a double exposure of sorts - shutter open while slide transitioned.

Good to hear from you Fiona!! I've been lax with the blog too - too busy cutting out millions of leaves . . . print print print, cut cut cut, sew sew sew, print print print etc . . Wanda I really appreciate your encouragement to stick to the plan, what I thought was evidence of obsessive compulsive behaviour in artworks I love is just plain old discipline! I have listened to every Radio National program there is for the past two weeks, many of them twice as they are repeated.

As I'll have millions of leaves I'm thinking of scattering the extra ones on the floor and encouraging people to take a couple with them, in a Felix Gonzalo-Torres kind of gesture.

Audio preview did not work

OK, well the upload of the audio preview did not work...will try again another night...

Audio preview

Hi there

I know I haven't blogged for a while...but turning over a new leaf AGAIN, and going to try to blog more often now.

Tracey, I had a few secret spots myself as a child and would often go walkabout for hours on end much to my parents' distress, got in loads of trouble because of it sometimes.

I grew up on a hobby farm of 22 acres amongst a number of other much larger properties, some cattle, some cane. There was a big rock up the neighbours road, and another rock on our drive way. Not surprisingly my imagination would take me to singing performances to sell out crowds...ironically it would also take me to smoking hollow grass stalks as cigarettes.

I also spent a lot of time up a Jacarandah tree, and another spot was behind a dislodged backing between my built in wardrobe and my parents wardrobe. I would climb through to mum and dad's side and hide/play in the dark there. I would pretend I was going to Narnia.

I hope the audio upload has worked.

Fiona xo

Secret Places

I just heard a great program on Radio National about the importance of secret places to children - places where they can imagine and create, and where they are undisturbed by the pervasive world of adults.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2010/2872548.htm#transcript

I remember those secret places, totally hidden from the rest of the world. There were many, but one was really special. I used to climb underneath my nextdoor neighbour's house and make mini aerial landscapes, complete with rivers and hills and landforms, all in the dirt, complete with water courses - I loved tipping water into them to see it run through the rivers. Because it was out of the weather and totally secret it never deteriorated - it was just the same whenever I went back there. It might still be there!

Another, like many children, was up a tree, a jacaranda tree, where my friend and I made bubblegum pictures on the tree trunks, and made up our own language. Actually Tolkien said that most children make up their own languages - but he kept doing it throught to adulthood (the Elvish languages etc.). I felt like I was free up in that tree, far from the world below I could dream away the days - felt like I spent most of my childhood up there!

recent photos

sleepless in Arduino land

Great to meet with you all today . . . just been late night browsing Arduino projects, check these out! The sound is a crucial part of it, just love the sound on the first two of these!

http://hacknmod.com/hack/create-techno-with-a-laser-harp/

http://hacknmod.com/hack/flexible-interactive-multitouch-display/

there are lots more here:

http://hacknmod.com/hack/top-40-arduino-projects-of-the-web/

Also Magdy there are lots of old style slide projectors on Ebay for about $20 plus postage - I reckon you could get one locally easily enough.

Here are some of the many sensors you can buy from an Australian online store:

http://toysdownunder.com/arduino/sensors.html

I just bought a bit more EL wire on Ebay - 3 metres of blue wire with AA battery pack for $9 plus $4 postage . . couldn't help myself . .

Tree prototype

Here is a further development of the tree. I'm really happy using the x rays, a good durable lightweight plastic, that is also recycled, and contains such great images and variations of colour and tone, some translucent and some opaque. The cut panels also project really great shadows - the negative space of the leaf image which has been cut from the panel.

As I mentioned to Wanda although I love the EL wire it kind of complicates the imagery when you add it - maybe there will be another use for it. What I am thinking at the moment is small LED downlights, one at the top of each trunk, that are sensor activated, so that they come on gently, not abruptly, when you walk near them - maybe a dimmer is needed for this . . unless you can buy some that come on and off slowly. It doesn't need bright light to work, the light from a single globe is enough to illuminate the leaves around the trunk.

Hi Guys ,
have you come back from Melbourne as techno wizards ? am eager to hear your news,
have been continuing to play around with shadows and am currently exploring the idea of using felt and cane to create my shadows casters and the possibilities of projecting down through them. Spent a day searching the local hardware and lighting shops, had a great chat with the guy who owns one of the lighting shops in town, He's given me a great catalog for theater/ club lights etc, with some amazing gear in it, including the floor light panels that are pressure or sound sensorsed but at $1500 per square m i'm quite glad i'm steering away from that idea .
speak to you all soon
wanda