knot talk

zero station presents an installation by Michael Huggins (Portland, ME) and Nick Lally (Oakland, CA) opening on July 5th.

The two artists have filled the gallery with Japanese Knotweed, a fast growing invasive weed harvested from the surrounding area. The plants, together with visitors’ bodies, modulate a complex sound installation as electric signals connect the plants, humans, and electronics. Did you know that plants communicate with each other using sound waves? Come talk to to some plants that are taking over the northeast.

The artists will be serving snacks made from Knotweed during the opening.

I recently put together a bike-powered USB charger for touring, pictured above. You can find all the details on the Vintage MTB site.

I recently got my Raspberry Pi working and set it up as an FM transmitter for my upcoming Location to Station project. So much potential for this tiny computer!

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.