Media!

The Boston Arts Examiner features the upcoming "Black & White" Members Show at the Brickbottom Gallery:

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1370-Boston-Arts-Examiner~y2010m3d31-Members-show-at-Brickbottom-Gallery

 Remember:  The Brickbottom Gallery, Somervile, MA, April 18 - May 22, 2010.

No Excuses!

My new hero is Robert Harrison of West Yorkshire, UK, because of his Icarus Project.

A helium balloon, a used digital camera, a GPS, a launch clearance, and a bunch of duct tape, and we see how the middle of the road is just not good enough.  Good things happen when billion-dollar,  high-tech, publicly-funded R&D meets hundred-dollar, low-tech, privately-run, improvisational experiments.  All that middling, corporatized crap that we wait for and pay for from outfits like Apple and Microsoft really don't get us anywhere.

But this guy, with his "Hm, I wonder what would  happen if I did this..." approach, he is advancing our story, showing us how access to knowledge really is opened up by new technologies, and how initial investments in R&D lead to much lower costs in real life application.

So while we, on the one hand, stop haggling and complaining about the costs of public programs like NASA and new fuel development, etc., because they really are worth the effort (Mr. Harrison stated on MSNBC this morning that, without the billions spent to develop GPS, he would not be able to do his $700 launches), let us also stop making excuses for not chasing our own visions as well.  Not having funding, not having connections, not having credentials, are no longer any reason not to do things, because the tools are in our hands. 

All we have to do is try, to see what is possible.

Hell, that even must apply to getting permission.  The only part of all this that I haven't seen and really want to is the pitch he made to the UK government to get the permission to send up his balloons.  It must have been a good one.

The sky's the limit.

The Arting Life: Moment of Geek

A Look Inside:

Sometimes, you meet your inner geek coming down the road towards you. 

Mine showed up recently, bearing the 1995 paper "18th and 19th Century European and American Paper Binding Structures: A Case Study of Paper Bindings in the American Museum of Natural History Library", presented by Barbara Rhodes, Conservator at the entitled institution, in the Book and Paper Group Annual of the American Institute for Conservation via the site Conservation Online.

It's amazing the things Google will bring one, ain't it?  Truly, there is no excuse for ignorance anymore, no matter how obscure the subject.

Yeah, right, like you don't have things you geek out over.  Pfft.  Please.

I found this gem in one of my frequent searches for paper and/or non-adhesive book bindings.  I like to know what's going on in the book world, and with this article, I was excited to find good descriptions of old binding styles so stable that the author suggests their use as conservation bindings.  The antique books, even in their worn and damaged conditions, built out of waste paper and spare bits, have exactly the look I want for my own books.

Examining the up-close photos and detailed drawings of the article's examples launched me into book-geek orbit.  All the hidden treasures and secret compartments.  The improvised constructions and deceptively simple function.  The stories layered into the structure of the book itself.  Rapture.  Swoon.

Right after the new collage for the "Black and White" show is finished, it will be book models time.  Yay.

Black & White at the Brickbottom Gallery

Brickbottom Artists Association Members Show 2010.  Print or save this image as a reminder and to share with all your friends.