While building a installation piece I had an idea to turn it into a short film. This is in no way supposed to be an "animation". My original vision was more a comic book panel look with transitions (wipes) denoting speed of movement or intent. For best viewing, try a big screen at 720p or higher (4k is best) with the sound right up. At the moment I have no plans to do any more video or digital work but I didn't have plans to do this either so for the moment, we'll see. Thanks for taking a look. Please feel free to offer comments or suggestions. It's been a long time since I've done anything like this so it has certainly been a learning experience. I should have the pictures of the original sculpture up very soon. This is the first work from the "Between Worlds" series. More soon.
From the BehaviourWorks website - BehaviourWorks Australia is a leading behaviour change research
enterprise within the Monash Sustainable Development Institute at Monash
University. We bring leading behaviour change researchers and
practitioners together to find behavioural solutions to social,
environmental and organisational problems.
The only app I use on my phone is instagram. I use a browser for everything else. I don't use push notifications at all and I have been using third party apps to track my social media use and schedule posts for years. When I first started monitoring, my usage was around 30mins for fb on a heavy day and around 10 mins for instagram (I didn't really use it much then). For the last couple of years it floats around 10-15 mins a day for fb and about the same for instagram depending on messages. Of course, I have days when I blow it out but I certainly notice it when I do and will do my best to balance that for the rest of the week. It is difficult for those of us who use social media for work or promotion purposes but you would be surprised how beneficial scheduled posts can be to maintain a presents and the arms length distance can make all the difference to your sanity. I encourage everyone to turn off push for all apps and even if it is just for a week, install a monitor. Estimate how much you think you use social media then check to see how close you are. It's interesting how far off our biases can be.
The complete six part video series of Smart Phones, Dumb People is below. You can find more from BehaviourWorks here.
If you are a regular reader of this blog (hi Nan!) you'll no doubt have noticed that my sporadic efforts here have been, well, less sporadic. Ok, so maybe neglect is a better way to look at it. You might also know that I thrash the Easy Rider references but like Captain America, I'm hip about time. Being someone whose worth is often based on being at a place for a time or performing a thing for a time, has a certain pull on the resource we are all running short of, time. I balance that as much as I can and where I fall short, I take from here and other fruitless indulgences like sleep, socialising and day to day human activities, because, hmmm... Moving on.
You might know I'm a horology fan but the truth is, I
actually get quite emotional thinking about this stuff. Few things more
human than waiting for that someone to call or hoping they'll leave, or
waiting until you can, or waiting on that holiday, or drink, or getting
that tooth out, or in fact, remembering that time... This, added with the
definition of the word horology and the
absolute zen like nature of the study and labours is pure breath to a head swimmer like me. Just as I see physics as a search for guidance, not control, horology is the academic and physical manifestation of our human need for comfort and connection. With this segue and in the spirit of my earthly fight for the heavenly resource of time I offer you Clickspring.
From Chris' youtube about section - "I'm Chris from Clickspring, and I create home machine shop project
videos with a focus on clock-making technology. Join me as I make an
authentic replica of The Antikythera Mechanism from raw metal stock, as
well as a wide selection of tools for use in the home machine shop.
You can also help make these project videos, and access additional
content - visit the https://www.patreon.com/clickspring page for more information."
To sum things up as quickly as I can for you, Clickspring is building an accurate Antikythera Mechanism. If you support him over at patreon, you might just get to keep it. You're very welcome. This is the first video in the series -
I've often thought, the majority of art production, particularly sculpture and in relation to its construction, is fundamentally a series of problem solving exercises. For someone who is concerned with the human condition this is consistently entertaining. The manual tasks and their similes are surprisingly often synonymous with the finished work if one was to offer an accompanying anecdote. Of course this is not always the case but for a lonely artisan working away accompanied only by YouTube or the occasional blast beat, this joyful synchronicity has a tendency to speak volumes well above any neighbour offending speakers leaving one happily oblivious to the outside world and public relations. I also know many craftsman and tradies who enjoy these same reflections. My Father, an accomplished sheet metal engineer (this term fails completely to describe his skill set), and I, often talked about this or used the comparisons much to each other's amusement. In fact the title of this post's origins is one I'm particularly fond of and find poignant in this respect.
It is for these reasons and plenty more only relevant to me that I often watch content on YouTube. I find watching people enjoying their craft enthralling but most of all it feeds my want to create. Typically I'll start the day by checking my regular haunts for a new vid and by 2 minutes in I'm already covered in clay. The rest of the day is a blur. Some of the most interesting things I find are backyard engineers, home gunsmiths, toy collectors and restorers, car projects, I could go on for quite a while but there is one I wanted to recommend here. It's not for everybody and probably few who choose to read this blog will find as much in it I suspect but if you like the idea of working on problems, finding solutions, building things just to see if they'll work and thinking outside the box then I recommend to you 805ROADKING. I'd like to tell you a little about the guys behind 805 but if you watch some of their videos you'll see almost immediately that "they" are just not what their channel is about. They're a group of guys who get together to build things they find interesting, spend quality time together in a positive way and work for the benefit of the project. No egos, no drama and the only one in charge is the goal. If you are a first timer, I humbly suggest checking out the clear cylinder head build but if you'd like something a little more intense, try the homemade four cylinder Briggs or water cooled Briggs series. I'm looking forward to more on the overhead valve build myself. I'll pop the play lists to each series I've mentioned below but I'm sure if this is your bag, you wont stop there. Get busy
If you're after a little mind food I highly recommend this documentary. William Powell is the writer of the infamous Anarchist Cookbook. A highly dubious and unreliable how-to manual aimed at modern "political revolutionaries". That was 1970, 47 years later Charlie Siskel sits down with Powell to explore its legacy. The reviews for this are terrible, one of the reasons I decided to watch it and I wasn't disappointed. If you like being handed an explanation, resolution or being told what to think, please move along. If you like not knowing who you are or what you feel, this ones for you.
I stumbled across this documentary recently. I'm a big fan of traditional African art but it was the mention of Dogon tribe that prompted me to watch it. I'm sure many of you will know them for being singled out in Von Daniken's fun fest but as West African artisans they are second to none. However, Western tastes and a perverse fetish for "used" idols and masks have not only created a black market and thriving counterfeit trade but are also the reasons the Dogon and many tribes like them have been
subject to an almost complete freeze of cultural development. Griff Ryhs Jones is at his cheeky best in this BBC piece from 2013. Not only does this put him in good stead to dig like few would dare but he is able to bring striking parallels to not only contemporary art but I believe also low brow and dark art. It's for this reason I'm sharing it here. Please excuse the YouTube host, but BBC I player is no longer hosting this series. Click settings and turn off annotations to be rid of the silly yellow link.
There seems to be a lot going at the moment. I'm undecided if that is true or I'm actually paying attention. I stopped watching News shows when I moved to the UK. The city of my birth had a sizable earthquake and the coverage was passing at best. That taught me all there is to know about the medium. I'm fully aware no "story" will give you the complete picture nor will it begin to give you the ambience. Growing up in NZ it was pretty easy to take the News at face value and attach it to my own experience. In this respect, moving around the world a couple of times was the best thing I think I have ever done, for my own growth and for increasing my understanding of my ignorance. Nowadays most of what I think or say is punctuated with "I could be wrong" or "fucked if I know". I feel far more responsible with these responses in my arsenal. I have no idea what is happening in the States. I'm so undecided about so many things it's hard to form any sort of opinion about much of it. I also obviously don't live there so tapping the zeitgeist is impossible. I am though immensely glad the morning after troubles have subsided. Have they? I'm too old for smashing shit up. I'm not so much committed to peaceful protest as I am unsure about the alternatives and the older you get you grow cautious. I can't afford a new hip ya know. Well, they say, we stand on the shoulders of giants. This not only I believe, I know. Evidence is everywhere and we now have it at our fingertips. No longer is history written by the winner. It's all here in bits and bites.
If you have read much of this blog, or if I have crafted these words enough, you'll know I'm expert on little but I do know to find help when I need it. Please don't take this as offering advice. I wouldn't be so presumptuous but these times we find ourselves in are not the only time things have been rocky. It's only the strong backs of said Giants that make it seem so. Hence we should turn to them. So I offer this to you. I watch this doco and a similar one I've written about here at least once a year. When the world seems tough and stale faced and I find myself slowly moving in a direction there's often no coming back from this and "Your mommy kills animals" reminds me there are lessons that have been learned by many far better than I. That wants and needs are not the same. That solve must be postfixed with et coagula. If you find shit a bit rough, now or in the future. If you feel like the harshness demands equal in return. Respectfully, maybe this or the link above might just be what you need.
Recently a friend posted a link to a UK TV show on social media. Being a person of questionable attention span I became nostalgic for the British styled medium. Cue hours wasted on YouTube. Consequently, I stumbled on this documentary presented by the sweet smelling Vic Revees. I'm posting it here in justification and atonement for my virtual and working hour sins. Eat it up before the man takes it back
