From dugsong@umich.edu Sun Nov 3 03:15:00 1996 Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 19:05:30 -0500 (EST) From: Douglas SongTo: entity-list@umich.edu Subject: chicago trip review the chicago trip was totally rad. you guys missed out big time. stuff we hit: o EVL at UIC. the cave was really, really impressive. see http://evlweb.eecs.uic.edu/EVL/index.html o randolph st. gallery. clicking paint stirrer music and fish in a huge wooden whirligig. o art institute gallery. giant pigs in bondage gear, a music room that you "played" by moving around inside it, huge knitting needles as swimming proxy, etc. o conference panel talks, electric violin as laserdisk controller, tour of art institute's sgi lab and other rad workshops (neon signs, junk, etc.). other memorable stuff: o being harassed by our waiter-cum-biker, snake, at ed debevic's. we stole 2 cups, so who's on top now, big guy? o getting the downtown tour courtesy of marcus, erstwhile chicagoan. never could've done it without him. o porn. (ask heather) o stuffing 9 people into our hotel room, and mixing it up. o wandering all over the freakin' city, from the ritzy magic mile to the seedier parts of town. lots of walking, L transfers, taxis. lots of shops, stores, etc. o the stink and fires of gary, indiana. o constant, 24-7 communication courtesy of thom's headset "walkie-talkies", even on the road. these were invaluable. o the awesome view of the lakefront from the top floor of the art institute. hopefully the next trip will be even bigger. i spent way more than i wanted to ($140!) but it was worth every penny. we need to set up a gas pot in advance next time, the gas/toll $$ never got settled. btw, happy 21st birthday to erika! video and flix to be posted soon on a webpage near you... --- Douglas Song dugsong@{umich.edu,monkey.org} University of Michigan ITD GPCC Unix Services www: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dugsong keyid: C2263445 fingerprint: BF F5 20 EA DA 2F C4 F4 7D 68 4A 50 E4 35 D1 17 From ego@umich.edu Sun Nov 3 03:15:05 1996 Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1996 19:31:41 -0500 (EST) From: Heather Suzanne Bradley To: entity-list@umich.edu Cc: entity-news@umich.edu Subject: MUSEUM trip:It practically killed us. Greetings. Here is an update about entity's journey to the windy city, home of the TOTAL MUSEUM conference that occured this past weekend: We had such a great time we almost died (of exhaustion). The stats: 9 members and two faculty members attended the conference. Michael Rodemer our infamous faculty sponsor did an outstanding job as a panelist and speaker at the conference. We were all SO proud of him! Those attending the conference were: myself (of course) Sara Osborn Thomas Brooks Erika Sherman Dan Hacker Marcus Joe Harpe Dirt (that is his uniqname. I never found out his real name) Dug Song Transportation: We left in a three car caravan at 9:30pm on Thursday. We managed to stay together the entire trip with the help of our ever techy gear supplied by Thom Brooks. Throughout the trip there and back and ALL over Chicago we shared four (walkie talkie-esque) headsets which had a range of over over a quarter mile! We got a lot of stares as we walked around Chicago with our LED badges, headsets and video cameras. Those staying in the same room at the hotel: All of the above. Yeah, that is correct. We slept nine to a double room. Oddly enough, this was incredibly fun and a great bonding experience. Everyone worked together the first night trying to finish up the badges we were planning to wear at the conference the next day. Dirt unscrewed the bolts on the windows so that we all didn't die of my toxic solder fumes as I soldered the wires of the LEDs. Sara was an excellent hot melt glue gun wielder, Dan did an excellent job creating holes for the LEDs on the badges and Joe did a great job stripping the wire with his teeth. Good team work guys! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay so you may be asking what it was that we DID at the conference. Well, the first day we sat for four hours (beginning at 9am) listening to speeches given by the panelists. The keynote speaker was David Ross, Director of the Whitney Museum. A lot of buzz words were tossed around at first and at times the speeches were disappointing, but overall I think the panelists had a lot to say. (some of them kept saying it over and over again at times unfortunately). After that we went to see some exhibits. Unfortunately the shows were scattered ALL over Chicago so at times we had to walk fifteen blocks to see one work of art. Thankfully there was GREAT weather both days and walking allowed us to see Chicago. The first day's exploration of exhibits was really disappointing. We saw very little and became determined that the next day we would see work that would blow us away. The next day we saw work that blew us away. That made us happy. I will allow someone else from the trip explain these exhibits in detail. In brief, they included a room with a video camera that would detect your movements and convert them into music and a sculpture that detected the motions of a fish in a small bowl so that the fish could move its own bowl to different locations of the gallery. (I REALLY like the fish one.) Throughout the trip lots of crazy stuff occurred. Everyone was terrified that Dug would kill himself jumping between roofs of buildings and skateboarding on everything and sometimes everyone! We all had a very interesting experience Friday night that we will all repent for I hope. :) We climbed on cement cars, ate a very cool but very dirty Tai restaurant, got insulted by waiters at Ed's, got lost only a FEW times, met some cool cabbies, played tetris in the hotel room on the ancient portable computer Erika brought, and generally FSU (using Thom's phrase). I am tired. Very tired. I am also very happy that so many of us went and hope that many more of you will come along on our next journey! I had an incredible time that I will never forget. Thanks everybody! Heather Bradley Co-Director of entity - The Ann Arbor Computer Artist Coalition entity-list-request@umich.edu http://www.umich.edu/~entity "This divorce of art from technology is completely unnatural." - Robert M. Pirsig Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance