"Dr. Norihiko Ishikawa of the Department of Telesurgery and Geomedicine at the University of Kanazawa demonstrates the precision of the daVinci Surgical System by using the device’s remote-control robot arms to fold a penny-sized origami crane."
That's pretty cool, but I knew I could do better, even with my giant human-sized fingers. So I did one that's about half the size of a dime.
Last weekend we headed out to Lind, WA (near Moses Lake) to see the Combine Demolition Derby. Our friends Heather and Chris knew the folks who own the Devore Motel, where a bunch of people were crashing. We had no idea what to expect.
It was an incredible time, burned into my memory... sweet, surreal, dangerous, dusty. Not wanting to impose (no open rooms at the Devore, but there was a school bus that might have extra space), we instead stayed at a little motel in Ritzville, a town about 15 minutes away from Lind, and rolled in Friday night. We knew we were off to a good start when we saw all the Harleys parked next to our room and the magic fingers machine next to the bed.
Saturday morning we awoke to brilliant sun. We headed to Lind, windows down, warm desert air blowing through our hair. The Devore Motel in Lind was home base. It has a main building on one side of the street, and a little ranch-style row of rooms on the other side of the street, ringing an empty lot with a bunch of living room furniture, a fully equipped sound stage, a school bus (extra beds), a cinderblock barbeque, and an old yellow lab named Jake. That morning people were just getting up after a long night of partying. Potatoes were sizzling in bacon fat on the outdoor griddle. We were offered hot cups of espresso, and encouraged to fry up whatever we wanted. Rick Klu was riding his bike around, as other friends emerged from their rooms, blinking, holding out empty cups to be filled with bloody marys.
(via beyond the beyond) Christopher Baker did a beautiful installation in Copenhagen, where viewers send SMS messages to a building and their questions and answers become part of the building and the sonic environment.
It does much more than simply projecting onto a large surface. The digital information interacts with the architectural features of the building, going around windows, with its own physics and gravity. Lately I've been thinking about the coming convergence of the digital and physical worlds (augmented reality, an internet of things, unmediated user interfaces). It's already starting to happen.
This installation is a great example of how it would feel to have digital data truly integrated with the environment, as opposed to being a self-contained projection or veneer. The next step would be enabling the data to change the physical structure...
I live for the day when Bladerunner is outdated, as long as we can unplug whenever we want to.
Last year we were in Brooklyn for New Year's, but this year we resumed our tradition of heading up to Vancouver on New Year's Eve, staying at the Sylvia Hotel, and diving into English Bay with a few hundred other silly people at the Vancouver Polar Bear swim.
Ed, not deterred by crutches, thought this might be the time to don the Captain Fantastic outfit in Canada. Waxy Photography (John Goldsmith) caught him as he emerged from the salty 44 degree water...
I'm working on our annual "holiday" card, which will be technically late for Christmas, but still within reason for the holidays in general (I have till Chinese New Year, right?). I try to come up with something amusing each year, some are better than others. Here are some from the last few years.
JOY - 2003
We got our fake pink xmas tree and wanted to celebrate. Our kitty was not pleased.
Christmas merry - 2004
This card was inspired by a trip to visit the studio of Werner Nekes, who has an extensive collection of illusions, magic lanterns, and artifacts from the evolution of animation and film.
His book Eyes, Lies, and Illusions: Masters of Deception is wonderful.
(flipped)
And inside... (this idea is stolen from Werner Nekes business card)
The hint is to tilt the card away from you and close one eye. There are two messages.*
We weren't planning on it, but we stumbled onto Fasching at the Köln Dom. People from all over the world pilgrimage to the Cologne Cathedral for the start of Carnival at 11:11am on November 11. I recorded some audio on my Edirol/Roland stereo digital recorder. It's a good sound recording, but you'd never know it because it's compressed and uploaded to Youtube. (Whatever happened to high-fidelity?)
The middle of November might seem like an odd time to travel to Germany--more than one person has said so. The weather is cold, but not so cold to snow. The Winter Markets that Americans find so adorable compared to the crap we're served in the local mall aren't open yet. Many of the tourist attractions are closed for the season. So why go in the middle of November? Well, I like travelling when nobody else wants to. The lines are shorter at the airport. The locals have forgiven the trespasses of summer tourists and so are friendlier. These are all good reasons, but of course the real reason we picked November for travel was because it just worked out that way with our schedules.
Now, however, we can tell people we travelled to Germany in the middle of Novemeber so we could participate in Fasching.
...and Cologne and Oberhausen, Luxembourg City, and Amsterdam.
Here's a collection of our photos... seems I'm taking more and more these days (sorry). At least they are organized by city so you can check out what interests you the most.
Romping through the chilly woods with kindergarteners carrying homemade lanterns behind a little brass band playing St. Martin's Day songs
Getting caught in the middle of the first day of Karnival at the Cologne train station, where people from all over northern Europe come to celebrate with costumes and heavy drinking
Wandering around Luxembourg City in the freezing wind
Zoning out on the train to Dead Texan with Ed
Having a schnapps at the top of the Berliner Fernsehturm
Dancing to vintage 60s pop with Christian and Kim
Drawing and folding paper with my goddaughter
Having dinner from 6:30pm to 3:30am while talking about quantum physics
Hearing a composition by Astor Piazolla live on the bandoneon at the Berlin Philharmonic with constant goosebumps
I'm so happy! The owner of Blue C Sushi contacted me via Flickr to license one of my Japanese vending machine photos to use in their new Alderwood location, which opens very soon.
It was random chance... he didn't know that Blue C is pretty much my favorite restaurant (it always puts me in a good mood), that I'm a Japanophile, that I live in Seattle, or that I'd be overjoyed to have any of my work in their establishments (Fremont has Kozyndan for heaven's sake).
I'm catching up on posting photos. Here are a few from the Goodbye Bridge Motel night at the Bridge Hotel next to the Aurora bridge, September 15, 2007. Ed and I stopped by there after going to our friend's 40th at the Swedish Cultural Center. It was such a Seattle night...
We got there just before midnight, as the Number 9 fire engine idled in the street. The revelry was coming to a crescendo. The parking lot was full of squashed beer cans and people, spilling from the glowing red rooms of the motel. In the parking lot full of furniture and grafitti, a woman bounced on mattresses piled from the rooms, and a young man jumped onto a long dining table, sliding down the length and clearing it of plates, glasses, and empty beer bottles with a crash. Soon the organizers were yelling that the party was over and it was time to go home. People slowly started to disperse into the streets, taking with them the spririt of the evening.
