottom plate and move up, trembling and rotating around the edge of the iron spiral.
The body of the tower was made by a new technique called “ferrofluid sculpture” that enables artists to create dynamic sculptures with fluid materials. This technique uses one electromagnet, and its iron core is extended and sculpted. The ferrofluid covers the sculpted surface of a three-dimensional iron shape that was made on an electronic NC lathe. The movement of the spikes in the fluid is controlled dynamically on the surface by adjusting the power of the electromagnet. The shape of the iron body is designed as helical so that the fluid can move to the top of the helical tower when the magnetic field is strong enough.

Ferrofluids 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid

The area of ferrofluids is quite new, and very interesting.  Ferrofluid is made of small particles (~10nm) of magnetite (Fe3O4) surrounded by a surfactant such as tetramethylammonium hydroxide.  The surfactant is needed to keep the particles of magnetite from agglomerating (clumping together) due to magnetic and van der Waals interactions.  It's like having a slippery skin around the small particle of magnetite.  Thermal motion helps, but is not sufficient by itself.  A group of these prepared particles is like a solution that acts like a medium density liquid which is affected by magnetic fields.  When a magnet is brought near it, the liquid splits up and starts to group itself into spikes or hairs along the magnetic field lines as shown in the photos.  It is used to seal rotating shafts, and in speakers to help dampen the vibrations of the speaker coil, and help cool the coil.  Great stuff to play with!

Other Magnetic Objects That react to one another 

http://www.coolmagnetman.com/magmore.htm

Little boxes

Documentation

Ollies documentation Photos

Documentation Process 1

Final Documentation of Project 1 - Invisible Design

Documentation of my project

Documentation of in the inside of the piece 

"A Proper Burial" Artist Statement

As an amateur entomologist (very amateur), I enjoy finding bugs, dead or alive. The dead bugs can sometimes be a mystery to solve; a metaphor. My first discovery was a large amount of flies buzzing around my front porch, which is screened in, accompanied by the foul odor of death. At the time we were fostering a rescued Pit Bull who was very aggressive toward other animals. We had heard some sort of fight far under the house a couple days earlier, but could do nothing about it so I assumed that this stench was a result of that battle. The flies grew in number as did the intensity of the smell. Eventually there were dead flies everywhere, and I began to collect them in a jar. The flies only came about as a result of the death of an armadillo. Their short lives were comprised of eating the rotting flesh, laying eggs in the carcass, and repeating this process until there were no more resources, and the flies soon died in the same area. This metaphor was easy enough for me to digest: the dog was abused and therefore angry and killed this animal, and though flies are gross and disease-ridden, they were given life as a result of this. The cycle of life isn't always pretty, but new life does emerge from death, even if the death is untimely and gruesome.

My next discovery was of a Luna moth. It was slightly traumatizing, but I feel like it was important, at least for me, to have experienced killing this beautiful insect. After the inspiration from the dead flies, I decided to keep an open mind and go on an expedition with an entomologist. John (the entomologist) happened to be at a coffee shop as another friend and I were discussing our own respective needs to go searching for bugs, mine as inspiration maybe, and his for a science class, collecting and identifying beetles. When we found John, we talked about bugs for a moment then were off to a random gas station in Micanopy. Here, he says, you can find lots of beetles and bugs, apparently entomology students frequent this particular gas station. It was nothing special, a normal Sunoco… but what do I know? We searched for beetles and bugs, I came on this trip with no particular action plan, just to observe, talk and learn some things. Right before we left, a huge green moth soared into the lit area behind the building, it was a Luna Moth, and John needed a female of these for her eggs, conducting some sort of experiment at the school. He regretfully didn't bring nets or any other tools than envelopes and vials to store captured bugs in, so we caught it with our hands. When he finally caught the moth he decided that it was a male, and therefore had no eggs and that he didn't need it. I told him that I would keep the moth and that i thought it was very beautiful, so we captured it again and I put it in one of his envelopes and placed it into a cassette tape box to prevent escape. I felt sort of regretful about this and I wished that I could set him free, but knew he wouldn't survive anyway. I asked John for reassurance of the ethics of capturing live bugs. He explained that Luna moths spend most of their lives in other phases of development and that they are only matured adults (as was this moth) for maybe a week, in which they mate and die. Further, full grown adults can no longer eat, their mouths grow shut, and they can only mate. Also, students collect all sorts of live bugs for preservation and study, and there are many more bugs per square mile than animals. Still, killing the poor thing felt wrong, and I am not a professional entomologist. He told me to place the envelope in the freezer and the moth would die in a quick and humane way. When I opened the freezer to examine it in the morning, I noticed that It had laid eggs as a result of stress, and that I had now killed a possible 20 other moths! I decided that I hated killing the bugs, and that this moth would be a reminder of how that realization felt. Research into the Luna moth made this worse as I discovered that many myths about fairies (especially nocturnal ones) were derived from the observance of this specific moth. A part of my childhood died, I had killed a fairy.

A chance discovery happened over the course of my research. I came across some copal, a material that is a byproduct of distilling turpentine from tree sap. It is golden in color, and is what over thousands of years will become amber. This specific batch came from a group of people in Georgia whose mission involves sustainability and natural medicine. It must have been decided that the left-over resin-like material shouldn't be wasted, so a man took it upon himself to stop at locations on his way back to Florida where artists may want to utilize this stuff. So, by chance, he came by the art department at UF and talked to Brad, giving him a sample of their turpentine and a couple buckets full of this material. At first I was very interested in using this natural resin as a form of preservation for my bug specimens, it was very different from working with epoxy, but I figured it out and set my flies in it in the form of a wand. A wand is an object used for directing specific intentions, much like a talking stick. The amber quality reminded me of ancient bugs that become trapped and preserved, and I thought that this was relevant to my research as well as being aesthetically pleasing. After I realized that I could preserve with it, I continued working with the material just by itself, and through this melting and dripping of the substance I became more interested in the material than I was in the insects as objects that I was trying to preserve with it. The metaphors that the bugs were attached to continue to inform my process.

The resin, when cooled, became very fragile, and was also very sensitive to climate. It became sticky and would melt into a blob just from being in the hot Florida sun all day. I decided that I should still begin my attempt at preserving my moth with this, albeit apprehensively, considering that I could easily destroy it. I first set the feet and belly of the creature, and planned to slowly build the resin to cover the whole thing. I put it in the freezer to avoid the decay and drying of the moth. In turn, the resin cracked into a dust, ripping the legs and underbelly of my moth off with it. This was depressing to me as now i was left with a mangled skeleton. I had already done damage by capturing it in the first place; you could even see my fingerprint on one wing and a tear in the other. This failure left room for much contemplation about harming this seemingly insignificant creature. It had done more trauma to me than I had imagined, maybe because it was attached to a larger project which got me thinking so hard about it in the first place, or maybe because the feelings that I had were attached to larger metaphors.

I realized that the resin was most interesting when it melted and moved, dripping onto the surrounding environment as it was pushed around. Heat moved through the material, slowly sticking one chunk to another and fusing them into one mass of molten amber. Heat is a strong force of nature, as are thought and influence in humans. The resin began to imitate my own actions, and became a medium for me to think about humanity and life as a whole again; beautiful but fragile, natural and unnatural, the ability to morph and change through different circumstances and times. The whole could preserve or destroy, and whichever force has more power is the winner. The weight of this personal experience could be alleviated by seeing the suffering in the world as a whole, but more than anything the realization makes this suffering all the more real. Violence speaks not only about the group of people involved, but of humanity. Like ripples in water, every action creates many reactions.

The copal was much more stunning when it was in motion, as was the moth. What use is an object that must be handled with such care as a moth in this resin, would it be a metaphor or a trophy at that point? The moth couldn't come back to life, and I did not want to preserve it in a way that gave the illusion of life anyway. When the resin is static and cool, it is fragile and breaks into individual pieces, but when it is heated, it becomes kinetic and alive. This visual is very opposite of a motionless moth trapped in a rock. The only logical next step for me was to join the moth and the resin in a sort of ritual, as an observance of this iteration. I began to construct a tool which would melt the resin as well as serve as an altar for a ritual burial of the moth, as a motion of respect. Copper is alchemically representative of femininity, as opposed to steel, which is masculine. Copper is usually warm and comforting and used aesthetically in these ways, while steel is stronger, cold and structural. I took copper pipe and cold forged it until it seemed fragile and natural like the legs that were once attached to my female Luna moth. The Triangle in the middle represents moon cycles, and cyclical nature of life in general. Once the resin is heated enough by the coals underneath, it will begin to drip from the 3 corners of the triangle. The individual chunks of resin will become one, and the moth that is placed on top of this material will slowly become buried within it. I am allowing the moth to forever be a part of this material, and am keeping the material pure by letting it drip onto a square of glass. Over many meltings, the moth will fragment and become dust inside. I am showing this process live because I feel that it has the potential for a greater impact on my audience than showing a video, though I will be taking a video as well for documentation purposes.

Process 1.3

more artist

 Haroon Mirza
http://www.clickfolio.com/haroon/
http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/preoccupied-waveforms

Mirza uses simple industrial materials to radically transform the perceptual experience of architectural space. Over the past ten years, Mirza has deployed a range of analog and digital devices to create dynamic compositions of sound and light. His performances, kinetic sculptures, and immersive installations have made him one of the most celebrated young international artists working today. Mirza was the recipient of both the 2010 Northern Art Prize in the United Kingdom and the Silver Lion Award for most promising young artist at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).

“Haroon Mirza: Preoccupied Waveforms,” 2012–13. Exhibition view: New Museum. Photo: Jesse Untracht-Oakner

Mirza’s work is often distinguished by its improvised use of outmoded audiovisual technologies. Turntables, speaker cabinets, monitors, and more contemporary electronic equipment are rewired and integrated into objects that recall antiquated technologies, and work together to create new visual and auditory landscapes. More recently, Mirza has expanded his work to take on entire architectural environments. Strands of LED lights, fragments of video, and amplified electricity are programmed to disrupt and destabilize the exhibition space. Mirza often incorporates references to or even works by other artists into his installations and his pieces extend beyond formal experimentation to consider the social, historical, and political conditions in which his compositions are sited.

http://www.coryarcangel.com/

Some recorded audio

https://soundcloud.com/rose-redd/sets/poetically-political

Recording space (Audio was gathered and listened to on SB-75 monitors)

Tampa International mall ( recorded audio here) 9/13/14

^ after effect software audio manipulation with image - testing out how to work with waveforms to manipulate an image - The image of the crystal is just a test image. 

Here are tutorials I am using to create this effect 

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/devis_andrew/audio-control-1/video-tutorial

Where is a wave form from delay tutorial in after effects

http://play.macprovideo.com/audio-concepts-104-delay-and-reverb-effects/1

Material Examination, Experimentation, Exploration: Vinyl Tabs

Created an artist space that is organized and reflects the methodology and systematic way I want to approach this project. It was important to me to create a studio that is an ongoing space for me to work out my ideas and form my artistic practice. 

Through this process of exploring PVC flexible plastic I hope to come to a realization about my obsession with plastic and why I am attracted to these qualities by questioning myself critically on every decision I make aesthetically and conceptually. I am researching the materiality of PVC in books like Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century by Stephen Fenichell and then on the science and material engineering side PVC: Production, Properities and Uses George Matthews. By taking on different professional choices of reading one through the field of humanities and social science and on the other material and physical science. 

1,414 vinyl tabs manufactured by Smead office supplies, established in 1906 and introduced plastic tabs due to the shortage of steel during WWII in 1943. Currently this is one of the largest office supply companies. http://www.smead.com/Director.aspx?NodeId=970. 

Measurements, calculations of how much product I could make with this amount of material that I spontaneously came across in the CFOP closing sale. 

Created a stop motion of the process of first experimenting with this material as a textile. Read a book called Textiles: The Art of Manking by Mary Schoeser and going to integrate the philosophies and history of this art form to influence style and design. Here are some quotes:

• "Textiles as made, exploring their surface qualities and treatments as extensions of the physical world"pg. 260
• " Surface designers are more interested infabric as geography which provides unlimited options for dimensional and structural enhancements greater possibilities for opening interior space and more opportunities for experimenting with color texture and design"pg. 260
• "Textile production involves a uniquely complex chain of processes that begins with the gathering or making of ingredients, and ends with finished items" pg. 95

For this first "textile" I used arbitrary decisions in order to decide which color would be placed next and let the pattern develop freely. I didn't want to constrict anything with this first experiment by coming up with a strict pattern. In further experiments I will see how a strict constraint will show a different end product. 

Here I explored how different color hues can change the imagery and distort surfaces with reflections. 

My goals with this process is to take on the role of an artist that reflects and observes each task that I set forth for myself and have various influences from various fields let that lead to my end product. I also am using documentation as a way to see how my investigations and experiments with the plastic develop and then reflect critically on how I view this image and product I made.