Final days...

oh...somehow we got through the week without a single blog.
It was a pretty crazily busy week, making sure we got all our interviews, which we did, and also the photos, which we hope we did.
A trip to Pacific Film Archive to see some films presented by Rick Prelinger from his archive.
A Cory Archangel presentation on campus. A Matmos show at the Great American Music Hall in SF and some catching up with people.... Friday tied it all up nicely with an Ilan colloquium at SSL and checking out Liliane Lijns tests fo her new art work with some of the scientists:













Just in time for a nice sunset before we leave:

Point Reyes

Day trip to Point Reyes. A national park north of SF. We saw plent of wildlife although its not the season for whales.
http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&z=13&ll=38.028217,-122.920876&spn=0.12332,0.214577



























Point Reyes lighthouse
http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&z=18&ll=37.99577,-123.02163&spn=0.003855,0.006706
it was going...paaaaarp.

San Fran day

Had a busy San Francisco day showing some work at SF MOMA and ending up at the fantastic Other Cinema to watch a 'Psychedelic Pixel' show. Always a pleasure to be there.

Bill Abbetts simulations

We wanted to talk to Bill Abbett when we were here before but never got the chace. We caught up with him and had a great interview, with detailed descriptions of magnetic activity just below the visible surface of the sun.
Look at these beautiful simulations...

Metalshop

We've been processing alot of the images we're taking, a strcuture is coming together for the film with some great ideas developing......we have to keep on moving on to make sure we get everything we need while we're here.
Had a really usefull interview with Paul Thompson who runs the metalshop, describing the process of making parts for the instruments to go on satellites.

Themis has gone....

We're having to be very persistent to get into places to photograph, and tie down our busy scientists to interview.
First up Bob Lin, SSL's director, on Magnetic Fields:














The focus seems quite different now since our time, all the clean spaces are empty of their satellites as they wait down in JPL to be given their launch date.
Getting into new spaces all time though - and some great photos.

not this one though... posers!

Kuni's Lab.

Back in the Lab. photographing, exploring and interviewing...
getting to go to new places we didnt see before...
Kuni's Lab with Moon and meteorite rocks under analysis;














Foil from the Genesis mission that collected and bought back samples from the furthest point in our Solar System so far. The capsule crash landed in Utah and the foil crumpled up, now they are painstakingly smoothing it out and removing the Utah dirt from the surface.

woodwork

a Daville readymade,(who needs photoshop ;))













The local trees grow from the top down.

a new beginning....

On our way back to SSL to gather interviews and photographs for Magnetic Movie.....

Greenland and Canada

Magnetic Movie

We will be heading back to SSL to make a new animation funded by the animate! scheme.
More details here on the project: http://www.animateonline.org/films/magneticmovie/all.html
Can't wait to go back.

The beginning of the end.....

Some summing up needs to be done before we return back to the U.K. and start to plan the future, so this is being written during our flight back to London.
After giving our presentation at SSL things continued at a hectic pace, giving a performance + and screening of some work in Oakland at 21 Grand alongside Wobbly and friends. It was a packed out show which was unexpected but welcome as we got to say goodbye to the art community we have connected with. It's since been followed up with more invites to show work, specifically Brilliant Noise, our Sun documentary which we made at SSL. Also, we have been invited back in the summer for the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival - so we don't really need to say goodbye at all. We will organise some more shows in the U.S to tie in with this.
Similarly our SSL/Leonardo Salon was a great way to tie things up. Thankyou to everyone who came along to see the work and who we shared our experiences with. We presented three pieces of work, two which came out of the interviews we have conducted called, Ways of Making Sense and another, Do You Think Science.... at this point Brilliant Noise, our sun documentary was work in progress, which we also showed. We had one day after to tie things up at the lab, and it was great to have so much feedback from the scientists who told us how much they had enjoyed the work, we could have never anticipated this.

John Bonnell in Do You Think Science...?

Brilliant Noise

Ways of Making Sense

Of course we have been so tied up in our work recently that we were in denial about ever leaving SSL. It has been such an incredible experience, and we have met and grown to know many people, who have shared their valuable time with us and of whom we have grown fond. What a difficult place to leave. This opportunity has also given us a scientific focus where perhaps before it was very general and we are keen to continue our learning into the Sun Earth connection.

So, we couldn't leave California without a short trip along the Pacific Coastline to Big Sur. We have been out of touch with the world for several days in hope we can create some space between finishing at SSL and arriving back in the U.K. with no particular place to live but with definite plans for our work. Grey Whales are currently migrating south along Big Sur which is an amazing sight, last blast of sunshine and Californian dreaming before we move on....

rock pooling

We will continue to document the work that comes about as a result of our happy days at SSL on this blog, and places it goes but no doubt these will become irregular postings from now on. We will also document the work on our website some time over the next couple of months. So, thankyou for following our time and experiences here, this is not the end..........

Right time to sit back, watch March of the Penguins and enjoy the flight!

non-stop

will be back here soon to report back on our presentation at SSL this week and our rounding up....
Doing a show this evening in Oakland at 21 Grand, so getting ready for this...
will stop moving soon!

Pulling together....

still here... just working towards our presentation on Thursday, bringing everything together.
We have some nice pieces to show and talk about now....
We are above the clouds up at SSL today, with the Sun. Berkeley is grey.

Ways of Making Sense

Back on track. Very nearly completed a film piece using the interviews and filming we have done at SSL. It's called 'Ways of Making Sense'. Looking forward to showing it next week at our
presentation. We will also show some of the Sun movie we're making and documentation of other ideas which we will make this year. We will give feedback on our research here, we have quite a story to tell.

Pretty wet in California for days now. Lots of things on the move as a consequence.
A brief dry spell for New Years Eves antics in San Francisco.
We had one day left today of our car hire and wanted to make good use of it so a coast trip was in order down to Santa Cruz, in the rain....

getting prepared for going back to the Lab tomorrow....

Hummingbird Watching

The view from our window at Peter's house.