The Show

The opening for the McMaster Innovation Park Art in the Workplace 10th Exhibit is this Thursday the 29th from 7-9 PM.  One of my jobs as part of the organizing committee has been to help with the installation.  Last weekend, a group of us spent the better part of Sunday getting all of the art onto the walls, stained glass into the windows and sculptures arranged in the sculpture area.  This show includes some really great work, including this sculpture by Jennifer Wilson-Bridgman, which I find breathtaking.

http://www.mcmasterinnovationpark.ca/art_workplace_entries/view/289

If you can make it, come on out to the opening.  The best part is being able to meet all of the artists and to find out what inspires them and how they make their art.  For more information, go to...

http://www.mcmasterinnovationpark.ca/art_workplaces/view/14

All In

My goal was to carry in the curb weight of my car, and this past week, I reached that milestone. Now, I'll take a break from carrying stone for a few weeks until the 29th, and then I'll start to carry it home.

November 8, 2012 - 3,100 lbs

The 29th is the McMaster Innovation Park Art in the Workplace 10th Exhibit opening (7-9 PM). I want the structure complete for the show, and then I'll be a bit pressed to get it all carried home again by early March next year. At least I don't have to worry about finding the stone and cleaning it up now.

The last few loads included a lot of small stone as I tried to fill in the gaps. I also took some time to rearrange some of the stones so that on odd shaped stone that was sticking up is now positioned flush with the top surface. People who work with stone call those odd shaped stones "problem solvers". The idea is that you can use them to fill awkward spots in your structure. While that is a good attitude to have, the truth is that stones that look like they are going to be difficult to work with, usually are.

Where I'm Finding the Stone

I have a lot of stone on my city lot.  Retaining walls ring the lawn, and at the back of the lot, I have walls terracing up to the abandoned lane way.  I had a fair amount of extra stone piled at the very back.

Back Yard Still Intact

However, once I got started collecting and cleaning the spare stone that I have, I realized that I was going to need something more if I wanted to leave all of the walls and steps that I've built over the years intact.  I live at the base of the Niagara Escarpment, and there is lots of stone laying below, but that is public parkland and off limits as far as I'm concerned.

A little less than 2 km from my home, there was a large dump of fill and in that fill, there is a lot of decent stone.  The problem was that it needed to be collected and cleaned before I could carry it to work and add it to my Carry structure.  Since this project is all about carrying stone, I decided that I'd carry the stones that I collect there home, hose and clean them off and then carry them into work.  I chose an area beside my house as a staging area and piled dirty stone there until I could clean it up and move it to another pile of stone ready to be carried into work.

One in the Hand, Two in the Bag
(and a large one in the backpack)

I used that pile as my source for a while, either walking around to it on my way home from work, or making extra trips to gather stone on the weekends.  A few weeks ago, the pile was bull-dozed flat, so the stone that was sitting on top was now buried or pressed into the muddy surface.  Since then, I've been using a similar smaller pile of fill a little closer to home.

Whole Ton Creation

Last month, my wife and I stopped by the You Me Gallery on James St North in Hamilton to check out the Occasional Whirligigs Show. One of the whirligigs was a crown by an artist named Helen Sovereign.  I wondered to Bryce Kanbara who runs the gallery, whether she was inspired by her last name to choose a crown as the basis for her whirligig.  I then wondered what I could do with my last name, and the answer was immediately obvious.  It just took me another couple of weeks to get there.

October 11, 2012 (about 2100 lbs)

Oh, and thanks to Bryce for encouraging me to document this project.  That gave me the push I needed to start this blog.

Method for this Madness

People want to know how I'm carrying the stones.  The first stone was just a little two pounder that I picked up one morning and then didn't put down until I reached the office.  I could carry it easily in one hand without attracting too much attention.  After a few more of those, I decided to carry larger rocks and began using a small Eddie Bauer hand bag.  That was fine until I tried to carry a 35 pound stone (the one shown as "The Beginning" in the first post on this blog).  I needed something more substantial!

I bought a sturdy Mountain Equipment backpack.  With it, I can carry up to 40 lbs for 2k with reasonable comfort.  I still use the handbag, and that allows me to carry another 15 or 20 lbs.  Both bags are standing up remarkably well, and if they make it through this project, I'll give them 5-star reviews.

The handbag also holds my lunch and some gym clothes for daily workouts at our fitness facility.  I've stopped carrying my computer every day since the extra 6 or 7 lbs was not worth the odd time that I actually wanted to fire it up at home.

Density of Limestone

I suppose that I should be weighing all of the stones that I carry but, being an engineer, I'll be using a tape measure and calculator instead. Most of the stone that I'm carrying is limestone, and since I live at the base of the Niagara Escarpment, it is that type of limestone.

The density of limestone apparently varies from 2.1 to 2.7 g/cc. The density of water is 1 g/cc or 62.4 lbs per cubic foot.  Since its easier to think in cubic feet than cc's for something as large as this, we'll go with limestone weighing somewhere between 130 and 170 lbs per cubic foot. The middle of that range is 150 and a nice round number to remember. So, I declare that the average density of the stone that I am using is 150 lbs per cubic foot. I found one mention of the density of Niagara Escarpment Dolomite Limestone at 165 lbs per cubic foot, so I think my value is fair.

The structure that I am assembling has the stones packed fairly closely together, but I'm guessing that there is probably around 10% air space between the stones. The footprint of the structure is 6 feet by 3 feet and the height right now varies between 4 and 12 inches with an average around 7. Therefore, the current total weight of the stone that I've carried to work so far is about 6 x 3 x 7 / 12 x 0.9 x 150 = 1,420 lbs.  The weights that I post from now on will be based on this type of calculation.

September 18, 2012 (1,420 lbs)

How much does a car weigh?

My wife and I share a VW Jetta diesel and a short wheelbase Dodge Caravan.  I checked the Curb Weight on both that is posted on the door.  For the Jetta it is about 3,160 lbs and for the van about 3,900 lbs.  So, my goal has been to carry at least 3,160 lbs, and as much as 3,900 lbs, during this project.

I was interested to check out some other vehicle weights, so started at what I guessed would be the low end with a Smart for Two.  It has a GVWR of about 2,300 lbs and a curb weight of about 1,800 lbs.  I wasn't clear on the difference, so that sent me to Wikipedia.  The GVWR includes passengers and luggage, while the curb weight is empty.  There is also a dry weight that excludes fuel, oil and other fluids.  Large SUV's have curb weights of more than 5,000 lbs.  I guess that if I owned one of them, I wouldn't have thought of this project in the first place.

Catching Up

I'm starting this blog a little late, so the first few posts will be me catching up on material that should already be here.

 

Art in the Workplace Exhibit 9 Opening
August 2, 2012 (about 500 lbs)

This is a public installation art piece (my first).  It will take about 8 months to complete in two phases - carrying to work, and carrying home, for one "round trip".  Phase 1 is part of the McMaster Innovation Park Art in the Workplace Exhibit 9.  Assuming that the work is accepted again, phase 2 will be during Exhibit 10 starting at the end of November.

A good place to start might be my Artist Statement for this work:

Artist Statement:

Many of us take it for granted that we should be carried to work by a vehicle that typically weighs many times more than we do.  This work is my attempt to turn that normal commute around and to carry a car, or at least an equivalent weight to work.  For the duration of this project, I will first carry one or more stones during my 2 km walk to work here at MIP and add to this stone structure until its total weight is about the weight of a typical car.  I will then reverse the process and carry the stones back home completing one equivalent car carrying round trip.  This will take a while.

My work is inspired by artists like Richard Long who have incorporated significant physical efforts in their work.  My objective with this work is to have the audience appreciate how much energy is required to carry us around and to consider walking when the distance to be travelled is manageable.  It’s good for the planet and helps keep you fit – especially if you carry rocks.

The Beginning (about 35 lbs)