CORAL CASTLE : An Outdoor Observatory

The first time I visited Coral Castle was New Years Day 2014 and I knew I had to come back and take a closer look at this 'Unusual Accomplishment'. It is one of the most authentic tourist attractions along Route 1 just one hour south of Miami. 

 

Coral Castle was designed and built by Latvian immigrant Ed Leedskalnin between 1920 to 1951.  He cut and raised the walls from the Coral bedrock on site where it stands today. Most of the carved rocks/furniture inside the Castle were made at its original location in Florida City and moved here by Ed and a friend with a tractor in 1936.

 

What I find particularly interesting about his home is that it also functions as an outdoor observatory used for viewing, recording and documenting terrestrial and celestial events, many of the rock chairs face specific directions and many are designed so you can look up at the sky easily.

 

In front of 'The Planets' sits an assortment of chairs, each weighing approximately 1,000#. The absence of chisel marks gives the appearance of natural growth.

 

I focused my research on the ‘Polaris Telescope’ and ‘The Sundial’ as well as documenting via scanning the 'Three Ton Gate' which pivots effortlessly being perfectly balanced on the axle of a model T Ford since 1936.

 

Ed Leedskalnin wrote three books on magnetic current and it is believed by some that he used this technology in order to move the stones.

 

 

Gravity has always been an obvious challenge as a sculptor so the idea of moving multi ton blocks with magnetic current is very intriguing. I took scans of the 'Three Ton Gate' Coral Rock and am working on the concept of a levitating sculpture.This is a theme I have addressed before in 'Lodestone' using cast copper and aluminum.

There are two components to the ‘Polaris Telescope’ the outer part is a 25ft tall tower, with the aligning eye piece located 20 ft away inside the castle grounds.

 At night when the sets of crossed wires in the inner and outer pieces are aligned one can see and track the North Star. 

By making these scans and 3d models within the computer it allows me to examine the texture of the Coral rocks as well as to experience them differently opening up exciting new possibilities. This is the aerial view of the 25ft Polaris Tower.

I am not interested in simply replicating the objects that Ed Leedskalnin has made but to know and understand them better for translation.

 

Below are the raw texture maps created by the 3D model.

 

By using his Polaris Telescope Ed could study and record the path the earth travels which enabled him to obtain the data to build his sundial.

The numbered loops on the sundial represent hours, the unnumbered loops are half hours. The shadow cast by the metal indicator on the coral block above points to the time.

I would like to give a special thanks to The Sun for shining during both visits!

Next Stop SPACE COAST : ORION ROCKET LAUNCH

ART MIAMI

Gallery and Museum hopping at Art Miami we came across a few familiar faces like Kenneth Snelson whom Paul has exhibited with many times including the International Exhibition 'Contemporary Art and the Mathematical Instinct'

Above all the classics are holding up well, it was great to see the collection of fine art tapestries shown at the Jane Kahn Gallery by Magritte, Leger, Le Corbusier, Picasso, Stuart Davies, Miro, Delaunay and Calder. The colors are as vivid as the day they were woven.

These early 20^th Century tapestries were created at the world famous Tapestry Atelier Aubusson in France between 1930 and 1970. The artist would collaborate with the weaver in producing the cartoon for the loom. 

The weft and warp of the tapestry is made up over time, layer by layer similar to the RP process we are using today. In reference to Charles Babbage's visionary computer of the 1840's Ada Lovelace King is quoted as saying:

''We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jaquard loom weaves flowers and leaves"  1843

At the Margulies Collection one of the most intriguing pieces for me was ‘Trash Stone #412’ by German artist Wilhelm Mundt. It is the largest one created to date and consists of an accumulation of trash/junk from old computers to who knows what wrapped, weighed and beautifully layered up in colored resin like a hot rod candy coat. 

Our next stop was the Miami Ad School to check out the street art which can be found proliferating throughout the Wyndwood area. The Ad school uses a couple of Airstreams as classes and it was interesting to chat with the founding director Ron Seichrist who had invited many of the worldwide graffiti artists to tag the school.

Greeting us at the Wolfsonian Museum was 'The Wrestler' a 1929 aluminum sculpture by Dudley Talcott (American 1899 - 1986) was created for the Tenth Olympic Games in Los Angeles 1932. Passing likeness to Disney's Iron Giant.



Also on show was 'Myth and Machine' a rare collection of WWI prints, lithographs, sculpture and drawings some of it was quite disturbing as in these graphics of war wound victims. 

The exhibition focuses on the role of myth in giving comprehensible form to the shattering realities of the war, and on the relationship between humans and machines as a key theme of wartime visual culture.

 
This obscure watercolor and collage by an Italian war artist represents a journey 'Volo su Vienna, 9 Agosto' 1918. A journey of horrors.

The hybrid alchemical work 'Sprache der Vogel' by Anslem Keifer is a 3 ton mixed media sculpture which translates as 'Language of the Birds'. 

'The ideology of alchemy is the hastening of time, as in the led-silver-gold cycle which needed only time in order to transform lead into gold. In the past the alchemist sped up the process with magical means. That was called magic. As an artist I don't do anything differently. I only accelerate the transformation that is already present in things. That is magic as i understand it.' Anslem Keifer 1989


After so many Art Fairs we finally reached visual overload just like Guetta aka Mr Brainwash ; an operation that attempts to fuse historic pop imagery and contemporary cultural iconography to create a hybrid of pop–street art.  Spewing up every cliche in a conflated over simplification of every other art trope.

Next Stop Coral Castle, Homestead, Florida : Life is Magical!

'The Thiefs Inlet'

Amok with chic boutiques and high rise condos the word 'Boca' refers to an inlet once known as 'The Thiefs Inlet'.

Greeted by the Muscovy ducks upon arrival we set up at the Sculpture Studios and immediately attracted the attention of students and faculty whom came to see what we were working on.

 

Our visit to FAU was beautifully orchestrated by Sculpture Professor Julie Ward pictured in the airstream doorway above. We can seat about ten people inside the airstream with a few standing so tours resulted in a constant stream of visitors including art and engineering students and faculty from across campus.

 During the tours we continued to work on projects with the scanner and the 3D printer.

 

Using the laser scanner we began to scan some coral samples collected along the way.  The scanner consists of a turntable which rotates through 360 degrees and back again as two stereo lasers capture the surface structure and shape of the object.

 

These are experiments to see what happens to the surface detail of the coral when scanned and to explore the textures created.

  Scans of multiple passes and different orientations will later be prototyped in plastic on the 3D printer and used as reference models for enlarging.

 After our public lecture we carried out critiques of several of the graduating senior exhibitions and continued discussions in the airstream.

 

A special Thank You to Julie Ward and all at Florida Atlantic University who made us so welcome.

Next Stop Miami Art Basel 25th Anniversary VIP Reception.

A1A The Scenic Route

Leaving Jacksonville we continued to head south. Closely following the Atlantic coastline we took the slow road and winded our way between Historic Route 1 and Scenic Route A1A which are the most eastern and among the oldest routes in the United States.

 

We set up camp at Tomoka State Park just north of Ormond and Daytona Beach. 

The beach between Ormond and Daytona is the original site of the world land speed breaking records starting in the 20’s onwards and you can still drive on the beach today. Plenty of hotrods and custom gaslamp cars to see.

This 1968 Roadrunner R/T Car reminded Paul of a series of collages he made in 1976 based on catastrophe histograms that went with a series of his game theoretic sculptures.

Tomoka State Park is home of the spirit of great chief Tomoka, we were informed that if we saw anything strange in the woods to not be surprised, unfortunately we did not see any but his statue.

We investigated another Indian burial mound in Ormond this one was much better preserved than the Santee Mound/Fort Watson in South Carolina which made it difficult to take in the round photographs : pictured below

 

These are two of many mounds to visit in the south east. The Ormond mound contains as many as 125 bodies and is sited in someones back yard.

Using photogrammetry we scanned the earthwork as a way of documenting our experience of it, these photographs will enable us to later create a 3D model of it to possibly use in my future work.

Ormond Beach was also the winter home of J D Rockefeller where he hosted his friends notably the comedian and 'Populist Cowboy' Will Rogers 1879-35. Paul believes that the 1957 movie ‘A Face in the Crowd’ is based upon this location and the real life friendship between Will Rogers and Rockefeller as Rockefeller saw the advantage in exploiting the common man by passing political memes through popular entertainers and figures. 'political satire can be as dangerous as an unguided missile when it is unsound' James Thurber 1968.

Winding down Route 1 we came across many sites of 50’s and 60’s Americana as this was the old route taken by vacationers from New York, tiny motels too many to mention including a steamboat car wash, and we just had to stop at the moonlight drive in diner for a bite.

 

Before arriving at our next visiting artist engagement we treated ourselves and the Airstream to an overnight stop at the famous Land Yacht Harbor, an Airstream only park where the fab lab was able to reunite with many old friends.

Next Stop is Florida Atlantic University in Boca Rotan, Florida : Public Lecture at Noon on Monday 24th November.