ericStimmel: November 2005

trailer mods...

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

so, severe trailer modifications have happened while i was away in california for the weekend... i'd love to show you some pictures of it, but i believe we have agreed to a period of 'image silence' that will extend for a month or so... finally i got to do some actual work on this project today... some grinding, a little welding [ very little ] and some discussions and mock-ups of a skin...

over the weekend [ aside from seeing my friend in his first play 'marat sade' ] i spent some 30-40 hours trying desperately to get gpsdrive to run on my mac laptop... apparently it can be done, but i was unsuccessful. i've gotten gpsd running [ actually i think i had it running sometime last year ] but now it is not being recognized by some other software that i was playing around with... so i am back to square one on this one... i think i will try again to install this stuff on a linux machine... i've got pclinuxos installed currently, but i'm thinking a debian distro might work better... maybe knoppix... but i'll try pclinux first... i've been stalled on that for a little while because i don't have a network card in the x86 laptop i am working with... but a pcmcia ethernet card can't be too expensive right?

now to get some sleep... crits tomorrow morning... laser cutter demo tomorrow afternoon... work and perhaps a lecture tomorrow night.

gpsd

Thursday, November 10, 2005

okay... i'm struggling to get some gps tracking capabilities up and running... i've decided that i need to get it running on my mac before i focus on the linux system that i hope to get into the trailer. for the simple reason that i don't really know what i am doing with linux and the laptop i am working with is slightly dismantled right now... if i can get it running on a stable, solid OSX platform, i'm sure i can make the next step. besides i am learning a lot about the command line... and getting to drink coffee at java hut. more to come once i get things going...

right now i am trying to install gpsd and all the support infrastructure that that needs... then to gpsdrive and getting the gpslogger working. should be completely functional by this weekend.

the view from java hut on an overcast day...

NEW FROM NOW ON

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

ahh.... just finished re-posting all my old posts [ finally! ]... now i can focus on getting something new on this blog.

the dawning of a new era [orig. posted 2005.09.29 at 08:17 PM]

alright... i've started encouraging others in the studio to start posting to the blogs again so i guess i should take my own advise.

since my studio work has been overshadowed a bit by some summer work lingering a little bit longer that perhaps it should, i'll just make a note here that this year marks the beginning of a new era for Cranbrook. Bill Massie is now the architect-in-residence and with that comes some, hopefully, welcome shifts in the way the department will operate and direct it's attention. along with the oft mentioned new equipment that has come to our department [ laser cutter(s), cnc router, plasma cutter... ] there is a new energy and a focus on ways of making that speak more directly to the technologies of design.

i am excited to get working on our group project [ which i will post more about later ] and also excited to dive into the seminar for which we just received our readings [ the journal Log vol.5 spr/sum 2005 ]

CAID Holy Sit! Opening [orig. posted 2005.04.10 at 06:44 PM]

below are a few images of the chair show opening at the CAID from last night... my camera takes pretty poor images, but i'm sure someone else will post some others that are a little better quality... i thought it was a pretty good turnout and a good show... hopefully some people will sell their work.

assisted speaking devices review [orig. posted 2005.04.10 at 06:35 PM]

i sort of forgot i was going to post this... but then again, i just got the text version of it the other day. jessica and i had our assisted speaking devices project critiqued in the 2D Design department a couple of days before it was critiqued in the Architecture dept. the attached pdf is the review of this project that was prepared by andrew mackie. just as a background, the crit process in 2D [and some other departments] is slightly different than ours. in 2D the artist [in this case jessica and me] install their work the day before the review and another student [in this case andrew mackie] views it and writes a review. the following day, during the critique, that student distributes copies of the review to all the other students and presents that review... the artist remains silent and the critique proceeds on the merit of the work with the starting point being the individual review... this goes on for some time and only then does the artist present his/her [our] statement and open up a shorter dialogue to cover things that were not discussed or questions that were not addressed...

anyways, below is andrew's review and a link to our statement which was posted previously.

Download Andrew Mackie's Review.pdf
Download Eric and Jessica's Statement.pdf

post review [orig. posted 2005.04.07 at 12:09 AM]

well... second semester reviews are over... i still have to gather my thoughts on them and i'll try to post the important ones here. i was a little surprised at how non-crit like they were, but then i was reminded that they are reviews and not critiques... still i was expecting something a little different than what i got. at the same time i got some good comments and suggestions for my ever expanding reading list... more to come, but here are a couple shots of the studio... much of the work is still digital... so i will try to post some things later.

2nd semester reviews... [orig. posted 2005.04.02 at 04:07 PM]

second semester reviews are monday [for our department]... i have some serious studio cleaning to do today...

writing desk photo shoot [orig. posted 2005.03.31 at 07:18 AM]

a couple of the students set up a photo shoot of all the chairs in the show... these are a couple shots of my chair. these show the attached book rack on the side as well as some more uncluttered views of the entire piece... once i clean up some of the welds and the sloppy finish work i might get around to posting some detail shots. maybe...

some titles and topics to follow up on... [orig. posted 2005.03.29 at 04:28 AM]

i'm thinking about methods of representation and ways of communicating information... sort of along the lines of architectural drawings, but also instruction manuals, 'how-to' guides, instructional diagrams... that kind of thing. with that in mind, i've been looking at a few things and asking a few people for sources. here are some of those things for future research, reading, and perusing...

Chris Ware [cartoons and diagrams of cut-out, fold and assemble 'things']
Architectural Synaesthesia by Marco Frascari [a 'good intro to thinking about how we draw']
Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge by Alberto Perez-Gomez [studio reading list last year...]
“The Space of Architecture: Meaning as Presence and Representation.” from Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. Architecture and Urbanism. Stephen Holl, Juhani Pallasmaa Alberto Pérez-Gómez. July 1994, Special issue. by Alberto Perez-Gomez
Make Magazine published by O'Reilly [exciting new 'mook' about making things]
ReadyMade Magazine [oddly enough, i have never read this mag, but it sounds like i should look into it...]
How to Make a Contact Mic [a site i learned something from recently... might as well give credit]
Digital Ground by Malcolm McCullough [not necessarily related, but sounds good and relevant to my current interests...]

thick steel... [orig. posted 2005.03.27 at 07:37 PM]

here are a couple other shots of me working the steel writing surface for my writing desk... the table i am working on is 1/2" plate steel [about 5' square] with a pretty heavy steel frame. i moved it several feet hammering the 'wrinkle' into my piece of steel...

left-handed writing desk [orig. posted 2005.03.27 at 06:15 PM]

as you may know the architecture department hosts a chair show each year... this year it will be taking place at the CAID in Detroit on April 9 from 6-11pm. you can find out more information on this at the CAID website [specifically for our show entitled Holy Sit!]

as a preview of this show, we hosted a Forum Gallery show on campus with it's reception last friday night to a large turnout and rave reviews [as they say]... but it was certainly a good show. anyways, back to my work... here are a couple process shots of my writing desk. i intend this to be one of a series of three chairs. they are found chairs that don't provide a level of functionality needed to warrant keeping them. i intend to add that functionality. the first is a left-handed writing desk. i'll get some more finished photos up here when i can, but here are some shots of the chair without the book rack on the side and of the rack being bent. both the writing surface and the book rack are approx. 1/4" thick mild steel. the frame is 3/4" angle iron and the clips are 3/4" x 1/8" flat bar. i cut, bent, welded, and otherwise fabricated all the pieces from stock material. the finish is Jax Black, but i am not quite satisfied with it and may be revisiting that this week.