torsion box magic carpet table

#HouseofGardiner #homeJames #busmods update – building a torsion box as a magic carpet floating desk

Since I’ve been at House of Gardiner, we’ve done a radiator pressure test and a head gasket test (her gasket is fine, phew!); fitted two old 12v computer fans in the rear air vents to pull hot air out of the bus; rigged zips between window curtains and a new curtain rail to make ninja parking (and ‘guest bedroom’ privacy) more efficient; fixed the MooresCloud intelligent LED lighting and hacked it to work on 12v; I’ve tried my hand/improved skills at welding, knife sharpening, wood carving and leather stitching (fixing my beloved old boots) and had several inspiring conversations about digital/creative culture, mechanics and greek philosophy. Seems hJ was right about coming here instead of going bush. Thanks guys, you rock x

[originally posted via Known, October 21st 2014; more photos via flickr on the #houseofgardiner tag]

lateral drifts

Increasingly pissed off with Facebook’s continued disrespect for our personal rights and privacy, I’ve started using a new platform for my personal ramblings, to begin taking myself out of the anti-Net Neutrality world.

Known lets you publish status updates, etc, which are then pushed to Facebook, Twitter, etc (it’s in beta so there’s a lot more to come too). This means you own all rights to your content rather than giving them away to walled gardens that are more interested in your data than providing the open service you originally signed up for.

Check out more at http://withknown.com and follow my lateral drifts at http://fee.withknown.com.

“why take a spoon when you can make one while you’re there?”

I’ve been hanging out with some immensely smart and practical folk in Shepparton doing a few busmods. They have the sexiest shed I have ever seen, in fact they have three – one for fabrics (including an industrial quilting machine), one for electronics and one for wood and metal work. They make saws and chisels too… amazing stuff.

Since here I’ve had a go at MIG welding (http://fee.withknown.com/2014/playing-with-welding-1st-goleft-2nd-goright-learningallthethings) and last night we were talking about carving. I mentioned the Welsh spoons my sister had made for me from http://barnthespoon.com (a wonderful character who used to live in the woods in Wales but now has a base in London).

Josh has suggested I should make my own (his exact phrase was “why take a spoon when you can make one while you’re there?”) – and if I was going to learn to carve I should make my own carving knife to do it with! The pic here is a spoon he made on his last trip, he does it every time he travels.

As a nomad it makes so much sense to work with the nature around you, and if I learned to carve it could be something I could offer to teach as I travel.

Not sure if I’ll have the chance to make my own knife on this trip, but if I did I’d celebrate the Welsh Love Spoon tradition and use a “Twca Cam” knife… watch this space…

[originally posted via Known, October 18th 2014]

on researching without google

researching w/o google – an exercise in returning to non-digital culture.

Josh’s challenge: research a topic w/o using a web search engine (including a web search function).

Research question: “How do you make a truly flat surface?”

Process:

1. Use the internet but by domain name guesses not searches.

Results:

a) http://www.flatsurface.com – one line in a simple html page, saying “Dust collects on a flat surface.”

b) http://flatsurface.net – two-page webpage with banner header saying “Every flat surface should have hot chicks dancing on it.” and photo of women dancing. The Home Page says “What is the purpose of a Flat Surface? I do not know, at this time.  I intend to find out.” The About Page says “I do not yet know what this will be about”.

c) http://flatsurface.org – wasn’t available. Josh suggested I should buy this domain and post an amalgam of the above two pages into this. Perhaps “”Dust collects on a flat surface with hot chicks dancing on it”. I didn’t do this.

d) Since I know wikipedia’s url for entries, I typed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/flat_surface which did not have an article by that name and offered links to search for mention of it. Since this would use a search function, I declined.

e) Entering a more lateral drift, we discussed other angles for discovery. Conversation was one, which we argued was still searching but since the challenge was non-web-based searching that was allowed, but to me it was cheating (since I know Josh knew the answer).

f) Josh gave a hint “the answer is in the bookshelf behind you”. Searching through the books I found “Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy” by Wayne R Moore. I asked if using the index was allowed, and Josh again said yes, since it was not a web search. Only I had found the second volume which contained “flatness” in the index but referred to the first volume. Eventually he found the original volume, located in another part of the shed, and I found the answer on Page 14: “Fig 5 – The foundation of all geometric accuracy and indeed of all dimensional measurement is the flat plane. Flatness is inherently attained by the cross matching of three surface plates…”.

We discussed what this meant and it triggered something in my head about location triangulation with GPS where at least three points must be used to pinpoint accurate location.

I then went to google to see how easy it would be to find this answer in the ‘normal’ way. A Google Books link was the third item but had the most interesting title “Descartes and the Hyperbolic Quest: Lens Making Machines“. Who knew philosophers discussed such practical matters?!

End of experiment.

[original posted via Known, October 17th 2014]

On Nomadicy

homeJames_Ganguddy

It’s not often someone creates an opportunity which literally has your name on it. When I saw the call for “Time_Place_Space: Nomad” my heart leapt to my throat.

I’ve been living in homeJames, my bus, for nearly two years now. Before that I was couchsurfing for around 18months and before that, well let’s just say that I went to eight primary schools and two secondary schools. The longest I’ve lived in one house was eight years, and I only managed that thanks to spending at least three months a year on international travel over that time. Nomadicy was a way of life for me before I even knew it was a thing. Only now, I’m doing it properly.

The original nomads were everywhere, whether travelling merchants or minstrels, religious pilgrims or migrant tribes moving between sites for hunting or agricultural seasons. These people were multicultural by lifestyle, open to exploration and discovery. They were our first long-distance knowledge networks, taking stories, culture and produce from one settlement to the next; the original ‘internet of things’, if you will. These nomads connected communities across vast geographic distances, cared for and educated about the land and introduced an awareness of a broader society than ones own geographic locality.

Gradually, over time, things changed. Settlements turned in to domains (‘enclosures‘ or privatised areas), where the powers-that-be gave land rights to peers of the realm who exchanged protection for taxes (typically in the form of livestock or farmed produce). This was done, of course, without first consulting those who had already built homes, families and had cultivated what had, up until then, been barren Common Land. The Commons (something we see little of in contemporary society) meant anyone could use the land or rivers in any way, providing their use didn’t restrict anyone else from having the same right. Makes sense, huh?

Fast-forward to 2014 and Nomadicy seems to be on the increase again. Contemporary nomads are surprisingly diverse, not just ‘Carnies’ or the shamefully persecuted Romany communities. Collectively we consist of increasing older-age populations (aka ‘grey nomads’), serial tourists (backpackers and the more lavish destination-hoppers), regular conference/festivallers (‘knowmads’), climate refugees (something many of us might soon become ourselves) or just old hippies (like me) trying to get off-grid and remove ourselves from a sociopolitical system we can no longer accept. For some it’s a luxury lifestyle choice perceived as living the dream. For me it’s an act of protest, an chance to explore and connect with people and place across Australia, and an opportunity to reinvent my own creative practice.

Last year I spent two weeks turning an empty block of land into a temporary Nomadic Village with a bunch of artists who all had some kind of mobility as a creative focus. I didn’t expect to be the only 100% Nomad there, but since they all had somewhere else to call home, I was. Here at TPS I was convinced I’d be the only nomad, but I was wrong. Fellow-TPS-meanderer Greg Pritchard lives out of his car as he drives around regional NSW largely due to his role with Regional Arts Australia. My bus is considerably more comfortable, but even he gets to call in to his mum’s place to do a load of washing as we pass through Canberra. My equivalent, travelling back to North Wales, would be one expensive laundrette.

It’s the night before our last day after almost three (delicious) weeks and I’m taking a quiet reflective moment in the bus, watching the hot day’s sun set while awaiting a rare, decadent, pizza delivery. Typically with residencies or labs you’re expected to produce ‘outcome’, but the real result of these experiences isn’t immediate, and Performance Space has not made this demand of us. But of course with 30 artists, we’ve ended up with a mini festival regardless. It’ll be fascinating to see what Narrandera’s locals make of us.

This Time_Place_Space is a reincarnation of a previous series from several years ago with the Nomadic thrust being a new direction (fortunately for me!). Every time I’ve spoken with previous participants their eyes do that dreamy-gaze thing; the depth and duration of meaning, still active from their experience, is visceral. The name of the program is no mistake; they talk about the privilege of being given time, place and space to just be, to learn, reflect, share and grow, without pressure or fear of looking or feeling silly when they explore realms outside of their normal comfort zone. I was hoping to develop a similar glaze from my own time here. I wasn’t wrong.

I came with a single project in mind that I wanted to develop having started it at Nomadic Village, but I’ll tell you more about that another time. Suffice to say, I am looking to tomorrow knowing not only that it has taken new shape, but that I have. I’ve shared buslife in one of the most idyllic locations I’ve ever visited in this country with some of the most astonishingly genuine, passionate, inventive, generous and funny individuals I’ve had the pleasure to meet. I’ve eaten the best camp food ever – including roadkill in a found food feast! And I’ve learned new things about place, people, culture and, above all, myself. Who says art can’t be transformative?

Kudos to everyone who put this thing together, from TPS v.1 to all the producers, facilitators and artists who have made this, this. And extra special hugs to Sophie who had to leave us a little too early.

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This post was originally written for the Time_Place_Space:Nomad tumblr blog. Go check it out, there are heaps of amazing threads there.

Time_Place_Space: Nomad is a national travelling laboratory that aims to challenge, invigorate and strengthen interdisciplinary and experimental arts practice in Australia, with an emphasis on collaborative performance making, site-specificity and artistic resilience. Time_Place_Space is a co-production between Performance Space and ArtsHouse Melbourne.