It’s kind of like the Berliner bear, it augurs well

– Sarah

Day 2 of beer making involved looking at the wild yeast we gathered from the surface of figs and grapes in the garden under the microscope, making the mash and sbarging the wort.

Slide with wild yeast

Sarah examining the skin of the fig with a microscope that uses light from the sun to light the slide.

Estevan sets up a small camera to view inside the microscope

Rigging the reflectors from the solar oven to heat the wort

Estevan and Eric sbarging the wort, a process that is done continually until the wort is no longer cloudy.

SMW is spending two days in Carbondale, Illinois experimenting with ways to brew beer using solar and human power only. Artist and media scholar Sarah Lewison (above) led the effort using her beer-brewing experience from her World Heritage Beer Garden Picnic project in Southern China

Grain roasting in one of two solar ovens.

In order to make grinding the grain easier, we created a bicycle powered grinder using a lawnmower belt and pulley wheel. Eric tests the design above.

Estevan grinding

Estevan and Eric documented everything for a series of online shorts.

Sign outside of one of Sarah’s work spaces.

After Pittsburgh, I spent a night in Milwaukee with UWM professor and ISEA2012 featured artist Nathaniel Stern and his lovely family. Nathaniel’s project Tweets in Space will premiere at the ISEA2012 gala at the Albuquerque Balloon Museum. As you can see on the link, this project has gotten some great press lately, even featured in National Geographic.

Nathaniel’s colleague at UWM is another ISEA2012 featured artist, Colleen Ludwig, and I got a sneak preview of her piece, Elemental Bodies: Shiver (shown above) as installed at the UWM studio building. I didn’t realize the rigorous research that went into this amazing work including:

Sensor array on the ceiling tracking visitor movements

Custom fabric walls that are extremely light weight, made for marine use so extremely sturdy in water-based situations, and given a surface treatment used in hospitals to resist bacteria and fungus. I was fascinated to learn that the elegant curving patterns created by the water against the walls was a major part of the aesthetic development. Colleen wanted the water to evoke the way water streams against human skin, and experimented with a variety of different surface treatments to create that effect. Despite the high-tech material used for the walls, they appear to be normal gallery white walls. I have great admiration for the way in which Colleen’s work is a simple and elegant expression while also being an impressive feat of engineering.

Colleen demonstrates how visitors might touch the water streams

Incredibly, instead of a bulky berm, Colleen simply collects the water in a split PVC pipe and pumps it back up to the ceiling using a mining pump.

On my way out to the Global Sustainable Soundscapes Network’s first meeting in Baraboo Wisconsin, I stopped in Pittsburgh to meet with Eco Artists Ann Rosenthal and Mo Dawley. Ann has an amazing studio building just east of the city center and very generously made dinner and provided a place to stay for the night.

New York City based eco-artist Betsy Damon happened to be in Pittsburgh at the same time developing a project for the Mattress Factory, and fortunately I was able to visit with her for a while and learn more about her fascinating work. Her project involves examining waterways in a struggling Pittsbugh neighborhood that have been paved or otherwise covered, and will create an installation at the Mattress Factory that may involve something like these wonderful water projects:

http://www.keepersofthewaters.org/swf_gal.cfm

http://www.keepersofthewaters.org/lwg_gal.cfm

Elliott listens and views the MBR park soundmap. Below is an attempt to record inside of the resonators (bat recordings in the background)

Stereo listening

Charlet Davenport gets a call

SCA intern Amanda tries a vessel with multiple chambers

Seth and Sam

Park Ranger Tim Maguire tries the stereo technique

Ranger Scott Davison opens the event with beautiful flute playing

Conservation biologist Kent McFarland discusses the white nose fungus in little brown bats

Architect and inspiration Thornton

22 resonators are now hanging in and around the new artist’s studio space at the MBR park (known as the ‘Pony Barn’). Ten are outside on trees, the image above shows one large resonator with the large solar panel array that provides power to the pony barn in the background.

The resonators are a variety of shapes and sizes, some with long tubes attached for listening and others with various chambers designed to change the character of the resonance.

Here park curator Laura Anderson listens to the difference between two designs:

The triple-chambered ‘mickey mouse’ design

and a single chamber without tube

More photos of the artist’s reception after Sunday!

fgideas.org again.