learning the ropes

This installation sketch is exploring the merging of spaces and conversations.  The idea is fairly literal at present: the “outdoors” (a space central installation) is bordered by other semi-public spaces such as a cafe, bathroom, and bus interior.  These are all spaces the cell phone has the potential to create a bridge between.

• How do conversations in “mediated” (and what does mediated mean here) public space differ from private telephone conversations?
• What questions would a construction such as this ask?
• Will the gallery audience be allowed to move freely through the installation or will they be given a path to follow?

“Working on a sketch for a setting is probably the happiest and briefest part of the artist’s work in the theater.” — Donald Oenslager (1902- 1975)

from “Creating the Modern Stage”

Alexandra Exter, Construction for a Tragedy ca. 1925

Yesterday Michael and I met to get the blog going, for real. All went smoothly until we tried to embed video. No luck. Michael had to leave before he figured out a solution, and he is about to go on vacation. Well, I should have known that he would keep working on it: this morning I got a lengthy email outlining the reason why it didn’t work and the options (with pros and cons) of fixes.

I am writing this to make a note of all the details along the way of making a body of work—the vast effort that is never seen, but is so crucial to development.

Towards the end of our last meeting, I expressed that it was important for me to begin building some physical things as a way to move forward, so Wendy asked me sketch some ideas.

This one turned out to be about the installation space itself.  I was playing with the idea of the size of the projected words and the sketch helped me to consider a few important points:

• What are the effects of scale in the installation?  What are the largest and smallest text that can be perceived in the space?  Is it desirable in some cases for the size of the text to be too extreme to read properly?
• How tall is the ceiling in the gallery space?  This has implications for the scale of the projected text vs. the scale of human height in the installation.
• What rigging capabilities exist in the gallery space?
• How dark will the installation space be?  This has implications for the way screens can be rigged.  Floor-to-ceiling cables in the dark would be dangerous.
• Are there photographs available of past installations so we can get a sense of how they used the space?

Lighting ideas

I want to start doing more on PAPER. I would like to draw more. More physicality as opposed to making everything w a keyboard and/or screen. That will be a big part of the exhibit, that is, the tension (literally) between digital and physical.

The hoisting of words with your whole body vs. the little finger hopping. I like the hoisting.

So, hoisting words. Heavy lifting. What would such an exhibit be like? Is it possible to tie emotions of words to actually lifting them?

Are the words going to be heavy words or frivolous words? What would it mean to have to exert great force and effort to lift trivial words?

When we met last week, one of the things Wendy and I discussed was going shopping for inspiration: hardware stores, fabric stores, etc.

I mentioned that ITP has maintained various lists of good places to find materials:

• Materials at ITP
• Tom Igoe’s Resources

Here are some that I think will be interesting to visit in the NYC area:

• Build it Green – NYC (Astoria, Queens) – reclaimed building materials warehouse
• Fikret Fabrics (Manhattan) – “discount fabrics, bargains, and close-outs” (quote from ITP materials site)
• Frank Tracy (Greenpoint, Brooklyn) – bearings and mechanical parts (a transmission supplier)
• Home Depot (23rd St, Manhattan, but I prefer New Jersey locations for selection)
• Homefront 24 hour Hardware and Lumber (Murray Hill, Manhattan)
• Lowe’s (located in Brooklyn, but I’ve only visited the New Jersey location) – similar to a Home Depot
• Materials for the Arts (Long Island City)
• New York Central Art Supply (East Village, Manhattan)
• Space Surplus Metals (Canal Street, Manhattan) – various metals… review says that you should appear to be knowledgeable in order to get the best price and service.
• Spandex House (Manhattan)

[Michael posting as Wendy] Now the two blogs are syndicating one another.  Let’s see if duplicates begin to appear.  I’ll leave the system alone for the afternoon and check back later to see what has happened.

[update] As of 2:54pm, this post didn’t make it over to ropeandpulley.com; however, it was seen by Google Reader when I fed the feed (http://wendyrichmond.com/blog/category/collaborations/overheard/feed/) into it.