of data mirrors and a sense of belonging

part of the dataspejlet (data mirror) project at trapholt museum is small piece of personal embroidery. you actually download your data from facebook and your search history from google chrome and send it in to a model/algorithm that the museum has created for the project, and it returns a quadrant diagram with circles on it representing the words that appear most frequently. if you click on the numbered circles, the words change, so you can select the ones you wish to think of while you embroider and create your personal "data mirror." 

i think because the algorithm is surely set to danish, it has returned some weird words for me - like "lov" which is surely actually "love" in my posts and not "promise" if it were danish and the "ll" that's surely from "we'll" and "it'll" and other contractions. i have no idea what the placement of the circles on the quadrant means. 

the museum had kits available in set colors - you get two colors to use, plus white, which you should use for the words that appear a lot, but which you don't want to count in your stitched picture of your data. unfortunately, i didn't get my hands on a kit, not imagining that there were only a few available, but i suppose it makes sense since the artwork can only be the size it can be. i have felt more disappointed than is warranted that i didn't get a kit. i plan to work with the graphs on my own anyway and this way, i get to keep them. and decide to use as many colors as i wish.

and i am getting to participate in the woven part of the work, so i am still a part of the larger work. in my disappointment over not getting a kit, i realized, once again, that being part of a community is important to me. i wanted to see my stitched data mirror in dialogue with all the other stitched data mirrors - to have a visual depiction of how and where i fit in the scheme of things. to contribute to something beautiful that only becomes more beautiful in dialogue with everyone else's work. i feel genuinely sad that i don't get to be part of that. and it triggers that old familiar feeling of being on the outside (i really should get therapy for that).

i think i also wanted something beautiful to come of all that data i stupidly gave to facebook all those years. it was nice to think that something good would come it somehow, when they've used it for nothing but evil and nefarious purposes. 

my chrome history diagram is much less interesting since it's so full of work-related stuff like kitchens (in no less than four languages) and dashboards and the project management software asana - which i visit regularly. i wanted to submit my blog data, but their algorithm couldn't handle the amount of data. i don't think my google visits say that much about me as a private person, but they do say something about me as a work person. 

but i guess that whatever i make of it is for myself. and maybe that's ok. but i would have liked it to be part of something bigger. sigh.

inspired by china

as the course at anne brodersen's studio ended, she showed us some of her work in which she had used the techniques she taught us. these were all inspired by her travels in china. there is no question at all in my mind that what she does is art. wouldn't you agree? it's my intention to own several of these pieces (i need goals). the colors are so wonderful. and the pieces are compact and magical. her work is simply singing with color and inspiration.

whispering voices

my absolutely exquisite brooch by cathy cullis arrived yesterday. the multiple faces just spoke to me. she calls it part of her tumbling dreamers series, but to me, it whispers of the multiple voices we all have in our heads, vying (dying?) for our attention and trying to lead us in all directions. i think i saw it first on flickr and couldn't believe my luck when it was still in her shop. it feels so much like it represents where i am right now, at this moment, it's like it was meant to be mine. i am at once disturbed and comforted by the whispers of the voices.

and i am still thinking about her post on art supplies. that and wanting some black gouache now. 

cathy cullis' blog. and etsy (where i scored my brooch).

~~~

crazy awesome, thought-provoking embroidery here. 

it made me a little bit unable to breathe.

closing in on 2000

this is teddy. he's frankie's little brother - isn't he adorable?

before the year is out, i will write my 2000th post here on mpc. i'm not sure precisely when it will happen, but it seems like something worthy of celebrating. what do you think, how should we celebrate? a giveaway? a virtual party? a contest as to when it will be? i welcome any ideas!

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it's hard to believe that i'm closing in on another year completed of my 365 photo project - i started formally in 2010, but looking back over my various iPhoto libraries, i actually began taking photos every day when i got my nikon d60 back in may 2008, i just didn't realize at that point that it was a project. that's a lot of photos. and i intend to keep going - it's a great way of remembering what was happening when. and it also means i've always got photos for my blog posts.  but best of all, it makes me take at least a few minutes every single day where i am totally aware of my surroundings and in the moment - the moment of the click of the shutter.

* * *

remember that post i did with a bunch of close-ups of my friend's beautiful embroidery piece? well, i was there again on sunday and managed to get a shot of the whole thing!

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the g boards on pinterest: gaga for garlands. garden bounty. gardens. gone fishin' (another favorite visually). great graphics.

a saga in stitches

these small works are part of anne brodersen's sagaland series, inspired by a trip to iceland.

she's used photographs, printed on ordinary paper and soaked in some kind of solution as the base. i didn't quite understand how it works, but i will take a class with her and find out. as you know, i love the idea of stitching on photos, so this version of that idea is very appealing. i think it turns a photo into something somehow natural and earthy and i like that idea.

today i'm baking cakes - red velvet with a raspberry curd layer inside, covered in merengue buttercream and sabin's made a rich vanilla sheetcake that we're going to decorate as an iPhone. photos and a report of our television debut, as well as the results of the contest sometime on the weekend!

happy weekend, one and all!

fragments of a long journey

long journey

more of anne brodersen's amazing, fascinating work. this one is called long journey. i could have studied this for hours. (and i might yet.) each little fragment is packed with meaning and there are similar motifs/techniques in each line, tying it together - figures, symbols, transfer techniques and stitches. it feels at once deep and laden with meaning and so light you think it might float away. it's filled with contradiction somehow. i imagine you'd see something new in it every day, even if you looked at it for the rest of your life.

what i love is that i didn't get the impression that anne brodersen thinks for a second that what she does is more handiwork than art. it is art and she seems sure of that. perhaps because it's second nature to her - in danish, embroidery is broderi and her name is brodersen. it's the most unapologetic, fully-executed embroidery as art that i've seen. not the slightest hint of angst about craft is present here. and that's a breath of fresh air. because this really is art.

intriguing embroidery

paraphrase

paraphrase

paraphrase

must find out the name of this piece

must find out the name of this piece

must find out the name of this piece

behind glass, hence the reflections of the lights. 

i saw the most amazing embroidery art today at my favorite little local museum in randbøldal. it's by danish artist anne brodersen. anne and her husband were there, setting up the exhibition today, so i got to meet her. anne is a longtime weaver who turned to smaller embroidered works after some health problems a few years ago. the works are tiny but have a big impact.

i found myself quite emotional looking at them. they're evocative and have so much going on in such a small space. they provoked quite a longing in me...for ancient times, for symbols, for travel, for cave paintings, for small stitches, for some random yet ordered.

anne uses some very interesting techniques with tarred paper and a glue transfer of photos printed on ordinary paper and soaked in water. i so want to take a course with her. i will share more photos of her work tomorrow. i think i'm still letting it soak in.