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The Studio of Eric Valosin

Monday, July 29, 2013

Calling all Clergy/Church-Going Friends

I'm compiling some researching for a class I will be teaching on the Arts and Worship. If you are clergy/leadership or an active member of a Christian church (of any denomination), would you please take my survey? It's only 10 questions, and your input would be invaluable. Thanks so much!

Take my survey here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SBVN8WF

Saturday, July 27, 2013

The "Before" Pictures

Ok, so I might be a bit obsessive, but I now have a complete rendering of the room before moving my studio in, plus most if not all of the studio furniture that needs to go in (you may recognize the projection table from my Circle project!) (see my last post if you're confused)

Not bad, I'd say!






Friday, July 26, 2013

Sketching Up My Studio

Today I discovered the splendor of Google Sketchup, a free 3D modeling program, and it's pretty awesome! Since I'm in the process of moving my studio into what will formerly have been my TV room, I thought I'd take this oportunity to train for future installation proposal diagrams by recreating my room. Next I'll start building all my art related furniture (like the futon already in place) so I can play with laying out the new studio. Welcome to my soon-to-be-studio!








Any fellow installation artists out there - especially sculptors - give the program a gander if you haven't already. The possibilities are pretty staggering, even in the free version!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

It works!!

I'm ecstatically relieved to report that my latest QR mandala drawing (the last post about which you can find here) does indeed function!! It's one of those scary things you can't actually test to see if it works until you're far enough along in the process to not be able to do much about it if it doesn't work! I essentially had to rely on a photoshop mockup of the essential elements, a steady hand, and my knowledge of the parameters of QR construction and pray for the best.

I'm reminded of the Alethic creation of Greek pottery, in which the craftsman uses a blind etching process so that he actually can't see the outcome of his drawings until after the pot is fired and the contrasting values come out in the heat. It's an enactment of the revealing/concealing nature of Aletheia, the Greek concept of Truth (which, thanks to Heidegger, is also seen to be a compelling postmodern Judeo-Christian model of truth as well when revisited in a new light...), in which even the maker is partially unaware of the true nature of what he makes.
I still have quite a bit of work to do... thinking about adding some peripheral elements outside of the QR code itself to create an 8 point star shape, but at least now I can rest assured that it will indeed scan! Happy day!


Storms a Brewin'...

...Brainstorms, that is! (Though still no less dangerous though.)

As I've been working on my most recent mandala drawing, I've been cooking up some other projects I thought I'd share here. Its helpful to get ideas out on paper (...monitor?) to help work through them in their infancy, so feel free to leave comments with thoughts or ideas if you'd like!

As Above, So Below

While installing some of my drawings for a recent event at Dunellen's Arts Annex, I discovered a site begging for a projection installation, with a gorgeous rose window directly above a spiral stairway, and a prime spot on the floor underneath! Trying to contain my giddiness, I snapped these shots to put together a proposal and started trying to think of an excuse to convince the Annex to let me do this in their space! (if anyone from the Annex is reading this, Gravity Arts Initiatives will be contacting you in the future about said excuse...)





I'm thinking that table really wants to be replaced by some sort of platform that serves as the site for a projection that mirrors the stained glass above. Every mystic needs a good As Above, So Below project, and I think this takes the cake!

Now I'm thinking through just what that projection will do and look like. I could always do a projection negation sort of project, assuming the lighting works, but depending on the practicality, it may be interesting to do an interactive live video feed of some sort, so that the viewer sees in the projection some alternate vantage point of their own self or elsewhere in the building. I also need to consider a way to make it a confounding experience worthy of negative theology.

It also seems very important that the viewer will most likely experience this on the stairs. It's a piece that inherently deals with movement and ascension... The final piece of the puzzle will be to concoct a framework around this project that makes it a worthwhile venture to try to procure the space!

Top Secret Proposal

I've also got some planning to do on a storefront window projection installation opportunity, the details of which I won't divulge too much just yet until it solidifies a bit more... Going to visit the space in the next few days to get a proper idea cooked up. More on that to come...

Ideas Come in Waves

Thanks to artist extraordinaire (formerly real estate agent extraordinaire) Jamie Levine (who just won an Artslant showcase in sculpture!!) my family and I just spent a week down the shore in Long Beach Island, and I was able to connect with the Foundation for the Arts and Sciences. Par for the course, I've come to find there are all these overlapping circles of "small world" relationships between the Foundation, Collective Art Tank, Gravity, and me. I'm excited to see what kind of endeavors can come out of this!

A Glowing Recommendation

I've also been mulling over ways to utilize the glow in the dark technology I developed about a year ago (that I would ordinarily link to here, but upon recommendation of another artist, this technique is too cool to leak before I have a solid idea, so you'll have to thumb through my blog yourself if you really want to dig up what I'm talking about!). With that said, it may also be calling for some interactive technology, maybe with live time lapse photography, but the time is coming to really flesh out the appropriate application for such a cool technology...

Life is Art

Furthermore, I'm dreaming up ways to really play out this cyber-mysticism developed out of my thesis work (which you can read all about in my monograph) in my everyday spiritual practice. I've had an idea to create some sort of virtual prayer machine for a while, the manifestations of which have been mostly too didactic, campy, or illustrative to pursue. I want to make sure to entertain cyberspace as its own sort of church space, in which God actively participates, but only to the extent that God chooses. It's extremely important I don't impose some sort of artificial "God" function, but actually provide an open-endedness within which the true God can actually work. I've been thinking about trying to write an algorithm that directs the user to a random location within a certain radius, and then proceed from there. But I'm not sure yet. Probably have to dedicate some prayer and contemplation time around it, try some things, and see what happens.


Aaaand slowly but surely, I'm converting my TV room into a full studio, at least until Gravity gets into some some spaces in Dunellen and I get access to a proper studio space. The benefit of working with light, drawing, and digital media is that there is plenty I can still do with a limited studio space. Time to get to it!



Saturday, July 6, 2013

Continuing the Meditation

About a week ago I posted about the beginnings of another QR code mandala in my Meditation series. Here are some progress shots. See the link above for more detailed info.

continuing to reveal the QR shape by drawing in the negative spaces