went to chicago for a few relaxing days trying [successfully i might add] to recapture some of the feeling i had being in new york last month… here are a couple shots… kind of a teaser for things to be uploaded later. we’ll call it three patterns in glass, an interior and an exterior…

this is cool… here’s a shot of it mounted in the dash… [click me] and there are some others on this flickr site as well… i guess this was part of a seminar/workshop yesterday at the ETech Conference in San Diego… wish i could have been there for that, but i am here in Michigan… it’s cold here…

just make a paper one and pretend to be a podhead… click here

you can also make some cool little characters too… i particularly like the little red and black armored monkey looking creature…

i’m not sure what to make of these two brothers… but they have some fascinating items for sale and they make curious devices that do things…

check them out… http://www.maywadenki.com/

also there’s this other link that i’m sure would be good for something, but not sure exactly what…

http://www.no-ip.com/

this guy has some good stuff… found the ant sounds thru his site, but also learned how to make a nice [cheap] contact mic here as well…

click here for the site.

click here to listen to the soothing sounds of black fire ants…

well, i had the crit on my [and jessica’s] project entitled ‘assisted speaking devices’ today… it was a pretty resounding success… the process of critique in that department is slightly different than that in our department and frankly i like it a lot better… of course i didn’t feel that way initially, more just interested in the process, but after sitting through many i feel like it puts more pressure on the work and less on the speaking-at-the-crit moment which can be a moment of fast talking to evade critical issues or a moment when you can explain away poor design [or lack of design]… more focus on the work and less on the talking your way through an incomplete project… desk crits will suffice for that i think.

anyways, i will upload some pictures to this and my studio blog later… don’t have them here and haven’t attempted to figure out how to upload images from a mac… but suffice it to say that the work was well received and functioning for the crit. hooray!! now, on to chair design and waiting for friday’s crit…

well, so much for the 9am meeting… i made it until about 7:30 and then i guess i just crashed… woke up to strange dreams that have left me with nothing but an unsettled feeling at about 1pm… i suppose i needed that sleep, i feel much better now as i sip my coffee and think about the leftover pasta salad in the fridge…

i have yet to assemble the audio components of my project and worry that the sound will be muffled by the casing and that the microphones won’t pick up enough sound… but those worries will soon be addressed… in the meantime here are some images from one component’s packaging… enjoy… feel safe in knowing that there are ways to ward off the villians in the world..

so, it’s 6am and i am still in studio… feeling better about the level of completion of my project, but i’ve scaled back my expectations a couple times as well… it was supposed to be an installation and a sort of how-to manual… the aesthetic of the installation increased this afternoon, but that meant more construction and another trip to home depot tomorrow [check that, today] and most likely no manual for the 2D crit… there’s always the arch. crit friday, but i really wanted to crit something graphic in 2D… oh well, there will be another one…

it’s odd to consider the varied forms of dialogue that have become part of my life since moving to michigan… i instant message with friends out of state to keep in touch, i instant message people that i have rarely spoken to on the phone, i instant message people in other rooms in the same building that i just saw five minutes ago, i text message people to remind them that i am still kicking around, i read private/public blogs that refer to me by not using my name, i write things in my blog that answer comments that may or may not have been meant for me… always these direct and indirect text based dialogues contain a level of ambiguity that is comforting in the lack of immediate confrontation and the inherent understanding of delay and brevity… but there is something disheartening about this always present mediation and that is the lack of a physical immediacy…

the result of that is that we cope. for better or for worse, we manage to get by without hanging out at our best friend’s house doing nothing but playing play station games for twelve hours straight; without hearing the shuffle of papers in the other room and knowing that’s mom; without hearing dad snoring on the couch on a sunday afternoon; without having a quiet cup of coffee and feeling the proximity of someone special… [no conversation that could be considered ‘conversation’, just being in the same vicinity] …the downside is that we find a way to make due without those things… i guess that’s just how it is and you’re only to blame if you don’t recognize that and hold it dear when you have it…

sleep calls me, but the day is just beginning and it’s a long one… meeting at 9am to kick it off… better go move my truck.