The Flying Dream

ANAMOllPHOSESOF MEMORY Jeffrey Shawwith Dirk Groeneveld, Javastraat 126,1094 HP Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Anammphoses of M e w (1987) is a videotapesculpture.A horizontal monitor , lying on a bed, has a mirrored cylinder standingverticallyin the center of the screen. Scrollingconcentric circlesof text on the screen are anamorphicallyreflected and read on the mirrored surface of the cylinder. The text (like a metaphor embodied in the sculpture) evokes a constellationof erotic memories associatedwith that bed. In 1987,Anammphoses o f Memoly was shown in Kunst Overde Vloer, Entrepotdok, Amsterdam, and in Municipal Art Acquisitims, Fodor Museum, Amsterdam. THENKON BOOKMOBILE G.P. Skratz and Bob Davis, 5524 VicenteWay, Oakland, CA 94609, USA. Come on down take a leap &click your heels. It’s good enough topassfor real. It’s theNixon Bookmobile, barrellinginto toum, barrellinginto town. -Advertising Jingle In The Nixon Bookmobile(1991) [11, we examine the connections linking Richard Nixon as nonpartisan myth, shamanism,contemporary China, astrology,old-timemedicine shows and the moon. Sheer coincidence or conspiracy ?You be thejudge. Excerpt: Moonriseover Gushan,or “Drum Hill,”east of Fuzhou:the Nixonauts-Sabina & the Dwarfperforma chant for a spontaneous crowdof over 50 curiosity seekers: & these are the things we left on the moon americanflags & these are the thingswe left on the moon laser ranging device & these are the thingswe left on the moon a one hundredpound seismometer & these are the thingswe left on the moon walkingboots,equipment boxes & these are the thingswe left on the moon aluminum poles & urine bags & these are the thingswe left on television cameras & these are the thingswe left on the moon the moon richard nixon’sautograph & these are the thingswe left on & these are the thingswe left on the moon the moon Excerpt: We ate popcorn&watcheda slideshowat the Nixon Bookmobile. A bolt of lighteningstruck a manzanita tree which almost fell on the Nixon Bookmobile.We were married by the captainof the Nixon Bookmobile.It would take days to read all there was to read at the Nixon Bookmobile. Note 1. Editor’sNote: TheNzxon Bookmhle is a woman performance that consists of spoken text, songs and audiovisual effects. Accompanied by visual illustrations, a cappella duets and sounds produced by Davis (on unusual instruments such as large water bottles), as Skratz describes the progress through China of the American artifactladen Nixon Bookmobile. In 1991, The Naxon Bookmohle was performed by Skratz and Davis at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco and at Small PressDistribution in Berkeley. THEFLYING DREAM Fred Truck, 4225 University,Des Moines,Iowa 50311, USA. E-mail: I began TheFZyingDream (avirtual sculpture that can only exist in virtual space and can be explored only through the techniques of virtual reality ) (Fig.4) in 1990,by building a three-dimensional (3D) computer F i g .4. FredT r u c k , virtual sculpture, 1991. Leonard0da machineis suspendedina telephonepole arraywithin a virtual-realityenvironment . TheFlying-, V i U ’ S flying model of a flying machine designed by Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1590s. The particular ornithopter I rendered is a combination of several Leonardo drawings:two different fuselage and empennage ideas, and a modified version of an articulated bat wing. The focus of my model was on the underlyinggeometry of Leonardo’s ideas, rather than on his intricate rope and pulley driving mechanisms. I executed this work in Paracomp’s (nowMacroMind%Paracomp)Swivel 3D. My choice of softwarewas later to prove key in moving Leonardo‘s flyer into the virtual environment.While Swivel lacks the precision found in other 3D Computer-AidedDesign (CAD) programs, its chief virtue is the rapidity with which models can be built, and the immediacy of its interface,which allows the user to “grab”the objects being built with the mouse, and rotate them around the x, y and z axes. This playful interface is due to the fact that Paracomp developed Swivel 3D for WL, Inc., the pioneer virtual-reality firm headed byJaron Lanier. VPL manufacturesEyePhones ,the stereoscopic video gogglesand the DataGlove used in many virtual-realityworks. I did my animationsand ran the model through my own softwareArtEngim [11, before settingthis projectaside and moving on to other works. In the fall of 1991,I had the opportunity,through Carl Loeffler,to splitan art-studioresidencyand go to the Banff Centrefor the Arts in Banff,Alberta,Canada,for 5...