Human-power projects

There are several projects occupying my space and mind these days, the largest and most pressing is S*OIL.  This week I will be setting up the planters for final measurements for the fabricator and making adjustments to the electronic system.  This project is a three-planter installation with an electronically controlled irrigation system powered by humans using a railway handcar.  The photo is of the prototype at another location. Though I may not have it set up as such here at Aferro, I will be working on finalizing all the components.

The second project I am currently working on is Mobilis, another human-powered mechanism but this time it is in the form of a convertible car.  I've been working with a programmer (Slava Balasanov) to develop a mobile and web application that will communicate with each other via an online server.  The user will be able to virtually navigate through wilderness parks and the adjacent industrial sites using an iPad.  To view these sites the user must pedal the car (it will have a bicycle chain drive) to power the screen (windshield) that project these two images side by side. Below is an image of the Grand Canyon and the adjacent uranium waste sites. By scrolling their finger on the iPad glass, the user can navigate in the sites, like one would in Google Earth with their mouse.

Mobilis, Google Earth images of Grand Canyon area

S*OIL prototype #2

Posted by: Maria Michails

I think art making is like any other mental/physical activity in the sense that it requires some amount of exercise or practice. I started drawing when I was really young. Like most children who like to draw, I began with copying magazine images, tracing, drawing anything and everything that was in front of me. My art education was pretty formal with some old school teachers who still thought silver point on gesso was a medium. I appreciate learning this way...but only so now I can break all the rules! It has been YEARS since I've had any reason or desire to draw anything representational. I'm more interested now in abstraction in drawing. In the line and mark and layers of erasure. But it's funny how you always return to where you started. My love for representational drawing never left...I just stopped exercising the muscle. I came to Gallery Aferro not knowing exactly where to begin. So I began at the beginning. With a pencil. I'm all warmed up and stretched now...and have since returned back to non representational imagery to begin some laps..



This drawing and an in-progress non representational piece (still in progress) will be in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Academy of Music opening on May 17th.

http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=4353

brodsky fellowship

great to be out of a small bedroom and into a real space....beginning preliminary sketches for brodsky print...working with Randy @ Rutgers on concept...also focused on new book sculptures and school desk and works on paper for a few upcoming exhibits in new york and Delaware..looking forward to working with Andrew on video projects...Peace jc