Applied Kinetic Arts

Barn Owl – Turiya from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Barn Owl is a heavy, minimalist, collaboration between guitarists Jon Porras and Evan Caminiti. I met these guys a couple of years back when I was in grad school studying sound and vibrations and have followed their progress since.

The new Barn Owl LP, titled Lost in the Glare features the additions of a Farfisa organ (Made popular by the Philip Glass Ensemble), Juno 60 synthesizer, bass clarinet, manipulated cassette tapes (also a minimalist trick) , tanpura, gong, and drums.

The track Turiya featured in the video, provides a potent dose of their sound that Aquarius Records elegantly describes as “darkly epic doom folk dronedrift dreaminess.”

Download the MP3 for free here, courtesy of Thrill Jockey records.

-Stay Tuned

Here is an article about Beatriz Cuevas, a long time intern at the indusrtial arts school that I teach at – the Crucible.

She was just accepted into Stanford and her admission letter sited her passion for industrial arts and her involvement with ther Crucible as a major deciding factor.

“After taking classes at The Crucible, I became better at understanding what objects were made of. I was able to see the medium used and the work that went into making something. I think that this transfers into understanding a topic in school and understanding why something is the way it is. I have learned to think critically,” Beatriz says.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Way to go Beatriz!

- Stay Tuned

Here is an awesome article from one of my favorite blogs – io9.

It addresses the role of public science and goes into the history of some of the very important contributions it has made to our civilization. The article also attempts to debunk some of the popular myths that are perpetuated by those wishing to cut its funding.

This article is part of Public Science Triumphs, an ongoing series that io9 will be running over the next few months in partnership with several other publications that cover the sciences.

-Stay Tuned

Ok ok, so I missed a couple months with my reviews, but com’on, I was busy moving my studio and building a hatch for this.

I would like to talk a little about Sheri Simons this month. She is a sculptor from Northern California who’s work, for me, is ultimately about the relationship between structure and movement. She seems to use these elements as a springboard to also touch on many other issues.

Here large-scale, kinetic installations are colossal and her smaller, older work has a playful sense. All of it seems to have a sense of snark embedded within its content. Her work also lends to the environment that it is in a sense of precariousness that sends me on several tangents of thought. Some of these include the conflict between industry, human productivity and the political bureaucracy that often stand in their way. Cultural expectations, roles and gender issues also seem to percolate through some of her pieces.

I met her last year at a workshop taught by Trimpin. She was the coordinator for the event and was always a source of invaluable technical and aesthetic information.

She is currently on the sculpture faculty at Chico State University.

Here is an interesting article by Robert T. Gonzalez about some of the ways our eating habits are manipulated by the environments we eat in. Specifically, it refers to the actual shapes of our dinnerware and glasses and the optical illusions they create.

The most interesting thing about this for me was realizing how strong the link was between our visual  sense and the psychology behind our decision making process.

This video is featured in the article.

It was great to get the chance, once again, to be a part of the process that the collaborative group 5 Ton Crane engages in during the construction of their large projects.

My contribution to their current work (a scaled down and land-based version of the Nautilus) was the design and fabrication of the top hatch. This is the only passageway to and from the control deck.

I was able to use some of my forging skills to make the handles which I think adds texture to the narrative of the overall piece. I am hoping that since the passengers will have to touch the handles everyday, that the details won’t go unnoticed.

The handles on both sides of the hatch turn a spur gear which engages a set of racks. These travel outwards, overlapping the sub frame which locks the hatch.

It has been a busy summer and this project was a bit rushed for me. This caused many vexing fabrication problems. Nevertheless, after many hours of delirious installation and a small fire in the sub, the hatch is finally secured in place.

The crew will be putting the finishing touches on the boat in the next couple of days just in time to bring it out to the Black Rock Dessert for its maiden voyage. With luck they will encounter a giant squid at Burning Man that they can test the electric repulsion field on.

Nautilus Top Hatch from Benjamin Carpenter on Vimeo.

The 5 Ton Crane crew has been at it again this summer. For the past few months, they have been building a scaled down version of the Nautilus from Jules Verne’s 20,000 leagues under the sea. The sub won’t actually be sea-worthy and sadly won’t be ravaging any whaling ships or other enemies of the oceans any time soon. Nevertheless, it has an unexpected and pretty cool function. The sub was contracted to be a land-based art-car for the Burning Man Festival happening this Sept. in the Black Rock Desert.

The base of the sub was reclaimed from one of those boxy cars that push airplanes around. Most of the project was designed in Solid Works then laser cut and assembled over the base like a puzzle. The exterior skin was hand cut, formed and riveted to the curves of the hull, which lends a great deal of authenticity to the overall look of the piece.

My contribution to the project is the top hatch, which will be the primary access point to the deck. The file for a 34” steel disc was sent off this week. While I wait for that piece to be cut and delivered, I have been working on the hand-wheels that the owners will use to lock, un-lock and open the hatch.

I don’t often get the chance to make things as substantial as I would like, and so when the opportunity comes up Its really exciting.

I found some 1 1/8” solid round stock and bent it on a circle jig.

I just got around to editing the footage that was shot for my thesis installation back in May. I am submitting this piece again for a show with the theme “Time”.
Here is Population Flow, an interactive, sculptural, sound installation. It expresses the growth that our population undergoes in 24 hours.

Fopulation Flow from Benjamin Carpenter on Vimeo.

-Stay Tuned

Each year the Crucible hosts a youth summer camp offering a range of classes in the industrial arts. For the past two years I have participated as a teacher in the Kinetics and Blacksmithing departments.

My interest in this program is the opportunity it gives me to observe the kids form new relationships to the three-dimensional world we live in.

As our educations move further away from hands-on experiences, programs like this re-connect kids with notions of material awareness, energy consumption, use and re-reuse.

It has always been exciting for me to see the kids that come through the program leave with an invigorated sense of curiosity, zeal and a hand-full of new skills to manifest their creativity.

A crew from the Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley school of journalism came by one day to shoot some video. They interviewed me and one of my students as well teachers from other classes.

Watch the videos about the other departments.

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Here is a short video that my friend Sean Donnelly made for Time Video.

It is an interview with Megan Prelinger of the Prelinger Archives in San Francisco. She talks about the reciprocal relationship between the evolution of our technology and our popular culture.

-Stay Tuned

The Crucible is a non-profit industrial arts school in Oakland. I have been teaching there in the Blacksmithing and Kinetics depts since 2007. Each year the put on a fundraising event that combines the work of local artists and performers.

This summers event is the called the Inferno-FireCircus.

- Stay Tuned

I know that this blog is dedicated to highlighting artwork and related topics. Nevertheless, I feel that situations like Fukushima and the multiple revolutions & wars being waged all over the planet are precisely the things that we should be making art about. It is hard for me to not make connections between these events and the and the the larger picture of who we all live out lives.

Here is a DIY video made by some local Fukushima residents. It seems to be in response to the government’s mishandling of the situation and the disinformation being created to ease the tension about the problem elsewhere in the world.

The fact remains though that there are a lot of people still living in what is an ecological and biological disaster area and the authorities do not seem to be doing much about it.

The video makers are calling for help evacuating the children and elderly from the area.

-Stay Tuned

The rebels in Libya have been transforming various mechanic shops and work spaces in their cities into weapons facilities to fight Gadaffi’s forces.

Two things come to mind when I watch this video. The first is how similar this seems to our own history when the mills and factories of America sidelined their normal operations and converted themselves into weapons producers for the war efforts of WWII.

The other thing I think of is what the situation in Libya would look like if it were ever to happen here in the U.S.

-Stay Tuned

The Bay Area Maker Faire is over and I am already thinking of new projects to exhibit next time. It was a huge event this year and I am a little bummed that I did not get to see everything.

Some highlights for me were:

The Slaperoo – a percussive musical instrument using high tension steel bands.

Ira Sherman – A metalsmithing veteran who makes prosthetic art.

And Arc Attack’s performance of the Dr. Who theme song.

Donald Bell and Eric Franklin from CNET-TV also showed up and interviewed me and the rest of the Applied Kinetic Arts group. There is a podcast attached to the end of the video where the interviewers talk further about their experience at makers.

-Stay Tuned

Starting today and continuing each month I am going to write briefly on an artist that I like. These won’t be too critical and heady, just a quick highlight of some work that I think is interesting.

I would like to begin with someone whose work got me to consider large numbers, and subsequently played a part in guiding me to the path I am currently on.

Chris Jordan is a photographer who is known for two major bodies of work. The first is an ongoing series of images comprised of repeating objects. I believe that he shoots several of these objects, then digitally multiplies and arranges them into larger patterns that reflect our culture of excess and waste.

The second body of work is more of a documentary style. He travels to Midway Island where he shoots birds that have died from ingesting too many bits of plastic. The carcasses lie decomposing around small piles of garbage where their stomachs once were.

Both of these bodies of work are visually stunning and had an emotionally profound effect on me.

- Stay Tuned

My friend and former classmate from the Maine College of Art, Vivian Beer, was written up in the American Craft Magazine this week.
Check it out.

- Stay Tuned

Each year all of the finishing grad students at SFSU give a brief public talk about the work they made.
Here is mine:

MFA Thesis Talk 2011 from Benjamin Carpenter on Vimeo.

Contemplation, Reflection, and Refreshment

By J.D. Beltral

S.F. Chronicle

Chris Morring, Operor Vos Sentio Tutus? Archival Pigment Print 36 x 44 inches 2011 

 

It’s Spring, and the month of May, and commencement time rolls around, once again — which means an opportunity to tour the Master of Fine Arts exhibitions at schools around the Bay Area. So far, I stopped by the MFA exhibition at San Francisco State University and Mills College, and this week, two other MFA exhibitions open – at the California College of the Arts (which opens tonight, at 6:00 pm), and the San Francisco Art Institute (which opens tomorrow night, Friday, May 13th, from 6-8 pm at its new exhibition site on Treasure Island.) I’ll be posting about Mills, CCA, and SFAI next week.

At one of the first shows I visited, that of the graduating MFA students from San Francisco State University, I was heartened, once again, to see the thoughtfulness and sophisticated level of execution of much of the work. I’ve really enjoyed visiting this show — the quality of what I see is among the highest of all of the schools in the Bay area, likely because of the three-year duration of the program and the SFSU‘s strong faculty. Past graduates have included well-known artists Shimon Attie, Rupert Garcia, Shirley Shor, Marque Cornblatt, Carmen Lomas Garza, Ken Rinaldo, Sheldon Brown, and Reuben Lorch-Miller. The current graduates all exhibit their works actively throughout Northern California and beyond.

Assistant Professor Gwen Allen remarked, “We are very proud of these six M.F.A. students. Although San Francisco State has faced the hardest economic conditions in recent memory during their time here, they have thrived, producing innovative and original work. Artists, after all, have a long tradition of turning adversity to their advantage, of creatively ‘making do.’ These students are no exception. They have shown serious commitment to their own work and generosity toward one another and towards their larger academic and artistic communities.”

One thread of thought I felt runs through all of the works is the artists’ highlighting the need for reflection in our lives. Especially given our current culture’s tendency to be constantly moving to and through the next new and important thing, acts of observation and contemplation — stopping and stepping back, looking at where you’re been — become particularly essential.

Chris Morring‘s beautifully crafted large black and white photographs evoke the surreal soft edges of dreams. Particularly evocative is “Operor Vos Sentio Tutus?”, a tower like structure set against a white sky, at the end of a corridor of what looks like clouds. I imagined Angie Wilson sitting for hours and hours creating her exquisitely crafted and formally stunning “Hand Knotted” series, sculptures created from used office work shirts. The grand full-sized quilt is both lovely and ironic, offering warmth through the woven uniforms of the white-collar.

The painting works are particularly strong. Robert Garcia‘s reflections and recollections of his childhood, painted in a realist style with a graphic edge, evoke the powerful moments of his youth and culture. Likewise, Todd Lanham‘s paintings blended the physical real and the imaginary unreal, taking such mundane environments as a school corridor or park wall and bringing them to life with overlays of color and pattern. I was particularly impressed with the craft and sheer labor of the work of Shenny Cruces, who transforms the iconography of porcelain figurines and vessels into gorgeously composed installations that reference class, kitsch, and how the humble physicality of a totem can transcend itself through association with a memory. With “Population Flow,” Ben Carpenter plays with found objects and interactivity to create an ambitious, engaging installation that is thoughtful, thought-provoking, and sonically delightful.

Chris Morring, Natalis Laganum Ex Abyssus, Archival Pigment Print, 44 x 36 in., 2011 

Chris Morring, From the series, “The Fall,” Archival Pigment Print, 44 x 36 in., 2011 

Chris Morring states, “Rather than use the camera to “preserve the past,” these images transport the viewer into an alternate universe. I strive to create worlds, which make the viewer contemplate myriads of questions. Some of these questions may be mundane; others are more complex. The answers are for the viewer to decide.”

Angie Wilson, Hand Knotted #2, used office work shirts, 19 x 36 in., 2011, and Hand Knotted #3, used office work shirts, 19 x 33 in., 2011 

Angie Wilson, side view of “Hand-Knotted” series 2011 

Angie Wilson, detail view of “Hand-Knotted” series 2011 

Angie Wilson, Hand Knotted #1, used office work shirts, 108 x 87 in., 2011 

Angie Wilson, Detail view of Hand Knotted #1, used office work shirts, 108 x 87 in., 2011 

Angie Wilson states, “Using the sleeves of worn dress shirts in place of individual threads in traditional rug weaving, Hand Knotted investigates the valuation and material production of labor: of the handmade, the factory-produced, and of white collar administration.”

Robert Garcia, Let Bygones Be Bygones, oil on wood panel, 24 x 48 in., 2011 

Robert Garcia, Detail of Let Bygones Be Bygones, oil on wood panel, 24 x 48 in., 2011 

Robert Garcia, Our…Family Portrait, oil on wood panel, 24 x 48 in., 2011 

Robert Garcia, Detail of Our…Family Portrait, oil on wood panel, 24 x 48 in., 2011 

Robert Garcia, Turf Wars, oil on wood panel, 24 x 48 in., 2011 

Robert Garcia, Detail of Turf Wars, oil on wood panel, 24 x 48 in., 2011 

Robert Garcia’s statement on his work: “My paintings describe specific events of my childhood and adolescence. I investigate the pivotal experiences of childhood. My intent is to exploit these influences in order to tell a story, to describe an action and create memorable characters that reflect my past, but also to create cultural signifiers that allow my viewers to vicariously find connection to their childhoods.”

Shenny Cruces, Breaking the Golden Cage, found object and porcelain, 51 x 48 x 16.5 in., 2011 

Shenny Cruces, Detail of Breaking the Golden Cage, found object and porcelain, 51 x 48 x 16.5 in., 2011 

Shenny Cruces, Manufacturing Memory #2, soda fired porcelain, 18 x 42 x 11 in., 2011 

Shenny Cruces, Detail of Manufacturing Memory #2, soda fired porcelain, 18 x 42 x 11 in., 2011 

Shenny Cruces, Georgian Collection, manufactured porcelain wares, soda fired porcelain, found object 10′ x 4′ x 5′, 2011 

Shenny Cruces states, “My work is an expression of a love affair with porcelain, particularly for its associations with culture and value. I collect, cast, and recreate existing porcelain objects into sculptural forms to expose the underlying issues of class, identity, memory, and the meaning of objects in our lives.”

Todd Lanam, Her Night Wall, oil on canvas, 46 x 66 in., 2011 

Todd Lanam, School Hallway, oil on canvas, 58 x 74 in., 2011 

Todd Lanam, Detail of School Hallway, oil on canvas, 58 x 74 in., 2011 

Park School Wall, oil on canvas, 36 x 72 in., 2011 

Todd Lanam discusses his approach: “My paintings display an arena of revision and alteration, in which the struggle inherent to memory is seen through a process of covering, erasing, omitting, and revealing. This highlights the transient nature of these places, as they exist in my consciousness, and displays the distortion of reality that time creates.”

Ben Carpenter, Population Flow, re-claimed steel & wood, and various electronics, dimensions variable 2011 

Graduating M.F.A. Ben Carpenter at his interactive and sonic creation “Population Flow.”

Ben Carpenter, Population Flow, re-claimed steel & wood, and various electronics, dimensions variable 2011 

Ben Carpenter, Detail of Population Flow, re-claimed steel & wood, and various electronics, dimensions variable 2011 

Ben Carpenter, Detail of Population Flow, re-claimed steel & wood, and various electronics, dimensions variable 2011 

Ben Carpenter, Detail of Population Flow, re-claimed steel & wood, and various electronics, dimensions variable 2011 

Ben Carpenter states, “My work is about making connections. I am interested in the relationships between the symmetrical forces of our Universe and the infinite number of asymmetrical outcomes that are produced by their interactions. With these connections as my subject matter I build meditative, interactive experiences that explore our progress & evolution.”

Ben Carpenter’s “Population Flow” from JD Beltran on Vimeo.

The San Francisco State University Thesis Exhibition opened on April 23rd and runs through today, May 12th, with an additional exhibition day on Commencement, on May 21st. You can find more information here. Well-deserved congratulations to the graduating MFAs of San Francisco State University!

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/beltran/detail?entry_id=88870#ixzz1MGQaHRbs

1.  My MFA show’s review in the Chronicle.

2. I got three pieces into a weird show at SF City Hall.

Reception: FRIDAY, May 20th 5:00 – 8:00PM
Dates: May 20 – Aug 19, 2011

3. Finished Grad School.

4. The Tree House and friends – KSW featured in the Steampunk Bible.

I installed this piece for my MFA Thesis show. It expresses the growth of our population in three layers of sound.

Video still to come.

-Stay Tuned

Come see me at Noise Bridge Hacker Space (2169 Mission St. SF) next Thursday @ 8pm for their monthly Five Minutes Of Fame lecture series.

I’ll be speaking about making the transition into the the world of interactivity as a maker of static objects. My latest installation Population Flow will be the centerpiece of the talk along with what it’s like working as a maker/artist in the SF Bay Area.

-Stay Tuned

synesthesia |ˌsinəsˈθē zh ə| ( Brit. synaesthesia)
noun Physiology & Psychology
the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.
• the poetic description of a sense impression in terms of another sense, as in “a loud perfume” or “an icy voice.”

Terri Timely made this awesome video.

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This year at the Makers Faire - Bay Area. Applied Kinetic Arts was asked to give a panel talk to the public. I will be sitting in as the newest member of the group.

-Stay Tuned for more details

Classmate, friend and one-man powerhouse Eric Caselton spent the last several months making this short video.

He asked me to build the robot props.

Check out the preview and follow the link to his new site.

A few weeks back I posted an article about a woman who tried to destroy a Gauguin painting in the National Gallery. This week, we saw another incident of art vandalism. WTF?  Here is the Article:

Another painting attacked: Is controversial art an endangered species?
By Katie Rogers

An angry gash and broken glass now accompany Andres Serrano’s long-controversial “Piss Christ,” 24 years after the New York artist completed the photograph and two weeks after a woman’s attack on a Paul Gauguin painting made national news.

Reuters reported that the piece was damaged Sunday by three vandals aided by “a hammer and an object like a screwdriver or pickaxe,” according to a statement by the Collection Lambert, the French museum where the photograph was on display.

“Piss Christ,” a work Serrano soaked in a small cup of his own urine, received an award from a program affiliated with the governement-funded National Endowment for the Arts in 1989, sparking a debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate. (This year, the NEA will see its funding cut by $13 million as a result of 2011 federal spending cuts.)

A second Serrano photograph, “The Church,” depicting the torso of a nun with her hands in her lap, was also vandalized.

Even after the damage, “Piss Christ” will remain on display. The vandalism comes just over two weeks after 53-year-old Susan Burns attacked Paul Gauguin’s “Two Tahitian Women” in the National Gallery of Art. The attack left the art world anticipating copycat attacks.

“I feel that Gauguin is evil,” Burns told investigators after her arrest. ”He has two women in the painting and it’s very homosex­ual. I was trying to remove it. I think it should be burned.”

Burns, who has a history of mental illness, followed up her art criticism with, ”I am from the American CIA, and I have a radio in my head. I am going to kill you.”

Though she banged her fist against the plexiglass encasement, Burns wasn’t able to significantly damage the Gauguin painting. The motive for the latest attack — along with the mental state of the protesters in France — remains unknown, but news of people attacking art — or just talking about it — is appearing more frequently.

It’s easy to see how shock art would whip protesters into a frenzy — especially if the piece in question has a name like “Piss Christ.” In fact, this isn’t the first time the piece has been attacked. But lately the boundaries that typically keep verbal protest and blunt force separate are weakening. How should museums approach displaying controversial art? Should security be heightened? And, are there some cases in which censoring art is acceptable, like the removal of David Wojnarowicz’s “Fire in My Belly” at the Smithsonian?

By Katie Rogers | 01:56 PM ET, 04/19/2011

Last Saturday was the opening for my thesis show. The piece I am exhibiting is a sculptural installation that expresses the growth of our population through sound.

The installation will be up until may 12th @
The Fine Arts Gallery – Room 238, S.F. State University
1600 Holloway Ave, SF, CA 94132

Here is a slide show of the project being moved from my studio to the gallery for installation.

I will be giving a brief talk about my Thesis work next Thursday at noon in the Fine Arts Gallery – Room 238, SF State University 1600 Holloway Ave, SF, CA 94132

My installation expresses the growth of our population in three layers of sound.

As you may know, the city of San Francisco (the div of parks and rec to be specific) has decided to allow food cart vendors to set up shop in Dolores Park. They recently sold a permit to La Cocina, a non-profit incubator for woman entrepreneurs, who will knuckle down this Sat, April 23rd somewhere in the park.

This has become a heated issue with people on both sides. On the one hand park dwellers will now be able to enjoy delicious food without the hassle of having to walk a block or two in any direction. La Cocina is also a good cause which makes it challenging to deny. On the other hand this can clearly be seen as the privatization of public land.

When it comes right down to it though, this is just another issue about money; those with it don’t seem to mind much, those without it are outraged. Could this be a microcosmic image of our greater economic class structure? Is SF now populated with more people who fall into a bracket which does not provide the perspective to see the importance in this issue? What does that mean for the future of (true) creativity for the city?

I choose to live here, because of the culture and convenience it offers. Is it possible though that the very convenience that I, and so many others, seem to favor could grow so large that it slowly ends up consuming the rest of the great things a city has to offer like, say, public space free of commercial advertisement?

Long time San Francisco activist, artist and goof Chicken John wrote this piece explaining the situation in what I believe is a sincere if not slightly inflated view. Then again, for those of us without the resources to have our voices heard in the city we live in, maybe this is just what we need.

-Stay Tuned

For the past three years I have been working through an MFA program at San Francisco State University. Come see the results next Saturday – April 23rd at the Fine Arts Building, Room 238, SF State University 1600 Holloway Ave, SF, CA 94132

I will be exhibiting “Population Flow” an interactive, sculptural installation that expresses the growth of our population into three layers of sound.

-Stay Tuned

Screaming “This is evil,” a woman tried to pull Gauguin’s “Two Tahitian Women” from a gallery wall Friday and banged on the picture’s clear plastic covering, said Pamela Degotardi of New York, who was there.

“She was really pounding it with her fists,” Degotardi said. “It was like this weird surreal scene that one doesn’t expect at the National Gallery.”

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Do we expect it at any gallery?

Maybe we should have a venue that displays art where people can come and exercise their deep social anxiety by destroying the art. It only makes sense that in times of so little to truly worry about, that we turn our accusing fingers to the expressive work that others have done. Why, who needs it in a perfect democracy anyway?

The gallery could probably get a grant from the R.I.A.A. It could even be a “green space” by burning books for heat. The gallery could also pass out pitch forks and torches at the door and every first Friday lay out selected works on the floor for a literal art walk.

-Stay Tuned