davidcool :: portfolio :: blog http://www.davidcool.com/blog Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:45:24 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 MFA Thesis Show Opening Tonight! http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2012/03/31/mfa-thesis-show-opening-tonight/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2012/03/31/mfa-thesis-show-opening-tonight/#comments Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:39:50 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=756 Do Not Disconnect

Do Not Disconnect

My MFA Thesis show opens tonight. Only a month left! Woo hoo!

]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2012/03/31/mfa-thesis-show-opening-tonight/feed/ 0 Make Controller with Sonar Proximity Detectors and MaxMSP http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2010/06/02/make-controller-with-sonar-proximity-detectors-and-maxmsp/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2010/06/02/make-controller-with-sonar-proximity-detectors-and-maxmsp/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:35:51 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=743 Well, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve last updated. I have a lot to catch up on. I thought it would be fun to start off with a project that I just started. Check it out:

I’ll be heading up to Connecticut in the Fall to start an MFA program focusing on installation and new media. I’m planning on incorporating a lot of this physical computing type of stuff. Now that I’ve got the basics of building the hardware, I can focus on how to be creative with it!

]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2010/06/02/make-controller-with-sonar-proximity-detectors-and-maxmsp/feed/ 0 Bhutan: Temples in Bumthang http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/06/26/bhutan-temples-in-bumthang/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/06/26/bhutan-temples-in-bumthang/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:38:10 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=728 Here is a video I put together of a Saturday hike we had with Wangchuk. We hiked down the road from our house to a grouping of very famous temples. Then we visited a spring for a drink. The spring is said to be holy water. Guru Rinpoche is reputed to have drank the water and the powers of the water released a demon inhabiting his body. The locals line up here everyday and wait in line for hours to drink from the spring.


No video? Get the DivX Web Player for Windows or Mac
]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/06/26/bhutan-temples-in-bumthang/feed/ 0 Bhutan: Thimpu to Bumthang http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/06/15/bhutan-thimpu-to-bumthang/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/06/15/bhutan-thimpu-to-bumthang/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:40:17 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=722 This one will have to be a quick one. This post is a photo diary of our 10 hour trip from Thimpu to Bumthang. I basically hung out the window of the bus constantly shooting as we went. Some of the pics are a bit blurry because of the bus moving and the bumpy road.

_DSC0001 _DSC0005 _DSC0006 _DSC0017 _DSC0027 _DSC0030 _DSC0041 _DSC0049 _DSC0052 _DSC0059 _DSC0067 _DSC0068 _DSC0070 _DSC0071 _DSC0074 _DSC0078 _DSC0079 _DSC0088 _DSC0091 _DSC0104 _DSC0106 _DSC0111 _DSC0112 _DSC0114 _DSC0119 _DSC0124 _DSC0126 _DSC0129 _DSC0134 _DSC0138 _DSC0142 _DSC0145 _DSC0149 _DSC0150 _DSC0151 _DSC0152 _DSC0153 _DSC0155 _DSC0160 _DSC0162 _DSC0164 _DSC0165 _DSC0166 _DSC0174 _DSC0182 _DSC0186 _DSC0189 _DSC0191 _DSC0192 _DSC0198 _DSC0200 _DSC0202 _DSC0203 _DSC0204 ]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/06/15/bhutan-thimpu-to-bumthang/feed/ 1 Bhutan: Thimpu http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/29/bhutan-thimpu/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/29/bhutan-thimpu/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:56:06 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=655 A quick post with some sights on our second day in Thimpu. We had to wait for Thinley to arrange our travel permits to Bumthang. We also had to do some major money exchanging as well. After that we went to a local shop and bought a Kira for Nancy and a Gho for me. The Kira and Gho are traditional Bhutanese dress which you must wear to any official buildings or occasions.
The illusive meat trade in Bhutan. Kris Covey and I drinking coffee at a local Thimpu coffee shop. The man who directs traffic in Thimpu. Directing traffic in Thimpu Young men playing a board game. A Bhutanese dump truck/people carrier. Front view of the truck. Beautiful Bhutanese stone work.

]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/29/bhutan-thimpu/feed/ 0 Bhutan: Paro to Thimpu http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/28/bhutan-paro-to-thimpu/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/28/bhutan-paro-to-thimpu/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:49:28 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=632 We traveled from Paro to Thimpu where we stayed for two days while our travel permits were arranged. The trip took about two hours and traversed some amazing river valleys and mountain ranges. We stayed at the Zey Zang hotel. Thimpu is the capital of Bhutan and the home of the current king. It’s the “big city” baby! Thinley took us around the city showing us the vegetable market and some other sites and at the same time taking care of business regarding visa extension and travel permits. It was a strange mix of tradition and modernization, ranging from construction to fashion. From Thimpu we again got on the institute bus and started our ten hour bus journey to Bumthang.

Thimpu Street Sign in Front of Zey Zang Shops in front of the hotel Another street scene in front of the hotel The UWICE bus we took from Paro to Bumthang Inside the bus, clockwise, Chris, Jigme and Nancy Woman selling beans and grains at the Thimpu farmers market Another stand at the Thimpu vegetable market Man buying produce Spices for sale at the market Some produce for sale Woman selling dried fish at the market Thinley buying some vegetables Thinley, Nancy and Kris on the bridge to the hard goods market prayer flags on the bridge Nancy getting fitted for her Kira The Kira designer working on Nancy's Kira Self portrait in my new silk Gho View of Thimpu street from our hotel room ]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/28/bhutan-paro-to-thimpu/feed/ 0 Bhutan: The Arrival http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/27/bhutan-the-arrival/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/27/bhutan-the-arrival/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:34:14 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=596 We flew from Phuket to Bangkok and arrived in the afternoon. We did a brutal overnight camping stop in Bangkok airport and then flew out at 5:40am in the morning. We did a fueling stop in Calcutta for about thirty minutes and then took to the air for our final flight into Paro, Bhutan. As we approached Bhutan you could see mountains piercing the sky and behind those were even bigger bright white monolithic Himalayan mountains forming a wall across the sky. It was incredible. We dropped down through the clouds and we were skimming through the valleys of immense mountains on both sides. You could see Bhutanese monasteries on the peaks as we flew by. Our altitude must have been around 500 feet or less for several minutes as we approached the landing strip. Then we touched down smoothly… We had arrived.

I think the Paro airport is the most interesting and beautiful airport I have ever seen. We made it through immigration and met our friends from the institute Thinley and Jigme. They drove along winding switchbacks up the valley into the city of Paro. We had some refreshingly cool mango drinks and then they helped us check in at our hotel. After we had a shower and a quick rest we travelled up the valley again to an ancient Dzong (a fortress structure). The Dzong we visited is now a ruin because of a fire there. But it is the site of the last great war in Bhutan against the Tibetans, where the Tibetans were finally defeated and Bhutan found it’s first unifying leader for the country. We travelled back down the valley a bit and stopped to hike up to the top of a ridge line where we were to meet Thinley’s sister-in-law. Her husband is a Buddhist Rinpoche. So her home is next to a temple. We went inside and saw pictures of her father, a very famous Rinpoche that actually built the temple many years ago. Sadly I don’t have pictures of the temple, it is mostly forbidden. After that we had some tea with her and then came back down the ridge to the transport. We headed back into town and crashed at the hotel for like 12 hours. Welcome to Bhutan, fantastic! More images for this post to come! I have to go!

The Druk Air flight into Bhutan The Paro Airport Main Building The main administrative and government Dzong in Paro Downtown Paro Typical Bhutanese building artwork Our hotel room in Paro Our hotel room in Paro Prayer flags in Paro Paro Dzong The entrance to the dzong The other side of the dzong entrance. This dzong burned down long ago. Interior of the dzong Another shot inside the main dzong walls. More views inside the main compound. Prayer flags at the Paro dzong. More prayer flags A view of the valley from the Paro dzong. Rice fields were all growing rapidly. Paro is the rice bowl of Bhutan. The mountainside West of the dzong. A typical Bhutanese house in Paro valley. Thinley and Nancy climbing up to his sister-in-laws house. A view of the valley from the ridge. A house on the next ridge. Thinley and Nancy on the ridge. Nancy and I on the ridge. ]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/27/bhutan-the-arrival/feed/ 3 Thailand: A Breeze On The Beach http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/27/thailand-a-breeze-on-the-beach/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/27/thailand-a-breeze-on-the-beach/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:54:06 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=589 We flew out of Incheon Airport from Seoul to Bangkok. From there we flew down to Phuket to spend a few days on the beach before our departure for Bhutan. Phuket has incredible beaches and the weather was in the 80′s and hot, hot, hot! We tried to snorkel but the visibility was like 2 inches, we had a good kick out and back anyway. We stayed in a little hostel/hotel in Kata. It was clean and great. I only have a few pictures because most of the time was spent at the beach and Thailand probably wasn’t the place to just let it hang while I went off swimming! I did see my first elephant though which was a thrill. After I took the shot it stuck it’s trunk out at me and touched my head and face and I scratched the bottom of it’s trunk! Totally cool.
Kata Beach, Phuket, Thailand Kata Beach, Phuket, Thailand Elephant at Kata resort in Phuket, Thailand

]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/27/thailand-a-breeze-on-the-beach/feed/ 0 Seoul http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/13/seoul/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/13/seoul/#comments Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:56:11 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=563 I have been in Seoul for more than a week now. I’m squatting at my friend TJ’s apartment. It’s an overwhelming city. The scale is hard to comprehend compared to the US. New York or LA doesn’t even come close. The smog here is atrocious. It’s a little claustrophobic having so many people around you all the time. But I’ve been pretty fascinated by it all. I wish I had more time to hunker down and photograph here.

I will probably leave Seoul sometime this week and start my travels to Bhutan. So far it looks like I may go through Bangkok and Calcutta on my way to Bhutan. I’m a bit nervous about all the political turmoil in Thailand though. Hopefully they won’t shut down the airport or anything and I can slide through safely. Once I arrive in Bhutan it will be over a 200 mile journey by truck to get to the forestry institute in Bhumtang. I will have to travel from the airport at Paro in the West of the country to Thimpu in the West central part of the country. There I will have to spend a day or two getting travel permits for my final destination in Bhumtang, which is more in the East side of the country.

Bhutan has some interesting laws. You can’t travel on the roads freely without a travel permit. If you are Bhutanese you can’t be in public without wearing the national dress, a Gho for men or a Kira for women. Plastic bags and tobacco are illegal there. It will be an interesting change I think. Korea for me has been almost a carbon copy of the US for the most part. The model is just about the same, except I think they are actually more rampant consumers than Americans, if you can believe it. I’m looking forward to more of a true culture shock. I will miss Korea, the relaxed atmosphere of the beaches and environment on Jeju-do and the frenetic chaos and scale of Seoul. Who knows, maybe I’ll be back someday to teach again. You never know.

self portrait in the seoul subway Seoul Buildings near the Coex Mall ASEM Building ASEM Building Building across the street from world trade building Jack, Nancy and I at a coffee shop My buddy, Tokki Hanging out at the park Cherry blossoms in the Parc de Paris in Mokdong, Seoul TJ and Celinda at the Parc de Paris in Mokdong, Seoul Soccer game at the world cup stadium in Seoul Dinner with TJ and Travis Haemon's bar with TJ and Travis TJ Lebel Haemon singing one of his songs at the club View from TJ's apartment in Seoul #2 View from TJ's apartment in Seoul #1 ]]> http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/04/13/seoul/feed/ 0 PhotoSynth of Seogwipo http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/03/15/photosynth-of-seogwipo/ http://www.davidcool.com/blog/2009/03/15/photosynth-of-seogwipo/#comments Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:22:17 +0000 admin http://www.davidcool.com/blog/?p=557 Here is my first attempt at using PhotoSynth. I went to an overlook point yesterday and took a LOT of pictures with the 80-400mm lens. It was soooo windy and cold! I picked the wrong day to try this. I then just ran a batch process on them to convert to JPG and then uploaded them on the PhotoSynth site. It took many hours to chug through them and then finally it was finished. Not a bad outcome considering I just hand held the lens and shot just rough approximations for everything. I had more images, but the first upload I tried gave an error, seems I had too many images.

This won’t work on a mac however! You need to use IE or Firefox on a PC right now. I seriously hope they are working on a cross platform solution soon. Oh, and make sure you click the little box in the bottom right corner to go “full screen” when viewing!

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