The Mercury Blog

Luke Likes Clocks

Alex Hays — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:54:57 +0000

Luke owns over 120 clocks.

It all started with his grandmothers pocket watch. Luke first saw the pocket watch when he was two. At the age of five he had the dexterity to create a wanted poster for it. The pocket watch is now his in his possession, and it’s about to celebrate its 110th birthday.

Luke’s an Arts & Technology graduate student, which speaks to his interest in these devices. “I’m an Arts & Technology student and to me clocks are the prototypical arts and technology object.”

Luke said he isn’t sure what originally stirred this interest, but he was buying clocks at garage sales at a young age.

The clocks in his parents house are scarred with tape, scratches, glitter and other playful reminders of his childhood self.

“I had a penchant when I was younger to take (clocks) apart before I knew how to put them together again.” His parents didn’t always appreciate this. “I got my hands on this wall clock my dad had used in college, I completely tore it apart and my dad was furious because I couldn’t put it back together again.”

As Luke grew up he got better at the all important putting-them-back-together step. His abilities landed him a job in a clock shop in high school, where he learned more about the mechanics of clocks.

He did make a customers clock explode once by accident (he goes into detail in the video interview) but he’s learned from his mistakes. Luke currently finds himself buying clocks and modifying them to fit his aesthetic sensibilities.

“That’s from Wal-mart,” Luke said, pointing to a clock on his desk. “I just bought it then I put a different face in it because I’m mimicking a clock that was made by Braun in the 80′s that I can’t afford.” He says he is often driven to new clocks because of their product design.

Luke said he owns some clocks that began ticking before the United States existed, which is a testament to the time, effort and skill put into these devices by craftsmen.

Luke’s also interested in the odd relation clocks occupy in regard to time. He said there is a pessimistic view you can take, one that sees clocks as objects that count down to their own demise, to their last tick. You can also take on a positive perspective to clocks, and see them as an object that has counted up to the current age, an object bathed in history and stories.

Luke says he prefers to take a more happy-go-lucky approach, and just buys the ones that catch his eye.

Watch the video interview with Luke to gain a little more insight into his life-long hobby.

RadioUTD album review: Hundred in the Hands – s/t

Alex Hays — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:00:51 +0000

RadioUTD were kind enough to share an album review with us, written by Jeff Partyka.

Rating: 5.1/10.0 (The extra .1 is for “The Beach” : -))
Recommended Tracks: 8, 9, 11
Recommended If You Like: LoneLady, Theoretical Girl, The xx, Ladytron

The Hundred in the Hands eponymous full-length debut represents the brainchild of Brooklyn-based duo Eleanore Everdell and Jason Friedman’s fulsome grounding in semi-sparse, retro 80’s dance pop. The very same pop that’s neurologically calibrated for late “thirtysomethings” clasping on to wistful remembrances of wayfarer sunglasses, ungodly amounts of hair, and maybe even that pair of parachute pants necessitated $8,000 of therapy starting in 1990 to treat (your) subsequent dissociative identity disorder. On the other hand, this album also happens to be perfect for those who possess the oft-proclaimed, but rarely demonstrated ability, to let loose 80’s style on the dance floor with absolutely no apologies.

Read more…

Leah just baked 10,000 cupcakes

Alex Hays — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:00:30 +0000

Leah Foster graduated from UTD as an Arts & Performance major. At UTD she experimented with different mediums and art objects, trying to find what worked for her. Cupcakes worked.

Foster had two cupcake based shows in Dallas. The first was at UTD’s Visual Arts Building, and the other at Gorilla Arts in downtown Dallas.

Leah moved to New York about three months ago and she already has a show lined up! It opens Oct. 27 at conArtistNYC. For this show she managed to cook up 10,000 cupcakes. If only I could be in New York to experience the art space in all it’s sweet-smelly glory.

The first question on every one’s mind: why cupcakes? Leah said it all started with her casually baking cupcakes to give to people.”The cupcake is a guilty pleasure, its something I enjoy baking, I enjoy looking at it, I enjoy holding it but I really don’t like eating it because I know its not good for me.”

“The cupcake is a guilty pleasure, its something I enjoy baking, I enjoy looking at it, I enjoy holding it but I really don’t like eating it because I know its not good for me.”

She started to wonder why she never really ate them but enjoyed baking, decorating and giving cupcakes to people.

Leah says the cupcakes have become a lens for her to explore body image.

“I’ve been called cupcake, I’ve been called sugar, I’ve been called sweetie I’ve been called all these names that reference sweets, yet if I was just to sit and eat cupcakes all day or eat sugar all day no man is going to want me as his cupcake because I won’t look like the girl he wants me to.”

Leah thought about the tensions that exist in the enticing, colorful individual object that is the cupcake.

“I call it the duality of the cupcake, in that I’m both extremely attracted to it and really repulsed by it. In my work I’m trying to have that reaction where you’re disgusted because there are so many cupcakes, but at the same time it’s really beautiful and really interesting to look at.”

Leah said she was influenced by Félix González-Torres, particularly his ‘Candy Spill’ piece. Félix placed a lot of candy on a museum floor and the audience was allowed to take a piece. The show was over when all the candy was taken.

Leah liked the participatory aspect of Torres’s work. “I wanted my work to do that and to be participatory, so that’s why I have (group) cupcake decorating and I have all these cupcake parties. I’m trying to create these experiences for people outside of what they think art is.”

Leah also referenced the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija, who set up a kitchen inside an art gallery and cooked Thai food for people. Tiravanija has said himself, “it is not what you see that is important but what takes place between people.” He tried to create situations, or events. He sets out to create spaces of interaction according to Arts & Culture.

Janine Antoni is another artist whose work heavily guided Leah’s cupcake creations. Leah referenced Antoni’s piece “Gnaw” where she chewed up a 600 Ib block of lard to make lipsticks, and then chewed up a 600 Ib block of chocolate to make heart shapes. Antoni’s work often references process, body image and cultural perceptions of femininity, according to The Museum of Modern Art.

The Mercury will post pictures on the blog from Leah’s New York show once it’s over, in three weeks.

Put things in places

Alex Hays — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:44:18 +0000

Do you miss scrawling messages into the desks in your high school classes? Well, there will be an App for that and it will let you leave more than just letters.

PlaceThings is an iPhone/Android/Blackberry app that allows you to leave text, video, audio or photos at any location. Want to leave a comment about a place or a picture you took there? PlaceThings will let you do that too, with the goal of making physical locations rich with virtual content.

Any bits of media that get placed can be seen on an online-map. You could make video-logs of your travels for your friends and family to follow, or just leave anonymous comments at coffee shops.

PlaceThings is being created by students Nicholas Spencer, John SyrinekI, and Emerging Media and Communication Director Dean Terry. The app is still in development, but they are excited about it. The Placethings team were finalists in the Accelerator Competition at South by South West (SXSW) last year.

I asked Nick and John a little about how the application started.

John: “I wanted to do something new. Smartphone manufacturers like Apple just started shipping devices with GPS, and we realized this can provide a bridge from the virtual to the real world. Augmented reality was really fascinating to us.”

Nick: “(Terry and I) started conceptualizing what we could/wanted to do after (Terry’s) first mobile lab class. I initially wanted something for creating and sharing memories about locations. It sort of evolved from that into a story telling platform.”

If you’re intrigued, check out placethings.com/demo to take a look at what is going to be offered.

How to haggle with the homeless

Alex Hays — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:42:00 +0000

Willie Baronet has had a haggling habit for a while now, but not with the types of people you’d expect. He doesn’t debate with hoighty toighty business types. It’s the homeless he’s after.

Willie haggles with homeless people over the price of their signs. When he happens upon a sign-wielding member of this society he inquires into the price he would have to pay for their sign. This changes the usual social relation of the situation. Homeless people are usually in the position of the un-empowered, of the beggar. Willie flips this social relation on its head, placing the homeless in a position with bargaining power because they now have something he wants to buy.

Having been a collector of homeless peoples signs since 1993, Willie’s gathered quite a collection. Willie recently shared his project with K.E.R.A. on The Story with Dick Gordon. You can listen to the whole broadcast here.

Here is Willie’s We are All Homeless Blog. There you can find out about the art he’s created with the signs, and some video’s about the events he’s put on to raise awareness.

We went downtown to talk to a homeless person about living on the streets, in a hope to gain insight into the struggles they go through.

Mark Cuban, Dallas Mav’s owner, Speaks at UTD!

Alex Hays — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 01:45:38 +0000

Mark Cuban is an entrepreneur who became a billionaire after various wheelings and dealings. He is best known for owning the Dallas Mavericks, but less known are his humble beginnings.

From the early age of 12 he began making business deals (selling trash bags). The deals have gotten a bit bigger since then. He came to UTD on Sept.14 and shared a few of his ideas about starting, talked a bit about his beginnings and answered some student questions.

We recorded the event so you guys can listen to his wise words.
He spoke for about 20 minutes and then answered questions for 20 minutes:

A Bunch of UTD Creatives Put Their Efforts Inside a House

Web Editor — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:15:03 +0000

We went to see what kinds of creations were conjured by some of UTD’s artists. Music, paint and video were the mediums being played with that afternoon. It was a pretty impressive affair, with 18 art-pieces being displayed total. The video piece was projected in the backyard (see image to left).

There were also a countless number of spray paint cans strewn about the back yard. Sheets tacked up awaited the cans colors. This resulted in a few collaborative pieces being created that evening (see image blow). Large sheets of paper were also taped up on the back fence so people could play on a less-permanent canvas.

Two musical acts were also scheduled to perform. [I incinerated NY] played first, followed by a DJ set by [DnC].

-Alex Hays

Photograph By Nicholas Bostick

Band Playing: [I incinerated NY]

Photograph By Nicholas Bostick

Band Playing: [I incinerated NY]

ART:

Student by day, DJ by night

Web Editor — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:03:01 +0000

Sissy Ross is a psychology junior at UTD, with an undergrad in criminology. When she’s not reading about how peoples’ brains make them do bad things she’s making beats./

I went to see her spin some tunes on her birthday, last Tuesday (Aug. 3) at the Fallout Lounge. Sissy spins hip-hop, which is considered a complicated genre to mash up.

I asked her how she got into it.

“I went to go see one of my best friends DJ at a club downtown. I chilled with him behind the DJ booth and jokingly took a picture, captioning it with learning to DJ,” Ross said. “The next day he came over and offered to teach me, and I learned.”

It took Ross about a month to get money together for some equipment. Ross decided to go the turn table route because she said “thats where it originated.”

-Alex Hays

Me: How much pressure is it, getting up there and doing it?

Sissy: When you are at home, mistakes aren’t as big of a deal because no one can hear it but you, but when you’re doing it live, everyone is going to hear when you mess up. I actually like getting out there and doing gigs because one gig is equivalent to 10 rehearsals.

Me: There are far more guys than girls DJing, based on what I’ve seen. Is that the case?

Sissy: There are definitely more guys than girls DJing and I wanted to prove that girls can do it too. A lot of people underestimate me for being a girl DJ. All it takes is time and practice.

Me: What drives you to do it?

Sissy: DJing is my way of meditating. When you hop on the tables your mind is free of all the problems that cloud my mind.

Me: Like when you’re stressed or whatever?

Sissy: Yes. It completely relaxes me. Every time you blend a new song in it sounds a little bit better than the last which makes me feel good, accomplished and my problems just wash away.

Me: Seems like a good thing for you to get into.

Sissy: I’m really glad i got into it because it’s opened new doors for me. Being able to communicate with other DJs. It’s nice to be able to talk to people about topics which you woulda never known about if I wouldnt have gotten into it.

Sissy’s got three gigs under her belt and has about four more lined up.

Folks flock to lose locks for cancer fund raiser

Web Editor — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:50:32 +0000

Kyle Kondas is a PHD student and Arts & Technology Professor at UTD.

His father battled and subsequently died from cancer two years ago, and he’s had a friend die from the disease in ‘09. Instead of getting depressed about the whole thing he decided to create a social event where people could come together and share their stories and experiences.

Kyle threw an event called ShaveDallas: People got sponsored to come shave their heads, and any money raised was given to charity to help fight the disease. The event gathered far more people than expected, and was a huge success.

More information can be found at: www.shavedallas.org

See a video of an interview with Kyle about the event, and pics of me before/after the shaving.

Here is an Interview with Kyle about the event!

-Alex Hays

This is me saying BYE HAIR:

HI BALD(ish):

The Pain of Creation

Web Editor — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:43:31 +0000

Hannah Weir is a literary studies major here at UTD, but that didn’t stop her from getting her hands covered in clay.

Unfortunately, things went askew early on. There was an unfortunate bit of galumphing that lead to a bloody mess of a hand. Hannah explains what happened in this interview, and talks a bit about her creative process.

Hannah Weir is a literary studies major here at UTD, but that didn’t stop her from getting her hands covered in clay.

Hannah was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s poem The Jabberwocky; it drove her to buy clay and spend many hours fiddling with it. She wanted to create her own claymation interpretation of The Jabberwocky (the poem can be read at the end of the post).
Unfortunately, things went askew early on. There was an unfortunate bit of galumphing that lead to a bloody mess of a hand. Hannah explains what happened in this interview, and talks a bit about her creative process.

-Alex Hays

Here is an Interview with Hannah about the whole event.

See the video Hannah made after the jump!

Hannahs vid from alexboots on Vimeo.

The Jabberwocky

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought–

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

- Lewis Carroll.