The lady and I are moving to a new place!

Relevancy here: I’m going to finally have my art studio! You’ll be able to follow the build here as I go along with this project. My goal is to make it an art/music/post-production workshop that can effectively double as our second bedroom. This is of course going to require a lot of work.

The room as it is with current owner…

Decisions so far: GREY. Definitely painting it grey. It’s my favorite room color and will be light enough for me to project my art onto the walls without discoloration or contrast problems.

My new studio monitor controller to switch between my studio monitors (the KRKs I have and the grotboxes that I don’t yet):

SM Pro Audio MPatch 2.1

Now I won’t have to reach around my speakers all the time to make volume adjustments or plug and unplug cables.

Very exciting! The problem with moving, though, is that you need to pack up your former place.

Yikes

My workspace has shrunk considerably here, but I refuse to stop working until the last second! Here you can see me in the middle of programming and reinstalling screens on my second video installation. Progress is flying! Unfortunately I had a hard drive crash and lost some of my programming, but I’ve rebuilt a lot of it from the ground up and now it’s better than ever.

Resolume, my video software company of choice, put up some kind words about me on their blog.

http://www.resolume.com/blog/post.php?t=8983

Thanks to them!

Thanks to my mom, dad and Emily for coming out to join me at the award ceremony at the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

That was truly one of the nicest receptions I’ve ever attended and I have to thank the Smithsonian, VSA, the Kennedy Center, and Volkswagen for being amazing in making it happen. But I’d like to especially thank all of the artists I met this week–your work and stories were truly inspirational and have packed my head with ideas. I can’t wait to keep up with all of you as your careers progress!

27 hours ago, this computer was recording my band. Now it’s back and powering my new sculpture… you are looking at part of the sculpture and the two rewired LCD screens (the board you see is powering one of the rewired monitors).

Making amazing progress on it… my second installation!

As a quick follow up to my old story, Digital Synthetic has been running great at the Smithsonian. Hopefully you can see it soon!

I am doing tons of experiments in macro film… more on that later. The studio computer has been at Deerhead Studios for a few weeks for Brittany Jean recording. (http://brittanyjeanmusic.com/?p=235)

The scene is a deep-red exhibit hall by the International Gallery at the Ripley Center. The time is 1 p.m.

“Alright so it’s all set up… I’ll come back in about 30 minutes to make sure it’s still working then head out!”

“Cool it looks great… wait… uh oh… what was that?”

“I forgot to turn off the Bluetooth keyboard I just put in my backpack… uh oh.”

Everything that had been on the screen was gone. Will panicked.

“Well, OK, maybe I’m not leaving yet.”

Will laughed nervously and put in a phone call to Emily. Thankfully she was nearby and came to help calm him down.

Will programmed like he he had never done before–like he didn’t even know he could do–and recovered everything by altering old XML files. He juuuust made it in time before everyone left.

The clock’s toll is drowned out by the rain… it’s 3:30

“OK, NOW I’m done.”

“Great, it looks perfect. Just let us know if you have any questions. You know, it’s just a liiittle off center. Let’s just move it an inch or…”

SNAP

“Uh oh… what was that?”

Will checked the connections and the power, wondering what could’ve snapped. The screen was as dark as the thoughts in his mind.

“The HDMI adapter… it’s broken… everything’s set up, but I’m going to have to come back with a new adapter in the morning…”

–TO BE CONTINUED–

George, Sonja, Laurie and everyone from VSA/the Smithsonian were super awesome and really helped me get Digital Synthetic set up perfectly. I should have the HDMI adapter fixed by about 1 p.m. tomorrow. So don’t go at 10 to see my work! Haha.

I am INCREDIBLY excited about the exhibit… all of the artwork was fantastic and it’s looking great. I can’t wait for you to see it!

A nice bio of me is up on the Kennedy Center webpage:

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=79156&source_type=A

You can read all about the Momentum exhibition from there, too.

One week until my installation day!

I love the post-hurricane weather. It makes for very interesting shots. I was out shooting video for a new project but had to snap a couple of photos with my new lens (Canon EF 2.8 100mm macro lens).

I thought this tree that fell into our apartment building made a very cool backdrop for the serenity of the flowers.

Back to work!

A couple of months ago, I responded to a call for submissions for Momentum, a national exhibition that takes a lens to the relationship between disabilities and the creative process. As my Tourette’s Syndrome majorly influences my artistic approach and thoughts, I thought that I might stand uniquely enough to warrant consideration in the show. I was right!

I was notified yesterday that Digital Synthetic will be part of the exhibit and displayed at the Smithsonian Institute in DC from September 7-January 22. The show will be in the S. Dillon Ripley Center (right on the National Mall… if you don’t know, it is by the castle, the Freer and the Sackler). I am overjoyed about the opportunity—not just for the ability to show my art, but for the ability to bring a wider understanding of Tourette’s to visitors from across the world.

I also received a monetary “Award of Excellence” that I will be putting toward furthering my artwork and building a computer that will run this thing for almost 5 months!

Thank you all for your encouragement and support. You can follow all of the action right here!