There's no sound in space, you say? There's nothing to transmit sound, you say? Well you're (sort of) right, but that hasn't stopped people from listening. For instance, professors at the University of Iowa have posted sound recordings made by satellites and other spacecraft, recordings of everything from lightning on Saturn to the sound of the solar winds. Space is filled with all sorts of radiation, everything from radio waves to visible light and so on, and these recordings are made by translating these waves into audio.
Minimalist composer Terry Riley has even composed a string quartet performance based on these recordings, called Sun Rings
This dreadfully academic video explains the composition and some of the recordings. I'd skip ahead to about half way, or just skip it all together and just listen to these really beautiful sounds from Jupiter, via Nasa.
Caspian Sea Monster
Now that I'm both unemployed and out of school, I figured I should devote my time and this space to my hobby of amassing neat but completely useless e-junk.
So first up, this amazing, eerie soviet video of ekranoplans; ground effect planes/ships that fly just a few meters above the water, taking advantage of the ground effects that occur when a plane flies lower than its own wingspan. The video has a great drone soundtrack too, I can't stop watching it.
These things are some of the biggest planes ever built. The largest, dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster, was longer than a football field, could move over 1000 tonnes of cargo, and crossed the Caspian at speeds over 250mph. The soviets kept the project secret, so you can imagine the poor fishermen who undoubtedly found themselves in the path of these speeding behemoths. Keep in mind they never flew more than a few meters above the water.
The project ended sometime in the mid-nineties, and you can see a couple of abandoned ekranoplans in google earth at 42°52′50″N, 47°39′57″E
Commercial interest in ekranoplans continues, and several private companies apparently produce or plan to produce ekranoplans in the future. Interestingly, ekranoplans are considered a ship rather than a plane by international maritime regulations.
Ground effect is a complex phenomenon that involves the air underneath the wing and its relationship to the ground. If a plane has a wing span of twenty meters, then ground effect takes over when the plane flies lower than twenty meters. In regular aircraft, the effect allows for smooth landings, creating a pillow of air that dampens turbulence. It also reduces drag, so if you can fly low enough, you'll be able to fly further and faster using less fuel. And of course you'll be flying under enemy radar.
On the other end of the aviation spectrum, just last week WhiteKnightTwo flew for the first time in the California desert. This high altitude aircraft will launch SpaceShipTwo, the private spaceship that will carry space tourists into low Earth orbit. Check out Mojave Skies for a write up of last weeks test flight.
pic from Alan Radecki at Mojave Skies
So first up, this amazing, eerie soviet video of ekranoplans; ground effect planes/ships that fly just a few meters above the water, taking advantage of the ground effects that occur when a plane flies lower than its own wingspan. The video has a great drone soundtrack too, I can't stop watching it.
These things are some of the biggest planes ever built. The largest, dubbed the Caspian Sea Monster, was longer than a football field, could move over 1000 tonnes of cargo, and crossed the Caspian at speeds over 250mph. The soviets kept the project secret, so you can imagine the poor fishermen who undoubtedly found themselves in the path of these speeding behemoths. Keep in mind they never flew more than a few meters above the water.
The project ended sometime in the mid-nineties, and you can see a couple of abandoned ekranoplans in google earth at 42°52′50″N, 47°39′57″E
Commercial interest in ekranoplans continues, and several private companies apparently produce or plan to produce ekranoplans in the future. Interestingly, ekranoplans are considered a ship rather than a plane by international maritime regulations.
Ground effect is a complex phenomenon that involves the air underneath the wing and its relationship to the ground. If a plane has a wing span of twenty meters, then ground effect takes over when the plane flies lower than twenty meters. In regular aircraft, the effect allows for smooth landings, creating a pillow of air that dampens turbulence. It also reduces drag, so if you can fly low enough, you'll be able to fly further and faster using less fuel. And of course you'll be flying under enemy radar.
On the other end of the aviation spectrum, just last week WhiteKnightTwo flew for the first time in the California desert. This high altitude aircraft will launch SpaceShipTwo, the private spaceship that will carry space tourists into low Earth orbit. Check out Mojave Skies for a write up of last weeks test flight.
pic from Alan Radecki at Mojave Skies
The following is a series of paths that could be traced between North Platte, NE and St. Cloud, MN, following the rules of Feynman Diagrams.
North platte Oneil Vermillion St. James Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North platte Oneil Vermillion St. James Slayton Litchfield St. Cloud
North platte Oneil Vermillion St. James Slayton Pipestone Madison Litchfield / St. Cloud
North platte Oneil Vermillion St. James Slayton Pipestone Plankinton Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Pipestone Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Pipestone Slayton St. James Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Vermillion Slayton Pipestone Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Vermillion Slayton Pipestone Plankinton Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Pipestone Slayton Vermillion St. James Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Madison Pipestone Slayton Vermillion St. James Litchfield St. Cloud
North platte Oneil Vermillion St. James Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North platte Oneil Vermillion St. James Slayton Litchfield St. Cloud
North platte Oneil Vermillion St. James Slayton Pipestone Madison Litchfield / St. Cloud
North platte Oneil Vermillion St. James Slayton Pipestone Plankinton Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Pipestone Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Pipestone Slayton St. James Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Vermillion Slayton Pipestone Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Vermillion Slayton Pipestone Plankinton Madison Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Pipestone Slayton Vermillion St. James Litchfield St. Cloud
North Platte Oneil Plankinton Madison Pipestone Slayton Vermillion St. James Litchfield St. Cloud
Ways and Means
Chicago street artist Solve was murdered a couple days ago. Although I never met Solve, he lived (and was killed) just a few blocks from where I live, we probably knew many of the same people in the arts community, we probably even went to the same parties. These aren't, however, the reasons why his death hit me in such a profound way. It's because I knew his art so well. His work, like a few other prolific street artists in Chicago, followed me everywhere I went. It became familiar; I looked for it subconsciously wherever I went, and I often looked for it consciously too. It enhanced my life, made me smile, and made this already interesting city even more complex and beautiful.
Street art, graffiti, whatever, anything from tags all the way up to stuff like Solve's clandestine video installation on the blue line, these works take private property and make it public. It reclaims something lonely and gives it to the community. When I see a great piece of street art, it becomes mine, I own it, and I possess it in a way that studio art never allows.
It also sucks because apparently Solve was super nice guy, and his name was really his message- solve. Solve the problems our community faces.
photo by Joyful Morgana
Street art, graffiti, whatever, anything from tags all the way up to stuff like Solve's clandestine video installation on the blue line, these works take private property and make it public. It reclaims something lonely and gives it to the community. When I see a great piece of street art, it becomes mine, I own it, and I possess it in a way that studio art never allows.
It also sucks because apparently Solve was super nice guy, and his name was really his message- solve. Solve the problems our community faces.
photo by Joyful Morgana
We're computerizing and we just don't need you anymore
Well, to my surprise, the reading went rather well. The not-so-cheap cheap beer helped, certainly, but I think I'm actually getting the hang of performing in front of crowds. Seemed like most of the people in attendance were teachers (probably because one of the other writers performing was a teacher at columbia), but still, when SAIC hosts readings, we're lucky if even one faculty member shows up. Furthermore, everyone I spoke with was friendly and down to earth, except for the one fellow SAIC student, who was the most awkward, withdrawn artist type in the place, and she told me my work "paired object with emotion" and then quickly meeked her way out of the room. Oh artspeak, blessed artspeak; anyone care to decipher what 'pairing object with emotion' actually means? Cause I haven't a clue.
Our living room looks like some sort of meth lab gone wrong; we've got blenders, fans, tarps, tubs of murky water, shredded paper, sawdust and cement dust, a few dozen beer cans... more on this later.
Here's a picture I took last fall. The sepia bugs me but not enough to change it or anything. Just visualize it color-balanced.
Our living room looks like some sort of meth lab gone wrong; we've got blenders, fans, tarps, tubs of murky water, shredded paper, sawdust and cement dust, a few dozen beer cans... more on this later.
Here's a picture I took last fall. The sepia bugs me but not enough to change it or anything. Just visualize it color-balanced.
Somehow
I completely forgot that I'm giving a reading tonight at Manhattan's Bar in the south loop. I guess it's part of Columbia's grad writing program, or at least organized by one of their students. I don't know how, but I almost missed it completely, I just woke up in the middle of the night and realized it was today. I'm not exactly prepared...
Huh
I kid you not, just yesterday I spent a good half-hour reading about mid-west earthquakes- the New Madrid fault and whatnot, you know, in southern Illinois, where this earthquake thing just happened this morning.
And I won poker last night. I'm pretty sure this makes me a certified clairvoyant, if not all out soothsayer.
Oh 7th grade vocab words.
Elsewhere, here's proof that my home town Colorado Springs is the only place home to crazies a notch crazier than those silly mormons in texas.
And I won poker last night. I'm pretty sure this makes me a certified clairvoyant, if not all out soothsayer.
Oh 7th grade vocab words.
Elsewhere, here's proof that my home town Colorado Springs is the only place home to crazies a notch crazier than those silly mormons in texas.
How it feels to be something on
I'm not sure why blogs seem to come and go. This is my fifth blog in as many years, and they've all followed the same trajectory- in a creative fit i'll start one, spend lots of time designing it to look half-way not shitty, update feverishly for a time, then get bored with it, then comes that strange embarrassment phase where I wish I'd never started it, then I delete it.
well I'm not going to do that with this blog, yet, although I've already stopped updating very often. I sold my little digital camera last week because I was broke and figured my digital SLR was enough for one man, but it's so big that I never take it anywhere- hence no pictures these days. Oh well.
On the bright side, this week is rather fantastic. Tuesday was the joint BFA/MFA reading at the Joan Flasch Artist's Book Collection, which scared the shit out of me since I was collaborating with someone I'd never met, and his work was the exact opposite of mine- he had these odd poem things that were loud, screamy, almost rap, almost scat, almost slam, and I had my whimpy little regular poems. We read side by side, alternating after each poem, so this exaggerated the contrast. Surprisingly I think people liked it.
Then tonight at SUGS I'm in a show about the suburbs, mostly painting and photography, and then there's my poem- in vinyl on the wall. The curator called me last week freaking out because even at one inch letters the poem was 14 feet long. 14 feet! talk about compensating...
Plus we finally broke 70 degrees for the first time in half a year. That's the third longest span of sub 70 degree weather in chicago's history.
And the blue line was fucked on tuesday, people were trapped for hours, smoke, evacuations, thousands of angry passengers yelling, fun fun. The funny thing is that I'm really glad stuff like that happens, it brings the city together and shows us how much we need public transportation, and also how fun it is for half the city to be three hours late for everything.
I owe my roommate a third of a bottle of cheap champagne and some grape soda on top of that, but let me say- yay for grape soda mimosas before class.
Oh, and one last thing, my friend mike and his awesome awesome awesome band the Jack Trades called me up last night and asked me to design them a flier. Thoughts?
well I'm not going to do that with this blog, yet, although I've already stopped updating very often. I sold my little digital camera last week because I was broke and figured my digital SLR was enough for one man, but it's so big that I never take it anywhere- hence no pictures these days. Oh well.
On the bright side, this week is rather fantastic. Tuesday was the joint BFA/MFA reading at the Joan Flasch Artist's Book Collection, which scared the shit out of me since I was collaborating with someone I'd never met, and his work was the exact opposite of mine- he had these odd poem things that were loud, screamy, almost rap, almost scat, almost slam, and I had my whimpy little regular poems. We read side by side, alternating after each poem, so this exaggerated the contrast. Surprisingly I think people liked it.
Then tonight at SUGS I'm in a show about the suburbs, mostly painting and photography, and then there's my poem- in vinyl on the wall. The curator called me last week freaking out because even at one inch letters the poem was 14 feet long. 14 feet! talk about compensating...
Plus we finally broke 70 degrees for the first time in half a year. That's the third longest span of sub 70 degree weather in chicago's history.
And the blue line was fucked on tuesday, people were trapped for hours, smoke, evacuations, thousands of angry passengers yelling, fun fun. The funny thing is that I'm really glad stuff like that happens, it brings the city together and shows us how much we need public transportation, and also how fun it is for half the city to be three hours late for everything.
I owe my roommate a third of a bottle of cheap champagne and some grape soda on top of that, but let me say- yay for grape soda mimosas before class.
Oh, and one last thing, my friend mike and his awesome awesome awesome band the Jack Trades called me up last night and asked me to design them a flier. Thoughts?
The Fabulous Destiny of... (how it ends)
More artists should be like Peter Doig. Down to earth, humble, good sense of humor, and also a great painter. He deservedly has a big show at the Tate right now. Check out this video of him talking about his work.
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