Friday, April 28, 2006
Marty
Follow-up to last week's Martin Thompson/Sierpinski post: in the days following the article there was some activity in the letters page of the newspaper in question. In case you didn't catch this, it was covered off nicely by Tom at WellUrban.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Lathe
This (right) is out now, too. It's my very first seht polycarbonate lathe-cut record; it's a 7" and it's choice. It's released on Dunedin label Root Don Lonie for Cash, and it sounds real niiiice.I also did an interview, here, for music 'zine Foxy Digitalis.
Woom linkage
Woom's very new web-presence.
Woom show review and comments thread on ArtBash. There's a fight goin' down already. Good stuff.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Woom again
So I've been in Nelson, for the Woom show, amongst other things. The opening of the show was a great success, with a huge turnout of happy and impressed punters. I had a lot of positive feedback about my work, and even managed to sell some.
You'll notice that the gallery walls are red, rather than the customary white. This was an experiment, and I really think it works rather well.
The refreshments were various infused vodkas, supplied by a local distillery under the auspices of "taste-testing". They were served in shotglasss and consumed neat.
Afterwards we went out for a few drinks. And ended up having an utter shitload of drinks. Ow. I won't be posting the photos of, for example, my brother's partner and I dancing the Charleston on top of every one of those little green electricity transformer boxes on the walk home. Or of my brother and I wrestling with temporary speed restriction road signs (me: Greek-style, him:WWF-style). Or the video-clip of me bellowing at the top of my voice "I LURRVE MACROCARPAS" and leaping from the top of one of those afore-mentioned little green electricity transformer boxes into a finely-topiaried specimen of same.
Well, ok, maybe one.
Here's a tally of my consumption for the evening:
4 x Carlsberg lagers
between 8 and 11 shots of infused vodkas of varying strength
1 Monteiths Original
3 x Guinness
4 x triple Centenarro Blanco tequila
1 x triple Tanqueray gin
2 x Frangelico and lime
4 x Smirnoff Black Ice RTD (don't ask) (seriously)
Compiling that list, I am left feeling a strange combination of awe and shame. I got off lightly though; all I ended up with was a scratched arm, and a nasty afternoon-hangover.
(hover mouse over images for captions; click for bigger versions)
You'll notice that the gallery walls are red, rather than the customary white. This was an experiment, and I really think it works rather well.
The refreshments were various infused vodkas, supplied by a local distillery under the auspices of "taste-testing". They were served in shotglasss and consumed neat.
Afterwards we went out for a few drinks. And ended up having an utter shitload of drinks. Ow. I won't be posting the photos of, for example, my brother's partner and I dancing the Charleston on top of every one of those little green electricity transformer boxes on the walk home. Or of my brother and I wrestling with temporary speed restriction road signs (me: Greek-style, him:WWF-style). Or the video-clip of me bellowing at the top of my voice "I LURRVE MACROCARPAS" and leaping from the top of one of those afore-mentioned little green electricity transformer boxes into a finely-topiaried specimen of same.
Well, ok, maybe one.Here's a tally of my consumption for the evening:
4 x Carlsberg lagers
between 8 and 11 shots of infused vodkas of varying strength
1 Monteiths Original
3 x Guinness
4 x triple Centenarro Blanco tequila
1 x triple Tanqueray gin
2 x Frangelico and lime
4 x Smirnoff Black Ice RTD (don't ask) (seriously)
Compiling that list, I am left feeling a strange combination of awe and shame. I got off lightly though; all I ended up with was a scratched arm, and a nasty afternoon-hangover.
(hover mouse over images for captions; click for bigger versions)
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Sierpinski
An interesting story appeared in the DomPost yesterday. But, first some background.
Waclaw Sierpinski was a Polish mathematician who lived from 1882 til 1969. In 1915 he described what became known as the "Sierpinski gasket", which is a kind of fractal (which has, incidentally, been documented as appearing in Italian art from about the 13th century). The gasket is also called the Sierpinski "sieve" or Sierpinski "triangle". (source: mathworld.wolfram.com). It's created by the following "beautiful recurrence equation":
As you can doubtless see, the geometric method of creating the gasket is to start with a triangle and cut out the middle piece. This results in three smaller triangles to which the process is continued. The nine resulting smaller triangles are cut in the same way, and so on, indefinitely. (source: astronomy.swin.edu.au)
Now consider the Sierpinski carpet. Same deal as the gasket, but constructed with squares, instead of triangles. It can be described "using string rewriting beginning with a cell [1] and iterating the rules":
This is all fine and dandy, but "so what" I hear you say. So lets look at the "carpet" in three dimensions (below, left). We're suddenly presented with an object of uncommon beauty, which is typified by the interesting characteristics of inversely proportionate volume and surface area.
(That is, the more iterations of the 'pattern' are made, the surface area increases in direct proportion to the volume, which decreases). (Aside: Fractal antennae based upon the Sierpinski carpet can be used in communication devices such as cell-phones, where they can give far superior performance over the usual rubbery stalk.)
This "cube" is also called a Menger sponge. The Menger sponge, in addition to being a fractal, is also a super-object for all compact one-dimensional objects, i.e., the topological equivalent of all one-dimensional objects can be found in a Menger sponge (Peitgen et al. 1992). (Hmmmmmmmm.) (Make sure you play with the cool 3d models, too).
So back to yesterday's DomPost story, which describes how the New York Folk Art museum (described, no doubt for calculated effect, as a major
New York art museum) has "picked up" (actually, had donated) two works by local Wellinton "outsider" artist Martin Thompson (pictured, right). This was some sort of post-script to an exhibition of 40 "obsessive" drawings by five international artists, including Thompson, which closed at the museum last month.
The works illustrating the article (left) are not actually the works in question, but any mathmetician worth his salt would immediately identify Thompson's "obsessive" "geometric abstraction" as an execution of a variation on Sierpinski's carpet.
Which basically leaves me wondering, well, when does advanced mathematics become art, folk or not? (And also cursing my laziness at not picking up some of his work, when I met him about five years ago, for a lot less than the $3000 or so they are each commanding now.) But mostly thinking "why don't I understand this?" I personally don't care if Thompson has been copying illustrations from a tome on fractals from the 70s for twenty-six years (very popular, they were in the 70s, fractals); or rendering his own formulae (and those of others); or if it's a complete coincedence; or all of the above. But what is the American Folk Art Museum playing at, for example? And what is discovering their $3000 "outsider art" drawing is actually copied out of a 200-level university maths text book going to mean to all the people who have reportedly been lining up to buy a piece of the action?
Some web-resources on Martin Thomson, most showing more examples of his work:
> Obsessive Drawing, at the American Folk Art Museum, 2006.
> Review of Dirty Pixels, which premiered at Artspace in August 2002 accompanied by a catologue. The show was also exhibited by Adam Art Gallery from April 12-25 2003 and finished showing at the Waikato Museum of Art on 18 January 2004
> Biography of Martin Thompson on Stuart Shepherd's Self-Taught & Visionary Art in New Zealand resource.
PS: As an artist Taylor is not alone in his mathematics fixation. This image (right) shows a metal rendition of the Menger sponge created by digital sculptor Bathsheba Grossman.
SEE ALSO: Box Fractal, Cantor Dust, Cantor Square Fractal, Delannoy Number, Haferman Carpet. Hours of fun.
Waclaw Sierpinski was a Polish mathematician who lived from 1882 til 1969. In 1915 he described what became known as the "Sierpinski gasket", which is a kind of fractal (which has, incidentally, been documented as appearing in Italian art from about the 13th century). The gasket is also called the Sierpinski "sieve" or Sierpinski "triangle". (source: mathworld.wolfram.com). It's created by the following "beautiful recurrence equation":
As you can doubtless see, the geometric method of creating the gasket is to start with a triangle and cut out the middle piece. This results in three smaller triangles to which the process is continued. The nine resulting smaller triangles are cut in the same way, and so on, indefinitely. (source: astronomy.swin.edu.au)
Now consider the Sierpinski carpet. Same deal as the gasket, but constructed with squares, instead of triangles. It can be described "using string rewriting beginning with a cell [1] and iterating the rules":This is all fine and dandy, but "so what" I hear you say. So lets look at the "carpet" in three dimensions (below, left). We're suddenly presented with an object of uncommon beauty, which is typified by the interesting characteristics of inversely proportionate volume and surface area.
(That is, the more iterations of the 'pattern' are made, the surface area increases in direct proportion to the volume, which decreases). (Aside: Fractal antennae based upon the Sierpinski carpet can be used in communication devices such as cell-phones, where they can give far superior performance over the usual rubbery stalk.)
This "cube" is also called a Menger sponge. The Menger sponge, in addition to being a fractal, is also a super-object for all compact one-dimensional objects, i.e., the topological equivalent of all one-dimensional objects can be found in a Menger sponge (Peitgen et al. 1992). (Hmmmmmmmm.) (Make sure you play with the cool 3d models, too).So back to yesterday's DomPost story, which describes how the New York Folk Art museum (described, no doubt for calculated effect, as a major
New York art museum) has "picked up" (actually, had donated) two works by local Wellinton "outsider" artist Martin Thompson (pictured, right). This was some sort of post-script to an exhibition of 40 "obsessive" drawings by five international artists, including Thompson, which closed at the museum last month.The works illustrating the article (left) are not actually the works in question, but any mathmetician worth his salt would immediately identify Thompson's "obsessive" "geometric abstraction" as an execution of a variation on Sierpinski's carpet.
Which basically leaves me wondering, well, when does advanced mathematics become art, folk or not? (And also cursing my laziness at not picking up some of his work, when I met him about five years ago, for a lot less than the $3000 or so they are each commanding now.) But mostly thinking "why don't I understand this?" I personally don't care if Thompson has been copying illustrations from a tome on fractals from the 70s for twenty-six years (very popular, they were in the 70s, fractals); or rendering his own formulae (and those of others); or if it's a complete coincedence; or all of the above. But what is the American Folk Art Museum playing at, for example? And what is discovering their $3000 "outsider art" drawing is actually copied out of a 200-level university maths text book going to mean to all the people who have reportedly been lining up to buy a piece of the action?
Some web-resources on Martin Thomson, most showing more examples of his work:
> Obsessive Drawing, at the American Folk Art Museum, 2006.
> Review of Dirty Pixels, which premiered at Artspace in August 2002 accompanied by a catologue. The show was also exhibited by Adam Art Gallery from April 12-25 2003 and finished showing at the Waikato Museum of Art on 18 January 2004
> Biography of Martin Thompson on Stuart Shepherd's Self-Taught & Visionary Art in New Zealand resource.
PS: As an artist Taylor is not alone in his mathematics fixation. This image (right) shows a metal rendition of the Menger sponge created by digital sculptor Bathsheba Grossman.
SEE ALSO: Box Fractal, Cantor Dust, Cantor Square Fractal, Delannoy Number, Haferman Carpet. Hours of fun.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Inferno
(click images for larger versions)
Woom
Woom is a new gallery space opening in Nelson. One of their stated principal aims is to not be shite, like the other art spaces in Nelson.
With this in mind, I was more than enthusiastic to be involved when the space's manager, a Mr. A Clover (full blood relation) graciously offered me the opportunity to show some work in the inaugral exhibition.
So Woom1 will be opening on Thursday night; I will be showing these.
With this in mind, I was more than enthusiastic to be involved when the space's manager, a Mr. A Clover (full blood relation) graciously offered me the opportunity to show some work in the inaugral exhibition.
So Woom1 will be opening on Thursday night; I will be showing these.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Podder
I've begun syndicating my podcasts for Foxy Digitalis. No doubt there will be some other things of interest popping up from time-to-time as well.
You can hook into the feed here, or from the little icon below. There may be some teething troubles, so please bear with me.
seht podcast feed [RSS 2.0]
You can hook into the feed here, or from the little icon below. There may be some teething troubles, so please bear with me.
seht podcast feed [RSS 2.0]
Friday, April 07, 2006
Oil
Today's Dom Post carried a story from the Nelson Mail about Jenni Phillips, who is extremely allergic to patchouli scent. Supposedly she is so sensitive to it that "she only needs to catch a whiff of it in the perfume people are wearing, to collapse in severe anaphylactic shock."At the risk of sounding flippant or disrepectful to Ms. Phillips - neither impression is intended, this is a serious problem - may I enquire of her as to why the fuck she is still living in Nelson. It must surely be second only to Goa or some fucken place like that in the hippies-per-square-foot statistics, and generally overrun by the stinking, deodorant-slash-antiperspirant-eschewing patchouli-daubed ropeheads.
I hate the stuff too - one patchouli-favouring psychotic ex-gf was all it took - call me a dog; hell, call me a Pavlov's dog - and so I suggest to Ms. Phillips that that in addition to her standard several shots of adrenaline, she start carrying about with her a large can of mace and a bucket of industrial-strength caustic soda. That way she can take the hippy by the rope and go on the offensive; when she encounters someone wearing the patchouli oil scent that is such a danger to her well-being, she should use the mace to disable them while she then melts they asses right there and then on the pavement.
Bussed
It would seem as if the buses are trying to tell us something:
(click image to view larger version)
It would also seem that they need to get their stories straight.
I'm in love with today; I want to be back in Sydney. So time for a song from one of Aussie's finest, the Go-Betweens, and from their finest album - 16 Lover's Lane.
The Go-Betweens - Love is a sign (right-click and Save As to download)
"Arguably Australia's greatest ever pop group, The Go-Betweens seemed to save the best for last when they split in 1989. (They reunited in 1999, and have issued two more studio recordings since that time). 16 Lovers Lane is simply breathtaking; it is a deeply moving, aurally sensual collection of songs about relationships and the broken side of love that never lapses into cheap sentimentality or cynicism... " (Thom Jurek, allmusic.com)
(click image to view larger version)
It would also seem that they need to get their stories straight.
I'm in love with today; I want to be back in Sydney. So time for a song from one of Aussie's finest, the Go-Betweens, and from their finest album - 16 Lover's Lane.
The Go-Betweens - Love is a sign (right-click and Save As to download)
I wish you had a big house / and that your work would start to sell...
"Arguably Australia's greatest ever pop group, The Go-Betweens seemed to save the best for last when they split in 1989. (They reunited in 1999, and have issued two more studio recordings since that time). 16 Lovers Lane is simply breathtaking; it is a deeply moving, aurally sensual collection of songs about relationships and the broken side of love that never lapses into cheap sentimentality or cynicism... " (Thom Jurek, allmusic.com)
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Wake
Feeling a definite sense of loss, especially after posting those two micro-obits yesterday for Stanislaw Lem and Nikki Sudden. Tried to drink it into submission last night at Flying Burritto Brothers, using copious quantities of Herradurra Reposado tequila, but apparently it didn't work.
So let's have a song. Fuck it, let's even have two.David Bowie - We are the dead (right-click and Save As to download)
Swell Maps - Blam!! (right-click and Save As to download)
The Bowie song, We Are the Dead, is from his at-times testing 1974 concept album Diamond Dogs. It's very beautiful and sad. The concept album purports to be based on George Orwells's 1984, though I have reservations about the success of the project.
"because of all we've seen, because of all we've said... we are the dead"The Swell Maps track is off their best album, Trip To Marineville, and is a rowdy-if-melancholic anthemn of lost love with almost-gang-choruses and the works. On the LP it's bookended by pts 1 and 2 of the wonderfully upbeat and surreal Full Moon.
"why did you do it... you said you loved me / I don't care, I guess I'm nearly dead"(By the way, do be sure and let me know in the comments section if you're having trouble downloading or playing the mp3s I post here.)
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Sudden
Scottish rock legend Nikki Sudden, guitarist for Swell Maps (1977-1980), one of my favourite bands - and one of the greatest and most fun and original punk outfits - has died.R.I.P. Nikki Sudden.
Lem
Polish author Stanislaw Lem, one of the greatest ever writers in the science-fiction genre, has died.R.I.P. Stanislaw Lem.
Buddies
You may have noticed that a couple new drinking-buddies have appeared over there in the sidebar. You may not have, either. Either way, please join me in welcoming Jen "Smacked Face" and Mr. Stephen Rowe's "Food and Plastics". Cheers.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Law pt. 2: The Saga Continues
Gave up waiting to hear back from the fool TradeMe seller of my lemon VCR; just took a couple of minutes to leave some exquisitely-composed negative feedback on him:
The sort of idiot who'd sell you a VCR which requires the remote control in order to be able to be tuned, without the remote control. And then when you complain, suggest you sell it to some other sucker. And then stop responding to emails. And so on. Avoid him like the plague he is; may he never become not "broke-as".Despite the great joy it would give me to drag his sorry ass down to Wellington - at his own expense - to answer a case in the Disputes Tribunal, I can't really conscionably spend that much of the public's money to do so; guess it's Safe Trader for this whigga for now on.
Feed
Just a quick heads up: If any of you have been "subscribing" to this blog using the 2RSS site, because your feed-managers or whatever don't support Atom-formatted feeds, and are fed up with the stoopid "ADV"erts they insert in the feed, check out for new versions. I know that the new version of the one I use, FeedReader 2.9, happily now supports Atom-formatted feeds. Yay me.My feeds, again:
Monday, March 27, 2006
PIL
YouTube strikes again: watch video of the very great Public Image Ltd. performing Poptones and Careering (two of their greatest songs, from Metal Box) on Dick Clark's American Bandstand circa 1980. Clark later famously referred to the episode as the worst moment in the show's history.
See John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon turn the farcical mandatory lip-syncing appearance into something resembling a situationist action, or a riot; see him literally dragging people out of the audience and onto the stage; see the New Wave robot-dance guy; see drummer Martin Atkins resolutely ignore the carnage and pull off brilliant live drum embellishment on Careering; see Lydon playing Atkins' drums with his wireless mic, before handing it to an audience member and encouraging her to sing for him; etc. etc. Hell, it's a treat to just see Keith Levene and Jah Wobble on the stage at the same time.
Favourite comment (from the comments section):
See John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon turn the farcical mandatory lip-syncing appearance into something resembling a situationist action, or a riot; see him literally dragging people out of the audience and onto the stage; see the New Wave robot-dance guy; see drummer Martin Atkins resolutely ignore the carnage and pull off brilliant live drum embellishment on Careering; see Lydon playing Atkins' drums with his wireless mic, before handing it to an audience member and encouraging her to sing for him; etc. etc. Hell, it's a treat to just see Keith Levene and Jah Wobble on the stage at the same time.
Favourite comment (from the comments section):
So Clark thought PIL was the worst moment in the show's history? I'd say it was one of the best! Dick Clark was too old to understand what was going on there. I always hated that about AB. Their moronic lip-sync policy. They could have had an incredible library of brilliant live performances, instead of square-looking phony performances. Lydon turned this into a slap in the face to that policy, and brewed up his own live performance in the process. Lydon is sharp as a blade.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Podcast
A wee while back, I did a podcast for online music zine Foxy Digitalis. You can find it here (right-click and Save As to download) (the podcast directory-page here). It was a lot of fun; I even, in a move which has been referred to as "inspired", got my robot fixed up well enough to do the voice-breaks.A podcast is basically a radio show, but one which you can download or stream whenever you want. (Wikipedia: podcasting).
The tracklist:
Robyn Hitchcock "Welcome to Earth" from Spooked
Main "Corona part II" from Hz
Scorn "Black box" from Gyral
Jesu "Sun day" from Jesu
Disco Inferno "Footprints in snow" from D.I. Go Pop
Sonny Sharrock "Blind Willie" from Guitar
Rosy Parlane "#1" from #1-4
John Fahey "Let go" from Let go
Thela "Look out! The fucking hot jet" from V/A Le Jazz Non compilation
CJA "2:23" from Ironclad
Chris Bell "Speed of sound" from I am the cosmos
Red Krayola "Container of drudgery (never had a name)" from Blues, hollers and hellos
The Dead C "The marriage of reason and squalor" from Operation of the sonne
Bailter space "Ore" from Robot world
K-Group + Omit "Slow movement towards the abyss" from Slow movement 7"
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Law
Helluva week. Man, this blogging game is hard work sometimes. So's this 'being around other people and not shooting them' game. Actually, the hardest part about that is not having gun. The 'being a part of a vibrant democratic society' bit is a piece of cake by compare. But I digress... so yeah, helluva week. Having narrowly avoided an employment-law wrangle, and staring down the barrel of a tenancy-law dispute, I now find myself in the midst of a consumer-law wrangle.
So I bought this piece-a-shit VCR player off of TradeMe. It was a fucken lemon. No remote control.. and guess what? You can't tune it without the remote. Needless to say this wasn't mentioned in the 'auction' listing. Here's the guts of my most recent email in the discussion:
Meanwhile, hit me with your TradeMe/eBay horror stories. Or, am I the only whigga with one of those (first one, y'dig, after hundreds and hundreds of transactions, me still Mr. 254/100%).
In other news just to hand, the new Ghostface Killah album Fishscale dropped recently, and it kicks serious ass. It harks back the the heady heights of his debut Ironman, or 2000's Supreme Clientele. I'm not gonna post a mp3 from the album, tho' - we gonna nod to some of what many consider his finest hour - I Can't go to Sleep from the Wu Tang Clan's 2000 album The W. Featuring conscious, emotional rhyming from Ghost, a huge hook from Isaac Hayes' version of Walk On By (from 1969' s Hot Buttered Soul) and vocal stylings from the big guy himself, it's truly a sublime slab of modern soul-jive. The RZA aka Bobby Digital even chimes in with the final verse.
Wu Tang Clan - I Can't Go To Sleep (feat. Ghostface Killah, Bobby Digital and Isaac Hayes) (right-click and Save As to download)
Enjoy.
(look out for Law pt. 2: The Saga Continues shortly)
So I bought this piece-a-shit VCR player off of TradeMe. It was a fucken lemon. No remote control.. and guess what? You can't tune it without the remote. Needless to say this wasn't mentioned in the 'auction' listing. Here's the guts of my most recent email in the discussion:Dude, you're required under consumer law to sell goods in working order. Selling a VCR that can't be tuned without the remote - which you didn't supply - isn't in correct working order.And then I was like, "Holy SHIT! I hope I'm right.." I mean, I know I'm right about the guy having to come to Wellington; I've been told this by a kick-ass lawyer who knows his shit. But, does the Sale Of Goods act second-hand gear protection apply to internet transactions? Hmm.. I guess I'm-a ring the hotline tomorrow and find out.
[...]
So... refund please. Or I'll see you in the small claims court. And guess what. I hope you like Wellington, cos you'll have to come here to answer the case.
Meanwhile, hit me with your TradeMe/eBay horror stories. Or, am I the only whigga with one of those (first one, y'dig, after hundreds and hundreds of transactions, me still Mr. 254/100%).
In other news just to hand, the new Ghostface Killah album Fishscale dropped recently, and it kicks serious ass. It harks back the the heady heights of his debut Ironman, or 2000's Supreme Clientele. I'm not gonna post a mp3 from the album, tho' - we gonna nod to some of what many consider his finest hour - I Can't go to Sleep from the Wu Tang Clan's 2000 album The W. Featuring conscious, emotional rhyming from Ghost, a huge hook from Isaac Hayes' version of Walk On By (from 1969' s Hot Buttered Soul) and vocal stylings from the big guy himself, it's truly a sublime slab of modern soul-jive. The RZA aka Bobby Digital even chimes in with the final verse.
Wu Tang Clan - I Can't Go To Sleep (feat. Ghostface Killah, Bobby Digital and Isaac Hayes) (right-click and Save As to download)
Enjoy.
(look out for Law pt. 2: The Saga Continues shortly)
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