Sol Diego Arts Collaborative "Two More Cents" Meeting

8 March 2015 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Colab

Part 1: Identification Open Playa Project for 2015

Attendees included but were not limited to: Nate, Brandie, Jasmine, Jeff Makey, Fin, Paul, Abraxas3D, Lana, David, Organ Donor Richard, Boone, Kristin, Stoddemire, Elena

Brandie opened the meeting with a discussion of fundraising organizational advancements.

After a call for fundraising volunteers and leads went out on the Google Group and on Facebook, 10 people responded with skills ranging from grant writing to event coordination. Brandie took the action item of hosting a fundraising meeting in the near future.

No new ideas were submitted for the open playa project. No objections were raised to the Quake and Shake by Mark Anderson. Therefore, Quake and Shake was adopted as Sol Diego's 2015 Open Playa Project.

It was emphasized that the construction would be simple, and the widgets, decorations, and gadgets be sourced from the community in the widest and most collaborative way possible.

$5000 was the non-vetted budget. LED lighting was budgeted only $1000 of that total. Paul raised the issue of the desired level of lighting not matching the budget, and also reminded those in attendance that the lighting from previous CORE projects, which was renovated last year in a series of work groups, is currently dedicated to the Isis Temple, which is about to go to Lucidity. In other words, Quake and Shake will be starting from scratch in terms of LED and other lighting effects.

After some short discussion, it was agreed upon that the budget should be described as "Between $5000 and $10,000" and that design meetings need to produce a more accurate budget.

 

Build is expected to be relatively short for the structure. If pre-cut, it could be built in a month. The setting of the springs underneath the structure is expected to take two weekends.

Storage of the Quake and Shake is a challenge. Colab charges a $1 a square foot per month. At 16 feet wide and 20 feet tall at the peak, the house will require a spacious build area.

Paul mentioned that he was interested in novel lighting techniques. Paul explained that he did not want to produce LED lighting that would look like a house decorated with "Christmas Lights", but wanted to create something more spectacular and less potentially cliche.

Brandie expects, at a minimum, the following teams to form:

Build and Design

Lighting

Kinetic and Musical Community Projects (decorations, doodads, dangles, furnishings for inside/outside of Quake and Shake)

Surfacing (exterior artwork and finishing)

Power Supply

Action Item: call a design meeting

Part 2: Midway

 

Arcade games played in the 70s and 80s form the bulk of the Midway proposal. The style will be a circus freak show Belmont Park/Wonderland inspired fusion of fun mixed with a little bit of fear.

 

Action Item: design a font specifically for Sol Diego Midway. The fonts appear to be classic circus fonts, but on closer inspection, have hidden symbols and meaning.

 

Action Item: Contact Black Rock City French Quarter to see if there is any potential collaboration based around their Traveling Clown.

 

Boone highlighted the attraction of having many smaller projects (arcade games) that people could be involved with from start to finish. This is a fundamental difference from most of the previous projects. Meeting participants responded positively to this aspect. Another important part of the Sol Diego Midway is the use of forced perspective for the space.

 

The spaces available for Midway Projects are 10 feet wide by 24 feet deep for the "small" space, and 20 feet wide by 24 feet deep for the "large" projects. As participants approach the space, they see what appears to be a hallway that is much deeper than expected due to the use of forced perspective. This is a tactic that manipulates the vanishing point and perspective lines with clever use of surface angles and scale of objects. The arcade games at the front are regular size. The ones at the end are smaller. This plus a painting in the back of the space of a distant vanishing point will create a space that appears much deeper than it actually is.

 

Proposals and application for space is due by 15 March 2015. A Midway proposal-planning meeting was scheduled for Tuesday 10 March 2015.

 

David emphasized that because of the precision required in order to create an optical illusion using forced perspective that people will have to design first and build second. They will have to conform to the overall plan for the space. David wanted this point to be communicated early and often. Participants strongly agreed.

 

Action Item: commit to a set of perspective lines and scales, and publish them, to enable exhibits to conform to the optical illusion.

 

Brandie and Jasmine shared some inspirational photographs from their research at the San Diego Historical Society.

 

Jasmine reports, “As was talked about at the Two Cents Meeting, members of Sol Diego went to the San Diego History Museum and were able to dig up old photographs of the various amusement parks/carnivals around San Diego. So far, this is what we have found. We have a very rich history in San Diego for this, from Wonderland in Ocean Beach, to Belmont Park in Mission Beach, to Tent City on Coronado Island. I think this history can work as amazing inspiration for the themes, facade, and backdrop for our upcoming Midway Project. Please let us all know your thoughts and ideas!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brandie explained that at Wonderland and Belmont Park that there were animals.

 

Action Item: Make furries welcome at Sol Diego Midway as another place for them to play.

 

Organ Donor Richard proposed an Interactive Zoltar.

“Nothing says " penny arcade" better than Zoltar, but I thought that we could take it up a notch. With keeping with the theme "This Carnival of Mirrors" where we discover who is the trickster, who is being tricked; I would like to suggest that we remove Zoltar's head! We could keep the turban and have the beard and mustache on a piece of stiff wire where people can rest their chin as they stick their head into the back of the cabinet. Think of the photo op's that will provide for every one. The hands can be attached to wood dowels out the back so that the person playing Zoltar can wave them around and dispense the fortunes into a bowl in the front of the cabinet for fortune-tellee.

 

Richard”

 

 

 

Places to be updated Very Soon with all sorts of Sol Diego goodness:

http://www.sol-diego.org

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sol-diego-san-diegos-core-project

https://www.facebook.com/SolDiego.SDCORE

 

And remember; don't "wash" the sausage while it's being made.