Tuesday, October 31, 2017

ELASTIC GARAGE at UTSA's ArtSpace

     This is one of the most personal exhibits I've made, with all the bittersweet references to childhood. I came rarely to see the installation, and wait till the last moment to film it, which I'm doing only the last few days of its existence. Because this is such a strong part of my past which is gone and which I miss so much, it was hard to bring myself to revisit the space. And now I have regrets.

Entrance to the exhibit


     I just finished the film this Halloween night, and it is now posted on vimeo:
     Click to see the film here.

   Description of the exhibit:

     “The Elastic Garage”
     Shown at ArtSpace, UTSA, University of Texas at San Antonio
     August - October, 2017. Opening: Aug 24 at 1 pm SLT.    

     Sometimes magic is elusive. In the dark, in a large crowded storage space with one hanging light bulb: the realm of shadows and highlights, everything is sculpted of wonder. A broken down car dreams of the morning sky. An old-fashioned white porcelain bathtub with rusted scars, broken furniture, a collection of rocks in little cloth bags hanging from a beam, yellowing slides and photos from the old days stowed in a corroded file cabinet where I saw my father naked -for the first time- in a fishing trip photo, a film of a long ago vacation when everyone was much younger than I suspected they ever could be, slides telling the story of how the Earth came to be, tools, ancient electronics, the air tempered with repeated phrases of Prokofiev that my mother is practicing on the piano in the distant living room, paints, a broken English screen with peopled scenes on it, the multi-colored bicycle my father painted for me, account for some of the treasures. All of these things are at my service in the secret hours when no one sees me enter here. When the garage door is open during the day, the whole space is deceptively flooded by light, but it still harbors reckless shadows ready to trip me at any moment. The dark spaces are dangerous with plentiful sharp objects and ideal nesting for waiting spiders. I am not supposed to be in this cavern of Ali Baba. Sweet and sour odors accompany the light from the luscious garden just steps away, under my feet.

     This was the garage of my childhood, where my visits were frequent in search of all manner of treasures to furnish the little cities I was building in the garden. Whatever I built from the material felt real, and authentic. The face I cut out of the decomposing, antique screen was, for me, the Mona Lisa. A city of twigs, broken brick and mud domes dripping with poster paint design was the passport to the most exciting places in the world. Contrast has its destined way of entering a child’s world. As my life began to crumble and change faster than anything or anyone could repair it, when daylight shared its chilled light with midnight, the garden and the resources of the garage remained, and refused to diminish their yield.

     Decades pass. I still carry the garage with me. Sometimes its size is elusive.
    
     My friend Lilia Artis gave me very valuable feedback as I was working on this exhibit. I have much to thank her for, and to the curator, constructivIST Solo for having so generously invited me to exhibit, and for tolerating my every question with a smile.
    
     Haveit Neox

     Aug 22, 2017






XXX

Friday, October 20, 2017

EXPANDED RAILWAY >>> Trans-sim Service






     While I was away during the month of September in exciting real life destinations, one of the things I love seeing are signs on the streets. Train station signs are particularly appealing as the vehicle slows down and the lettering announces where you are. So I decided to make a bunch of signs for ACC Alpha on arriving home in October, and expand the number of stations. There are presently three lines: Line 1 which services the city of Accentaury much like a metro rail. Line 2 which travels the distance to the neighboring sim of Sparquerry, and Line 3 which connects the lose end of Line 1 with the other lines, all three converging at the Museum which is a terminal. The nice thing about the setup is the dual function: a mode of transportation for commuters, as well as a relaxing way to tour the sims. There are little surprises along the way, such as an underwater dip in Accentaury, and the tall waves of golden wheat brushing past your face at Sparquerry, which is a far more rural setting than the urban nature of Accentaury.

     Each vehicle rezzed has seating for two, so it's an ideal way to tour the sim with a friend. Since you don't have to do any guiding of the vehicle, your hands are free to type away in conversation. You can ride indefinitely - at the end of each line the car stops for a second or two, and if you remain seated, it simply reverses direction and is on its way again until you stop it or stand up. Stopping and starting the car is as easy as toggling off or on with a click anywhere on the vehicle itself. See previous post for more info on this.

     Last night while working at the Museum train terminal and testing the tracks, I was delighted to see a visitor well ahead stopped on the tracks looking around. Soon afterwards, he was on his way deep into Sparquerry. This showed me that visitors can figure out the system. The creator of the SL Rail really made this user friendly. The scripting gives a smooth ride. I've been craving a well functioning ground transportation system for ACC Alpha since 2010, and now finally, it's here.





XXX