Been reading about sigils. Trying my hand at them.
Sigils
Category Archives: Design
Daily Draw: 02
See? I told you I wouldn’t keep up. Anyway. I’ll keep doing daily draws whenever I think of it I guess.
Two days already and I haven’t done it since Saturday!
I’ve been busy putting together Senior Art show work, which is due tomorrow and thankfully it is all done! Just gotta figure out how to truck it all over to the art department without destroying it all. 🙂
For tomorrow, I drew the Page of Coins. Perfect card for submitting work. Pages are all about messengers of a practical nature. Or givers of materialistic means. I’m supposed to be submitting my work for the senior art show as well as dropping off signs for my internship.
I didn’t remember on Sunday cause well I was up way past my bed time getting senior show stuff together, had a drink and promptly fell asleep.
Tonight, I plan on working on those signs and shooting the second roll of my self-portrait project so I have something to work on in Photography. Gah! Things are starting to overlap each other… not liking it one bit.
Amnesty International
This past Wednesday night I met Folabi Olabaju, the Mid Atlantic regional director of Amnesty International. I believe I blogged about the poster I did for the individuals at risk campaign and apparently everyone in that class did a poster and Folabi wanted to meet everyone. Mine was displayed along with six or so others at this event.
Skoolies
Apparently there’s a fad/hobby out there where people convert old school buses into RV homes. They call them “Skoolies”. I’ve talked about converting an american trolley into a vardo like wagon in the past. And that’s one of the main projects I’m going to work on once I graduate and finally get a job. I’ve been looking for a quiet place to place a studio but they are all too expensive for my use, especially if I don’t use them all the time. If I converted something into a useable mobile studio I wouldn’t have to bother with leases and I’ll be able to take it anywhere in the world with me.
A typical artist’s studio isn’t suited for my needs either. Typically there’s no internet and sometimes no electricity both crucial for my field.
I’ve seen trolley’s being priced from anywhere between $20k-$30k that’s much more affordable than say a $150k+ studio that I may only use 1/3 of the year. Plus the customization. I can customize accordingly to what I NEED rather than make do with what is given to me. This is my work place, and if you can’t tell what kind of personality I have already, what I do is a big part of my life because I enjoy it. I don’t consider it work.
I also plan on using recycled materials, which will cut the cost down. I’ve done woodworking before so I’m pretty comfortable sprucing up some used wood (IE wood from palettes).
We’ll see what happens, but I really do want to start this project within 5 years after graduation.
Greenerprinter
Well. I found my printer. I was reading the monthly package design magazine that I get and one of the articles in there talked about a food product that had completely edible packaging to help reduce waste. Once you eat the food product you can eat the packaging as well! I read that they used vegetable based inks and was intrigued by the idea.
I wanted to see if I could find a printer that would print in a traditional fashion but used recycled paper and vegetable inks instead. I found GreenerPrinter! I requested paper samples and I think I may eventually get my business cards from them as they do die cutting as well. I’m all for promoting sustainability in my design work so I’m more than willing to pay a little extra. Also if more people notice that its recycled paper + vegetable inks they may be more inclined to use them as well.
Here’s their mission statement:
Greenerprinter’s mission is to demonstrate that a manufacturing business can operate in harmony with the planet while providing a transparent and sustainable environment.
Our team believes in the triple bottom line: People, planet and profit. Profit is not the motive, but the means to the end. We recognize that we have responsibility to be a part of the solution to the many environmental challenges that we all face.
We see the road to sustainable manufacturing as a long journey with multiple permutations, but we will never deviate from our commitment to the environment, our employees, our customers and pursuit of a harmonious business model for others to follow.You can read more about our ongoing efforts toward sustainability in our sustainability policy. Some of the specific steps that we are taking include:
- Offering recycled paper. We stock only papers that contain a high percentage of recycled content. In fact, most are 100% recycled.
- Using soy and vegetable-based inks, low in Volatile Organic Compounds.
- Operating as a carbon-neutral business via carbon offsets of shipping emissions and investments of Renewable Energy Credits to offset emissions from operations.
- Investing in state-of-the art equipment to minimize waste in the printing process.
- Using technology to implement streamlined operations that optimize efficiency.
- Minimizing chemical use in the platemaking and printing processes.
- Doing all of our printing on-site, which enables us to maintain consistency and quality and closely monitor our environmental impact.
- Supporting the green movement as a whole by partnering with organizations that promote the transition to a green economy, such as the Green Festivals, Bioneers, West Coast Green, and the Sustainable Industries Economic Forums.
We are also proud of the awards and recognition our green practices have earned us, such as Adobe’s Customer Showcase and the Acterra Business Environmental Award. We are based in Berkeley, California and have more than 20 years experience.
Student Union Internship
So because the academic administration messed up my senior year, I was forced to do an on campus internship. I live six hours away from school and I don’t have a car on campus cause it costs like $230 a year for a parking pass. I wasn’t planning on coming back senior spring semester so I didn’t buy a parking pass. Now I’m back, and really don’t mind being back, but at the same time I could be doing an off campus internship somewhere.
Anyway, I decided to do an on campus internship because A) I needed courses to be considered a full time student and since I basically took everything I’m doing this internship and 2 photo classes. B) To brush up my skills even more…
So one of the things I’m working on is doing graphics for an event that the Student Union here is putting on. This year is its’ 50th anniversary. They are celebrating by having a 60’s themed event since it was built in the 60’s. I was like, “Oh great. 60’s so over done…” so since its in March I decided to go with the flower power kind of theme.
I’m hoping to do a more fulfilling internship during the summer somewhere if I don’t get a job right away.
Tattwas – Sanskrit language of shapes and designs
My current inspiration is the Tattwas:
Tattwa are geometric images from India. they are symbols that can be used in mandala. One of the most traditional symbol sets and one considered to have innate power to effect realization is by using Tattwa. These simple geometric symbols can be used in meditation.
Tattwa is a Sanskrit word meaning energy. Tattwas are five geometric symbols which represent the five universal energies. Each Tattwas symbolizes unique energies with specific properties, potentials and frequencies. In varying combinations, these five energies make up the sum totality of everything in our physical and spiritual universe. These five basic symbols are combined to create symbols of many different kinds.
The tattwa symbols are the ovoid, the triangle, the half-moon, the circle, and the square. These definitions are minimal and in no way represent the totality of the symbol. Source: http://pjentoft.com/on-Tattwa.html
These would make an interesting language. For example the Circle represents air, and we could have all words associated with the element of air. The prominent shape in the mandala would represent the main theme of what is being expressed. So if we are talking about miscommunication, we would probably have a large circle, in orange. As that is the complimentary color of blue (opposite). So a plain orange circle would mean no communication.
If we were talking about something about selling something like a house, the prominent shape would be yellow square it is represents Earth. Earth is all things materialistic. It would be paired with a smaller blue circle since blue circles represent thought and communication, etc.
They [the shapes] would be layered on top of each other above to create a geometrical story…
Augmented Reality
Obsessing over something new lately. Ever heard of Augmented Reality? Its a cool little piece of computer science that allows you to embed 3d models and animations into a Real Time video feed. The most practical use I’ve seen it used is for business cards. Information is stored in a symbol and when shown to a webcam the graphics show up.
You don’t need different symbols, just a square box and then you can design the square box.
Take a look:
I want my business cards to eventually look like this. Gotta find some time to learn AR.
Here’s more information about it: http://www.augmentedbusinesscard.net/howdoesitwork.php
Occupy Bethlehem
Poster I did for a professor who was participating in the Occupy Movement in my town.
Still waiting to hear from Disney….sigh. This probably won’t go into my portfolio as its definitely not a reflection of my style 🙂
Vintage Writing Poster Design
So I had a poster job to do for Tuesday among all the craziness that happened this weekend. Its for the literary magazine at school called the Manuscript and when I heard Manuscript vintage/romantic writing came to mind and this is my version of it. I tried to have it inspired by a postcard as it is a ‘call’ for submissions kind of poster I thought it was appropriate. Didn’t want it to make it too much like a postcard though, just inspired by it.
So my college decides to evacuate everyone off the art/music campus because they were worried about cold temperatures and our safety since that building is really dark with the lights off. Was not too pleased.
I usually went up to the main campus to recharge my comp so I could use it for later when I was back in my room. I was up there today when I realized I had a big conference poster I needed to print out for a client. So I sent my adviser an email asking what I should do, then remembered that she may not have power and decided to call her. Funny that she had just gotten my message when I called her 🙂 but then she tells me, “You have to evacuate from the dorm.” And I’m like what? So I read the campus-wide email and thought, “fuck”.
I live six hours away from this school so the school gave us some options:
A) Go home
B) Stay with someone on North (main campus)
C) Stay with someone who lives in the area
D) Have office of housing find you a place on north in an unfilled dorm
So since staying with a friend would be more fun, I frantically thought of who lived in the area and then my friend Amy took me in.
So yay, hopefully the power will be back and I will be able to get into my dorm. The whole problem with this though is that they gave us less than 40 minutes to evacuate and that wasn’t fair especially since the bus schedule from the art/music campus to the main campus ran on a half-hour schedule on the weekends.
They’re intentions were good, but poorly executed.
Basically we were left to figure it out for ourselves.
The Concept of Images
So I shouldn’t be writing because I have a mild form of tendonitis in my left wrist. The pain isn’t excruciating it is more of a painful throb. It even made me feel a bit nauseous at one point (weird I know). I currently have it wrapped up in ice.
I haven’t even been doing a lot of wrist work… but I use my wrists a lot in my every day and weekly activities… piano, harp, laptop… plus my joints/wrists are weak in general.
Anyway, I was contemplating about Images and their purpose in our society, through the views of a mystic I find them to be extremely fascinating.
The entrapment of the Rubidium 85 atom is the result of a three-year research project funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, and has already prompted world-wide interest in the new science which will flow from the breakthrough. The researchers then proved they could reliably and consistently produce individual trapped atoms – a major step towards using the atoms to build next-generation, ultra-fast quantum-logic computers, which harness the potency of atoms to perform complex information-processing tasks. Source: http://www.physorg.com/news205161948.html
In mysticism, the concept of an image is used to described our physical world. The scientists’ 21st model of the Universe is a holographic universe. This just means our physical reality is essentially a grainy picture. Above this paragraph is a photograph of a rubidium 85 atom trapped. This is the first time anyone has seen any kind of atom. If you look at the picture, it just contains particles of light. According to scientists we are made up of a bunch of atoms similar to this.
I began thinking about the parallels in science and spirituality, and the concept of images really brings that link closer. I was reading a Practical Kabbalistic guide this weekend and ran across this:
The Analogous Identity of the Divine Plane and the Material Universe, the second being created “in the image” of the first and remaining its reflection, inferior and imperfect; And enduring rapport between the two, a rapport flowing from the analogous identity, being able to be expressed at the same time as it is established, by a secondary science, called Symbolism. – Practical Kabbalah – R. Ambelain (19XX). trans. Piers A. Vaughan.
When I am meditating on the ‘As above and so below’ I am always reminded of this passage in the Book of Genesis from the Bible:
Genesis 126 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,a]”>[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
I am also reminded that many things can be reversed, that’s just how things are in this world. You can neither be on the ‘black’ side of the spectrum or the ‘white’ side of the spectrum.
Putting the “reverse” concept into practice I like taking this passage from the Book of Genesis :
Genesis 13 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
And rewrite it as, “And Light said, “Let there be God,” and there was God.
The above rewritten statement is very kabbalistic and is essentially how this world was formed. The atoms are living entities, who think. According to Byran Kamilla of the It’s All In Our Mind – The LIGHT BRINGERS – Eliminating The Illuminators:
The screen in front of you is empty …
Now imagine the empty screen is the totality of everything that is … even though there’s no shape … no colour … and no sound.
As you look at the screen in front of you … what do you see? You see nothing. As you look at the screen in front of you … what do you know?
You know a lot. Even though you don’t see anything on the screen, you still know … and have locked up inside you, a vast storehouse of knowing.
At this point in time, and in this scenario we’re contemplating, what you know may be correct, or it may be incorrect. It makes no difference.
You still have an incredible amount of information recorded somewhere within you, even though you can’t see anything. Imagine again, that all that knowing you possess, has within it, the power and strength to exist forever.
There’s no beginning and no end. You have the power and wisdom to be eternal. Imagine that you’re filled with this knowing and completely possessed with this eternal power and strength. This is about as powerful as anyone could hope to be.
Let’s imagine that this knowing not only exists in you, but it exists in every person on the planet. It’s not something you have to go out and find, it’s just there, in you and in everyone that ever walked on the face of the earth.
Now imagine that someone, or a group of individuals, with that same eternal power, also wanted to have your power, and my power. Imagine that this group wanted to take possession of all that is ours.
However, they can’t take it from us by force, because it’s locked inside us, and it is who we are. Still, they desire to at least control it.
This group wished for our power to work in unison with their power, and the enormity of that combined strength of power and knowing would make them greater than the greatest … the most massive force in existence… they would appear to be GOD…
Inspired by the growing numbers and varieties of quasiperiodic crystals, the International Union of Crystallography has redefined the term crystal to mean “any solid having an essentially discrete diffraction diagram”, thereby shifting the essential attribute of crystallinity from position space to Fourier space. Within the family of crystals one distinguishes between periodic crystals, which are periodic on the atomic scale, and aperiodic crystals which are not. This broader definition reflects our current understanding that microscopic periodicity is a sufficient but not a necessary condition for crystallinity. In our research we deal with questions concerning the symmetry of crystals. We classify crystals according to their symmetry using an approach in Fourier space which treats periodic and quasiperiodic crystals on an equal footing. Source: http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/lifshitz/quasicrystals.html
The above photo is a diffraction pattern of a quasicrystal.
When writing this post, I remembered how the first image that was ever created was using the ‘as above and so below’ concept. This discovery was originally made by Aristotle:
Here is the kabbalistic image of the concept of “as above and so below”:
Alternative Energy Concept Car
So last night when I was supposed to be doing an assignment for my sociology class I got hit with some inspiration and an idea/concept for alternative energy car.
I like to think about things like this, and while I don’t have the engineering background, I definitely have the design background as well as the ideas…
SO like most people this past week, I saw this video
and it got me thinking.
First question that came to my mind… how can we take this idea and use the technique to create a piece of practical technology from it?
Second question that came to my mind… how can we easily obtain liquid nitrogen?
While LN may be cheap, its not that easily obtainable and you have to be certified to handle it.
So I go on google and search for a ‘kitchen’ or ‘hobby’ science substitute. I find this substitute:
Its’ not liquid nitrogen. But you can make a cryo-fluid having -110F temperature. (Liquid nitrogen is more like -320F.) A -110F liquid can perform most of the Liquid Nitrogen demonstrations.
Poor man’s “Liquid Nitrogen” is made out of dry ice and 99% rubbing alchohol.
Do you know what dry ice is made out of? It’s a condensed solid form of CO2. That’s right, the gas that’s in our air and what is said to cause global warming and pollution. And from my research as it melts it turns into gas again, but its not the same kind of CO2 that is from the air, its as delicate as what is used to make carbonated drinks.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Levitation created by LN which can be substituted with a cryo-fluid having -110F temperature which is said to reproduce the same kind of LN demonstrations. But the question then is, can it reproduce the same kind of superconductor effects?
Since we’re using dry ice, as product of a green-house gas, we’re taking our problem and turning it into a solution.