Eating Blackberries from the vine to Richard Devine

Eating Blackberries from the vine to Richard Devine...
Sun, August 13, 2006 - 2:16 PM by Jane Crayton

The day was beautiful, blue skies, warm weather and it encouraged us to take the top off the Jeep. We also knew that it could be cold, and so we made sure to bring warm clothes, we were heading to the beach, in hopes to meet up with a party that was suppose to go off at Pigeon Point. We drove through the mountains, or a rolling forest that was beautiful, we stopped along the way and ate black berries off a huge path that was growing along side the road. It took me right back to my childhood, I saw the huge patch, and I told the driver to stop. I got a bag and started to pick and eat berries right there off the side of the road. It was beautiful, it was simple, and it was just like I was 11 picking blackberries in the back. This was the highlight of my day, I thought, but we weren’t even to the beach yet. After about an hour of winding roads we found our way to Hwy 1 and we found our beach. First checking out the Pigeon Point light house, the historical photographs and navigating the tourist double fisting cameras and cell phones. We moved on to check the beach party and we spotted a U-Haul trailer, and I knew it was the sound; we sat and chilled for a moment, to see whom may be around. We finally saw a couple guy walk up to the trailer and they started to move down some speakers. When we made it down to the beach they had it all set up, it was pimp with a covered dj area, they were about to start setting up. I was drawing on the beach, it was cloudy and I decided to call the sun, and I drew the symbols calling her out to me. I started to stroll the beach, when I see this cop, a California Ranger to be exact. And he’s checking out the area, he’s looking to see whats up with this party. He finally approaches them and talks to them, the results are not good. They had just got down the last speaker, they had so much stuff, down there and they had to move it and get it out of there. It was a bummer but my first beach party canceled by a State Ranger…such is life, we decided to go romping and try to find some jeeping roads. We went into and through the most beautiful forest, traveling on some very small roads, into the middle of these great county and state parks, but all the off-road roads were closed. We at least got to take the scenic way back to town, and a good thing we did, because we ended up making a fabulous dinner and then heading to a party in the city San Francisco. We went to a gallery that was having Richard Devine play. I have never seen him life, but love his music, it’s so crunchy and fuck its great to dance to. I got off hard core dancing almost African style to this experimental electronic music. I was dripping of sweat; my dress broke from my wild arm movements and had to be retied. It was great and even better the VJ had video taped me and had been remixing me with his visuals live. So fun, you bet I’m gonna get those visuals; I got to see this video of my freakE dance to Richards Electronic freaking Noise. We drove back from the gallery in the Jeep and it was so nice to feel the wind cool my body with a swift massage of cool air. Ahhhh the day was incredible, and I got to rock my shizz in San Fran 2 Devine….Ohhh Yeah! Thanks Richard…!

www.richard-devine.com/

Survival Research Labs @ Zero One

So we got tickets to go see the Survival Research Labs show at the Zero One Art Festival in San Jose. We got there just in time to stand in the front area, we dug through our bags for earplugs but it was no use, we had none. Then this lady came through passing them out to everyone. I was very happy to see this, so important, and my $25 dollars for the ticket part of it was used to provide me safety so I could see the show without fear of hurting my self in the name of art. It was awesome, about a dozen robotic creatures came alive and then took vengeance and destroyed a couple of animating structures. The show included flame throwers, a flame cyclone, and flame busting robots. A Tesla Coil dawned the stage (not sure, but I think it was Dr. Mega Volts), that was no more than the parking lot behind the main festival event space. They had fireworks that were going off, sparks that were flying, the thematic were great, and the lighting was pretty good and a great plus. There were so many different kinds of robots, and crazy things, like these two guys were riding around in a small vehicle that had these huge sound wave blasters on them. When they pointed the sound at you, you could feel the sound waves bounce through your body, it was very cool. He seemed to like to drive near the Tesla coil so it could make a connection with his car, it was very entertaining. This group was pushing the envelope with creating devices that tested its audience’s boundaries, with sound and interactive audio/visual stimulation. I want to see them do a led or something lighted display that will help narrate the performance, it needed a little moderation and I would have loved to been guided through it, because I felt lost, trying to look at everything at once, it was almost overwhelming. But I loved it....check the links below for more details...

www.srl.org/
www.drmegavolt.com/index_history.html

Ryoji Ikeda @ California Theatre blows my mind....

Tue, August 8, 2006 - 10:30 AM by, Jane Crayton

Walking in the cool breeze, in the fresh air, I felt alive again; my body and mind refreshed and ready to receive input. Yet I never imagined that I would have been such an important performance, even though I did not fit exactly right, tickets manifesting, everything was flowing and my vibe glowing. It was a much different feeling and crowd than Sonar; Zero One in San Jose was the ultimate Silicon Valley experience. But I didn’t let it deter me from this great perspective Ryoji Ikeda threw in my face. We were sitting center, about 6 rows back, it was perfectly balanced for the audio to reflect and reverberate from my ears to my bones. It was loud, and startling, and it was noise. A lady from the back protested, “It’s too loud” she screamed at the space of silence solicited but not granted. A book slammed down, it was almost unbearable, she screams, “It’s not suppos to hurt,” at the next pause, and the noise is scratching, ripping and tearing apart your ears, a group of people in the front shhhhhhhhh’d her. It’s silent again and just when you think she’s done, she yells, “I’m leaving,” and I hear the theatre door slam behind her. It was powerful, it was noise, it was not suppos to be nice, or soft, it was suppos to hurt and scare and wake you up and leave you shaking. At this point I am in awe, the graphics, the motion, the data was all moving and changing and creating this message of sense and nonsense, of life and death, of reflection and direction. C4I captures the world, translates it digitally and visually for you with a poetic twist and profound message. The first half of the show was brilliant and I was so inspired and happy, you could not have whipped the grin off my face. Technology was being used to translate a message about our culture, about our realities and our alter-dimensional digital worlds that run parallel. We walked out onto the posh patio with a streaming wall water fountain to catch some fresh air during the intermission that forced us out of the theatre. The atrium, patios and halls were crowded with Zero One participants tagged and labeled with their events pass around their necks. We shared a drink and quickly entered the theatre to get our seats for the second half of the show. I had no idea what to expect, but I knew it was going to be good, I just had no idea that I was about to see the best visual perspective of the universe that I have yet seen in my life. It was noise, and it was all data driven the movie named Datamatics was a totally cool life experience for me. The entire experience was awesome, the Venue, the lady screaming the Silicon Valley geeks and artist elites all surrounding us, and yet here I was, in the midst of the best audio and visual representation of our universe to date. I have been waiting, wondering, trying to fully imagine this myself for so long. My study of astrophysics extends to the dimensions of data, and chaos, reality and illusion, art and science. I sat there absorbing each detail of each sound, scratch, squeak. I was powerless in my state of absorption, I had opened up all my senses to inhale the essences of this art work, I could feel and breathe the universe around me, as Ryoji Ikeda gave us the view of our universe VISUALLY using only pure data to reveal the world in which we exist, and it was beautiful. If I ever teach an astronomy class, Datamatics would be the first film I would want all my students to watch…