SPACE SAMPLING SPACE COAST

If you have been following the past blogs on our Space Coast Tour you may have noticed some reoccurring themes such as the relationship of nature to mechanization, and a fascination into ways of exploring things from different perspectives.

One personal favorite viewing mechanism has always been the Hubble Telescope pictured above with the NASA Airstream : aka the Astrovan that transfers astronauts from the operations and checkout building to the launch pad.

Up at the crack of dawn we made our way to witness the first rocket launch of Orion. Orion will be the first spacecraft since Apollo that will facilitate human exploration of destinations beyond  Low Earth Orbit such as the Moon, asteroids, and Mars.

 

Arriving at 4am to the Kennedy Space Center we waited .. and waited ... even the alligators were waiting ... after several hours we were notified that the launch will be postponed until the next morning Friday 5th Dec. It was worth the wait!

The Orion Spacecraft is a multi purpose Crew Vehicle intended to carry a crew of up to four astronauts to destinations beyond-low Earth orbit. It was a successful mission going twice around the earth before shooting off another 3,600 miles taking it past the International Space Station close to Mars and back down to earth in four and a half hours.

Even from such a distance one could feel the force especially the after noise, it was phenomenal.

The most powerful liquid-fueled rocket engine ever produced, the F-1 engine, was a critical component in sending astronauts to the moon during the Apollo Program. Developed under the direction of Wernher von Braun, the Saturn V rocket was also the largest. Standing 36 stories high and weighing over 6 million pounds it required a cluster of five F-1 engines generating more than 7.5 million pounds of thrust to lift the rocket off the pad.

We chose to scan the F-1 engine onsite and explored stereo collaging it with other 3D models using a method developed by Paul back in 1994 which he termed 'Space Sampling'.

'FALLEN BLOCK ISLAND F-1 APOLLO'
* available as print

The space program has used a lot of classical references for its legend, the above work is a combination of those legends and consists of the photogrammetric scan of the F-1 Engine that we made onsite at the Kennedy Space Center, a 3d laser scan taken directly from the Parthenon of the Greek deity 'Apollo' combined in belvedere with the Block Island Meteorite found on Mars by the Opportunity Rover and Aurora 7 the first US Spacecraft.

The Shuttle Atlantis named after the utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon published in 1627 has a textilian surface like a woven blanket which echos the layered fabric called 'Flong' which received the output from Charles Babbage's Difference Engine: the first computer stereotyping bed.

 

'F-1 ATLANTIS APOLLO'
* available as print

'We have also perspective houses ...........we make artificial rainbows, halo's and circles about light. We represent all manner of reflexions, refractions and multiplications of visual beams of objects' 
  

Except from The New Atlantis'  by Sir Francis Bacon 1627

 After 8 weeks on the road our last days on the Space Coast has bought our tour to a close. We have traveled in our silver machine, the airstream fab lab a total of 3400 miles through 8 States, Lecturing as visiting artists at 6 universities and exploring many sites of interest as well as participating in major events such as Art Miami, Jacksonville Iron Pour and The Orion Rocket Launch.

Next stop is back to the Studio where we will develop some of the ideas for exhibition : please watch this space for the completed series of Space Coast bronzes and prints.

Thanks to everyone who made this tour a real pleasure!

Over and Out : Moon walking on the Space Coast 2014

'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.

 

JAX Volcano Tornado

 

 Pictured above are the results of my mold making activities on site at Skidaway Island State Park in preparation for our Jacksonville visit at The University of North Florida which included the annual Iron Pour.

 

I used a variety of processes which included taking rubber, alginate and plaster molds from the rapid prototypes as well as preparing some of the pla prototype models for the lost wax process or I should say 'lost pla' process : the plastic prototype models will be later dipped in ceramic shell, burnt out and cast in bronze. The alginate mold is a temporary organic mold material so a plaster master was cast to keep for production of a rubber mold in order to create multiples. Upon arrival at UNF I made sand molds of the Volcano waxs.

      

Iron was melted up to 2650 Fahrenheit in a 100# capacity cupolette, we cast about 2500#, a really smooth pour with all of the students, visiting artists and faculty working beautifully together with everyone in their roles it was a well choreographed ballet of sweat and logistics resulting in many new sculptures. 

 

The furnace produced a cast iron mountain of iron and slag and I cast several miniature 'Volcano Furnace Earthworks' and two larger versions. These are scaled down from a 3D scan of the 14ft high Earth Work I produced in Latvia. The miniature versions will be sold to help fund the making of a new 'Volcano Furnace Earthwork at Spoerri Sculpture Garden in Italy 2015. Please visit my blog to find out more. www.corallambert.blogspot.com.

 Also whilst at UNF our Solar Airstream Fab Lab was in operation parked at the Sculpture Lab on campus.

 

 

 This new work titled 'Tornado' was inspired by the UNF campus which is also a nature reserve. Whilst we were there the power went down as a tornado warning came through : the solar kicked in on the airstream and work continued as the pinecone was scanned using solar power.

 

A big Thank You to our hosts Jenny Hager, Lance Vickery, (pictured below) as well as the UNF Foundry Guild and all the students and faculty at UNF who welcomed us.

 

 

Next Stop Florida Atlantic University at Boca Rotan via Tomoka State Park, Ormond Beach.