The Straight and Narrow

But, if truth is the correspondence between appearance and reality, then there are some glaring inconsistencies in this system. Straight lines are strikingly absent from nature. If you take a walk in the woods, it is apparent that there is virtually nothing that is ruler straight. Instead, all naturally occurring forms are curved and arabesque. Rocks, bushes, mountains, rivers, gullies, branches, and leavers all follow an organic outline that does not contain a single perfect straight line. Only tree trunks and the perpendicular alignment of he human form standing upright upon the earth offer a commonly seen vertical that approximates a plumb line. Despite this direct evidence of our senses, we continue to connect everything with straight lines. The nineteenth-century Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix once speculated, "It would be worthy to investigate whether straight lines exist only in our brains"

-Leonard Shlain, Art and Physics 

Haptic Memory

 

Last summer, I was in between projects and having a sort of “A-ha” moment connecting between my early experience making things and the path that lead me back to making things. I starting thinking about all the things that I made as child and the contrast of being a kid making things with a very limited set of tools, experience, and knowledge as opposed the challenge of making things now having perhaps too much of one or another. It was at this point that decided to start a little side project. A project that may or not be anything except perhaps an exercise in mining the memory. 

Aus krummem Holze...

"Aus krummem Holze als woraus der Mensch gemacht ist, kann nichts ganz Gerades gezimmert werden."

-Immanuel Kant 

Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht, 1784

 

Breaking Boards

First it was a tree, then it was a log, then it was a board, then it was bunch of parts, and then it was a thing.

Resurrection

When I decided to start using handplanes, I was somewhat at a loss as where to start. I had very little experience using planes and,in hindsight, the experience I had was probably more of an obstacle. As I planned my first purchase, I had to decide whether to buy a new plane or fix up on old plane. I ended up buying an old plane: an old Stanley Bedrock Style 605 from the 1920’s off of E-bay for about 90 dollars. The plane was in rough shape, but all the parts were there and nothing was damaged. Using Garrett Hack’s Handplane Book and some tutorials from online, I set about restoring the plane. The first step was to take the plane apart and figure out try to figure out how it did it- I would later have to figure out how well each part was doing what it was doing.

The Invisible Hand

This week I cut a set of mortise and tenon joints for the base of a display case. I decided that I would try out the new mortising chisels I got last month and some sweet new sawing skills that I have been working on. After carefully cutting and fitting the parts, I started thinking about how all of the time and effort put into these joints would be hidden from view the moment that I placed glue into the joint and clamped up all of the parts. I also considered about the myriad other ways in which this joint could be constructed(i.e. dowels, dominos, screws, biscuits, etc.) or handful of less manual techniques that could be employed to the form the parts (i.e. mortising machine, a router jig, table saw, drill press and on and on and on…)

The question is why bother this sort of thing by hand?

Studio AND at The Science Fair!

Don't miss your last opportunity to see Studio AND's latest project this weekend at The Science Fair!

The Science Fair, is a show fun show featuring "Scientist-Artists and Artist-Scientists". It is hosted at the Flux Factory in conjunction with The Metric System.

THE SCIENCE FAIR!
The Flux Factory
39-31 29th Street
Long Island City, NY 11101
June 5 – 13, 2010
Hours: Saturdays and Sundays only, 12-6pm
Special Flux Thursday Award Ceremony: June 10, 8pm

Last Weekend, Eliza Strickland From Discover Magazine stopped by the show and wrote a lovely article and posted some photos from the show which can be found HERE



Studio AND is a collaboration between myself and my wonderful studiomate Audra Wolowiec. In 2009 Studio AND created The Department of Mineral Science, a pseudo-instutional branch dedicated to the inspiration of urban exploration. The department's main area of study focuses around the curious pheonenon of Urban Meteorties.

Urban Meteorites are part of an ongoing investigation into the creation of a plausible fictional material. Composed from the materials found in the urban landscape, Urban Meteorites are presented as an artifact from an imagined future.


Press Release:
Flux Factory and The Metric System are proud to present Science Fair, an exhibition of works by artist-scientists and scientist-artists!

Inspired by grade-school education fairs, Science Fair is a collaborative effort that examines science-based projects and concepts through the lens of art. Artists will create their own presentation booths and interactive experiments to be on display at the Fair. The exhibition explores the potential for science as a breeding ground for art: a way to inform and inspire art as a springboard for creative thought.

The Fair will showcase over two dozen projects including an artist-run weather station, robots that draw, urban meteorites, a cabinet of curiosities, and electro-magnetic field mapping.

Participating artists: Robin Brehm, Daupo, Lisa Glauer & Kaethe Wenzel, Fred Forest, Samwell Freeman, Hope Ginsburg & Colablablab, Kate Hartman, Jay Henderson, Jaime Iglehart, Scott Kildall, Rafael Hidalgo Múgica, Julia Oldham, James Rouvelle & Lili Maya, Daniel Schludi, SP Weather Station, Chad Stayrook, Studio AND, Flint Weisser, Elizabeth Whalley, Jing YuThe Metric System is a New York-based collective that encourages cross-disciplinary collaborations between artists, thinkers, scientists, and political activists.