Everyday: 11/27/15

The 180° Outdoor Motion Security Light is perfect for open country, especially along rivers, also near lakes, and the coast. 

The SL-5412-WH features 180° motion detection up to 70 feet. 15”−21” (38−53 cm). W. 40” (1 m). Crow-sized. Protective bulb shields extend bulb life. Patented swivel arms allow directional lighting with easy thumb screw adjustments. Adults are slate-grey above and pale below, with fine bars and spots of black, narrow tail; long pointed wings; conspicuous black “mustaches.” Young lamps are darker below and browner. Uses (2) 120W Max PAR38 flood bulbs (Not Included) that vocalize with a rasping kack-kack-kack and also a long ascending wail, WEEchew-WEEchew.

Heath Zenith's SL-5412 bundles a motion sensor and a two-light floodlight in a single package and are spectacular on the wing. In former times they were a favorite choice for the sport of falconry, plunging from tremendous heights at speeds estimated at 180 miles per hour to capture flying birds. Unlike most motion-activated security lights, this one features "pulse count" technology that reduces the number of times that lamps are triggered due to wind and rain. 

The Peregrine has a range of up to 70 feet and includes a selectable light timer that allows you to determine the amount of time the lights stay on after motion stops. It has been drastically reduced in numbers by pesticides (it is said that eating a single badly contaminated duck can cause a Peregrine to become infertile) and has completely disappeared from all but the most northern parts of its breeding range. If you want to turn the lamp off or on for extended periods, the lamp includes a manual override that lets you control illumination via an existing indoor switch. This falcon is Energy-Star compliant with 120-watt bulbs but may be used with bulbs of up to 300 watts (bulbs not included), is quite tolerant of man, and formerly nested on windowsills and ledges of buildings in our largest cities, where they preyed on pigeons. For the same floodlight with a bronze finish, see Heath Zenith product #SL-5412-BZ-A.

Pisen break/walk: café y camote

#DFI-5412-WH

blink

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sensor

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180°

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operation

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override

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shield(s)

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flood/spot

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pulse count

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limited range

Everyday: 8/5/15

Lightning Bug (spark plug, crystal, and packing tape - installed on a window)

municipal utility markers vs. light wheels

Here are two things I've been research and collecting - they don't necessarily go together, but I find that it is sometimes productive to let things overlap in order to create new meaning(s). I am interested in both at the same time anyway.

maglite tests

We hardly see light and dark anymore
Return to Sender
Anymore
[flashlight and aluminum]

Coal City Moondog

12/23/12
over Coal City, IL

the light in baltimore is always mediated

a beautiful sunset through my blinds

light reflected off of cars in parked along the street (the red is a reflection from a tail-light)

it seems like my (and our) experience of baltimore so far has been one of loneliness and seclusion. we're in a new place, most of our good friends are really far away, we don't feel completely safe here, work here has been stressful, and the art community doesn't compare to chicago. creatively i am still able to find what i need - i never have really had a problem with that - but here it is more hermetic. these two images are perfect examples of that. here are two beautiful phenomena that are caused by the outside world, but my experience of them is mediated by the one place Allie and i have found some comfort - our house. the work i've been focusing recently refers a lot to this unsettled-ness that i've (we've) been feeling. lots of allusions to security grates, wandering, protection, confusion, and dislocation have been coming up. i know how i work - either i'll work through it or we'll move before i get there. either way this new setting and brain-mode (for lack of better words) has been an ok trip for my studio so far.

light in solid form

When a gas changes phase into solid it is called deposition (or desublimation). Examples are frost, hoar frost, and snow forming in clouds. Each of these changes are from water vapor to ice. So what would it be called to go from energy and light to a solid (kinda-of)?

Fulgurite (image from the NASA blog)

Fulgurite - created when lightning strikes sand or silica rich dirt. The silica it turned into glass due to the high temperatures of the lightning. Otherwise know as "fossilized lightning". Some of this stuff is for sale - for fairly cheep on eBay... I'm considering getting some.

Glowing Steps

 
GLD-013 [LUMINOUS FOOTPRINTS]

Anonymous; Nature , 12:564, October 28, 1875.

      A correspondent of the Aberystwith Observer, the Rev. James Lewis, of Llanilar Vicarage, writes as follows to that journal:

--"whilst returning from service at the parish church of Rhostie, at about 8.15 p.m. on Friday, the 24th ult., in company with two members of the congregation, my attention was called to a remarkably strange phenomenon. In walking across a field on the farm of Cwmclyd, it was noticed that our footsteps were marked by a peculiar light, which could be traced back for several yards, each footprint being as distinctly marked on the ground as when one walks in snow. When we got into the adjoining field the light disappeared until we came near to the end of it, when it was observed that our footsteps were again marked by the same luminous appearance. In colour the light was similar to that of phosphorus rubbed on a wall in a dark room, or a mass of glow-worms, or which insect, however, there was no trace on the surrounding ground."

Since no electrical storm or other atmospheric effects were mentioned, this luminous phenomenon may be chemical or biological in origin. There are, however, cases of terrain made luminous by some sort of electric discharge phenomenon.

-from Strange Phenomena: A Sourcebook of Unusual Natural Phenomena, compiled by William R. Corliss, 1973

Fiery Whirl

  
GLD-040 THE NOTES OF CHARLES FORT

Fort, Charles; The Fortean Society Magazine, 1:12, Spring 1944

      August 26, 1826. Fiery whirl. Carcassone (Aude), great heat in the morning. At noon massing clouds in the west. Then a thick black cloud suspended over a field. Crackling and hissing and air rushing toward the cloud. A loud detonation and an enormous column of fine hovered the field--throwing down walls and picking up and killing sheep. A strong sulfurous odor. Nobody said it burned anything.

-from Strange Phenomena: A Sourcebook of Unusual Natural Phenomena, compiled by William R. Corliss, 1973
(same source as in this post)

everyday magic

Spencer Finch - West (Sunset in my motel room, Monument Vally, Janurary 26, 2007, 5:36 - 6:06pm) (9 channel synchronized video installation) 2007

"I tell him to turn his television toward the wall to study the walls for imperfections and those could be his mother and father and the stain on the ceiling could be his sisters and maybe the warped floorboard squeaking and squeaking is his grandfather talking stories...
That's how I do this life sometimes by making the ordinary just like magic and just like a card trick and just like a mirror and just like disappearing."
-Sherman Alexie, from Jesus Christ's Half Brother is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation

Mona Hatoum - Home (wood, stainless steel, electric wire, lightbulbs, dimmer unit, amplifier, and two speakers) 1999

"Where kids in kapok ice-skate and play at Secret City as the sun
Sets before dinner, the snow on fields turns pink and under the
hatched ice
The water slides darkly and over it a never before seen liquefaction
of the sun
In a chemical yellow greener than sulphur a flash of petroleum by-
product
Unbelievable, unwanted and as lovely as though someone you knew
all your life
Said the on inconceivable thing and then went on washing dishes:
the sky
Flows with impersonal passion and loosening jet trails (eyes tearing
from the cold)"
-James Schuyler, from Crystal Lithium

UICA : Beacons

Yesterday, after braving an early 3 hour drive through snow and high wind, Michael Sirianni and I installed our work for the Beacons exhibition at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, MI. I brought Conduit (and installed it next to the concession stand), and Micheal installed 3 pieces. Here is the exhibition info:

BEACONS: AN EXHIBITION OF LUMINOUS ART
January 14–February 13
Opening Reception: January 14, 6–9 PM

Winter in West Michigan is a season of shortened days, grey skies and long, dark nights. This exhibition embraces winter's darkness and showcases the light that artists can bring to bear upon this often bleak time of year. Featuring over 30 artists, Beacons’ luminous artwork showcases film and video projections, light installations, sound installations, images and objects.

Artists include: Michelle Acuff, Dave Beck, Benjamin Bellas, Collin Bradford, Tiffany Carbonneau, Kia Carscallen, Hunter Cole, Annica Cuppetelli, Yi Joanna Dai, Mary Rachel Fanning, Adam Farcus, Tannaz Farsi, Laura Foster, Mahlon Huston, Louise Kames, Marina Kelly, Geoffrey Krawczyk, Richard Krueger, Robin Mandel, Evan Mann, Cristobal Mendoza, Daniel Olsen, Brian Peters, Nicole Pietrantoni, Randy Polumbo, Meghan Reynard, Alex Schlegel, Michael Sirianni, Ben Skinner, Scott Stibich, Annie Strader, Briana Trudell, Renee van der Stelt, and Jessica Westbrook.

Adam Farcus - Conduit (outlet, conduit box, conduit, LED lights, wire, and power source) 2010

Conduit (detail)

Conduit (detail)

Michael Sirianni - [left to right] Tell (neon) 2010; A Sign (exit sign: glass, acrylic, metal, fluorescent lights) 2010; Lasso (neon) 2010

"is asks me to invest in the piece and it's invisible power"

Adam Farcus - To Bloom Out (efflorescence) 2010

detail

Adam Farcus - Untitled (rock, candle, candleabra, ball bearing, and table) 2010

detail

detail

two new pieces of a few that i installed in my bedroom at ACRE. the first one is made of efflorescence, more on that here. i had a pretty great studio visit with Anthony Elms at 9am today. we talked a lot about the object in this space - and how the objects transform and alter the read of the space - and how these objects would be way different in a gallery space. mostly they wouldn't be as slippery or hidden. i'm working on a poem in response to our studio visit, Anthony's awesome lecture/performance last night, and issues i've been dealing with for a while now (mainly spirituality and poetry).

Conduit

Adam Farcus - Conduit (electrical outlet, conduit, and box; screws, fasteners, wire, LED lights, power source) 2010

detail

this would look good with this untitled piece.

when walls are lights

The above image is the wall in the resident studio building at ACRE, Steuben, WI. It is made of mortar, wood, and glass bottles - it probably glows amazingly at sunrise. Much more to come from rural Southwestern Wisconsin.

(somewhat) Patiently Waiting

Adam Farcus - Sunset (digital file) 2010

Ryman Love

Robert Ryman - The Elliot Room (Charter [center], and two pieces from the Charter Series II-V [left and right]) (Charter: Oil paint on anodized aluminum with six hexagonal round-faced steel bolts; Charter II-V: Lascaux acrylic on epoxy-edged fiberglass with aluminum with four unpainted round steel bolts) 1985-87
[image via the Art Institute website]

Why I like the white Robert Ryman paintings [Charter II - V] at the Art Institute:

*they are poetic - they have most amount of effect by the lightest touch
*even monochrome paintings can still be art objects (a canvas)
*these are painted wall sections - some as though they may have come from an office where someone painted around the furniture - in any case they are things from the world
*this tension between painting and found object is productive one for me - the work has a hard time being "this or that"
*the fact that they escape mere monochrome painting by referencing (and looking like) found objects helps to make them have even more of a light touch
+ the room (installation) is very dependent on the natural light in the space - the work seems to glow, while at the same time makes them dispensary into the wall

for me these are solid real-world objects that, taken from their original context, have become fleeting and poetic objects that both reference the every day and seem to be imbued with some magic.

orange walks

I often want to go for walks
in the evening
when the sun makes everything more orange

More on light and faith

Eaton Chapel, Beloit College, Beloit, WI