implicit art

On Geek Girls: some thoughts with my 11-year-old

This post is written in collaboration with (mostly by) Sidonie “Nonie” Ridgway Stern. This photo was her first selfie. “Daddy, I look so dorky!” she crooned. God, I love her.

Yeh, so occasionally my daughter and I are going to post some reviews of movies, comics, art, coding, and more, from a tween’s (and her dad’s) perspective. This is the first!

On Geek Girls…

What is there to know about geek girls? We are girls, and we are geeks. Do the math. Or… we could do it for you!
Geeks come in different forms. I like: coding, playing guitar, basketball. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Ms. Marvel and Moon Girl. My dad!
We don’t have a single appearance. Most days, I just want to wear sweatpants. But then, I like dressing up in a skirt, blazer and bow tie, too (see below).
I am not your stereotype, and no geek is. Braces, glasses, etc… Yeh, some of us have those things. And so do some of you. I am unique! Heck, those glasses in the photo above? NOT prescription. Just for fun / to get used to them for when I’m older (both my parents wear glasses). Yeh, OK, I have braces.

From left to right, that’s Nathaniel Stern, Jack Cooney, and Sidonie Ridgway Stern. Photo by Mary Catherine Cooney. First day of school, Fall 2017!

blah blah blah
As we type this, we are hanging out with our screen-devices in bed, preparing to watch old episodes of Supernatural, then read some Heroes of Olympus. It’s nearly Friday; our brains are mush…
Next up: we will review something. Something new. We’ll see…

how to write an artist statement, part 2

I wrote this post on how to write an artist statement back in June 2009, and it isÂ still, to this day, in the top five of visited pages on my site every month. In short, I recommended any given statement for a work of art include three things: what the piece is, what we see or experience, and what is at stake in that experience, for us to practice beyond our initial artistic encounter. I expounded on this a bit more, then went on to offer seven additional guidelines for your text, which should, I recommended, be 300-500 words.

But that’s for individual works of art. What about your overarching artist statement, for a series, body of work, or, yet more difficult, your practice overall?

The answer is simpler than you think. Do a statement like this/the above for three or four pieces, individually, then look for overlaps in the stakes between them, in order to write around them. And edit this all down to fit it into one page, maybe 700 words or so.

Too often, artists begin writing an overall statement about their work in a vacuum, or rather, regarding their personal relationship to their art, instead of their viewers’. But “I’m interested in,” or “my work explores,” and “I research and relate….” are about your practice, or what you want your work to do. Very often, such statements only describe the last piece you made, the work you wish you were making, or the processes you used to produce them. The experience of viewership of extant art is a very different thing. And writing a material and/or relational experience for us is precisely how you invite audiences in to material and/or relational art.

Your statement should rather start with something similar to the above. “I make x, which do y, and z is why that is important.”

Then… wait for it… …

For example, in [title of piece] … [summarize one artist statement you already wrote. What it is, what we experience, why that’s important. Refer back to this post when writing!].
Or with [do that again, for another piece].
And in [one more time, another piece].
Overall, the work… TA DA!!!

And so, write the immediately above first. Take your individual works for what they are, and do – even ask others what they are and do for them – before you write around them. And be as concise as you can in this.

But Nathaniel, you may say, your artist statement is SUPER long! That’s true. Yet it follows that same format; it just does so three times in a row, for lots of work, with transitions, so that those web surfers looking for specific pieces I am known for will be able to search for them and know they’ve come to the right place. Remember: I have a 20 year artistic research practice, across printmaking, writing, installation, interaction, networked art, sculpture, performance, and more – and some folks only know one or another of the media I work with, depending on their field. Most people who come to my site already know something about me, and are looking for a specific piece, and I make sure they can find it. I wouldn’t put that entire long statement on an exhibition, or send it to a residency. I would choose three pieces, and perhaps write around those, again. And I recommend said same for all my students and peers, in a given space.

Remember: writing, theory, philosophy and storytelling tell us the stakes of what we do and are, what we might be in the future. Art brings those stakes into the room, as material form, or experience. And so you must always include what your artÂ is, and how we engage, so as to have us regard its import. And then write-with that story, think and share, again and again.

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13 September 2017 by nathaniel

The Facebook

So, I finally bit the bullet and made a Facebook “fan” page, since I have my new book coming out this Spring. Any advice? Should I “invite” friends to “like” it? What else should I do? It feels… weird. Thanks! (PS please go and like it.)

https://www.facebook.com/nathanielestern/

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12 September 2017 by nathaniel

How to make the cover / header image smaller in WordPress 2017 theme

I just figured out yesterday how to make the cover image / header image smaller in the WordPress 2017 (Twenty Seventeen) theme, and I’ve already had a number of people ask me how!

It’s pretty simple. And you don’t need to modify the theme, or make a child theme. Simply go to Customize>Additional CSS and copy and paste the below

.has-header-image.twentyseventeen-front-page .custom-header, .has-header-video.twentyseventeen-front-page .custom-header, .has-header-image.home.blog .custom-header, .has-header-video.home.blog .custom-header { height: 30vh !important; }

You can change that number 30vh for different heights. That’s it!

I did two more things for my blog.

First, I didn’t like the “POSTS” heading on my page, since my main page is posts, so I also added this, below the above, in the same box:

h2.page-title { display: none !important; }

And finally, I then felt the padding was a bit too much with that heading gone, so I also put this in, to remove space:

h2.page-title .site-content { padding: 0.75em 0 0 0 !important; }

Please note that with this last bit, the spacing will also change, and a bit differently, on individual post pages. I liked 0.75em best across both, and of course feel free to change that – just be sure to look at the main page and your individual post pages before finalizing!

This looks good on computers, phones, and tablets :)

Enjoy!

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11 September 2017 by nathaniel

Syllabus sharing: Electronics and Sculpture, a class with arduino, mechatronics, and art at UWM

The Arduino Uno microcontroller

This term sees my first time teaching a full semester ofÂ Arduino in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Most geeks will know that the Arduino is an open source microcontroller for physical computing projects. Easy break down: whereas multimedia and code art classes (in Processing or Max or openFrameworks, for example) might have students make generative or interactive work that utilizes anything which already communicates with your computer via USB or bluetooth or the internet (a kinect for body tracking, a Wii for dancing, web cams, mics, or data streaming from sources online for input; printers, projectors, speakers or screens for output), the Arduino (and things like it) allows for non-standard, analog interfaces: flex sensors, light cells, or sonar for input, for example, motors, lights, fans, or solenoids (to control water or air) for output.

a student favorite: Danny Rozin’s “Wooden Mirror,” which depicts real-time, reflected video in rotating wood chips. Click for video with awesome sound. Danny was my prof!

Most of my students have little or no background in coding, and even fewer have any experience with electronics when they sign up… meaning, this syllabus will work as an introduction. That said, I offer it at the 300-level, so that my digital art students will understand bits and bytes, audio and video, how computers “think,” and my other artists will be able to bring their skills with crafting images or objects (etc) into the mix. I also “stack” it with a 400-level class, so grad students, or advanced students that want to take it a second time, can add another dimension of creativity and criticality.

If you can’t tell, I’m excited about it.

I’m sharing three documents with the inter-webs. One is the core syllabus; another is the advanced syllabus; and the last is the calendar. They are allÂ under a CC-by license (Creative Commons Attribution), meaning, you can do whatever you want with them (use, distribute, remix, etc), so long as you credit me and acknowledge the license I used, link back to this page, and do not prohibit anyone else from doing said same.

The semester arc goes something like this:

look at cool stuff
build mechatronic paper sculptures (thanksÂ https://www.robives.com!)
understand electricity and make a creative project with a simple circuit
make digital inputs and digital outputs with Arduino (and produce another creative tech project)
find inspirational work, while learning coding and prototyping
construct analog ins and outs as part of artistic endeavors
sketching and inspiration, writing and thinking, aesthetics and ethics, with digital and electronic media
sensors and actuators (and not fetishizing them – oh my)
transistors and relays, serial communication and integrated circuits, PCBs (printed circuit boards)
and finally, lots of studio critique and makey makeys towards a final object or installation

I also require documentation of everything in photo and video and text as part of the class, so you can expect to see some of that at the end of the term.Â This got us started last week (and you can follow when I assign readings in the syllabus/schedule):

Required Books/Readings

For learning code and wiring: Programming Arduino: Getting Started with Sketches, Second Edition by Simon Monk
For learning about electricity, power, and more: Make: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery by Charles Platt

Required Materials/Supplies

And for the best bang for buck Arduino kit at the moment: Elegoo UNO Project Super Starter Kit with Tutorial for ArduinoÂ (and a USB power adapter if they don’t have one)

There are also some recommended (read: not required) books for them, which you should definitely get for your classroom, in the attached documents.

Here are the 300-level and 400-level syllabi, and my schedule for the term (meets twice a week for 2.5 hours), in RTF format (open in Word if you have it – they’ll look better / have the images), as I first conceptualized them at the start of the term. I’ll upload any major changes if/when they happen, and note that here. Please let me know (via comments, or email if comments are closed) if you find this helpful; it’s always good to hear from folks. Speaking of, I’m also happy to share how I spent my lab fee dollars, or specific lecture notes, if someone needs/asks; but that’d take a bit more organization, so I’ll only do it on request (but then I’ll post it and credit the asker).

Conversely, I’m yet to decide on the more conceptual readings for my students, if you have ideas! In my Interactive and Generative Art class, we read a bit by me, Katja Kwastek, Kate Hayles, Kate Mondloch, and Philip Galanter. But I’ve not found something that punctures the right images for me in the kinetic/physical computing realm. Perhaps I won’t find it in the standard places… Should we look at Minimalist sculpture writings? Or perhaps Brian Massumi on Stelarc? I have time, and will post when I decide, but I would welcome suggestions, again in the comments or viaÂ email if comments are closed…

Enjoy art, teaching, and learning!

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08 September 2017 by nathaniel

Urban Fantasy geek out: the Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews

Urban Fantasy is one of my guilty pleasures. (I’m lying; part of me thinks that as a doctor/professor/artist type, I’m not supposed to love it. But I have no guilt, really. Only pleasure.)Â That’s fantasy – vampires and werewolves, fairies and elves, things along these lines – but in the present moment. Rather than taking place on a different world (Middle Earth! Narnia!), or at some point in history (Outlander! Leviathan! – tho the latter is more YAF, Young Adult Fiction and steampunk), it’s now, or in the near future. Like, if we’re talking movies and television, True Blood or Lost, which are decidedly part of the genre, or Buffy or Teen Wolf, which were (obvs) way ahead of their time. Â

My favorite is the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. (It’s also pretty cute that the authors are a couple, Ilona and Andrew.) The whole background of the world puts the fantasy genre on its head, in so many ways; and the tech and culture geek in me gets a real thrill around it.

Whereas in traditional Tolkien-like fantasy, “magic is leaving the world,” as science, technology, and contemporary know-how take hold, inÂ Kate Daniels‘ world, magic is coming back, and technology is leaving – the latter eaten away by the powers of magic.

Myth and religion, magic and fae, werewolves, gods, vampires, and witches, from every part of the world, and every part of history, are real – and they gain their power from stories and belief.

Fascinating as part of the series, which now has 9 books and some short stories appearing elsewhere (some for free online!) is its own mythology. Like in many other fictional worlds (another favorite being Jim Butcher’s Dresden series), magic and technology do not get along. But rather than technology chasing magic away, or tech consistently breaking in the face of wizards, magic and tech simply do not exist at the same time. So with Kate, either the “magic is up” or the “tech is up.” And you never know when one might fail, the other dominate.

All the stories of old are real. Merlin. Golems. Vampires. Werewolves. Berserkers. Babel. The Morrigan. Dragons. All of it. But humans got arrogant. We used too much magic, grew our power until finally, it toppled over and destroyed itself; magic mostly left the world… for a time.

In the near future, our arrogance catches up with us again – this time technology toppling down from its overuse. Planes fall out of the sky, hospital equipment fails, buildings crumble, and, all at once, the monsters and heroes exist again.

Think of technology and magic as a pendulum swing. When one is up, the other is not. When that gets too powerful, it comes crashing down, the other rising. Interesting, in post-tech/post-apocolyptic Atlanta (er, all over the Daniels world, actually, but I had to slip in where she lives), the pendulum is more or less in the middle. This does not mean, however, that magic and tech are each at half mast; rather, every now and again, maybe after a few hours, maybe after a few days, all the gods disappear, the banshees stop shouting, my magic stops working, and the lights come on (etc). And, at the same random interval, the inverse, again.

One of my favorite things in all this chaos is the role belief in magic (or tech) plays. For example, praying to a lesser-known deity may again grant him or her power, new abilities, and more. Or, on the flip, and this is super clever, since we all know the basics of a car – filling it with petrol, changing the oil, that it goes via combustion – it would never run when the magic is up. But… how many of us really understand how a mobile phone works? For many of us, it may as wellÂ be magic. And so… sometimes (if the magic is not in flare), and for some people (if they are not too, too magical), phones will work when the tech is down/magic is up. Magic and belief, technology and its understanding, all can and do play off of each other in such interesting ways.

It makes for great stories. And the science and fantasy nerd in me loves every aspect of this.

Shape-shifters are infected with magic, DNA-swapping viruses. Vampires are actually empty, blood-sucking vessels, where Masters of the Dead can “ride” them like avatars. And Kate? She’s not really a hero. She’s deeply flawed, sometimes mean, only rarely kind, a complete bad-ass, who begrudgingly really does care about her world and those around her (especially kids!), and is thus immanently relatable and likable as a first-person author. And the romance, which takes quite a few books to build up, is mostly rom-com relief, with the occasional twist of the heartfelt.

Alright, I just convinced myself to start from the beginning of the series, and read once again. (Maybe I’ll write an academic paper about it, so it’s “work.”) You should, too. The paperbacks are super affordable at the moment.

This should get you started.

late addition:Â Ah, and they just announced book 10 yesterday! Timely!