gathering?

Would be great get together again soon, I'm free from Sunday onwards next week any time after 5pm . .would be happy to come to your place Fiona if that's best, how about your availability Magdy and Wanda?

Trace

thoughts on the carousel

HI all,
sorry for being a slack blogger, I've been busy getting old!.
All is looking and sounding great, Fi the pics of the trigger button and speakers look great and should be easy to incorporate into our designs , can't wait to start!

I loved your thoughts on what carnival means to you and yes our new structural design also reminds me of the old curiosity boxes and cabinets. They also remind me of carnival changing room doors, through which bizarre, mysterious, strange and shocking things might appear!.

I too have been having many thoughts about carousels and carnivals during my many long drives in and out of town, I thought I'd share them with you -

I have always had a fascination with traditional fairs, carnivals and circuses. My earliest ambition as a small child was to be a clown in the circus, and there have been many times in my later life that I have likened life to that of a tight rope act - heading out into the unknown, balancing precariously on a very thin and risky line, and hoping that if you slip and fall the net of family and friends may catch you, failing that you just hope that if you fall you may pull off a spectacular triple flip and land up right on your feet, or crash in a big heap!, Either way the thrill of taking up the challenge for me always out ways the risk.

When I think of carnival, it is the old school traditional traveling carny that comes to mind. A world in which misfits belong, where oddities are celebrated and nothing is ever quite as it seems, normality is questioned and the imagination stretched. The nomadic nature of the carnival for me adds to its rich , dark and glittery appeal. Appearing in towns overnight, erecting magical tents, and bringing to life vacant fields and car parks. Creating a world of chaos and wonder then moving on to the next town before the mystery behind the magic is uncovered.
Never quite belonging to any one place or time, a culture and life style that exists along side the main stream, steeped in tradition and governed by its own laws and code of ethics.

I feel the contemporary essence of carnival also exists in modern day festival circuits and in the resurgence of modern burlesque clubs, and collectives like circus solae (?) nitro circus, and mutoid waste - We delight in watching people explore the boundaries between acceptable and riske, those performances that push the limits of the human body in a way that excites and amazes and shocks.

In a nut shell, for me I think its the bazaar contraction of carnival that i find really intriguing - the dark and the light.. the sparkle and the dirt, the laughter and tears, the risk and the accomplishment ... all rolled into one grand show with quite often just a flimsy ( thou very sparkly) curtain to separate ..

So here are some images of the space we will be in for the light extravaganza...

This first one is of the alternate door (In the background) that leads out to the Fijian space (Foreground)...

The next ones are the various views of the space around the building, its entryway, the foyer entry and entry into the room, and of course the main room...

I did not get any photos of the space on the other side of the entry to the room where the glass display cabinets were...

Disposable triggered sound system

Hi all

Here is the disposable system so you can see what you will be working with. The example here is the sensor trigger. I have arranged with Norman for him to alter them to enable a plugable external speaker with 2m length of cabling between system and speaker.

This means we can either use the unit as is, or insert the cabling to place the external speaker anywhere within 2 m of the trigger and unit, that would include at the top if we were to include extra height of timber on some sides...?

You only have about 10-15cm of wiring to play with between trigger and system though so that will have to be considered when working it into your pieces...

Talk again soon

Fiona xo

triggers and speakers for the Carousel

Hi All

I heard back from Norman. He has quoted $20 a piece for the trigger and disposable box + $15 for an unplug-able external speaker. I decided it wise to get the six systems with the external speaker so we have more choice with placement. So that will be $210 plus GST? plus postage, he will invoice me and I'll know the final amount.

Norman said he'll email me some photos to post up for you guys but in the mean time the dimensions that I can remember are:

I asked for 2 metres extension for the external speaker to give plenty of choice with where we place it in relation to the trigger and base unit. Any remaining wire can just be incorporated into the works or wound up around the speaker depending on how you guys want to incorporate it...

The wire from the trigger is about 10-15cm and it is directly wired into a small box that is maybe around 10 x 15 cms with a depth of perhaps 3-5cms (guessing from memory here, sorry -tracey should be able to give exact figures for that from hers)

Anyway, we should have the units by next week so we will all be able to play with how you want them to fit within the works.

Cheers

Fiona

My thoughts on the term Carnival

Carnivale, the Circus, In the Big Top, wonderment, another dimension, relocated boundary norms, freak shows and fear factories...

These I imagine more at night than in the day

County Fairs, Rural Shows, even the old AGFEST (Agriculture Festival) if anyone remembers that? - these I imagine in the day and night...

The old blue light disco could even be considered a carnival of sorts, especially back in the day when they were themed - Pink, Punk or Plastic

Zanidu - not sure of the spelling

The Labarynth - David Bowie

and here is an unedited stream of my thoughts with some of these in mind...

Curiosities

Chaos of marvelous sounds

laughter

screams of delight that sometimes verge on fear

Colour

Delightful Freaks

Coloured hair and face paint

Exquisite costumes

massive pumpkins

fluffy chickens

fat cows and very well hung bulls

hay bales and the smell of cow pats and horse poo

cowboys and cowgirls in their tight jeans, shin high boots and big hats

animals with ribbons round their shoulders

preened ponies and their riders

children eating fairy floss

coins falling from the pockets of people high up on the rides

sometimes vomit falling from the mouths of people up high on the rides

dagwood dogs on sticks with too much tomato sauce

dusty windy walkways through sideshow alley

moving clown faces swallowing balls

Big stuffed toys, always seeming just out of reach, always so hard to win

couples walking around, usually a pretty young girl with a big fluffy toy won by her clever boyfriend

dodgem cars

The Gravitron!

fireworks

blacksmithing

hot coals

fire

rhythmic metal hammering

sparks flying

the sizzle of hot metal in water

wood chopping - wood chips flying

the hard chopping sound as a line of brutes make there way with logs

the cheers when the first brute breaks through

the way the chopping sounds dye out slowing until the last and slowest finally finishes

snippets of conversations and people walk by....

possibilities

Hi again, sorry to hog the blog - please say something! This is our chance to converse, seeing as it is hard for us to meet face to face. Would love to meet again soon but I won't know my roster until Saturday, and then I'll know it till the end of the season.

I was chatting to Jamie last night and he suggested it would not be that hard to make the carousel rotate, by mounting it on a bicycle wheel or some such thing with an independently moving outer around an inner axle (it could turn in response to someone gently pushing it, or some other mechanism). Maybe we could have that as an optional extra, to be added in the two weeks prior to the event at Paxtons'? (Magdy, engineering wiz?) Anyway if it wasn't possible, we could still go ahead withe the stationery piece as planned, but if we had the time and expertise to take it further, maybe we could keep that possibility open, what do you think?

Materials

Hi everyone,

I saw the cabinet maker today and he would be happy to cut the grooves for the perspex, he didn't give me a price but I doubt it would cost a lot, and he seemed to think we could put the frames together easily enough. He thought his saw would do the job better than his router.

I am happy to go ahead and buy the timber, hinges, revolving light and perspex if you feel we are OK to go ahead, I'm just aware that time is slipping by and we probably need to get started soon. I can check out the perspex on Friday as I'll be in town then, and can get the framing timber etc. My main question is that if we decide to put a roof on it to keep the light contained, we would need all the side panels to be the same height, even thought the perspex panels could be of varying heights. What do you think about that? Any other ideas/thoughts/suggestions/reservations/directions?

Trace

put a lid on it?

Just a thought: the light will escape out the top . . and reflect out into the room . . maybe we should put a lid on it, just a circle of plywood would do it, maybe could put holes in it for projected stars on ceiling above? If we did this we would need all the sides the same height though, which could work OK if the panels are irregular in size . .

Thoughts? ideas?

Carousel

Hi All

Well, I made it back to the blog....There are now two of me I noticed...not sure how to rectify that.....

Anyway...I was thinking this morning, we should also remember the theme of this year's Festival in our thinking....water and light...and some how marry that to carnivals, Carousels, marvelous bearded ladies and other wonderous things!!

xo