I have been focusing on creating animated pieces that react to live wind data gathered from NOAA RSS Feeds. In order to show a progressive change in the animation that reflects different forces of wind I have decided to use the Beaufort Wind Scale.
This scale gives me twelve different stages of wind force and a description of the effects of that wind upon the environment that I can then incorporate into short animated image sequences.
Beaufort Wind Scale
For those interested in a bit of nautical history the Beaufort Wind Scale was created in 1805 by Sir Francis Beaufort in an attempt to standardize the wind and weather data recieved from mariners. Otherwise mariners were left with the subjective weather observations of individuals, thus making it hard to get a clear depiction of the possible conditions of the sea.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Wind Horse
Along with my research and exploration of nautical wind data and oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico I have been working on animations that include horse imagery.
Is this a completely unrelated theme? I do not think so. The horse after all is another form of transport. To ride one full speed through an open field is to experience the feeling of wind. There is a connection.
To solidify this connection I came across the term "wind horse" used in Tibetan buddhism. In this context the "wind horse" refers to a type of tibetan prayer flag. These flags are hung outdoors to flutter in the wind. The intention is that the prayer will be carried by the wind horse into the heavens.
When I think of wind I think of its universal quality, unconfined nature and it's ability to cross all borders. The idea of a prayer being sent into the wind is, at the very least, affecting my thoughts.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
SkyTruth
Yes, it would be impossible to assume that with the destruction of so many oil platforms that there was no spilling of oil. The following organization tracks environmental change and impact using many of the same technology that geologist use to gather data for oil exploration.
The following information about Skytruth was obtained by their website.
SkyTruth promotes environmental awareness and protection with remote sensing and digital mapping technology. We provide stunning images backed by scientifically robust information about our changing environment to stimulate changes in habitat protection, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable resource management. We design and conduct our projects in close partnership with environmental groups, local planners and resource managers to complement their work on a broad spectrum of environmental issues.
HISTORY
Throughout the 1990s, working in the private sector as a geologist who used remote sensing as an exploration tool, John Amos became increasingly concerned by the mounting evidence of human-caused changes to landscapes and ecosystems around the world. He began to think that images of habitat loss and the spread of human influence could be important not only as a source of scientific data on environmental change, but also as a powerful tool for communicating these changes to the public.
SkyTruth results for the damage to oil and gas infrastructure from Hurricane Katrina
The following information about Skytruth was obtained by their website.
SkyTruth promotes environmental awareness and protection with remote sensing and digital mapping technology. We provide stunning images backed by scientifically robust information about our changing environment to stimulate changes in habitat protection, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable resource management. We design and conduct our projects in close partnership with environmental groups, local planners and resource managers to complement their work on a broad spectrum of environmental issues.
HISTORY
Throughout the 1990s, working in the private sector as a geologist who used remote sensing as an exploration tool, John Amos became increasingly concerned by the mounting evidence of human-caused changes to landscapes and ecosystems around the world. He began to think that images of habitat loss and the spread of human influence could be important not only as a source of scientific data on environmental change, but also as a powerful tool for communicating these changes to the public.
SkyTruth results for the damage to oil and gas infrastructure from Hurricane Katrina
Wind and Oil
My interest in wind, the ocean and my experience of sailing has led me to research the oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. While I am taking a look at the 109 oil platforms that where destroyed in Hurricanes Rita and Katrina I can see the irony in the term "Wind Power". The very force that we could harness for our energy is the same force that can bring these massive ocean built structures to their knees.
Hurricanes Destroyed 109 Oil Platforms
Hurricanes Destroyed 109 Oil Platforms
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Wind / Man / Movement
In the last posts I explored some examples of reused ocean structures. Remnants of war produced ocean structures that were abandoned and then re-inhabited by others, modified to the new user’s specific needs and purposes.
The following site gives some insight into the vast amount of oil platforms situated in the Gulf of Mexico. It also discusses the effect of mother nature, namely in the form of Hurricanes, upon these massive structures.
Offshore Oil Platforms
So it seems that the power and effects of the wind does not leave me alone, even when I have left the sailboat behind as a mode of transportation. The wind may not push my car or bus down the road but it does rip the oil platforms from their anchored positions or sinks them under the oceans fury. Then, the price of my gas increases, and I may be left standing still. Weather, yet again, has dictated movement.
The following site gives some insight into the vast amount of oil platforms situated in the Gulf of Mexico. It also discusses the effect of mother nature, namely in the form of Hurricanes, upon these massive structures.
Offshore Oil Platforms
So it seems that the power and effects of the wind does not leave me alone, even when I have left the sailboat behind as a mode of transportation. The wind may not push my car or bus down the road but it does rip the oil platforms from their anchored positions or sinks them under the oceans fury. Then, the price of my gas increases, and I may be left standing still. Weather, yet again, has dictated movement.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Movement/Man/Data
Movement is a constant fascination for me. How man deals with movement. Animation as moving abstraction.
Our desire to move ourselves out of our known spaces or our determination to stay within our known and supposedly controlled environments. Both extremes fascinate me.
When I used to go sailing weather was key to movement. It determined when, if and how we moved. The relationship to my environment and everything around me was constantly on my mind and the minds of everyone on the boat. Days would be spent waiting in anchorage's for weather to change so that the trip could continue. Life was no longer controlled by the instant gratification of our desire to move.
Movement posed risk but so did staying still. For to stay still in the wrong place could be just as detrimental to our proposed goal, just as dangerous to our well being. It was a constant shifting of choices, when to stay, when to go, when to stop and where.
I would plot the next days passage nightly, usually trying to have at least three stopping points available and then still feel like I was ignorant when halfway along the passage the Captain would ask for alternative possibilities to our original plan. At those times I was scrambling for that knowledge through scrolled nautical charts or radioing the passing tow boat captains for their local opinion.
Nautical Bouy Data
Digital Navigational Chart System
Our desire to move ourselves out of our known spaces or our determination to stay within our known and supposedly controlled environments. Both extremes fascinate me.
When I used to go sailing weather was key to movement. It determined when, if and how we moved. The relationship to my environment and everything around me was constantly on my mind and the minds of everyone on the boat. Days would be spent waiting in anchorage's for weather to change so that the trip could continue. Life was no longer controlled by the instant gratification of our desire to move.
Movement posed risk but so did staying still. For to stay still in the wrong place could be just as detrimental to our proposed goal, just as dangerous to our well being. It was a constant shifting of choices, when to stay, when to go, when to stop and where.
I would plot the next days passage nightly, usually trying to have at least three stopping points available and then still feel like I was ignorant when halfway along the passage the Captain would ask for alternative possibilities to our original plan. At those times I was scrambling for that knowledge through scrolled nautical charts or radioing the passing tow boat captains for their local opinion.
Nautical Bouy Data
Digital Navigational Chart System
Monday, March 31, 2008
A to B, Story 1
I had stayed later then anticipated at an evening event I attended. It was a Friday.
My strategy of getting back home consisted of taking a route I knew well, at least during the day. However, the first bus I rode had a minor 5 minute delay, which in turn led to me missing a transfer route, which made me wait for one hour for the next bus. No big deal, nothing to be done but wait.
At 10:00 the next bus came by. I stepped in, the smell of marijuana hit me at the door. The brightly lit interior revealed four people plus myself. All of them, except me and, hopefully, the bus driver, apparentlly filled with their personal choice of intoxicating chemicals.
We traveled for a few miles, the bus filled. I am always facinated with humanity, even in its inebriated intoxicated forms. A large gentleman climbed on board and lounged out close to the front. He talked to people as they boarded. I couldn’t hear what he said. Two stops before my final destination a young strung out boy got on. He was complete ego, vicious. The large man said something, the young ego cocked his head and paced in front of the other, spat out threats, moved to the back of the bus, a barrage of unsolicited verbal threats spattering like uncontrolled gunfire to random victims. His focus staid on the large lounging drunk man.
My exit stop came, I walked to the door, right between the large drunk and the vicious youth. Doors opened, I stepped out and down, behind me the angry youths bark of “Mutha....... gonna kill you!” was silenced by the sealing hiss of the closing doors and the growl of the engine as it pulled this box of mobile madness down its destined route. My neighborhood street silently sleeping in front of me.
My strategy of getting back home consisted of taking a route I knew well, at least during the day. However, the first bus I rode had a minor 5 minute delay, which in turn led to me missing a transfer route, which made me wait for one hour for the next bus. No big deal, nothing to be done but wait.
At 10:00 the next bus came by. I stepped in, the smell of marijuana hit me at the door. The brightly lit interior revealed four people plus myself. All of them, except me and, hopefully, the bus driver, apparentlly filled with their personal choice of intoxicating chemicals.
We traveled for a few miles, the bus filled. I am always facinated with humanity, even in its inebriated intoxicated forms. A large gentleman climbed on board and lounged out close to the front. He talked to people as they boarded. I couldn’t hear what he said. Two stops before my final destination a young strung out boy got on. He was complete ego, vicious. The large man said something, the young ego cocked his head and paced in front of the other, spat out threats, moved to the back of the bus, a barrage of unsolicited verbal threats spattering like uncontrolled gunfire to random victims. His focus staid on the large lounging drunk man.
My exit stop came, I walked to the door, right between the large drunk and the vicious youth. Doors opened, I stepped out and down, behind me the angry youths bark of “Mutha....... gonna kill you!” was silenced by the sealing hiss of the closing doors and the growl of the engine as it pulled this box of mobile madness down its destined route. My neighborhood street silently sleeping in front of me.
From point A to point B.
I have concluded that on average I spend a bare minimum of 3 hours a day on a bus or waiting for a bus. Public transportation, when taken as your main form of movement creates strange psycogeography. You are forced to interact with sections of your city that you may normally skip over and you are forced to allow the system to dictate your daily route and time schedule.
The very practice of getting through the city to the campus that I have class in, my workplace or other places I frequently visit often turns into a strange examination of human movement and society. A study of separate neighborhoods and social systems as well as an observation of psycology (both my own and those riding with me).
The act of going out on an evening excursion becomes a strategy game. If I leave at X time I will need to take X bus, walk through X neighborhood for X amount of miles in order to arrive at home. The strategic planning will include taking into account the possible difficulty and dangers of such an expedition and may even determine if the event is worth the risk.
Denver is, for the most part, a safe city. Still, it is a fact that all populations have their seedy side and the movement through them, from point to point involves enough risk to need acknowledgment.
Movement is a risky endeavor, physically, mentally and socially. Yet movement is not only necessary but inevitable. Everything moves, shifts, changes. Nothing is ever still, at least not in the nature of the reality that I am aware of.
The very practice of getting through the city to the campus that I have class in, my workplace or other places I frequently visit often turns into a strange examination of human movement and society. A study of separate neighborhoods and social systems as well as an observation of psycology (both my own and those riding with me).
The act of going out on an evening excursion becomes a strategy game. If I leave at X time I will need to take X bus, walk through X neighborhood for X amount of miles in order to arrive at home. The strategic planning will include taking into account the possible difficulty and dangers of such an expedition and may even determine if the event is worth the risk.
Denver is, for the most part, a safe city. Still, it is a fact that all populations have their seedy side and the movement through them, from point to point involves enough risk to need acknowledgment.
Movement is a risky endeavor, physically, mentally and socially. Yet movement is not only necessary but inevitable. Everything moves, shifts, changes. Nothing is ever still, at least not in the nature of the reality that I am aware of.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Manuel De Landa
“We live in a world populated by structures - a complex mixture of geological, biological, social, and linguistic constructions that are nothing but accumulations of materials shaped and hardened by history. Immersed as we are in this mixture, we cannot help but interact in a variety of ways with the other historical constructions that surround us, and in these interactions we generate novel combinations, some of which possess emergent properties.” Manuel De Landa, ‘A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History’
The insights of Manuel De Landa in his book ‘’A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History’ are becoming highly inspirational for me and my research. The more I contemplate his writing the more I find my work evolving with his thoughts in mind.
De Landa, in comparing the creation of urban centers with the biological manifestation of bone mass, states,
“The human endoskeleton was one of the many products of that ancient mineralization. Yet, that is not the only geological infiltration that the human species has undergone.
About eight thousand years ago, human populations began mineralizing again when they developed an urban exoskeleton......”
“This exoskeleton served a purpose similar to its internal counterpart: to control the movement of human flesh in and out of a town’s walls. “
The following sketches are part of a possible animated work that is exploring individuals existing within social and cultural structures. The work is a metaphorical reference to our created social structures as “hive” while at the same time an expression of our inner structures or “skeletons”.
The insights of Manuel De Landa in his book ‘’A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History’ are becoming highly inspirational for me and my research. The more I contemplate his writing the more I find my work evolving with his thoughts in mind.
De Landa, in comparing the creation of urban centers with the biological manifestation of bone mass, states,
“The human endoskeleton was one of the many products of that ancient mineralization. Yet, that is not the only geological infiltration that the human species has undergone.
About eight thousand years ago, human populations began mineralizing again when they developed an urban exoskeleton......”
“This exoskeleton served a purpose similar to its internal counterpart: to control the movement of human flesh in and out of a town’s walls. “
The following sketches are part of a possible animated work that is exploring individuals existing within social and cultural structures. The work is a metaphorical reference to our created social structures as “hive” while at the same time an expression of our inner structures or “skeletons”.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
We-gyet
A book entitled "We-gyet Wanders On" was my favorite book when I was a child. The stories where always fun and the art work, to this day, amazes me.
The main character We-gyet is, well, all of us.
There is something significant in a synopsis of that book that I found online. I just feel like posting it at the moment. Nothing more.
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=5767061
Synopsis
The legends collected here are the ancient stories of the people of Ksan who have lived in northern British Columbia for over six thousand years. We-Gyet is the essence of every man's frailties exaggerated into gentle humour or ribald laughter. His adventures always end in disaster. His blunders and tricks changed the face of the earth, and the shapes of many of earth's creatures. We-Gyet was a creator - by accident!
The main character We-gyet is, well, all of us.
There is something significant in a synopsis of that book that I found online. I just feel like posting it at the moment. Nothing more.
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/displayProductDetails.do?sku=5767061
Synopsis
The legends collected here are the ancient stories of the people of Ksan who have lived in northern British Columbia for over six thousand years. We-Gyet is the essence of every man's frailties exaggerated into gentle humour or ribald laughter. His adventures always end in disaster. His blunders and tricks changed the face of the earth, and the shapes of many of earth's creatures. We-Gyet was a creator - by accident!
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