Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Added on by Cole Pierce.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
A DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP

I did not allow my resolution, with respect to the Parliamentary Debates, to cool. It was one of the irons I began to heat immediately, and one of the irons I kept hot, and hammered at, with a perseverance I may honestly admire. I bought an approved scheme of the noble art and mystery of stenography (which cost me ten and sixpence); and plunged into a sea of perplexity that brought me, in a few weeks, to the confines of distraction. The changes that were rung upon dots, which in such a position meant such a thing, and in such another position something else, entirely different; the wonderful vagaries that were played by circles; the unaccountable consequences that resulted from marks like flies' legs; the tremendous effects of a curve in a wrong place; not only troubled my waking hours, but reappeared before me in my sleep. When I had groped my way, blindly, throught these difficulties, and had mastered the alphabet, which was an Egyption Temple in itself, there then appeared a procession of new horrors, called arbitrary characters; the most despotic characters I have ever known; who insisted, for instance, that a thing like the beginning of a cobweb, meant expecation, and that a pen and ink sky-rocket stood for disadvantageous. When I had fixed these wretches in my mind, I found that they had driven everything else out of it; then, beginning again, I forgot them; while I was picking them up, I dropped the other fragments of the system; in short, it was almost heart-breaking.

pp 444-445

Seven Random Things

Added on by Cole Pierce.



I was tagged by both Harper Reed and Melissa Pierce to do this meme. At the end of this post I will tag 7 lucky people to post their own 7 random things about themselves.

First off, even though this post is about random things, there is nothing random about this list and they are not things. This list of attributes, events, situations and idiosyncrasies were methodically chosen. This meme, or viral blog thingy is like an online icebreaker, or teambuilding activity in the blogosphere. Weird, huh? If I were going to make a list of random facts about myself I’d have to make a list of every fact about myself and then pull 7 out of a hat. I just don’t have that kind of free time on my hands. So I’m going to pick 7 things that most of you do not know about me, that are odd, quirky, unique, maybe banal, things that make me seem cooler than I am and things that make me seem funnier than I am.


One
I have webbed toes. In between 2 toes on each foot, the second and third toes are webbed.

Two
I grew up on a tree farm in Iowa, but most of our land was CRP acres, which means my dad was paid to keep it real, no commercial development. Kind of like growing up on a state park, rural isolation, which for a 9 year old is complete freedom. Another weird fact from when I was 8 or 9, some older kids nicknamed me Piernov: a. because I was a fast runner and pierna is leg in Spanish, b. the resemblance of Pierce to pierna, and c. no idea why it became Russian.

Three
Somewhere around 2003-04, Brock Manke dubbed me the “Thomas Edison of Trash Culture”. I’m not sure what this means but it sounds cool. Brock used to dj at Innjoy on Tuesdays, which is where I met my wife Melissa. Harper introduced me to Melissa on one of those Tuesdays, and these 2 are who tagged me in this meme.

Four
I’ve been on a Bosnian TV show called Central Prison. Actually it was my grad school colleagues and I sitting in on the talk show interview with our teacher, Damir Niksic. He hooked us up with a spot to do a video installation in the Sarajevo Winter Festival. Some other funny stuff happened on that trip, like the girl informing me I have a “multicultural face”, and Fenchel and I djing a bar until they made us stop after I played “Purple Bottle” by Animal Collective. By the end of the trip my colleagues and I referred to each other as Dannys. It’s a long story.

Five
My art practice has led me to some odd activities. I have made paintings with an eggbeater. I have dunked a pair of ski boots in a bucket of paint. I made a video of myself playing basketball on a court full of mulberries. I convinced 18 people to make a mixtape for Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston (back in the day), and send the tape to me. I sent the box of tapes to the celebrity couple, without promise of receipt. By chance, one day Brad Pitt was drinking a cup of coffee outside my workplace and I asked him if he received the box of tapes or if he knew about my project. He knew nothing, and calmly asked me about it, then was whisked away by his people. In college, while on a semester arts gig in Chicago, my class was assigned to do a public art performance. I dressed up in a dog costume, got on all fours on a skateboard while Michelle Deva Jebb (in exorcise gear) jogged and pulled me around the Gold Coast neighborhood. There were always people jogging with dogs in that area. I barked at a dog.

Six
I like my coffee black and my whiskey neat, however I embrace herbs, spices and sauces in and on the food I eat. I can cook a good stir fry, some excellent soups, have perfected a collard greens recipe and am working on the perfect gumbo.

Seven
I have worked at the Chicago Teachers Center of NEIU ever since I moved to Chicago in 2001, in many capacities. Here is a list: Videographer, Teambuilding Facilitator, Improv Workshops, Movie Workshops, Climbing Wall instructor, Leadership Camps, High Ropes Course, Video Afterschool Clubs, and once and only once - Bus & Field Trip Coordinator for a summer program.


There, its done. Now its time for me to pass on the energy ball. Here are the next 7 people to post 7 random things about themselves on their blog.

  1. Tyler Carter
  2. Julie Rudder
  3. Roxane Hopper
  4. Steve Nyktas
  5. Miguel Cortez
  6. Jason Shanley
  7. Martine Syms


The rules of this ‘game’ for those that I have tagged:

  • Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
  • Share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.
  • Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
  • Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter






Th

2008 in Review, Best Music Albums

Added on by Cole Pierce.
I made this list in my sleep last night.

1. Koen Holtkamp - Field Rituals, (Type)
2. Tape - Luminarium, (Hapna)
3. Jacaszek - Treny (Miasmah)
4. Machinefabriek - Dauw (Dekorder)
5. Dead Letters Spell Dead Words - Lost in Reflections (When Skies are Gray)
6. Alva Noto - Unitxt (Rastor-Noton)
7. Paavoharju - Laulu Laakson Kukista (Fonal)
8. Fennesz - Black Sea (Touch)
9. Flying Lotus - Los Angeles (Warp)
10. TV on the Radio - Dear Science (Interscope)
11. Mira Calix - The Elephant in the Room: 3 Commissions (Warp)
12. Bersarin Quartet - Bersarin Quartet (Lidar)
13. Deerhunter - Microcastle (Kranky)
14. Ellen Allien - Sool (Bpitch Control)

Ames Room Mix CD

Added on by Cole Pierce.


Modern Classical Ambient Mix
Download

Ames Room

Part 1
Untitled Found Cassette, Audio Diary Cole Pierce
Chimaerica - Johann Johannsson - Fordlandia
Powoli - Jacaszek - Treny
Budeie Med Sigd - Svarte Greiner - Til Seters
IV. A final shaking - de Waart, Edo - Shaker Loops
Section III - Chris Schlarb - Twilight & Ghost Stories

Part 2
Tendrils In Vigne - Gregg Kowalsky - Tendrils In Vigne
Death and Possible Dreams - Roam The Hello Clouds - Near Misses
Au Clair de la Lune--French folk song (1860 Phonautogram) Phonautogram by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville Recorded on April 9, 1860: 1861 Deposit, Académie des Sciences (No. 324), Number 5
Reversed Flames - Tape - Mort Aux Vaches
Untitled Found Tape, Answering Machine Messages - Cole Pierce
Uusi Aamu - Hannu - Worms in my Piano
Disconnected - Twine - Violets

Part 3
1 - CoH - Super Suprematism
On A Desolate Shore A Shadow Passes By - FENNESZ - On A Desolate Shore A Shadow Passes By
Make Haste - Koen Holtkamp - Make Haste
i auzi, mandra, pitigoiul (1951) - elena constantinescu - Michael May Mix 000
Clear Music - Nico Muhly - speaks volumes

ps (wikipedia)


An Ames room is a distorted room that is used to create an optical illusion. Probably influenced by the writings of Hermann Helmholtz, it was invented by American ophthalmologist Adelbert Ames, Jr. in 1934, and constructed in the following year.

An Ames room is constructed so that from the front it appears to be an ordinary cubic-shaped room, with a back wall and two side walls parallel to each other and perpendicular to the horizontally level floor and ceiling. However, this is a trick of perspective and the true shape of the room is trapezoidal: the walls are slanted and the ceiling and floor are at an incline, and the right corner is much closer to the front-positioned observer than the left corner (or vice versa).

As a result of the optical illusion, a person standing in one corner appears to the observer to be a giant, while a person standing in the other corner appears to be a dwarf. The illusion is convincing enough that a person walking back and forth from the left corner to the right corner appears to grow or shrink.

Studies have shown that the illusion can be created without using walls and a ceiling; it is sufficient to create an apparent horizon (which in reality will not be horizontal) against an appropriate background, and the eye relies on the apparent relative height of an object above that horizon.

Skipping Stones Reflection on Text & Art Discussion

Added on by Cole Pierce.
On Sunday I participated in a roundtable discussion about using text in art. Hopefully the entire conversation will be published, not only because I was part of it, because it was a comprehensive overview of the different ways text is being used in paintings. Co-moderated by Bert Stabler and Noah Berlatsky, the talk was much more academic and theoretical than I anticipated. However when the discussion would get too heady, a gentleman in the audience who initially admitted that this kind of work was new to him and this was an educational experience for him, and would kindly ask for definitions and information about the artists names we were tossing around. Noah provided the expertise on the history of concrete poetry, and even touched on early political cartoons in relation to text and art. Bert did an excellent job providing a historical framework of text-based artwork, as well as effortlessly summing up modern theoretical issues. I suspect he is planning to write an article on the subject and used this roundtable for research. The other participants involved were Carol Jackson and Diana Guerrero-Macia, both of who are artists in the middle of their career and teach at SAIC. Instead of recapping the entire conversation (waiting for the recording to be transcribed) I want to jump to the last topic we discussed. Without getting too into it, we started talking about meta strategies in contemporary art and punk rock. Mostly because the composition in Diana's work sometimes resembles early zines and punk rock cover art. Soon hereafter, I was asked two questions that threw me for a loop. I wish I could quote Bert's question verbatim, but a paraphrase will have to do. He asked me whether or not I sided with the Ramones' flickering spirit of hope, or with the defeatist coopting Ikea capitalists. What kind of question is that? Of course I side with the Ramones. I think this question also deals with the general attitude shift toward earnestness. People are tired of irony, and now artists are either sincerely optimistic or sincerely pessimistic. Carol then asked me if I considered myself part of the avant-garde. I said yes, then changed my answer to 'I don't think about avant-garde while I'm working, I just investigate my interests and focus on what makes my art interesting'. This is true, but the question seems to highlight the generational difference between artists who studied in the 80's and my contemporaries who studied in the past decade. If you think about 80's art, there was a clear us vs. them thing going on, a bifurcation, zines vs. mass media. Identity politics had a clear enemy, and artists who wanted to see change directed their aggression succinctly. Everything was cut and dry, you either were part of the avant-garde or you weren't. But now we've seen every counter-culture style and tactic become co-opted into a market strategy for H&M or a leaked viral video for Miller High Life. Now we get the Yes Men hijacking corporate conferences, infiltrating and impersonating The Man. And we get artists like Allora & Callzadilla who use conventional gallery type art along with public interventions. As for an avant-garde meta strategy, this would be a blending or chameleon strategy. No more us vs. them. With all the pluralism in the 90's, the inter-disciplinary practices, considering everything in the past century that has expanded art, along with irony being unfashionable, artists are now more free to hack away at their elusive thesis. An upside of the pending market collapse is that it may allow more freedom to artists, to create work without the pressure of the market. This recession could be a long one, but once it is over who knows what those artists are going to drag out of their studios.