Hi everyone,
tonight was the last ‘event’ of the Remedios Terrarium exhibit.  Congrat’s again!  Inspiring is the least I can say about this discussion.

It’s now time to wrap-up, celebrate and get together to share our experience of making RT.

Our exhibition closes tomorrow, Friday, at 7pm (The gallery is not open on Saturday-for sure).
Technically you can start packing your things at 7, but please don’t start before that(unless you have to -JS, Flower -ok)
The gallery has to be completely cleared on Monday night at the latest.  Wall repairs are going to get done by Lynn’s technicians on Tuesday.

After asking around all day today I think that Saturday is the best day to get together and take the biggest things down. It would be nice to do as much as possible in groups.
Sunday and Monday, I will be out of town and I don’t know how much people will be around/available to help out (except for Lenka and Desh taking the Cones down, and Flower taking care of the plants on Monday)

Strike Schedule:
Also available on the TML-Shared Google calendar  (BUT MORE PRECISE HERE)
(visible at
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=enc0mlbupaurd8qhenaducvd0g%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Montreal
and
http://topologicalmedialab.com/blogs/calendar)

Friday:
10 am: Tim gets the big Hexagram cart for the weekend.
–  :  JS takes some projectors down.
8.30 pm Nacando Productions launch- cocktail @ NFB-ONF  (the National Film Board of Canada) 1564, rue St. Denis, Montreal.  See RSVP list at the bottom of this email **
Do not hesitate to contact Desh if you want to come but haven’t confirmed “Nacando Productions” <nacando@gmail.com>

Saturday:
(I will take my car in case some people need to take stuff home after)
9 am, Harry and JA taking the cells and the lights down.
11am, Elena and Flower are getting started on the vitrine and their respective things.
Tim is packing the sound gear
Ayesha is taking care of Sebald Theater
Jhave is taking his pedestal and computer home.
–Patrick unavailable

Sunday:
– Patrick, Harry, Tim unavailable
– JA -out of town.

Monday:        
complete strike
Lenka - cones
– JA -out of town.

Tuesday:
10 am someone else than Tim returns the Hexagram cart, because Tim will be out of town. (any voluntary? please let tim <timothyvsutton@gmail.com> and I know.)
4-6     campfire : project debriefing.  We should revisit, things that worked well as well as things that didn’t work so well; and talk about the project documents and events documentation for project archive.

Notes:
Eliot, Doug, please make sure that one of you come either Saturday or Monday to take the sensate tapestry and related gear.
Jae Ok, and other Touch2 folks, I will take care of removing our things from the wall, but if you want to help out, just call me Saturday.
I think that the projectors are going down tomorrow because they are needed for another event in the evening.

If you were not concerned by any of the above, but you have time in your hands, or need help to take your things down, or whatever, please come Saturday 11am.

On Saturday night or Sunday I will send another e-mail with progress report and estimate of the amount of work that’s left to do for Monday.  Hopefully most of it is done.

Thanks to all for being part of RT’  Please join us in celebrating the end of this journey tomorrow night at the NFB and for the project debriefing on Tuesday during campfire (4-6 pm).

**Desh, here is the list of people that have told me they would come.  I might be a bit off, because I’m writing that by memory, but I remember that the number was 14.
1Xin Wei
2Harry
3Many
4Many’s friend
5Kiani
6Kiani’s friend
7Morgan
8Morgan’s friend
9JA
10Pascal
11Manuelle
12Francis
13JC
14Jhave ?

(revised to match ‘green’ paper calendar in TML -xw)

Monday March 31 - April 3

Clean up lab, prep for return of gear

Tuesday April 1
4 to 5 campfire, rehearsal
8 documentation of Touch2

Thursday April 3
5 to 7 Roundtable (discussion begins at 6)

Friday April 4
RT Crew Party @ NFB (see google calendar for details)

Sat, Sun,
Independant Strike Organized by subgroups. Lab Clean-up complete.

Monday April 7
General Strike complete and equipment return.

Hi Remedios and Terrarios, (project leads)

Here is what you will find in this email:

1- fofa meeting summary
2- prod strategy
3- close

—1-

I met Lynn Beavis at the gallery last week to ask her the questions that have come up in the group meetings.  Here is a summary, mixed in with production related questions.

Here is a rough inventory of gear available at the gallery:
Black theatrical curtains to block sunlight coming from the space between the west wall and the entrance door.
2 x 8′ diagonal projection screens (one can be used for rear or front projection, the other one will not do rear projection.)
6′ Ladder, 10′ latter
2 x 5000 lumen projectors (now mounted on the ceiling, but could be brought down.)
2 x DVD players
2 X TV monitors
spot lights
2 x 10′ orange power cable extensions
14 power adapters on the grid
8 power outlets on the floor

Here is the list of things to do on our side:
Book the Hexagram lift from Mark Baher for the setup days. (when we want to access the grid)  There is another one that the  Lynn could get access to if we are not able to get this one.
Decide whether we want people to access the space through the St-Catherine street door or not?  (can be locked for the duration of the show)
Define needs for technicians -when -what.  They normally do most of the simple setups.
Determine the Lettrage (Lettering) that we want them to put up on the walls. Generally title of the show and main info goes on the entrance wall ; the wall that is visible from St-Catherine street is also commonly used, though not required.
Provide text for a (2-double sided pages) brochure.  This is something optionnal that can be produced quickly as it is made internally. If someone want to do the layout, JC maybe, consult me and or Lynn directly for more detailed design requirements.  Here is the starting point: ( .eps format text layout ) (charcoal gray, pumpkin orange + 4 logos have to be on there) the advantage of this is that it is free and doesn’t take long to make.  All other printing we’ll have to pay for (cards, official brochure, posters, flyers, etc.)
Provide link for the gallery website (and other promotions channels).  Elena, can you confirm that we’ll have something up soon and the address. (remediosterrarium.topologicalmedialab.net or topologicalmedialab.net/remediosterrarium)

Genral:
it seems like we might have been too optimistic about the space that is available behind the west wall.  It is very narrow and hard to access, so we might want to think of an alternative location for the G5s.  Those who were thinking of using it as storage should check for themselves asap.  The space to the right of the entrance has been used by other people before (Bill Vorn), because the computers are separate from the main gallery space, but but they are still visible.
The vernissage event has been anounced and prepared for Thursday March 20th. (booked with conferences services, wine, catering and invitation organized by Lynn/the gallery.)
We will have access to the space for Load in on Tuesday the 11th at 9am.  (next week)

For the security list, I’m just missing ID number for Lenka at this point.  I have joined the latest version, please check that this information is correct, it is necessary to access to the space. (We will not have the Gallery’s key, so after hours we have to go through the security desk to access the space (24 hours access).

—2-

Last week at the campfire meeting it has been proposed and generally approved that the project needed to evolve in components for which there is one person responsible to lead and speak up if there is a problem to fix.

Of course it is too late to ask for a detailed production plan from each team, but if you have that material available, it’s always useful to share it.  The kind of questions to ask are those that will help managing energy, resources, time, for all projects, so scheduling, listing needs, dependencies, relationships with other groups, etc is gold. By the end of the week, we will need to have a complete inventory of your material needs and a setup schedule, so that we can come up with a general who-what-when list for the setup of the show.

Here is a list of resources people by role:
equipment related questions : Tim
promotion : JC
web based promotion : Elena
documentation - photo : Morgan
documentation - video : Ludwig (temporary)
artistic direction : Xin Wei
project coordination : J-A
event coordination : TBD  > JA

The projects by responsible person:
Cells : Patrck
Cells -Winnipeg : Greg
Cells -Mtl : JC
Real-time video projection : JS
Dynamic Lighting : Harry
Sound Field : Tim
Camera Tracking : JS
State Engine : XW
St-Catherine street display area : Flower
Vitrine : L-A (technical Ludwig : temporary)
Sebald Puppet Theatre : Ayesha
Glass Cones : Lenka
Curio Box : Elena
LED treads : Flower
Vernissage : TBD
Touch2 : Soo

(Is all equipment booked for your group? )

Budget: it has been suggested to come up with 2 numbers: a minimum scenario and an ideal scenario budget (approximate dollar amount)  Xin Wei will then be able to manage the budget according to the available funds for the different research areas involved in the Terrarium project.  (no need to cc me, I am not doing budget, except for Touch2)

Please gather phone numbers and availabilities of the people involved in your group + any information that you think is pertinent for coordination purposes.  Since the blog is public, please send me the most sensitive information like phone numbers by e-mail. I’ll gather this and make it available on paper this week.

—3-

See you tomorrow @ 4pm, Mtl time, for campfire.  Transmitted @ U Manitoba through Skype with JS and Greg as facilitators.
I would appreciate if someone could volunteer in taking meeting notes. My notes are too specific to be usable as a meeting record.

Thanks to all.
Bye.

–
Josée-Anne Drolet

.514.817.92.1.3

Research Facilitator
Topological Media Lab
Concordia University

What, When, Where

RT workshop meeting, 2-4PM, TML.

Summary

Flower was present for the first time and discussed what she could contribute.

1. Fiber Optics.
   • Past work resembling blades of grass that emit light. Fiberish-looking. Patches of this could possibly cover surfaces. The ceiling had been considered.
2. Surface-Mount LEDs on conductive thread (demo-ed).
   • Series of 3V batteries each with 2 long conductive threads (+/-). When a + and -thread touch, a miniscule LED soldered to one of them lights-up. Extremely subtle, dreamy effect.
   • Issues: currently soldered by hand using conductive epoxy. Mass producing would be a pain this way, we’re talking sub-mm scale for these LEDs…
   • Solutions:Patrick reckons he can design and manufacture a tiny laser-cut mounting piece to make attachment of LED to thread much much easier (than by hand-soldering).
3. Vegetation/plants to grow in Cells
   • Flower has experience with fast-growing kinds of vegetation to use in our network of cells to follow the terrarium concept.
   • Types of vegetation: beans, peas, morning glories, etc.
   • Could be grown immediately using fluorescent trays.
   • They would react practically immediately to strong light (noticeable movement, etc). This could be worked into Harry’s lighting.
   • Plants are conductive. Like the LED-conductive threads, if an LED is mounted into a plant, 2 touching plants (+/-) could create a circuit to activate the LED.
   • Reference: see work by Ken Rinaldo.

Patrick discussed possible structures for Cells thinking of Flower’s ideas for plants, etc.

Different ideas came up:

• example of Gaudi’s weighted hanging wires (for arch making) for suspension system for Cells. Fishing wire, weights, etc.
• PVC breathing tubes connecting Cells & plants. Network building. Air-intake (holes in Cells). Food insertion (syringe, etc) to keep healthy. No food for intended rotting (Xin Wei).
• Water in cells for hydroponics.
• Bulbs connected to cells that can be squeezed manually to flow liquid/nutrients/food coloring/etc into cells.

Other ideas:

• Build cells on-site (in corridor, in gallery, etc) during event. The Good: allows for constant cell-network building during the 20 days, troubleshooting, quick-repair, new ideas implemented quickly on-site. The Bad: there may not be space, may not be the kind of event we want.
• Using Flexinol-valves to control air/liquid flow between cells (Elena). Judged to be a little too complicated for such short term development. idea would require an Arduino professional (Elliott) and bits of code for powering the valves (Evan, Patrick says) and for relating their operation to the rest of the network/event (sound, video, etc).

Moment

• Wednesday January 30th, 14h00-16h00
• @ TML (EV-7.725) + the FOFA Gallery (EV-1.715)

People

• Xin Wei, Josée-Anne, Ludwig, Elena, Tim, JC and JS

Keypoints

• Looked at Remedios’ paintings and discussed method to integrate recurring imagery into the installation.
• Visited the FOFA gallery, shot videos and took pictures from multiple perpectives.

Summary

Xin Wei introduced the second major influence in the upcoming FOFA exposition: the work of painter Remedios Varo. As described in the linked wikipedia article, Varo “[…] was as fascinated with the legend of the Holy Grail as with sacred geometry, alchemy and the I-Ching. She saw in each of these an avenue to self-knowledge and the transformation of consciousness.” And thus a mix of naturality (”terrarium”) and mystic surrealism (”remedios”) are now underlined themes for the exposition.

Highlighted ideas from Varo’s work were the many forms of peeling — either on surfaces or characters to reveal other inner symbols & meanings (added meaning, oppositions, trompe-l’oeuils, etc) — and the transubstantiation of the natural elements into physical objects (eg. rays of moonlight transforming into the strings of a lute from which the music transforms into flying doves, etc).

Ideas for the Black Box room: having tiny treasure chests (as in a piece by Varo), possibly each representing a TML researcher, which hold tiny secrets and a main TML treasure chest — which could be technologically enhanced to capture the faces of the visitor’s peeking into it. JS reckons these faces could be stored and used in a manner to represent past visitors by re-projecting them somehow.

Ideas for the corridor: using the entire corridor to present the history of the TML through printed (and possibly televised) artifacts that would be related to each other as a horizontally suspended tree structure referring to a horizontal timeline of TML activity. Printed medium could be various types of paper, cloth, etc. Small electronic displays or slide-projectors were also considered, but the use of projectors was deemed unnecessary to instead favor low-tech, analog technologies. A single plasma screen (maybe with a Jitter patch) could although be used at the end of a corridor to represent the current status of TML activity (end of the timeline).

Ideas for the main gallery room: making it seem underground, or as a box within a box (ie. a space within a space) to give the feeling of an enclosed space for the terrarium concept. Also, ideas of hanging cloth to cover the ceiling to enclose the space, to be projected on from below. A natural material is preferred to go along with the terrarium concept; a material related to plant-life and growth. Also ideas of covering the floor (with straw, to give smell and texture — sort of like a door mat but more natural and wild — or some sort of carpet-like natural botanical fiber discussed by Josee-Anne for smell and biodegradability (change over time of exposition)).

Medias

• 9 clips
• 116 pictures