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October, 28th 2007

OK–I’ve been holed up in my studio all weekend healing my shoulder, trying to figure out how, working without an assistant this year, to juggle simultaneous installations in multiple locations without totally half-assing them and I’ve come up with a nutball idea: make one of them a class project. Seriously. Hear me out:

I am doing a video/sculpture/photo installation as part of a little conference on campus dealing with counter-insurgency and surveillance. I plan to have a “live” video feed of the atrium of University Hall, where part of the conference takes place, projected onto the wall of the Standish Room of the new Science Library, where the other part of the conference happens. The security desk of University Hall will have a small closed-circuit monitor showing the happenings across campus in the Standish Room. Still with me? It gets a little complicated from here.

The view of UH is actually being sent from a wireless camera suspended by balloons over a floating model of the atrium. Live, but dead. Likewise, the view on the security monitor of what is happening in the SR is pre-recorded. Both scenarios skirt the legal issues surrounding surveillance of faculty, staff, and students on campus (which is pretty much still illegal, unless you are with the Dept. of Homeland Security).

So here’s where my awesome class comes in: I need help fabricating this model in a big hurry. I suddenly realized, talking with a friend, that I am teaching a class (duh) called Constructed Reality and we’re on the models and miniatures project right now. As I say, duh. I have to install on Thursday, Nov. 8. So I guess you know what we will be doing in class that day, eh? If you agree to help out with this little project, the schedule would be pretty compressed and would go like this: This Thursday, pending access, we (Team 1) photograph the atrium of University Hall, print 3 copies of said photo at about 24 x 24″ and start in on the foam-cor and polyurethane model. Then (Team 2) we videotape a meeting (again, pending approval and access) happening in the Standish Room.

If you folks are able to help out with this, not only will you get full credit for the project we’re in the middle of, but I will credit you fully and even ask Media and Marketing to visit during the installation to shoot pics of you. I’ll also buy you lunch and dinner (depending on how long the install goes) and introduce you at the conference, if you attend.

And you can certainly still produce your work for this project if you’re into it and I’ll count your participation in my little project as lucky magic extra-credit bonus points. Let me know what you think at your earliest opportunity. And if you think you know of anyone else who might be interested in helping out just for fun, invite them to our Thursday class this week.

Go team!

-dg