Letterbox Lens plate (Western style)

Gun engraving.

Sorry there was a bit that I didn't like around the lens and I just had to colour it in so it looks more like I meant it.

Lens attachment - the elegant solution

Laura's more elegant solution to the Leone proportion filter!

RE: Another CCTV bird box

Jimmy via email:

yes he's got that freedom oppression thing going on but without the middle-class thrill or urban right-on-ness pro activity voice of dissent...however the oppression/freedom thing is a useful system or ruse for lots of good reasons...i still think the bird box is good because its mainstream and immediately gettable by whoever we show to...but if the bracket comes into the picture it can effectively be anything that's good/nice and sticks it gently to the man.

We should probably read this paper. It's about Public Interventions and urban space. I can't attach it, but you can get the pdf at the bottom of the page.

Another CCTV bird box

I just found this. It's by a guy named Colin Matthes. This is his website. We need to know about all of these things, because it helps us define our project more effectively. We need to know why we are not doing this, nor are we doing Celine Shenton's project (the metal-roofed camera box). It's also a strong signifier that we need to move away from just birds. BBC isn't really about bird boxes; right now we have 4 because we need to prototype the act. But there's a different end-point waiting for us somewhere...

From the Seeing Green website Nicolas Lampert writes:
Colin Matthes’ surveillance camera birdhouse is now up. Matthes researched and designed a birdhouse suitable for birds in Wisconsin, constructed it out of wood, and placed it in a river corridor in Milwaukee. For birds, it serves as a perfect home for finches. For people who stumble upon it while walking down the path through the woods, the sight of the surveillance camera mounted to a tree is completely unexpected and raises a myriad of questions about the priorities people place on property, competition and issues of fear and security that dominate city living. The fact that the menacing form of the surveillance camera is humbled and made into a home for finches only serves to further subvert the camera’s original connotation and adds to the surprise of encountering Matthes’ public intervention.

Weird cam

I saw this today on Gloucester Road. It's a video camera strapped to a lamp post. It's just down from the shops (the stretch where there's Margaret Mills, a Ryman and a bookshop etc.) and it's facing up towards the zebra crossing. Looks very low-tech, in that it's not a CCTV camera. It does not speak of The Man.



I'm sorry these pics are rubbish but my phone camera is crap.

bird house instructions

the tool list according to a reputable bird box building blog

Tools Hand saw Coping saw Hammer Brace and bit (or power drill ) Screwdriver Tape measure Carpenter's square Paintbrush Goggles Dust mask

Materials (1) 2' x 4' x1/2" exterior grade plywood (1) 6 1/2" x 1/4" wooden dowel (6) 3/4" hot-dipped galvanized screws 1" galvanized brads or 3d nails Wood glue Sandpaper Exterior paint Polyurethane finish.

My Life in Cinematic Moments

My recent fascination with photography and the technicalities of cinematography has led me to think about designing a series attachments for cameras. Each attachment should enable the projection and elevation of everyday life into something more 'iconic'. As we record and share our meaningless lives, we may need to enhance our capture and display techniques.

I envisage the objects to somehow support the act of photography, they could act as a filter or mask to the capture, or a support or rig to the context. I'm thinking of objects a bit like this:


this gives the rude boy car enthusiast a chance to make his 'ride' into something similar to 'The Fast and The Furious':


Or objects like these:


So my initial quick drawings are for two 'moments'... first, the Leone moment:


Second is the 'Close Encounter of the Third Kind" moment:


So i think the first thing to do is make low-tech gaffa tape and cardboard versions - what do you reckon?

This has "Bird safe paint" too apparently

Bees

I was just thinking about the bee-house. Bees like holes to burrow into. Then I was thinking about urban street things that have these holes already. I quite like how LED signs are made up of a hole 'matrix' (albeit the holes all have LEDs in rather than being tunnels). Some nice images in case there's anything in this.

These are solar powered

If BBC is actually about the covert 'natural' hijacking of urban street furniture...

...and not really about birds, we might want to consider some other creatures.

Butterfly houses (although there's no evidence that butterflies use them)


Ladybird houses


Bee houses


Bat houses


Maybe one day we can aspire to this sort of scale (with urban integration of course). This is one of the loveliest things I have ever seen

1914. Dr. Charles Campbell and a "municipal bat-roost" in San Antonio, Texas ("for one of man's best friends"), his idea for mosquito control at a time when malaria was a major public health problem in the U.S. Disguised as a favorite bat habitat — a church steeple, complete with cross — the roost was fitted with a trapdoor and stilts to facilitate the harvesting of guano by the wagonload for use as fertilizer. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

From here

Maybe not then

Sorry, scratch the Sparrow specialism. They're too picky. They like eaves, shelter from wind, rain and sunlight and an easterly facing aspect. And they like the terrace boxes so they have neighbours. So probably none of what we have done will appeal.

I think we should just be helping sparrows

Our bird boxes should just be for sparrows. The "Cockney" connection is just too tempting. Obviously we can help other wildlife in future if necessary... I just think these are right because they used to thrive in urban areas but even they are being forced out.

Tuesday, 26 November, 2002, 12:17 GMT
R.I.P. Cockney Sparrow
COCKNEY SPARROW, the once ubiquitous London bird, is brown bread.

The cheerful chirps and twitters of the common house sparrow can no longer be heard in many parts of London, according to a new survey. The house sparrow, or passer domesticus, is one of Britain's best-loved native birds; a gregarious creature with a penchant for dust baths and feasting on insects.

Cockney is survived by house sparrows outside the capital and wider kin such as the hedge sparrow, swamp sparrow, field sparrow and mountain sparrow.

The Cockney sobriquet came about in the 19th Century when the gregarious creature was a fixture of the capital's parks, gardens and squares. Its first decline in numbers came between the wars, as horse transportation gave way to the motor car. The birds had enjoyed feeding on grain spilt from nosebags or undigested in dung.

Whole article from BBC

Turf wars

It's a shame this guy didn't just do the turf hair-do. I wonder if he would have been jailed just for that? Not entirely useful for our project, but I wonder if just adding the sod (no damage really) would have been an offense.

An ex-soldier has been sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment for defacing the statue of Winston Churchill during May Day demonstrations in central London.

Cambridge-based student James Matthews, 25, was also ordered to pay £250 in compensation to the Royal Parks Agency for the damage he caused. He pleaded guilty at Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court to intentionally or recklessly damaging the statue in Parliament Square.

His defacement of the statue happened on the same day as rioting on 1 May, which saw damage estimated at thousands of pounds caused to central London property.

The figure, which stands in Parliament Square, was made to look as though blood was dripping from its mouth. Graffiti was sprayed on the plinth and a turf mohican was added to the statue's head.

Source BBC News

Legal Eagle

Neither of you will be surprised to know that I am currently on the case with regard to legal issues surrounding benevolent vandalism. Not being the sort to take risks (don't laugh) I feel it is my duty to at least know what the most likely charge would be if we got into hot water.

Right now I must apologise to Jimmy because I didn't take his Health and Safety comment seriously. I think it's spot on, but while we were in the car I couldn't understand why anyone would "hang off" the things we are talking about putting up. You couldn't "hang off" one of those flat sheet street signs either, so it was the "hanging off" bit that threw me. But, the "safety" thing is 100% right. If any of these things cause personal damage to anyone (fall off and hit them etc.) we'd be liable. We'd need to look at Public Liability if we were in any way worried about covering ourselves on this.

Public liability insurance
If members of the public or customers come to your premises or you go to theirs (including if you work from home), you should think about taking out public liability (PL) insurance.

Otherwise we'd be Negligent:

Negligence is a legal concept in the common law legal systems usually used to achieve compensation for injuries (not accidents).

Other than this I'm really struggling to find anything to worry about. These are the only possible clauses or categories under which we might be committing offence, but none of them really cover covert bird box installation.

Graffiti and Fly Posting
But definitions don't include the installation of physical things. It's a graphics crime.
Litter
Well it could be I suppose.
Trespass
It's tinkering with/on someone else's property [Council]. But trespass normally has to have caused measurable damage.
Vandalism (the text is from Wikipedia, but it does give the overall gist)

Private citizens commit vandalism when they willfully damage or deface the property of others or the commons. Some vandalism qualifies as culture jamming or sniggling – it is artistic in nature as well as being carried out illegally or without the property owner's permission. Examples include at least some graffiti art, billboard liberation and possibly crop circles, Criminal vandalism has many forms, graffiti on public property is common in many inner cities as part of a gang culture, however other more devastating forms such as those involved with public unrest, such as rioting, involve the willful destruction of public and private property.

My bold in this because that's what I think we are doing at worst. If we were in Scotland it might qualify as this:

Malicious mischief is an offence under the common law of Scotland. It does not require actual damage to property for the offence to be committed, financial damage consequential to the act is sufficient, unlike vandalism which requires actual damage to property to form the offence, the latter being defined by section 52 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995; the two are different offences.

We aren't going to damage anything directly (this is very important when we design the brackets). But there's something here for me about money. If what we do ends up costing anyone money, or hurting anyone, we are liable for the damages. If someone has to pay to have the things taken down then they will look for whoever put them up to recoup the bill. Other than this I can't see any grounds for trouble.

And I will blame you two anyway.

Here is my sophisticated 3D rendering of the Reiffel Tower Souvenir (mark 1):



Original photo taken from here.

Richard Harris: Juggernaut

I know it's not the same thing, but the colour coded choice reminded me of this. Difference is that he's told what each one will do.

Keanu on his back

Why not.

This is our film...

I found this film while I was looking for Richard Harris in Juggernaut. It's not out yet. Info from Wikipedia entry:

The Hurt Locker is an upcoming award winning 2009 American war film directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Filmed entirely on location in Jordan, the film is based on recently declassified information about a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team in present day Iraq.

In Iraq, an elite U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit is forced to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse in the chaos of war in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.[16] Jeremy Renner plays the leader of the EOD team, as he contends with not only defusing bombs in the backdrop of a war but also the psychological and emotional strain that it inflicts.[17]

Someone even references Juggernaut while talking about this new film:

Freddie Jones' famous line from Juggernaut, fans will recall, is "cut the blue wire." He says this to Richard Harris, waits, and then says it again. But Harris smells a rat and cuts the red wire instead. It's the right choice. Whew.

Just look at the bloody poster.

Here's the trailer.