Zero Sum Art Project gallery update.

The Zero Sum Art Project has reached Zero Sum #7. Keep track of the whole project by either visiting the Zero Sum Art Blog or the Zero Sum Art Gallery Space on FIMP.

Goldstein records

goldstein records
Originally uploaded by jgk79.

Seen at the Austin Museum's New York 1974-1984 show. Having recently been bitten by the vinyl bug I was very appreciative of the multi-colored 7" vinyl as objects to be admired - as well as containing some crazy sound effects that Jack Goldstein recorded.

Most of my fascination with records has been with the physicality of the object that contains the music. I like the weight of the disc in my hand, especially the nicer heavier ones. Having grown up with digital stuff, ones and zeros spitting out music is not magical to me. A little groove vibrating a needle to spit out stereo music is still fascinating.

All I could think about for the rest of the time I was at the museum was putting those wonderful little discs on a phonograph and playing them. I don't think the museum staff would have let me, so I refrained from pulling them off the wall.

Not nearly as magical, but a more ephemeral way to hear the discs can be found here.

Unimpressive

It's a new video from the Cinema Department at FIMP:



So, if you wanted to have yourself a FIMP film festival, which would last about 4 minutes, you could watch The Tower of Babel and I've Wanted More Than Anything To Have Your Respect, after you have recovered from "Unimpressed".

A detail

Here's a detail from a collaborative collage that Justin Kasulka and I have been knocking about. It's my turn. I hate to touch it, though - Justin's done such nice stuff. So I'll post a piece of it here before I abuse it in the studio.

An ever-growing Zero Sum Art Exhibition

I've added a Zero Sum Art Gallery on the Fiji Island Mermaid website, so that you can follow the continually growing collection of Zero Sum Artworks, along with all of the accompanying statistics of the project. Check it out, and let me know if there's anything else that you would like to see there.

Snacks or Treats? A Quiz.

So, I was doing a little inventory in our house to see how many foods we had that were shaped like things. Here they are:



If these are meant for human consumption, they're called "snacks", if they're for one of the pets, they're called "treats". Your quiz is to identify which are for babies and which are for animals. Bonus points if you can identify which animal gets which treat.

It's semi-interesting to note that the intended eaters of these snacks/treats don't care at all about the shapes. The shapes are solely for the amusement of the treat/snack dispensers, not the eaters. This might not be the case for kiddie cereals, a source of lots and lots of food shaped like stuff, but, alas, we currently only have very boring flaky type cereals in the house.

Zero Sum #6

The Zero Sum Art Project keeps rocking along. This is a detail from Zero Sum #6 - you can see the entire piece in detail by visiting the auction on eBay where it is being sold.

A Little Mystery.

Almost every day when I'm out walking I see this yellow utility box.



Someone worked a math problem on the side of the box, using a broad magic marker and a very large hand. Each number is about 6 - 8 inches tall.

Now, when you're walking about, you often see codes and symbols spray-painted on the streets by various city employees, describing the locations of various electrical and phone and water and sewage lines, in preparation for tearing up the road or somesuch thing. You also often see graffiti, highly stylized signatures and "tags" spraypainted on just about anything that doesn't move, that some see as art and others see as vandalism.

So here's what's bugging me. What is this long-division problem?

At first this box just blends into the environment. The numbers have the look of something that a utility worker would have left behind for some officially sanctioned reason. But if you pass by it everyday, and eventually look at it closely, you realize that it's not a code or anything that carries any kind of significant information. It's 27 divided by 4.

Would someone working on the phone lines work such a problem on the side of a utility box? This isn't spray-painted on a piece of road that is going to be torn up - it's been sitting there for months, a permanent addition to the landscape. Wouldn't a utility worker use a piece of scrap paper? And wouldn't this person be able to work out that six fours fit in twenty-seven in his or her head? I kinda hope so!

So, I'm guessing it's not something left behind by someone actually working on the phone lines. In that case it must be a graffito.

But who would bother to work a long division problem as their "tag"? It doesn't identify the tagger in any way, the writing isn't stylized, it makes no statement beyond the answer to the math problem. . . If it's graffiti, it's the least effective example I've ever seen.

Or, maybe it's the most effective. It's the only one I've felt compelled to "blog" about, anyway.