Flux Foundation

Coachella loves Flux

Jess — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 20:53:06 +0000

Yesterday we debuted our latest collaborative sculpture at Coachella 2013 – The Sidewalk’s End. Inspired by Shel Silverstein’s Poem “Where The Sidewalk Ends.” A sidewalk rising in a gentle meandering curve, peeled away from the earth to reveal the mysterious underbelly of a city’s infrastructure as it climbs into the air. A shady, cool spot by day and magical surprising place by night, the sidewalk provides an experience of imagination and memory, a gathering space for community with interesting vistas of the festival along the way.

The audience at the festival has been wonderful.

We’ve been enjoying talking to all the festival goers, meeting people from around the world.

And we have the best view point for watching main stage!

If you are here come by and say hi!

Much Love,
The artists of FLUX

Achieving Flow State…at Flux

becky — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 07:18:11 +0000

I’ve learned one thing on my first project with Flux: the way the Flux Foundation works is remarkable. Large scale and complex projects, art that’s bigger than houses, are built on the passion of volunteers. Moreover, the projects are seemingly chaotic with many moving parts, roles, and a rotating cast of characters. When I first started volunteering with Flux I did not have much faith in this process – I did not see how anything could get done if people were not going to be given rigorous structure to adhere to. I was wrong. Coming from a fairly structured and corporate environment in my 9-5 life I simply did not understand how decisions would get made, resources allocated effectively, and deadlines met. Moreover, if no one actually ‘owns’ anything and there is no financial or institutional recourse for a lack of performance, then how can we be sure anything will get done?!

But, there is order in the apparent chaos of a Flux crew – or rather, the lack of order enables people to step in wherever they like. People create their own structure. This space in Flux’s projects allows people to develop a passion for the project by creating their own relationship with it and define their own role within it. While there are obvious extrinsic motivations at play like becoming part of a creative community, I think the intrinsic motivation that comes from choosing your own destiny on a project is far more powerful. A leading positive psychologist, Csikszentmihalyi, describes this as “flow state”:

“This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.”

The psychological benefits of being in flow state include “…being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one.”

Whether it is in a collaborative design meeting, tinkering with misting systems, or flapping a piece of metal to a shimmering perfection, Flux projects offer a variety of ways to achieve flow state.

As these big projects become increasingly demanding, and the tasks do become somewhat repetitive towards the end, I’ve found it challenging to maintain my intrinsic motivation. But the trick is to find a balance between the level of the challenge and the level of the skill required for the task. So if volunteers start to feel disengaged from one aspect of a project, they can simply jump in elsewhere to find new challenges and thus a new source of “flow”.

With that, I’m off to find my flow, probably in a flap disc on a grinding wheel.

New collaborative art coming for Coachella

becky — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:01:54 +0000

Fluxers fresh and Fluxers frosty have been busy in the new year designing our next installation which will show at Coachella in April. Taking Shel Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends” as our primary inspiration, Wednesday’s meeting in Flux’s American Steel office was spent using a great pile of construction paper, glue guns, chopsticks, and markers to model our dreams and ideas for the new project. This last week of January we’ll agree on our favorites, meld them together, and plot our strategy for moving forward with the build which is slated to start the second week of February. We’re super stoked on what we’ve accomplished thus far and can’t wait to see YOU and what comes next!

Zoa

catie — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:16:06 +0000

Fertility can be understood as the space and propensity for growth. The most unlikely of things must conspire to create something unexpected. A deceptively small, almost unknowable thing can take root and flourish into something far more complex, unknowable and unpredictable from its inauspicious beginnings. A thought can grow into a revolution, an encounter into a relationship. It all begins with a seed. To describe this process Zoa (2012) unfolded in three parts; first, a beautiful, elegant, translucent structure inspired by seedpods rises from the desert floor; next, an awe inspiring mind-week burn; which revealed an unexpected sculptural array hidden within. Three sinuous forms pulse with a fiery glow, seeming to breathe and dance. Two have propane-based interactive effects and one a gently dripping liquid fountain. Ground-level pressure sensors encourage participant interaction and play. Embedded LEDs provide a further changing display of color and intensity, which are affected by the crowds movement and sound.

Location: Burning Man Festival 2012 – Black Rock Desert, NV & Nocturnal Wonderland 2012 – San Bernadino
Media: Mild steel (w/ finish), LED lighting effects, flame effects
Dimensions: height ca. 25’, footprint ca. 27’x27’.
Commissioning Agency: Burning Man

Photo by Sarah Tappon

Zoa is up!

catie — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 03:20:18 +0000

A stream of photos came in today form the playa: Zoa is, by now, up! We wanted to share these gorgeous shots. I don’t know about you, but I am *longing* for the desert right about now. Can’t wait to get there and see Zoa in its full glory. Stay tuned for more!

catie

FLUXcycles

catie — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:54:40 +0000

The FLUXcycles are mobile fire sculptures built by FLUX Foundation artists. These low-cost, high-impact sculptures have a simple design: a light-weight metal sculpture with an interactive flame effect on wheels. The FLUXcicleta (2011) and the Dragon Wagon (2012) wow crowds wherever they go and are favorites at events like Art Murmur in Oakland, Maker Faire and the Brewery Art Walk in Los Angeles. These pieces are available for events. Contact us if you’d like to learn more. We hope to build a fleet of them over the next year!

Dragon Wagon (2012)
Our lil’ dragon may not be the biggest dragon out there, but it might be the most loved. Made with rolled rod, stainless steel, copper, aluminum sheet and mild steel, the dragon’s pose is from the neck up. It breathes fire, with pulsing ambient flame and a poofer that bursts from its mouth. Inspired by the Chinese Year of the Dragon, FLUX artists Cheryl Fralick, Margaret Long and Heather collaborated together to make this fierce little dragon. These artists are proud to offer it up as an example of collaboration and are eager to use it to entice other people to get it their heads to make something. The Dragon Wagon has been shown at Oakland’s Art Murmur, Maker Faire, the Brewery Art Walk in Los Angeles and San Francisco’s Public Works event space.

FLUXicleta (2011)
The FLUXcicleta debuted in November 2011, first at the Dia de Los Muertos parade in San Francisco and then at Art Murmur in Downtown Oakland. Created by FLUX artists, Catie Magee and Matt Mynttinen, the sculpture was developed as something that could be transportable and fun. They set out to create a mobile piece with a simple yet exciting interactive flame effect. The FLUXicleta’s three metal branches extend about 8’ – 12’ in height from a wooden trailer and culminate in metal flowers with subtle propane flame effects. The tallest branch has a poofer activated by a manual brass valve. The piece is pulled by a bicycle and is an entirely self-contained within the trailer. The FLUXicleta pulls people in with its exciting interactivity and sparks conversation about FLUX and our collaborative art, inspiring people to come to the shop to get involved.

And then there were three…

catie — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:04:49 +0000

We wanted to share these gorgeous shots of Etta, Nina and Billie in the desert. They’re up. It’s happening. It really is! And it’s amazing! Thank you to everyone who has participated in making this possible. All photos by the amazing and talented Jess Hobbs who’s keeping us enthralled back here at home with gorgeous shots of our baby. It’s truly gonna be great!

catie

Notes from the Desert

catie — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 15:29:30 +0000

As of yesterday afternoon, the Zoa trucks have landed, and the desert stage is being set. Just a couple of photos: a preview of coming attractions!

Catie

Lemons mark the spot for the Zoa seed pods. Photo by Jess Hobbs.

Trucks unloaded by Pope & Gary. Photo by Jess Hobbs.

We’re on our way!

Life — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 23:18:20 +0000

Rockin into the early hours of the night. Metalhead magic in "the darkest light." Photo: Cupcake

“Yeah, that thing is going to turn into a meatgrinder,” said one of the crew loading into container 2. Montana, who cooked one of my favorite meals at Bay 4 at American Steel with the Woodchucks and Bottlecap Gazebo, was now directing traffic with the crew holding curvy black pieces of Zoa’s metal skeleton. It was all heavy and extraordinary.

Wes, Britt and others were making noise into early Friday morning welding the last pieces of Etta Zoa. The carts rolled into the byway, clinking and clanking, obviously big by the sound.

The patina’ing operation, where an corrosive acid is applied to prepped metal welds to blend the dark color, was outside for close access to the hose to wash off the pieces. If the liquid stayed to long, it started to burn, and if there wasn’t enough wax, it was obvious. I threw in the towel at 3:00 am and caught up with everyone the next afternoon. Apparently folks made it to sunrise.

Prince Paul was no longer remote from New York and plugged the logistics of packing, shipping and disparate timelines into real life in 3 bays of operation over 5 days. “Okay, Irish is the man,” he said in a standup meeting before the Bay 3 crane got to the two giant containers. “No one talk to him or waste his time. You have a comment you talk to him through me.” Irish linked the hooks into the container attachments and suddenly there was a pancake maker to go with the meat grinder, and it was swinging onto the flatbed.

4am patina crew working til the wee hours. Photo by Thwen.

This is just a little bit of the controlled chaos that has been on a slow crescendo up to this point in the Zoa project. A week ago a carousel spun to life and a two-story gazebo climbed for the roof and became numbered crates appearing and disappearing like magic. So a couple hundred folks are now making their way to the desert. No, it doesn’t make sense. But it kind of does. Wow, I’m really tired. Amazing…

Jonathan

Ultimate Burning Man Raffle Winners Announced

mirthwood — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 05:18:40 +0000

Congratulations to the Winners of the

Ultimate Burning Man Ticket Raffle

(all winners have been notified by email or phone)

Grand Prize Winner – One Burning Man Ticket: Felix B.

Inner-Circle Passes for the Zoa Burn: Mara

A personal-sized Fire Poofer that shoots 6′ flames!: Larry L.

An Art Tour on Chester the Fire Breathing Horse-Car: Julie M.

Choice of Framed 10×15 print of Zoa: Limey Rob

One hour Accupressure: Larry L.

50 Minute Massage: Tim O.

Voyage Session: Chris C.

Home Color Consultation: JDB

Zoa T-shirt, sticker, & button: Christina C.

Zoa Sticker & Button: JDB

Thank you to everyone that donate prizes or bought tickets

to help bring Zoa to Burning Man