JIA-CHI

While riding our bikes through the streets of Hollywood on a Sunday in LA, my brother and I found ourselves in the middle of the Songkran Thai New Year Parade & Festival along Hollywood Blvd.  What a treat!

Did you know that LA has the largest population of Thais outside of Thailand?

The festival got really crowded starting at Normandie, so Byron and I rode up to Franklin, and got a great view of the Griffith Observatory in the hills.

Byron and I then rode over to the LA River, hoping to take in the newly rejuvenated river from the recent rains.  But the winds were too strong, and were a real force to ride against.  So we instead rode to M&A on Silver Lake Blvd to check out Bloom.

It all started on August 5th, 2010, when Glen Phillips (organizer of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time’s Performance and Public Art Festival) and I exchanged correspondences about having Materials & Applications (M&A) submit a proposal to the Getty for a grant to perform Judy Chicago, Lloyd Hemrol, and Eric Orr’s 1968 dry-ice installation “Disappearing Environments”.  On January 19th, 2012, after 3 planning sesions, M&A, 40+ participants, Judy Chicago, and Donald Woodman collaborated to create “Sublime Environments” at Barkar Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport.

The day started with some bagels from Brooklyn Bagels in Historic Filipino Town.

Then we started getting prepped up for the big performance.  This included white jump suits, white spray-painted hair, and work gloves.

The dry-ice came in 12”x12” blocks, and delivered in big bins.  We were building 9 ziggurats, with 91 blocks each.

The participants were divided into 4 groups, each group building one ziggurat at a time.  Tthe first half of the day consisted of building 4 ziggurats.  After lunch, the 4 groups proceeded to do another 4 ziggurats.  Then, all the participants helped to build the final ziggurat.

Judy Chicago.

Marya Villarin

Nick Rodrigues.

Charlie Peel.

The sublimation of the dry-ice blocks changed throughout the day.  As the day got warmer, and the air more moist from the ocean, the fog got thicker.  Notice the photos as the day progressed.

The final piece being placed by Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman.

At 5:30PM (sunset), participants lit 30-minute road flares, 10 to each ziggurat, to create a red, glowing, emanating environment.

And to think, I had no idea who Judy Chicago was when I first spoke with her on the phone back in August, 2010.  She had fans who dressed up like her at the opening.  No big deal.

As the night wore on, the ziggurats slowly began to crumble as the blocks sublimated and shrank.  And much like the products and monumental things in our lives we treasure, the block will also disappear, without a trace.

BLOOM is now installed at M&A till Spring 2012. Designed by Doris Sung in collaboration with Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter and Matthew Melnyk.

“The design of the project, based on research by Sung and Wahlroos-Ritter, explores the possibilities of a thermally responsive metal surface which reacts to both the change in temperature and direct solar radiation. When the temperature of the metal is cool, the surface will appear as a solid object, once the afternoon heat penetrates the metal, the panels of custom woven bimetal will adjust and fan out to allow air flow and increase shade potential. The thermo-bimetal alloys used in the project expand the notion of surface and structure in architecture.”

As part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time, architectural mad scientists Materials & Applications is reinvisioning Judy Chicago’s 1968 dry-ice sculpture “Disappearing Environments” - except with a bunch of volunteers and tools.

In our first workshop date, we got to play with 60 lbs. blocks of dry ice and road flares we will be using for the installation later in January 2012 at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.  LA Weekly wrote a little something up on our experiments.  

We are still looking for some more volunteers who are interested in creating dry ice environments.  Sign up on the website.  Plus, you’ll get to meet Judy Chicago and her husband Donald.  Hint: the color of their clothes in these photos rhymes with the word “urple”.

My camera broke after this photos was taken.  Which is why the blog has been quiet.  Apologies.  Blog will be exploding this week with new updates.

Bonnie asked me over a year ago to work with M&A to produce a shade canopy over 826LA’s Echo Park south-facing back courtyard. At the time, there was no budget, so no real plans were made.

In January though, Joel of 826LA approached us again with some funds, and wanted to start the project up again. So we teamed with Kate Moxham, who proposed we use Tyvek as the shade material.

With a laser cutter, we cut phrases written by the students at 826LA (“Big kitty spaceship packs everything”) into the Tyvek, folded them, sewed the seams, strung the “sails” up, and hoisted up the canopy.

Superscript from Eric Spiegelman.

Canopy is up now.  It’s permanent, with the ability to have new pieces strung up when needed.  The laser-cut phrases project their shadows onto the floor.  Swing by the Time Travel Mart to see it for yourself.

NBC came out to capture the project. Starts at 2min mark.

exploring the creative spaces and studios of architects and artists on the westside.  part of Materials & Applications’ summer studio tours.

LAYER _ Emily White & Lisa Little

Office of Mobile Design _ Jennifer Siegal

Stephen Glassman Studio

Predock Frane Architects _ Hadrian Predock & John Frane

threw a trifecta farewell bbq party for myself, graham and jenna in elysian park.  Britney, from Alabama,  brought a Mississippi Mud Pie.  With Gummy Worms in it.

Longinza!

i believe jenna is in labor currently in MN, where there is no more functioning state government.  here, she is 8 months along.

M&A celebrities, Bruce Chan, Graham Keegan , and Jenna Didier are all heading out for the summer. One to go on maternity leave, one to take a new full-time position at an architecture firm, and one to explore the world in a specially-designed tricked out truck/camper (not in respective order).
Come BBQ with us to choose who does what!

Monday May 30th, Memorial Day: 4pm till 7:30 and beyond…
BBQ at : http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=34.083026,-118.234976&spn=0.001208,0.002366&t=h&z=19&msid=211946575075125193917.0004a3f65a14cbc7c367c

byob and grills and grillables/ salads, etc., frisbees, yoga mats, sun hats and tai chi robes
see you there!
jenna, graham, and bruce

Bruce is an artist who has recently started creating tensile “creativity enhancement structures”.  This came out of his prototyping and series of “one piece pants” in which he makes pants out of one sheet of fabric, as opposed to 4 panels.

Bruce then led a tent technology workshop on prototyping and creating your own tensile structure and model.

SASAKI for Heartbeat Japan

dublab

3-4pm: Lavenders
4-5pm: Anthony Valadez
5-6pm: Jimmy Tamborello
6-7pm: Katie Byron
7-8pm: Hashim B.

more photos from deejay Athony Valadez’s blog.

bento boxes with japanese/polish tapas within.

Over 70 participants added their personal heartbeats to the scrolling canvas.

M&A raised over $3,500 for Architecture for Humanity’s Japan Earthquake Reconstruction Fund.  Please donate today for immediate relief efforts.

Was in Palm Springs helping to install “Data Pool” by didier hess.

beautiful laser cutter