(after Montreal) during Montreal

Boite Noire, Gregory Beck Rubin, November 2007

Bienvenue a la Boite Noire...

Monday morning we began setting up our work in the Black Box (BB): a 50 X 50 X 25 feet performance space in the basement of Concrodia's Engineering and Visual Arts Building (EV).
Throughout the day, different members from the Topological Media Lab (TML) trickled into the space to meet us and our work, as well as set up their own computer stations for sound and lighting. Setting up is slow. Familiarizing yourself with the space is not easy: its huge, and it's set in the basement of the EV building, itself a large network of stacked research centres, studios, information technology labs, atriums, staircases and elevators big and small. Much of the first days was spent climbing and descending the EV building. The freight elevator became our second workshop space. It is also a place to hang out and meet other students in Concordia...

By the end of the day we had decided on a layout of machines inside the BB. The layout also included a hanging pole plan, and location of trusses for lighting. Suspending the poles and trusses would took place Tuesday.



Assembing, Daniel McGibbon, November 2007

Tuesday: hanging the poles with Marnie and Ricardo. Lunch break skipped out of the BB (needed to see the sun, get fresh air) and went down to the Atwater Market. Very yummy lunch. Walnut bread, Au Ciel de Charlevoix blue cheese, a really gooey goat's cheese roll coated in ashes, and fresh grapes and orange pepper. Back to the BB. That afternoon we got an introduction to some of the work being done by the grads and members of the TML. Jean-Sebastien presented some video patched he's been working on - a comet program and a few other eye scrumptious videos. The videos are like organisms which react to light data (taken from live video feed) and changes according to their programming code.




Comet Patch built by JS, Daniel McGibbon, November 2007

After setting up the poles, the next step was hanging my machine and deciding how to build and shape the steam wands. Where would they bend? How would I use lighting? There was also the issue of dripping water lingering in the back of my mind (where does it go?!) and what data I could use to integrate into other people's projects.



Still Life, Gregory Beck Rubin, November 2007