6footlamp4

Soumitri, you reminded me of la sagrada familia, i am grateful to have visited it. more interior pictures soon.
look at these guys constructing the new pieces, and see the quality of their work

the tall tall towers

kinglake adventure camp

today soumitri related our camp to an ice breaker. i personally think that that camp was close to useless, and i can think of much better ways to break the ice between the students, and be more productive (in terms of learning - not in terms of product). it was a real waste of time for me, and money too, i guess.
i'm not saying a camp can't help, its just that the format was badly done - in my opinion.
i think its our resposibility to put forward changes to be made to the camp to make it more fun, productive, and perhaps succinct? what do other people think?

succulent

and in further other news, i have a succulent in one of those old diner jugs. one bought and one stolen. today. my room is beginnign to shine. singing in the rain meeting tonight - then i'm coming back to the desk for a foray into civilisation and essay writing - hopefully.
and yes, that was taken by the lightof my new lamp

lamp5

in other news, my practice cone lamp is being put to use in my room. next to the green tea - we segregate the japanese things into one area, so they can be together!

6footlamp3

i am tired of this lamp. i think i was trying to rush through it, and now its not what i wanted - though i has evolved. i started out with a basic cone shaped tent structure with 4 ribs, then i tries to put mini sleeves up those 4 ribs to make space for 4 wires to run up the sides to stabalise it, but the sewing caught the ribs from before and the sleeves were virtually useless. then, i thought i could just sew 4 more ribs, and then they could act as structural members themselves. however, they didnt have enough strength, though they made it a little more rigid. by this time, the actual paper is begining to get ripped, though it is having a nice material effect from me gettgin frustrated and scrunching it up.
then i tried to put wire up those 4 new sleeves, but that died in the arse. by now i realise that the wire i have is not strong enough to support anything (let alone itself) 6 feet high. and it also adds to the weight.
so where i am now is i will hang the lamp from a 6 foot pole so its like a drape, with a circular base, which will spread the cone out more. i'm using tension instead of compression. i'm just hoping that the lamp will diffuse the light nicely, and it will all be stable, after all, its not that heavy. the material effect of the paper is nice too. for now i am waiting till tomorrow when i can buy the pole...
i have an idea for a turned up bottom, like the edge of this here lily, dying on my desk...

corpgame7

i feel really bad for skipping uni today - especially after soumitri put all that effort into his website - though i did enjoy reading it. today was such a nice day - with teh sun, i played a game of volley ball. then i went inside to finish my lamp. i thought it would work ok, but i have tried so many things to make it work, but it just keeps going flaccid on me. i shoudl add some viagra - a friend suggested. i'm looking for something i can spray onto it to make it more rigid - i might try wetting it and then hanging and lettign ti dry.
i will haev to go buy another roll of paper if i need to do it again.
sorry i skipped the corp game soumitri - and everyone else.

6footlamp2

soumitri and i discussed this six foot lamp and he wants to do it with spirals in opposite directions - which reminded me of the gherkin in london.

eureka!

thats it - the solution! any fucker that tries to advertise on this blog (i.e making shitty little comments and then a link to their fucking abattoir equiptment blog) will be tracked down and flagged! ha ha. i hope it works.

earrings2

6footlamp1

well, today was a relaxing day. i cut 12 metres of paper. had a cup of tea. folded them and lay them on the ground, thinking about the next step. went out for lunch. took photos of trams. sowed one edge, and chatted with jez. sowed the other edge, turned it inside out, stubbed my toe, dragged the lamp down to my room. had miso soup. set it up, watched it go flaccid. put my light globe in it. documented. happy? quite.

i tried all kinds of combinations with the light, and my candle didnt light it up nearly enough. i will experiment, and i will work more on this lamp.

earrings1

here you go raph.

tattoedlady1

is this a little wrong?

yourshirtsucks1

there is braden's shirt
here am i.
there is some paint between us, what can we do?

and its out of focus

corpgame6

I have a headache
The trials of the games with the other groups was a disaster. No-one wanted to be there, or participate, including me. It is probably a combination of tiredness and the weirdness of the games. As one of the girls in my group said – ‘this isn’t a game – this is torture!’
Considering ourselves freer thinkers – have we developed games for free thinkers rather than the general public. Or are other groups not the best guinea pigs?
I thought it was interesting that scott’s group finished first, with the main insistence of scott – as if it was a race to the final product.
Just interesting.

propel1

i nearly impulse bought a $300 copic set through ebay - new from the usa. purely because i was feeling good about how much money i was earning, and becasue i had just been looking at some awesome renderings. then i thought, if i can impulse buy - then why can't i impulse donate? so i did. i am now a world vision sponsor - the wankiest title ever. but still.
i went over to the world vision counter to choose my little boy or girl, and from these little orange tents were little faces of all colours peering out into melbourne central. i felt so guilty looking at them, having just feasted on sushi.
there is not enough i can do. so i'll do what i can for propel.

TSB2

i thought the tanto sushi board idea was ridiculous, but i'm happy we went through with it. i will venture into making the real thing from next week. this week is too busy.
and if i ever thought that extravagance was a new thing, to make us buy silly objects, i was wrong - take a look at my pillowcase cover.

lamp4

i decided it was time to play a bit more with paper. i had started on sunday, playing with the paper and having empathy for it. i spent another hour today working on it and figuring out what i like about the differnt thigns you can do with paper - especially this thin rice paper.
the qualities i liked best were that if you scrunch it up and re scrunch it a few times, you are left wth a very material like paper. and secondly, that this paper could be drawn out into a thread so that you could sort of sow it.
my sowing didnt last long, as the paper did not respond well and kept tearing.
as an alternative, i sowed the 'material' paper on a sowing machine. here is the 'hat-like' result

riddle3

a corporate business man has two cubes on his office desk. every day he arranges both cubes so that the front faces show the current day of the month. what numbers are on the faces of the cubes to allow this?

dear soumitri

Part of the corporation game is understanding you. And I find that hard to do. Not so much recently, since we have been developing the games – but before, when we were letting ourselves go, and learning to think like we hadn’t before. To tell the truth, I don’t feel like I have the full grasp of thinking freely. But I am getting there.

Part of the corporation game is motivating yourself. I have needed to start my own projects, to analyse them, and to complete them (with room for improvement) by myself. I have kept up my blog – adding items of interest, improving my cultural capital, and recording my (admittedly, mostly uncompleted) projects.

Part of the corporation game is separating the game from my life. I search for ouspensky when I get home from school, sit in evan and contemplate what he could be when I should be heading to bed; and blog in the mornings, when I should be waking up slowly. It’s unfair to say that ‘hey I’m in a play next week, and a major part in a musical, and designing the set for it’, and all this contributes to the corporation game – because I would be doing these things anyway. But they do make me tired – and that’s my choice. We all have our external lives and its cheating to say they are the result of something we’ve only been doing for 7 weeks.Liam said ‘When did students stop getting drunk and vomiting down the fronts of their suits from saver's?’ we didn’t stop liam – I have endeavored to do it more.[see tonight]

Part of the corporation game is learning that not everything is part of the corporation game.

Part of the corporation game is letting go. I have a folio from high-school, and one from college, and even a small one from a year at UC. These are all products of my work, but now I’m doing a subject (worth 24 points…) which privileges the process. So what I get out of the process, is what I get out of the subject. By relatively ignoring the outcomes of our process (i.e. the lamps, the blogs) how can we feel positive about it?

Part of the corporation game is learning to dissent, and admitting when you don’t understand. There should always be dissenters, and dissenter’s dissenters. And in the corporation game – there is nothing you can do outside of class if you don’t understand. There is no book of Soumitri’s head, most of the papers he has written are on sustainablility/ecodesign or available at www.tbc. That’s not a website – I checked.

Part of the corporation game is learner centred education, which is in essence, making your own aims. This is hard to do – as keeping up with a D grade would not be hard – if I had chosen another studio. Work is work is work, but thinking is not just thinking. You can work, and say you’re done, but it is rare to think and say you are done. I think…

I’m not a slacker – I put my hand up.
But I will look into doing twice as much work for you as I do for the other patricians.
And I will make this fucking board. But maybe not until next week.

corpgame5

heres the final result, and me checking out the new hands-on glove interface system. i'm quite happy with the simple print. and i only realised today that the jacket that i got for free - and ultimately wrecked for fancy wearing - fits quite well. oh well. there are plenty of six pack rings in the sea...

lamp3

well, i got sick of not having shown the lamps. i know that the process should privaledge the product, but i need some closure. i understand that this bleached mass-manufactured paper is sterile and unnappealing, but if you have read my blog you would know the reasons why it is this way.
i came in early to the corporation game today and hung the lamp with the help of julian. then experimented and sprayed 'when...?' on the inside - hoping to get a reaction. what do we need to do to get soem feed back here, or even a reaction - short of bringing a pigs head in.
we dont want to get barbaric.

corpgame4 - events

here we will post events, and here our corporation game will come alive, and here it will be finished. for now....

corpgame3

i decided enough was enough, and printed on the back of a suit jacket.
see you tomorrow, fellow corporaters

singing in the rain1

dear world et al
i thought you should know i'm embarking on a journey - one which i haven't ever tried before.
i am set designing for singin in the rain. the production is on in 2 months on october 6,7,8. its on at the union theatre in the university of melbourne. keep you updated.
all my research is finding this site.
love, as always,
B

paper2

in a complete freak impulse buy, i bought old ornate wallpaper from an opportunity shop on sydney rd. its probably about 10 metres long and cost me $10 long. but i think it breaks soumitri's idea that paper that we work with needs to be pure, virginal and natural. the wallpaper is far from that. it is very processed, and bleached, printed on and even a little tacky with glue. but it has been stored poorly, so it is fragile and brittle. it is not attractive because it is kitschy and 'retro', but more because it shows another side of paper. this wallpaper was the decoration of a simplre room somewhere in melbourne. although it is not striking, it is quite luxurious. i remember my granma's (mum's mum) wallpaper, in canberra. its bright green, and ridiculously ugly. but it is where i grew up. where i spent every tuesday evening during primary school. i guess its not until now when i visit and think 'that wallpaper is ugly!'. my other granpa's place is covered in all kinds of wallpaper. in the kitchen it is kitschy floral and in the living room it is ugly patterns. and perched in the kitchen is one of those plaster casts of a kitten, painted by me at about age 4, swimming in a sea of floral. what i'm trying to get across is that this processed, unnatural wallpaper is similar to the wallpaper in my life. to be frank - some japanese rice paper makes me feel at peace, and reminds me that i;m saving to travel, but it doesnt bring back memories like this scrap roll does. so this roll is important to me. i'm like to make sometime important to me with it sometime. it would make a lovely lamp.
heres what i've done to it so far. ressurected my lovely japanese ink and tried soem cursive strokes on it. i'll buy a bigger brush

tsb1

this is the result of the corporation game 1.
i thought it went really well, with a lot of opportunity for different results and exciting creations.
perhaps we are thinking more clearly now? a little less logically and more laterally?
anyway, this creation is the tanto sushi board, a board for cuttign sushi on, with a $6000 tanto samurai blade. the extravagance is the key. hand felled endangered timber from tasmania, porcelain from milan hand painted by blind japanese widows. the lot.
soumitri wants us to make it this sunday. how> i have no idea!?!
does anyone know where i can get some nice cheap timber. there is a lovely shop called thor's hammer near my place in canberra - they sell great used timber - and i have often bought jarrah there. but sadly, thats a 8 hour drive away, and not worth the trip. how can we resolve this design without the expensive ingrediants needed? how are we going to do the slip casting - i have no idea.
will this turn out to be another lamp project. i know the process is more important than the product - but will we be continually processing with no end? i'm skeptical from the start.

evan2

evan is going nowhere. i took his seat off, but he looked so naked without it i placed it on top. he has a use now, as a seat, and until i think of something where he cna be useful again, i dont want to make a transformation. maybe he could be a table or a lamp, a canvas, a drying rack for my clothes. i dont want to leave him in a state where hes not doing anything. there needs to be a use. i just cant think what. mayeb i should leave him be - as a chair. ive kept the screws...

they cut me down

they cut down the tree near me. doesnt it look like dismembered bodies lying on top of each other. imagine if we had the same reaction to the killing of plants a we do to that of animals.
read roald dahl's 'the sound machine'

corpgame2

check out post secret

or check out the corporation game new rules. a little edited, what do you think?

Corporation game
Creators: Ben, Raph, Brandon, Sarah, May, Braden
There will be an organiser, a dealer who deals the cards and keeps order
Break the class into 3 groups of 7. Each of these groups is a corporation
Each corporation picks a random colour card to be allocated red, blue or green viewpoints. They will use these viewpoints to inform their task
Each person from each corporation takes a card from that colour pile at random. In each group there should be the roles of economy, aesthetics, manufacture, technology, laws and standards, marketing and ergonomics/emotional/psychology. The person who draws that card plays that role and is concerned with that role only.
A task is given. All corporations are to complete that same task. In this case, the tasks are some of the competitions which we have been given.
At 2 evenly spaced points in the game, the dealer will draw a card for each corporation. This is an event card. The event changes the artificial climate in which the game operates. The event may effect one or more roles.
The time frame for each task is 2 weeks, or two 4 hour sessions.
Session 1:Introduction and dealingDiscussion and concept generationFirst concept(possibilities for model/storyboard/rendering/discourse/explanation/research for presentation next week)
Session 2:PresentationFeedback and constructive criticismdevelopmentFinal Product
At the end of session 2, there will also be feedback concerning the working nature of the game, where motions to change the form of the game can be put forward to the creators.

Conflict resolution: In the event of a conflict of interest between roles within a corporation, every role will determine whether the decision affects their role. If it does, then they must take a position either for or against. The position with the most people has a weighted effect within the resolution which will take the form of a scissors paper rock contest. The aim is to kill the opposition with SPR. For example, if 5 are for and 2 against, the ‘2 against’ have to win 5 times between them to ‘kill’ the other position. The ‘5 for’, only have to kill twice.

In the event that there are not enough people for each corporation the following adjustments will be made, in this order, if necessary:
Merging manufacture and technology
Merging marketing and laws and standards
Merging aesthetics with ergonomics etc.

In the event that the game must be played over a shorter period, the final stage will be a presentation to the other corporations. All entries will be deemed successful or not by the dealer.

ivan wherefore art thou ivan

I watched ivan’s childhood during my cultural weekend of reading, writing, and thinking.
I found it boring, but only because I expected to be entertained. I knew that I would have to work to enjoy the film, as you might have to with a theatre production, but … I wasn’t in the mood, and the DVD is due back tomorrow.
That said, I did find ti quite artistic, the lighting was excellent, and especially the acting of ivan, Nikolai Burlyayev was exemplary. I researched a bit on the net, and found that most people said that tarkovsky did not consider this one of his better films – or something which was more mainstream than the others.
And whats the deal with the apples?
I should have paid more attention…

reading1

I have started reading again. It’s a book called ‘extremely loud and incredibly close’ by jonathan safran foer – not the same one as john safran vs. god. I first read about him in an article in good weekend over breakfast about a month and a bit ago, and there was something about the article that captivated me. I’m not sure if I have it anymore, but I will try and track it down once I have finished the book. I remember he seemed so genuine in the article – with so many different and unique ideas. He truly captivated my attention.
It’s the same with the book. To tell the truth, I haven’t enjoyed a book this much since ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’, and interestingly, it has a similar narrative – from the perspective of a youngish boy. In ‘night-time’ the boy had aspergers – but in extremely loud, he has a very vivid imagination, that’s not limited by logic as the aspergers kid is. This is apparent even in the first page of the book – which is available to view online at amazon.
The book is about a boy, Oskar, whose dad died in the 9/11 attacks. Although the book is not about his death, its about the absence of his father, and how he deals with it. So far, (I’m only 40 pages in) he has been using his unlimited imagination to create inventions, perhaps to bring back his father, or to take his mind off him. It is so well written. It is like listening to a little kid speak… I suggest you read it and I’ll keep you posted on how it pans out

stencil

I want to do a simple stencil of ‘the corporation game’ on the back of a suit jacket. I think I should have the stencil, screen and paint ready not by this Monday, but the next. So if you’re interested, let me know, and bring in a suit jacket on the 15th.
My idea is just a simple ‘the corporation game’ in courier new left justified about A4 size (I think that’s how big the screen is…). Maybe we could come in at 10 am on the 15th, and have it ready for that class…

the
corporation
game

corporation game (mb)

Corporation game
Creators: Ben, Raph, Brandon, Sarah, May, Braden

There will be an organiser, a dealer who deals the cards and keeps order
Break the class into 3 groups of 7. each of these groups is a corporation
The spin wheel is spun and each of the corporations is allocated red, blue or green viewpoints. They will use these viewpoints to inform their task
Each person from each corporation takes a card from the pile at random. In each group there should be the roles of economy, aesthetics, manufacture, technology, laws and standards, marketing and ergonomics/emotional/psychology. The person who draws that card plays that role and is concerned with that role only.
A task is given. All corporations are to complete that same task. In this case, the tasks are some of the competitions which we have been given.

The time frame for each task is 2 weeks, or two 4 hour sessions.
Session 1:Introduction and dealing
Discussion and concept generation
First concept
(possibilities for model/storyboard/rendering/discourse/explanation/research for presentation next week)

Session 2:Presentation
Feedback and constructive criticism
development
Final Product

At the end of session 2, there will also be feedback concerning the working nature of the game, where motions to change the form of the game can be put forward to the creators.

Conflict resolution: In the event of a conflict of interest between roles within a corporation, every role will determine whether the decision affects their role. If it does, then they must take a position either for or against. The position with the most people has a weighted effect within the resolution which will take the form of a scissors paper rock contest. The aim is to kill the opposition with SPR. For example, if 5 are for and 2 against, the 2 against have to win 5 times between them to ‘kill’ the other position. The 5 for, only have to kill twice.

this is not just my work, but the collaboration of everyone mentioned above under creators. i would appreciate any input, especially from the other creators.

tait challenge

anyone interested in being in a team for the fringe furniture tait challenge?
we get a brief and have to create a piece of furniture over a weekend and enter it into fringe - details up soon...

feeling a little more human

after realising my blogging addiction, and the possible consequences of actually just posting shite, and never getting anythign really tangible up. i decided to leave it all behind and go for a walk.
theres never a better time to get out in the crisp air than when you;re a bit cinfused about what your'e meant ot be blogging. then, walking past a dumpster, i discovered this chair. something to be saved, somehting i could rejuvinate that doesn't require me to sit in front of a computer and type my life away.
here is something i ahve taken from potential landfill into my care, for a sand, bog, oil and polish. and possibly a re-apholster, if i get as far as i hope.

dangerous profession

free art

across the road from Yoshio Taniguchi's Museum of Modern Art in New York is the Museum of Modern Art store, and just a little further along is a bookshop selling coffee table books relating to modern art and design - but it is not affiliated to the museum. a little further along, is another art library, looking more like a public library in australia. a little run down and passed by by the socialites heading to the MoMA for an opening of a exhibition of modern art they dont even begin to understand. if only they ducked inside for a minute, they might have some idea.
in the window, there are paper sculptures created by primary kids in new york. these kids are 8-12 years old, and have spent hours making these tiny perfect origami structures.
in some ways, their innocent art was more appealing than the huge confronting walls inside the museum, and cheaper - no $20 entry fee.

fakers

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=56739
do we really believe all this shit? the gun found in the glovebox. the hooker he hired. the drugs, the suicide attempts, the home made porno. just like soumitri said about constructs to make women buy blue furniture, the entertainment industry is set up to make us consume the absolute shite they produce. this article blatantly advertises wedding crashers - a movie starring some aussie broad who is using her engagement to ali g (he he -thats actually quite humourous - imagine the vows) to publicise her movie. we would never have heard about paris hilton if her mum hadn;t filmed her in those pornos (conspiracy theorists at work). Isnt she just a marketing tool for the Hilton hotel company? What a shit world we live in.
have you slept in a hilton?

riddle2

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221
whats next?

chance

if we're talking about chance, then i love the next blog button. surely there must be some divine being wanting me to see post secret. this is gold.