Small Talk Big Ideas Artists Lecture

I found Joe Delappes artist lecture regarding activism in the virtual world quite fascinating. The art pieces that especially sparked my curiosity were his series of computer mouse traveling mapped out on ink. Joe's work allowed me to look at things in a different perspective, such as the intricacy of how a mouse moves and the kind of design and pattern that builds up as a person moves it from day to day.
One of Joe's biggest conversations was in regards to a lot of war related activism which I found interesting as he implemented this into the gaming and digital world. I remember watching a movie as well where soldiers were required to let missiles off and kill people yet they never got anywhere near these people. They did all of the action from a push of the button behind safe closed doors thousands of mile away and Joe's lecture brought that back to mind especially his piece regarding playing a soldier in an MMO war game. I was amazed to discover that because Joe refused to fight and every time he dropped his gun and stood there to make a point, even though this is all digital and not real it still really creates a deep and meaningful impact. I was amazed at the players that actually got angry with him, not even realizing the meaning of taking something as serious as war to a digital level made of binary.
This lecture made me realize that people often times let the obscurity of the internet or games hide them from having to face the truth about some things, and when someone comes in and makes a active statement in a digital war game just because it's digital and people are not really dying, the fact is that it is very real in the long run and people find fun in killing and shooting in war games is something they don't think serious about often times. Joe's lecture gives a glimpse of digital worlds turned upside down are just as nonfictional in some sense as real territories, the same things happen but maybe people don't really die. To fuse these two worlds together and make a statement by marching a polygon made 3D Gandhi across a digital world, or refusing to fight in a war game is making digital worlds all the more real, it is making them come alive.

Pepakura Mini Golf Hole turned Into Mini Whimsical World

As I began to work on my Hashima Island Pepakura Golf hole I started to notice it was looking kind of drab with the grey and black spray painted buildings and blocks I was using. As I went along various obstacles and ideas came to mind and I added a lot to this golf hole. I made it more of a strange kind of other worldly mini course where the individual would have to walk through various structures and bridges and areas of colorful space like platforms to put the ball to it's destination. I had a lot of fun with this. I like the oddity of my original idea with a spin on it. It is also nice to add more of a creative spin on this as I know when researching mini golf holes many of them are quite amazing. I was actually very inspired by something locally held here in Reno called mini Pirate Glow Golf, where it is a mini golf course completely set up with black lights and you play only in the dark and let the glowing obstacles guide your way. Very cool idea and definitely inspired me when creating this mini hole with the kinds of colors I used and the fact that this very golf hole could potentially be a black lit golf hole if I used the right paint. Here are the pictures below:

Hashima Island Mini Golf Course Hole Update

So I have decided to shift my idea of a war memorial mini golf course hole to a miniature replica of Hashima Island, better known as Battleship Island off the coast of Japan. Hashima Island is a coal mining facility that was abandoned in the 1960's. It is off limits and highly fascinating due to the way that the structures are being broken down by sea water and decay. I started with the base to look like a battleship:

This will be my base that will house the buildings I will be putting on and around the mini golf course hole.


Here are a few more pictures of my Pepakura cut outs for some of the buildings as well as my original idea for the golf course hole. I decided to go with something more simple and use rectangles instead to build a golf course. So I went from this:

To this basic shape which I will be duplicating and using to put together the course in a simpler way:

Pepakura was making it very difficult to cut out the entire mini course so I had to break it down into simpler shapes to make it more time manageable.


Here are a few screen shots of my buildings that I will be using.

So basically it will be a Battleship base, with a few old looking buildings, and a course in the midst of the buildings. My idea behind this rose yet again from my fascination with abandoned cities and institutions around the world. I love the idea of bringing life back into something that has been long forgotten. Such as a mini golf course hole with green astro turf in the middle of a long lost city, or how nature reclaims these forgotten places and in time they become more fascinating in my opinion than they do when they are completely run by human beings.


Leaving off here are a couple more things I will be focusing on this weekend:
1. Spray painting my pieces.
2. Painting details.
3. Cutting out holes for the golf course.
4. Finding some astro turf floor mat.

And to leave off here are a couple of real photos of Hashima Island.

Mini Golf Hole

I decided to focus my mini golf hole around something more serious. I think a mini golf hole that reflects on a memorial for war would definitely be something you wouldn't normally see at a mini golf course. While often times there are whimsical creatures and interesting obstacles at mini golf courses, my idea stems around something more real and evasive. I decided to set it up so that there are many different holes that one must traverse through the course. Each hole has something written in the bottom of it, preferably the name of a fallen soldier, the year they lost their life at war, the place, and location the soldier was from. That way when people reach down to get their golf ball from the hole they will notice the text printed in the bottom. This will reflect on American war causalities only. The replica of the flag and gun will be a reminder of what exactly this mini golf course entails.

I wasn't sure what other decorations would be necessary for this particular golf hole. It starts out with each individual lining their ball up with the red dot and then putting from there. Each time they make it through an obstacle they must retrieve their ball line it up with any of the red dots nearby and try for another hole in one. The object is to move across the course and see the names of those who lost their lives in war printed within the courses various holes. I would also like to maybe make some kind of sign or a wall added to the back with even more causality names to make the idea more apparent, if the gun and flag doesn't already speak for itself. Here are some pictures below.

Pepakura Mario Coin

For my Pepakura 3D cut out object I chose to do something simple so that I could get the hang of how to use this software. This coin was pretty simple but tricky to put together.

3D ant harvester collage

The other half of the 3D project was also done is Google Sketchup. This time I would actually have to say this leans towards more of a scene than a collage, but sometimes those two can coincide.

I had a crazy dream about a month ago that ants were invading the Earth so I decided to make my 3D scene about my dream, but instead of the ants invading the Earth, weird moon men in gas masks harvest the ants by cutting their heads off and using their venom to make nuclear weapons. So this is a collage scene of these moon men doing just that. I also added one where they are heading through the fog. Can you find the hidden easter egg?

3D Mad House

Anyone who knows me, knows I love the historic Danvers State Hospital in Danvers Massachusetts. I decided to try and build a replica of the main Kirkbride building that was salvaged after Avalon Bay got a hold of Danvers Hospital and demolished 90% of it to build condominiums.

Google Sketchup allowed me to really focus on the textures and depth of this historic building. I went with the boarded up windows, the way that it was before it was demolished. I also added a couple of my own little things to it that, as you can see, are not actually on the building.

This building and place has inspired a lot of my artwork. It inspired my trip to go back east, and has also given me a new appreciation for the evolution of medical science. I really did enjoy building this, it was A LOT of work and I eventually want to build the entire thing the way it looked back in 1878. Above are some pictures of the actual building and then shots of my 3D modeling of Danvers State Hospital.