When people hear the word comics, they usually think of the Sunday “funnies” or the Garfield comic books that are out there. Comics are sometimes considered a “lesser” art due to it’s comedic take. No doubt that a lot of comics are on the funny side but there is also a lot of work out there that takes a serious look at life. Then there is the underground Comix movement, which can go in any direction.According to Wikipedia:Comics (via Latin, from the Greek “Κωμικ-ός”, kōmikos, of or pertaining to “comedy”, from kōmos “revel”.^[1]) is a graphic medium in which words and images are utilised in order to convey a narrative. Comics can contain little or no words, and consist of one or more images, which may either illustrate or counterpoint^[2] the text to affect greater depth. [sic]Underground comics (or comix) are small press or self-published comic books that began to appear in the US in the late 1960s. The comix community was centered in San Francisco, but also included important artists and publishers in New York, Chicago and Austin, Texas. Prominent artists associated with this movement include Vaughn Bode, Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Jim Franklin, David Geiser, Justin Green, Roberta Gregory, Rick Griffin, Bill Griffith, Rory Hayes, Greg Irons, Jack Jackson, Jay Kinney, Denis Kitchen,Jay Lynch, Victor Moscoso,Dan O’Neill, Ted Richards, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, Foolbert Sturgeon, Robert Williams, Skip Williamson and S. Clay Wilson. Please take the time to check out these entries in wikipedia and see where they take you. My husband, Daniel J. Olson, has had a life long interest in comics. He started going to Shinder’s as a kid and started collecting these tiny books full of color and dialog. He then went to work for Shinder’s off and on for 10 years. In parallel, during high school, I too found the Tank Girl comics and movie (my favorite, by the way). I also had the graphic novels Maus I & II by Art Spiegelman due to my deep interest in WWII and the Holocaust. Once we were dating the craze of turning comics into movies became popular again. I learned who his favorite super hero’s and comic characters were and those he did not like. Spiderman yes, Punisher no. He was also interested in graphic novels such as Blankets by Craig Thompson and Maus I & II. During my MFA studies in Arizona, Dan started drawing again. He hooked up with my fellow colleague, Liz Young, to create comics for her MFA thesis show. This lit a fire under his ass and he has been drawing nearly every day. Since Liz’s MFA show, he has started a website/blog, bewilderedkid.com, where he places a weekly web comic that he writes, draws, inks and colors. Upon moving back to St. Paul, MN, he joined The International Cartoonist Conspiracy group and has been a part of every show and attends the Minneapolis monthly jam. He even was part of starting the St. Paul monthly jam. He even has roped me into helping him write stories for one of his characters, Super Maxi Pad Girl. We hope to have a couple of more stories out in time for Fall Con along with some other surprises. OK, so this blog is pretty much me bragging about my husband and the work he has been doing but I also want to plug the Conspiracies newest show…Lutefisk Sushi, featuring Kevin Cannon from Big Time Attic. The opening reception is Friday, May 2 from 7 PM to 10 PM. and the show runs from May 1 - 31 at Altered Esthetics Gallery. If you can’t make the reception you should check out the show!

I have been asked why I work with such unstable technology, such as wireless sensing, for my performance and dance pieces. I also ask myself that often. My answer is usually something along the lines of, “Any technology can fail.” Other times I say, “I have no idea.” There was a performance while I was at grad school at Arizona State University in which a live band was playing on stage with dancers. The microphone ended up not working so you could barely hear the singer. The microphone has been around since 1876 (according to Wikipedia) how can it fail? I have seen lights not come on or stay on, sound systems shutoff and MANY operator errors. I feel that the technology I use is no less stable than some of the things we use daily. Granted it has been a horrible technology dance season for me and many of my co-workers don’t let me near their iPods, cell phones or cameras, I still have faith. I mean it was all of my stable technology that failed me for the recent dance concert with the Nancy Hauser Dance Company. The first night of tech I could not get my computer to output sound. The second night of tech, I could run sound out of my computer but my Bluetooth mic would not record into my computer. The “unstable” part of my whole setup, the wireless sensing system and Max/MSP patch I had programmed, worked just great! :: continue reading this ocean post ::

Yesterday I was in the back of our office chatting with Joe, when all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off. I thought, “Are you kidding! A fire drill when it is 0 degrees outside!” Then, I smelled it…popcorn. Someone in our office, I will not name them, placed popcorn in our microwave and did not monitor it. As I heard later from bystanders, when the bag was opened up a huge amount of smoke billowed out of the bag.

As we opened the front door to air out the office, we saw our building manager out on a walkie-talkie and the one who will not be named telling them that it was us and it was just burnt popcorn. The whole 510 Marquette building fire alarm had gone off. A few minutes later the sound went off but not that annoying blinking light. Then after that there was an announcement that it was a false alarm and not to worry.

Once everyone was back in the office all we could do was laugh and run around like children, making jokes, and telling our version of the story.

Febreeze was sprayed and things finally settled back into our regular rhythm.

When I got into work today, there was a hint of burnt popcorn smell in the air. Every time someone microwaves something it brings back the smell. Another co-worker was heating up a Trader Joe’s Chicken Enchilada (try one they are great!). He placed it on defrost but instead of doing that our microwave just cooked it and burned the bottom of it. At least the fire alarm did not go off again but now it smells like burnt popcorn chicken enchilada.

So the question is…do we have a defective microwave or is it user error?

Please view the following video. Azul 7 Dies in a Fire.

Dance and technology have been a part of my life since I can remember. At the age of three, I started taking dance classes, playing games on the family Apple II and Atari 2600, and watching MTV. It wasn’t until I was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin – Madison that I started to combine dance and the wonderful world of geek-dom.

My first real test of putting a lot of elements and people together was my senior honor thesis performance, My Name is Alice (2001). It was a post-modern cabaret at Club Inferno in Madison, WI. The live performance included original recorded music, projected video in various places throughout the club, a moving photo gallery, and a sound instillation.

My second, even larger test, talking string (2006), was my thesis performance for my Master of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University. This twenty -minute performance incorporated camera-based sensing as well as bend sensor and push button sensing technology, Cycling `74s Max/MSP and David Rokeby’s softVNS visual programming systems, MakingThings’ Teleo, all which controlled the mixing of the sound score in real time.

During these two projects and the smaller ones that surrounded them, I never thought of project management in the sense that I know it today. The closest I got to managing any of these performances was setting up rehearsals, telling people when and where they had to be for tech and dress rehearsal, as well as the performances. Other than that there was probably some sort of timeline hidden somewhere. I know that my MFA committee made me put timelines together for the performance and dissertation document.

When I first met with Chris Cortilet for an informational interview he started talking about how they were looking for a project manager and with my background, I would fit into that role well. I had never thought of myself as a project manager in a traditional sense, but now looking back at how I kept a day planner at my hip throughout college, I realized that this was what I was doing, even if I was not creating Gantt charts in Microsoft Project 2007.

The best part of being a Project Manager at Azul 7 is that I can be around all of these creative people that inspire me every day. I also get to use some of my expertise when it comes to the video work we create for ourselves and our clients.