Description



Steel Ice & Stone is a multi-media interactive installation.
Nine suspended LED panels and sensor-triggered sound create an environment for memory recall.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hurricane Issues

Proto 1 phase was just about ready for exhibiiton at the Grace Gallery when the city was hit with a "major weather event". No show, no opening, nothing. Silver lining? Several. Details in the next few days.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Stand For Anything

Suspending the pieces from the ceiling is a challenge in most gallery spaces, no matter how different and unusual the notion is. I am convinced that a few places, though interested in the work itself, didn't relish the idea of large, heavy artworks potentially falling from above.

When the piece was at BWAC in Red Hook, I had the advantage of putting significant braces into the ceiling and a strong-gauge wire to hold everything in place. The pieces moved with air displacement, but not dramatically.

The Prototype 1 phase at the Grace Gallery where I work at City Tech does not allow for any kind of drilling. Not only are the ceilings high and pristine white, City Tech is a public institution, and a special department must be consulted when a power tool is brought to its property. Overkill, yes, but measures must be taken to prevent total chaos.

So, two options were explored: setting up a rig or making stands which hold the foam core boards erect. For this Proto 1 phase, as discussed earlier, the nine images were tiled to-size and stuck onto foam core. From here, they'll be placed around the room.

A rig proved to be time- and budget- costly. So I slapped a stand together first, from a piece of card stock and then from some left- over board. It works great.

And, by far, an advantage: it I want to change the piece's location, all I have to do is move it. No ladder, no re-tying. Which gives me an idea for how to hang the nine mounted and framed pieces.

The journey continues.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Help From Everyone

One of the nice things about working where I do, The New York City College of Technology, is that they have technology to do my work with, and kind, wonderful, knowledgeable people who are ready and happy to help with machines I can't use.

Pictured is Mr. Steve Caputo, the print college lab technician, cutting the tiles of SIS on our industrial cutter, a monster of a machine.

Like all cutters I have ever known, Mr. Caputo is precise and mild mannered, rarely, if ever, getting ruffled or raising his voice. But, commanding, none the less.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Time flies

With a week or so to go for the Proto I exhibition of all nine pieces in SIS, quite a bit still needs to get done. In the rush, much of the cataloging of the research gets thrown aside, a potentially costly error.

Several goals to this prototyping:
Placement of the pieces
Traffic through the work
Population of the installation; is more space needed?

Others at the College have expressed interest in exhibiting a future prototyping phase in a different venus at the College.

Time flies.