CHOOSE DETERMINISM

i have a new blog where i will feature a philosoprop, one per week (or so). i will expound upon the piece and its origins, and may frequently digress. while the piece's conceptual spirit may be accessible in digitized form, its tangible, 3D incarnation will also be made available for acquisition by those who so desire. refreshments will be served.

WFMU

i was fortunate to have grown up within frequency range of this wildly diverse and extremely inspiring station as a fledgling experimental musician. what a kick that some tracks from between stations got played on april 17, 2008 on WFMU's "strength through failure" with fabio.

please help tibet

the tibetan people need our support immediately.
please sign the aavaz petition.

www.savetibet.org

evolution/revolution

i've got a couple of pieces in the "evolution/revolution" show at the RISD museum in providence, including "the silence dress": infused with sound, but with a patch of ultimate voidness.

image above courtesy of museum of art, rhode island school of design. photography by eric gould.

bjork dress

i was recently asked by people magazine to create a dress that bjork could, hypothetically, wear to the grammy awards. this pic appeared in the 2/6/08 "hollywood daily" issue of people.

between stations CD

limited-edition copies of the between stations cd (the 14 music/sound collages recorded onto cassette tape before it is woven into sonic fabric) in one-of-a-kind sonic fabric sleeves are now available for $22 including shipping. please email for details.

also available for order or download through cdbaby.

M-PEACH NOW

this administration must be held accountable for its blatant lies and other heinous crimes. my M-PEACH image, as well as good ol' DUMP W (upside down) are available on t-shirts and stickers at cafepress.com. the graphics themselves (copyleft) are available through me free of charge for use in whatever capacity you wish.

sonic sailboat sails at mcasd

as a kid, i raced sailboats every weekend of every summer of my life. to me, racing sailboats fulfilled the same sorts of needs that going to chruch seemed to fill for others. through it, i developed a sense of community, ritual, and communion with forces greater than myself. my sonic fabric project was inspired by the small strands of cassette tape we used as tell-tails, or wind indicators. i recall imagining that, if the wind hit the tell-tails just the right way, i'd be able to hear music wafting off onto the breeze. years later i learned about tibetan prayer flags, small squares of fabric inscribed with images of mantras, or sacred sounds. this reminded me of the tell-tails, and i was immediately inspired to create a fabric woven from potential sound. to me, sails are the ultimate prayer flags. after years in the development and experimentation stages, i'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to finally create a set of sails made of sonic fabric. the installation is currently on view at the san diego museum of contemporary art, where it will remain until may 2008.

next, i'd like to create a set for an america's cup yacht, or an old wooden herreshoff.

triangle x

a new short film from the center for the improbable and (im)permacultural research.
it's another one inspired by buckminster fuller:

buckminster fuller challenge

the buckminster fuller institute is offering a $100,000 prize for the simplest possible idea that has the potential to affect the greatest global change for the better in the shortest period of time. i've been polling friends, and so far we've come up with a few ideas: a harmonica that only plays OM (hmmm...maybe i oughta revive my 1998 "campaign to change the dial-tone to OM"...?), listening to banjo music, having chickens around, forming a non-government, non-corporate organization to check-and-balance the government, making an animated movie to post on youtube that somehow tries to convince people that living absolutely for THIS LIFE, and not some promise of greener pastures later, is the key to stemming the tide of all manner of holy zeal (hmmm...didn't john lennon write a song about this??).

the bottom line is that just by THINKING about the answer to the problem, we're helping to solve the problem. kudos to the bfi for being the catalyst...

improbable

dear friends, several small developments to report:

i am, admittedly, somewhat relieved to announce that the center for the obvious, big bend chapter, is now defunct.
"the center for the improbable and (im)permacultural research, ltd" has sprung up, at higher elevation, in the form of a beige 1970 school bus, in its stead.

sonic fabric, the audible textile inspired by sailing and tibetan prayer flags, continues to enjoy it's life outside the confines of my intentions or expectations. as part of an effort to foster its independence, i have posted two short videos on youtubethat i hope will help clarify things.

if you have not already, i hope you will take a moment to experience the solo guitar music of julian mock (collaborator on several sound, video, and gardening projects), now available on itunes and cdbaby.

and, finally, upcoming shows, all of which contain pieces made from sonic fabric
(greater detail forthcoming as dates approach):

in los angeles:
"do it now: live green"
ben maltz gallery, otis college of art and design
aug 25 through oct 20

in the uk:
"dott07: our cyborg futures: me or machines?"
discovery museum, newcastle upon tyne
aug 10 through oct 28

in san diego:
"soundwaves"
san diego museum of contemporary art
sept 23 through may 4, 2008

thanks, as always.

how to make an ice-cream cone buckyball

philosoprop shop sale

in celebration of the grand opening of the center for the obvious, big bend branch, i am hosting $10 cheap art & propaganda sale. please visit the virtual shoppe to see the work, &/or email me for details.

gargles in the rat-race choir

as genius dylan lyrics go, for me "gargles in the rat-race choir" is one of the most outstanding. from the uncannily-pertinent song "it's alright ma", it's a line that i believe speaks directly to the times at hand.

it just so happened that my studio at blue mountain center this past fall contained a turntable that would make every record it tried to play skip in strangely perfect loops. i set about recording the loops, then layered them to create a collage. i also filmed the turntable itself spinning around and around using an old-fashioned super-8 film camera...the whole experience seemed to be the perfect metaphor for current events, especially given that the album containing the song ("bringing it all back home") was originally released in 1965. i added some video, digitized the film, and knitted it all together to create this little movie.

anyhow, times being what they are, i felt compelled to share it.
i hope you'll enjoy.

ps: for anyone interested, the original lyrics to the song "it's alright ma" by bob dylan can be found here.

5,000 feet

friends, i am writing you now from the high desert of west texas. the pull could be resisted no longer...i decided quite suddenly to phase out of my northeastern existence, and start a new chapter out here in a small mountain town near the big bend. fort davis, texas is 20 miles from marfa, texas, art enclave in the desert, where the chinati foundation, started by donald judd, is. i've rented two small somewhat ramshackle adobes in the center of town, one for living, one for working. my new studio feels really good. i can take breaks by sitting in the rocking chair on the porch, watching the thunderheads build behind the organ pipe-like mountain of stones that fort davis is nestled in beneath.

risd biennial

the risd biennial (curated by robert storr of the venice biennale) opens this thursday night, from 6 to 9 pm, at exit art. exit art is located on 10th avenue near 36th st in manhattan. included in the show will be a sonic dress with pancho (constructed by my mom, jeannette santoro), a sonic parasol, and a freshly-made string of flags with orange doughnut appliques. i daresay, it's my best shaman-superhero ensemble yet...

Haeckel's Dream

in the summer of 2004 i was an artist-in-residence at acadia park in maine. every day i'd walk out to an island that could only be reached at low tide. one afternoon i found a dead jellyfish stranded on the rocks, and was quite thrilled to have such a beautiful specimen to draw from. during my walk the next day i went back to the same spot to see if perhaps i'd be lucky enough to find another. and sure enough, there was one. and then i noticed another. then five more. suddenly exuberance turned to serious concern. what was happening? why were these beautiful creatures dying in droves? i looked out at the water. an onshore breeze. this combined with the rapidly outgoing tide made the answer to my question obvious. jellyfish are planktonic...they cannot maneuver or navigate. they live and die at the mercy of the elements. at sea they have no need to steer...they just drift. suddenly i noticed a jellyfish, still swimming, in shallow water. i was thrilled. i sat down on a rock and got out my sketchbook to draw. and then i realized that the tide was full of gorgeous, ornate, burgundy-pink jellyfish...tens of them...about to meet their end. it became apparent that i was in the midst of a phemonenon. i ran home to get the super 8 movie camera. there was no time to spare...the tide would be fully out within the hour. i shot until i ran out of film. but while i was filming i had the sensation that my education in marine biology and scientific illustration had prepared me for just such a moment...the chance to capture a rare glimpse into something magical and mysterious, something beautiful and tragic, happening at the harsh, churning, intense interface of land and sea.

named for ernst haeckel, 19th century biologist/philosopher/illustrator, haeckel's dream is an existential 1950's-esque psychedelic nature documentary. copied to digital format from black-and-white super 8 film.

with soundtrack "doughnuts of sound"
by alyce santoro
with tracks by
bill walker on viola
julianne carney on violin
marc goff on didgeridoo
alyce santoro on flute

jellyfish in the desert

last year i spent some time in the high desert of west texas. being such a water person, never in a million years would i have imagined that i'd fall in so deeply in love with the desert, or feel so completely and utterly at home there. it was the strangest thing...being in the desert was like being in one of those dreams where you're standing at the bottom of the ocean...you're floating in the peaceful, infinite abyss...but you can breathe...

ever since, i've been yearning to go back, feeling inspired by an urgency to make work that expresses this sensation, bringing the desert and the ocean together. so when i learned about andrea zittel's high desert test sites in the high desert of joshua tree california, i jumped at the chance to apply. i proposed to construct a piece of buckminster fuller-inspired quasi oceanographic-desert research equipment especially for the spot. at the same time, i noticed a call-to-artists for a film festival happening the same weekend in joshua tree. so i applied for that too, with a plan to show the jellyfish movie i shot in acadia park in maine two summers ago. i wanted more than anything to see these jellyfish swimming in the desert, against the black starlit sky (like a phosphorescent sea...). well, the sculpture was rejected, the film accepted. and then, by a serendipitous turn of events, quinn, curator of orion's shorts, the film festival, and i became pals via email, and now it looks like i'll be putting some sculpture in another show she's having. i don't think it'll be the research equipment thing, though...thinkin' strings of tell-tail thangkas, and piles of ice-cream cone buckyballs...

the upshot of all this is it looks like i'll be making a road-trip out west at the end of the month, back to the desert. and i couldn't be more thrilled.

snow bocci

a month in the woods did wonders for me.

cone-shaped universe?

i believe the shape of the universe is conical. here at vermont studio center (where i'm feeling fortunate to be a fellow for the month), i've been making maps about my theory using ice-cream cones.