If the rest of my trip is any bit as satisfying as Shenandoah I couldn’t ask any more.
After my first night of backwoods camping, I decided I needed to find a proper campsite so I could make a fire. After speaking with a friendly park ranger at Skyland, the highest summit of the Skyline Parkway, I called ahead and found plenty of vacancies at Big Meadow. I quickly setup my tent on site A23, a tent-only area, to avoid the hustle & bust of the RV families that populate much of these campsites. Figuring that my hike would place me back at camp after all the shops would be closed, I walked down to the shower/supply area to buy some firewood (it had been raining and the maps state ‘no wood gathering’ at Big Meadow). A pleasant lady, Donna, greated me with a grin and walked me to the area to pick out a cord of wood. Her arthritic hands fumbled with the split wood, but I happily stepped in and gripped one of the bigger bundles she was eager to dig out for me. As we walked back to her office, I crossed behind her, changing sides to walk with my wood carrying shoulder away from her. “Where’d you go?” she chuckled. “I’m blind in one eye, so I lose people.” Her blind eye was a lighter grey-blue than her strong eye. It was charming in a Bowie way. I bought some quarters for the coin-operated showers – a prize I’d save for after a strenuous hike.
Matt, one of the rangers at Shenandoah
Before driving to the Hawksbill trail head, I ran into Matt Gordon, the ranger I’d met while checking into the site. After a a minute or two, it came up that I was headed to Asheville, NC. Matt lived in Asheville for two years, and he generously listed a few must-see places to see live bands, eat tacos and healthy noms, as well as recommendations for two breweries (more about that when I get there!). I showed him the loop I planned to walk; an 8.2 mile loop in White Oak Canyon peppered with waterfalls. It was already getting late, but he assured me I’d have time to do it. Enough talking, start walkin.
#1 Hike a Mountain
Lower Whiteoak Falls
My hike kicked off at 2:30pm from Hawkbill parking area. I packed my headlamp, since I knew starting so late would mean I’d do the last leg of the hike in the dark. I met a few friendly hikers, mostly locals who had hiked the trail many times before. [note: I have to get back on the road since I’m at a Starbucks half way to Asheville.] I’ll mention Whit’s friendly advice shortly.
Made it to Shenandoah National Park around 4:15. The nice older woman at the gate broke the news that the campsites are full, but if I am equipped for backwoods camping, that is an option I have besides camping outside of the park.
You need to fill out a permit to backwoods camp, so getting to the visitor’s office by 5pm is crucial. The caveat of backwoods camping is that fires aren’t allowed. What’s camping without nature’s TV (as my friend Ben calls it)? The other condition is that you need a bear-proof solution for food; they make special bear-proof containers or you can hoist food between two trees (something like 10 feet in the air and 8 feet from the tree).
I did not expect the park to be this big! I knew Skyline Drive was 105 miles, but didn’t realize it’s all destination as well. On Matt Richard’s recommendation, my aim is White Oak Canyon trail. It’s about 8 miles if you do the loop. That’s mile 45 on the Skyline. A highway of hikes; amazing.
On the drive, I find another car stopped. A mama black bear and her four cubs are crossing the street. Snapped a quick photo of the last cub with my 7D, which I’ll upload when I get to civilization. This definitely supports the ‘bears every two miles’ statistics I read earlier. Note to self: whittle spear first!
I reached the trailhead at 7pm, an hour before sunset. Took 20 minutes to pack my essentials: hoodie, sleeping bag, tent, hammock, lantern, knife, Camelbak, hatchet, dry-bag with map, paracord, DSLR. I headed down a horse trail by the Hawksbill parking area (mile 45), where I was told it was okay to camp. It’s a very steep and rocky area, not the type of place I would have chosen for myself. But the night was quickly approaching and I had to choose my campsite while it was still light enough to see most of the possible hazards.
About 10-15 minutes of walking and 1/2 mile from the road, I found a relatively flat clearing situated before a 20′ rock face. In retrospect, it’s nice to be by a cliff. Limiting the possible directions of attack serves as nice illusion of safety. The ground way too rocky, I hung the camping hammock (thanks Mick) between two trees – one of which was dead and festering with centipedes. Luckily the dead tree could support my weight, as it was dark by the time I finished tying it off. In the hammock I could perfectly see the valley below and yet remained hidden from the higher area above.
Between the centipedes and variety of insects that greeted me in my first ten minutes, I was happy to not be sleeping on the ground. I made a nearby sapling my night stand, hanging my lantern and sunglasses. I hadn’t realized how important it is to have a lantern that will last through the night until the moment I was camping without a fire in unknown woods. My Black Diamond Apollo lantern claims a 96-hour runtime on low led setting, which was the perfect level for working on a task or falling asleep.
I ate dinner by headlamp, but I shoveled it down. Part hunger, part bear anxiety, I had no idea what the forest looked like as I only spent about 20 minutes in it before dark. I put the remnants of my kale salad, quinoa side & hazelnut Ritter chocolate bar back in a sack and made my way through the dark forest to find a tree to keep it from bear mouths.
Headlamp Dinner
Following my knot app, I made a lazy variation of a noose, which I tightened to a rock and threw over a thick horizontal tree branch. Once I retrieved the swinging rock-end of the rope, I hoisted the bag up to the tree and tied off to a sapling. Viola! The pics below were from the morning (it was a little trickier in the dark).
Bear-proof food storage solution
Tying off the food bag
I was somewhat relieved once the food was removed from my campsite. I say ‘somewhat’ because the next thing I did was sharpen my grandpa’s bowie knife. This type of knife looks like the one Rambo carried, but with a compass on the tip of the handle. Inside the handle there are water-proof matches and a tiny fishing lure & monofilament. I’ve had this knife tucked in a drawer for most of the time it’s been in my possession. I’ve only recently started carrying it, as my hikes have gotten longer and riskier.
Side note: I’ve become more serious about being prepared for the outdoors. The last hike I’d gone on ended abruptly with a bad MCL sprain. My friend Margueritte and I had journeyed off-trail on Devil’s Path in the Catskills. We unknowingly walked through a field of stinging nettles, which set our skin on fire, and were desperately trying to make our way back to the trail as fast as possible. Climbing over fallen trees and large boulders at a frenzied pace, I took a shoulder-height step up and popped my knee out of place, falling backward off of the rock. I was soon back on my feet but limped the 45 minutes on a steep mountainside to the trailhead. The entire return trip I wondered the outcome of a more severe injury so deep off trail.
Back to the knife sharpening. Here I have this dull-ass 6″ blade and a 1/2″ x 3″ sharpening stone. I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to put an edge on it. It was crude, but I could stab it into a tree trunk with far less effort than before. The long day of driving was finally taking its toll, so I ditched my idea to whittle a spear (or even fasten the knife to the end of a branch). The camping hammock had a large enough to store the hatchet so I was set for sleep-defense.
Literally anything I put down on the neighboring rock ledge would have a centipede or giant spider on it upon retrieval. After flicking off the critters, I carabinered my things to the hammock straps. The temperature was noticeably dropping from the day. I threw on my faux-fur-lined hoodie and unfolded my sleeping bag into the hammock. I was still wearing shorts, so I zipped my legs into my sleeping bag before passing out. I woke up to what felt like low 50 degrees and huge gusts of wind swaying the trees in a swirling motion above. It was in the eighties during the day; I’d almost left the sleeping bag behind! I giddily zipped myself fully into the bag. Suddenly I felt the sensation of a hundred tiny legs on my side. I grab – pinch – threw that sucker off me so quick, you’d think it was a rehearsed movement. At the time, I wasn’t sure if they were poisonous, so definitely added a little drama to the occasion. Crisis averted. Back in the sleeping bag. So glad I brought that thing. Thinking about it, exposure to the elements is the primary cause of death in the outdoors. Always overpack people!
After a full day of packing and preparation, it’s finally time to roll. I found it hard to sleep, giddy with anticipation. I spent the last hour or so mounting a bike rack (thanks Mick!) and a GoPro on the dash (thanks Los!). I’m trying a 5sec timelapse for the ride down (doing the math to stretch 8 hrs out of 64gb @ hi-res).
I went over-board on the Trader Joes, but from what I hear about the lack of veggies in the South, I’ll err on the side of healthy to account for all the bbq and pie ahead of me!
As a kid, my father would devise treasure hunts as a way of giving me a gift. They would result in a toy of some sort (like a He-Man figure), but the true gift was the treasure hunt; a series of hand-drawn pictorial clues on a Post-It note. He is an amazing illustrator, so these clues were as good as photographs made of a few eloquent lines. I still remember one of the treasure sites being buried under a large rock in a lot across the street.
Adventure is still as enticing as in my childhood, so I devised a similar way to enjoy my first roadtrip to the South. It began as a simple To-Do list; ‘hike a mountain,’ ‘buy a used instrument.’ It quickly became open-ended constraints; ‘eat a new food,’ ‘give something away.’
1. Climb a mountain
2. Find a waterfall or cliff jump
3. Seek out a local legend
4. Record a song
5. Build a fire without lighter fluid
6. Walk along train tracks
7. Skinny dip
8. See a band (bonus: perform a song with em)
9. Eat a new food
10. See some wildlife
11. Visit a brewery / still
12. Make some street art
13. Spend time on a raft/boat-like object
14. Get to an uninhabited island (bonus: stay overnight)
Getting ready to kick off my 10-day trip to the South. Haven’t blogged consistently for a few years now, so I’m taking my first trip to the South (NC, SC, TN, GA) as an opportunity to start publishing again.
Instead of planning the trip around attractions, I’ve made an adventure list, made of 21 goals, which I’ll be documenting along the way.
Some of the goals are social by nature, such as “dinner with strangers,” which should mix things up a bit.
My roommate, Dan, will be joining me in Nashville and we’ll drive to Savannah together. He’s a great writer, so I have a good feeling that he’ll be contributing to this blog as well.
In the meantime, here’s a photo of some of the goodies I’m packing.
Role: Designed and fabricated custom mechanisms, arduino circuits, hacked micro servos for continuous rotation, 3d printed custom parts, wired lighting system (12v incandescent and multiple types of leds), built a rechargeable battery circuit as well as a/c power circuit, added sound playback and carved holes into antique base for speaker mounting and wire routing, IR sensor feedback based on two zones for two modes of escalation, circuit bent motor controller and designed game logic. Worked alongside model-maker and commissioning artist.
Intro
Magic Mountain is a kinetic diorama. The basic structure was in place when I joined the project, so I had the challenge of designing mechanisms to fit in a tiny space.
The keystone feature is a ring that emerges between two archways and vanishes into the piece. Since there is a faux-stone facade between the archways, a typical motor + attachment couldn’t be used. The ring is a mechanism I designed to be able to fit in the existing dimensions of the model. It’s similar to a planetary gear system, except it has no annulus. The sun gear is welded between an upper and lower disc to keep it from falling down. The outer three retaining, or planetary gears, are mounted in tracks that enable the tension on the sun gear to be modified. They are also spring loaded to minimize whiplash and lengthen the longevity of the parts.
I designed the gears using Inkscape gear library and Rhino. I had them water jet in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but the shop did not tell me the tolerances would be off. I spent 5 hours slack belt sanding fillets into the inner corners of every gear tooth to ensure a proper fit.
The second mechanism, triggered when onlookers step even closer, is a small porcelain figurine that ascends the summit of the mountain and daintily spins in three circles after clearing the illuminated rose quartz crystals at the top. This mechanism is comprise of a box containing a modded servo motor. The box itself had a tee-nut and bushing mounted inside of it to the box can climb up the drive shaft like an elevator. Once the elevator and box hits it’s upper limit switch, the circuit triggers the servo to spin the boy three full rotations. Below the boy is a small cam that slaps a sideways-mounted micro switch to count rotations. Once the third rotation is complete, the boy descends until he hits the lower limit switch to finish the display.
The project uses an Arduino Mega, TRex motor controller, microSD mp3 player, and a Sharp IR sensor. The piece was installed at the Rubin Museum in the Radical Terrain exhibit.
The second annual, Geekdown at 92Y Tribeca opened Friday.
As you can tell by the photo above, the Autobooth made an appearance.
Checkout thefull set on flickr.
In addition to all of the great installation art and tech-savvy fashion pieces, there were some amazing performances by Eric Mika, Winslow Porter III, and Sxip Shirley. The performance vids will be online soon.
In the meantime, NY1 and GrungeCake covered the opening.
What happens when you manipulate a traditionally hard surface so that it behaves like fabric? Vito Acconci studio’s installation in the Bronx museum, “LOBBY-FOR-THE-TIME-BEING,” is a wrapping, and twisting installation that coerced Corian—a typically hard, flat surface—to behave in ways otherwise expected. In response to their call for an interactive projection in conjunction with their installation, my partner Angela Chen and I created “Skin Tight,” orchestrating a series of abstract gestural movements to be projected onto the Corian surface to render what was once inflexible as malleable.
Cut it open & slit it into strips (it can be pulled now & stretched to one-&-a-half times its length): pit it & gouge it, pock-mark it (it’s become malleable now, flexible): roll it & curve it, fold it, braid & knot it (it functions now as its own structure). Let’s take slick sleek Corian & turn it into lace: let’s take the surface of lace & mold it into structure…-Vito Acconci
The creation process involved a number of experiments with shape, form, and movement on a stretched spandex frame which were than later edited to fit specific, physical locations on the installation. The control and interaction of the video was done through Max/MSP & Jitter.
The installation has four phases that are activated by cameras placed in strategic locations within the lobby. The installation’s default state, opening, is a calming, playful movement, like someone absentmindedly playing with his or her hair. The next phase, activated by someone entering the lobby, is more focused and stylized, drawing more attention to the space. The third phase, lobby, is activated when the visitor is at the desk area, and temporarily preoccupied with activity away from the installation. Like a child trying to draw its parent’s attention, this phase is cloying and persistent. Finally, the last phase, sustain, is one that becomes initialized after the viewer has spent some time in the lobby. The video undergoes a metamorphosis into a more formalized, geometric state, acting at once mysterious and concrete.
Early prototype with mannequin and original content.
Brooklyn based artist, Anthony Sneed, commissioned a kinetic piece for his gallery show Grand Illusion at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. I worked with fellow ITPers, Shahar Zaks & Luis Violante, to design, engineer and fabricate an interactive version of Anthony’s canvas or wood paintings.
There were a few design challenges along the way:
Fabricating custom linkages to convert radial motion of a motor into a linear drawer motion.
As the middle-ground is static, design a mechanism to move two drawers (top and bottom) with one motor.
Ensure the drawers retain smooth travel in and out of the cabinet.
Colin Day and Anthony put this great video together. It documents the artist himself interacting with his piece.
I don’t believe he changes the cabinet’s behavior mode in the video.
Shahar programmed different modes that vary speed, responsiveness and the drawers’ relationship to each other.
If you’re in the city this weekend, stop by the Geekdown opening.
In addition to a great selection of gallery pieces, there’ll be live musical performances and interactive installations (including one of my photobooths) for one night only!
We developed software to manipulate a frontal picture of the player’s face. It is projected onto the 3D character model extracted from the original game, generating a replacement skin texture file swapped back into the game for real gameplay. The character-model’s proportions have also been modified to create a Big Head Mode, making the players’ faces the main attraction. This makes for much more rewarding gameplay – the vicarious friend beatdown. A custom controller board was built (from a repurposed Mortal Kombat 2 arcade panel found on the street) to for an arcade experience.
Face mapping and texture generation is done with Processing. The arcade controller is read by a multi-plexed Arduino that outputs serial data to be read by joystick simulation software.
There’s tons of screen-captured game play, but in the meantime, here’s a quick teaser.
Check out the Hadokam and other projects from the hackathon on the GHD wiki.
Emily Ryan and Yimeng Bai filmed an overview of our installation at H&M’s Flagship 42nd St location.
It demonstrates the user experience:
Take some photos with your friends.
View the slideshow on the preview display.
Walk outside to find your photos popping up throughout the NYC skyline window display.
Tweet with #hmnyc or #fashion #nyc to tell you friends to come check it out.
Watch as your real-time tweets stream across the skyline.
Go home and download your photos from HMNYC Project.
Special Thanks: Emily Ryan, Liangjie Xia, Derek Chung, Matt Richard, Eddie Lytton, Milena S, Winslow Porter III, Adam Harvey, Luis Violante, Daniel Tsadok, Genny, and my father Joseph.
My good friend Emily Ryan was selected for the Your Art Here competition. Her proposal for the 46 foot by 16 foot window was to fabricate a New York City skyline. The skyline would be embedded with 18 flatscreen displays of varied size. The content would be dynamic. Relevant tweets about NYC, H&M and Fashion would pop-up, scroll and fade in real-time. The other 9 screens would display photos from an in-store photobooth.
Although the original plan was to install a Rotobooth (a Rotary dial photobooth), I decided to build a new photobooth for the store.
On Wednesday, May 5th, I gave my thesis presentation in front of the ITP community, friends and family. I’d like to thank all of those who attended or logged on to watch the presentation.
The presentation proposes using living bamboo as a design material. I discuss benefits of bamboo as a material, both living and harvested. I also cover experiments conducted to learn how it may be best manipulated.
Here are some photos of the table in a near complete stage. Thanks to my lovely model Asli, who took the time to pose at 6am (we were all crazily working through sunrise)!
By the time I finished the table, my bamboo had grown very tall, so these photos are to demonstrate the aesthetic of a coffee table growing itself. I plan on growing new culms through the table once I graduate school.
The planter I build has already warped out of shape, leaving the table to rest on the dirt, instead of on the inside walls of the planter.
The first iteration of my full-size coffee table mold. It is about two feet tall, but once I put the planter underneath, it’ll be closer to 32 inches.
There were some mistakes in this print on the account of material thickness. Luckily, the table still bolts together fine. The mistakes lessen the structural integrity of the table, but not its utility. I should be able to fix the errors by recutting the side brackets.
