Mathias Brandewinder's blog

Spell Check Fail

2010-02-06T11:48:00.001-08:00

I guess spell checking isn’t part of “Fringe Science”…

Replace “Government” by “Corporation”

2010-01-27T16:21:00.001-08:00

One benefit of the whole US health care debate (debacle?) is that I finally realized one key difference between the United States and Europe (or at least France). A debate works a bit like “Capture the Flag” – the debaters try to claim some concepts or keywords, which will give them a dominant position, and remove the need to produce any reasonable argument. One extreme example of such a battle for the flag is Godwin’s Law: the first party who manages to assimilate the other side to Nazis gains dominant ground, and you can bet any rational (or simply civil) discussion is over after that point.

I realized that in the political debate on both sides of the Atlantic, “Government” and “Corporations” play the role of such flags – but the roles are reversed. If you manage to claim that the other party’s solution gives more responsibility to the Government in the US, you are on solid ground – because Government’s intentions are suspect, whereas a market-based, free-enterprise solution, is by default virtuous, and what is good for Corporations, is good for the general public. In Europe, a solution that shifts responsibilities from Government to Corporations is suspect, because Corporations don’t serve the public interest: they will do anything for a buck to please the shareholders.

You can see this at play in the Health Care debate in the US: while most Americans seem to actually support the components of the bill, its approval (and the whole debate with it) has sunk, dragged down by questions around whether pharmaceutical and insurance companies will suffer from it, and whether the bill means that the government will have Death Panels to decide whether to pull the plug on Grand’ma. Conversely, a sure way to get the French striking and marching in the streets is to propose any form of involvement of private Corporations in the education system (medical works, too).

What I find interesting is that it wasn’t obvious to me earlier; probably because on the surface, the debate looks identical, and revolves around the same concepts – but the underlying value system is reversed.

More fusing & slumping

2009-12-13T17:34:00.001-08:00

Some more stuff I did at the Crucible glass fusing & slumping class. The body of the bird is done with slim glass rods which I bent by heating them, and the wing is a very quick mosaic. The body of the crocodile is very coarse frit (chunks of broken glass) – I did it for my favorite niece, who has an intriguing fascination for these animals. And for my favorite sister, I did 9 buttons (hope that’s enough), was lots of work, but pretty fun!

Slumping

2009-11-26T12:49:00.001-08:00

The second class at the Crucible was focused on slumping. The idea behind slumping is to heat the glass so that it softens and slumps, adopting the shape of whatever it is laying on. I focused again mostly on experimenting, to get a sense of what to expect, and produced two pieces:

The two pictures below illustrate how the technique works. The 3 layers of waves under the boat have been created by stacking up 3 layers of thick fiber under the transparent glass pane, and the outline of the snail uses the same technique.

Fusing, session 1

2009-11-14T13:21:00.001-08:00

I took my first class in glass fusing & slumping last week, at the Crucible. The 3 pieces below are the result – they are all metal inclusions (copper) between sheets of glass. It’s a totally new material for me, so I wanted to try different textures, to see how each came out, and if there were differences.

One aspect of the process I am not used to yet is the lack of immediacy. We create our pieces, and put them in the kiln, where they cook up and cool down for the next day or so – so I really don’t know how things will play out, at all, until the week after, when I come for the next class. It’s a long delay to get a sense for what works and what doesn’t.

Cyclo

2009-11-07T17:54:00.001-08:00

Funny to see one of these in San Francisco, when in Vietnam, they were considered an outdated reminder of the colonial era…

If it parks like a compact

2009-10-06T00:17:00.001-07:00

… then it must be a compact.

Mobile

2009-10-05T17:43:00.001-07:00

I am on cat-sitting duty this week, hosting Friday, the best cat in the world. Friday likes to play, and seems to enjoy insect-like creatures. I can’t say I share his interest for insects, but I like to play, too, so I made him a little mobile to play with.

Frankenfood

2009-09-27T21:55:00.001-07:00

Deuche in California

2009-09-24T23:52:00.001-07:00

Second sighting in a week of a 2CV (a truly legendary car) in California. Last week, I saw what I believe must have been a decommissioned postal office deux-chevaux, proudly going along Valencia street in San Francisco. Today, spotted another one, on highway 101 – managed to get a snapshot this time. You can even see the original French registration plate under the Californian one. 83, Departement du Var (Toulon).

Coincidence, or is “la deux-chevaux” making a come-back?

Law and Order, MIB

2009-07-13T23:05:00.001-07:00

Wave of Alien crime in the Mission?

Sweet Pea

2009-07-07T17:32:00.001-07:00

The intersection of 18th and Valencia is an inspiring place, it would seem. Since a few days, chunks of poetry have been invading the sidewalk – new ones everyday. You are forgiven, even though it’s too bad it stopped.

More transfers

2009-06-23T16:59:00.001-07:00

I keep experimenting with transferring images to various supports. This week, I have played some with wood, using 2 cigar boxes, which I first sand-papered. The results have been mixed. I expected wood to take the ink imprint better than glass, but this hasn’t been quite that simple.

This was my first attempt. What I learnt is that the technique works best with black ink, with images that have lines, rather than large surfaces, which tend not to stick. For instance, see the the “Cuba” inscription, the map detail, and the eyes.

The other issue I had is that it seems to be harder to completely remove the paper; some white patches remain. I’ll try some different papers - I think the one I use is too porous, so when I rub it off I lose some ink – and also laser printing.

For my second attempt, I took an image with few surfaces, and mostly lines – the Durer rhinoceros. I printed 4 of them – one black, one red, one yellow, and one blue.

As you see, the color is pretty much gone in all cases; only the black ink stayed. On the other hand, while not perfect, the “pure-black” rhino did work pretty well.

Definitely more experimenting to do until I work on my notebook!

Transfer, take 2

2009-06-08T15:23:00.001-07:00

Second attempt at transferring a printout to a solid surface, using the same pattern, but this time on a small piece of jewelry.

The result is much better – I applied a thin coat of caulk this time, which avoided the blobs I had previously. However, the only color which really stuck is black. The other colors got wiped out, especially yellow… I like the “aged” result, though! Next time, I will try out a laser printout, instead of inkjet.

Transfer

2009-06-05T14:39:00.001-07:00

Since I purchased a small Dell notebook, I have been thinking of decorating its cover, which lead me to look into transfer techniques. Yesterday, I did my first test – transferring an image onto glass, using caulk. It’s clearly not perfect (there are big blobs of sealant all over), but it’s a relative success: the image from the inkjet did transfer to the glass. Now I have to work some more on the materials and the technique.

Icicle

2009-06-01T17:53:00.001-07:00

I just poured some water to make ice cubes, put in in the ice compartment, and… what happened there? What the heck is in our water supply?

Seriously, this is weird, though. Unless water is leaking into my fridge, I don’t get it.

Io sono un Fiorentino?

2009-05-30T11:44:00.001-07:00

On our way back from Verona to Firenze, L and I used the services of a Self Bar, a device known in other parts of the world as a Vending Machine. I was a bit surprised when I fed my coins to see a face which is oddly familiar – why would JFK be represented there? Or am I a victim of the same condition which has people seeing famous faces on stale cheese sandwiches?

Bleach

2009-05-29T17:17:00.001-07:00

I have wanted for a while to try to use bleach as paint on fabric; today I noticed that my converse were falling apart, which gave me a good excuse to give it a shot.

The bleach doesn’t immediately corrode the dye, and the delay is a bit tricky to deal with. The other issue, which I expected, is that bleach tends to spread in the fabric, so it’s a bit difficult to keep clean lines.

The issue I had not anticipated is that it corroded the fabric, but also my poor brush, which was balding heavily after a few minutes of this experiment. Time to go plastic.

Inside Out

2009-05-13T08:14:00.001-07:00

We stopped counting fast, but according to people who didn’t, 460 is the number of steps L and I climbed to reach the top of the Firenze Duomo yesterday. It took me a bit to realize that after climbing inside the walls, we were actually walking inside the ceiling – or on top of the inner surface of the ceiling – to finally cross and end on top of the outer ceiling. Tricky!

Mostro Gentile

2009-05-11T06:51:00.001-07:00

In Florence, there is the David – and then there is this little guy, discreetly waiting at the entrance of the Ponte Vecchio.

A man’s camera

2009-05-02T13:26:00.001-07:00

This is what happens when you are color-blind and look for good camera deals online. I got a beautiful pink case, too – all assorted with the pink strap. Lovely.

No Vacancy

2009-04-13T23:46:00.001-07:00

They sure are one step ahead of the Old Continent here in America. I was naively looking for Cockroach Traps, but found out that here, they use Motels, with the memorable tag line "Roaches check in -- but they don't check out!"

Car problems

2009-04-07T12:05:00.001-07:00

Wow - I won't complain about my car problems any more... You have to wonder how that happened: how did the driver manage to park? Did this happen when he turned the key?

1984

2009-03-23T20:02:00.001-07:00

On January 24th, 1984, Apple Computer introduced Macintosh, promising that 1984 wouldn't be like "1984". Fast-forward to 2009...

Back to its roots

2009-03-20T16:30:00.001-07:00

I was taking a break outside of Coffee Bar, on Mariposa & Florida, and checked the electric line pole right outside, usually a good source of entertaining flyers. Something felt odd this time, but I couldn't quite figure what - until I realized that someone had covered the pole with the bark of an actual tree... Talk about missing the forest for the tree.