iDigress - Gregory Beck Rubin

artifact pavilion animations

2009-08-01T11:10:00.003-05:00

gif test 1...2...3

2009-07-30T16:24:00.014-05:00

By gregory_animate

Film/Quebecois/Math/Dance

2008-09-09T20:58:00.002-05:00

cliquer ici SVP

Hiatus: Over

2008-09-03T08:41:00.006-05:00

I arrived in Montreal on the Monday. School started yesterday evening with my first class at Concordia: Real Time Digital Audio: Theory and Practice, taught by Prof. Chris Salter. I am looking forward to the term ahead with GREAT ANTICIPATION. Tonight I am off to see a production by Robert Lepage, in Quebec City, Champ Libre is coming up soon too and setting up the new studio with Candace, Evan, Patrick and Xin Wei.

I also wanted to post a couple of video's on the blog, shorts I had watched this summer in Winnipeg for a movie and math fest. Here's Pixilation, by Lillian Schwartz, 1971.

Also trying to locate a decent version of Googolplex - anyone know where to find? ciao.

Dedale Term Two Portfolio: Black Box

2008-07-13T21:28:00.002-05:00

porto08 reduced - Upload a Document to Scribd

Dedale Term One Portfolio: Curio

2008-07-13T21:20:00.003-05:00

porto07 ebook - Upload a Document to Scribd

Project Three: Documentaion Cont' & Door Construct

2008-03-27T00:28:00.006-05:00

Exterior Elevation Drawings A002 & A003. G. Rubin

Details: Laser cut pieces for Door Construct. G. Rubin

Project Three: Tangent

2008-03-24T10:27:00.004-05:00

!achtung! Below is a video of music I like to hear in my head while I work in the cold, outside, on my box.

Project Three: Documenting the Work

2008-03-21T17:17:00.007-05:00

Above is a template of how I document the drawing work on the Black Box.

I am making an archive of the drawings on the black box & in the black box by photographing entire elevations of each wall I draw on. I take a photo, then invert the image - turning white lines into black, black walls into white paper. The elevations, arranged one next to the other at the same scale becomes a construction drawing document. The series of elevations documented over time shows the progress of the work. It will be a record of the decisions made in drawing leading to making: a construction drawing set - an archive of the built work, a prescriptive language of how the phenomena is made apparent through drawing. The drawing as the language of the architect.

The language of the drawing, and the construction set as encyclopedia, compliments the tacit knowledge embedded in the built work. And vice verse.

I can also add to the drawings once they are arranged in the drawing set. I can bring into my studio measured information about the black box, and continue the process of drawing without being at the site. The drawing will give me a "whole view" of the project, an effect not apparent when I am standing outside the black box itself, dominated by it's one to one scale. I can reflect on the work, make adjustments at other scales otherwise not possible if I only carried on the work on site. Being able to transport the black box with me to different places will enable me to continue the project say, in the evening, when it is too dark to work outside. The drawing will help me organize the work schedule. Daylight hours are dedicated to actually making on site, while drawing, and building in the shop could take place at night, or when the weather is too difficult to manage.

Project Three: Getting out there

2008-03-07T00:07:00.013-06:00

Whoa! thanks guys for all the help in trucking out this beast onto the lawn (what lawn---all I see is snow) in between the School of Architecture and CAST. The black box is now "at home".

foundation: shoveling snow and putting down cinder blocks

erection: view of Black Box through the trees. And, one of four elevations

video: black box on the move

Project Three: Finishing the Assembly

2008-02-29T04:02:00.008-06:00

CC Assembly: (above) - view of interior space, with latter (scale). And below, several shots taken during the assembly.

Project Three: Layes of a sealed space

2008-02-26T23:37:00.008-06:00

latex paint - black and red

Standard 4' X 8' sheets of OSB determine the limits of the space

Vapour Barrier and Foil and Heat Gun - making a continuous seal

Detail of Vapour Barrier heat seal from initial testing- some shrinkage!

The structure is a stud wall construction. Two layers (permeable and impermeable) make up the "original" building envelope: sheathing (interior and exterior finishes) and Vapour Barrier.
The latter layer seals the interior space from the forces of air and water existing in the exterior environment. And it establishes, alongside the perceived rigid and generic form of the wood enclosure, the parameters of equilibrium between interior and exterior space. So long as the Vapour barrier remains a sealed, no moisture can pass between the wall, and into both spaces.

To ensure that this is properly made, I have heat sealed the vapour barrier at the intersection of wall to wall, wall to floor and wall to roof connections. Rather than risk breaking the seal with nails traditionally used to fix the Vapour Barrier to the stud wall, I have welded the different plastic frames together.

I have also distinguished the two sides of sheathing. The exterior is painted black, and the interior faces painted deep red. Though both surfaces are the same material, I want to establish a clear difference between the homogeneous interior space's enclosure from the exteriors facade. Starting with the appearance of a solid, form from the outside, I will soon discover, after entering the space, that is is fact a composite envelope.

frame of mind

2008-02-17T17:07:00.011-06:00

Video and photos of the black box assembly - week no.1

The persistent violation of space and order.
Water is the great enemy of the contemporary building envelope building in northern environments.

ca..ca..ca..cuttin'

2008-02-13T08:50:00.003-06:00

I have begun to assemble the frame. First, the floor frame and then onto the walls.

Black Box/C.C. beginnings

2008-02-11T14:03:00.001-06:00

Above are measured drawings of the black box. I will building the room out of 4' X 8' Oriented Strand Board (OSB) sheets, 2X4 X8' Spruce studs, yellow zinc wood screws, and 8X8X16 concrete cinder block.

Water and Architecture: I have turned to a number of sources of inspiration, local and beyond, for the design of the black box. One is the story of the biblical flood, and Noah's Ark. Second is the Kabbah, the room built by Abraham for Ishmael. And third are two buildings in North Point Douglas, one recently built, and the other as old as the first developments of the Point Douglas neighbourhood in the 1870's. For each of these examples, I focus on the allegories of water as a destructive and creative force in Architecture. The different relationships between water and Architecture are complex, and dynamic. Time has permitted that this relationship change, mutate, develop, even contradict the first contacts between water and each of these buildings. How is this relationship going to be examined in the black box?

1 & 2

3 & 4

5 & 6

7 & 8

1. Noah and his sons constructing the ark, after God's design. 2. Michaelangelo depicting the flood and the destruction of humanity. 3 & 4. Flooding in the Harem and around the Kabba. 5 & 6. Flooding all thoughout Mecca, inside the passageway between the two mounts. 7. The Barber house, in NPD, built by businessman E.L. Barber in 1865. 8. circa 100 years after, we have this example of housing in NPD.

images sources:
kabba: http://www.hajjguide.org/old_rare_pictures.htm
noah: http://www.beloit.edu/~nurember/book/images/Old%20Testament/index.htm, http://www.geocities.com/ulrich_utiger/gen4.html
NPD: Gregory Beck Rubin

Project Three (formerly New Project)

2008-02-05T15:53:00.000-06:00

Walls are the most element aspect of architecture. That is because they limit space.

We build walls, like Vitruvius, to be pure and homogenous. However, if we slice through the walls of Vitruvius, and the prefabricated walls in a building in Winnipeg Today, they would bear no resemblance to one another. To accommodate both the ideal of architecture and the reality of building in a Northern climate, we have developed technologies that we can hide inside the wall. Perhaps if we had not thought of the wall the way Vitruvius taught us to, then we may not have designed all its layers in the way we have, compacted and, more importantly, hidden. The ideals we impose on our most basic tool, the wall, is indicative of the way we value space in general, both natural and artificial. If we were to envision this threshold between interior and exterior differently, we would regard the space differently. �

For my project, I will investigate the hidden space of the wall. The goal of the project is to explore new paradigms of the wall in the Canadian context, historical and environmental. The project takes on the wall as an iconographic symbol as well as technological system.

....................................

Much has happened in the past few weeks, and I will give a brief overview of these events.

When I began the project, I wanted to find space in Point Douglas where I could cut into an existing building envelope, preferably a home. The wood frame wall of most typical home constructions is in fact a "void wall". The cavity spaces inside the wall are the spaces where we hide vital infrastructure. By cutting into the wall, and revealing the hidden inside the wall I would do two things. First, I would identify the systems as they relate to the lived world. And second, by revealing hidden activity, I would alter my understanding of architecture, and its effects on our perceptions of internal and external spaces. �After a good few weeks of searching, I was generously offered space in a home. However, for a number of reasons, I have decided that the project will not be built in Point Douglas. Rather, I will build my own space here on campus, and go through the same exploration, closer to Studio, the lab equipment, etc... There are disadvantages and advantages to both situations (building on campus versus in Point Douglas), and I am going with my gut on this one.

(aside: Thanks very much to the good folks I have met in Point Douglas and helped me to get the space, but more importantly, introduce me to the neighbourhood and its various facets. I am still very keen to develop work in Point Douglas, and hopefully, this can happen in the future).

The plan now is to build a black box on campus. The space is defined by the walls that enclose it: a wood framed room closed and sealed: a non-space, a void space. After the space comes to be, I would enter the space, and begin to define it by revealing the layers of the wall in that space, creating new space. I have two roles to play in this project, and each role comes with its own set of questions. First, I will define the system that is the wall for establishing the black box space. What are they? The composite wall is a complex organism - is it autopoetic? What are the minimum layers or systems that make up this wall for it to limit space (and do what: sustain inhabitation)? Is there such a thing as space without someone to inhabit it? This last questions lends itself to defining my second role, that of observer/eventual inhabitant or the void space. I will have to enter into the black box (how?) and then transform the walls so that it can sustain me. But sustain me how? What is the essence of Architecture? In this sense, the walls and I take on the role of two performers. How will we interact?

The transformation of the black box is an evolutionary process. But it is also the site for recording the transformation. Similar to my last term's final installation, Curio, I intend to draw on the box, inside, outside, above, and all around. It is critical that both the drawing and whatever armatures, insertions, details and constructs are considered at the same scale.

The transformation is also directly linked to how my body, and its different senses measure and define space. We think that seeing space dominates all of our other perceptions of space. And this is largely true in the modernist context. But it is another contradiction, like the Vitruvian and the prefabricated wall section. Building architecture with all of our sense is essential to exploring the new paradigms of the wall.

Another rule I would like to establish throughout the process of this project, is to recycle/reuse existing building materials as I start to cut into the walls. Habitat for Humanity runs the Restore in town and there are all kinds of building materials they sell there. The black box itself will be built from dimension standardized parts: 4 X 8 plywood sheets, 2 X 4 lumber beams, rigid insulation, pipes, circuitry, etc... As I take apart these prefabricated components, what I will add should embody the same cultural phenomena which produced these materials and their attributes in the first place.

The project embodies the idea of expanding the systems and codes that are embodied in the architecture of the room. Bu building into the order of the wall, its expansion becomes an example of what potentials lies in the materials and language of building we employ today. The new spaces are there, and with rigorous and imaginative interpretations of their layers, they will be revealed, and their phenomena will affect our vision of architecture.

NEW PROJECT: site diagram: xtralrg, lrg, med

2008-01-18T01:24:00.001-06:00

Point Douglas Site Investigation, extra large, large, medium. The site is on the North side of Higgins, just East of the former CPR station, West of the Disreali Freeway.

NEW PROJECT: A building on Point Douglas, Winnipeg

2008-01-18T00:14:00.000-06:00

A cold day in Point Douglas.

Curio: whistle while you work IV

2008-01-15T11:54:00.000-06:00

All parts of the machine and the performance of the machine are built into the proscenium's structure. This includes the lighting and sound components of the installation. These two parts enhance the spectacle. I made the light and sound pieces from a combination of DIY and computer software for music mixing. The armatures for the light and sound were assembled from laser cut pieces.

detail view of the inside wall - light falls on the water tambourine and the water trough below the tambourine. Water condenses on the window then drips onto the tambourine or water trough, which carries this water back into the pot via a forth copper tube.

Making the spotlight lights with a hacked LED car light and 2 volt batteries. I used a combination of superbirght coloured and white LEDs.

Making the water tambourine with a hacked piezzo mic. and stereo cable. The sound is recorded and played live through Ableton Live. A speaker is installed on both the inside and outside of the wall.

Video recording of a sound test

Laser cut pieces cad file, one of two sheets

Plugs: installed on the inside and outside of the wall, these plugs can be removed by the observer. As you pull it out of the wall, you can feel the force of cold air currents sucking against the plug. That same force of air pushes moisture through the wall. One the inside we see ice starting to form along the edges of the plug ends.

Inside view of outside plug ends.

Inside plug, with ice forming around its openings edges.

Inside wall detail view of outside plug's ends and ice. An opportunity for collecting ice on the inside of the wall.

Curio: whistle while you work III

2008-01-15T11:23:00.000-06:00

The nature of the project had me work back and forth on the inside and outside of the proscenium. I used different materials to capture the water. For example, meshes were useful because they would deform as ice would form inside the material.

outside wall - final installation

ice sill - collecting data

sill armature: laster cut pieces and assembly

outside wall - mesh

video recording of out_side wall steam test

Curio: whistle while you work II

2008-01-15T10:27:00.001-06:00

The openings in the wall bring the forces of the environment through the wall. It is a way for observers to engage with the wall, become participants in the experiment. Similarly in Montreal, the machine is activated by a motion sensor. The motion sensor will be located in an opening visible to persons on either side of the wall.

notional sketuch of wall section and elevation

inside wall - view of final installation: armatures, tubes and drawing

inside wall - final installation: machine and motion sensor

outside wall - armatures and tubes - sills, mesh, sound and light

Curio: whistle while you work

2008-01-10T22:36:00.001-06:00

Below are some photos from the first tests of the machine after it is embedded in the wall.

For this installation, the machine and tubes form a closed circuit. Each manifold has a tube weaving in and out of the wall, inside and outside, reconnecting back to the still. At different points along these tubes, there will be demonstrations of water's seen and unseen forces. I will be designing armatures into the proscenium to capture these effects. I will be making invisible things manifest into a potentially integral part of the architectural project.

Drawing is essential to determining where the demonstrations will take place in the wall. After each time I run the machine, I use drawing to record the effects of the machine on the wall - where the steam is contacting the wall, where the changes of state are occurring. I then begin to draw the armatures. These pieces negotiate the structure of the proscenium with the movement of water. They are armatures for amplifying, measuring, & carrying water through the space.

inside

outside

inside - detail

drawing

notional sketch of the machine in a buildings envelope

Curio: assembling & assembling

2007-12-07T17:19:00.000-06:00

I have built the proscenium for my installation. The side walls are 3/8" spruce plywood sandwiching 2" of foam insulation. The interior wall is 3/8" spruce plywood sandwiching 1.5" foam insulation. This wall is cut into two sections: the bottom area can be pulled out so I can walk through the wall, and open the door it now covers. The top half is fixed, and has no insulation in between the two pieces of ply. The interior faces of the proscenium is painted black. The exterior wall will be painted white (too snowy now to paint outside).

The dimensions of the proscenium and the durability of its construction will enable me to attach all my machine parts to the structure. The painted surface is a chalkboard where I can write and draw the armatures of the machine, which will come to fill the space.

Three things I need to consider now: sound, lighting, copper tubes. It is essential these three elements interact during the machines performance.

Steven Pippin, Black Hole, 2003 & Joseph Beuys, detail of Secret Block for a Secret Person In,

Curio: locating and assembling

2007-12-03T11:12:00.000-06:00

I have located a site for the next iteration of my machine, and have begun to design and assemble the proscenium for the installation.

The proscenium is an insulated wooden cabinet, matching the area of a door frame. The door I have located opens onto the outside. The proscenium frames both interior and exterior surfaces of the site. Withing the depth of the proscenium is an insulated wall. The wall defines a new break between what is on one side of the cabinet, and what is on its other. The proscenium will be installed so that the existing door can be opened and closed without damage to it or the installation.

The proscenium is a technical tool too. It will hold up the technology of the installation: hanging du Still, fixing lights, sound, microphones, etc... The proscenium embodies the content of the project: a cabinet of curiosities.

Drawing - Untitled

2007-11-27T13:46:00.001-06:00

Untitled, Graphite on 20" X 30" Paper, Gregory Beck Rubin, November 2007

The drawing is a composite image of the different parts of Du Still as it was in Montreal while the machine was active. Steam pours out of the wands, and condensed water drips into the recepticles or forms a puddle on the mylar platforms. They are the states of change of water in Du Still.

(after Montreal) after Montreal

2007-11-26T21:43:00.000-06:00

Artist Bill Viola presented this piece, Ocean Without A Shore, at the 2007 Venice Biennale , surrounded by water, no doubt. And though Venice feels endless on its floating deck, and endless in the maze of streets twisting themselves into undo-able knots, or endlessness in the Arsenale Hall, imposing & monumental like a cave of wonders, there is so much that is tactile and tectonic in the water's performs in Viola's work. The transformation of our awareness of water first aurally than visual is an important place to begin relating my own observer/machine relationship problems to the Viola's work. The observer of the video is also an activator, and is integral to the observer's understanding of his space, and the systems generating that kind of space: a waterfall wall delineating two worlds. When a person passes through the water, its being becomes known to us because it is broken by the form of the body. Touching. I like this idea of touching and activating. I can pinpoint to the water's finiteness when it comes into contact with my body.

We have been asked to consider our machines and the observer's relationship to the machine, specifically how the observer comes to understand the system/autopoiesis of the machine. Hearing (the droplets of water) and seeing (the steam emerging from the copper tubes), were demonstrations of du Still's system in Montreal. But there was also the generation of heat from the boiling water (another hinge point), and the question of how the tank refills itself, and these states of the machines need to be addressed. Steam and the condensed water are two hinge points in du Still's cycle, but it's not a complete system.

Since returning from Montreal, I have read Ivan Illich's H2O and the Waters of Forgetfullness. Beautiful Essays. The essays have helped clarify for me the question of the Machine's purpose. Du Still belongs to the underworld infrastructure of sewage and water treatment systems, of the modern conditioning of water and how it enters and behaves in our cities, and in our homes, between the walls, in the plumbing systems. An infrastructure tied up with nature and the potential of nature to demonstrate the fragility of our inconsiderate architecture (to borrow a term from Illich and reverse it), the disparity between the way we imagine the landscape of the city and the physical reality of the city. We are ashamed of what water carries though out modern cities, and we bury this shame. We are ashamed of a part of ourselves and we flush it down into the waters coursing through our homes, but then secretly these discarded parts of ourselves are mingled with the other discarded parts of other city dwellers. Where do they go? What do they do, individually and collectively? What does water, in its various states, do with these real and imaginary parts of ourselves, of our imagination? How does water impregnate imagination into architecture?

Water's form is nothing without the form of something it can fill or surround. Water is about becoming, the future, the imagination. It is a body meant to impregnate and give birth to a greater sense of the physicality of the environment around us.

(after Montreal) during Montreal PART QUATRE

2007-11-24T15:54:00.001-06:00

Dissolving, Daniel McGibbon, November 2007

Sublimating, Morgan Sutherland, November 2007

Ready for the show, Sealed Lid, Daniel McGibbon, November 2007

The week's workshop concluded with an exhibition. And just in time for the guests to arrive, we got the machines up and running (or steaming).

(after Montreal) during Montreal PART TROIS

2007-11-24T12:46:00.000-06:00

Water receptacle, Gregory Beck Rubin, November 2007

Thanks to the TML, I got access to the Metal workshops at the EV building. I got proper instruction on how to bend copper tube (using this coil that looks like a door stop) and also did some soldering for one of the new wands. I decided to try to different wands - one which exited the lid and extended away from the tank, above the heads of observers towards the wall, and a second which was a closed circuit, linked up to the two remaining lid manifolds. Along the path of this circuit, the tube would bifurcate, and a a slimmer tube would emerge, extend outwards and bifurcate again, and so forth. I was interested to explore the structure of the wands as branches and roots.

The new wand shapes and their position in the space directly affected the observer;s awareness of the machine in the space. The coiling forms I was making could be used to draw an observer onto a vector aligning sight, steam and light. These coils were like kaleidescope tubes, and inside the tubes were pierced at overlapping lengths to build up the intensity of steam for the observers.

Light tests & Steam tests, Gregory Beck Rubin & Daniel McGibbon, November 2007

I fired up the machine after I got my new wands reconnected to the Still tank. Some interesting discoveries were made. First, the wands vibrated when steam started to run through their lengths. I could adjust the vibration by playing with the valves on the lid. Second, it took some time before the steam would pour through all the holes I had inserted along the various wands. This was a nice effect, watching the gradual build up of steam from all the tubes. Third, the spitting of water droplets overwhelmed the polyethylene cone receptacles I hung from spring coils under the tubes where there was a hole, to capture the condensing vapour. There was still water falling on the floor (It was interesting, though, to observe the slight deformation of the cones as it filled up with water, and that weight in turn stretched the springs and the copper wands).

Steam Wands, Daniel McGibbon, November 2007

Corrosive Subliming, Gregory Beck Rubin and Daniel McGibbon, November 2007

Late late Thursday JS and I came up with these mylar platforms for catching the water droplets. The platforms also "caught" the sound of the water droplets impacting the surface. By placing a contact microphone under the platform, the noise of the water droplets were recorded by the sound system and played with as output data. This was a great discovery. Using Max MSP, the water droplets beats were turned into signals to activate Evan Marnoch's typewriter, located on the other side of the BB. We also manipulated the sound of the water droplets and played them out of a speaker nearby the most active steam wand, near the wall. Having incorporated sound and water into the du Still's actions, I was demonstrating more complexity in the machine. I was also getting a chance to play with all the components of the machine, and not just the steam output. This is important because it addresses the "cyclical" aspect of the machine as an autopoetic system. (I still need to continue developing its "circuit" but in the mean time, the installation in Montreal broadened the potential of the project: identifying hinge points in the cycle of water to steam to water, etc...).

Golden Shower, detail of MaxMSP file, Gregory Beck Rubin, November 2007

(after Montreal) during Montreal PART DEUX

2007-11-24T12:16:00.000-06:00

Wet Dream Bed Spread, Well hung, Wrapped Pole, Gregory Beck Rubin and Daniel McGibbon, November 2007

I hung the copper tank from a pole not too far from one of the BB walls. There was space between the hanging tank and the wall to suspend an elaborate steam wand. After the tank was hung, I set up the electrical, wrapped the cables around the pole and tested the motion sensor/electrical kettle element. Yes! it worked. Contrary to the preliminary sketch for setting up du Still in the BB, all the parts of the machine were hung from the poles. This arrangement was very convenient, giving me clear space around the machine to stretch the wands, interact with other installation. It also gave me a clear space for capturing the condensed water spitting out of the steam wands (when activated). What possibilities were there for using the water drops instead of treating it like an anomaly in the project?

(after Montreal) during Montreal

2007-11-24T09:31:00.000-06:00

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

(after Montreal) before Montreal

2007-11-21T23:08:00.000-06:00

Just before taking off to Montreal and working with the TML at Hexagram, Concordia, I made some additions to "du Still".

I have added two more exit tubes to the copper pot lid, with mechanical valve. Now that I know the machine produces steam, I would like the option to play with multiple tubes springing out from the kettle, allowing to fill more space, creating more play between the observer and the machine. How will they approach the machine, and how will the machine unravel itself?

I have made decisions on how to bend the tube. Looking at the natural shape of the tube, not forcing it to bend in directions beyond its engineered shape. This will affect what kinds of shapes I can generate when in Montreal, perhaps define a geometry within the system of the machine.

BEAST: schematic drawing of machine installation in black box

2007-11-02T23:11:00.000-05:00

The "new" name of the beast is du Still. When showing the work to visiting critics, or describing it to chemists in the Chemistry department, I got the same first reaction, "so...you're making moonshine" This is a nice change from the comments I got when first making the steam machine. Back then I got, "so...you're making a bomb". Well, thanks for the positive feedback. I will work that into the project.

I digress.

Above is a schematic drawing for the installation of du Still in the Black Box, Montreal, QC.
The machine is for the most part suspended. The steam wands are not fixed and could be reformed, added or subtracted in length and number. In this way we could play with the position of the floating the steam wands: above peoples heads, or laying it on the ground, and more....

BEAST: 'V' is for valve, 'W' is for wand

2007-11-02T12:48:00.001-05:00

A. 3 foot tube with 9 holes, Gregory Rubin 01.11.07

As part of exploring the control and shape of steam, I have gone through a couple of interrations of steam wand length, no. of punctures and shape. In the first case (A & B) I kept the rod straight and punctured at four centimeter intervals nine one-point-five millimeter diameter holes, all in the same direction. In the second case, I increased the number of punctures to 24, (the entire length of the tub), then bent it into a ring shape (C & D).

B. 3 foot long tube with 9 holes, Gregory Rubin 01.11.07

C. 1 foot diameter ring with 24 holes, Gregory Rubin 01.11.07

D. detail of 1 foot diameter ring with 24 holes, beast with ring wand, hole details, tub cutter, Gregory Rubin 01.11.07

The location of participant relative to light and steam machine is crucial to the experience of the beast. There is a celestial like relationship physical between light, steam and participant which needs to be constantly changing and moving in space (think of the relationship between the sun, the moon and the earth). Even after the beast is activated and steam pours from its opening, we light to and proximity to machine to feel its textures, its potential concreteness. Depending on where we stand relative to these two other sources, the steams visibility will range from invisible to visible, and within the steam visibility range, appear coloured, or perhaps neutral. Previously, I enquired as to how the machine changes atmosphere. Steam and heat are my two sources for changing the space. This exploration is ongoing, but now I want to add the following: how do we become more dynamic participants, actuators and sensors as the environmental conditions change? How does the machine draws us, the participant through the space, during the process of environmental activation? What are the ways for registering the changes in heat and humidity in space.the changes in space?

I also need to find a better way of bending my tubes!

Steam, Light and Participant Triumverate

Humidity and heat sensors are a couple of tools which could prove very useful. What would the collected data tell me about the space in which the machine exists and a activates? How might I relay this collected data back to the machine, so that it uses the information to change the way it activates the space?

Another tool that I am looking to integrate into the beast system are muscle wire activated air valves. I would like to place the air valve within the path of the steam tube wands. Muscle wire is activated by electric current. This eletro-mechanical actuator could replace the current mechanical valves I have in place. The circuitry could be connected to the Arduino, and a program to actuate the valve.

Mechanical Valve or the Electro-Mechanical Valve. choices? choices!

BEAST: locomotion

2007-10-31T21:10:00.000-05:00

Video: Gregory Beck Rubin, Music: Steve Reich's America Before the War

Notes from the latest test of the Beast:

Lighting: Projected fluorescent lighting from below the copper tubes helps to illuminate the steam. One interesting effect is how light registers the velocity of the steam as it exists the tubes. I would now like to cut more holes into the tube and see how multiple openings alter the shape and velocity of the steam. How far will the steam project? What kind of interaction can I develop by lighting the steam as objects move through its space?

Heat: The copper tubes heat up substantially once the steam starts pumping. However, you can pass your hand through the steam without burning your skin. Its a nice effect to feel the pressure of the steam, or feel the tiny droplets of moisture accumulate on the surface of your body.

Insulation and Assembly: I have decided not to insulate the tubes. This will also make it easier for me to add and subtract other tubes, paths or openings to the existing branches by simple plumbing techniques.

Projections, Dimensions: I have gathered some dimensions below to give some clues as to the space the machine might occupy in the Blackbox. One of the two copper tubes reaches over ten feet away from the boiler. From its tip, the steam projects about one foot. Contrasting this, the shorter of the two tubes, five feet, projects steam further from its own end, about one-and-a-half feet. Is there an inverse relationship between distance of tube and distance of steam projection inherent in the machine's design? How might I begin to play with the relationship between these two figures?

BEAST: suspendu...

2007-10-30T23:12:00.000-05:00

I have suspended the machine in the studio. I did a couple of tests running the machine, while it was on my desk, but would now like to test it out hanging in the air. The steam machine vibrates quite a bit once it gets going, and it will be interesting to observe these effects now that the machine floats.

I have also extended, and straightened the branches of the machine. As the branches extend further out, the section of the tube diminishes. I have not recovered the tubes with insulation because I think once the lid is securely fastened, I will recover the pressure necessary to pump steam, and the initial coolness of the tube surface will be heated by the steam.

BEAST: post crit and makings

2007-10-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

On Friday we had reviews with artist Ken Gregory. I did a test of the machine for Ken, and during the "performance" there came to the surface a few issues, read: malfunctions. Leaking water, leaking steam from the unsealed lid, cold tubes condensing the steam before it could exit the wands. We spoke about how to fix these issues. And Ken gave me some good tips on how to avoid making a bomb. He suggested looking at valve solinoids to control the pressure and flow of water into/and steam out of the tank. Also recommended I check out some websites for steam hobbyists.

Since Friday, I have been going back and adjusting the machine's details to make sure the next test works, including:

-Fixing the element connection: cleaner silicon joint
-Insulating the copper tubes
-Adding a valve to the tube carrying water into the pot
-Making the lid secure
-Making different steam wands....

Applying simple plumbing techniques, I can easily incorporate different "steam wands" to the machine's lid, like adding or subtracting limbs to the branches of a tree. I have this feeling that different types of openings along the copper tube might produce different shapes of steam. Like the water shooting from Roman fountains, I would like the steam to take on various tectonic figurations. So, while I am sealing this bomb, I have also picked up some metal bits for my Dremel to puncture the copper tube.

I am also looking at work by Greek installation artist Kounellis. Below is one example with fire, flames, propanes tanks.

Kounellis, Untitled, 1969

Kounellis' simple arrangements of fundamental elements in architecture create spectacle in unlikely spaces: burning, disintegration, weight, compression, elaboration.

There is also this video by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, "The Way Things Go". They must have had so much fun making this one...

To continue developing my machine, and as part of the workshop in Montreal, I want the Beast to become a kinetic performance. What are the possibilities in making a series of fire and water and steam installation, oxidizing different metals with a propane tank, translating invisible elements into sculpted, glowing or burning forms?

BEAST: solder and stitch and ponder

2007-10-26T09:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got down to some soldiering. The kettle pot I am using has a relatively heavy gauge, so your average 40 watt soldiering gun does nothing to heat the pot anywhere near the temperature for fusing copper with plumber's soldier; I need a propane tank and some high temperature to melt this puppy!

A couple of images of the different components I am using in the steam want. Firstly, the steam wand is connected to the lid of the pot. I have incorporated a valve into the first section of the steam want coming out of the pot lid, to help control and vary the pressure when I need to test the machine. I am using a 1/4" I.D. copper tube to channel the steam. The tube then forks, and shrinks in diameter, to a 1/8" I.D. At the ends, I will place two existing espresso steam wand tips. Having the two different steam wands will also give me the option to play around with ways I can have the steam exit into the air.

I have also been working on the water reservoir component of the beast. The large nylon "belly" rain collector joins into the water tank with snap tape. I glue, then sew the snap tape ribbons on each piece.

p.s. Trouble shooting solved! Earlier I was having trouble with the motion sensor hooked up to the kettle element; the timer was not running as to the time specification I set. It turned out to be a problem related to the kettle element and not the sensor. All the while I was running my tests, I never had the pot filled with water. Once the element was submerged in water, it not longer overheated to quickly thus setting off a the safety switch. Back to the sensor - I need to install a 120V relay to the sensor/kettle element circuit. The sensor is overheating from the high voltage. It normally serves up two light bulbs...this is a wee bit more power than that. tschuss!

BEAST: sketch and make and ponder

2007-10-22T21:59:00.000-05:00

I have made an outline sketch of my beast and begun to assemble and build the different components.

The scaffold is a lightweight frame made up with tension cables and L-section aluminum joists, and many many nuts and bolts. I can easily hang, clamp, and fix to the frame (with more nuts and bolts!) my different steam machine components.

The three main components of the Beast:

1) hot water tank
2) water reservoir
3) steam wand

The hot water tank is a component in which I have built in an electric kettle heating element. The heating element is activated by motion sensor (details of copper pot "reverse engineering" below).

The water reservoir is a kind of I.V. drip slowly and continuously replenishing the water content in the tank. A rain collector, installed at the top of the scaffold, draws collected rain water into the water reservoir. The rain collector is a stretchy nylon lined with eyelets which clasp around the edge of the frame (details of water reservoir and fabric below).

The steam wand is a long copper tube inserted into the cover of the copper pot. A long copper tube, expanding and decreasing in diameter carries the steam to the wand end where it then exits into the atmosphere. There are several possibilities as to shape and length of the steam wands. I can recycle the existing steam wand from my the MachinaKafe, or I could model my own steam wand head shape. I would like to see what kinds of steam wand head create what kind of steam "clouds".

Going back to Jenson's paper, I want to recall here her notion that the natural world is dynamic and changeable: there exists no distinction between what is artificial and what is natural.

"It is not possible to isolate the essence of the concept of nature. However, this state of affairs contains a certain potential as regards people’s reflexive interaction with their surroundings: it may provide us with greater possibilities than we have had before to observe and evaluate our own relationship to that which surrounds us."
-Jenson, Remarks on nature, super-ecology, life, production, position and other negotiations

My hope is to make a beast which exists and operates withing different scales and types of systems: atmospheric, meteorological, 19th century steam mechanics, the cultural history of the invented landscape. The beast sympathizes these different conditions into a singular, perhaps chaotic, existence. For example the beast draws from the weather system what it lacks from in extracting in the mechanical construct, and in so doing, allies the complexities and realities of the interdependent ecology we all exist in.

I have been mostly working on the first two components: reverse engineering my copper pot, and making a home made IV drip. I am trying to incorporate details and parts from the first MachinaKafe as I assemble the parts of the beast. Am also looking into parts and details that can be food in kitchen equipment and crockery.

Trouble shooting ! Some trouble has come up with the timer attached to the motion sensor. I would like the kettle, once tripped to "on" by the motion sensor, to run for ten minutes. Unfortunately, it doesn't want to keep the element on for more than 16 seconds. I wonder if this is a result of something in the sensor, or the element... not sure as of yet.

Crits, readings and beast evolution

2007-10-18T16:53:00.001-05:00

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

BEAST: test 2

2007-10-16T09:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I did a couple of steam tube connection tests, trying different combination of connections and valves with silicon and copper tubes, and brass valves. I copied the existing connection details in the MachinaKafe when I made the new connections.

I also did a couple of steam tests, now that I had extended the tubes. I added ten feet of tube length to the machines output, and the pressure is noticeably lighter, but still there.

I took the machine outside where the cold air would help condense the steam and make it more visible. Unfortunately, my new silicon connection blew under the pressure if the steam. I then took the length of silicon tube out of the tube path, and tried the experiment again. It worked!

BEAST: sketch and write and test

2007-10-15T00:23:00.000-05:00

I would like if I could make my machine make itself disappear in a white cloud.

As I have earlier described in the Vivisection brief, the MachinaKafe is built from materials and operates on mechanical principles refined in 19th century manufacturing processes. In this sense, the MachinaKafe is a summary of all machines of the 19th century; in their design, fashioning and operation, machines replicated the divine act and accordingly succeeded the place of the divine figure in cultural history to this day. The consequences of such a massive cultural shift are numerous and take off in many different directions and criticism. When I began this Vivisection project, I read Paul Virilio's The Art of the Motor, and then felt sorry for myself a few days after....just kidding, but in some small measure I couldn't help but be affected by his despair over civilization unconscious submission to the sublimity of omniscient machine world around us (and now, in the 21st century, growing in us too). Machines are not just all around us, but they are idealizations of ourselves, our bodies, and our aspirations.

The Machine as Divine being, or C O F F E E___E X - M A C H I N A

If the machine is God, then how does God make himself know to us? Through his divine acts.
The MachinaKafe is shrouded in a white cloud, brought out from within to veil from us the nature of the apparition's source. The cloud essentially changes the question we ask the machine: what are you? to what do I compare you to from all the other machines around me? The cloud elevates and sanctifies the machine.

"I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the most High."
-Isaiah 14:14, King James Bible

The sketch above is a quick doodle of how I might install y machine. I would like the whole apparatus to be suspended, preferably over a bowl of water or any other body of water (it could be natural), and a series of new and delicate copper steam wands, branches springing from the original and singular tube twirl about the divine water tank. From their mouths, white steam pours out and clouds the entire construct.

I did a few tests today of what a white cloud coming out of the steam wand might look like (this puppy can fill the basement corridor with fog no problemo!)...and I am quickly learning that "making the cloud" will go through many-a-trial-and-error processes. One thing for sure is that I will probably want to install my machine in the outdoors as the cold air produces a better effect, and makes less mess in the studio (pardon the slippery floor around the front door to the Studio). Since I made the sketch above, I had the idea of installing my machine in the School courtyard. I think the peaceful enclosure would enhance the experience of encountering the "cloud".

Beast Inspiration: Hydra

2007-10-13T21:06:00.001-05:00

While reading Les Miz the below image appeared, a dreadful beast just emerged from the swamp water nears Lerna. Non tocarre!

The Hydra, fuming noxious gases from its many twisted necks has the body of a hound and the head of many serpents. It is a mythical creature living in water, but also represented by the largest constellation in the heavens. The Hydra is also a hybrid plant/animal creature whose extending tentacle network sweeps the water surface in search of prey. So similar is its anatomical structure, regenerative process and nerve toxins to the mythical creature that its discoverers naturally named the freshwater polyp after its beastly predecessor.

Could the figure of the Hydra play some part (large or small) in my Beast making?

Delightful Beast Makers: Jean-Pierre Gauthier and Arthur Ganson

2007-10-13T15:27:00.000-05:00

Drawing Shadows

Jean-Pierre Gauthier's Marqueurs d'Incertitude is the latest work to appear in the Architecture II Gallery. A group of three mechanized "bugs", each attracted to its own wall, are made to move up and down, back and forth, according to some very simple mechanics and motors simply assembled and delightfully integrated into the aesthetic of the wiry but fresh and playful curves and colours of the bugs, which are themselves drawing machines, each fitted with one or two sticks of conte and smudge sticks scribbling, smudging and scratching at the surface of the walls.

Over the course of hours and days, layers of soft conte lines build up one next to the other, one on top of the other. What becomes apparent from the collection of minute affectations on the stark white wall surface is a large and complex tracing of the minutia of the wall surface, "its history", brought to the surface as one drawing but still evolving as long as the bugs keep flailing about.

We got the chance to meet with Jean-Pierre before the opening. He gave an introduction to his method of making these marqueurs, as well as some tips for our own Studio work: how we could use motors, gears, and approach the making of "beasts" with a degree of simplicity and single focus.

Seeing his work was part of a series of introductions to other artists working in the same genre of playful machine making. A few days earlier we watched a film of Arthur Gandson's work, "A Few Machines". It was the first time I had seen his skillfully assembled metal cranks and gizmos, and I found it all delightful. I would love to show this to my very young cousins - I think they would get such a kick out of his inventions!

ACADIA Halifax 2007

2007-10-12T23:46:00.001-05:00

a

b

Just shy two week now, myself and six of my cohorts (+) Professor Harrop visited Halifax for eight days, with the focus on participating in different workshops exploring emerging technologies and fabrication systems, as well as attending presentations at the ACADIA conference. On the side, though, I had eight days to make a great little adventure out of exploring the city, catching up with friends from Waterloo (also attending the conference and workshops), and venturing out to the South
Shore whose beautiful coast I had not set eyes (or stomach) on in fourteen years: Remember Peggy's Cove Ma?!

W O R K S H O P S

c

I was in the ceramics workshop, headed by Neil Forrest, Professor of Ceramics at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD). The workshop was spread over three days, which included some presentations from visiting industrial artists and engineers R&D'ing sustainable systems (inc. Monty Stauffer, formerly resident artist and now employee at Kohler Arts/Industry Program, and Dr. William Carty from Alfred University researching sustainable ceramic wall systems), and time to get hands messy making clay forms for the press and slip moulds. Originally, the intent of the workshop was to work with the ram press (see video), but unfortunately, we never did. However, we did get to watch the NSCAD students go through the process of making moulds for the press.

Three days wasn't enough for me to go through iterations of mould making and form exploration, so I stayed on a few more days to keep working (thanks Neil for the extra time and space!). Two weeks ago, I knew very little about the make-up of ceramics and how it could enhance sustainable systems in architecture and other high tech industries. Now I know a little bit about ceramics, and would hope the learning curve keeps going up in the near future.

One way would be to try to integrate what I started making at the workshop into my own studio dedale work. I would be very interested to bring ceramic pipes into the beast mechanism of my MachinaKafe. Back in Halifax I made a mould of four generic forms of pipes. This is my first ever slip mould, and I should like to run some tests now that I back in the 'Peg.

d

a. The grain elevators at the Halifac Harbour. b. Thicket, Porcelain. Work by Neil Forrest, Professor of Ceramics, NSCAD, Halifax. c. Ceramic molecules: hexagonal in form, easy to compress and keep tightly packed. The molecules call trace sound vibrations and will organize themselves in a pattern according to the shapes of sound waves passing through the material. There is also a positive and negative pole to each molecule - ceramics can carry currents. d. my third attempt at mould making: four differnt pipes for a slip mould.

P R E S E N T A T I O N S

The second half of the week in Halifax was chalk full with Paper sessions and presentations of new research in "all things" related to the topic of "Expanding Bodies". There was a mix of professionals and academics presenting papers ranging from "The Ocean Tracking Network" to "Designing Mixed Realities: Principles, Projects and Practice". There were also a series of keynote addresses. Roy Ascott's was edgy and thought provoking. Others were not so hot...When the air the lecture room got stale my friends and I would take off on our "exploring Halifax" sessions - morning, noon and night!

Surreal Suburbia, Halifax, Gregory Beck Rubin October 5 2007

Readings: Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables"

2007-10-12T22:23:00.001-05:00

Alongside Babbage, I am reading Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables".

an aside:

I spent my youth in a strict French School where our professors revealed to me and my classmates (several times over, year after year) everything great in this world has been endowed to humanity thanks to the French. And I believed them! So enamoured was I by the rule of the French that I insisted on adding the letter 'E' to the end of every word I spelled...

Now back to the reading. I picked up the text because it is a long time coming that a student of architecture such as myself should get to know the work and its awesome architectural dimensions. And while I would like to talk about sewers and guts of another dimension figuring prominently in the novel, I mention Hugo at this point in the blog for another reason. There is a wonderfully petit chapter about water and sky that caught my attention as I began to wonder about my beast machine. I have dutifullied copied it below (and broken some copyright rules along with it, pardonez-moi SVP), it is lovely and terrifying.

Book Two: The Outcast, Chapter Eight: Sea and Shadow

"Man Overboard!
But the ship does not stop. The wind is blowing and the doomladen vessel is set on a course from which it cannot depart. It sails on.
The man sinks and reappears, flings up his arms and shouts, but no one hears. The ship, heeling in the wind, is intent upon its business, and passengers and crew have lost sight of him, a pinpoint in the immensity of the sea.
He calls despairingly, gazing in anguish after the receding sail as, ghostlike, if fades from view. A short time ago he was on board, a member of the crew buy on deck with the rest, a living being with his share of air and sunlight. What has become of him now? He slipped and fell, and this is the end.
He is adrift in the monstrous waters with only their turbulence beneath him, hideously enclosed by wave-crests shredded by the wind, smothered as they break over his head, tumbled from one to another, rising and sinking into unfathomable darkness where he seems to become a part of the abyss, his mouth filled with bitter resentment at this treacherous ocean that is so resolved to destroy him, this monster toying with his death. To him, the sea has become the embodiment of hatred.
But he goes on swimming, still struggles despairingly for life, his strength dwindling as he battles against the inexhaustible. Above him he can see only the black pallor of the clouds. He is the witness in his death-throes of the immeasurable dementia of the sea, and, tormented by this madness, he hears the sounds unknown to man that seem to come from some dreadful place beyond the bounds of earth. There are birds flying amid the clouds as angels soar over the distresses of mankind, but what can they do for him? They sing as they glide and hover, and he grasps for life.
He is lost between the infinite of the sea and sky, the one a tome, the other a shroud. Darkness is falling. He has swum for hours until his strength is at an end and the ship with its company of men has long since passed from sight. Solitary in the huge gulf of twilight he twists and turn, feeling the waves of the unknowable close in upon him. And for the last time he calls, but not to man. Where is God?
He calls to anyone or anything - he calls and he calls but there is no reply, nothing on the face of the waters, nothing in the heaves. He calls to the sea and the spray, but they are deaf; he calls to the winds, but they are answerable only to infinity. Around him dusk and solitude, the heedless tumult of wild waters; within him, terror and exhaustion; below him the descent into nothingness. No foothold. He pictures his body adrift in that limitless dark. The chill numbs him. He hands open and close, clutching at nothing. Wind and tumult and useless stars. What can he do? Despair ends in resignation, exhaustion chooses death, and so at length he gives up the struggle and his body sinks for ever.
Such is the remorseless progression of human society, shedding lives and souls as it goes on its way. It is an ocean into which men sink who have been cast out by the law and consigned, with help most cruelly withheld, to moral death. The sea is the pitiless social darkness into which penal system casts those it has condemned, an unfathomable waste of misery. The human soul, lost in those depths, may become a corpse. Who shall revive it?"

Right, so that last paragraph is a bit too moralizing for me, but it does not take away from the overall startling and fearful impression Hugo creates in the characters of Wind and Water. I recently made a little sketch of how I want to set up my beast, and I noted that alongside the amplification of the noises and vapour effects of the MachinaKafe, I also need to retrace the inherent hierarchy of water and steam elements as devised by the form and section of apparatus. I am looking for datums; steam and hot water stem from the same source, but when heated and carried off by the laws of gravity and the aid of some tubes become two very different element whose physical transformations have the potential to illuminate very different and contrasting effects on space and our reading of space.

bonne nuit!

Humbaba and Tim Hawkinson (and another)

2007-10-12T17:51:00.000-05:00

f

"Call me Guardian of the Fortress of Intestines. Or, Humbaba for short."

...?

The next task of MachinaKafe (following vivisection) is to transform the machine into a beast.

What is the beast? And how is it activated?

The beast is Humbaba, manifested by the gurgling noises of the water tank and the shrouding effects of steam; an apparition of beautiful white smoke belying scalding temperatures, suspending the source of unpleasant groans we often associate the movement of bowls.

In ancient Mesopotamian story telling, Humbaba is the embodiment of our darkest fears - our insides, our intestines.

Our being depends on the smooth operation of our guts and pulsing heart, but we are cautious and squeamish to explore them: their shape, they touch, their organization. We deliberately close our ears to the pulse of our own heartbeat, to knowing the moist and warm feeling of our intestines. We have our skin to seal off our touching and mishandling of our insides, and we have our eyes and ears and fingers and toes, directed outward to distract us with the knowledge of the outside world. We are squeamish, and often afraid to explore that which is inside, to know what we are, to acknowledge all the shit that passes through our system. There is no light inside our bodies, or at least we imagine our apparatus going about in total darkness. There is nothing to illuminate a vision of the human construct. Are bodies are simultaneously full and void.

When I took apart the MachinaKafe, I became intimate with its apparatus, its guts. I also developed a level of excitement at knowing how it worked the way it did. It is common nowadays to celebrate and glamorize the machine as beautiful object. Intriguing then, that we still resist celebrating the machine of our bodies. There are, of course, people who do celebrate the machine as a body (and I will get to that soon enough), but for the most part, this resistance to align the aesthetic of the machine outside our bodies with the machines inside our bodies is a disturbing and grotesque subject I will explore with the beast I make from the MachineKafe.

Part of the celebration of machines as beautiful objects stems from our glamorizing the scientific precision that informs its design and order. Even in the MachinaKafe, there is an admirable degree of efficiency in materials and organization. It is an intricate mesh of metal bodies and flalling wires, that in the end fit together very nicely inside a so-so (but also carefully designed) looking plastic casement. And it works great for what it was set out to do.

What happens then when it does not work the way it does? Or, from another perspective: how does our impression of the celebrated machine alter when we distort or "twist" its normal function? What do we begin to see in the grotesque machine that would also make us think about and question our own internal machine?

I am interested in manipulating (through amplification) the effects the sonic and visual qualities of steam and water. I would like to experiment with the gurgling noises of the boiling water and pumping steam. I would also like to experiment with steam, to increase its output, and use it as a kind of shrouding devise. In this way I can align the beastly character of MachineKafe with Humbaba; these are the same effects that our aching stomachs produce, and they are the reminders that our bodies are not voids. Every time we hear that tremor, we are reminded, perhaps unwillingly that there is apparatus going on without our touch, without our implicit directing and ordering about. And perhaps that gurgle is even a reminder of our weaknesses, of something not going right, of the machine falling to pieces. A reminder of the falibilty of what we have come to celebrate after the age of industrialization, the godlike power of all things mechanized.

So how is it activated? Still thinking on that one....aiyah! In the mean time, allow me to distract you with some tentalizing images....

Tim Hawkinson
(a. penitent 1994 b. Pnueman 1994 c. Balloon 1993, Reservoir 1995 , Head 1995
d. Uberorgan 2000)

a & b

c

d

Hermann Nitsch
(e. Last Supper 1976-79 f. Das Orgien Mysterien Theater 1990)

e

Readings: Charles Babbage, "On The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures" London 1835

2007-10-11T13:52:00.001-05:00

I have previously stated that steam, water and steam power are specific characteristics of the MachinaKafe that I would like to further explore in the Studio Dedale. One key source I have turned to at the beginning of my research are the works of Charles Babbage. Babbage was a 19th century English Engineer.

"[...] we shall notice, in the art of making even the most insignificant of them,
processes calculated to excite our admiration by their symplicity
or to rivet our attention by their unlooked-for results."
(On The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures p.3)

So begins Charles Babbage's essay, stop.

So begins my reading of Charles Babbage's essay on the manufacturing processes of 19th England, its impact of the distribution of labour between men and the consequent restructuring society's daily lives.

"The three principle advantages derived from mechanical and
manufacturing processes seem to arise principally from three sources:
-The addition which they make to human power.
- The economy they produce of human time.
- The converion of substances apparently common and worthless
into valuable products."
(On The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures p.6)

What are the consequences of such restructuring of people's capacity when the men who make transform into the men who delegate? What is this economic framing of time? What happens to men when time is mechanized? What are the effects of the three eight hour shift days (eight hours sleep? eight hours work? eight hours leisure?)? What is leisure time versus work or mechanized time?

If machines have a conscious then their conscious is absolute, resolute, even righteous. The separation of labour from man, implanted in the machine is the simultaneous draining of certainty, of heirarchy, of order perceived in the physical world around us. Doubt, imagination, anarchy, impiousness, chaos, overtake the drive of our minds. Certainly the Springtime revolutions of 1848 (Milan, Paris, etc...), mass transformation of traditional European city centres into modern day infrastructures (Haussmann's Paris), and the invention of the Picturesque landscape (Olmstead's numerous invented natures), each point to symptoms of social unrest going on hand in hand with the mechanization of landscape. I am cautious, however, and note, that I can not say for certain what are the connections, if such connections exist. This is all a brief overview, and of course, requires more in-depth research and analysis. Please comment!!

.....Back to Babbage......

On steam power:

"The force of vapour is another source of moving power:
but even in this case it cannot be maintained that power is created.
Water is converted into elastic vapour by the combustion of fuel.
The chemical changes which thus take place are constantly
increasing the atmosphere by large quantities of carbonic
acid and other gases noxious to animal life. The means by which
nature decomposes these elements, or reconverts them into a solid
form, are not sufficiently known: but if the end could be
accomplished by mechanical force, it is almost certain that the power
necessary to produce it would at least equal that which was generated by
the original combustion. Man, therefore, does not create power; but, availing
himself of his knowledge of nature's mysteries, he applies his talents to
diverting a small and limited portion of her energies to his own wants: and
whether he employs the regulated action of steam, or the more rapid and
tremendous effect of gunpowder, he is only producing on a small scale
compositions and decompositions which nature is incessantly at work
in reversing, for the restoration of that equilibrium which we cannot
doubt is constantly maintained throughout even the most
remotest limits of our system."
(On The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures p.18)

(excuse the long excerpt!) Out of the text many suggestions begin to flood my head as to the nature of the machine as god-like figure, the place of the machine, if it is a mere representation of nature, within the object/subject context, or the physical attributes of vapour: ethereal, light, burning, mystifying. I think it is relevant to delve more into this approach to the MachinaKafe and my own interest with water steam hierarchies both defined by the form and operation of the machine, and outside sources too.

Thoughts and other droolings (iDigress machinaKafe)

2007-09-27T11:44:00.000-05:00

Alongside the Vivisection work, I have been doing some reading and research into 19th century mechanization, Virilio’s essay “The Art of the Motor”, and dwelling on things I associate with the 19th Century. When you say: “19th Century Europe!”

I think (in alphabetical order):

- Casper David Friedrich
- Enlightenment
- The Encyclopedia
- Gare St. Lazare, Paris and the Modern City
- JMW Turner & John Constable
- Museum as Public institution
- Romanticism
- Rise of Nationalism and the “Nation-State”
- Large Scale Industrialization Steam Engine
- Subject/Object dominance in Painting

(Wait a sec - some of these things are from the 18th Century...hmm)

Moving along,

Following the vivisection, I intend to physically transform the machinaKafe’s application. I would like to explore, by transforming it into a cultural artifact, a metaphore of architecture’s purpose, or ability (strength? Hold over culture?) after the 19th century, rise and rapid deployment of high speed communication and the evaporation of real distance and space. That’s a lot of bullshit (I know – its so vague).

Steam is so hot. And it’s invisible, sort of. It can cover visible things and then make them invisible. Water is clear. Its also highly reflective, able to create true and fantastically distorted images of reality.

VIVISECTION: machinaKafe: disassembly phase three

2007-09-27T11:33:00.000-05:00

Disassembly Phase Three of machinaKafe explores and reveals the mechanics of the machine by documenting specifically the gears and technology of the apparatus’ components and their inter-active functions.

The Water Tank section demonstrates the hierarchical relationship between water and steam, light and heavy, visible and invisible. There are no tubes, or pumps required to deliver the steam – there is but a pathway, a series of portals. Conversely the water is drawn from the base of the tank through a silicon tube.

Alongside this documentation, an exploded axonometric drawing demonstrates the fundamental logic of the machine, the manner of dividing and channeling separate steam and water quantities through the various connecting and delivering elements, simultaneously controlling the flow of electrical power required o heat (assumed) Nichrome wire embedded in the tank: the tank for boiling water, the head for dividing steam from water, the levers which control the “timing” and “location” for carrying water and steam to final destinations. In the photos below, we see all the components laid out.

VIVISECTION: machinaKafe: disassembly phase two

2007-09-25T00:41:00.001-05:00

Disassembly Phase Two of machinaKafe looks at the striped object and begins to explore more intimately the process by which it operates and how I can affect its “set” process.

Similar to the beginning of the project, a steam test is performed, but this time with the ability to “see” and “incorporate” myself in the mechanics’ choreography. My new intimacy with the process also leads me to wonder more about the spectacle of the technology (the noise of the steam, the pulse of the water pressure, my hand releasing steam pressure). I am especially interested in the steam and water elements of the machine.

The large heating element and connecting steam wand, and water dispenser with the element for holding the portafilter form the guts of the machine. The main body, the tank becomes very hot when activated. And similar to the complete machine resting on four silicon tabs, the heating element straddles above the floor by resting on four of its own silicon tabs installed in the plastic body part (as shown in the photos).

VIVISECTION: machinaKafe: disassembly phase on

2007-09-24T10:18:00.000-05:00

Disassembly Phase One of machinaKafe explores and de-nudes the "facade" of the object.

Below is a sequence of the striptease. And teased I was! There was more screwing than I expected before I could open this puppy up. The various knobs and points securing the plastic components together are hidden well. These things are not meant to be open with great force. To "gently" pull the components apart, always look under the silicon tabs for hidden screws! The silicon tabs, under the plastic base are (my guess) part the fire safety design of the machine.

This is (in my opinion) a pretty ugly machine, but the design is coherent, and I appreciate that more having held glazed over the various components for many hours.

VIVISECTION: machinaKafe: testing the steam wand before vivisection

2007-09-24T10:15:00.000-05:00

VIVISECTION: machinaKafe

2007-09-24T09:40:00.000-05:00

The machine I will be "vivisecting" is a Toastess espresso machine hybrid.

Like an espresso machine, it comes with:
-portafilter
-filter
-carafe
-steam wand
-trough
-trough filter

But it functions different from espresso machine:
-the filter is much much larger than a typical espresso filter. The amount of coffee placed the filter well exceeds the amount of four espressos.
-the coffee produced is more Americano, less Espresso. There is no "espresso option", only "make coffee" option.
-the machine itself does not control the time flow of water filtering through the coffee, you the user does.
-the steam wand does not come with a timer, nor a gauge to control flow.
-the carafe is much larger than a single or double espresso cup. It holds roughly 1 cup of fluid.
-its all or nothing function in this machine.

Below are photos of the machine.

Question no.2: What are my three objects?

2007-09-19T20:29:00.000-05:00

In alphabetic order are listed my three chosen objects:

Alarm Clock

- plastic hemisphere, 91 mm in diameter;
- single AA power source;
- can be mounted on magnetic surface;
- can be propped on a stand (provided);
- can be taken anywhere with you;
- alarm must be manually set with a dial;
- 12 hour revolution: alarm rings twice daily;
- clock ticks deep & quiet
- alarm emits vulgar, piercing noise;
- football is the sport of the world.

Moka Express

- 155 mm tall and 140 mm wide stove top espresso maker;
- aluminum body with plastic handle and "fez";
- 3 sections: a) well b) filter c) bath tub;
- conjures delicious warm aromas;
- transforms treasure from the East into Western obsession;
- this particular model makes three short espresso or one 'americano forte'.

Mystery Keys and Keyring Accessories / lost & found object

- found and appropriated late evening Tuesday, September 11, on a postbox, Spence and Balmoral;
- 2 key rings
- 5 keys ranging metals and in length from 63 mm to 36 mm long;
- one black Fox Forty whistle
- one "Ambassador" tag, with inscription on reverse;
- one plastic key suction tag;
- one black nylon bag with pull string;
- inside bag: a section of a green plastic straw, 5 mm diameter, 66 mm long.

- keys were lost by whom?
- can the keys "tell" me where they live?
- how were they lost?
- what has been lost?

- who, what, where, why, how do the five keys unlock?
- what is the purpose of a key without its lock?
- could their locks be recreated?
- what new secrets would they hod?

Question no.1: What are my Obsessions?

2007-09-19T20:04:00.001-05:00

Some obsessions of mine include world peace, saving the Amazon, stopping malaria from killing needlessly. There is a perfectly good vaccination for malaria and the issue – like ending world hunger, another obsession of mine – is simply a matter of distribution. Other obsessions of mine include: veganism, zero-carbon living and the micro-banking projects currently undertaken by the 2006 Nobel Laureate Muhammed Yunus.

Oh yeah, I’m some kind of freak.

Or I’m not. And my real obsession actually boils down to that one thing that every person my age should rightfully claim as his or her sole obsession – as well as all the superficial things that go along with it. In the end, we can only be obsessed with shallow things. Everything else we malapropistic-ally refer to as our ‘obsessions’ are, at most, passions, or, more frequently, passing fads. I’m not Craig Kielburger. I’m glad he’s out there. I think about him – and all he represents – every so often. But I’m not obsessed.

Moving on.

I cannot say, either, that I am obsessed with architecture, but I am passionate about it. I wrote my application to University of Manitoba solely about walls. I don’t know that it was particularly coherent but there it was: walls. Deep passion. Care deeply about cladding, in its various forms. Sometimes call it an obsession – what could be more, in a sense, superficial than cladding, which would thereby qualify it as a possible obsession? – but lying to myself when I do.

Also not obsessed but passionate about order. Like to make my bed – maybe even slightly pathological about making my bed. Mother! Also obsessed with my mother – though not actually. Only one person out there was obsessed with his mother – really obsessed, in the way we only really obsess over that one thing – and I still have my eyes.

Order is good – good for a certain kind of architect. Order is, one might say, an architectural passion. We bring celestial order to the changing world – unless we call ourselves Daniel Libeskind. Then we bring the ‘horrible scary disorder of 20th century existence, with all its strobe light nightmares’ to the changing world.

The closest I might come to an actual obsession is food, or, more properly, haute cuisine. Evidence for this was the time I became ‘obsessed with’ (passionate about) a restaurant in New York called WD50. There I ate anus-flavoured venison tartar sausages and drank the contents of 400-year-old sac of fermented sugar, which the waiter described as ‘wine’. Having eaten previously at Jean-Georges, Pastis, Moulin de Mougins, Gordon Ramsay’s, Tom Aikens, Susur, and so on, what I may perhaps glean from my repulsive experience at WD50 is that my passion for eating haute-cuisine had finally been surpassed by my passion for eating at famous restaurants. Superficiality wins again.

In some ways I long for the old days, when my two great abovementioned passions met in the form of a gingerbread Chrysler Tower, 3 and a half feet high. Back then, before the BIG OBSESSION took hold, I bordered on enjoying actual, not superficial, obsession, just as I am sure that one day, when I am too old for the BIG OBSESSION, I will once again enjoy the purity of being truly obsessed with something, if even for a short time.

In the meantime, however, I cannot be other than I am. Time to go condition my hair...

gingerbread chrysler 1999/g. rubin

bitte

2007-09-12T12:28:00.000-05:00

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