This is the blog of Kal Spelletich. CONTACT: Spellkal (at) gmail.com + Art, technology, humans and robots, and, well, the journey http://www.kaltek.org/
Scaling the Cosmos: Global Human Positioning Night Sky Laboratory, a spectacular public experiment across the skyline, visible from space, illuminating the landscape on planet earth. Scaling the Cosmos will inspire wonder in audiences across the Bay Area while uplifting under recognized contributions to science by women and championing the importance of scientific literacy.
To realize this project, we will point a laser from atop the Salesforce Tower toward Mt. Tamalpais (14 miles away stretching across the San Francisco Bay and two counties), recreating Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau’s historic 1849 experiment calculating and measuring the speed of light. The experiment will also honor astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who made one of the most important astrophysics discoveries of the 20th century: the radio pulsar. Spelletich will transmit simple Morse Code, audio (soundsand stories, poems), messages to other life forms/Extraterrestrial Intelligence and other codified data through laser light to communicate messages addressing our existence in the cosmos alongside observations from the public. We would conduct our Art & Science Light Projection Experiments for one month of Thursdays.
Sample messages include: Be Here Now; As is the Microcosm So is the Macrocosm; C = 3×108 (the speed of light). Scaling the Cosmos will be a remarkable public event that makes tangible the obscure measurement of light, placing control of this wondrous technology and powerful communication tool in the hands of the public.
Fizzeau’s historic 172 year old experiment eventually allowed us to use the speed of a light wave as the length standard to determine the scale of the cosmos. Using contemporary and original 1800’s technology from lasers, light sensors, and satellite positioning, we will recreate this historic experiment. This is big picture science and art looking at deep time and space.
Bell Burnell’s discovery, which she made as a graduate student, eventually earned the Nobel Prize in 1974. It could one day form the basis of a “galactic positioning system” for navigating outside our solar system. But Bell Burnell didn’t collect the Nobel. Instead, the award went to her supervisor at the University of Cambridge, Antony Hewish. She is now rightly recognized as the pioneer who made this breakthrough discovery and an inspiration to those addressing gender-bias in science.
Here is a prototype of the project. Scaling the Cosmos will be 63,360 time larger
The project is also inspired by Spelletich’s observations of the Eiffel Tower — how it was used, and eventually saved, because it became a locus for cutting edge scientific experiments and optical communication from fiber optics to Morse code. Scaling the Cosmos activates the newest addition to the San Francisco skyline, the Salesforce Tower, with a call for public science that echoes the Eiffel Tower experiments in Paris.
AUDIENCE AND INTERACTIVITY Scaling the Cosmos will span across two counties and be visible across the Bay Area, reaching millions of people. In the lineage of the Bay Lights, San Jose Semaphore, Pi in the Sky, and other large-scale public art projects originating from ZERO1 over the past twenty years, Scaling the Cosmos will be accessible to viewers across a large geographic area at no cost. The beam of light will inspire awe in viewers of all ages, inviting them to rediscover the wonder of science.
Imagery of two lasers reflected and playing off of each other
The online presence of the project will solicit input from audiences and guide their open-ended inquiry into the history of science. We will give a live feed as we measure the speed of light and measure the exact distance from sky scraper to mountain. The project website will also host a series of interdisciplinary talks by artists, scientists, and philosophers that will expand on the history of science and contemporary understandings of science and culture.
Scaling the Cosmos is part of a series of works by Spelletich that celebrate the scientific method and reference foundational scientific discoveries with an emphasis on marginalized scientists. Spelletich recreates historic gravity, light, and sound wave experiments that allowed us to understand the scope and scale of our planet, our solar system, to know our beginnings and our place among the starsand the expansive entirety of the cosmos. These recreations and interpretations celebrate the scientific method and reference foundational scientific discoveries. With them, Spelletich aspires to inspire social engagement, both inside the gallery and to the outside world. Spelletich’s creations carry us back in time, to when the sciences and the arts were one, to the fundamentals of how the universe works, how we observe the cosmos, and how we determine humanity’s place within it.
In the contemporary context of politicization and polarization around science, Spelletich is working to celebrate science through art. With the firm assertion that science is real, Spelletich confronts flat earthers, climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers, and a resurgent eugenics movement with an aesthetic invitation to join in the collective practice of understanding the world around us.
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In which I experiment with the Burnell Galactic Positioning System at the Edge of the San Francisco Bay. Experimenting with space, light and sound on the edge of the precipice for 8 Minutes
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NOTES:
Notes: Salesforce to Mt. Tam. DISTANCE 14 MILES.
DIY Science DIY Scientist
Maps and mapping
Scale of the universe
Native American signal fires There is a long tradition of native people in the Great Basin use signal fires on major peaks to quickly transmit news across the basins (valleys). During the great surveys of the 19th century of the Bay Area to Nevada (some of the same peaks used by native Americans), from which to project light with mirrors to triangulate parallels of latitude). John Muir and Kit Carson guided Frémont during the first exploration of the Sierra Nevada range in California. (They were advised by Native people, as well).
Revealing a deep mystery Touching Our Sense Of Wonder and Awe
Exploring the Structure of the Cosmos
Between Scale and Eternity
Jocelyn Burnell is still alive.
Astronaut William Anders said that although the astronauts went on their mission to explore the moon, what they really discovered was the planet Earth. He added: “I think it’s important for people to understand they are just going around on one of the smaller grains of sand on one of the spiral arms of this kind of puny galaxy […] it [Earth] is insignificant, but it’s the only one we’ve got.”
The speed of light is one of the most well-established values in physics, traveling at over 186,000 miles a second, can be measured so accurately that the meter is now defined in terms of it. But before the 17th century, most scientists, including such giants as Johannes Kepler and Rene Descartes, considered the speed of light to be infinite, able to travel any distance instantaneously. Galileo Galilei was among the first to question this assumption and attempt to measure the speed of light experimentally.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science” – Albert Einstein We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. -George Orwell
James Hutton (1726–1797);[2][3] his “system of the habitable Earth Darwin Silent spring
The experiential nature of the experience of deep time has also greatly influenced the work of Joanna Macy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_Macy She is an international spokesperson for anti-nuclear causes, peace, justice, and environmentalism,[1] most renowned for her book Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World and the Great Turning initiative, which deals with the transformation from, as she terms it, an industrial growth society to what she considers to be a more sustainable civilization. She has created a theoretical framework for personal and social change, and a workshop methodology for its application. Her work addresses psychological and spiritual issues, Buddhist thought, and contemporary science. She currently lives in Berkeley, Ca.
Korten’s 2006 book The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community argues that the development of empires about 5,000 years ago initiated unequal distribution of power and social benefits to the small portion of the population that controlled them. He also argues that corporations are modern versions of empire, both being social organizations based on hierarchies, chauvinism, and domination through violence.
The Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Berry (1914–2009) explored spiritual implications of the concept of deep time. Berry proposes that a deep understanding of the history and functioning of the evolving universe is a necessary inspiration and guide for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species.
How do we save what is left of the planet? How do we save humankind? The sciences and the arts are the key.
Documentation of a wind powered Banjo. Wind and even squirrels activate tree branches triggering banjo. As performed in the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina 8/2018.
This year, CCC hosts the Remote Chaos Experience (rC3) instead of an on-site event in Leipzig. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Computer_Club This endeavor requires creativity, joy of experimentation and active support.
Title: Art, Science and Artistic Revolutionary Practices
Description: An interactive workshop/demonstration of my art and machines that are about sound, science, absurd engineering, interactivity and poetically inspired tech. I will talk a bit about my life as an artist and educator. Then demonstrate a number of my works while fielding questions.
How to build low-cost tech art for next to nothing. Hack Arduino sensors by not using an Arduino! Collaborate as often as possible, 3 people are a revolution and movement. Advice on showing your weird tech art. Why Art!? Because we can and are changing the world with it. By finding your voice you become empowered and discover your reason for being on the planet! Once you do that, there is no stopping you.
Bio: For almost 4 decades Kal Spelletich has built interactive machines and robots. Spelletich’s work enacts a liberated awareness and pushes his audience toward creative responses to technology in their lives. His work explores the interface of humans and science to put people in touch with philosophical interactive experiences.
A face-to-face event with 17,000 people will be neither responsible nor legally feasible this year. But after this tedious and painful 2020, we really deserve a nice finale! This is why the rC3 – Remote Chaos Experience will be held. As much as virtually possible, we want to convey the joy, content, togetherness and wonderful madness that make up a Chaos Communication Congress.
Hackers are used to remote work and online meetings. This makes our annual face-to-face meetings all the more important. Of course, it will be difficult to re-enact online all the things that make Congress what it is for us. But then someone said it would be impossible. Our ambition was aroused. Just like every year, we want to see the concentrated energy and creativity of hackers with dedication.
I am excited to try this as an experiment for MY RECORD RELEASE PARTY. Everyone is invited. Those that purchase ahead of time are invited to join in for an improv noise sesh we are going to record livestream event and release, date in the next couple of weeks TBA.
“All of the sounds heard on this recording are from custom made machine/robot instruments. None of the sounds on this recording come from store bought instruments, samples, albums nor field recordings. The sounds come from sound machines I made. Let’s just call me a purist.
I often felt like I was coaxing my motorcycle to talk. Or training a puppy. This work can be utilized in many ways…. for instance put it on and do your housework. Vacuuming the floor or grinding coffee allows you to perform and collaborate with me!
These are compositions not so much songs. They are arranged sounds.” — Kal Spelletich, 2020
I recorded several albums in the 1980’s in Austin and in the early ’90’s here in SF. I have waited long enough to start back with this body of work..
And oh, the ZHENGKE ZGA37RG is a motor I very frequently use these days, it is truly a blessing!
What Spelletich has done here is like making compositions with your blender, a dripping faucet and a chorus of mewing kittehs. Truly a monument to ingenuity and madness meets FINDING poetry in a factory of chaos. We are lucky to have a record label on the planet with the foresight to acknowledge the exceptionally unique. -Luigi Carlo Filippo Russolo
Kal Spelletich: Machines. Recorded in San Francisco, June 2020. Mixed by Bryan Day. Mastered by James Plotkin. http://www.kaltek.org license all rights reserved
with assistance from a live studio audience controlling lights and a crawling Root Robot.
at CounterPulse San Francisco.
Tues, Oct 27, 7pm-8pm , 2020.
Edited 4:00 version of performance from 45:00
EDITED VIDEO OF PERFORMANCE
Control your surveillance You are invited to tend to the fragile equilibrium of life in an era of environmental emergency and mass extinction. Collaborate with the artists to operate robots and create sounds live, on stage, as we explore the intersection of surveillance, machines, and our sentient selves. Plant the wood for your coffin or a tree that remembers the touch of your hands when all human life is gone. 7pm: Reception7:30pm: Participatory Performance Come early to sign up to be a part of the experience.
Ronja Ver: Movement and voice
Kal Spelletich: Robots and sound
Some Excellent Photos HERE:
About the Artists Ronja Ver is a dancer, dance maker, teacher, mother, and activist. A perpetual student of performance as a way of participating in community and a tool for social change, they are deeply inspired by physical, social and mass movement, and its capacity to create meaningful impact on a personal and global scale. Ver holds an MFA in dance from Hollins University and is proud to be spinning underwater in Steve Paxton’s DVD Material For The Spine. http://soluja.blogspot.com/
For almost 4 decades Kal Spelletich has built interactive machines and robots. Spelletich’s work enacts a liberated awareness and pushes his audience toward creative responses to technology in their lives. His work explores the interface of humans and science to put people in touch with philosophical interactive experiences.
Matchbox is an art+tech interactive lab series, hosted at CounterPulse with partners ZERO1 & Kinetech Arts, that seeds collaboration beyond discipline.
Designed as public practicum labs, Matchbox pairs creative technologists with dancers and choreographers to spark critical investigations and seed cutting-edge works.
Matchbox is supported by the San Francisco Grants for the Arts’ Neighborhood Arts Collaborative. Accessibility services are funded. by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Arts and Disability Center at the University of California Los Angeles. Live Audio Description by Rachael Dichter of Gravity Access Services is additionally generously supported by the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and The Kenneth Rainin Foundation.
Title: Robots, Science and Artistic Revolutionary Practices Very surprised and HAPPY to be awarded the Steve Wilson Lecture Series. The series focuses on artists working in — art/technology/science/culture. The lecture series is open to all, both within and outside of the University. The Wilson Lectures involves a public talk on my work followed by Q&A Thursday October 22, 2020 2-3P.M. PST https://sfsu.zoom.us/j/84222471671?pwd=S0toMllHRGFRQUoxQldFSGQyU1VmQT09 ID: 84222471671 Passcode: 686503
Digital Media / Emerging Technologies College of Liberal & Creative Arts San Francisco State University This means so much to me Steve was a mentor, friend and colleague.
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3 talks this week
The world is crazy, let’s talk with a few hundred folks.
1. Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 4P.M. Pacific Daylight Time.
Virtual Educator Evenings by The Nevada Museum of Art Reno in conjunction with the concurrent exhibit I am featured in.
Join us for our virtual Educator Evening. This month we are joined by JoAnne Northrup, Curator of Contemporary Art, and Bay Area artist, Kal Spelletich. Spelletich has been a pivotal figure in the machine art and robotics community and frequently collaborates with scientists, engineers, musicians and audiences. Join us as he discusses his performative and interactive practice and how it may support classroom practices.
For registration support or questions, please email jacque.Dawson@nevadaart.org. Educator Evenings is a FREE professional development series on the first Wednesday of every month (excluding January and July) offering state-approved professional development hours for participation. https://www.nevadaart.org/event/educator-evenings-33/
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2. Thursday June 4, 2020.
My dear Mary Muszynski is holding court at 5:30 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time. https://withfriends.co/event/4621124/home_school_movie_land_journey_through_cinema_with_a_landscape_architect
All tix sale donated to @manna_foodbank & @yourrightscamp ——👆
A movie is a created world – a landscape that offers us the chance to escape, to be entertained or to contemplate real world issues. We are alone together when watching movies. In this discussion landscape architect and artist Mary Muszynski presents ideas about how to read landscapes in movies. We will slow down and take a different look at movies across the spectrum of cinematic history. She will use movie stills and clips from a broad range of genres from westerns to musicals to science fiction to art house & cult favorites. Seeing mountains, valleys, rivers, cities, the sea, etc. in movies we will set a framework to discuss on screen landscapes. Participants will have the chance to discuss their favorite movie landscapes and will receive a list of movies.
Artist Kal Spelletich on Art, Science and Robotics (Virtual)
by The Nevada Museum of Art Reno in conjunction with the concurrent exhibit I am featured in.
Bay Area artist Kal Spelletich is a pivotal figure in the machine art and robotics community who frequently collaborates with scientists, engineers, musicians and audiences to realize his projects. His work in Where Art and Tech Collide celebrates marginalized and overlooked scientists.
Join Spelletich as he discusses his work and process live from his studio. Expect robotics, lasers and chance accidents.
Registration required by June 3.
The Art Bite lecture series is supported by Nevada Humanities with additional sponsorship and free admission for students supported by the Core Humanities Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. https://www.nevadaart.org/event/artist-kal-spelletich-on-art-robotics-technology-and-humanity/
June 5, 2020 12 – 1 pm $10 General
FREE Members
FREE Student
+
Dear friends, times are crazy, art is critical, health is tantamount and human lives are precious. May we all rise up to our best to help usher in this next phase of our existence.
Best,
Kal
During these trying times, Katie and her crew are keeping things going, after all, what are we without art?
Julie Heffernan: Hotheads
April 18 – September 05, 2020
On view April 18 – September 5, 2020
Media Room: Whitney Lynn | The Siren
Celebration with artist talk and performance: Saturday, June 27 from 6 – 8pm
There is a catalog for the exhibit and a wall full of submissions that I am a part of, In the spirit of Anni Albers (1899-1994), a German-born textile artist, and her weaving workshops held at the Bauhaus and the Black Mountain College, Julie Heffernan established an invitational/collaboration for the Hotheads exhibit with twenty-seven invited artists. A salon-style presentation of these artworks, reminiscent of the collections of paintings in Heffernan’s work, features the invited artists’ pieces, each honoring a hothead who inspires them.
I chose my sister, Susan Spelletich.
The sculpture is made of aluminum and has 3 pivot points one can adjust to an infinite number of different positions suiting your soul.
Title: “An Idea and actions piercing a problem, Susan Spelletich”
H: 8″ W:6″ L4″
Susan Spelletich was a civil rights lawyer. She started in Legal Services for Children, having worked with children in special education. Susan eventually ran a department in the U.S. Department of Education with the Civil Rights division ensuring equal access to education through vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws. She helped shape California education rights for children, which trickled up to shape national laws affecting millions of students. She prosecuted educational institutions that discriminated against someone on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. She also worked on one of the first cases related to a college’s inadequate response to reports of sexual harassment. She could have easily made a tenfold salary working in private law but she eschewed that for the well being of humankind.
Please note that Catharine Clark will be on-site by appointment Tuesday – Saturday from 12pm – 4pm; please call 415.519.1439 to schedule an appointment.
Over the coming weeks, we will launch a new series of digital programming and exhibitions, including artist talks, curated online presentations via Artsy, and a special online “screening room” of full length video works by represented and affiliated artists. Details to be announced soon.
Visit our inaugural online exclusive exhibition for Artsy, Love in the Time of Distancing, by clicking the link here https://www.artsy.net/…/catharine-clark-galery-love-in-the…
Be safe, but no too safe,
kal
I cordially invite you to the closing event on Saturday 2/15 12:00-2:00, for my exhibit of ‘Strawberry Creek and Science Obscured’ at The Catharine Clark Gallery. Chester Arnold and I will be in conversation with Catharine Clark about the environment, our work in the exhibit and our upcoming collaboration.
Chester and I plan to create an homage to the Napa River that reveals different views of this waterway that has survived the wrath of channelization, bulldozing and reshaping of it’s flow. We will create a new site specific installation that incorporates one of Chester’s paintings, along with video, sound, and robots in the manner of Strawberry Creek which is in The Catharine Clark media room now until February 15th. Nature prevails! Then we party!
Science Obscured, on display in The Catharine Clark back room, is a series of individual laser carved paper images that subtly unveil the monumental contributions of dismissed scientists. Next to these a robotic sculpture meditates on waves: light waves create sound waves create gravity waves, all activated by light, like from the flashlight on your phone. See ‘Descartes’ Laws of Motion’ in action: https://youtu.be/By7dRZGnYv0
‘Waves’ is a black on black carved paper image in an edition of 15. There are only a handful of these left!
Inquire at the gallery or ask me or see the attached image (more on this work at the very bottom of this email).
“Hacked, Found, Repurposed 3,” an exhibit of experimental instruments curated by Bryan Day and Kirk Pearson. A menagerie of cardboard synthesizers, wire kinetic sculptures, musical bicycles, and other loveable audio oddities .
On display at San Francisco’s Center For New Music
through the end of February–always free to the public.
Keep a look out for the closing!
55 Taylor St
San Francisco, California https://centerfornewmusic.com/
Call (415) 275-2466
————————————— Hybrid Tenders
Control your surveillance
You are invited to tend to the fragile equilibrium of life in an era of environmental emergency and mass extinction. Collaborate with the artists to operate robots and create sounds live, on stage, as we explore the intersection of surveillance, machines, and our sentient selves.
Plant the wood for your coffin or a tree that remembers the touch of your hands when all human life is gone.
7pm: Reception 7:30pm: Participatory Performance
Come early to sign up to be a part of the experience.
Ronja Ver: Movement and voice Kal Spelletich: Robots and sound
About the Artists
Ronja Ver is a dancer, dance maker, teacher, mother, and activist. A perpetual student of performance as a way of participating in community and a tool for social change, they are deeply inspired by physical, social and mass movement, and its capacity to create meaningful impact on a personal and global scale. Ver holds an MFA in dance from Hollins University and is proud to be spinning underwater in Steve Paxton’s DVD Material For The Spine.
For almost 4 decades Kal Spelletich has built interactive machines and robots. Spelletich’s work enacts a liberated awareness and pushes his audience toward creative responses to technology in their lives. His work explores the interface of humans and science to put people in touch with philosophical interactive experiences.
Matchbox Labs
twitter.com/counterpulse
facebook.com/counterpulse
instagram.com/counterpulse counterpulse.org
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ANNNNDDDD….Nevada Museum of Art in Reno
I have 6 artworks at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno Nevada in an exhibit called: Where Art and Tech Collide
January 25, 2020 – June 21, 2020
I am keeping some excellent company, for also in the exhibit are some fellow comrades Andy Diaz-Hope, Trevor Paglen, Leo Villareal, and Gail Wight, among others.
The show highlights the various ways that artists use technology to inspire wonder and curiosity.
Despite the chaos and mayhem sown by our political system, art prevails and is the workaround that brings joy, insight and provocation to this broken society we all live in. Go see some music, art. Theater, film, dance and, heck, something experimental!
See you around!
k
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Laser Carved Paper Edition ‘Waves’ at The Catharine Clark Gallery
Here is a work on paper I have in the exhibit. It is laser carved paper in a series of 15. No two are alike. They are priced at $350.00 each! The other works on paper are one of a kind and priced quite a bit more. The image represents two sets of waves. As they travel out they can reinforce each other to create a larger wave or do the opposite and cancel each other out. A wave can be liquid, sound, light, gravity or even a thought. This is how change happens. Oftentimes it may take eons for that change.
Every action has a reaction.
Sea and ocean waves are caused due to gravitational energy of moon. If we harness them, we are indirectly harnessing the energy obtained due to moon’s mass.
Waves are described by a wave equation which sets out how the disturbance proceeds over time. The mathematical form of this equation varies depending on the type of wave. Further, the behavior of particles in quantum mechanics are described by waves. In addition, gravitational waves also travel through space, which are a result of a vibration or movement in gravitational fields.
This wave can then be described by the two-dimensional functions
(waveform traveling to the right)
(waveform traveling to the left)
or, more generally, by d’Alembert’s formula:[3]
Here we are representing two component waveforms and traveling through the medium in opposite directions. A generalized representation of this wave can be obtained[4] as the partial differential equation
Waves; sound, light and physical waves. Water waves and sound waves are examples of mechanical waves. Light waves are not considered mechanical waves because they don’t involve the motion of matter. Light waves are just one type of electromagnetic wave. Sound waves exist as variations of pressure in a medium such as air. They are created by the vibration of an object, which causes the air surrounding it to vibrate. … Sound waves travel through air in much the same way as water waves travel through water.
Light, sound, energy, water waves, ripples, (wave interference)
Nothing that contains energy is “outside of time.” The reason is that the energy of any object is linked, by quantum physics, to the rate of oscillation of its wave function. Thus, if you have energy E (including any rest energy mc2), then your quantum wave function is oscillating with frequency f=E/h where h is Planck’s constant. So if you exist (and I take that to mean that you have some non-zero energy) then you vary in time.
Light is a transverse, electromagnetic wave that can be seen by the typical human. The wave nature of light was first illustrated through experiments on diffraction and interference. Like all electromagnetic waves, light can travel through a vacuum.
Light waves are different from mechanical waves, however, because they can travel through a vacuum. Light waves are just one type of electromagnetic wave. Other electromagnetic waves include the microwaves in your oven, radio waves, and X-rays.
In fact, there are two main types of waves: transverse and longitudinal. Longitudinal waves are where the vibration moves parallel to the direction the wave is traveling. Sound vibrations travel in a wave pattern, and we call these vibrations sound waves. Sound waves move by vibrating objects and these objects vibrate other surrounding objects, carrying the sound along. … Sound can move through the air, water, or solids, as long as there are particles to bounce off of.
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“Light was not either a wave or a particle but was both a wave and a particle. Knowledge of both these very different aspects was necessary for a complete description of light; either one without the other was inadequate.”
– Niels Bohr
