CatSynth pics: Mattson 3X Experiment

From George Mattson, via matrixsynth.

“I was wondering if I could do a ‘piano finish’ for the case I’m going to make for my EML sequencer/ modular.

In a moment of insanity, I decided to do a test run by building a 3X wide horizontal case. I figured that if it worked, great! If it didn’t, I’d still have something I could use.

One day of building out of canary wood and 15 days of coating, sanding, re-coating, sanding, etc and the final polishing process let me know that yes, I CAN do a piano finish. But, My EML project isn’t going to get one 🙂 It’s a lot of work.

I was trying to set it up where I could get a good angle to catch the reflective surface. Once I scrubbed the kitchen floor, it was as good as spot as any. Our cat decided to check out the new ‘thing’ that was invading the floor. I figured that it gives a good scale comparison. So, there he is, being a cat.

The case measures 44″ W x 11″ H x 3″ D. It contains 36 module spaces.

I decided that it was perfect for creating a system synthetically comparable to an old stock Moog 55. I researched the ‘standard’ module compliment from their brochure and had to sort out cross-generation compatabilities. I came up with the following modules that I’ll need to create a comparable system:
6-VCO’s
1-Noise
2-VC Dual LFO
1-Sample/Hold
3-ADSR EGs
1-MIDI/CV
1-Envelope Follower
1-Quad AD/ASR EG
1-4X Gate Delay
1-8-stage Sequencer (which, I have to finish)
3-VCFs
1-Quad VCA
3-Full VCA’s
1-4-channel Mixer
3-4X Buffered mults
3-4X VC Mixers
1-Utility 1

There was a lot of ‘back and forth’ due to some of the functions were standard within certain modules of mine.

Whether it’s the same or not, who cares. It’s going to be a lot of fun either way :)”

I wonder what the cat thinks. 🙂

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Yellow

Today’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt is on the theme Yellow.  So we reach into the CatSynth archives for this photo of Luna with a yellow lens effect on Hipstamatic, taken in August 2010.

I don’t particularly like doing re-runs on the blog, but this photo seemed perfect and I am a bit pressed for time this morning, with preparations for San Francisco Open Studios next week and a meeting for another upcoming project.  So it will have to do.  It’s also surprising to see how far things have come in one year, both with the app and my ability to use it.  Many of the recent Wordless Wednesday pictures have also used the Hipstamatic.

Yellow is also the color of the LIVESTRONG campaign, in support of those who are currently fighting cancer and the memory of those who have lost their lives.

Many in the cat-blogging community participated in an event the first week of October last year, and will be doing so again this October 2.

Weekend Cat Blogging #329 is hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome at PaulChens FoodBlog?! We send them our thoughts this week for the recent loss of their beloved dog, Ben.

Photo Hunt #284 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is Yellow.

Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat. Next week’s COTC will be hosted right here at CatSynth!

And the Friday Ark is back at the the modulator.

Fun with Highways: LA 998, Belle Rose, Louisiana

In light of my poem “998” that I posted earlier today, I decided to see if there was an interesting highway out there numbered “998”. It turns out there is one in Louisiana.

Highway 998 is a short road (under 1 mile long) entirely in the community of Belle Rose. It starts highways 1 and 308, which straddle either side of a canal. It passes through a residential district and then ends after a few blocks, with fields stretching out in the distance beyond.

It is challenging to find any information about Belle Rose, beyond that the population is a little over 1900. It does appear on Google Street View, from which the above image was taken. A virtual walk down 998 reveals sparsely distributed modest homes and a few rundown structures, and a few stores at the intersection with highway 1 before crossing a small bridge to the other end at highway 308. The view reminds of a bit of some of the images from Doug Rickard’s exhibition at Wirtz Gallery this past spring, which also was based on Google Street View images and focused communities that are often overlooked.’

Any readers who may know more direct information about Belle Rose are invited to comment.

Car Doors (April 17, 2003)

I heard a car door slam shut, and then another and then another. It seems to me too many car doors to be shutting at the moment, but I suppose eight o’clock in the evening is a good time to close a car door. Some cars, of course, have more than one door that may need to be closed, particularly if they have more than one occupant, or just a lone person retrieving an item from the other side of the car, as I often do. Still, it seems like a lot of car doors being shut.

There are supposedly one hundred and fifty million cars in use in the United States at this time. There are approximately thirty-one million seconds in a year. If each car had only one of its doors shut once every year, that would be about five doors being shut per second. A quintuplet at sixty beats per minute. Cars generally have between two and six doors, which subdivides and complicates the rhythm, perhaps a theka that does not land evenly on a quarter-note-based meter. Of course, the number of times each door on each car is shut has such enormous variance that all we are left with is noise. But noise has its own rhythm, a soft steady continuum that swells and ebbs, forming a multitude of short pulses in between stronger beats, waves whose strongest crests occur at mid morning and mid evening. Pulse, beat, meter and form arising from millions of independent actions, happening without their actors aware of one another but nonetheless connected.

I heard a car door slam shut becoming water and the water became music.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Wooden Cats

For this week’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt on the theme “Wooden”, we present some wooden cats:

We also reach back into the CatSynth Archivesâ„¢ for this photo of Luna enjoying some sunshine near a wooden table.

In an environment I like to think of as dominated by glass and chrome, wooden objects and surfaces abound. Indeed, many of my acoustic musical instruments are made of wood.

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Billy Sweetfeets, who is also hosting Carnival of the Cats this weekend (we pulled double duty recently ourselves, so good luck).

Photo Hunt 283 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is Wooden.

September Photography Show at The Parts Room, Oakland

As I prepare for tonight’s opening at Art Explosion Open Studios in San Francisco, I look back at the opening just two weeks ago at The Parts Room in Oakland.

The Parts Room is located in Classic Cars West in Oakland, a venue that, as the name implies, primarily deals in classic cars. Many of these cars are themselves works of art.

In the above picture, we see two of the cars in display with large-scale artworks by GETBIZI. I thought his pieces would particularly well in conjunction with the cars, sharing the brought colors, clean lines, and including California-style landscape that is synonymous with car culture. I also found the pieces by Optimist, which featured a combination of industrial elements such as shipping contains with modern Asian signage and imagery, fit well with the environment and with my own work.

The overall show in the main gallery was titled “Mechanic Arts”, with many of the artist relating to the “mechanical” or “industrial” theme in different ways. Mark Schroeder’s sculptures combined new and old technologies with wood, metal and light generators were sprinkled throughout the main room, sometimes on top of old barrels. Similarly, Nicole Bommarito’s constructions with Polaroid emulsions combine various vintage technologies. John Paul Marcelo and MoE were also featured with painting and large installations, respectively. The work of these artists shared a weathered look of older industrial products and processes, which fit well with the space but were in sharp contrast to clean and streamlined quality of the cars, and of the large panels from GETBIZI.

The Parts Room itself is a long and narrow space, which made for great opportunities to display both the large pieces as well as some of my iPhone Hipstamatic prints.


[click images to enlarge]

We actually spent quite a bit of time meticulously lining everything up to make use of the space. In addition to just getting everything straight, I wanted to emphasize the lines, geometry and industrial elements on the pieces, as well as the prominence in one color in several of the pieces.



[click images to enlarge]

Overall, the response to the show was quite positive, and it was great to see so many people come through and show an interest, particularly on the Oakland Art Murmur night.

Overall, this was undoubtedly my best visual art show to date. It was well attended, and I received lots of positive feedback. It was great to have such support from Rebecca Kerlin to make this show happen, and to have the time and space to put in the effort to make it come out well. I also learned a lot about how to be precise in hanging and presenting work – something which I plan to bring forward with me in future shows.

It was sad to have to dismantle the show after only a couple of weeks, but I needed many of them for Open Studios. I did try and re-create the triptych of the red, blue and yellow pieces, although with less space. We will see how it goes.