Model For A Marine Architects House, First Sketch -  From the "I Want To Be Your Architect Series"  Ongoing

...the house would bridge two rock outcrops that fell off to the sea on the island.  The island had been in the family for generations and many important discoveries and theories were ...

TRIZ

An engineer I know suggested reading about TRIZ, the inventing problem solving method developed by the Russian inventory and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller.  The book I got is "And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared", and I'm working my way through it, using the problem solving methods as I go in my own work.  I also got a copy of his and his wife's science fiction works called "Ballard of the Stars" where Altshluller under the pen name Altov works out first formulations of his theories on TRIZ.  My favorite so far is the story "The Donkey Axiom" where the character Antenna works as an engineer designing toys but on his own time creates endless numbers of receivers and has built a prediction machine in his home.  Absolutely fascinating.  The study continues.  Just reading about all the hardship that Altshuller overcame in the development of his theories is a wonder in itself.

http://www.aitriz.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Art and Science

I've been immersed in reading science lately.  Echoes of past classes and projects.  What got me started was re-reading Oliver Sacks "Uncle Tungsten, Memories of a Chemical Boyhood".  My two favorites parts of the book are the sections on Uncle Tungsten at work in his light bulb factory and the lab he had built there and the descriptions of the Periodic Table in the Science Museum in South Kensington.  I've always been fascinated by the Periodic Table and think it's one of the most beautiful charts in science.

Model For A Marketing Managers House - From the "I Want To Be Your Architect Series"

Ongoing
".....he was looking for a place off in the desert, away from the Vegas Strip that had the look of the abandoned billboards and left behind structures that dotted the other landscape outside the city."

Designing a New Reality

I'm in the process of reading "Off The Books" by Sudhir Venkatesh.  The insights into the underground economy are both eye-opening and a re-direction of focus on understanding one segment of a world not normally seem with eyes wide open.  I've also been intrigued with a section of the website of the design firm IDEO called Patterns, Design Insights Emerging and Converging.  Great topics and the redefinition of design and how we can use it to help in the economic situations we find ourselves in today.

http://www.sudhirvenkatesh.org/books/off-the-books

http://patterns.ideo.com/

Pattern Recognition

It's interesting looking at patterns.  In life, art, advertising and street culture to name a few.  Watching a trend develop over the past few years like the rise of an urban bike culture vs. the standard weekend road rider dressed in the obligatory spandex uniform to a more edgy street-wise style and disdain for the norm.  Also the number of books, websites, articles and talk focusing on the maker movement.  People getting back to not only knowing how things work but designing and building that allows repair and customization access.  I've been thinking a lot lately about good design being made available to all at prices that make it available to the masses that need it and not to just those who can afford it.  Also the redefinition of what business is.  Small companies putting out high quality products and services with an attitude of let's get this out there and see what happens vs. a lengthy research and development phase.  Things are happening faster and at first at a smaller scale with the potential of really making a big difference.  Look around.

Almost got my bike stolen this week.  Right out from the loading dock area of our building.  Inside no less.  Whoever it was only had enough time before the automatic door would begin to close, like two minutes after someone had been allowed entrance, say a delivery truck.  One of the women in the office had her bike stolen the day before.  My bike was right next to hers and targeting since all I was using was a cable lock thinking no one would be able to get at these bikes.  I went down to get my bike for my commute home and when I did the combination and pulled the lock apart I was holding two separate pieces.  The cable had been cut and was only being held together by a bit of the plastic sheath.  Apparently the person got spooked or the door began to close and he had to get out without the bike.  So I have a homemade mega urban assault lock that I'm using until I can move into the world of Kryptonite ultimate security.

I also wanted to learn more on how people actually go about stealing bikes and the two best videos I found is one called "Know The Enemy" from the UK, a great animation done for BIKE OFF from the University of Arts London  and probably the most famous bike locking video with a more recent update with Hal Ruzal of Bicycle Habitat in New York and Kerri Martin, founder of The Bike Church in Asbury, NJ.  Take a look.
(http://www.bikeoff.org/design_resource/ABT_problem_who_steals.shtml)

http://www.streetfilms.org/hal-and-kerri-grade-your-bike-locking/

Lately I've been reading and looking at a lot of material on-line, in books and documentaries on the whole maker movement, getting back to a hands-on independent, open source do it yourself mentality.  The book that got me interested in this at first was Shop Class As Soul Craft by Matthew B. Crawford.  Being able to not only understand how things are made but how to make and repair things is at the core of this read and in Crawford's estimation an essential element for success in our everyday lives.  I came from a family of men in the trades and never had an issue with being able to work with my hands. The one thing that I really loved about art school and graduate school in particular was having free reign in a studio packed with welding, grinding, cutting and casting materials all available for use.  I was able to think up an idea and then build it pretty much without any ones intervention allowing it to stand on it's own.  Art R&D.  There is also a very interesting world of bike hacking out there where people are coming up with new street design tall bikes, art bikes, cargo bikes and just about any other version of bikes and accessories that you can think of.  I consider this all as part of the maker movement initiatives going on today. Street creativity on the rise.

http://www.matthewbcrawford.com/

Suspended Design

Riding my mountain bike through the suburban no-mans-land.  This is the landscape between new housing developments.  A place that's suspended between design projects.  Will it be more housing or commercial structures or maybe some type of mixed-use area or open space.  For the moment nature has reclaimed it and whatever construction intervention or clandestine dumping there is it's slowly being camouflaged by plant growth.  Invader species taking advantage of the neglect.  I ended up exploring the fragments of past projects and discarded materials, trying to retrace what had occurred.

More photos of this project on my website:http://www.flloydsobczakart.com/ongoing-projects-1/

Edward Tufte - Beautiful Data

Attended Edward Tufte's course  on Presenting Data and Information this past Friday here in Denver.  It was a great experience seeing him in person after having followed his books for years and the course was amazing.  He's a wonderful presenter, the most professional and engaging I've see and he had the audience fully participating following along on chosen pages from his books that were given out to each person as part of the program.  The audience was big and eclectic with the common thread being somehow involved with the presentation of data in their work.  One of the most spellbinding moments of the course was when Dr. Tufte talked about the richness of the drawings and data on sunspots from Galileo's "Letters on Sunspots" from 1613.  He had the title page of the book displayed on the screen when he said "let's see the real thing" and produced a first edition of the actual book and walked around the room showing it to the attendees.  He also showed the engraving, pictured above, of Galileo commenting on how alive, inquisitive and mischievous he looked in the illustration. Very cool.  His whole premise was that rich, complex data can be displayed beautifully if you take the time to look, learn and understand.

I would urge anyone with a personal or professional interest in the display of data and also in art and design to take this course if possible.  If you can't take the course you should definitely get the books.  

Below is the link to Edward Tufte's website. 

This site is a visual experience in itself. 

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

Crashing

I crashed the other day on my commute home.  Got off the bus at the Park & Ride, dumped my bag in the milk crate on the rear rack and headed out.  The bus passed me heading up the street and pulled over to the right pick up lane for another passenger.  I started to pass him on the left, first checking traffic and making sure the bus driver saw me.  Good to go.  What I didn't see was that the town had begun the repaving process on the street by removing the upper portion of one lane and leaving a drop off on the lane that I was in.  Not much room to maneuver between the drop off and the bus and my front wheel went off the edge and the rest was what seemed like a choreographed slow motion head first crash into the side of bus, slipping down the side of the bus and finding myself on my back tangled in the bike and looking under the bus.  Bus didn't move.  I pushed my bike away and slowly got up.  Someone shouted asking if I was all right.  Bruised but OK, my head protected by my helmet, I limped over to a side street to collect myself, take a bike damage inventory and head out again.  What took only seconds seemed like some type of time warp.  Shit happens and it happens fast.

In Praise of the Lowly Milk Crate

Usually I carry the stuff for my commute in a messenger bag.   Computer, a few folders, planner, lunch and a change of cloths along with my tool kit and air pump.  I wanted to experiment with not having to carry this bag draped over my shoulder with the extra weight driving me down onto the saddle.  That was getting uncomfortable.  I started looking at panniers but my one main requirement was that I needed a bag with a designated laptop area that was padded, waterproof and safe from impact.  That's way the messenger bag worked so well for that.  I looked into commuter brief cases that are like the messenger bags but with the added feature of a mounting system that latches onto the rear carrying rack.  My only problem with these was the expense for the really good ones.  Did I really want to drop more bucks on another messenger-type bag?  So looking around for alternatives I came across a milk crate I had in the garage and having seem these used a million times as a bike carrying crate I bungeed it on to the rear rack and dumped my messenger bag into it getting a better feel for riding with the weight in back of me and not on my shoulder and back.  It worked great, gave me the freedom I wanted on the ride and it wasn't too wobbly.  Cost was zero.  Will I use this instead of a high end bag?  For now I will, using it as a kind of test of concept plus it has the added advantage of being the most unpretentious, basic. get something that works starting solution I could find at the moment.   

The Man Who Could Unsnarl Manhattan Traffic | Magazine

Charles Komanoff says he has the solution to New York's congestion problem—and he’s got the math to prove it.       Photo: Peter Yang

There's a great article in the June Wired Magazine 18.06 on Charles Komanoff the economist who has over the years created a mega-spreadsheet that has data on just about every element of New York City Transportation in an effort to help untangle NYC traffic.  Also Komanoff is a huge bicycle advocate.  He helped found Right of Way in the 90's and Transportation Alternatives in the 80's.  Reading this article led me to do further research on Komanoff and the work he has done to promote the use of bikes in an urban environment.

Follow the link below to the Wired article.

The Man Who Could Unsnarl Manhattan Traffic Magazine

On Getting Wet

This past Friday a rain storm moved into the Denver area perfectly timed to synchronize with my commute home.  In Colorado rain storms are usually intense and short and involve rain, wind, hail and maybe a little snow mixed in.  This one looked like it actually was going to stick around for awhile.   Not having gotten around to buying official biking rain gear I was wet riding from our office to Union Station a whole 2 blocks away.  A fellow bike commuter looked at my classic Raleigh Touring 14 and said, "you need fenders." I had the original fenders at one time but in a fit of weight reduction I took them off and promptly lost them.  I was doomed. As the bus moved away from Union Station the rain really started coming down.  By time we got to the Park and Ride where I get off I was resolved to a soggy 6.7 mile ride.  It's amazing just how fast you can get wet at speed.  It's also amazing how efficient a bike is at throwing water all over you.  The physics is beautiful.  My two favorites are the rooster tails of rain spray sent up by the tires.  With no fenders the front tire spray hits the front tube and perfectly deflects the water to soak your feet.  The back wheel is positioned to send an invigorating cool spray of rain water along your back and upper butt.  Amazingly because of my riding position on the drop handlebars my chest did not get all that wet and cold and a knit cap under my helmet kept my head warm.  The ride was wonderful.  The road sounds, the spray and the smell of the land, the fact that I was generating my own heat made it all a real trip.  It was great.  I guess I was just beyond my normal comfort zone and that made all the difference.

Building a Better Bicycle -- for Africa

There's a great article in Forbes Magazine on Frederick K.W. Day and his work with his charity World Bike Relief on the design, building and distribution of his sturdy, heavy duty bikes to Africa and other nations that need this inexpensive, sturdy bicycle for everyday work and life transportation.  Just a great design approach and manufacturing process that is making a difference.  You have to read this.  Just follow the link below. 

Photograph above by Leah Missbach Day

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0510/creative-giving-sram-zambia-charity-armstrong-bicycle-economy.html

Landscape Study

This is a bronze sculptural study for one section of a landscape or park that I have been thinking about for many years.

A Question of Creativity

Most people are familiar with the popular phrase “thinking out of the box”. This generally means that the conventional view will get you a conventional outcome whereas taking a look at something from an entirely new perspective will lead to a new direction, so we should cultivate our capacity or view to be alternative. Also another popular belief is that creativity is only accessible to a gifted few who by nature are able to access a part of their being that is out of reach to most of us. Maybe by broadening creativity into a view that includes problem solving can we get a better perspective on what we do when faced with specific issues or better yet what we come up with to solve or get around these issues.

I’ve been thinking about creativity for a long time in terms of what I could write or show people that would help them access a more creative view and capability to use in their lives and work. All I can write about is what I do myself so here are a few thoughts and actions that I’ve done over the years that have helped me.

I’m pretty much a visual sponge. I have a hard time remembering numbers, but with images my mind seems to have an endless capacity for retention. I think visually. When I’m working on a layout for an ad or say a PowerPoint presentation I can compose and arrange visuals in my head and then build the ad or slide from there. I can sit on a plane with my eyes closed and recall specific photographs, drawings, paintings or sketches that I’ve made and run through them as if I were viewing a presentation. I just like images.

For the past 20 plus years I’ve carried what I call visual journals with me wherever I’ve traveled and wherever I’ve lived and worked. If I have prints of my own photographs or I’ve spotted an image that fascinated me in a magazine I have I’d put it into my journal repeating the process until I had built a collage of the day, thought or event. Sometimes a single image would dominate the page. Sometimes I would write notes but in many instances it’s just the image. Usually I don’t have a specific reason for keeping the image, I just liked it and it triggered some interest to me that motivated me to save it for future reference. If I’m interested in a specific topic say bicycles then my eye zeroes in on anything connected with bikes and bike culture and I scan visuals until I pick up on some that trigger what I call my save response. You can build up a great library of ideas, places and thoughts this way. The internet is also an awesome place to be a visual scavenger. I’ve got tons of picture files on all kinds of topics that I constantly reference when I’m trying to come up with ideas or that I just thought looked cool and wanted to keep and look at over and over.

An idea for a marketing campaign may start from a single image of say an old deuce coupe rat rod on the Bonneville Salt Flats. This will cause my mind to go into creative zone where I become a magnet for all images connected with Bonneville.  Pictures of early speed freaks and their vehicles along with images of the new vehicles that run there today. My mind will wander around the idea like a film crew shooting scenes from every possible angle. I take a look at pictures of gear and clothing. I’ll look at images of speed shops and gear heads working on cars. I’ll remember scenes from movies like “The World’s Fastest Indian” or from documentaries like “Brittown” or “Choppertown—The Sinners”. I’ll read books like “Shop Class as Soul Craft” and listen to Reverend Horton Heat. All these images, sounds and words get stored, mixed together and gradually, subconsciously an idea begins to form that will eventually lead to a solution, theme, or product for my marketing campaign. The look and feel of the collateral and presentation material will all reflect these ideas. Clothing will go along with the theme like using the classic American garage shirt with cool embroidery font like magneto as part of the overall look.

This process is where all the fun is. No holds barred and no reason at first to justify where the whole thing is going. It’s just a creative flow. The details can be worked out later.

The Flying Scotsman

Watched this movie over the weekend and really enjoyed it.  Great inspirational story of Scotsman Graeme Obree and how he overcame his personal issues to break the world hour record for track cycling in 1993 and 1994 along with becoming the world champion in individual pursuit in 1993 and 1995.  I especially liked the segments where prompted by the development of his unusual riding position he designed and built his own revolutionary bike, "Old Faithful", using salvaged bike parts and the bearing from a wash machine.  Great way out of the box design thinking. 

Denver B Cycles and Carbon Drive

Speaking of Earth Day, Denver launched the first large scale bike-share program with 400 red Trek B-cycles.http://denver.bcycle.com/  These share stations are located throughout the city center.  Just swipe your cash card and you can rent the bike for different time periods or get a membership.  There was a share station just outside the Gates building in LoDo where I work and I thought it was very cool that the station was sponsored by our Carbon Drive Group that developed the newest technology belt drive systems for bicycles.  Check out the Carbon Drive Blog.http://blog.carbondrivesystems.com/ 

Can't wait to give one of these bikes a try.

Earth Day 2010

So today was Earth Day. I could not help but think back to the early 1970’s when all this was brand new.

My brother and I were going to school up in the Adirondacks. We and our friends all wanted to get into the environmental sciences and that meant Forestry. We really did not give much though to careers. We wanted to help; we wanted to make a real difference. We were also very interested in being out in the environment experiencing new things and trying not to get ourselves killed in the process, like rock climbing, and I guess what could be called extreme winter camping today. Just doing crazy stuff outdoors. We read the Whole Earth Catalog and came up with various back to the land schemes. We talked about Bucky Fuller’s ideas and read the work of Gary Snyder because he once was a forest fire lookout on the West Coast. We did science in the field, we made maps, we even learned to log with horses. To finish College in Resource Management we moved on to Idaho to get our degrees and to work for the Forest Service. That was our deal. We worked in the woods, we weren't just visitors, and we had a vested interest in making the forest sustainable. The now mainstream phrase Green Movement came later from European political activism. We take much of the Environment Movement now for granted. Bucky said it took about 40 to 50 years for an idea to really catch on so I guess we are right on schedule. It’s all good. Things are getting better but there is a lot more stuff that needs to be done. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

Bike Thoughts

The weather is starting to get really great out here in Colorado and as the temperatures gets warmer the bikes start to come out in droves. This past weekend in Boulder tons of folks were out and about on bicycles. The majority of them appeared to be out on fitness rides or group rides. The next group were families out for a tour with the kids. It would really be interesting to find out how many of the real hard core riders carried their activity over to the work week and commuted to work on bike either all the way or a mixed ride with their bike and public transportation and what this means in real eco-savings.

STING-RAY

Saw this great looking Schwinn Sting-Ray just off the 16'th Street Mall in Denver the other day. It was in great shape, even had the slick on the back. I never had one of these as a kid, I was into my 3 speed "English Racer" but I thought these were very cool and they really introduced a whole new world of biking. All of a sudden everyone seemed to be customizing their bikes with vulture bars and banana seats. There was tons going on chopping the front forks of bikes. Lots of street creativity.

Donating a Bike

Stopped by Community Cycles today in Boulder to drop off an old bike I had. Amazing place. Lots of activity going on. Bikes all over the place in different stages of clean up, repair, rebuilding. Very friendly people. As soon as I arrived a young woman introduced herself, thanked me for the donation, filled out my tax-deductable form and showed me where to take the bike. After that I just wandered around checking the place out. Volunteers cleaning the shop up, parts being sorted, people getting instructions on how to work on their bikes. They even have an Earn-A-Bike program where you donate your time and after 15 hours you can pick out a bike and fix it up for yourself. Just great bike stuff, right to ride advocacy, communtiy bike programs where they hold Rolling Bike Clinics to fix broken bikes in low income neighborhoods. Lots of real world bike experience here. Very cool. Glad I found it.

Moon Ride

3/29/10

5:10am – On my bike ride to work this morning there was an incredible full moon over the Front Range. First the moon was hidden behind a screen of clouds with its glow reflecting off the mountains. Gradually as I rode the cloud cover moved east and released the moon. Amazing site of the snow fields and the silhouettes of the peaks against the still dark sky.

Gone

Recent watercolor and photo collage sketch from my journal. Working with the idea of a vanishing image. An image of lost place or history or thought, a reminder.

Frameworks

I've always been interested in the process of structure. I've found houses and buildings to be far more interesting while they were being built vs. being completed. A structure that is under construction reveals it's inner workings and gives the imagination the task of completion instead of presenting a finished whole. I've explored this idea begining with my earlier sculptures like the ones pictured above and continue to do so. That's why I've entitled them Frameworks.

Journals

I've kept journals since the 80's. Recording my ideas and places that I've been in my travels. The journals act as a reminder, an incubator for ideas and sketches for projects that I am working on. The painting above was the basis for a photo collage I did years after this initial sketch when I found the house in the California desert near Edwards Air Force Base and photographed it.