Stephen Cartwright Studio

Wanderings of an old car

2012-01-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

In 2004 we bought a used Subaru station-wagon. This is a pretty good approximation of where the car went in the 65,000 miles we put on it over the last 7 years.

Arduino motor control

2011-12-20T17:30:00.001-08:00

Pretty basic stuff so far, but I started figuring out how to control motors using Arduinos. So far I have been able to get a servo and a stepper motor to work with basic programming (mostly modified from example sketches). I have a few projects in mind and this is the first step to figuring them out.

Running Landscape

2011-12-18T09:53:00.000-08:00

This piece is made from the same data as "Mesh 2" - average running mileage. It was carved on the ShopBot from laminated layers of birch plywood. 15x9x2.5in.

Difference

2011-12-18T09:47:00.000-08:00

I finished the carving on this piece but it took a while to polish the edges and get some pictures. It is carved with the CNC from a solid block of clear acrylic 12x24x2in. It shows all the places/elevations I have been in the US since starting the Latitude and Longitude Project. I was pleased with the views through the polished edges and the reflection of the carving on the top surface of the plexiglas.

Hetch Hetchy

2011-04-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

I scanned this map from the Map and Geography Library at the University of Illinois with the intent making another reservoir piece from the data. If I remember right this topo map is from the 1940's but still shows the original contours underneath the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Flooding of this valley caused a lot of controversy. The dam was completed in 1923 and the reservoir supplies about 25% of the drinking water to the San Francisco Bay Area (wikipedia). The reservoir is a little more than 100ft deep with the valley walls reaching 2000ft above the lake level. Since it is used for drinking water it cannot be used for boating, but there are trail close to the north shore. Next time I am in Yosemite I will hike that trail and maybe get a better sense of how I feel about the damming of this valley.

Beginning of Year Database Updates

2011-01-25T13:28:00.000-08:00

Th beginning of the year is an exciting time for my work. It is when I take the time to update all my databases. It takes several long days of data entry to get them all up to date last week I transcribed 4,419 latitude and longitude entries from my pencil on paper logbook to Excel. The transcriptions involve typing in separate cells for degrees, minutes and seconds of latitude, degrees, minutes and seconds of longitude, and elevation. The formulas I have written over the years compute other information I need from those inputs - decimalized latitude and longitude, a time code, and global coordinates for plotting on a sphere.

Here are all my travels in North America for 2010 (and the first two weeks of 2011):
(Long straight lines are flights)

The view below includes all movements I have recorded in North America since I started the project in 1999 (and including a separate year 1996-1997). This view does not include air travel. 2010 is represented by orange lines.

The view below starts to zooms in on the midwest:

Finally a detail of Champaign-Urbana Illinois:
Click on any image for a larger view

The Nameless Hour Catalog

2011-01-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

For the VCU Anderson Gallery show in Richmond, curators Ashley Kistler and Dinah Ryan put together a great catalog. The catalog includes a few pages of images of works in the show from each artist, essays by Ashley, Dinah and Kathleen Dean Moore, and poems by Charles Wright. It also includes an interview with Janine Antoni, and essays by me and Stephen Vitiello. A detail of my piece Fort Peck wraps the front and back cover.

Artists in the show:
Janine Antoni
Stephen Cartwright
Spencer Finch
Sigalit Landau
Paul Pfeiffer
Pipilotti Rist
Stephen Vitiello

Nameless Hour Catalog Essay

2011-01-15T13:21:00.000-08:00

Here is my complete essay from the Nameless Hour catalog with some of the images they included:

100,000 Beeps

In 1980, I had a digital watch, the Casio H108. These were early days for this technology, but this Casio was packed with features. It would beep out a version of Happy Birthday on the appropriate day and play Yankee Doodle on the 4th of July. My watch was confiscated several times for inappropriately timed mini-electronic concerts. It would also beep on the hour. The hourly beep from my watch was joined by electronic beeps from the wrists of my elementary school classmates—an un-synchronized cacophony marking the hour. Most people got tired of the constant beeping of watches, but I never did.

The beep is a constant reminder of the passing of time. The metronomic hourly chime forces me to notice what I am doing, where I am, and where I need to be. It brings me back into a system that, although artificial in its divisions, is universal. Since 1999, that beep has reminded me to check my GPS every hour and record the exact latitude, longitude, and elevation of my position on the earth. I then transcribe those recordings from the GPS onto log sheets.

This project has always been about time and our place in it. Before I started it, I was cataloging instances of sighting old ladies—a reference to my own aging grandmothers, women with long memories and experiences stretching back through time. Their perception of time and place had to be fundamentally different from mine. As the map of old-lady sightings grew more detailed, I realized that it was a more accurate record of my own existence. My life and movements in the city were what created the patterns emerging on the maps. The old ladies were chance indicators that marked my place in time.

Since I began this project, I have traveled more than 25,000 miles by bicycle through the United States, Europe, and Asia. I inch across the land and, hour by hour, leave an invisible, virtual track. These journeys are an attempt to comprehend what I see around me, but they also reinforce the vastness of the world and the inconsequentiality of a lone person amid the multitudes that exist past, present, and future. My track through real and virtual space may be insignificant, but the negligible details of my trajectory compound to reveal patterns and irregularities that start to define a life. A surprising amount of information can be inferred by placing myself at a specific place at a specific time. Looking at a recorded point awakens my memory. Where was I? Where was I going and where was I coming from? Have I been there before? These questions lead to other memories: What I was doing, who I was with, the landscape, the weather…

The Latitude and Longitude Project is an attempt to make an unbiased recording of my life. Recording every hour on the hour means my choices are reduced so that each hour becomes a data point of equal value. Some movements are lost, and some final destinations are never recorded, but the regular accretion of data paints a more accurate picture of my life than the one I perceive. Life flows on constantly, and incremental changes may pass unnoticed; the aberrations form focal points in my memory.

While executing this project, I try to simply live life and not allow myself to make a move to consciously alter my data. However, I am compelled to see what is over the next hill or around the corner in order to form a more accurate picture of the world. I want to see what lies in the blank areas of my maps. Geography dictates: I move quickly across the plains, linger in the mountains, and seek the edges of land. Memorable landscapes are unfortunately atypical settings for my hourly recordings. Out of the 8760 hours in a year, I may have recorded my hourly position in less than 1000 different places. In 2009, for example, home, work, and the studio accounted for a total of 6417 recordings.

After 12 years of recording, the log book now contains more than 600 pages, with more than 100,000 entries. Curiously, I passed that milestone on my 37th birthday, but it went unnoticed. It will take until age 49 to amass the next 100,000 entries, and I will need to live to 83 to collect 500,000. The project continues, expanding incrementally. Each new point of data further defines a single life. The data acts as an external timeline of my life that I can consciously consult to access my subconscious. I ride this massive wave of data now, afraid to stop recording—as if in stopping, the past will slip into irretrievable memory.

Topographies at the Tarble Art Center

2010-10-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

Stephen Cartwright - Topographies is now open at the Tarble Art Center at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston IL. The show runs Oct 2 - Nov 28, 2010. I'll be giving a lecture at the gallery at 7pm Wednesday Oct 6.

Tarble Art Center Installation

2010-10-02T12:23:00.001-07:00

dh

I spent several days this week down at Eastern Illinois University installing my show at the Tarble Art Center. The installation went very well with the help of my Dad, Amy, Erica, Michael, Michael, Andy, Jess and Gabe. There were no major problems hanging the work, many of which had never been fully assembled or installed before.

Range Video

2010-10-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

Stephen Cartwright - Range from Stephen Cartwright on Vimeo.

Range

Acrylic, aluminum, mixed media

96x37x25 in.

2010

Average running mileage determines the shapes of the moving panels in Range. The eight panels depict the 30-day rolling average of all miles run for the years 2002 – 2009. On a few panels, the averages fall to zero while I am away on extended cycling journeys.

Columbia College Chicago A + D Gallery Install

2010-10-02T12:11:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we went up to Chicago to install Fort Peck in a group show called Data Mining. The show is at the Averill and Bernard Leviton A + D Gallery Columbia College Chicago curated by Bill Linehan and Terence Hannum. Jennifer and Megan at the gallery provided me with loads of help so the job was finished in about 6 hours. The piece looks great in the front window but I didn't get very good pictures.

Half finished

2010-07-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

I got far enough along on this piece that I decided to put it aside and concentrate on some other projects that aren't as far along.

Running wave machine fabrication

2010-07-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

After making the prototype I spent some time planning out the piece so I could be efficient when I ordered all the materials. So far I have stuck pretty close to this drawing made in Rhino.
Fabrication is going fairly well, the only major change so far has been to add some guide blocks to the channel where the plex will sit. In the prototype the heavy MDF parts were enough to keep everything upright, I also fed the panels through slots in a top surface, which I will skip in the final piece.

Running wave prototype

2010-07-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

I don't have a title for this piece yet, so for now it is the wave machine. It is made by averaging running mileage over the last eight years. I thought it would be a static piece but after laser cutting a small version I decided to put it into motion.

This prototype shows the way I will hang each plate on a pair of pendulum arms in an effort to get the smoothest motion. I am sure I will have to make some changes as I scale up but I was satisfied enough with this to order materials for the full size version.

Cycling Surface Assembly

2010-07-15T08:44:00.001-07:00

I started out thinking I could use flexible hinges and the geometry of the piece would keep it rigid. That didn't work I think due to the fact that much of the surface is pretty flat and I think I would also need some kind of frame to constrain movement. Since the easy way didn't work all the connectors have to be bent to specific angles for the assembly. With a jig and a system this went pretty fast. It took me (with Amy part of the time) three full days to assemble about half of the piece. I will make it up into the biggest pieces that I feel comfortable transporting to leave as little assembly on site as possible.
Bending jig:

I have to keep all the pieces organized by angle or there is major confusion. It is really hard to tell the difference between a 3 or 5 degree bend when they are lying on the table but it makes a big difference in the assembly.

I calculate I will need about 800 connectors and 1600 screws to assemble the final piece.

Cycling Surface CNC

2010-07-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

I finally got out of the planning stage and began actually making the first surface pieces. Some of the delay was waiting for the local plastic shop to find the yellow acrylic I was looking for. I had figured out lots of the settings for CNCing acrylic while making the connecting pieces, that combined with the larger pieces made this process a little easier. In the end I had to re-do about 5 out of 276 pieces because of glitches or mistakes I made. Some mistakes I can fix with the saw, drill or sander but a few had to be added to the last panel. The latest ShopBot software has a nesting feature that makes efficient use of the material and gives consistent borders and gaps between parts.

Analog and Digital

2010-07-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

In my work I am always going back and forth between analog and digital techniques. For the bike and run surface pieces it was relatively easy to generate a digital polygon mesh surface. Translating that surface into materials in the real world is proving to be more time consuming and complicated. These are images from my sketchbook where I am documenting angles between each triangle and the lengths of each side from the virtual model in Rhino.

Side lengths:

Angles between surfaces:

Surface pieces prototyping and fabrication

2010-07-15T08:07:00.001-07:00

Here are some images of prototyping and beginning to make the surface pieces I'll be showing at the Tarble Art Center:

Once I settled on a style of connector that worked I spent some time on the CNC. I started with a 1/8" bit but they kept breaking so I changed my programming to use a 3/16" bit that worked much better. I don't have it perfected, the pieces still need a bit of clean-up after they are router and I have to sand off the tabs that keep them from flying off the table. The 1/8" plex warped like crazy during the routing so I had to keep full thickness tabs and carefully place screws to hold it down.

Work for the Tarble Art Center at Eastern Illinois University

2010-07-15T07:47:00.001-07:00

In October I'll be having a big show at the Tarble Art Center at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston IL. I have the entire main space that is around 4000 sq. ft. In order to get my head around it and plan what I would do I drew up a 3D model of the space and placed some of the proposed work into it. I am an amateur renderer but her are my images. These renderings were made in the planning stage so I imagine there will be lots of changes as I move forward. The show runs from October 2 - November 28.

The entire space from above. There are 20 ft wall sections that can be moved around, but I will probably keep the whole space open.

These pieces illustrate my relative frequency in certain locations in the three towns I have lived while involved in my Latitude and Longitude project.

This piece will be made from daily running average information.

These two surface pieces are also based on running and cycling average mileage covering several years. They will be made from colored acrylic and hang from the ceiling.
I'll also be showing some existing work including two runs of the "Light" chimes.

2010-03-29T12:28:00.001-07:00

I have been working on a few new pieces spinning off other topographic works. Here are some images created by taking my running and biking daily averages and plotting them year by year.

INHABIT - SoFA Gallery Indiana University

2010-03-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

Back to Bloomington Indiana this week to de-install my work from the INHABIT show. When we arrived on Sunday they had all of my small pieces crated and ready to go. All we needed to do was take down and pack up the large reservoir piece. Again we had loads of help from the gallery staff including Tyson, Marla, Shu Mei, and Anders. It took the six of us three hours to take the piece down, pack it and load it for the trip home.

I never made it to the show while it was open, but here are some pictures provided by SoFA Gallery.

CNC Carving - Logan WV

2010-02-22T18:39:00.001-08:00

I have been doing a bit more 3D work on the ShopBot recently. This is the total difference before and after after surface coal mining operations near Logan, West Virgina. I made this piece out of Wood before but thought plexiglas would be a better material. It took a little time to get up the nerve to cut into the 2" slab of acrylic. The roughing pass was about 1 hour.

Finishing pass - stepping over .0125" per pass, 2 hour run time.

Viewed through the bottom of the plex before bolting it back down to do the other side.

INHABIT Installation

2010-02-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from the installation for the INHABIT show at the SoFA Gallery, Indiana University opening Feb 16. We had scheduled two days but thanks to the help of Assistant Gallery Director, Tyson and gallery staff Marla and Shu Mei we were able to get the job done much quicker. I have 4 or 5 pieces in the show and they will handle the installation of the rest but I had to be there to put up the Fort Peck piece. Tyson and everyone at the gallery were great - super organized, professional and ready to work even on the weekend to get the installation up. I was also very pleased with the catalog they created for the show.

Unwrapping the pieces and putting the ceiling piece together with Elizabeth Gerdeman's wall piece in the background. She was just finishing as we arrived.
We were able to use a movable gallery wall to stage the ceiling piece before hoisting it into place.

Hanging the reservoir

Finished in about 8 hours.

Mining piece at Manifest Gallery

2010-02-05T09:25:00.000-08:00

We ended up putting Champaign Mining piece at Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati in the front window among the works from a group show called Burb. The assistant director Tim Parsley and I thought it would look good illuminated all night. Here's the piece and some details. I have blogged about the idea behind the piece before - it is an attempt to track the exploration of a new city. Each layer of acrylic represents a week living in Urbana IL. For each location I record in my latitude and longitude project I cut a hole in the corresponding layer. Holes from previous layers are continued through the stack and overlap new locations creating an ever greater void equating a greater experience of the city.

2010-02-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

In developing my Champaign Mining project I worked through some ways to record my frequency in my home city. In these maps each square represents about 10 second of latitude or longitude or about 750 feet. The taller the column the more time spent in that location. The locations of home, work and the studio go off the chart with many more hours spent at those locations than any other.

View of Urbana IL covering a period of about a year and a half.

Richmond VA from July 2005 to July 2008
Philadelphia Oct 13, 1996 - Oct 12, 1997 and June 21, 1999 - July 2005

2010-02-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

Stephen Cartwright - Life Location from Stephen Cartwright on Vimeo.

This piece and several others will be included in the show INHABIT opening at the School of Fine Arts Gallery Indiana University, Bloomington Friday Feb 19.
Artists in the show:
Kathryn J Armstrong
Stephen Cartwright
Elizabeth Gerdeman
Jieun Shin
Jessica Westbrook
Lauren Zoll

The show runs Feb 16 - Mar 12
1201 E 7th st
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405

2010-02-02T06:07:00.000-08:00

Videos of several pieces are now up on Vimeo and my website

Stephen Cartwright - Elsewhere from Stephen Cartwright on Vimeo.

Manifest Gallery show

2010-01-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

I'll be showing my old piece "Topologic Generator" at Manifest Gallery this week along some large new prints. The show is in the Parallel space at the gallery and coincides with a group show called "Burb"
The show runs Jan 22 - Feb 19 with the opening on Fri Jan 22 6-9pm
Manifest Gallery 2727 Woodburn Ave. Cincinnati OH

2009-10-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

I have been struggling for the last few weeks to get this project underway. I am trying to combine some of the visual influences of strip mining and man-made landscape alterations into my latitude and longitude data. These renderings depict the Champaign-Urbana Illinois area over the course of the first six month of living here. Each layer in the stack represents one week and as I record more and more latitude and longitude positions more of the mass is removed/revealed.

2009-10-07T08:54:00.001-07:00

These are some images I was working on last winter and I am about to get back into. I have had the idea for a long time to track my latitude and longitude movements in a more ephemeral media. The track I make through life disappears as soon as it is made, so it seemed appropriate to try to capture light. I attached a small light to the CNC router and ran the program over 16x20in photo paper to catch the trail. There are many kinks to work out with the sequencing of the drawing, exposures, speeds etc. I'll work on it more as winter closes in. I have to work on it at night, so it is easier to black out the studio. As sunset happens earlier and earlier this is easier to manage and still have plenty of time to run the drawings.

Ten Year Anniversary

2009-07-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

Noon on June 21st was the ten year anniversary of my latitude and longitude project. I actually have 11 years of data counting a year from Oct 1996 - Oct 1997. Eleven years of recording my latitude, longitude and elevation every hour - that is about 96360 locations entered on logsheets like this one.
The precise anniversary passed without much fanfare. I wasn't on a mountain top or other geographically important location, just at my parents' house in Ohio. That is the nature of the project - seemingly insignificant locations are made important and significant locations are lost in the increasing number of data points.

Early ShopBot tests

2009-06-17T12:57:00.001-07:00

I picked up the ShopBot from their factory in North Carolina in January. This unit is capable of cutting 32" wide and 96" in length with a plunge of about 5". On this model the router on the y-axis moves on a gantry with the x-axis movement is achieve by moving the entire bed. This is a smaller machine than your standard 4x8foot version but it needs 16feet of floor space for the bed to travel back and forth.
I have spent a bunch of time experimenting and getting comfortable with the controls. I have some experience with ShopBots from VCU, we bought one the last year I was there.

Islamic pattern with a v-gouge path

The width of the reservoir at any point determines the depth of this type of cut. This path type is usually used for text on signs.

Pocket cut of Fort Peck reservoir in pink foam, could be used for a mold.

Mt Kenya renderings

2009-06-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

Initially I had planned to have my ten year map piece in the Butler show, but when the show got postponed I changed my mind. The Mt Kenya piece had been brewing for a while but I set it aside last semester to finish the Fort Peck piece. I had the acrylic snow pack part done but hadn't figured out how to finish it. Here are some renderings of the scaffolding I made while trying to figure out if it was going to work.

Mt Kenya in progress

2009-06-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

Scaffolding under construction. I fabricated 42 layers of grids, with the help of notched ledger sticks to maintain the right spacing. The most difficult part was keeping it all square and placing the holes in the snow. The acrylic had to remain attached while I built the structure above it because the 1/8" stainless rod was likely to bend and taking the scaffolding and the connection holes out of alignment.

Initial scaffolding tests - stainless steel and laser cut clear acrylic.

The largest snow mass from the piece fully assembled. The laser cut pieces we glued together with the help of a template drawing and lots of squares to keep it all lined up.

Fort Peck in progress

2009-06-17T12:24:00.001-07:00

I made a full size drawing of the contours I needed for the Fort Peck piece. All the bends are done with a heat gun. I tried an acrylic strip bender but the heat was too concentrated for the smooth bends I was looking for. The heat from the strip bender was also more likely to cause bubbles in the plex. I was usually able to have two pieces on the go simultaneously one that I was heating, bending or holding in place and one that was cooling. The final piece required about 300 feet of acrylic strips - I was able to get that out of 3 sheets of 1/8" thick acrylic.

Renderings for large Fort Peck Piece at the Butler

2009-06-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

I do most of my drawing and planning in Rhino. Here are a couple of renderings of the large Fort Peck piece to figure out scale etc.

Phase Transition installation images

2009-06-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

We worked on the installation of the show at the Butler for 4 days. These three large pieces had never been installed before (at least not in this format) so there were a lot of uncertainties. Thanks to Ed and Wayne - preparators at the Butler for all their help and expertise.

Installing the tracks and brackets to support the chimes and pulleys.Installation of the ceiling template for Fort Peck with Ed Hallihan.
Beginning to string up the individual sections of Fort Peck. The initial system was abandoned after a full day of work and we switched to pre-measured lengths of line for a marathon last day of installation.
Almost finished installing with Wayne Gruver.

Phase Transitition at the Butler Institute of American Art

2009-06-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from my show at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. The show will run until the end of August 2009.

New Blog

2009-06-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

I just started this blog to put up images etc that don't make it onto my website. I am anticipating putting up in progress, installation and reference images.