Wieder zu hause.

Zurück von einem schönen Wochenende in Deutschland, und jetzt ist es zeit fur etwas arbeid!

As one could read in the previous post, we went to the ZKM in Karlsruhe, where we visited the exposition 'Medium religion' and had dinner with a student of architecture from France. The dinner was very good (accompanied by nice dunkel weizen (you gotta love the contradiction)), the museum was ok.

After spending quite some time there, I was notified of the fact that the museum also features a giant section of interactive installations.. which I was able to glimpse at for just 5 minutes before they closed. A lesson was learned; always check what's available.

The exposition on religion in the media was interesting, but, for me, not much more than that. Next to some good imagery (wooden crosses supporting spray-glue in cans with the text; 'NO MORE NAILS'. Simple but strong, for it demystifies but could also be looked at as rude and offensive, which makes you wonder what you actually believe) there where some nice installations.

A giant industrial robot arm in the process of writing down the bible on a scroll immediately called forth all sorts of feelings and made me wonder. The whole installation radiated serenity. The slow elegant movements with which the arm was inscribing the words on the scroll made it seem strangely organic and combined with the 'human' in the connotations of the biblical text made it a very appealing installation. brilliant how, although it was a machine, it gave the same feeling as when there would have been a monk writing those words. In the end we are just machines, but making that visible is quite neat.

The next day Martijn, Laura (the lady who joined us) and I went on a refreshing walk. Shortly before, resting my head on the shoulder of my lovely girl, I decided to not work together with them on the installation, for my interests lie elsewhere, and my preferences concerning style and content are in such a way different from theirs, that I feel I would only hold them back, so to speak.
They agreed on this, and it will mean that Martijn and I will not work towards the same end result, but nonetheless together. I will help (when asked) in matters technical and serve as sparring partner in discussions, and Martijn will also do the latter for me and help me code (if desired).

When we stopped in a street for a picture, I discovered an object that I like. I always feel strangely drawn toward mechanically produced mass products such as nuts and bolts. So finding something like that makes me happy and might even lead me in a direction concerning the design of my final product.

My final product by the way, will be in the field of robotics, and the connection of the physical world and internet/data.

Research and Rain.

Today Martijn and I went to Amsterdam to visit some museums for ideas and general research, only to find that all of them where not open anymore or not open yet. While discovering this, it rained. So wet and slightly dissatisfied we ate some sandwiches and tarte au citron at de Gebroeders Niemeijer which we can highly recommend. Not only are the products massif, their literature rack featured a copy of an art magazine that contained info about religion in art, which we where also looking for. You find in weird places.

What, might you wonder, has that got to do with your project? Suddenly believing in a God above and a Devil below? Nope. still believing in nothing here, but yesterday we had an really interesting talk to a fellow student at the HKU, and found out that we might do a project with her, which will concern religion, meaning (in dutch 'zingeving') and a far more personal touch.

Obviously it is not yet clear what it will all embody, but keep on reading this blog and find out.

Furthermore, saturday we will drive to Germany for a short trip to the ZKM, the center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. Right now the museum, which was recommended to us by a teacher, features an expo entitled 'medium religion'. Obviously not to be confused with rare religion.
Since we are students and creators of media.. results of the trip will follow.

HKU

After a period of working in a group project on the HKU, it's time for a more personal project. I will be doing this with my schoolmate Martijn Bruckman, whose blog you can also read for more info.
I will be posting my research and progress here. So keep reading.

But needs time to..

Life, once again, did continue after my last post. Looking at the regularity of posts it might have rather slowly . Or, as it did, rather quick. I find myself suddenly incredibly in love, finishing my master of arts and technology (whatever that might mean(if anyone knows (seriously)let me know. Please.)) missing mountains, hiking, ice-climbing, skiing and generaly feeling lost. But I also find myself surrounded by wonderful people like my lovely girl Maud, and good friends. So time to stop wimpering and wondering, and start to get to work.

I decided to build a really cool instructable I found and you can check out here and i'm in the middle of a workshop in which second years are building robots under guidence of me and my dear Martijn. Amazing, but true. I'll post the results soon, for I think they will amaze me. Good to see that the people who are now second year are much more advanced than I was in my second year.

Next to that there is Work Being Done on my master project. It will be disclosed at a proper time. Hold on.

Also, when looking for usefull stuff for our new home (us being me and Maud) I stumbled upon (not using the cool online tool) a pinball machine. Which I am trying to fix as we speak. Or rather read. Or use a keyboard. Well, never mind. I'll post something about the cool new toy soon.

And life, once again, continues.

Back in Holland, after a kinda short but extremely nice trip to Montpellier in France, where my incredibly beautiful and sweet girlfriend lives and studies.

Today the HKU started again, and we where introduced to our final year of school. I will participate in a project concerning our (apparent) disability to communicate with each other in public spaces. Which I have to say is true, but if I have to be honest, I contribute to this myself as well. If you find me in public transport (IF you do you are one lucky son of a bitch) I will probably be crowned by a set of large headphones (Sennheiser). So speaking to me or being spoken to by me is pretty much out of the question.
But ok, I guess we don't have to talk to each other all the time, but there is a equal lack of reason to not speak at all. So the coming weeks we will research this fact, and hopefully prototype some 'solutions' to this 'problem'. I happen to like prototyping. I do.
Speaking of which: I have been thinking about doing workshops concerning molding and casting using CNC machines and 2 component rubber or waxes. If anyone is interested in that, please let me know.

So how do fish stay upright?

Today a good friend of Haakon, our lab manager, came back from 3 weeks on an oil-rig. Sören (that's him) normally works off-shore for 2 weeks, and then stays on land for 4 weeks. That's the way these oil-people roll here in Norway.

To welcome him home, we had a very nice fish dinner consisting of the Red snapper that he brought along, potatoes and broccoli. They taught me how to eat the fish head (not the whole thing obviously, but the tasty parts). which turned out to be quite the snack. I was kind of surprised to find they don't eat the eyes of the fish, but the part around the eyes does get eaten. Interesting feature of the fish: the whole head is easy to disassemble, almost like it has been build with that purpose in mind. Maybe there is a creator after all, and he is smiling on us happy humans, for we have used his intelligent fish-design like he intended. In the most tasty part (according to my teachers), the brain, there are two very small and sharp bones on either side:



These bones (which apparently are sharp enough to cut glass) are used by the fish for balancing. Maybe when there is time, I should do a how-to-disassemble-a-fish-head tutorial. Although I don't know how many people will actually use that.

I'm also still working on a recurve-bow I want to make. I guess I'll make a tutorial for that once I'm finished, for it might turn out to be interesting to more people.

Outdoors

Yesterday Alex (my colleague from the De Waag Society) arrived at the lab. Haakon promised me we would go to Tromsø (where the airport is) a bit earlier, so we can have a look at his motorbike. It appears he owns an old BMW R70 bike... This guy just keeps amazing me, but since it was sunday, everything was closed... so we just had a nice fish meal.

The day before, Haakon, Johan, Aslak and I went on a little trip to the most northern part of the peninsula we are on. Where the land meets the sea, a lot of boats crashed. When the tides change, millions of liters of water flow from or into the fjord thus creating massive currents. Walking along the shore we encountered lots of wreckage, and even found a whole ship (well, whole... check out the pictures).



We also stopped at a little lighthouse to have some tea and found a can of joika (traditional sami reindeer meat) we decided to eat. It was such a nice place that both Johan and I agreed that we would go back there to leave new food, so it was ok to eat some of the stuff there.
It was nice and cosy: