Jeff Harms
Artwork/Film
starting to build 5/27/12
These shapes look cool before I glue them together. That sort of thing is always unexpected. … like cartoon kitchen knives…. or Link’s sword from Legend of Zelda?
If this gluing goes well I will be on the roof making my first arc today. The points are narrower than I thought, so I think the shape is going to look rather dramatic.
The pieces are mostly all cut. Now it’s just a big puzzle to put together.
Gluing done, but No arc today. The forecast is rain tomorrow and the curve really needs to set before I cut it up for storage/transport. But this will give the points more time to dry, which is good. Patience! I am realizing too, that the roof is less than ideal. It has a small slope to it, and it is black. In this 92 degree sun, it is really baking up there. Where else can i find a nice large flat space, nearby?
…later, when it was cooler, I went on the roof and laid it all out. I am cautious and making it smaller, but I think it is still big enough; and the arcs are bending just right. They bend in two directions (along their width and length) which I wasn’t sure they were going to do. So that is a huge relief. It was also just really awesome to see the reality of this thing I dreamed up ten years ago. Now I can focus on making it structurally sound.
Arbor Day Farm
2 weeks from now: first stop, Arbor Day Farm.
http://www.arbordayfarm.org/art/
Top/Bottom
I guess once you decide you need something, your brain goes to work.
The bottom half will look like this:
Charlie Universe had a great idea yesterday (we were shooting a kids show Adventure Sandwich… I was in an orange snowsuit in a rocket ship made of cardboard) He suggested that I make the top half lighter than the bottom half. So simple! I think it is going to help. Of course if it is too light, it will blow away like a kite… This thing has to survive a Nebraska winter.
THE SHAPE
With the generous help of The Rebuilding Exchange and Obi Deconstruction, I have some great materials and and some serious tools to begin work on Ganzfeld 2.
I have been building this thing in my head for… honestly, ten years. But in earnest, the last few weeks have gotten pretty specific. I am tightening bolts in my imagination, making diagrams with calculus that sorts out the slope of the cones at each point…
Today I make the first real cuts.
Starting with the points, made of 2×4′s, using a compound cut on a table saw. I will have to build a jig putting the pieces at 6degrees to the blade, beveling the blade… I think it’s 12 degrees… This is all to get a cone of 14 pieces at a slope that feels right; the slope will determine the bend of the whole shape. Once the points are done, i will rip the 35 pieces of Lauan into 1.5 inch strips. Then, clamping the strips to curve between each point, I will laminate them into 14 solid structural ribs. The top 7 first. The bottom five… well, I have’nt been able to imagine that part yet… I guess if this was chess, you are seeing how many moves ahead I am capable of.
Pictures to come…
Hesaidshesaidthatswhatshesaid
I am finally doing a kickstarter campaign for my next (double) album.
Ganzfeld at CIMMfest
CIMMfest 2012 was really awesome. Ganzfeld looked beautiful on the big screen. Sam Wagster and Gillian Lisee (Father Costume) played with me in the lounge afterwards. Good weekend.
I acted as a music panelist last week for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs CAAP Grant. A lot of great music being made in this city.
Ganzfeld (the sculpture) 3/26
The summer is picking up. The City of Dubuque is hiring me to build a sculpture for their “Art on the River”. It will be up for a calendar year starting in July.
So that’s Nebraska in June and Dubuque in July.
It will feel awesome to have two of these things crawling around the country.
Ganzfeld (The Sculpture)
I’m very excited! Arbor Day Farms in Nebraska has commissioned me to build them a gigantic sculpture this summer. Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts has also agreed to put me up for a week so I can build this thing. I am looking forward to going back there. That place has been very good to me. I wrote all the songs for my third and fourth albums there.
Ganzfeld (Feature Film) 2011
Thanks to everyone who came out for the Kino Dance Fest of Sarah Best this weekend. Her theater is awesome and the screening of Ganzfeld went really well. So great to see it projected as it is meant to be.
Looking forward to screening again at CIMMfest next month (dates TBD). I believe Marvin Tate will be doing some singing related to the event.
First and foremost, we wanted to make a movie about a relationship.
We’re interested in the inarticulate and complex minutia of
relationships.
Amelia and Jeff are a young married couple living in Chicago. Jeff is
enjoying success in his professional life, and he is excited by the
chance to elevate his status in the world and settle into a certain
lifestyle. Amelia is the polar opposite. In spite of her well-worn
efforts, she cannot find happiness in the same manner as her husband.
To complicate matters, their love is real. As the tension of the
relationship elevates, her breaking point comes nearer. She struggles
to find a job that she enjoys, and she has a hard time reconciling her
existence with that which is expected from her. She is clearly gifted,
but her talents go unseen until they bubble to the surface,
facilitating a radical change.
“Ganzfeld” is an ethereal examination of a symbolic life.
The fragmented narrative is punctuated by live musical performances.
Although the band never appears in the story otherwise, their function
is that of the oblique narrator, expressing the esoteric intricacies
of the couple’s complicated situation.
“Ganzfeld” was filmed over the course of two years. We began, after an
arduous casting process (for the part of the protagonist Amelia), with
a 30 hour drive to western Montana, where the four of us spent several
days living and working in a fire lookout tower in the mountains. Our
approach to shooting this project was based on our interest in
shooting intuitively in an immersive environment. We enjoy working in
small numbers, and allowing an emotional spirit to grow from within
the project into our professional and personal relationships. (Brian Torrey Scott)
Jeff Harms: Producer/Actor/Collaborator
Daniel Mejia: Cinematographer/Editor/Collaborator
Brian Torrey Scott: Director/Collaborator
Amelia Lorenz: Amelia
Tif Bullard: Tif
Tyler Myers: Tyler
