chicks on speed

not me! the singing ones!

here is a little wonderfulness to brighten up everyone art making sessions.
Art Rules

 art star recipe: 2 c gelatin mix well, stir in concept, technology as well, whip in some finance, a pinch of cocaine, add a harmless scandal- a media plan. all cooked up by your right hand man....     where are all the women?  they're underneath the men!    * note biennialeeee!

what looks good today- will it look good tomorrow?

I'm all out of finance, not to mention everything else....

Deep breath...

so i have put the finishing touches on my breath chamber ( some satin draping on the inside to make it pitch black and sensuous) and some nice edging to give the edges of it a finished polished look. Now i am working with my new usb mic to get some good breathing sounds for inside it. possibly put the speaker under the waterbed mattress so that the participant (you) will not hear the sounds of the breathing until your head is laying on the bed, and hopefully the sound will also gently vibrate the water.
This seems to be a response to the overwhelmed and over visually stimulated feeling i had when i was at my first residency. A place to focus on the most automatic and basic of all functions that has such a big affect on our feelings but is completly ignored through most of our days. well my days at least!  breath plays such an important role in yoga, meditation, and many religions that i seems that a place dedicated to breating would be a good thing to have when overwhelmed and stressed.

I started working on the next installation, a drippy performancey  hangy projection thing! real descriptive, huh. So i experimented with beeswax i had hanging around and pouring it over ice i had frozen in different containers and balloons. . i embedded twine in the water and suspended the ice chunk while pouring the wax over it. the wax made some amazing crazy shapes and the water gushed and melted. after a while the water melted and dripped out leaving this hollow drippy wax in the shape of the ice just hanging there. I also experimented with dipping a ton of different fabrics in the bees wax. One of my tulle's just looks amazing, the wax leaves certain cells of it empty and fills others. My mentor and i discussed projecting something onto sheets of the dipped tulle hung from the ceiling. the image would be visible on the places the wax was but go onto the walls and people walking through where the wax left empty. In the middle of this waxy fabric projection space i want to hang the ice sculptures  and pour the wax over the ice. Under the ice will be either a drip pan with contact mic and amplifier to project the sound of the drips or a drum like structure that will amplify the dripping sound.
I keep on coming back to the idea of what this actually "means" and it seems to be about presence and absence. the idea of trying to preserve the presence of something that will inevitably disappear. the sound of the drip is very much integral to the passing of time that also strongly influences this piece. an exploration of time, smell, sound, touch and sight on the expereince of place and emotions. Clearly the image i project will be very influential on the experience. perhaps a video of the melting pouring dripping process? The ccd bee thing seems a bit too literal and i dont think i want to push it that direction.

Ideally this would be in a dark dark room (any trends being noticed) and the only light would come from the projection and possibly led's frozen into the water that i pour wax over. (although i dislike the blue white light from the leds and would like to experiment with (safely) freezing small bulbs (like tree lights) who knows what happens when you freeze and melt a bulb and its electrical wire? I'll find out! (if i don't post for a while I've probably electrocuted myself) Have a zapping good day!

back to the blog

so after a little hiatus i am back to this blog thingy. What have i been doing? Lets see- i made the  waterbed cave room and am now working on some music for it. Once i spent a few hours in home depot playing in the pvc pipe aisle (attracting many strange looks) it came together quite well. I also have started playing with cheese clothy fabric, tule, spray paint and string and hanging it from the ceiling and shining lights at/through it. the strings that i am sewing through it make interesting shadows.   listening to bsbd, john cage, brian eno, the kinks (thanks dan graham), and reading A LOT.  Dan Graham , James Turrell, Allan Kaprow, the clockwork universe, blurring the boundrians, a short guide to writing about art, the poetics of space, installation art a critical history, Space and Place: a perspective on experience Yi-Fu Tuan. And went to NYC and boston and saw some art. NYC went to PS1, dont they think that are the essence of hot. (and totally are NOT) lots of people standing around in the courtyard dressed like schizophrenic good will thieves (and this is coming from me) pretending to enjoy the worlds worst dj at ear drum shattering volume. and the "art" was 99% terrible. shitty videos claiming to be installations. "Why" you ask "would i go there?". Well to experience James Turrell's "Meeting". And it was amazing, big room with square cut out of roof open to sky uncomfortable plywood benches and comfy floor for laying on. I went at dusk and the color of the sky and (white) room chaged dramaticly in the hour and a half i was there. It was quite meditative (despite all the hipsters chatting and weaving in and out) and the ceiling did this wierd backward forward almost optical illusion thing with the sky. and quite amazingly many people initally thought that it was a projected video of the sky!!! (perhaps all that video art seeped into their brains). So what have i NOT been doing- house work. that is right, dishes and laundry galore, dirt in every corner, and i wont mention the state of my fridge.  I draw the line at clean toilets, sheets, and underwear. (just in case you were worried). Dont you all want to visit?

Updated website! and starter statement

Here is my blurb about this semsters project on my website http://www.ndaviau.weebly.com/ . I am also in the process of making buisness cards (inspired by the fabulous ones i was given by all you at the residency...)

Currently I am creating 8760 felt balls to make a giant ball "pit".This project will be installed January 6th at The Art Institute of Boston as my fall semesters work. The balls will be unrestrained, piled up for jumping in and playing with. In the installation space there will also be an audio track playing with sounds of children playing, at school, video gaming etc.

  Each ball will represent an hour in a year of a child’s life (8,760 hours in one year), color coded to an activity. Red for free play, blue for television, video game and computer use, purple for school, orange for family time, green for structured activity (i.e. sport scouting, music lessons etc) yellow for sleep.

 My hope is to encourage adults and children to play and interact in a non goal directed, unspecified way. Adults are not encourage to free play, the activity "toys" for adults are expensive cars, atv's, new cleaning devices, boats, shopping, and of course the TV,  internet and I phone's host of distractions. As a mother of a play loving toddler I find myself being begged to play and often greeting this as a chore. "Shouldn’t I be doing something more "productive" with my time" I think. I miss being able to throw away the to-do list and play in an imaginary world more convincing than this one. When I am able to answer to the call of the child I find myself feeling significantly happier and less stressed, the dirty dishes and bills no longer seem so important- play therapy for a stressed adult. This space will be a reprive from the nagging humdrum of daily life, an open ended space for the child in everyone to come out and play.

If you are interested in helping with the project by making a felt ball (or a thousand) please contact me through my email nmdaviau@gmail.com Thanks!

interesting article

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/635134.html  Point of article -children are now spending almost 8 hours a day using electronic media!!!!  the demise of free play.... the article touches on problems of multitasking, attention, socializing and academics. I am also starting a separate web page that  i will link to my blog to give to the felt united  www.feltunited.com  people who have generously offered to post about it and encourage people participating and generate interest.

art time!

So my fabulous husband has swooped up my son for their new saturday afternoon routine of daddy son time so i can actually make progress on my art.  now that i am done with full time summer camp art teaching he will also be attending to the wee one mornings when he come home from work (3rd shift sucks) so i can get to work! THANK YOU MOLLY for your fabulous suggestion! I love the idea of play/ prison. Talk about idle time on hands to play-- and make felt balls. my first wholesale order of felt should be comming in next week! I have done some serious reading and am updating my reading list- which for some reason does not seem to be comming up on my blog as visible. so i will also post it here: 1. Children at Play: an American History, by chudacoff 2. there are no children here by kotlowttz 3. childhood and society by erikson 4 becoming animal an earthly cosomology by david abram 4. the evolution of childhood by konner 5. last child in the woods by louv ( one of my favorites)

fabulous news!

I spoke with christine white (owner of new england felting supply and friend of friend) about my project and she was very enthusiastic and helpful. I have started a few trial balls in my washing machine and testing different felts and temperatures and other variables, (load size, pantie hose type, detergents or none) Christine had excellent suggestions for wholesale suppliers of felt and also a great tip to check into Felt United! an amazing international  movement http://www.feltunited.com/  check it out here! to encourage felting as a way to connect people and encourage felting. I emailed elis ( co founder) and she thought using felt united day would be a great way to get communities . I am also recruiting some of my elementary kids to help out ( i have made balls with them out of felt as a project many  times and they are beyond eager to be a part of a "real" artists project. So we shall see! If i can make at least 63 balls every day for 20 weeks i will have enough for the project! any volunteers?!! free felting lesson in exchange for balls!

8,760 felt balls?

So i have embarked on the revised ball pit. during a series of long drives to and from work my idea became more concrete. I was thinking about what the ball pit idea means to me and realized that the balls represent the idea of play to me. Play is a big part of my life, i was an avid player as a child (as most) and now with my three year old am immersed in play allll day long. everything is a game and nothing is as it seems spoons talk and inanimate objects have personalities. However wonderful this is i find myself feeling guilty about my sometimes reluctance to play and miss just playing as a child, being able to forget about bills and to do lists. not the kind of play involving an activity like a sport but just quite time lost in my own imaginary worlds. i then began to think about how children play less and less with found objects instead turning to one directional toys, video games, computers, i pod games, back seat dvd players, and of course a huge chunk of each day going to school and structured post school activities. where is the free play in the woods on the block. I started reading a book about this before the beginning of the residency that i decided to re rent from the library called "children at Play: an American history". it is amazing. So i am going to make one felt ball (ball pit size) for each hour of the year (8760 hours/ year) and then color code them for each activity group ( free play, school, organized activity ie sports of cub scouts, sleep, family time, etc) and make one ball for each hour spent doing that activity in a year. the resulting rainbow of balls will be a huge pile on the floor (maybe in a corner) for people to jump in ala leaves or throw, whatever. There is also going to be an audio component of children in their daily life and activities (including play) so that the upon entering the installation you will be hit with the feeling of children but eerily none there. I am also thinking about visually incorporating some interesting quotes i have read by children such as "i like to play inside, that is where all the electrical outlets are" - from last child in the woods. 

felt ball pit and one hundred ways to not make a bowl seating unit.

So in the mode of experimentation i am starting a felt ball pit. I have a very unrealistic ideal sitting unit for them and am trying to find something a little more engineer-able and fiscally practical (not to mention transportable by car) . I would like a squishy bowl able to sit 3-6 people but the shape going out on the sides from a smaller bottom is incredibly difficult to make (not that i haven't tried a with a few projects before) any suggestions are welcomed! I am looking ito making my own inflatables but if all else fails may somehow modify an inflatable pool. when someone leans against the back of it from inside the inclination is that it will tilt unless the same pressure is applied to the opposite side and there is a lot of weight on the bottom. This is what takes so long with installation art. Engineering. bleh. hours of frustration and failed efforts. but i cant wait to sit in the pit with a few people covered up to the arm pits in felt balls that i painstakingly make by the tons in pantyhose! (finally a good use for those infernal things!) a slide may be a bit over the top but would be loveley. The idea of public playgrounds for adults is enticing to me. all these expensive "toys" boats, atvs, shopping, computer games. and no good ball pits and slides that we can use without a child as an excuse. Sometimes we just want to jump on a bed and have a pillow fight for christs sake! maybe that is why there are so many grumps out there! It will be interesting to see how this tangent intwines with my art for the blind trampoline with video and black room style waterbed experience.

FINALY Back into the 21st century!

Hi everyone (who is not reading this blog), after an unbelievable 8 weeks of no internet we are getting a special online usb phone thing that will ring us up a pretty penny. Onto the art note, one of the benefits of not having the wonderful distraction of the www is i have gotten to chew through a chunk of my reading list, Stealing the Mona Lisa (the best book about looking, seeing, and art) Instillation Art: A critical history, Blurring the Boundaries, James Turrell: The other horizon, and Rothko's bbiography (an uunplanned find that was very interesting and pleasurable bed time reading compared to oh, say, critical theory articles, for instance).
 I have been having a lot of mid night waking ideas and also have developed my own version of sensory deprivation tank. every night when i am exhausted (i am currently teaching super fun, full time art camp its ending next week) i nearly drown myself by climbing into my gigantic 18 inch deep insulated bath filled to the brim with lavender bath salts and hot water and sink up to my chin. In a few minutes i am off to sleep in the bath and luckily wake up when my nose starts to sink. however in the few moments of sleep i drift into that fuzzy gray area of remembering and being slightly conscious and not controlling thoughts. Lucid dreaming i believe its called. a delightful phenomenon. so now i have all these soaked sketch books with odd ideas i want to explore. some involving videos, trampolines, water bed mattresses, and black out chambers etc.
On a more practical note i have started to look into galleries that will let me have a space to experiment on their patrons with my installations for a short period of time (even a weekend) so i can get some video of how people actually interact in the spaces i want to create. if all else fails i may just have my middle age woman artist crit group that i belong to with about 7 members, and some of my husbands friends (for the non artist's viewpoint) come to my studio and take a trip. we shall see.
And if i have not lost you yet, i am meeting with my mentor Liz Nofziger this month and super over the moon excited about workin with her. Love her work and feel as though she will have a wonderful influence on my studio practice and insights into my art. Check out her stuff!

First post on residency!

to break in my posting shoes i'm just going to do a little blurb on my first residency so far. this has been a whirlwind of amazement and overwhelmingly helpful and intense! I just met with Deb my adviser and had a great discussion about some artists to look at and a paper to write about three artists who appeal to the senses in different ways to get a response from the participant.  some of the artists that were mentioned were Judie Pfaff, Sarah Seez Ernesto Netto, Yayoi Kusauma, James Turrell, all of whom i probably misspelled.  Deb also suggested that i keep folders and lists of photograph things that i notice. Yesterday Ya and i had a great conversation and she suggested that i should do some performance in/ as a part of my work. I am a not a fan of performance art as a medium for myself, its a little to flashy and embarrassing for my liking.  Some things i find interesting right now are tensions and tangles. I would like to do something using latex and stretching it from the ceiling and painting in it and cutting it and shining light through it. The biggest challenge in this next semester is going to be trying to find a place to install this work at the residency. Hmmmmmmm I need a nice big corner. I have been noticing all the wires and tubing on the ceilings lateley.