The students in my Internet Tools & Concepts class created a great exhibit that exists both online and off. Check out the online version, which includes an interactive 3-D gallery, links to online work, project descriptions, and documentation of the IRL show.

Hacking for Artists is starting up this June. Here’s the invite:

I am organizing a series of free workshops for artists who want to learn how to use computer programming and electronics in their practices. The first session will begin this June and will focus on electronics. I will be setting up an electronics lab in my studio and there will be lots of things to play with. Maybe you want to build an oscillator, create a solar-powered motor, power a computer with your bicycle, hack a receipt printer, measure air quality with an arduino, control something with your brain waves, bend some circuits, or get help bringing a project to fruition.

The workshops will start at 7pm and go until we’re not having fun anymore. They will be on June 5th, June 12th, and June 19th at [please email me for the location]

Please RSVP if you plan on coming. You should come to the workshop with an idea of something you would like to work towards and I’ll help you make it happen by providing you with resources, ideas, and some instruction. If you already have an idea, feel free to send it my way so I can order some of the things you will need. Experience with electronics or programming is NOT required or expected!

If you are interested in a more formal introduction to computer programming, check back in the fall when I will be teaching programming as part of this series.

Support for Hacking for Artists is provided by Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Grant Program

And I have a few upcoming shows:

sound installation @ zero station, portland, ME in July: http://www.zerostation.com/

heart show @ martina }{ johnston, berkeley, CA in September: http://www.martinajohnston.org/upcoming.html

mind matters @ ucsf, san francisco, CA in March: http://mind-matters.org/

The very large painting I made for the soft edges show has become a flag and is now flying at UIC’s Gallery 400 in Chicago for their Temporary Allegiances project.

Get that light text on a dark background with neon highlights hacker look next time you use Processing. Here’s the theme I always use:

theme.txt

To install on a Mac, control+click on the Processing icon, select “Show Package Contents” and replace the existing theme.txt file found at “Contents–>Resources–>Java–>modes–>java–>theme”. Then get hacking!

I also added documentation of my last two shows to the Projects page and a few photos from March on the Photo page.

JD Beltran and I are collaborating on a very large video projection for SFAI’s Design and Technology Salon on April 4th. The event is free and open to the public.

soft edges is series of prints, drawings, and videos based on a single mathematical pattern.

The project began with drawings that represent my faithful attempts to draw a precise mathematical pattern by hand based on a simple set of rules, analogous to a computer algorithm. Tiny imperfections reverberated across the page as the length and placement of each line affected all of its neighbors, a testament to the imprecision of my hand. The imperfections produced interesting perceptual effects; playing with them quickly became the focus of the work. I then wrote a computer program that mimics the hand drawn pattern by creating intentional algorithmic imperfections in the drawing of the pattern. I have since been going back and forth between the two: computer imitating hand, hand imitating computer ad infinitum.

http://plainesproject.wordpress.com/

Kyle and I will talk about the building collective, participatory art, secret histories, the ecology of campus, and spatial explorations this Wednesday in the Faculty Gallery on UCSC’s campus.

My studio, Real Time & Space, is hosting an open house on February 16th. Come see some art, eat some snacks, and hang out with us. We’re at 125 10th St in Oakland, down the street from the art museum. Hope to see you there!

building is still building at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History and getting some press in the process. The Santa Cruz Sentinel printed a nice article and KUSP included us in a podcast. Join us on February 8th for stories about the Mighty San Lorenzo River, February 22nd for midtown and Seabright, or March 8th for the Beach Flats and Boardwalk. Or you can catch us at UCSC on February 13th for the Earth as Metaphor lecture series.

Photos from the first month of the year are up on the photo blog.

My statement reads: ” From my home in Oakland, it only takes a short bike ride to escape the cops, the cars, and the concrete.” Come to the opening on January 30th from 5:30pm to 7:30pm where you will be surrounded by all three and we can plot our next escape.

I also updated the projects page and finished uploading photos from December to the photo page.

Presented as part of the ZERO1 Biennial in San Jose, CA
September 14th and 15th, 2012

www.zero1biennial.org/nick-lally
Thanks to Liv Ames and Aaron Caley for the photos:

Fun-a-Day is right around the corner! Pick a project, do it every day, then show it in a big group show. We have 20 shows lined up for this year, possibly more to come (maybe you want to organize a show?).

In Oakland, we will be doing a short project so we can put the show together for first Friday on February 1st at Rock Paper Scissors. The schedule looks like this:

January 1-25: Make something every day
January 28-29: Drop off your 25 pieces
February 1: Show opens for Art Murmur

Submission details for most shows will be posted on artclash.com sometime in January.

Above is our installation at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for the Work in Progress show. I’ve never put so little in such a big space, but it’s nice to make an installation that only hints at what’s to come. By the time the show ends in March, those walls will be covered with maps and secret histories we’ve collected. Our first workshop is tomorrow, December 21st from 2-6pm. We have guest speakers presenting from 5-6pm who have some good stories to tell. Come hang out with us every other week and help us fill the space.

Downstairs, Thomas Campbell is working on a giant mural that will also unfold over the three month show, which should be exciting.

Kyle and I are bringing the building collective to the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History from December 14, 2012 to March 17th, 2013. Come join us, hear about secret histories of Santa Cruz, share your own, and check out our giant concept map as it grows over the course of the show.

Meetings are Friday afternoons, every other week
2-5pm: the building collective will be working on mapping secret histories. Come share yours!
5-6pm: impromptu guest speakers will share their stories. Come eat snacks and hear about secret histories of Santa Cruz.

Topics
December 21st: Downtown
Jan 11st: Westside
Jan 25: UC Santa Cruz and the greenbelt
Feb 8: the mighty San Lorenzo River and its levees
Feb 22: Midtown / Seabright / Branciforte
Mar 8: Beach Flats / Boardwalk

buildingcollective.org
www.santacruzmah.org/2012/work-in-progress
sparc.ucsc.edu/buildingstories

Museum of Art and History (MAH), 3rd Floor 705 Front Street

Made possible with generous support from SPARC at UC Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

I recently hacked together a program that produces slit-scans of users’ desktops. Custom software slowly scans across the screen, taking about four minutes to complete, creating still images which illustrate both the spatial arrangement of software windows and the temporal flows of users’ activities. I have been distributing it without telling people what it does and asking them to send me the results. They produce fascinating maps of how people use their computers as their private activity is laid bare. Here are a few low resolution examples (all reproduced here with consent from users):

Katie, artist, Minneapolis

Matt; curator, writer, artist; Oakland

Rachel, artist, New York

Mark, programmer, Oakland

And head over to the photo blog for some snapshots from October.

And Aaron Caley posted a nice set on Flickr, which includes “The best picture of bikes. ever,” and a lot of other great shots including these two:

People keep expressing their dismay at missing the ride, so I’m planning on doing a few more. Get a group together and let’s go! Or let me know you’re interested and I’ll email you when someone else puts a group together.

Last week I put the finishing touches on Molly McIntyre’s brand new portfolio page. Check out those crazy paper cuts and sweet animations!

It’s built on Stacey, which I’ve grown quite fond of.

Photos from September have been posted to the photo blog. It was a slow month, but I snapped a few.