THE HIGHLINE ABOVE AND BELOW
10292009
An improv performance performed below the amphitheater on the Highline near 16th street. As a class, we performed a series of constructs as a way to engage the space and the viewer from both above and the “spectators” below.
POSTED IN Blog, projects | TAGS : performance, site specific
Ode to Swine Flu
10272009
A creative exercise in hypochondria…
There was a time within the past month, that I briefly believed I had succumbed to the grip of H1N1 influenza. Yes, i mean swine flu. Swine, let us be clear, is not a word to be taken lightly. Not only is it of the sort derived from pigs, but it is a term often associated with various disingenuous, contemptible characters. No wonder that people are panicking about the fact that they could be sharing something with this two-toed ungulate, stout bodied animal. Does it even matter that the department of health is not classifying this as a genuine pandemic? This outbreak will take on any Michael Crichton novel, hoof down. If ever there was a conspiracy theory, it would be this: that some rogue agency’s secret department of animal husbandry has decided that instead of going digital, it is going viral by spreading the good word through its release of their version of STDs on the population. Certainly this will garner the attention of any-would be passive audience and in comparison, anthrax is pixie dust.
At the very least, swine flu might be marginally better than mad cow disease in which one could find him or herself derelict and masticating on their left foot. H1N1 at least sounds medical, as in treatable. Bovine spongifrom encephalopathy, as mad cow disease is otherwise known, sounds as if your body will turn into a giant porous cleaning tool before its existence will be horribly and prematurely truncated.
So when the fever strikes, the chills, coughing, fatigue and headache symptoms emerge, is there nothing to do but to submit to the mercy of the forces-that-be? Yesterday, I found myself staring at my Purel hand-sanitizer as if it were the key to my survival. And yet, how can Purel be the panacea for this insanity. Just the other day I read in the New York Times about how students are forbidden to play beer pong because of a suspected outbreak; and that offices around the country will no longer have the requisite candy dish on their desks; and at various churches, wine will no longer be offered for the sacrimony of communion. This ladies and gentlemen is the new era and no amount of self-diagnosis and subsequent self-treatment from webMD will suffice.
What about adaptation of the species, you ask, to which I would reply, too empathetic, and too weak. Its foible is that we can not rely on future evolutions of the human race to be a substitute for our resistance. No we must take arms by insisting on house arrest and forced quarantine of suspected persons. I cherish my classmates, friends, neighbors, significant others as much any other citizen New Yorker, but when it comes to survival of the species, it is the weak who must be siphoned out like curd from whey. wheat from chaff. Furthermore, for the greater good, if you believe you might have fallen victim to this disease, it would be even better to practice self-imposed isolation. And if for whatever reason you think you might slip into dementia from the lack of human contact, do not worry, there is psychotherapy to help you keep things in perspective. And if beyond that, that still doesn’t work, there are drugs. But remember, have hope. This dastardly plague is but a moment in our humanity and the human race has managed to outlast the bubonic plague, nuclear detonation, and two terms of the Bush administration. So this too, shall pass.
POSTED IN writing | TAGS : writing
blind to the weather
10162009
The last visualizing data assignment was parsing the XML from the Yahoo RSS feed using two data sets and two colors.
Since my usual gauge for weather consists of me looking out a window and taking an educated guess, i wanted to create something that would emulate window blinds that were moving in a weather vane like movement. I chose to visualize the relationship between temperature and wind speed by setting the wind speed equal to the rotational speed of my blinds and mapping the color of the blinds from blue (coldest) to red (hottest) using an HSB colormode. It doesn’t run well on the browser, but click here to download source code.
POSTED IN Blog, projects | TAGS : data visualization, processing
self-portrait
10132009
a self-portrait posed through a forensic exploration of my uniqueness, and how body elements of hair and blood are derived and have roots in cultural, historical, and genetic footprints. References to many female artists who use manipulation of the body, Kiki Smith, Lorna Simpson, Adrian Piper, were considered. Using the metaphor of the hourglass to represent the passage of my time as a living, breathing, functioning human being. Filmed my hair and drops of ink in water using the high speed camera at 420 fps.
POSTED IN Blog, projects | TAGS : video sculpture
ɥsıʇǝɟ | fetish object
10032009
started a canvas years ago, and finally decided last weekend to rework it completely.
gold spray paint, house paint. 30″ x 40″
