exhibition at Science Gallery Jan 28-Feb 25, 2011

Engineering design of mobile cryobook unit in progress.

Design David St.Onge

Design: David St. Onge

Engineering of the portable cryofreezer

Image and design: David St Onge

image and design: David st Onge

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Since there are multiple collaborators and people curious about the making of this piece I thought I’d keep posting the technical development and engineering side of the project . So here’s the latest update….
David St Onge (engineering collaborator) is busy flushing out the details for the portable cryobook unit which will be powered by dry ice when not hooked up to the -80 freezer. David and Jean-Francois made also arrangements with Multiver, a quebec company, that is generously donating the special window glaze needed for the unit. Once the samples arrive, the prototype will be build based on the final specs.
For my part, I have been on the phone with -80 freezer companies and purchasing services at Concordia trying to get the best deal for a -80 freezer unit as quickly as possible. I ended up going with the So Low brand mentioned in the previous post. Hopefully it wont get held up in custom at the Canada/US border and arrives here in the next two weeks.

Design and plans

The designs are now in progress for the cryobook archive display unit that will be featured in the upcoming show at the ScienceGallery and SymbioticA 10th Anniversary Show in January.

Here is a working design by David St.Onge that factors in the feasibility report created by Benoit and Jean-Michel  and the concept of the portable  and mobile library/archive.

The design follows the form of early portable libraries used in the 1800′s for transporting books to lighthouse outposts in the Great Lakes regions (USA and Canada).

For more background on the use of portable libraries see the following link (where these images are borrowed from) here.

The portable unit (maintained by dry ice ) will parasite off of another portable -80 freezer feeding off of electricity. This is a standard unit used for biomedical samples and specimens that will be integrated as part of the installation. (It weighs approx. 36 pounds, and the outer dimensions are 27.5” x 13.75” x 18.25” .

Building the Cryobook Archives display unit

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It’s been more than a year since my last post. Hard to believe so much time has gone by. I’ve been working on developing a portable -80 cryogenic freezer unit to display the Cryobook Archives–and it has taken more time than expected. This summer I began a conversation with David St. Onge, an engineer and member of NXI Gestatio.  He agreed to take on the engineering aspect of this project and has since overseen the development of a feasibility report for the freezer display unit.  Jean-Michel Dussault and Benoit Allen, both at the University of Laval, have worked  on formulating the calculations and researching materials needed for developing various prototypes. (They also took the video posted above).

The inspiration for getting the freezer unit done soon is due to the fact that the Cryobook Archives will be featured in the exhibition curated by SymbioticA at the ScienceGallery January 28-February, 2011. We dont have much time to complete the unit and test it before I have to pack it in my suitcase and take it with me to Dublin. More to come.

books made of human skin

The Wellcome Trust Library has a couple of  books in their rare collections make of human skin. Here are a couple of them. I videotaped this during a visit a couple of weeks ago on my way to attend ISEA 2009 in Belfast.

I thank the staff for their generous support and time and the Wellcome Trust rare collections for allowing me to obtain and use this video documentation.

limited edition cryobook series

last series of books

The last series of books turned out in an unexpected way. The stamp imprints stained white instead of blue! Stuart said it probably had to do with the proportions of chemical mix. So now the imprint designs are white and the background is bluish/brown. In other words, I screwed up on mixing  the 4CN solution. But, I am  happy with the results. The designs on these books are by John Greyson (left) and Vincent Chevalier (middle). This is what the stamps look like.(My design is on the right).

here are the imprints as seen on the book sculptures:

Close up of Vincent’s design on front cover. (Imprint on pig skin).

imprint of both designs on back of book. (also imprint on pig skin).

talk at the Moores studio (June 28, 2009)

Photo: Megan Schlipalius

The talk on Sunday was an excellent opportunity to present my work done in the lab and show some of the work created by participants who took my  workshop.

Here are some photos taken by my good friend Megan, a dedicated archivist and excellent documenter. (She is secretly collecting documents of bioart works and probably has enough material by now to curate an amazing exhibition).

Photo: Megan Schlipalius

The audience looks somewhat puzzled in this shot. But in actuality, the conversation was lively and enthusiastic. Pia and Nikki (in the center) are two of the artists who took my workshop. See http://electrobooks.wordpress.com for more info and images from that event held for two days at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

Photo: Megan Schlipalius

Here’s a nice shot of Jo Pick Up from the Fremantle Arts Centre (left) and myself.

more to come…

I am wrapping up the last series of cryobooks today and will post the results soon.  So stay tuned.

Thanks to everyone who came out to my studio talk on Sunday. I’ll be posting a synopsis next week.

I fly out of Perth tomorrow and will have a chance to catch up on writing about some key thoughts that have emerged from the process while I relax in Singapore for a couple of days.