Improbable Monument: Pyramidal-Shaped Collective Cremation Burial Site_Keynote Slides

PROPOSAL

To build an improbable monument, and introduce a new form of burial and commemoration of life for humans, which acknowledges our past, while maintaining a rational view of necessary changes in burial processes for the future.  

A tall, clear, pyramidal-shaped structure to fill with ashes; 

A "Collective crematorium".

Will include a doorway to step inside, glass walls, and a small opening at top that plummets down to let light in.

Reminiscent of Egyptian pyramids and Aztec temples.

Loved ones can include small momentos in with ashes (colored glass bottles, messages, shells, seeing eye glasses..), which may be seen due to clear outer shell and natural light source.

 

BUILDING IT

•Materials:  Glass, symbolic of physical body as dust/ transient.  Possible physical/human glue to bond glass together

***HUMAN ADHESIVE POSSIBILITES
http://tisseel.com/us/index.html

http://articles.philly.com/1987-03-19/news/26223354_1_glue-fibrinogen-middle-ear

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2440358

•Brick:  Under the earth, to support glass structure, create catacombs, various chambers

 

FORMS OF BURIAL

http://youtu.be/BHBaCZ3slis Cremation video

Norse- ship burial

Barrows- circular mounds of earth and stone

Burial at sea

ALTERNATIVE BURIAL

•Death of Animals

•Waste disposal

•Maintaining Dignity and Respect

•Tissue Digestion aka Water Reduction

•Human Compost Movement

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

•http://www.cypresslawn.com

•http://www.wikipedia.org

•http://www.pbs.org

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/explore-ancient-egypt.html

•http://www.funerals.org

•http://www.youtube.com

•Stiff by Mary Roach

The Meaning of Masonry by W.L. Wilmhurst

Improbable Monument: Pyramidal-Shaped Collective Cremation Burial Site

Improbable Monument Inspiration

SFMOMA

I found several of the exhibits currently at SFMOMA fascinating and inspiring.  Marsha Cottrell, Casey Reas, and Stan Allen, among others, comprised a wing of the museum that was very forward and encompassed a lot of the art forms we studied and experimented with over the course of the semester.  And delved into ideas and ways by which to make art that I had never considered.

Marsha Cottrell
"A Black Powder Rains Down Gently On My Sleepless Night"
Spellbinding.  A huge mulberry paper, crumpled and covered with what looked like the universe.  She used a computer to draw many lines, circles, and shapes all over in random pattern.

Casey Reas
"Process 7"
Used a system of rules to generate a performance/ behavior of objects and shapes.

Stan Allen
"First 2,500 iterations of an infinite series of plan variations"
Patterns art.  Variations of similar line segments with specific rules laid out to determine placement.

In a separate wing, I was fascinated by Eva Hesse, Sol Lewitt, and Bruce Nauman's work.  Highly conceptual, 3-dimensional works that encouraged open interpretation.

Eva Hesse
"Sans II"
Polyester resin and fiberglass.  Like rectangular honeycombs.  Catacombs.  Inviting, delicate, yet solidly encompassing.  Especially cornered with Sol Lewitt's "Wall Grid 3X3".  The painted white squares were inviting.  The scale of both pieces large and catacomb-like.  Window like. ~a Portal to eternity.

Mondrian
Showed an incomplete work.  Using tape to lay out the painting.  Geometric form.  He claimed to paint more free-form, yet appears mathematical.

The Zangshu, or Book of Burial

http://www.fengshuigate.com/zangshu.html

Mushroom Burial Suit

Improbable Monuments, beginning workings

Cypress Lawn Cemetary

analyze:  map out.  research.  explain.  Concentration in unfinished catacombs project.  Interview.  Find out specifics of select gravesites.  History.  Creation.  Whats up with the dwarf tower?  Whats up with ramp to creepy mortuary cellar?  Document historical mortuary processes.

intervention:  -thousands of flowers everywhere, scatter via helicopter?

-uncovering untold secrets of cemetary beauracracy

-expose inner workings

monument:  -underground living environments, catacombs for the living. 

-Sleeping pods.

-Project figures of men in suits and sunglasses at various areas in cemetary, flicker on and off

-3D images of deceased at their gravesites.  Projected.  They can be turning around, talking but no words come out.  Option to record message before death and have floating 3D image instead of gravemarker.  Maybe hovering over a platform.  Press a button, code and recorded message sounds.

-New ways of commemorating, remembering the dead.

-New forms of burial

-Tall, clear, pyramidal-shaped structure to fill with ashes.  "Collective crematorium".  Maybe a doorway to step inside, glass walls, small opening at top to let light in.  Reminiscent of Egyptian pyramids.  Maybe can put small momentos in with ashes (colored glass bottles, messages, shells, seeing eye glasses..)

-Music sounds when you walk through certain areas of cemetary.  Soothing opera.  Classical.  Old-timey.

-Crystal chimes in certain trees.

-Cemetary as sanctuary.  Cemetary as in-between world.  Cemetary as passageway.

-Underground altars.  Small spaces carved into rock wall to set up small ceremonial altars in rememberance.  Entrance through pyramid.

System B

Examining Systems Maps:


Fig.1  San Francisco Sectional Aeronautical Charts (1991, 1985)

-Topographic Information
-Airport Traffic Service and Airspace Information
-Radio Aids
-Obstructions
-Airport Data
-Highest elevation at 14,491 feet
-Dark brown color indicates 12,000 feet above sea level
Note: "Uncontrolled airspace within the United States extends up to 14,500 feet MSL.  At and above this altitude all airspace is within the Continental Control Area, excluding the airspace less than 1500 feet above the terrain and certain special use airspace areas."
-ARSA Airport Radar Service Area altitudes shown in purple, thick line, thick dashed line
-TCA Terminal Control Area altitudes shown in blue, thick line
-Military Operations Areas shown in purple line with dashed shading
-Prohibited, Restricted, Warning, and Alert areas shown in blue line with dashed shading
-Hard surfaced runways greater than 8000 feet are blue rectangular boxes

fig.2  VFR Terminal Area Charts San Francisco (1988, 1989, 1991) 

-San Francisco Terminal Control Area focus
-Similar key as fig.1

fig.3  VFR Terminal Area Chart Los Angeles (1987)

-Los Angeles Terminal Control Area focus
-Similar key as fig.1

*Read blue bold type concerning VFR Flyway planning in heavily congested areas

*Place tracing paper proposals over Los Angeles VFR Chart to gain perspective

fig.4  Ontario International Departure routes

fig.5  East flow Ontario

fig.6  Ontario Arrivals West

fig.7  LAX flows, jets, high performance twins

fig.8  LAX, Ontario flows, routes

fig.9,10,11,12  Los Angeles Regional Area Airspace Base Maps, beginning sketches: Generalized Instrument Flight Routes

fig.13  LAX Airspace Capacity Overview (1994)

-Existing Conditions
-Recent and Planned Changes in Airspace Structure and Operations
-Airspace/Airfield Capacity Estimates
-Emerging Technologies for Capacity and Safety Improvements
-Summary of Findings and Recommendations

Systems Brainstorm

System= a set of components that are related in some manner; a set of variables selected by an observer.

Ideas:

1)  Books Idea (System A blog):  = "data-mining"
Might plug information into excell regarding
         -Bibliographic data
         -Date of publication
         -#Hash tags and how they correlate to eachother
         -Method of acquirement
         -Age of acquirement
         -Read in full, or not
Then examine relationships

May also graph relationships
         -Topographical map
         -Color-coded
         -Spherical maps
         -Tree maps
Note:  Can make these maps without complex algorithms.  Use a few set categories.

2)  Disassemble the Workings of a House/Household
         -Electricity
         -Water
         -Heating
         -Track household members' routines
Have an architectural floor plan and break down water pipes, heating/A/C ducts, electrical wiring, phone/internet/cable wiring
Also chart household members' routines/ whereabouts with different colored lines- the amount of time spent at different areas has a thicker line

3)  Sound Sculptures

4)  Thought Processes/ Word Association

5)  Kittens' Life/Structure/Habits/Physicality

6)  Expressive Arts Therapy's Impact on Children/Adults/People with Disabilities/People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/People with Psychological Diagnoses
Maybe via line-graph

7)  Soul as Crab Insides/Shell as Physical Body
3D Model

System A

System A

System A is a catalogue of all the books I currently have on my shelf.  Not nearly half the books I own.  Maybe five of the 'coffee table books'.  And I constantly donate books that I've already read.  Rarely return any to library on time, so I love friends of the library sales and used book stores where i can get my books and feel like theyre mine and I dont have to finish at a given time.

I began by listing, the time period during which I acquired the books:

Red= inherited/ before I was born
Orange= very young
Light orange= teenager
Yellow= early twenties
Green= mid twenties
Blue= very recently

The second column categorizes the way in which I acquired the books:

Brown= given to me
Pink= purchased new
Light pink= purchased used

The third column shows which I have read all the way through:

Purple= read

I plan on furthur analysing the correlations and adding more columns...

Augmented Body: Nerve Stimulator Suit

NERVE STIMULATOR SUIT:
to trigger muscles to relieve tension, stretches them out routinely and subtle massage for circulation

Augmented Body Artists: Laser finger beams

1.   Laser finger beams. 

I could not find the artist/creator of laser finger beams.  These toy finger lasers have not yet ventured into weapons territory but hold potential for future development as an augmentation of the human body.

Military laser weapons development has been in place for some time now.  Rangefinders, and target finders are common.  Lasers are also used as an incapacitizing weapon, causing temporary or permanent vision loss. 

Another term for laser weapons technology is DEW- or directed-energy weapons.  Appearing mostly in science fiction, these weapons transmit energy to a target.  This type of lethal transmission is currently under military research and development.  The U.S. Army has made a laser capable of destroying a plane, but it is electronically powered.  If they can use chemical power to transmit the laser, it would be more feasible for them to attach to the fingers, and create laser finger beams capable of taking down large objects.     

Logo Heist I

Logo Heist II

F

Cardboard Warfare

Indeterminancy Project

a. the medium you will work in:  three randomly selected dollar store items, white acrylic paint, white high-gloss spray paint

b. the method by which you will generate your chance operations:  grid, with randomly selected coordinates drawn from a hat

c. the system you will use to make decisions:  the grid represents the layout of the store, I will go to the store, go to each of the pre-determined coordinates and purchase the items directly in front of me 

 

Originally, I had wanted to use this same process, but in a goodwill or secondhand store.  I thought it would be interesting to have larger items, like a book, lamp, stuffed bear, stuff like that.  My budget for the project pointed me to the dollar store instead.  I was pleasantly surprised at the objects that chance brought me, except for the hairnet.  I was skeptical of how the hairnet would hold the paint.  I think it worked out alright though.  The toy gun and rocking horse candle were a humorous juxtaposition to me.  I really liked the way they turned out after being completely coated in white paint.  They look like a ceramic piece or plaster cast, which are really popular in design right now.  People have random white animal heads hanging on their walls and collections of strange white objects clustered together on bookshelfs.  My project was intended to be a comment on that form of sculpture right now.  That if you take any random object in put it in a grouping of others in a specific context, it can become art.    

 

I enjoyed using the found art method.  It brings to mind so many movements in culture in the past 100 years.  Taking an ordinary object out of it's context and placing it in an art piece is reminiscent of surrealism.  The everyday object looked at in a new light also evokes pop art.  And most recently, contemporary interior design.  I was happy with the objects I found.  I was tempted to move my hand slightly and grab anything but the package of hairnets; I had to remind myself to give up control and let the project guide me.  I think if I set the work up in a gallery, the objects would be arranged on a white pedestal.  The toy gun would face pointing at the rocking horse candle, which would be draped in the hairnet.  My friend suggested that I paint the gun black.  I think that would be a great idea.  If that was the case, I would like to have the black toy gun lying on the pedestal solo, and remove the other components of the piece.

 

Aesthetically, I like the water gun the best.  I think that it's ironic, curious, and somewhat hilarious when painted a solid color.  It looks like some futuristic weapon.  Painted white, and not able to work, it symbolizes a plea for peace.  Painted black, I think it would be a comment on violence amongst children, who are playing with real guns, not squirt guns.  Even painted white, it brings to mind a lot of controversial ideas.  Paired with the rocking horse candle, partcularly, conjures up a relation of violence and childhood, or even a loss of innocence.  The hairnet is either gang-related or a cage, or some type of inadequate protection.  I really enjoyed this project.  It pushed me to work with materials I wouldn't normally use.  And opened my mind to how I interpret art and what that may say about me, and the art I make.

 

Future Predictions

1. In sixty years or so, the layout of urban areas and the surrounding sprawl will be greatly different than it is today.  The sprawlage will be much larger, encroaching upon much of the natural environment.  I think that the cities themselves will be much more vertically oriented.  The sky is part of real estate when you consider air rights that people have been dealing with forever, but primarily with the advent of air travel.  In America, the Federal Aviation Administration has had a majority of control when it comes to how high a building can really be, in which zones, safetywise, or can we build air travel around it- the other way?  It gets complicated.  I think that in the future there will not be enough space for the population and people will build up.  Maybe even underground, too.  Vertical gardens are already an up-and-coming means of sustainable agriculture.  I think they'll become more standard farming practice.
2. In the future I predict that people will be embedded with a chip that contains numerous functions.  It will store social security information, credit card/financial information, accumulated music, photographs, documents, keys to unlock your house, car, etc., GPS functions, and more.  It will be similar to how we operate with cell phones today, except embedded in our actual skin.  That way, you could always take it out if you didn't feel like having the government be able to track your every move at all times.
3. A third possibility for the future is that we would go back to nature.  Having used up most of our resources, we would finally realize the value of them and ration out what little we had left.  There would be lots of talk of "the old days" and Grandpa's tales about what rolling green hills looked like.  Alaska, the poles, and other previously fairly uninhabited areas would house the last of the pioneers.  The few hunters left would only be the toughest few.  The world's population would be greatly decreased and it would be a time of rebuilding and letting nature turn devastation into regrowth.  

Memex

• In his 1945 essay, "As We May Think", Vannevar Bush states that in order for a record (of anything, ie. writing, photography...) to be useful, it has to be constantly updated, stored, and actually used.  He says that there is more information out there than can be made use of and sorted through. 
• I agree.  Even now, with the internet, it is so easy to get lost in the mazes of information available to us.  Bush called these paths to which we find relevant information "trails", and the people that worked on creating these trails, through association and dissassociation "trailblazers".  I  feel that the more organized something is, the easier it will be to find the exact item you are looking for.  Frantically digging through mounds of unrelated items every single time you need to find a particular item, is a waste of time.  When things are well organized, and labeled neatly, they are much easier to find.  I think that the more 'trailblazers' work at creating useful paths, in accessible ways, the easier it will be to find information and use it. 
• Vannevar Bush makes the point that logical reasoning in itself is not enough, and that creative thinking is required in order to catalogue the vast expanse of knowledge and history that we possess.  Characteristics of certain ideas, images, etcetera should be taken into consideration when orgainizing the collective catalogue. 
• Very true.  A simple game of word association will give you an idea of how the human mind works not only logically, but creatively as well.  Some connotations many of us might share.  Many, I'm sure, though will be widely varied and dependant upon the individual's past experiences and predisposed state of being.  It is a neverending task to map out the associations of thoughts.
• Another fascinating idea that Bush brings up is the future possibility that we might be able to intercept our thoughts somehow and automatically record them.  That we would be able to pick up vibrations, similar to a telephone wire being tapped.  He notes how a typist transmits words without having to necessarily look at what they're doing.  It is simply a practiced transmission.
• The fact that Bush relates this sort-of telepathical transmission to technology that we use everyday but were once considered far-out ideas makes the process actually seem feasible.  I think that one da we very well may be able to relate information telepathically, or through some kind of interception and maybe even through our eyes, broadcast.  Bush's thinking was ahead of his time.  The memex as the early computer is proof that technology starts with fantastical ideas. 

Remember to Forget

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012
Designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei
1 June - 14 October 2012

http://serpentinegallery.org/

http://thespace.org/items/e0000ens

At the Serpentine Gallery in London, they have commissioned architects over the last twelve years to design a Summer Pavilion; a temporary, functioning structure outside the Serpentine Gallery on the Kensington Garden lawns.  Very cool.

This year, Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Ai Weiwei collaborated to create the pavilion.  They purposefully made it to be something other than an object.  They dug underground, as well as utilize space above ground for the piece.  It represents memory and past like archaeology, by digging underground.  It pays homage to past architectural structures at the site.  The top covering is positioned 1.5m above the ground so it's at eye level.  The water on the surface looks like a mirror.

The architects/artists say that the thought behind the piece concerns our relationship with memories & time & history.  They say it is at once a "Protest against forgetting" but to "Remember to forget"