SPS: Geoff Dorn

Geoff Dorn presented the third in the Special Presentation Series by giving all the basic tips on insurance and them demonstrating how to tie all the ties. He wasn't lying when he said he has taught more people how to tie a tie than anyone in the world. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Key Dance Party

What began as an intimate and existential joke to myself on my kitchen table in 2006 [keep laughing] became a workshop during a recent group critique in the MFA social practice program. Many of the members shared in the funny moment by dancing and selecting dance songs. We even had a "Dance Party" of dancing keys. Ariana Jacob was the stage manager who used bike lights to make a disco. Some people went nuts, some people were really good key dancers, others just winged it. Favorite songs included genres like hip-hop, house, soul and pop. Thanks to my fellow students and the professors for humoring my use of the critique time to experiment. Read more!

Lights in the Library

A pdf piece documenting a minimalist light installation at the Portland State University Library. Download the low resolution (not meant for printing) version of Lights in the Library. Unlike some of my other pdf works, there is no text other than the title in Lights in the Library. This is because I want the viewer to engage the work themselves and come to their own conclusions. My hope is that this pdf will take on a life of its own and be including in an upcoming pdf only art show.
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SPS: Matt Hall & Alex Behr

For the second presentation in the Special Presentation Series, Matt and Alex presented Matt's martial arts and Lion Drumming. It was very exciting, graceful and energetic. Thank you Matt and Alex. The drumming performance included the instruments on the right side of this photograph. Matt's demonstrations included different types of arts he has learned in his many years studing martial arts and several sets within each. It is hard to describe how invigorating and interesting it is to see such controlled yet graceful movements up close. Read more!

SPS: Larry Yes

Soul Journey by Larry Yes with his Audience

Fandalism Free MP3 Hosting

For the first in the Special Presentation Series at LEGARE'S CAFE, Larry Yes presented his story of coming to be a songwriter, how he writes a song, and how to use a four-track to record a musical moment. It was awesome and moving. Some joined Larry in recording a vocal and drum jam (posted above). Thank you Larry. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Walkshop: Lucky Dragons

During their visit I did a Walkshop with Lucky Dragons. During our walk we talked about rocks and the funny thing about the value of the art object, among other things. Luke overturned a rock that surprisingly had the words "Student Activism" painted on the bottom! Sara and I discovered a coffee mug that appeared to have been undisturbed for some time we thought was a sculpture in itself. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Nice Expectations

Book Tribute: Zac Von Jo. Utilizing a print-on-demand website and Adobe Indesign, I was able to insert my friend as the protagonist of Dickens' novel Great Expectations. Zac replaces Pip. This is the second in an ongoing project of replacing protagonsists with "everyday" people. To see a similar project, go to my 1985 project. Read more!

Walkshop: Courtney Fink

A collaborative sculpture walk with visiting curator Courtney Fink. We had been talking about coincidence and wondering what we were going to do. She liked the plastic bags on the bikes, so she asked a couple near by to take the bags off the bikes and then replace them. It ended up that one of them, Nick, knew me through a friend of mine. Coincidence. For more Walkshops go here.
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Synthesizer Circle

Expanding the instrumental circle concepts, Chris Reylea and I invited everyone we knew to bring a synth or just play one at the local night club Dunes. It was fun but kinda overwhelming, then it became a magical jam at the end of the night.
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Society of the Spectacle English Overdub Screening

I screened an unofficial english overdub of the infamous situationist documentary The Society of the Spectacle (Guy Debord 1973) that I prepared myself using Ken Knabb's translation. It was free and open to the public. For more information on this film go here.

special thank you to Cyrus Smith and Jonathan Legare for use of their spaces, and to Beau McDaniel for last minute use of his video projector.

And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Viewfinder

As part of the TBA festival I roamed Portland taking pictures of peoples' houses and giving them to them as a way to realize a short story by Raymond Carver called Viewfinder. I had one request from someone who emailed me after reading my TBA project post. Her name was April. We took several portraits of her, which I documented with my digital camera before giving them to her. Thanks to Cyrus and Kennedy Smith and Harrell Fletcher for use of their cameras and creative encouragement. The rest of April's portraits are on view in video form at the Autzen Gallery at PSU. Read more!

Breakthrough

As part of the Time-Based Art festival in Portland, presented by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, I organized this project. It involved asking volunteers to breakthrough the butcher-paper-covered door of a Portland cafe from 1-2pm on three consecutive days. Inspired by Sierra Norris and thanks to Jonathan Legare for letting us use his cafe. Sierra Norris had told me about someone she knew who did this for their child everyday so when they came out the door of their room, they experienced the dawning of another totally new day. I initially was asking Jonathan if I could do this with people coming out of the bathroom. It was soon discovered that would have been too akward so the natural choice became the main door.

Thanks to Jonathan Legare for use of his Cafe and to it's patrons for humoring the breakthrough process.
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Play Me, Don't Hurt Me

This was an installation of a synthesizer, a synthesizer manual, headphones, and a sign that read "play me, don't hurt me" at Legare's cafe for one day during the cafe's open hours (on August 7th). Johnathan Legare, the proprietor of the cafe, reported that many people played the keyboard, including children, and that one woman even played Debussy on it! This project was part of the Provflux arts festival in Rhode Island, in the form of a project by Jen Delos Reye that created Satellite festivals, one being in Portland. Read more!

Hafiz Knows How To Party

For the Worksound show, I walked around the gallery asking people on the street to read my favorite poet Hafiz in to the camera. The video ran about 15 minutes and included 7 people, one of whom read his own poem. To learn more about the show go here. Read more!

Karl Williams

I have been collaborating with Karl Williams, a local musician and composer. He uses primarily synthesizers, drum machines and midi technology to create beautiful sweeping soundtrack compositions. We are working on a new CD, live promotion, and new compositions with me as a support technician and band member.

go to his myspace page

Read more!

This I Believe

You have received This I Believe e-cards from Avalon Kalin.

To view your This I Believe e-cards, click on a link below.

I Believe in Interwoven Creativity
I Believe That Sadness
I Believe in Doing
I Believe in the Power of Relationship
I Believe the Cosmos

The This I Believe e-cards are part of a collaboration with Carol Joy Brendlinger and others at the Spiritual Life Center at PSU.

Thank you to those who shared their thoughts and feelings.

To find out more about the Spiritual Life Center go to here. Read more!

Bathroom Installation

I had a vision of a rainbow in my bathroom. I went ahead and fabricated it with felt where I remembered it to be (on the floor and wall near the door). I didn't have red or orange. **y G Biv. Read more!

Sewn Leather LP

This is the Sewn Leather LP "I Live Like This Cuz I Like It". It is a very realness oriented record that is both dark and energizing. I had it pressed and printed as the first release for my record label, (Y)ours Records. The record was printed in the Czeck Republic by the San Francisco company recordpressing.com. 500 copies, available for $13.00 postage paid at yoursrecords.com. Jacket printed in San Francisco also by recordpressing.com. I'm proud of the two "imprints" on the record. They are specal impressions on the vinyl at the end of the record. They say "Transpersonal Affirmation" and "Ethereal Concentration" Read more!

Yours Records Website Launch

The Did-It-Myself record label I've created now has a website. I'm still working out the bugs. The page pictured shows the poster I had printed in Shelton Washington by the people at the Shelton Mason-County Journal. I'm quite proud of it. Read more!

Stranger Moments

After a few rehearsals, a group of volunteer actors and I had a series of re-enactments from the Enterbeing stories I had gathered during my residency. They took place in the neighborhood around Enterbeing (ne 17th and Alberta) It went well. Scenes were both scripted and improvised. Actors and collaborators included:

Will Palumbo

Tess Yinger

James Nielson

Alan A. Hakimoglu

Sandy Sampson

Avalon Kalin

Benjamin Gilliam

People who gathered at Enterbeing

Special thanks to neighbors who let us perform in their yard, Jason Burns and his roomates for letting us use their porch, and to Scott Brazieal and everyone at Enterbeing for welcoming us into their stories. Read more!

ARH: Re-enactments of Contemporary Art Works

I met with Julie Perini and Chris Hudson to discuss re-enacting the t.h.a.n.k.s. project by Markuz Wernli Saitô and Mike Reandeau. We found that our concerns and schedules prevented us from completing the project in time for my university requirement. However, much was gained from our discussions. Thank you Markuz for sharing your thoughts with Julie and I. Read more!

ARH: Re-enactments of Contemporary Art Works

I re-enacted Mads Lynnerup's Bus piece, in which the artist gets on and off a bus each time running to catch it as it goes from stop to stop. Thank you Arman Bohn for coming along to document. Also thank you to the Mads for the advice to not wear converse. Read more!

ARH: Re-enactments of Contemporary Art Works

I re-enacted Joshua Greene's Iced Tea piece, which involved inviting people to share Iced Tea with the artist. It was interesting. Thank you to Amir and the people at Broadway Coffee and to the artist Joshua Greene for his thoughts on his work. Read more!

Collaboration with D Yellow Swans

We performed for Vision + Hearing, a audio/video themed collaboration that for this event featured work dealing with Portland landmarks. We chose the Joan D'arc statue in South East. As I made a video of the statue, I walked around and slowly zoomed in until the rhythm of my walking made the stature appear to be galloping through a spiritual forest. I performed with DYS by using a flashlight to project a live "lens burst" onto the projected image, giving Joan a halo as she rode. Thank you Marc Fischer (of Portland) for your facilitating this event and our collaboration. Read more!

Book Tribute: Eric Steen

Utilizing a print on demand website and the find & replace feature in Adobe Indesign, I was able to fulfill my longtime dream of rewriting books by placing my friends names in the place of famous protagonists. In this, the first in a series, Winston Smith of 1984 has been replaced by Eric Steen (a classmate). The title has been changed to 1985. Others in the series will include Nice Expectations and Fiona in Wonderland Read more!

Free Box Book

I finally printed each photo from the Free Box Free Jazz event and had it bound with "comb" binding. 524 pages. Read more!

Starting a Record Label

I've started a record label to release musical and art related projects by people who might not have a chance otherwise. Website soon... Read more!

Proposal for the David Lynch Foundation

I've sent a proposal to the David Lynch Foundation in hopes that they will consider giving scholarships to friends and acquaintances of mine who have shown a strong interest in learning the Transcendental Meditation technique, but who cannot afford it. We're crossing our fingers. Read more!

Enterbeing: Third Night

For my third night sitting in at Enterbeing, a man named Jed told his story of changing or growing faith. A theme of his story was the difference between a separate divinity away from life and planet earth versus a present divinity or "God direct" right here in our earth, bodies, and spirits. I asked the people present to think of images or pictures or themes from his story and to assign me the task of creating them based on their descriptions. That's the next phase. Read more!

Dowsing at Reed College

For the Reed Arts Week, Laurel Kurtz and I invited professional dowser Mike Doney to lecture about his life and work. Then we invited him to lead a dowsing workshop/performance where the celestial music of the campus landscape was dowsed for certain tones in the chromatic scale. Once these tones were located and marked, vocalist Becky Miller sang them. Read more!