Category Archives: Nautilus

January 4, 2016 · 8:10 am

Year in Review

The long Xmas break is coming to a close. I *love* being off from work, but I guess most people at this point in time could say that. According to Forbes at least 2 out of 3 Americans dislike their jobs. Still there are worse options, like unemployment, like living in a town I really don’t like (I do still like Blue Mountain quite a lot, just not as much as in earlier years). And I can see the finish line of my job now — 5 more years or so, perhaps 6. And that’s it.

As I’ve probably already written about here, I am very pleased with the progress on Sunklands, which is now a blog wrapped up in a legitimate web site (still bakerbloch.com for now). I see the blog as sort of a volcano of ideas, spewing forth strings of energy. I might have just finished up a round of Collagesity style fiction, for example. Before that I was heavy into the interpretation of the Boos collage series. Before that, the focus was on physically making the collages of that series. And so on back down the line. But sitting behind the blog are also several other projects I don’t talk about as much. The Sunklands site now seems to center around the collage art of me, baker b. But running in the background all the time in low hum mode is the maps research. It predates the digital collages, it predates audiovisual synching: for over 30 years now I’ve been working on this one project, trying to figure out how to put it in some sort of published form. And despite at least one valiant attempt, I’m still not there. Probably in about 10 years time I’ll release a version of the research but with the understanding that new editions will be forthcoming. I look forward to retirement for time to focus on that very important life project as well. The hybrid “Map Synching Feeling” from last year is a nod in this direction.

So let’s just break it down into categories:

Collages:

Very pleased, once more, with progress on collage work. 2 10 work series came in the first half of the year, and then the 30 piece Boos series happened in November and December. If I can keep doing 2 or 3 series a year like that for the rest of my life I’ll be pretty happy. It’s very very important to allow time for 2d digital collage making. It’s become my bread and butter, along with overall blog development.

And I have to add here that collage *interpretation* worked out well this year too. My interpretation of the Boos series might be my best writing yet in that vein. I also worked quite hard on the Stonethrow series interpretation in May, but that was only 10 collages as opposed to the 30 in Boos.

Audiovisual Synching:

Another type of collage in my mind, and one that keeps chugging along, although not at the hot pace of 2004-2007, or even 2013, another big synching year for me. But they still come. Carrcass-12 was formed this year in September. I still need to tape it, but I seemingly have all the elements in place now to do so. In a way, *this* is the center, and 2d collages just emerged from it instead of visa versa. But, really, the two go hand in hand in a bigger picture.

One thing I don’t worry about, at least presently, is making any money off of these collage creations. Setting that on the backburner has allowed me more freedom to experiment. For example, I’m always examining the idea of a work of art as self contained vs. being part of a series of at least 10 works. Obviously to the general (buying) public the former would be more understandable and probably more desirable to exhibit on their own. But without the flow of ideas behind the work, collages seem hollow and more insubstantial and, eventually perhaps, even dispensable. It’s a large topic. And this goes along with the needed interpretation of said series, adding depth. It’s almost two sides of one thing: like the moon, collages have a light side (surfacely viewable; contained) and a dark side (hidden meaning; boundless). To explore both, for me, is to better see the whole.

Virtual Reality:

This year, probably for the first time in my Second Life involvement, I’ve kept together a virtual town for *a whole year*. That’s quite an accomplishment in and of itself. But, viewed in another way, maybe it’s a non-accomplishment, because I’m always going back and forth whether to sell the land at the first of the month, or even abandon it. Witness the “move” to Nautilus continent and the Mysten sim this past summer. Witness the more recent Nautilus City rentals. Just last week Spongeberg Resident decided not to destroy the town in January and shift everything over to that island city. And I’m well aware that Second Life will not last forever, and that if I retain a virtual presence it will soon have to come through some kind of other platform. But I haven’t found that platform yet, and so my involvement with Second Life and virtual town making there persists. I’m thinking that the name Collagesity might be carried over into a post Second Life existence. I just like the name.

Art (Toy/Junk) Happenings:

One for this year: Bigfoot. Another big success story. Taking place on the western edge of the Blue Mountain Urban Landscape, October’s Bigfoot art happening forms a great synthesis of junk, toys, and marble races, my best effort yet in that direction and a template of sort for all happenings to follow. Where is it headed? I’m not sure, but the happenings have become an indispensable part of my art now. They are also entwined with woodsy exploration. So let’s go to that next…

Hiking/Exploring:

The weather has been super nice in November and December this year, allowing me considerably more hikes that usual for the time period. I have a backlog of photos to upload to the blog, actually, involving several more extensions of the Blue Mountain Landscape beyond Bigfoot (and Rediscovery). But Bigfoot is the big find of the year since it is attached to the successful happening. And the Blue Mountain Urban Landscape itself, taking a focus away from nearby Frank and Herman Parks. Too much stress, I feel, has been laid upon the latter to carry forth my art happenings, with Whitehead Crossing at the center of that quandry. More on that in a post to come. But Whitehead X-ing keeps being developed in its own way, and, as it seems to be turning out, in a *different* direction than the art happenings. Very important point there.

Sunklands Blog:

It keeps keeping on! I’m one of those that took to blogging like a duck to water. I can’t see that coming to a halt anytime soon. It also acts as or subs for a personal/ work journal. I sometimes talk through life problems via the blog’s various characters. I find refuge in a virtual village when the outside world becomes either physically or emotionally harsh. I weather the storm there and blog about it. I always seem to emerge a stronger person, and better because of the challenge. Thank you Sunklands!

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0001, BIGFOOT, Blue Mountain, carrcasses, collages 2d, Frank Park, Herman Park, Heterocera, Lower Austra, MAPS, Nautilus, Nautilus City, Rubi, Whitehead Crossing

December 3, 2015 · 1:49 pm

Minoa/Collagesity Update 02

I want to create another Boos interpretation post this morning but I’ll get more speculation about the future or non-future of Collagesity out of the way. Here’s what I think I’ll do now. I will *hold onto* Minoa for at least Dec and Jan and perhaps Feb, and then in March ditch it and move my virtual home to Nautilus City. Apparently I can get a double prim 1024 plot there about any time I want — reasonable rental, like I have now — and with that relative assurance, can play out my hand in Minoa. As I’ve found out in the past, the dead of winter is not the best time to downsize in Second Life, really. I’m trapped inside more, on the computer more, have more days off as well. I have about the ideal amount of land for Collagesity in Minoa. My only complaint is that it’s stretched out a little too much east to west, but everything still seems to fit. I have a nice spot for the basically finished Boos gallery. I’ll have a lot of prims left over for experiments on the ground and in the sky. I’m still right next to the clearly magical Rubi Woods.

Nautilus City is longer term. Minoa is shorter term. With that in mind I still plan to explore the former and log my findings into this here blog. That’s my decision for now. I won’t renew my NC plot. I’ll move the Boos gallery currently on that plot to Minoa. Thanks for listening.

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, Nautilus, Nautilus City, Rubi

November 25, 2015 · 1:40 pm

Boos Interpretation 05

(continued from)

To continue with the “Head Brains” analysis… instead of resting his hand on the back of the brown cow, Davy Jones clutches the edges of a superimposed spool table. Zappa perches at the top, a dark twelve o’clock figure. A large finger emerges from its center pointing directly to Frank, which I happen to know is a middle finger. The figurative bird that Zappa may be giving Davy at this point in the movie (“…your song’s pretty white,” etc.) seems to manifest for real in the collage. But, if so, the finger is actually pointing at us, the viewers. Hmmm. Jones stares right at it, perhaps aware of the context.

However, in looking at it closer, the finger is not pointing directly to 12 if the round spool table translates into a clock (and the finger the hour hand of a clock). The pointing is slightly askew to the right. I think this might represent the clock time 12:01, which can be rewritten as 11 hours and 61 seconds, or 11:66. Let’s keep that in mind to see if more evidence appears later on in the collage series.

Finally we have the transparent giant head of Subgenius prophet Bob Dobbs in the background, his visible eye perhaps fixated on the finger. Zappa was known to be something of an admirer of the Subgenius religion. And that’s another reference to “Head”.

In “Head Brains” we have another clear reference to the Bigfoot art event. One of the fixtures of that event, just recently completed of course, is a spool table, found at the Plateau of Raw Art and then rolled down the hill through the 4 roads territory to be placed beside Bigfeet Swamp and act as a centerpiece. I’ve already speculated an association with the name Brian Head, perhaps itself derived from “Brain Head” and thus directly related to the title of the present collage. I was aware in making this association that the “Head” of “Head Trip” is symbolically white or yang, which makes the complementary, circular iron smelting plant beside it in the Bigfoot event black or yin in energy, linking to the “Trip” part of the audiovisual synchronicity’s name. Let’s leave it at that for now.

In collage 08, called “When Wheels Went Round”, the spool table returns as a dominating image, or at least the top of one. Now it becomes directly linked to the central Nautilus City location called The Citadel, created on a circular plateau raised about 40 meters above the rest of the otherwise quite flat island-city (save one higher hill to the west). The wall encircling the plateau remains in the collage. However, the top portion with the roads and such has been removed, replaced by the top of a spool table image I found online. The golf iron extending toward this modified Citadel from the foreground is culled from a Bigfoot photo — it’s the original “iron” of the city, found by me prior to the event. That’s my hand holding it, then. In “When Wheels Went Round”, the *head* of the golf iron rests against the bottom of The Citadel wall.

The collage is actually a 2 part animation, where the whole Citadel appears to rotate round and round, or at least that’s the effect I was going for. This reinforces the association with a clock, once more. The Oz wheeler first seen in “Simpsons Road Bloch” a couple of collages back reappears on the edge of the spool table, remaining steady as the table revolves below him — a fixed point. He seems to stare into the central hole of the table, which duplicates an actual hole in the middle of The Citadel. I suppose showing the base snapshot I used for the collage is appropriate here to understand this…

That’s my Fal Mouth Moon gallery at the bottom of the photo, which remains in the collage. The iron and my hand holding it have the same kind of sepia tint to them as the gallery, a color scheme that will resurface later in “Comparative Heights” (collage 24 of the series). Like everything else in the collage *save* the spool table and accompaning wall, the iron remains the same in both parts of the animation. Only the transformed Citadel changes, with its perpetual whirling.

So what is the meaning of all this? The Wheeler is obviously associable with a wheel, per the collage’s title. Wheels go ’round and ’round. I return to the idea of a clock, with the iron perhaps acting as another type of clock hand, or an indicator of a specific time. Will the giant finger reappear from the central hole when the clock strikes twelve (whatever that means)? The ribbed wall brings to mind clock gears.

Let’s push on…

1 Comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, BIGFOOT, Blue Mountain, collages 2d, Nautilus, Nautilus City

Tagged as CENTER POINT

November 24, 2015 · 12:45 pm

Boos Interpretation 02

(continued from)

“Bixby Shuffle 02” is the second part of the animation. We now have clear evidence of a transformation through the door. Bixby is turning into the monster again. In the window, we peek into the future.

We know from former map analysis that the towns of Bixby, Buick and Boss Missouri are psychically linked in some way. For one, they form an isosceles triangle, with Boss at the apex. Bixby and Buick lie on the western side of Iron County, in the Dent Township. Boss lies a little over the border in Dent *County* to the west.

I was studying Iron County at the time of this discovery because of its close ties to the Bigfoot Art Event that just took place next to the Blue Mountain Urban Landscape. This art event permeates the Boos collage series through and through. The two main toy characters of the event, Taum Sauk and Mina Sauk, both take their names from prominent landscape locations within this county, or the highest mountain in Missouri and the highest waterfall in Missouri respectively (which tumbles off the side of Taum Sauk mountain). The root cause of this association comes through the presence of a full golf *iron* already located at the epicenter of the Bigfoot Art Event, before it even began. Then a second iron — but only a head this time — was found at the Plateau of Raw Art which acted as the main source of the event’s junk aspect. Like with the spool table, another object which plays a major role in Boos collages. I would soon locate another spool table in Tungaske which would directly link my Bigfoot with that artsy Canadian hamlet. And Tungaske itself is featured in almost all Boos collages starting with the 10th.

Back to the “Bixby Shuffle” animation: What is really going on here? Why have I been directed, it seems, to bore into this Missouri location; collage the elements I have into it? I’m almost positive it refers to my present work situation, which has changed in the past several months. I’ve relocated, in effect. *My* boss has been exposed to be… well, the proximity of Boss and Bixby (and Buick) in Missouri is not chance, let’s say. I’m aware of a similar shuffle in my own life. And this goes hand in hand with a mother situation. Pretty deep stuff for me.

The Great Mother vs. the Terrible Mother: the dual nature of the Jungian archetype.

But, for every positive, creative force, there must be an opposing, destructive one. This notion is doubly true in the esoteric world of Carl Jung, where all archetypes must, by necessity, possess a shadow self. The dark twin sister of the Great Mother is the Terrible Mother, a force of death and destruction. This archetype inhabits the world of the primordial instincts, and is frequently represented as sub-human or even animal-like in form. A good example of the Terrible Mother archetype is the black-skinned Hindu goddess Kali. Her eyes are described as red with absolute rage, her hair disheveled, and small fangs sometimes protrude out of her mouth. She is often shown naked or just wearing a skirt made of human arms and a garland of human heads.

For me, this seems to be a residue form. Escape from childhood joys and fears is difficult. I was surprised, nay *shocked*, that such fears still could possess me. I’ll leave it at that. But I’m sure that’s behind some of the art here. The hulk monster is intertwined with the Terrible Mother and the rage.

—–

Moving on to collage 03, another animation, we have the reappearance of the rock house from collage 02 in its center. I call the work simply “The Rock”. In part 02 of the animation, we see that the Bixby shuffle is still in effect inside the house — the painfully green hulk has now *shuffled* over to the door, with Normal Bixby (human) nowhere to be seen.

And in the animation between the two, it is obvious that Mossman has become associated with The Incredible Hulk as well. He seems to be raging, like the hulk. But he is, according to my mythology at least (and, in part, the Heman mythology he comes from), a peaceful, civilized, highly intelligent being of pretty calm disposition. Within him, the turbulence is soothed; waves smoothed out. The storm is over. We will not see inside the possessed rock house again in the collage series.

The background for “The Rock” comes from Second Life, namely a Nautilus City shot highlighting my newly minted virtual gallery that now holds the entire Boos collage series. The rock house becomes superimposed on a rock in the Punic Woods just below the gallery (literally below, in the picture), which has been deemed mystical in much the same way as the Rubi Woods before it. The original background picture is here for a comparison:

Nautilus City will be seen in several other collages of the series coming up.

“The Rock” is easily the most reworked collage in the Boos series, forming in three phases at different times. As I touched upon in a recent post, it almost seems to steal some thunder from the end of the series. I think now some kind of jolt was needed to refocus the series on non-Missouri locations, or to bring Missouri into Canada, as it were. The guitarists to the left come directly from Tungaske, and they will “reappear” in the very last collage of the series. Canada (and Second Life) has come to the rescue. And Bigfoot.

And then also in the second part of “The Rock” we have Mossman being superimposed with the “3 Birds” sculpture seen in a number of my other collages down through the years now, starting in 2004’s Greenup series. Here I believe it represents the looped marble race of the Bigfoot event, a central aspect. Taum Sauk stands next to both Mossman and the sculpture, reinforcing a Bigfoot connection. His head swivels from left to right in the animation. His attention seems diverted to the next collage down the wall of the gallery…

… called “Dirty Little Wet Seed”. In this collage Taum Sauk seems to be examining the repercusions of Boss Moss and what his indicating finger is pointing to. We already know that this small gray square is a car from “Bossmo”, but duplicated as a *license plate* on the same car in “Bixby Shuffle”. This is the seed referred to in the title. Green Acres’ Oliver Wendell Douglas seems to hold it between his fingers. Douglas is actually talking about a hypothetical seed in the culled screenshot from the show — more tv shows.

If we google the phrase “dirty little wet seed”, we find the the show in question: “Oliver Buys a Farm”, which is also the pilot for the popular 60’s series. Directly related quote, then:

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0592737/quotes

Oliver Wendell Douglas: I’d take a little seed, a tiny little seed, I’d, I’d plant it in the ground, I’d put some dirt on it, I’d water it, and pretty soon, do you know what I’d have?
Lisa Douglas: A dirty little wet seed.

Full script of the show is here:

http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=green-acres-1965&episode=s01e01

I won’t go into this much but that particular episode is used as a core video source for a 2012 carrcass, or Carrcass-6. 12 Oz Mouse acts as the main glue for this particular audiovisual synchronicity, which I’ll add because its characters also appear in the Boos series. Green Acres folk will not put in another appearance, however.

(to be continued)

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, collages 2d, MAPS, Missouri, Nautilus, Nautilus City

November 22, 2015 · 3:54 pm

Boos Overview 03

I’ve about decided to name the T-Town dominating the Boos collage settings Tungaska instead of Thornberry. It is phonetically closer to the actual name of the town. The Tungaska event is generally described as the effects of a meteor colliding with Earth, and considered the largest impact event in recorded history. Meteors are depicted in several collages of the series, for example, in “Boos Attach” (collage 14). The state of Tungaska in that photo makes it appear almost to be in ruins.

Or maybe it is Tungaske.

Anyway, when I looked up the Tungasaka event in wikipedia and went to the attached “Tungaska event in speculative fiction” link, I found this close conjunction of authors named Stephenson, seemingly unconnected to each other except for using the event as a plot device in one of their recent books. Neal Stephenson (misnamed in the article) is a famous sci fi/speculative author perhaps best known for the pioneering work “Snow Crash” from 1992. Charles Stephenson is an unknown writer in comparison. Both put forth different theories in their books about the cause of the event. Neither involve meteors.

In Seveneves: A Novel by Neil Stephenson (2015), after the Earth’s moon explodes in the first pages of the novel, it is suggested that a small speeding blackhole, such as was hypothesized (and disproven) to have caused the Tunguska event, caused the moon’s explosion.

Charles Stephenson’s 2013 novel The Face of OO culminates with the explosion over Siberia. In this story a hijacked airship, which is carrying a ‘divine weapon’ mentioned in the Indian great epic, the Mahabharata, explodes causing the massive blast.[1]

In the “Boos Attach” collage, 12 Oz Mouse’s head is pinned down by a meteor. But he’s okay. The meteor has landed, however. Umaps gives us additional clues, seemingly, about the impact (or “impach”), relating it perhaps to the “inch” measurement, for some reason. Inch, ounce, pound?

Another place we see the same cartoon meteor from 12 Oz mouse is the 6th collage of the series called “12 Pound Mouse Mound”…

12 Pound Mound is a terraforming anomaly in Nautilus City recently re-discovered (and newly named) by Baker Bloch. In the collage, the anomaly transforms into the new body or torso of 12 Oz Mouse himself, his head awaiting the impact of the meteor, per the accompanying video seen in this earlier post.

12 Lb Mound

So “Boos Attach” is a completion of the event first seen in the earlier collage “12 Pound Mouse Mound”: before and after pictures. The meteor has landed.

And with it, perhaps the (fictional name) ~~Thornberry~~ ~~Tungaska~~ Tungaske, Sask. is born.

The meteor gives birth to something new instead of destroying.

2 Comments

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, Canada/Tungaska, collages 2d, MAPS, Nautilus, Nautilus City, Washington

November 20, 2015 · 7:08 am

2 Fer 1 (more tests…)

“2 Fer 1 01”

“2 Fer 1 02”

I’m running out of room in me Nautilus City gallery…

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, Canada/Tungaska, collages 2d, Nautilus, Nautilus City

November 19, 2015 · 7:28 am

Collage 24 test

“Comparative Heights”

“Q Girl”

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, Canada/Tungaska, collages 2d, Nautilus, Nautilus City

November 16, 2015 · 9:17 am

Atlantic and Pacific

“Atlantic 01”

“Atlantic 02”

“Pacific Won”

“Pacific Too”

1 Comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, Canada/Tungaska, collages 2d, Nautilus, Nautilus City

November 15, 2015 · 9:03 am

Work Break

—–

Hucka D.:

No talk just yet. Just… how are you going to save…

bb:

Unloading…

Leave a comment

Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, Nautilus, Nautilus City

November 12, 2015 · 6:14 am

Collage 11

“Hucka Homebee”

—–

bb:

Good evening Hucka *Homebee*.

Hucka D.:

(smiles)

bb:

We need to interpret the collages sometime.

Hucka D.:

Later.

—–

Hucka D. had to leave or buzz off, as they say. I’m thinking of moving one or more of my characters to Tugaske, Saskatchewan, perhaps toy avatar [Taum Sauk] or maybe Baker Bloch. I’m touring the town through Google Earth Streetview presently. More shots soon.

Tugaske Gallery? (Tugallerskey?)