I might have potentially royally fucked myself over with this particular date. I got drinks with a recently single coworker. Now, we’ve always been small talk over coffee, witty office banter kind of colleagues. I took the opportunity to ask her if she wanted to get drinks after a particularly painfully boring Tuesday work-day. Thankfully, she was all for it, because I didn’t want to really have to resort to the chubbier sure thing…because these days I think that I would sadly not be too discriminatory.

She suggested we started with shots. And, I hadn’t had a sober day in quite some time at this point, so I figure, might as well keep the trend going. So we did Jagerbombs. Then we did car bombs. Then we drank gin. If I didn’t know better, I swear she was trying to get drunk, but I did know better. She was trying to get herself drunk. I was the rebound, and the bad mistake. This was okay, because she was just number 26.

I spent the night trying to figure out how far I was willing to take this one. I have to see this woman five days a week. But these days I don’t much care about consequence. These days I just care about getting through the night. And she seemed willing. But as far as deciding goes, I didn’t have to, she decided for me, by telling me she had a bottle of vodka she wanted to attack with some help.

We went back to her place and surely enough attacked the vodka. The next thing I know I’m waking up to her alarm clock. Immediately I know that I won’t even get to do the walk of shame. I’d have to go to work in the same clothes as the night before. And I didn’t bother leaving, we showered and then headed off to work. I guess doing sober what you do drunk doesn’t qualify as a total mistake, we agreed that we should just ignore it, but who knows how that will pan out

circumstances don’t allow the conventional, originally uploaded by Photographs by Jim.

I wanted to stay dry, but see what it was like photographing in the rain.

Weeks and weeks ago I got an itch to send off postcards to friends, acquaintances and would-be friends. Then I got this and was newly filled with excitement that not only does the Kuwaiti Post Office do its job, but that I know some pretty inspiring people. Above is the original postcard sent to (perhaps reluctant to be officially recognized in this country as such) artist and architect Amani Baqer. Below is what she did with it. Take two, take four, take six. Kert!

I had been brought up in a very religious and conservative fashion and didn’t know much about sex. But, I was aware of the changes taking place in my body when I reached 15. My height has increased a lot in the last year and I had started looking quite masculine. My shoulders had become broad and my whee-bee had become long. I used to have a hard-on in the morning and was confused because of all these changes. It used to feel nice to touch my genitals and play with it. One day, I was playing with my penis and after a vigorous session, it shoot like canon. I was scared, damn scared; And, some thick white fluid has covered my hands. I was scared that something wrong has happened to me, else, this fluid should not have come outside my body.

I can’t ask my parents and didn’t have the courage to ask my teacher either. I confided in one of my friends, an old childhood friend. We had played together for years and used to meet every evening. One day, after returning from school, I stayed back at his house.  Since, we were alone at his house, so, I asked him whether he has got hairs on his whee-bee. He wasn’t ashamed a bit and then said no he hasn’t got any. He asked me the same and i replied in positive. I don’t know what happened but, he wanted to see it for himself to believe. I was ashamed a bit and declined to open up for him. Suddenly, he was opening my pants and was very eager to see. As, I was the one who started this, therefore, I let him see me; May be he will be able to solve my problem. He grabbed my penis with his hands and was amazed to see a much larger penis than his. He opened up his pants and it was like mine 2 years back. He whee-bee was small and had no hairs at all. He stroked my penis a bit and I had an instant hard-on. He took my penis between his thighs and kissed me on my lips. I asked him to stop and not to share this with anybody else. After, dressing up I left his place. There were strange feelings; A kind of mixed with fear and pleasure.

This was my first homosexual experience…….feel free to share yours.

Yey I finished it!

Icosahedron with simple pattern cut out of it

It was quite fiddley but I felt like I was in nursery doing crafts again. It was so much fun putting it together. For some reason I decided to make life a little difficult for myself too by cutting a simple pattern into it which took tonnes more time but now you can see how the pattern relates to the shape and also a kind of indication of the 3D structure that forms an Icosahedron.

So continuing from last week the images below show the process for making it:

Icosahedron template

Cutting pattern into each face of the Icosahedron - which is made up of equilateral triangles

Template of icosahedron with pattern cut in all faces. The thicker borders are where the tabs are for attaching edges to the neighbouring edge

Assembling the Icosahedron

So obviously as soon as I got that done I just had to start experimenting. I used my reflective sheets and cut-out from a few weeks ago and formed a quick sculptural piece similar to what I would submit for an installation. I laid this flat, turned the lights off and left the small PIR unit at the end of the cone like shape to allow the light to flow through this towards the icosahedron and onto the cut-out pattern below.

View of installation prototype from above

View of prototype head-on - before main light is turned off

prototype side view in dark which is how it would be exhibited

Only the PIR light has been left on and creates the view seen here. There is a mix of shadows competing with reflections and larger areas of light and shade.

Close-up looking into the cone like area to where the icosahedron sits

I like how this looked against the black of darkness. It conveys the high contrast I was after and allows the distinctive shapes to show clearly.  The reflection of light makes it much brighter and the shadows cast from the patterns much darker therefore it stands out with much more contrast and visibility. I also like the fact that the whole piece is surrounded in darkness and therefore allows it to seem like a standalone installation that could fit into a generic gallery space.

In addition to this it looks quite futuristic and space age – not really something I considered before. I may contemplate this at a later stage – whether I want to leave this aspect as it is or change or remove it.

I also realised that the shapes and lines and use of the cone shape remind me of architectural structures. This was reaffirmed when I received feedback in which a similar comment was made.

I don’t think the photos do this piece justice though. It’s meant to be viewed in its physical form with the naked eye. In trying to capture it as an image it loses some of its awe. The good thing about it being a physical and 3D piece is that it encourages the viewer to move around it and explore it from different angles. By doing this the view changes with shapes changing according to the direction of light and casting of shadows and reflection.

I think for this point of the course – with the Unit 1 assessment just around the corner – it’s a good thing I’ve been able to experiment with the shapes and lighting even if it is still only the early stages of this.

The set-up of all the parts and the addition of the lighting meant a lot of time has to be set aside for this in future.

My next objectives are to:
- Do more research into lighting – especially motion sensitive options.
- Look into stronger materials for another prototype.
- And sooner or later I will need to pick my final pattern – which I will need to convert into a vector image suitable for use with the laser cutting machine.

dangle your body like rotten berries deep red and starting to reek i am not mesmerized by your high-pitched whine or bleach
blonde brain cells, deadened like the nerves in your jaw but am repulsed by the slack in your thigh, the line of your orange mask that peels like moldy fruit skins and falls to the floor i am unamused by this musing so i give it up in exchange for musical experimentation, a stellar stoner-action flick and a family consisting of a smoky black-and-grey purr-box, a manic man band (my name minus m and
my hunny-bunny) i take rock-n-roll videos and close-up photos of things that fill the finished basement….