Category: art

art

art, Culture, Drone, Recreation, technology, Travel

I had to fish my drone out of the LA River!

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Filming the mural that is called, “The Great wall of Los Angeles.” i crashed my drone by being a terrible pilot (i need more practice in tight spaces}). I had to fish my DJI Mini 2 out of the LA River. good thing it crashed onto a dry patch and suffered minimal damage.

The Great Wall of Los Angeles is a mural on one wall of a one mile stretch of the LA River. If you don’t know that, it is the flood drainage system of Los Angeles.  There was a river at one point, but now it is a concrete riverbank accented with chain link.

At first i thought i just needed to flip it over and i could liftoff.  alas, i had to construct an elaborate fishing pole of entangling loops attached to a telescoping dusting pole i had.  Just out of reach, it took nearly 30 minutes and countless attempts to ensnare my little mini.

Drone Crash View Drone Crash Damage

The look on my face when i finally recovered my drone
The look on my face when i finally recovered my drone
art, Culture, Recreation, revolution, Travel

I Visited Niland, The Salton Sea, and Slab City.

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Niland CA - Beach Sunset

I traveled to The Salton Sea to meet some of the alternative communities and see the incredible artwork coming from the area.  Also it’s a great place to get in some drone flights.

Niland CA - flooded streets Niland CA - Art Niland CA - Beach Niland CA - Beach Art Niland CA - Beach Art Niland CA - Beach Art Niland CA - Beach Art - Phone Booth of Love Niland CA - Beach Art - Bus Stop Niland CA - ArtworkNiland CA - Artwork and be3n credit: https://instagram.com/Christi.lugtu
Outside of the town of Niland sits the remains of a Camp Dunlap (commissioned in 1942).  All that remain are the concrete slabs that give Slab City its name.  Since the 1980s people have been camping there for free.  Now a few permanent encampments and even a few event venues exist.  There is no water or electricity or any other government services.  There is an eBike rental place, an internet cafe, a Hostel, a Library, and the East Jesus art exhibition.

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art, Culture, Recreation, technology, Travel

Had to visit Meow Wolf Las Vegas inside Area 15!

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OmegaMart - be3n owl

Area 15 is like a mall of the bizarre and interesting (and also bars).  Inside, the Las Vegas Meow Wolf installation is called Omega Mart.  It begins with a store and takes a bit of a turn.

OmegaMart - Shelves 1OmegaMart - Shelves 3OmegaMart - Shelves 2

Beyond and behind the Omega Mart is the Factory with alien motivation and unbelievable equipment.  Everything is interactive, there are stories and backstories and branching pathways.  puzzles, games, and mysteries to unravel.  I went on a mission to hack the Omega Mart!

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art, Recreation, Travel

Discovering the Meow Wolf exhibit: Santa Fe

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Meow Wolf - Giant Robot Statue

Meow Wolf: The House of Eternal Return is a 20,000 square foot building (once a bowling alley) now filled with over 70 room uniquely decorated with incredible interactive art.  Yesterday we spent hours exploring.  Just when we thought we’d seen it all we would open a cabinet or move a bookshelf and suddenly entirely new avenues opened for us to explore.

Meow Wolf - Exhibits 1
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art, Culture, hardware, retro, technology

My original shadowbox idea finally realized in all its glory!

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Apple Mouse Shadowbox

This was actually the idea that started it all!  It took me a while to finally complete it.  I know that i am missing the serial mouse from the original Macintosh and 128.  Despite having one, i decided to keep my 128 with all its pieces.  Besides, i never touched one until after college.  The mice represented here had my hands all over them most of my life.  I am very happy with how it came out.

3D Printing, art, Culture, hardware, technology

Cartesian Geometry is for suckers!

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be3n unboxing monoprice delta pro

I am very thankful for an early Thanksgiving toy!  It’s a Monoprice Delta Pro!  (originally $1400, they have dropped a few times and are now on sale for $550. Delta printers are so cool.  They do not move at all like traditional 3D printers. i can watch mine all day.  you can too, the live cam is back!

Delta Printerhttps://printer.be3n.com

It was a snap to get it setup. The opposite experience of my Maker Select V2. Oh i love the auto bed leveling. There is no official Cura profile for the Delta Pro, so i had to throw one together from the Delta Mini and the specs.  I did have a few failures.  I bought some inferior filament and it would continually get clogged. After switching to the good stuff, my prints were beautiful.  Then i started to play with the speed rate options.

S.S. Cheap rainbow filamentSpeed Printing with Delta Pro
That articulated slug is a great example.  you can see the first layer is a bit sloppier on the head segment compared with the other segments. I turned the speed rate up to 130%  I’m not sure exactly what that does, because it certainly doesn’t have that profound of an effect on the print speed.  but if you raise it high enough it gets very sloppy.  i shaved about 30% of the time for a print by upping the speed rate to 200% but the first few layers had much more serious flaws than the slug. On the whole it wasn’t a bad speed print.  I’m sure i can improve it with tweaks.