.

Last night’s performance was wonderful. Thank you to...

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:24:56 -0400

Last night’s performance was wonderful. Thank you to everyone who showed up. I sat in tech this morning for Innisfree Constructed and it’s going to be goood.

On May 10th, BF Bifocals put together a sound environment in...

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:56:57 -0400

On May 10th, BF Bifocals put together a sound environment in Judson Memorial Church from 11pm to 1am. Ben Seretan played continuously for the entire time. We filled the space with sound generators: a record player, an artificial waterfall, a fan, a candle-powered angel chime, an open mic, a tape player playing blank tape, a humidifier. The church’s PA system played a field recording of a walk I had taken earlier in the day from Union square to Carroll Gardens. We organized identical chairs into as many configurations as we could imagine. People came and went over the course of the two hours. It was wonderful and intense. I set up my recorder in the mezzanine and this is what it heard.

A shot from rehearsal of Listening. We open on Monday

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:08:00 -0400

A shot from rehearsal of Listening. We open on Monday

bser: Very proud to present SOUND FLOOR, by BF Bifocals. I’ll...

Fri, 03 May 2013 15:38:00 -0400

bser:

Very proud to present SOUND FLOOR, by BF Bifocals. I’ll be playing two hours of improvised guitar drones, participating in a sound environment that attendees are encouraged to explore. In the beautiful, historic, and massive Judson Church. Poster by Alex Tatusian.

(I can’t get the text on the poster to upload, for some reason! But this is cool!!)

Next Friday, May 10th. 11pm. Judson Church.

YEAH. Ben and I are helping organize this. I’ll be participating with a 2 hour field recording that will be the underlying environment for the whole shebang. It’s going to be fun and weird.

I’ve been working on a performance piece called Listening...

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:33:00 -0400

I’ve been working on a performance piece called Listening and am dancing in Innisfree Constructed as part of this festival of shows. I also did the graphic design for the festival, and there will be some live video work in Listening and a lot of live music throughout. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who donated to get us up and running. Come see the fruits of our labor!

More info here

Photo

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 23:53:03 -0400

From Tristan Perich’s piece “Dual Synthesis”...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 12:41:17 -0400

From Tristan Perich’s piece “Dual Synthesis” for harpsichord and 1-bit electronics, performed last night at New Music for Old Instruments organized by the West 4th Music Collective

Jennings, Louisiana

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:11:16 -0400

Jennings, Louisiana

Build Thread

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:44:00 -0400

An article I wrote on learning from Internet car forums is out in a new zine by BF Bifocals. You can pick it up for free at St. Mark’s Bookshop, Spoonbill and Sugartown, Book Court and some more locations soon.

Or, read below.

BN Sports Blister Kitted RX7 (Daily)
On 09-11-2012, 10:30AM, Kruizer (Join date: Mar 2011, Location: Ireland, Posts: 176) wrote:

When I was buying the bumper and skirts for the RX8 this kit became available, fell in love with the yellow one that Powervehicles had sold a few years back so bought the kit and threw it into the shed for next year to build a daily.

However as things transpired one of my mates decided to break his 1997 Model FD3S and since I knew the car from previous owners and its history I decided to take the plunge now. It has been fully Polly bushed, tein coilovers, red carpet and most of the interior (no seats). There is no running gear in this so I will be looking at fitting something reliable but with enough poke not to let the car down.

On the shopping list down the line will be wheels, running gear, seats and paint. For the moment I have been looking at 1UZFE’s (4.0 V8) and M3’s as a power plant however there seems to be a lot of grief converting the Toyota lump to manual. Don’t expect regular updates on this project as my main focus is still on the SRX8 and I want to get a few bits done with the KP61 while its above in John Stones.

Some of you may have already seen the pic’s of the kit I threw up but here is a recap along with a few other pic’s. Never realised the sheer size of the kit but soon figured it out:

Automotive forums are the nervous system for the booming car modification scene. They are often organized around car make and models such as Volvospeed, VW Vortex, Bimmerforums, Third Gen (82-92 GM Camaro/Firebird) and others, or specific styles and genres of car modification like Stanceworks (“Slammed and Fitted” styling) and Club Hot Rod. Each operates for the users in a multitude of ways. For me, they have been a source of diagnostic information through others’ experiences, and inspiration for styling and modifying the cars that I’ve owned or worked on, and the countless numbers of cars I’ve dreamed of calling mine.

There is a camaraderie on these forums that spans geographic boundaries, allowing for a backyard mechanic in Germany to share his experience working on a 1987 Porsche 924 with a like-minded owner in Hong Kong. Most forums are organized in a similar way, sectioned into categories created by site moderators, within which are user-created threads - multi-page entries of text, photography and video - documenting some part of their experience with their car. Some are photos from a local gathering or regional car show, some are dedicated photo shoots for one or more cars, and some document a long process of creating a personal ride: the build thread. Some titles include:

My correcting then rebuild thread
Igor: The destruction of an e28
Civic 2003 ES8 Simple Build
Great White North Build -850 turbo
Sharrk
Project Pras
Just your ordinary e34 DD Build.
1967 Pro-Touring 122 Amazon (Project Volvo X) 540 Horsepower LS6/Tremec TKO600 5-speed

“1978 Porsche 924 // Improvement on its way.” - forloveandglory, 09-04-2012, Stanceworks.com

Ranging from highly personal stories to professional shop logs, the build thread is the most educational posting mode on these forums. It turns a private experience of working in one’s garage into a social reality, which is unsurprising in the Internet world. What makes this social reality profound in this context is that the collective support of other users will often prompt the “original poster” (OP) to push their plans for their ride in new directions, or simply continue working on a delayed project. The Internet crew encourages modifications, shares precedents or specific knowledge while the OP works on their car over the course of a few months or years. Often, a user will turn out to be a neighbor of the OP, and offer to help or lend tools. The inertia and speed of these threads is dependent on the OP’s skill, available funds and access to space. Many threads include copious apologies for not posting enough - life gets in the way sometimes.

The most interesting threads are not necessarily about the most outlandish work, but those that with the most detailed posts. Step by step, the process of creation is documented in detail for all to see, and the window into another’s world is the most exciting part of it. The work is done in garages, front yards, professional shops, and many dorm rooms have become de-facto engine building shops, the lumps of iron and steel hidden neatly inside a large rubber made container.

“The Great White North Build - Thread Merge Of 854Tga+’s 850 Turbo Build” - 854TGA+, 10-24-2009, Volvospeed.com

“1978 Porsche 924 // Improvement on its way.” - forloveandglory, 09-04-2012, Stanceworks.com

No matter who is making the thread, learning is an integral part of the process, for both the owner of the car and those watching and contributing to the thread. I have personally learned the basics of suspension modification, wheel arch rolling and widening, rust repair and prevention, the basics of body work, and roll cage fabrication (among many other topics) through the photos and narrative text of these threads. I have never done any of these things, but have a clear step-by-step pictorial guide tucked away in my memory if and when I do attempt such modification. The greatest threads are the ones where the OP comes up with a specific fix to a problem endemic to a particular model, and then through the notoriety of forum moderators, that fix becomes a widely known fact. A clean solution to either a costly or tricky problem spreads widely, like strategies for making coilover suspension cheaply, a part that when purchased from a manufacturer can cost upwards of $2,000. A thread can be “pinned” to the top of the forum boards by moderators, or explained in it’s own write-up to add to a free, indexed, repair manual. Sometimes, small products or kits are developed from these ingenious fixes or singular visions of modification (such as modified headlight housings to accept cross-platform HID (High Intensity Discharge) headlights in cars manufactured before HIDs were invented), and small businesses spring up, migrating to the classified sections of a forum.

“1967 Pro-Touring 122 Amazon (Project Volvo X)540 Horsepower LS6/Tremec TKO600 5-Speed” - Iamtheonlyreal1, 11-01-2012, Stanceworks.com

Because of its fluidity between mechanical and social categories, the build thread creates an archive that is about the mechanical progress on the car as much as the personal progress, financial situation and motivation of the OP. It is edifying on all of these levels. Most importantly, it changes the relationship of owner (or prospective owner) to car. Instead of going to a new car dealer and buying a car like you might buy an expensive appliance, or researching the most dependable used cars on Edmunds or NADA or Kelly Blue Book (decidedly sterile relationships to cars), users search all over to find new canvasses to create their own work, armed with information and inspiration created by their peers. The build thread is perhaps the most inspiring of all of my Internet reading, because it is an active, virtual place that encourages creation in the real world.

Photo

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:41:35 -0400

The interaction of wires and trees in my neighborhood is an...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:14:45 -0400

The interaction of wires and trees in my neighborhood is an intense battle

Photo

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:12:57 -0400

Spotlight on light gear. cc: Black Box Theory

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:12:13 -0400

Spotlight on light gear.

cc: Black Box Theory

I took these photos of The Salk Institute this past summer....

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:47:00 -0400

I took these photos of The Salk Institute this past summer. It’s a strange place, and very powerful. Definitely meant to be seen through a lens. Part of that is very alienating, but it catches the sun in a way that only Kahn could devise.

We go up to a big house in Cairo, New York with a bunch of...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:25:00 -0400

We go up to a big house in Cairo, New York with a bunch of friends. Rent this mansion and party a lot. It’s fun and tiring, and on the way back from the house back to the city, Jack suggests we go shooting. I am a little apprehensive at first - something about firing guns for the sake of firing guns makes little to no sense when you first hear it. Jack insists, everyone is onboard. I am intrigued enough, and have little say in the matter. We’re going. We go.

The place is strange. Everyone there is so relaxed. I am extremely on edge surrounded by 12 gauge shotguns, rifles, handguns, bullets, people of all ages hanging out around them with total calm. There’s safety in their relaxation, but it still seems crazy to me. Drawn together for a love of weapons.

We step out onto the range, bathed in fluorescent clay pigeons and it all seems so excessive, so meaningless and mildly destructive to the world, this masturbatory firing of guns. But my turn arrives and I get briefed on how to load, stand and brace myself. I yell

“Pull.”

the first one down

“Pull.”

My first round of five is over. I am shaking with adrenaline, having hit all five. It’s immediately a love relationship. I want to destroy all of those orange discs. They’re there to taunt me, teach me about physics and acting in the moment and rekindle all of these desires that were embedded in me as a kid, playing secret agent in the woods in Vermont and watching action movies and all of that.

My hands are literally shaking with excitement until my next turn comes and I cam down, settle into the next shots. I go 22 for 25 in our brief session, and I am incredibly proud. We leave as the place closes at dusk, and I snap this photo.

I don’t know how to feel about this picture. It is ridiculous, but I totally get it.

Seen en route to Cairo, NY

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:24:08 -0400

Seen en route to Cairo, NY

This truck has been parked on various streets in my neighborhood...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:23:21 -0400

This truck has been parked on various streets in my neighborhood for a few months now. Really inspiring work.

Really missing the road today. This is a small dirt road that...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:40:00 -0500

Really missing the road today. This is a small dirt road that services fishing holes in the Shenandoah Valley outside of Luray, Virginia. Taken sometime in April, 2012

Photo

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 18:58:22 -0500

Video Machine 1, Judson Memorial Church 10.26.2012

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 02:02:45 -0500

Video Machine 1, Judson Memorial Church 10.26.2012