The Tuning Room
tuning room sketch
Personal Map of New York
The proper way to situate this map is difficult to document since it is meant to have a vertical flow from top (the view out from the airplane window above manhattan) to bottom ( the underground subway platform), when the pages are folded accordian style.
The top layer location is in a plane, in the airspace above Manhattan, and has an image of me made up of holes in the black paper ( little lights). I often fly into or out of New York at night, and the lights of the city always enchant me, so in this map I see the image of me, less as my reflection in the glass, and more a portrait in the lights of the city.
When this page is slightly lifted to reveal the center page, light flows through the holes from the reverse side, making a second portrait of dappled light over an areal view of Washington Square park. This park, the place where I go to feel grounded, represents all of my favorite green spots in the city. I chose Washington Square Park because of it’s association with NYU. On the last page, the portrait is part of the tile work on the Jefferson St. L train stop; the place I start and end most days’ travels. When I am underground I am physically within New York, inside her innards.
The Music that is Everywhere
It is impossible to avoid music in the city, or anywhere people are for that matter. I am a ‘user’ for sure, and I will proudly admit my addiction.
I am not alone. I start my day off with a tune to wake me in the morning, and I listen to music in the evening to calm me down.
On the subway 75% of the riders are listening to ipods or the like, to drown out the noise of the train, or other loud passengers. I rely on my ipod as an invisible forcefield on the train.
When I go into most clothing stores I hear techno or pop music to pump up the shopping going on. In practically every restaurant there is music providing background noise. Every dance club depends on music for their bread and butter.
In my yoga class there is music to pace my breath, to relax, and to meditate.
Karaoke music is useful when the singer and non-singer alike need to sing.
Music is useful to change a mood, or ‘get in the mood’.
Sometimes music helps you decompress after a very stressful day at work. My husband’s favorite is anything by the Wu-Tang Clan.
I have friends who can’t get to sleep without their sound machine providing the most appropriate ‘white noise’.
And every brand uses music as a theme song.
The list goes on and on.
INstalling ROOT BOOTS
Installing ROOT BOOTS at ITP from Michelle Mayer on Vimeo.
The Installation process took a while and this little video is just the end of the install.
I’m pretty happy with the boots, and I got a lot of great feedback at the show.
Here is a review that gizmodo.com put up…
Root Boots… Latest Sketch
This is a partial simulation of how the Root Boots will function.
Root Boots video sketch from Michelle Mayer on Vimeo.
A three dimensional bark puzzle
I have spent a lot of time lately blowing on the burnt ends of my hot glued fingertips… having a blast obsessively, meditating on the beauty of bark , trying to create the first pair of root boots. Right now I have a roughed out version of the FSR sensors built into the soles of the boots, connected to an arduino which is conected to a Pure Data patch I made, with the help of Hans-Christoph Steiner who teaches my Data Flow for Programming class. Here is the progress so far.
I am still researching ways to make mechanized moving roots, which won’t need a lot of power to operate. More to come soon!