STOOPIDITY

Not sure what’s about to happen betwixt these two…

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:27:51 -0400

Not sure what’s about to happen betwixt these two…

Finished prop from a shoot by Matt Wrightsteel. Collaborative...

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:34:43 -0500

Finished prop from a shoot by Matt Wrightsteel. Collaborative fabrication by the two of us.

This is a SolidWorks rendering I did of the Nixie box used as a...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:10:26 -0500

This is a SolidWorks rendering I did of the Nixie box used as a prop for a photo shoot by Matt Wrightsteel. http://wrightsteel.net

Both Wrightsteel and I designed and constructed the unit. Pictures to follow..

Body resonance and art appreciation

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 22:14:18 -0500

Body resonance and art appreciation:

neuroticthought:

by Deric Bownds

Leder et al. have asked how hand movements reflected two styles of painting having similar content and historic period might interact with muscle movements in the viewer to influence their appreciation of the painting. Their introduction gives a bit of context for the work:

The question of how art creates aesthetic pleasure has puzzled researchers since the early days of psychology… In the visual arts, the common belief is that perceptual features, such as contrast or color, determine aesthetic pleasure; one mechanism underlying this perceptual path has been identified as processing efficiency… By contrast, since the late 19th century, the Empathists’ movement has claimed that a substantial source of aesthetic pleasure is empathy with the artwork… More precisely, Lee..argued that such empathy may result from episodes of sympathetic resonance of the perceiver’s own body with the artwork he or she is viewing. Currie…distinguished different kinds of resonance occurring through structures specifically responsible for motor processing, emotional responses, and even metaphorical word-action relations. Regarding motor simulations, Freedberg and Gallese..speculated that viewing artwork may activate neural movement programs associated with the way the artwork was produced … Thus, one source of aesthetic empathy and thus aesthetic pleasure may stem from body resonances (of the perceiver’s body) with the movements that the artist made when producing the work.

They started with the view that perceiving a painting style elicits covert simulations of concordant hand movements in the viewer and that these stimulus-triggered simulations might be enhanced or interfered with by simultaneously performing hand movements that either resemble or do not resemble, respectively, the movements the artist made while creating the paintings… Making such movements might increase or decrease aesthetic appreciation, respectively, in the viewer…

Indeed, they found that when subjects were instructed to tap an eraser tip out of their view on the table top at their own pace (the motion used the stippling of pointillism), on viewing a series of pictures they preferred pointillist painting over stroke-style paintings. Instruction to move a pen out of view in strokes of about 20 cm from left to right on the table’s surface produced a preference for stroke-style paintings.

They showed that the movements were essential to the aesthetic episode of perceiving and evaluating the artwork by doing the control of have subjects perform matching or mismatching hand movements before viewing the artwork. This did not influence their art appreciation.

I found the discussion section of the article particularly fascinating:

Our results show that even static materializations (the painting style) of an absent—and long deceased—artist’s actions can influence a viewer’s experience and preference. However, in our study, a visual matching effect between hand movements and painting styles or an increased visual salience or awareness of painting styles due to matching hand movements is unlikely because we hid the manual task from participants’ view. Furthermore, in the control condition with hand movements executed before and not while viewing the artwork—which rendered the according sensorimotor patterns also more salient or fluent—we observed no effect.

The present findings show how artistic style as a concretization of the artist’s act of creation links the artwork’s creation with the moment of art perception; this connection bridged 100 years in the present case.

Came across this on the neuroticthought tumblr. Very interesting article on neurology and unintentional interactive art work.

A set of “self portraits” from a sketchbook in 2000....

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:51:04 -0400

A set of “self portraits” from a sketchbook in 2000. I think I was drawing more how I felt than how I actually looked (I did have long hair back then). And yeah… I’m not exactly sure what was going through my mind back then either- Mostly releasing pressure from working my way through the ol’ undergrad in EE.

BEARD TUSKS!! (From a sketchbook dating back to the turn of the...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:34:12 -0400

BEARD TUSKS!!

(From a sketchbook dating back to the turn of the century).

Here are the lamps I built a while back for my brother and his...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:55:00 -0500

Here are the lamps I built a while back for my brother and his fiance. The lamp uses and LED that with the generous heat-sink on top should last about 30,000 hours. The lamp is dimmable by touching the brass plate on the wooden base.

These pictures were taken by Matthew Wright-Steel in his studio (Barn Light Studios) located in the Flatbed Press building. If you are a photographer and need studio space that you can rent for the day, or if you need bad-ass photo services, he can be reached at matt@wrightsteel.net

My buddy Fletcher gave me this album cover and asked me to draw...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:29:28 -0500

My buddy Fletcher gave me this album cover and asked me to draw a picture of it. The lettering is quick and sloppy (I think that’s my “style”), and Freddy Fender looks like the Rev. Al Sharpton, but regardless, its good training for some larger pen and inks I’m doing for my upcoming show in Lubbock on June 1st. Thanks for the inspiration Fletch!

These are the completed parts for the top and bottom hinges....

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:01:34 -0500

These are the completed parts for the top and bottom hinges. Later this week I’ll post the image of the completed lamps, along with some specs for the type of LED used etc..

Fabrication of the bottom hinge. This is creating a 1/4 inch...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:00:16 -0500

Fabrication of the bottom hinge. This is creating a 1/4 inch round channel for the lamp boom-rods to fit into.

Here are the completed bases with the brass...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:58:50 -0500

Here are the completed bases with the brass “touch-plate” and the brass bottom hinge mounts installed.

This is what the big block of cherry shown previously on the...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:57:30 -0500

This is what the big block of cherry shown previously on the band saw became. These will be the bases for the lamps.

CNCing of the lamp head/heat sink. One of my favorite images,...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:56:33 -0500

CNCing of the lamp head/heat sink. One of my favorite images, just because of the stop-motion of the coolant and aluminum chips!

Continuation of the lamp building series. -Turning the lamp...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:55:19 -0500

Continuation of the lamp building series. -Turning the lamp head/heatsink.

And shortly after that..

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:14:00 -0500

There’s a solid little seed that sits sideways somewhere inside of me.

There’s a hollow string to nowhere that stands beside my ever-living being.

There’s a howling, hard-headed, hand-me-down that makes me who I am.

There’s a way off-the-mark that wasn’t there, protecting me when I land.

There’s a great open granule of grain-land that puts me in my place.

There’s the finely foundried foundation that factors into place.

Its all these things and more that make a man tell folklore stories.

Its all these things and more that make a man feel free.

Its all these things and more that are happenstance possibility

And its all those things that were that grow a family tree.

After I came back...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:06:02 -0500

I just came across a journal I kept while I was in Costa Rica in 2004. I went there shortly after grad school, and right before I came to work full time in Austin. This is the journal entry I wrote right after I got back- I thought it was pertinent to where I’m at in life:

“I’m back at work, my car has a broken timing belt, and I need to buy another one (car, not belt). I need to be keeping in touch with my new friends- I’ve been dreaming about them.

Already, Its happened. The memories are pushed back in my irritated brain, sorely surfacing. I need to yank them out. I need to play music. I feel trapped as I knew I would. I want to make rash decisions that would change the direction of my life. I want to really f#$% up. I want to really do well. Am I just too tired to figure this out right now? Should I stay up all night trying? I need my freedoms. I need to be learning. I need to be teaching. I’d like a stiff drink. I’d like a stiffer conversation. I want advice, but I hate when people try to give it to me.”

-August 9th 2004

Not sure why I posted this.. Just seemed appropriate somehow.

Here’s the first cut of the cherry bases on the band saw....

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:10:46 -0500

Here’s the first cut of the cherry bases on the band saw. Set the blocks up at a 7 degree angle and made several rough cuts before finishing the forms on the mill.

I’ve been working on some LED desk lamps for my brother...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:07:22 -0500

I’ve been working on some LED desk lamps for my brother and his fiance for Christmas. Now that Christmas has come and gone and they’ve at least seen them (took the lamps back with me for some finishing work) I wanted to start sharing the build process online, because… that’s what geeks do! This first pic is an initial rendering of lamp from a Solidworks CAD model.

Great Moments in Pulsed-Power History- FRAME #1

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:15:08 -0500

Great Moments in Pulsed-Power History- FRAME #1

Tried to do a quick sketch of Detective Briscoe. Unfortunately...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:27:03 -0400

Tried to do a quick sketch of Detective Briscoe. Unfortunately it came out looking like a sultry Johnny Cash. Oh well… Guess I’m playing with fire tryin’ to freehand the Orbach!