WW14: Root System

WWIX Week 4 notes

Quote of the week/ Doris says,” consider the catastrophe fee. What if the project doesn’t work and you need to make another?”

Sharon

Working in python and blender, electric lazy Suzan

Number code to the colors might match with the math?

Getting ready to print with a clay-like silica material. About a foot.

References:

Try Uni posca paint markers, trying silver foil

Artist Nancy josephson

Amanda

Donna Hathaway book recommendation.

“ you can’t pick up garbage from a place that is made of garbage.” How much can you pick up? How do you decide what to pick up?

Fish eating microplastics and starving. Archiving articles on microplastics

Can smell water from Maine. Can you smell the meadowlands? You can’t smell it.

Is plastic stencil changing for this location?

Can you do a water test for each location?

Tyvek backing.

Plastic samples in a vitrine?

References:

Wendell

Spray foam over floral foam. Carving with a knife. Sledgehammer to pallets. Making “eggs”

need to paint.

References:

Mary Tsiongas

http://www.marytsiongas.com/no-time/

Giuseppe Licari

Tamara

Lasagna gardening recipe- can you share?

Terrariums

What is chunk of soil composed of?

Star of Bethlehem, tulips? Onions grass? Might bloom in the gallery?

References:

Paula Hayes

Tyvek raincoat with pockets for plants:

http://tyvek-blog.materialconcepts.com/2011/09/tyvek-designer-white-raincoat-with.html?m=1

aquarium by Max Hooper Schneider in “Section of Intertidal Landscape (Hair Metastasis)”, a simulated tide pool with a reef of colorful synthetic hair.

Barbara t. Smith, God’s breath, 1966, photocopies of flour dumped on the glass of the machine.

http://motionlira.com/RHYTHMS-1

Andrea Lira in collaboration with Marisa Benji, RHYTHMS, 2013;

https://vimeo.com/113016933

Olga

Logs made of plastic bags from the places she “hates” to shop at most: dollar tree, etc.

Is this a form of printmaking to pull bark? Monoprints? Lithographs?

“Made in China”

“Made in New Jersey”

“It’s an artifact”

Pedestal is about 6 inches high

References:

Elisa pritzker zipper logs

http://www.elisapritzker.com/

Gwen

High contrast image- dark ocean, lava feel in new high speed video.

“ you don’t paint black with black”

Test projections in light room – will projection work or need a screen?

Maybe look into a box? Can create a controles experience

“Feels less like pretend”

The sea at night feels like I’m definitely going to die”

References:

Linda

Added texture, new layers,

Added netting and netting prints.

References:

The snow last weekend give me a chance to experiment with a white background and the pink Mylar, and a higher frame rate camera that I borrowed from a friend for the day. I made a lot of mistakes -with the slippery snow and trying to find a slope that not had been touched and had not been trampled and sled on. i should have walked on flat land. all my choreography ideas were out the window as i could not jump or run on the slippery snow and i quickly ripped my mylar.  I quickly found out that a higher frame rate file was not recognized by my computer and required different methods for downloading and took more time. In the same vein as I started to research cameras to rent to work on the silver mylar piece I found that to complete the work the way I wanted it I really needed a higher frame rate camera and I was not equipped or trained to handle such a Camera, I would need to rent the camera and I would also need to hire a staff member to run the camera. In addition in order to edit the film I would not be able to use my computer and software That I currently have and would need to also hire someone to edit the footage. spent a week calling B&H, borrowed lenses and unique photo and chatting with every tech proFessional I knew ( Sharon can tell you) to figure out what camera I should be using for this project. The cameras with the higher frame rates and quality image I was looking for were out of my price range. The project started to get more and more expensive and I wondered if it was really possible to complete in the next two weeks. I applied for two grants right away which wouldn’t give me the funding to complete this project right now but would allow me to finish it in the way that I could see completing it next year. So at this point I had two options: one is to complete the project at a lower frame rate with the cameras I have access to and just show it as a sketch for something bigger or skip showing the silver Mylar idea and show something easier to complete, smaller on a projection like the pink Mylar piece. although this pink Mylar piece, needs additional time, I also imagine in a larger white space, I could make due with a photo backdrop in a studio.

Enter gibney digital technology initiative, a subsidized tech training and support program for dancers and dance filmmakers. I have been to many of their free and inexpensive classes and enjoy their program. Weeks ago I had contacted them for a price list for renting their high speed cameras. Since they are expanding their spaces, I did not get a reply for weeks. I finally received an email with the price list stating that they cannot rent me the camera but they can provide a tech to work with me for $20 an hour! This subsidized program would allow me complete the project with the film equipment that would create a high quality product. I was so relieved. I have an appointment for Friday with a tech, a film camera and a dancer at Gibney Dance studio. I will need the tech to also render the file and hoping it will be ready for installation.

To summarize, the first tests with the higher frame rates went well and i look forward to working on the finished pieces with a professional tech.

Playing with materials. Thinking about getting a nail gun. Finished give aways. 

The terrariums continue to grow, still outside a few feet away from where they were dug.

I’m still on the fence about the best format to tell this story, a series of printed out images with text or screen based images with audio/narration. I’ve been working on the text. It feels good to put it down in one place, though I do worry it may be boring for anyone else. Perhaps this is a part of the process that will help me extract the most important elements to use in the piece.

In My Backyard

The magnolia has been in my backyard since before I can remember. We grew up together over the years. It was an early bloomer, showing some the earliest signs of spring each year with it’s fuzzy little buds. It’s twisted branches were brittle and seemed to form little hand forms.

The magnolia started to die off slowly. Some branches broke off in a late spring ice storm as few years back. Maybe the open wound made it susceptible to fungus or disease.  First some branches on one side seemed to die off, then two thirds of the tree canopy were dry.

We called an arborist to do a house call and give a diagnosis to see if the magnolia could be saved. It was unlikely that the tree would make it after cutting back the parts that were already dying off. Plus the tree’s advanced age made a successful recovery even less likely. It was a difficult decision, made over a number of family meetings, but ultimately we realized the tree needed to be cut down.

I arranged to be there when the crew came to take down the tree. It was really like loosing an old friend. The crew was very skilled and respectful, but it was still a violent process and a very sad day. I asked to keep a couple of slices of the trunk; one for my brother and one for me.

Ever an optimist, I tried to look at the bright side of loosing the tree. I had always wanted to plant garden but was limited by the shade of the giant magnolia, which created an embracing umbrella of privacy but also excessive dampness and a haven for mosquitos. Our neighbor from the church behind the house confessed that she never liked the tree and was happy it was gone – she said it gave her allergies in the spring.

Without the magnolia, I needed to reacquaint myself with the backyard. Even with the tree cut and the stump ground down x feet, I could still feel its aura occupying the giant canopy. That Thanksgiving we gathered all of the extended family in the U.S. and took a family photo in the place where the tree once stood. Anticipating the intense feeling of loss without the magnolia the following spring I planted 150 tulips. Digging holes for the bulbs I came across a number of smaller bulbs clustered around a larger one in soil that had otherwise been undisturbed for years. I wasn’t quite sure what they were so I left them alone. I also came across lily of the valley leaves, and as some of them became loose I had the opportunity to observe how they grow underground, sending shoots below the soil to launch the next generation.

A gardening friend suggested I test the soil before starting on the other gardening experiments I had in mind for the spring. I collected some samples in plastic bags and sent them to the Brooklyn College Soil lab. Getting the test results back, I was completely shocked! The level of lead was _____, twice? the levels the EPA deem to be safe. There were also high levels of arsenic and _____.  Right around this time there were a number of environmental initiatives in Greenpoint, the result of winning the lawsuit against Exxon for a giant underground oil spill that has been slowly leaking into the aquifer under the community for decades. There were opportunities for free soil test, so I could check the soil from a small patch of ivy in front of the house.  These results were even worse:   (Though this was a ____ method of testing which is considered to be less accurate than the full heavy metal tests done in the lab.) As I planned for the backyard vegetable garden I had always dreamed of, I was suddenly confronted by the fact that the soil is toxic.

In the spring, the tulips bloomed beautifully along with some daffodils that were already there as well as the Star of Bethlehem (the clustering bulbs that I couldn’t identify in the fall. It turns out they are an invasive species that are often spread through other bulbs like tulips or daffodils).

So what to do now? It was already late May, time to get things in the ground especially with the short growing season in the North East. My boyfriend scored a bunch of wood that was being thrown away from work and built three large planter boxes to place above the existing soil in the yard. It would take a lot of dirt to fill these boxes before I could even start to grow anything, and what’s to say that any other dirt I bring not the boxes isn’t toxic as well?

Luckily, I met a woman (Liz) at one of the environmental workshops, who had done a course in permaculture and told me about lasagna gardening. She emailed me with a whole list of local places to source materials, including horse poop, dirt, compost,etc.. and quite an exact recipe and instructions for the combination of ingredients to start to build up clean, healthy soil in my boxes. My mom was generous enough to lend me her car and allow me to transport house poop in it. So armed with a box of garbage bags, gloves and a shovel, I set out to the horse stables near Prospect Park. Sure enough, the very matter of fact staff allowed me to take as much horse poop as I could carry. It turns out the horse poop is mostly straw, since this is what they eat and then it’s mixed with more straw, and really doesn’t smell all that bad.

I covered the wire bottom of my elevated boxes with a cotton fabric that I had on hand to help keep the materials contained, laid down the cardboard and then started layering the horse poop and was on my way to filling the boxes and creating healthy soil. Then there was the ____ from Home Depot – what’s to say that this purchased soil is any better than what’s in my backyard to begin with? It’s not tested or certified or regulated in any way. The finally there was the trip to Build It Green for some buckets of work castings – or black gold as it’s also known. After mixing together the right proportions of potting soil and compost it took quite a while but I was finally ready to plant.

I planted two types of tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, butternut squash, and a number of herbs: thyme, oregano, and basil. I really had no idea how to plant and grow things so each step involved quite some time researching online, learning about companion planting, the importance of thinning seedlings, etc… Throughout this learning curve there was still the question of what to do about the toxic soil in the rest of the backyard…I researched about hyper-accumulators that concentrate and absorb the existing lead in the soil and planted a number of sunflowers along with y brother and his friend for this purpose. The sunflowers grew
to be taller than all of us. I felt like Jack and the beanstalk checking of them as they continued to grow. Further research revealed that in order to use sunflowers as hyper-accumulators, every last part of the sunflower, stack and roots needs to be removed from the ground and technically should be disposed of as toxic waste. In fact, letting these sunflowers dry and discompose in place can actually be even more dangerous in that it pulls up lead that may be sitting dormant below closer to the surface where it is more accessible and dangerous.

So what exactly are the dangers of lead? Is it dangerous to touch, breath, eat?

Here’s a first shot at recording the text as audio narration:

This will be a week of many decisions: the final presentation format, the scope of the story, and the final selection of images. Lots to do!

Over the past two weeks I have been busy making paper. The water that I collected from the Meadowlands park is surprisingly still fresh feeling and smelling – no sliminess or stinky smells. When I used water from the ocean in the north of Maine this summer, the water became somewhat disgusting within days. It had a strong odor and would start feeling slimy. The Meadowlands water is a bit murky, brownish in color, where as the Maine ocean water was very clear.

I also returned to the park to collect plastic bits from the shoreline. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as the park is lovely, and doesn’t appear to have a garbage problem. However, when you start looking for it, you start finding the smallest bits of garbage everywhere. After I started seeing small bits, I found some larger piece of garbage that were buried in the soil… even whole tires partially submerged. The tires made me start to think about the park and the landfill and the concept of our land being literally made of garbage. When we dump our garbage in piles and piles and cover it with soil and pretends it’s not there, does it bubble its way up to the surface anyway?

I collected a plastic bag full of plastic pieces, mostly small pieces but a few interesting large pieces. It is strange to start picking up garbage and realize that there is so much garbage built into the soil that it barely matters what you pick up. You start to be selective about the garbage you pick up. It’s very strange.

I am currently marbling the paper and working on creating stencils to make my prints at the Newark Print Shop. I am currently looking for tyvek. Amazon only has the thin stuff, and I am looking for tyvek on a roll. I also need to measure the width of the insets in the wall so that I can construct the individual tyvek panes and find the appropriate length tension rods.

Last Tree Trunk. $99.99 each.

Made in China, $99.99 tree trunk.

More than 113,000 trees were damaged or destroyed in the state of New Jersey five years ago due to severe winds and waves from Hurricane Sandy. Small branches, roots, and leaves among other debris were found scattered around through out the coastal area.Once the storm strong winds dissipated, organic materials could be found all around. They were laying on the beach sand after all the devastation.

There are 269,000 tons of plastic on the surface of oceans and about 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean. Industry is creating disposable products such as plastic bags, bottles, soda cans and tons of millions of plastic waste. It all ends up in the ocean  affecting whales, sharks, coral reefs, other wildlife and us humans.

Plastic products are dangerous for the animals that accidentally ingest them or become entangled by them.

The action of collecting materials was important to the work in display. Bautista collected natural and artificial materials from the coastal shore area after Super Storm Sandy. Among those materials, she gathered plastic bags which merchants use daily to package the products they sell at stores like Home Depot, ShopRite or Dollar stores to name just a few.

Bautista’s interest in re-appropriating nature, consists in creating new forms by blending organic debris with plastic. She wanted to show how the plastic which is used to make bags for carrying objects reveals consumerism  and materialism to represent  society’s way of living. Materials are important  elements to adapt while configuring a new form. Installing those plastic materials in a gallery can transform the space. Artificial trunks can become consumer products: $99.99 art objects, made in China.

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I’ve been dealing with a great deal of loss recently. My cousin who I was very close to died in August, my mom died after a 2 year battle with Pancreatic Cancer in November, my grandma in December and now my other grandma, who was 98 years old, died this week.  I’m sorry to miss you all tomorrow but I am attending her funeral. This loss is seeping into my work not surprisingly.

Here are a few more paintings I have been working on. I’ve been thinking about the architecture during and after  storms. The shadows, ghosts, and memories of a place that used to be, or in between being inhabited and abandoned. Continuing to look at Puerto Rico-Maria, New Orleans-Katrina, and New Jersey-Sandy. I find it strange that I visit a place and it has some catastrophic storm afterwards.

Detail View

My next part of a “stack” which I will work on tonight. So far I have 2 sets of “stacks” I’d like to get one more stack of 3 stumps.

These are previous pieces that I decided to work on some more-They could hang on a wall vertically from top to bottom with the bark piece in the center.

The amount of math and patterns in numbers I saw was amazing/scary while creating this skirt. I received the most amazing advanced geometry crash course from my friend Aatish Bhatia. We were able to get the skirt to respond to the length of the global temp stats via the x, y, z coordinates meaning that the data set is represented via it’s height and length which made this beautiful shape of skirt. I’m sending the model to print on Wednesday at LaGuardia studios (NYU). I was told the turn around is ten days but this particular printer doesn’t have a long waitlist so I might get it earlier. It’s cutting it really close to the deadline but worse comes to worse I don’t sleep.

Trying to soften cones. Also reducing scale. Planning to develop surface colors w/translucent colors and maybe rice paper. Gathered ash bark to add w/the pallet wood. Almost done with matrix form. 11 drawings finished, 7 more to go. Started working on 4 color screen print card for give away. Too bad day job takes up 12 hrs daily!

Finally got our water test results today. I have to admit I’ve been pretty nervous. Two things failed. The good news for us is that one is already corrected with our neutralizer and the other involves an adjustment to the wellhead. The list of contaminants RaData tested for was extensive and I’m  disconcerted that the pass/fail rating is based on allowable amounts. Ironically, I’ve been thinking about offering three types of labeled water samples: one from our well; another from the local town water supply; and lastly a bottled water taster. Let me know your thoughts and if you’d sample.

I’m still plugging away at my painting and have begun to work on layers that represent the flow of water and what it carries. The painting has been slow, but I’ve resolved the earth segments. I’ve been playing around with mixing mulch, soil and other elements in my paint. Screens have become instrumental in pulling everything together and I like the way wire, plastic and paint can weave in and out of the canvas and screen. I had hoped to finish this piece and the research that generated it by now. I wanted to use what I learned from this work to inform some sort of installation that was more tactile. My other thought is for smaller vignettes that explore components of my research.