SciArt Initiative - Group 1: Rob & Jame

Rob & Jame: Post-residency testimonials

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:58:03 GMT

Rob & Jame: Final Week

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 13:00:58 GMT

Jame's update:

I spend a lot of time in the city so I thought it was time to explore movement of birds in a more natural setting. While hiking through the forest I watched birds hop amongst the underbrush stopping every now and then to cock their heads to the side to listen. I also took inspiration from watching videos of the female sage grouse as she walked through the lek.

On The Nature Preserve from Jame McCray on Vimeo.

Rob & Jame: Week 16

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 15:16:59 GMT

Rob's update:

With just a few short weeks until The Bridge’s symposium, I focused on “illuminating” the cityscape embroidery. My favorite embroidery technique involves blending the different colors of embroidery thread. In each new piece of embroidery thread (or floss as it’s commonly called) a single strand is composed of 6 smaller strands. For very thick lines, I embroider with all 6 strands. However, more frequently, I divide the 6 pieces into 3 smaller strands, and combine them with floss from another color spool. This effect allows me to incorporate more vibrant and varied color gradients.

Another technique which is critical to efficient embroidery is workspace organization! Here are some of my favorite practices. When I get a brand new package of embroidery thread, I immediately cut the 9 yard strand into smaller (1 yard) pieces. Next, I wrap each bundle of embroidery floss around a plastic “spool.” This method lets me quickly scan the entire color palette available, and simultaneously minimizes clutter.

Rob & Jame: Week 14

Tue, 05 Jan 2016 14:59:43 GMT

Rob's update:

This week, much energy was focused on nearly completing the embroidered sky! The left side of the embroidery is the city before turtle-friendly lighting, and the right half of the scene depicts the change after cities make the switch to turtle-friendly lighting. Not only are there more orange and red wavelengths in the right side of the embroidery, there is also less light pollution since the light fixtures are designed to provide downward directed light, rather than diffuse, lighting.

Over the next few weeks, I will focus on adding detail to the buildings and more embroidery thread to light fixtures along the beach.

Additionally, last week, I was lucky enough to participate in the release of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) that hatched in a sea turtle sanctuary in Sayulita, Mexico. The beaches along Sayulita’s coast are the annual host of nesting Ridley’s. It was thrilling to watch the newly hatched turtles begin their journey--we were informed that some of these Ridleys travel all the way to Japan before heading back to nest at Sayulita over the course of their lifetime.

After releasing the sea turtles, I chatted with the program’s director and asked about lighting within the town of Sayulita, and whether there has been a move toward turtle-friendly lighting. The director noted that since all of the turtles that nest on this beach hatch within the sanctuary, they are able to control the release of the turtles to the ocean. Therefore, they are able to time the releases so that they occur right at sunset, while the horizon is still brightly lit, but before the town turns on municipal lighting.

Rob & Jame: Week 13

Tue, 22 Dec 2015 14:56:00 GMT

Rob & Jame's update:

Last week I got together with my friend, and fellow dancer, Aaron Gregory (http://www.aaronleogregory.com/). I was looking for movement that was inspired by the displays of different birds without the interpretation being too literal. For example, how do you convey a battle for territory on the lek? We began by watching videos of the mating displays of a wide range of birds while playing New Dorp. New York by SBTRKT. Then the fun was underway as the dancing began!

I can’t wait to get some studio time in the new year with a full complement of dancers. Until then here’s a snippet of the choreography.

Rob & Jame: Week 12

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 15:03:40 GMT

Rob & Jame's update:

This week, we decided to meet in person and work on some embroidery projects at a cafe in Brooklyn. Rob arrived with a set of embroidery hoops, needles, all his embroidery thread and several pieces of fabric to choose from. We each selected fabric for our projects, and traced our designs right onto the fabric using markers. Jame outlined a bird with its wings outstretched (see close-up of the wing on purple fabric below), and Rob started work on a miniature mountain scene.

After tracing the designs, they tightened the fabric into each hoop, and begin their first stitch--a split stitch. The split stitch is perfect for outlining large areas as it creates a bold and unbroken perimeter. See Jame’s excellent split stitch outlining the bird wing below:

After the split stitch we moved onto the chain stitch. Jame added feathers to the bird wing and Rob began working on some clouds. This stitch was a nice selection for both of these purposes since the chain stitch provided a billowy texture for both the clouds and feathers:

After an afternoon of embroidery we both made some great progress, and look forward to another session of fabric arts!

Rob & Jame: Week 10&11

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 12:39:05 GMT

Rob & Jame's update:

The sky is moving along! When sea turtle friendly lighting is installed, there is not only a color palette change in the surrounding environment, but also a decrease in the amount of light that reaches the night sky. To reflect this, Rob has started to add in more blues and grays to darken the sky on the turtle friendly half of the piece.

Additionally, to balance out the cityscape, he added two new buildings and more sand to the beach on the left side of the embroidery. Just like drawing on paper, embroidery is a relatively flexible process, and adjustments can be made as the work progresses.

Rob & Jame: Week 9

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 00:13:24 GMT

Rob & Jame's update:

Jame and I had a great planning conversation which helped me to make additional progress on the large embroidery in process for The Bridge. As we’ve discussed in previous blog posts, when cities make the decision to switch to more turtle friendly lighting, this truly changes the color palette of light emitted by buildings along the coast. Before I began adding colors to the streetlights and sky, Jame and I brainstormed the color palette for the city before the switch to turtle friendly lighting, and after. We decided that before the switch, the sky should have more ambient light, and that the colors should lean toward white with a blue-ish tint. After the switch to turtle friendly lighting, we noticed from field photos that the palette shifted to including yellow, orange, amber and red.

Here’s the embroidery progress so far. The outline of each building is done, as well as the text for our collaboration’s theme. Now for the night sky. As you can see, I’m working from the right, and starting with the turtle friendly lighting.

And a close-up detail of the night sky. If you look close, you’ll see that I wove one or two red pieces of thread into the orange thread. This is a nice technique for blending threads, and making new color combinations in an embroidery piece.

Rob & Jame: Week 8

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 12:43:29 GMT

Rob & Jame's Update:

This week I’ve been exploring the wide variety of bird mating dances to use as inspiration for one of my dance vignettes. Here are some of my favorites:

Manakin (Bonus feature: a dancing scientist)

Birds of Paradise

Magnificent Riflebird

Be sure to check back in a few weeks to see what moves have made it into the dances!

Rob & Jame: Week 7:

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 12:34:43 GMT

Rob & Jame's Update:

This week, after finishing a trial embroidery depicting a single palm tree on a sunny Florida beach (week 5), Rob turned his efforts to a large embroidery project for The Bridge:

In week 3, I posted a preliminary design sketch showing a beachside city’s switch to turtle friendly lighting along the coast. I am attempting to capture the effect of this change on a city’s color palette. Also in the sketch, I incorporated our collaboration’s theme, “The City Never Sleeps.” Here’s what the initial design looked like:

In my first week of work, I wanted to figure out a method for creating the lettering for our theme. I very rarely incorporate text into embroideries so this was a fun challenge! I used some chalk to mark an outline for the boundaries of my text box, and then very lightly traced each letter, include the built-in streetlights on the first letter of each word. Can you recognize which embroidery stitch was used for the lettering? (hint: see week 5)

Next, I moved to the beach and city scene—stitching palm trees and outlining buildings! From here, I departed from my initial design a bit. I modified the plans just slightly when it came time for the buildings. While it was helpful to have an initial design sketched on paper, I used a variety of colors for the buildings, and began to incorporate new patterns I learned last week, such as the running stitch and the satin stitch (I’ll discuss this one in a future post!) Here is a close-up of the progress thus far. This week, I’ll work on finishing building outlines, and adding a bit more sand to the beach using a seed stitch.