Article on the world's first computer art show (1968)

This is an art magazine's writeup of the world's first computer art show in 1968.  It's amazing to think that computer art's been going for over 40 years.  I love the quote about interactivity... apparently "machines are a "drag" in finite art situations where they merely take over a human activity ... there there is interaction with people and with other events, they are capable of infinite development". 

New laser-cut wood spiral #1 - Ring Convergence

For this design I wanted to create wood grain that would converge onto a particular direction in a ring around the center.  I used a superimposition of two magnetic-and-electric-field-around-a-wire type equations but I varied the exponential falloffs with distance so that one would dominate close up and the other would dominate further away.  The result is a ring that the grain converges onto.  I also used a new technique of scanning the piece of wood I was going to use to ensure that the grain lined up such that the ring would occur in a dark area.

Here's a video:

And more stills:

 

New laser-cut wood spiral #2 - Lacewood

Having exhausted the entire local supply of zebrawood, I've turned to trying some other woods.  As it turns out, lacewood has some very interesting properties.  When cut perpendicular to the surface of the tree rings, you get a fine and even grain pattern that makes it really easy to match any piece to any other piece.  Cuts parallel to the rings look quite different and have a big splotchy appearance.  See the difference here.

Lacewood's performance under different lighting conditions is drastically different.  It's the sort of thing those hardcore Pixar animators like to put in a movie just to show how awesome their graphic skills are, kind of like a modern version of a painter doing a still life.

Here's what I made -- I wanted to have two spirals, one serving as a source and one as a drain.  I tinkered around with configurations until I found one that was as smooth as possible.  Here's what I got:



Here's a video showing just how much it dances in changing light:

Here are some still photos showing what happens when you get a very directional light source on it:

 

Assembling the laser-cut spirals

Working with veneer is a pain in the ass.  It's thin, light, and ridiculously fragile.  After spending lots of time trying to arrange up to 100 little wood pieces perfectly while minimizing gaps, I've figured out a reasonably good workflow for assembling the laser-cut spirals. 

Here's how it works:

Once I have all the pieces cut, I prepare a jig by laser-cutting a set of lines matching the final assembly into a piece of wood.  Then, I place a transparent sheet on top:



( Cut for people who just like the finished product :-) )

Apparently I still have an anti-authoritarian streak...

 


Also, from the same day wandering around in Lake Merritt:

SOMETHING VERY INTERESTING!!!

Carbon-neutral water from Iceland!! (and how to reduce energy use in a principled way)

On my second-to-last trip down to LA, I found two examples of green-gone-wrong.

1.  I saw a van on Sunset Blvd advertising Icelandic bottled water that was Certified Carbon-neutral.

OK... fresh water is fresh water.  We've got some great water coming into LA via those giant channels they used to steal all the water from the Owens Valley (see Chinatown).  Why oh why do people think shipping water all the way across the Atlantic ocean and the United States from Iceland is possibly good for the environment?  If there's anything special about the impurities in the Icelandic water, they could be filtered out and sent to the US to be added to the local water. 

Really, this is all silly. Chances are the European upper classes are drinking ultra-pure water bottled at the source in the SIerras.  How much energy could we save by just all drinking our own damn water? 

2.  There was an airplane pulling a big banner saying "THINK GREEN" by the beach in La Jolla. 

Airplanes use a lot of energy.  Airplanes pulling giant streamers in the wind use even more energy.  The hypocrisy hurts.  Wouldn't a billboard on a highway be a hell of a lot more energy efficient while allowing the same number of ad impressions?

This is the big trouble with thinking green vs acting green.  Being green is somewhat hip right now, so companies are trying to figure out how to staple a green image onto whatever it was they were already doing.

So what *actually* helps?

Well, the Economist has a nice graph showing the net savings or costs of reducing carbon emissions in various ways.



It looks like the most useful things we as private consumers can do to save energy while maintaining our current lifestyles involve:
- Getting energy-efficient lighting and appliances
- Insulating our homes properly. 
- Recycling (though it doesn't break it down by what is recycled... I believe aluminum has the greatest impact)

And since it's a net cost *savings*, people should be excited to do them.  All we need is to disseminate information and have easy-to-get loans for certain kinds of home improvement.  Apparently, the Obama administration is planning something like this, but it's in the form of rewards and subsidies instead of loans.  It does seem a bit silly to offer a subsidy for something that's already a cost savings but requires an initial investment when a loan would bridge the hurdle just as well and would cost the government less. 

On a vaguely related note, this is the clearest I've EVER seen the skies in LA: