I will be showing earlier photographs from the Tracks Beetle Series at the Axis Gallery’s 5th National Juried Exhibition (Juried by Joe Amrhein, director of Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY) in Sacramento, CA August 7-29. The opening is August 14th if you happen to be in the area.

I was selected to exhibit sections of my beetle tracking series as part of an upcoming online exhibition at the Caladan Gallery in Cambridge, MA. These images will be included in the exhibition entitled FLOW. You can read more about the exhibition at this link. The exhibit will be on display from June 5th – July 31st.

I was also selected by the same gallery and awarded a solo online exhibit in the next coming months. I will post more information as the dates are set.

To learn more about the Caladan Gallery visit their website at: http://www.caladangallery.com/v2/index.php

The pHloat kit was recently featured both in the arduino and technology sections on instructables.com, which means one of their editors thought the project was “awesome”. Hopefully more people will try to build their own.

Featured Technology Link

Featured Arduino Project Link

pHloat is a DIY kit that is made for use in conjunction with a pre-owned / pre-existing arduino microcontroller. Its purpose is to test the pH levels in local rivers, lakes, and streams due to the influx of air and water pollution often caused by acid rain. It is specifically designed to be used in areas that are home to refineries, chemical plants, and manufacturing industries that cause environmental damage. However, it can be used in any body of water to test acidity levels.

This was made in response to a prompt to propose a DIY kit for under $25.00. All inquiries regarding the pHloat kit can be made at phloatkit.tumblr.com and an instructable can be found at http://www.instructables.com/id/pHloat-2/

A few images from tests with the beetlePaks attached to beetles existing within natural environments. Still very much a work in progress and a lot more research to be done, but thought I would make a quick post of how the tests are turning out.

I have set up my website so I can blog about my current projects/investigations on my homepage (brittanyransom.com). So far, I have not been updating as often as I should, so here is a small attempt to catch up on the last few weeks.  I am working on a couple different projects right now. The following are just investigations into two larger series of work and are guiding points for me to move forward from. Both are untitled at this point and the conceptual directions for both are undergoing some major changes as the work progresses.

Beetle Backpacks

I have been traveling with a mobile habitat of bess beetles (peg beetles) that can be found in most woods in the midwest. They have been riding the train with me, walking the floors of my studio, and living in a controlled environment in my home for the last 3 months. Like many beetles, they are able to pull a significantly large amount of weight in comparison to their size. I have outfitted my beetles’ hard shelled bodies with safe removable “LED Backpacks” (for lack of a better term).  I am currently working on the smallest and most ergonomically functional design for the beetles, the following images are just prototypes. Though my conceptual goals are shifting, my original notions for doing this was tracking their habitual day to day patterns and comparing them to my own patterns as a human. I have also outfitted myself with a GPS device that pinpoints and tracks my exact locations. Comments and thoughts are welcome.

These images gave me a lot of insight to the way I want to move forward with this project: Ridding the project of multiple color lights and sticking to a single color and introducing the beetles into even more natural landscapes with 5+ hour exposure times.

Treescape Series

Soundscape will ultimately take form as an outdoor site-specific installation. It will be comprised of 7 separate sound units attached to various types of trees that held on to their dying leaves through the duration of winter (though spring is rapidly approaching). Each sound unit houses a microcontroller, a custom built circuit, and a stored digital sound file, that is activated and played through the movement of the dead leaves still attached to the trees. A tilt sensor attached to various leaves is triggered by the wind blowing (the tilt sensor will soon be replaced by a flex sensor for better accuracy) and allows the sound to be played or stopped. The sound units are ‘semi-solar’ powered, meaning a battery is housed within and is charged via sunlight. Each tree will have its own specific sound allowing for a chorus of sounds to be activated or deadened by the wind. This installation is inspired by the absence of sounds in a forest during the winter and early spring months. I am planning on installing the 7 sound units and then leaving a camera to document its performance activity. I am interested in the possibility of this installation attracting or deterring wildlife and curious humans to come and investigate the sudden activity in a normally deadened space.

The sound in this test video is simply a placeholder for what will actually be played. I used high frequencies to try and attract animals during this test of the initial design. Each sound device is solar powered and uses the arduino and a simple tilt sensor for the sound to be activated.

Click to watch the video:

Soundscapes

I recently became a member of the New Media Caucus, a really great non-profit group for the advancement of the conceptual and artistic use of digital media. They presented some very great discussion panels and exhibitions this past week in Chicago.

New Media Caucus

This week I am lucky enough to be working/living in Chicago where the annual CAA conference is being held. There are a lot of interesting discussions and work being shown. I plan on attending the following tomorrow and Saturday.

Intersections of Art and Design

Friday, February 12, 6:30 PM–9:00 PM

Grand A, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chair: Debra Riley Parr, Columbia College Chicago

Recycle, Reuse, Readymade

Amanda Gluibizzi, Ohio State University

Environmental Affections: Women, Art, and Ecology

Adrian Parr, University of Cincinnati

An Art and Design Imperative: Ecomodernism Hybrid

Eric Benson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Beyond Eco-Art: Twenty-First-Century Eco-visualization

Tiffany G. Holmes, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Discussant:Annette Ferrara, IDEO

CAA Student and Emerging Professionals Committee

How Technology is Changing the Teaching of Art and Art History

Saturday, February 13, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM

Buckingham, Bronze Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chairs: Randall Griffin, Southern Methodist University; Jennifer L. Stoneking-Steward, Belmont University

Catherine Zurybida, DePaul University

James Sullivan, Southern Methodist University

Sara Lasser, American Folk Art Museum

Shaurya Kumar, Bowling Green State University

Northern California Art Historians

ECOART: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Sustainability

Saturday, February 13, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM

Grand CD South, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chair: Anthony Raynsford, San Jose State University

Governing Geometries: Buckminster Fuller’s Sumptuary Aesthetic

Jonathan Massey, Syracuse University

The Solar House in the 1950s: Aesthetics Politics and Research in Architecture

Daniel Barber, Oberlin College

Andy Goldsworthy: An Aesthetics of Sustainability

Stuart Kendall

Art and Sound in the Premodern Era

Saturday, February 13, 2:30 PM–5:00 PM

Regency A, Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chairs: Diane J. Reilly, Indiana University, Bloomington; Sheri F. Shaneyfelt, Vanderbilt University

In choro sed non in tympano: Music-Making and Its Representations in the Premodern Church

Eric Rice, University of Connecticut

An Enduring Resonance: Sound in Chinese Painting

Theresa McNichol, Mercer County Community College

A Multisensorial Message of the Divine and the Personal: Qur’anic Inscriptions and Recitation in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Mosques

Nina Ergin, Koc University

Discussant:Adam Herring, Southern Methodist University

I am just beginning my second semester of graduate school in the Electronic Visualization/New Media program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I am beginning to draft new ideas for installations and will be posting inspiration, drawings, 3d models, thoughts, and ideas to this blog. I will be updating frequently. Here are the first set of conceptual models for a new series of robotic sound sculpture devices controlled by insects. I am hoping to use either zophobas beetles, North American millipedes, or giant drummer cockroaches in this installation. Conceptually I am still thinking about the application and lifestyles of these insects and how they play in to the type of sound I want these mobile sound devices to make. Unlike the model below, the mobile sound platforms will enclose an environment for the insects to healthily exist in (meaning the interior environment will not be blank, it will be covered with the natural plants and moisture levels that are needed for the insects to survive). The insects will control the movement of the mobile platform. This idea is still in the very early developmental stage. Below are the rough conceptual models with brief descriptions:

Conceptual model of the mobile sound bot being controlled by insects. This unit will likely be programmed using either the Basic Stamp or Arduino.

The top of the sound bot showing the speaker mounted at the top that will project the mobile sound. The poorly modeled blue capsules represent LED’s that will be illuminated when the platform comes in contact with a human.

Possible enclosure for the electronics. Tube coming from the top is a channel for wiring. The electronics and batteries visible are ‘place holders’ for the actual components.