The Idea generation

Part 1: Hot Topic (no not the lame store that conforms the fashion sense of non-conformists.

My original intention for this installation is it to be outside, as well as it to quite large. Since my time at this college will be relatively short ( I will only be here for about one more month, I really wanted to create something that was uniquely St. Mary’s in an inside joke kind of way. A large amount of material will be scarce to find, have decided on the medium of bicycles. Bikes are everywhere, and almost everyone has one. When the school first announced the Free Ride Program (R.I.P.) it made national news for the next step of a college campus to go green.
The SMCM area is literally covered with old and neglected bikes that area just rusting on the sidewalks and looking like large pieces of garbage. Since this week is Campus awareness week, could contribute be helping pick up some the bike corpses around campus. Risky, hardly.

Part Deux: Artist Andy Goldsworthy“I have often found that apparently ordinary places yield extraordinary things.”

When the last article we read (the really boring one by Nick Hayes) really addressed that an installation needed to have a real incorporation of space- why was the object chosen to be put there and only there- I remember reading/watching a documentary of Andy Goldsworthy. I put some more research into his methods and also picked up a copy of his book, Time from the library. His writing from the introduction was exactly what I wanted to hear for my line of potential work.
He states: “Time and change are connected by place. Real change is best understood by staying in one place.”

Hearing that really makes me think of the first time I got here to about now months later.

Most of Goldsworthy’s work involves ephemeral matters of nature, nothing best shows the time and change of a piece by seeing it naturally decay from erosion or the tide. Ice, Snow Sticks, Mud, Moss, Leaves, Peat, Rocks, Ash, Sand, Clay, Flowers are all in the palette of this artist.

I will focus more on the broad concepts of Goldsworthy’s installations and his ideas as an artist rather than a single piece. In the work sand extending the roots of trees it clearly shows the facets the natural curvature of nature and how it breaks itself down. Another piece the rock structure taken up by the tide shows the resistance of the material compared to the tide of change. I also shows how in a short time of a day, the space of the beach can be completely transformed by the tide.




Just to help out my initial medium he did mention the bicycle within his book. ”[I] Traveled by bicycle which is unusual for me. On the bicycle it was difficult to stop.”

Bold words Mr. Goldworthy. Bold Words.

Part Three: I made the connection.

I have decided to embrace the landscape of our beloved college bestowed to the Saint of Mary. I have realized what places show the uniqueness of the school, the college, the way of life…………………………………………….The trees.

Yes it may sound hokey, but the trees in this area, really do define the region, if there was no forest to be protected would the on campus group SEAC be as aggressive; probably not.

So thus far the equation is Bikes + Trees + Art=?

Not that simple of a problem, so lets see how other people have addressed it.

This is a website for modern way of storing bikes in Geneva, Switzerland called bike tree, it is solar-powered and uses state of the art technology. Kind of a techologically adavaned tree.


Here is a picture of a bike that used resources from trees, kind of a commensalist relationship between the two.

Here is what happens when nature especially trees ( more the parasitic worm infection in the tree) get angry at bikes

Here is another idea someone put out there. I could put a record player out of the bike.

Or even have the bike create power so I can have lights or any appliance the possibleities are endless.

Idea one: THE BIKE TREE

I will weld many parts of bikes together to make it look like a tree. I will weld all of the pieces together, as well as place it in the forest somewhere. This idea spurs from the aspect of nature in Goldworthy’s work however I will not be using nature materials as a medium. I will go the opposite direction by using metal and other manufactured materials. This will say that natural materials are just as ephemeral as non-natural ones.

Idea 2: THE BIKE ROOM

I will want to have several bikes attached to generators and power converters than have any appliance possible to make the conditions more comfortable like fans, music, anything . the more people inside the more comfortable they will be, These are based on another artist Virginia Valdes whose installation Wasteland is based on clean energy and recycling. The link is here if you are interested.

Idea three: PARTY BIKE BOAT,

Off my original idea of a party barge discussed several weeks ago, I would get two bikes and convert them into paddle boats, Then I will attach a stage around it and paddle around the pond on a Friday evening. This has not too much to do with Andy Goldsworthy’s work.

Sketches will be soon...