Art

We built an artcar for Burningman 2011

Our goals were to:

• evoke the conning tower/sail of a submarine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_(submarine)

• have a tranquil spa inside of it

• be built on top of a Utilimaster Aeromaster

• have a street legal mode

• have  a top deck that people can stand on

• capable of being day and night licensed for Burningman (http://www.burningman.com/on_the_playa/playa_vehicles/criteria.html)

The SpaMarine project was headed by Daniel C. Robbins, a designer, sculptor, and burner based in Seattle.

• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/SpaMarine

The exterior of the SpaMarine evokes the tall skinny conning tower of a submarine, plying its way through the endless sands of the playa. Inside, though, one lucky participant at a time will be treated to individualized spa treatments inside a quiet, clean, and soothing environment. The SpaMarine was built around a 1990 UMC (Utilimaster) Aeromaster. This is a small aluminum stepvan with a front-wheel drive Dodge Caravan 4 cylinder engine inside of it. Because of the modest power of the engine (and to conserve gas), all efforts are being made to save weight.

The rooms of my reinvented dollhouse can be pulled apart from each other, turned, and snapped together in new and unanticipated configurations. Kids like dollhouses. Dollhouses are tangible canvases for exploring family narratives, aspirations, and fantasy. There is an amazing history of dollhouses, from the simple, to the extravagant. From cheap and plastic to lovingly custom made wood facsimiles of real buildings. Dollhouses encourage undirected play where children can make their own rules within the sketch of a 3D space. Sometimes alon...e and sometimes in close quarters with another friend, dollhouse play is a precious tableau where dolls are told quiet stories and decisively moved from room to room by little fingers. The Magic Dollhouse is a prototype reconfigurable and rebuildable dollhouse.

I presented a new kind of dollhouse, a dollhouse that not only can be decorated but can be easily rearranged to suit new stories and new dreams. The rooms of my reinvented dollhouse can be pulled apart from each other, turned, and snapped together in new and unanticipated configurations. What was once a wall can now be a doorway. A stairway to the second floor can instead lead to a balcony. My reinvented dollhouse appeals to the little architect in every child with its simple components and its easy to understand arrangements.

Specifically, I have painstakingly designed a small set of barebones dollhouse rooms in a CAD program. From these designs I laser cut sets of standardized walls, floors, ceilings, and other architectural elements which are then permanently assembled into separate room components. A deceptively simple arrangement of tabs, hooks, and slots allows children to easily  snap together rooms into personalized dollhouses.

At the Seattle Mini Maker Faire 2012, I covered a table with a mishmash of dollhouse rooms and let children go to town: assembling, taking-apart, and re-assembling new kinds of dollhouses. And of course I will also have a few dolls scattered about to inhabit these emerging constructions. I am excited to see what aspects of my 1.0 design works and what parts frustrate or fail under real-world usage.

A 3D printed art piece, "Reduction" was on display at the 2014 Microsoft Employee Art Show (juried). This is a 3D printed subsection of Venice with mirrored walls. "

"Venice is a place of mystery, a place where we can easily become lost -- oftentimes with great serendipitous discovery. What happens when the mystery is reduced to a three dimensional model where there are no secrets, where every nook and cranny can be traced and deduced. What do we win and what do we lose?"

These Chuppah poles have been used in more than 40 weddings! I made these Chuppah poles from cherry stained pine. The top is is clad with a copper laminate which is engraved with the first names and Hebrew dates of everyone who has used them at their wedding. They have been primarily used in Seattle but they were also once shipped to Toronto for a wedding. The poles themselves are quite light. At our wedding, four people hand-held the poles for the entire ceremony -- and it was a long ceremony since we had four rabbi's in attendance.