Crits, readings and beast evolution

Following the class reviews on Tuesday the 16th, I have made some new decisions as to the mechanization of my "beast". Some of the issues which came up in the reviews (and that I have struggled to resolve myself) are divided into a) its activation, and b) what it does when it is activated? The MachinaKafe needs much help from human hands to fill fills itself with water, turn itself on/off and operated channels to produce steam and not boiling water. I have decided that the focus of the MachinaKafe is the steam, and I would like the machine to someway control the invisibility & visibility of steam, to inject steam into space transform it into an architectural element.

a)
Activation and self-regeneration: make the tank bigger so more water can boil for longer periods of time and therefore, produce more steam, making the tank heater run for longer periods of time (whatever heating system is embedded in the espresso tank only heats up for about five minutes and then needs to be manually unplugged, left to cool down, and then plugged in again), and being able to draw steam from the tank, again, without manual intervention. What I would like to make then is a larger tank, with some kind of water supply refilling the tank, and heating system, that altogether operates "on its own", or being switched on when it "senses" someone near it. I also need it to switch it self off when it is left alone, and prevent it from boiling itself dry.

b)
A couple of short essays on autopoetics and the weather, plus the work by the artist Olafur Eliasson have been a good source for me to think about and clarify how I will experiment with steam. I am posting below the two essays for your reading pleasure, and there's also the link to Elliason's homepage. Earlier I wrote about using the steam produced by the MachinaKafe to make itself disappear in a cloud. From the discussion we had on Tuesday, I need to expand the realm of what my machine is doing with the steam and move towards experimenting with the "structure" of the cloud, as well as letting go off certain decided outcomes of the machine's behaviour. The metaphor of the "sanctified" machine floating in a cloud is still central to my exploration of this product of 19th century industrialization. But there are also questions about how we are participants in that process of making sacred spaces with steam which I would like to integrate into the operations of the beast. (....?.....!...)

Well, for now, enjoy the lovely images.




a




b


Olafur Elliason, a, Beauty, 2003 b, Multiple Grotto, 2004

Two papers:

Jensen's Remarks on nature, super-ecology, life, production, position and other negotiations

Massey's Some times of Space