James Turrell
Dear Family and Friends,
Welcome to this week's "Thoughtlet."
These words are my personal diary and a weekly review of ideas,
beliefs, thoughts, or words that will hopefully be of some
benefit to you: my children, my family, and my friends.
"On Sunday the 10th of September there was an article in Zest titled Artist James Turrell begins lecture series exploring buildings as masterpieces. It said:
<![CDATA["What is a museum? Is it a box to contain works of art? Or is the building itself an artwork?
On Sept. 19, sculptor-architect James Turrell kicks off a provocative new lecture series that
poses those questions.
"Architecture and Museums" marks the first lecture series in a new collaboration between
the Menil Collection and Rice University's department of art history.
"We're using the broadest possible definition of the words 'architecture' and 'museums,'"
says Karl Kilian, the Menil's director of programs. He notes that since architect Frank Gehry's
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao stunned the public in 1997, the line separating museums and the
art they house has grown increasingly blurry. The Bilbao's spawn includes a legion of
ambitious museum buildings, each as much a destination as the art they contain.
But Turrell was blurring the lines between art and architecture long before the Bilbao. Since
the 1970's he's worked to transform the Roden Crater, a volcano in northern Arizona, into a
gigantic work of art, with openings to the sky that precisely frame the movements of the
sun, moon and stars.
Houston is home to two of Turrell's major permanent works: the <i>Skyspace</i> in the
Live Oak Friends Meeting House; and <i>The Light Inside</i>, a glowing, color-changing
tunnel at the Museum of Fine Arts.']]>
This article fascinated me, and I cut it out, hoping to make it to the lecture, and not expecting to do so. After all, it seems there is always too much to do, and not enough time for things I want to do. Oh well!
Work is changing a lot. There are no active Chinese interpretation projects, the purchase of Grant Geophysical had changed the company, and Dave is usually out at there office and seldom comes by to talk like he used to do. This week Mike Dunn was in Algeria, and he did not leave me specific jobs he wanted me to work on. So I spent much of the week working on the Abbott Atlas. I'm pleased with how it is coming together, and I hope that the company will be willing to put some resources behind making it a real product. Time will tell.
Monday when I got home there was a call from Hans Sheline, who came home from Saudi Aramco a year ago and started his own oil company. He has a big prospect he is about ready to drill over by Lafayette. He wants the depth to top geopressure in the area, and called me for the info. I spent some time on it, and told him how much I thought it was worth to GDC. He hasn't called back yet. I'm sure I'll see him at the SEG in New Orleans in a couple of weeks (0641.html), and we will talk about it then.
Tuesday evening Brent Peterson and I visited the Tana and Bryant Holmes, the last family on our list of families in our ward emergency preparedness area. It was a very nice visit. They both have worked as emergency responders for years, and so it is kind of useless visiting them and talking about being prepared. They showed us their 72 hour kit. It was a nice visit, and I'm glad we went. Just before I left, I remembered the article I had seen about James Turrell. I found it and brought it with me. It didn't start until 7:30, and we finished at the Holmes at 6:55, so I decided to go. I actually made it to the Menil Museum by 7:35, and they didn't start the talk until 7:40. I parked in a handicapped space, and expected a ticket. However, I didn't get one. It was packed, and I stood outside the Menil behind a lot of people. However, I could see the slides OK, and they had speakers. The talk was absolutely wonderful. I took notes in the dark. My best translation of the notes at a speech by James Turrell Tuesday evening the 19th of September 2006 held in the front entrance of the Menil Museum are below:
<![CDATA['Most study where light goes, rather than where where light comes from. I started by
wanting to use the wall as a picture frame. To make the walls the center of the house,
we painted them white, and we painted the floors white too. This meant you had to
take your shoes off to enter the space. Californian's are on the Pacific Rim, and so it
seemed to fit with the lifestyle.
There were no objects or things in the space. The idea was to allow for feeling the
thinginess of the space. The physicality of light. The light humans make is really
insignificant compared to the light of the sun. By signing a light on the wall, to create
a floating cube or tetrahedron, we were taking infant steps in sculpturing with light.
Then in 1968-1969, I started to use color. Color does not stay on a plane. Color
creates a space, a light inside Plato's cave.
Light is something we have to look at. It is primal. Like looking into a fire, or a deer
looking into the headlights of a car.
It is magical what can happen at low levels of light. We feel and we touch out of the
eyes. By placing the light of the sky as a border around a different temperature tungsten
arc lamp light, there is a quality of light which exists in the air. Like a fog. Light can
resonate our capabilities. There are unique colors which are appropriate for a volume.
Placing light in the air not on the walls is powerful. Light can even have a graininess.
We usually use light to illuminate other things. Here I was first working with the
material called light. The thickness of the light holds the whole space and tunes the
space.
Then I worked with planes of light. Vales from the top of a space coming from
sunlight. I crated a diagonal wall through the middle of a space. A Lady leaned
against the blue light wall, and it wasn't there.
It is hard for an artist to understand how the public views their work. What do you
do when someone dives through a lighted aperture, which was really a
solid wall, and ends up with a broken limb? Artists tend to have one thought about
what they are doing and the audience usually sees something entirely different. It
is not on an artist's mind what the audience thinks about their work. I stare into my
work to bring others into different spaces. Not an infinite space, rather an intermediate
space. For instance, tunnels are a throw away space for architects. It becomes very
powerful to put glass in the sidewalks illuminating spaces underneath.
Passages are wonderful. They are where we go from one space to another space, and
this transition is important. Here we begin to talk about spiritual journeys. About
near-death experiences. Think of Saul on the road to Damascus and his description
of the light. The spiritual is not the world of the sciences. Art can take you to a
world beyond the sciences.
There is a seeing with the eyes closed. Think of lucid dreams. The richness of the
color is better than with the eyes open. The resolution is better than with the eyes.
The full vision with the eyes closed is different.
If you want to deal with light, you don't use the color wheel. Yellow and green
light give you white light. You have to get away from the color wheel, and to think
of perceptual psychology. Light is quite different than mixing earth or paint. We
are sometimes very unaware of the reality we create. For instance, red and green,
the colors used for our traffic lights, are the least visible lights.
Perceptual cells are like a telephone booth, and give us a connection to a far off place.
It is a certain time and space. These spaces are bigger on the inside than they are on
the outside. Just like sometimes the music you listen to in your apartment is bigger
than the apartment. To create these perceptual cells, there are color strobe lights,
where you can vary the timing and the color and thus create unique spaces. This
allows you to see your blind spot.
To take this to another level, I put the participant on a bed, and allowed them to
raise their head and look out a dome. This is like staring into a fire, which is a
theta state, not a beta state, where we are thinking and not thinking in words. This
was expanded, where the head was placed in the exact center of a 12 foot dome.
This is also like Plato's cave, or a closed interior.
We are crustaceans. Like coral we make cities and inhabit them, leave and get in
a movable shell to go to another shell. This is like thinking of the body as the
house for the soul. Our spaces can close ourselves off from the outside world.
Therefore we make windows for a view, or for sunlight at breakfast.
Glass ceilings create a feeling of an opening. Showed an orange wall with a blue
sky panel. We think color comes from the sky, but it is something we create.
What we behold is something we create. Showed a castle with a skylight in the
roof, which allows working from the inside to the outside. He built many of
these structures himself.
Artists and architects work against each other. We need to be more like the
Japanese, were the idea's size does not matter. Showed a house he built where
the pool is under the house, the house is on stilts for heavy snows, and where
the roof rolls back to let in light. The idea is to spread the roof like an umbrella.
Referenced a book "In Praise of Shadows." Designed tatamari (sp?) and sized
it like the one at the temple at Kyoto. Talked about the love of darkness, and of
light coming out of the darkness.
In spaces there is never no sound, and never no light. We remember sounds
by how big the sound is. When things get very quiet, we still hear our heart
beat and our breathing. When things get very dark, we have dreams and see
lights. It is possible to build a scene from the outside that meets a scene from
the inside. Scenes that happen in low light is where we engage in what we see.
Quakers talk of oral memory and visual memory. With the roof closed and light
low, there is this feeling of visual meeting. Joan Bayez and James Dean were
both Quakers.
Bringing light inside is interesting. Tibetans and Hopi are sky people, and they
live in the sky. Cinder cones are beautiful female forms. The large pyramids
along the Mississippi River were truncated cones.
It is wonderful to make plans on paper. However, when you build it, it is much
different than you expected. To build the site at the cinder cone, we moved
1 1/4th million yards of cinders at $1.50 per yard. Designed the site to look at
the North Star, and to allow the other stars to spin around. Navajos and Iroquois
are very good at working steel and cement. They put in 4 10 hour days per week
and then had 3 day weekends at home. The main tunnels are aligned to the
solstices and to maximum moon rises. If you have lights inside, you can not see
outside. Low light allows visual penetration. They do not make the crater
available yet for the general public to see.']]>
Hopefully some of you read all of this. Hopefully some of you who read all of this see the same depth of thought and experience I see. I was absolutely fascinated by the talk. It changes my concepts of what can be done in Red Cove. I have a plan of having Rick Duran from Chicago, Jeff Winston from Boulder, Mic Paterson from L.A., Ray Gardner from Cedar City, and possibly a couple of others meet me in Tuscon. Here we would have a rented bus take us to Biosphere II, then to Phoenix and Arcosanti, then to Flagstaff and James Turrell's Roden Crater, then to Cedar City and Red Cove. The bus would have power for our PC's and it would be a planning session for what could be built at Red Cove. It would probably cost $50,000 to pull this type of a planning trip off, and it excites me to think about the possibilities. Oh well! Dream on dreamers.
The rest of the week was pretty quiet. Marc upgraded the DSL Internet connection from 192 kbits per second to 3 Mbits per second down and 768 kbits per second up. However, it is Sunday night and NS Lookup still does not have the new IP address for walden3d.com posted. Oh well. I guess the big news was on Friday morning when I receive the following e-mail from Henry Ho:
<![CDATA['Dear Roice,
Thank again for sharing with us the opportunity associated with Dynamic Resource Corporation
("DRC"). In fact, I discussed that with our partners while I was in where I got some positive
comments.
First of all, they reckon we can play this in a more aggressive manner which means will consider
the possibility of going into the project at the outset, i.e. starting right from the first round funding
for $1.5 million. Based on this scenario, wants to have a more thorough understanding on your
case's business model, risk analysis and exit plan. The people were mainly commercial guys
and they requested me getting to you the following questions and requests:
1. The first thing they wish to know is whether they can cut in right from the beginning as described above.
2. It is told that the investment of 1.5 million will acquire 20% equity of DRC. Apart from this 20%, what
rights or options will an investor have from the cinema.
3. What risks are attached to this investment of this 1.5 million investment? What is the worse scenario?
How to balance all these risks?
4. What measures investors can take to protect their investments, i.e. for the 1.5 as well as the
subsequent 100 million investment?
Thanks for your kind attention.
Best regards,
Henry Ho']]>
It will be really interesting if I am able to turn this connection from Bob Mishler into $101.5 million funding for Dynamic Resources. Needless to say, it would change our lives a bit. Like it would turn everything totally upside down. It was interesting that Friday during the day, Maureen, Dave and Lee's secretary, who also supports Mike Dunn and myself and Fred, stopped by my office to talk. About the first time she has done this. She reminded me about John Farr, who was the Chief Geophysicist at Western Geophysical when I was at the Seismic Acoustics Lab. John used to have Maureen type for her. I showed Maureen a book I just finished, WorldWatch Paper 170 Liquid Assets - the critical need to safegard freshwater ecosystems, and how I had marked it up. I explained how when we had money I would hire ladies from Church to type the words I underlined so I could create a digital on-line library. Maureen said, 'I never have been able to say, when I had money. Which is better to have money, or not to have money?' I responded 'Not to have money,' and then we spent a half an hour discussing why I said this. Of course, in the back of my mind was the e-mail which had come in early that morning from Henry Ho. I look at the changes I sense as a fairly major life transition.
Friday night Andrea and I watched the first couple of episodes of season three of 24. Also I got a call from Christian Singfield, who gave an update on FSI. I sent the following report out to the investors in FSI Saturday evening:
<![CDATA['Ben and Sarah, Roice and Sarah, Jared and Melanie, Jackie and Glenda, and Charles,
Thanks for getting back to me on my previous e-mail, dated 17 July 2006. There have been a couple
of reports from Chris since then, and nothing seemed worth passing on. However, Chris called Friday
night, the end of his call being a request for more investment money, and I figure I owe everyone a
report. The following were his key points:
1. FSI expected to have the technology sharing agreement signed with Chevron by August 1st.
It still is not signed.
2. All of the technical terms have been incorporated into the agreement, which both the Chevron
and FSI lawyers agree describe as meeting the original intent.
3. The Chevron lawyers had some recommended changes on some of the legal wording on Thursday,
and Chris hopes to get past this in the next couple of weeks.
4. The technical terms specify that all technology developed under the joint technology agreement
will belong to FSI. Chevron will have the right to use any of this technology any place inside
their organization and at no charge.
4a. If Chevron chooses to leave the technology agreement, Chevron will give all project results to FSI,
and will continue to use the results internally. If they sell the technology to any 3rd party, FSI will
receive 50% of all sales.
4b. If FSI chooses to leave the technology agreement, Chevron has the rights to purchase the
technology from FSI.
5. Chris has entered into contractual agreements with mechanical engineers in New Zealand and another
company, which I forget the specifics of, who will implement the plans for the cuttings retrieval system
which Chevron and Chris have designed for phase 1. Chris says there are no risks in terms of FSI being
able to meet the requirements of the joint venture agreement. The project is completely designed and
all of the engineering design work has been done. All of the pieces are in place, and all that is left is
for the agreement to be signed, and investment money put into the company to be a go.
6. Chevron anticipates this project will save them $500 million per year. Chris has quotes from several
executives saying things like "This is the best research project Chevron has going," and "Chevron needs
to be involved in more projects like this." Of course, Chris is extremely frustrated the lawyers have
taken so long to finish up the agreement.
7. Chris has a basic agreement from Michael Hagney, a Director of Sun Microsystems, to leave Sun and
to manage the project. They have a few final details to work out, and then there will be a commitment
letter. I've known Michael for many years. He is a good guy, and it is impressive Chris has got this
commitment.
8. Chris is seeking an initial investment of $35 million, once the technology sharing agreement is signed.
He has several groups who have expressed interest, and he remains optimistic. The hope is still for this
investment to happen in the October time-frame. I anticipate it will be closer to the end of the year,
based on the lawyer delay. We did not talk about selling any of your 5 cent shares. Specifically
because Chris is out of money again, and is planning on selling more 5 cent shares to existing
shareholders (or 25 cent shares to new shareholders) to raise $200,000 to cover costs until the
investment money is in the bank.
There are finally, yet still only potentially, some significant changes about to happen to our financial
situation. If any of the three most likely events happen in time, we will possibly put up the entire
$200,000 FSI is seeking. This does not mean I am recommending any of you stretch to invest in more
5 cent shares. However, these shares are available to you, if any of you are interested. Remember in
my last note I reported Chris "does not see any dividends until 2008. I've always said this is a long-term
investment. However, he did say that the Toronto investor asked how many of the 5 cent shareholder's
would sell there shares at the first round offering price, which will be over $1.00 per share (Vs $20.00
per share in about 2012)."
We just put a new 5 megabit web connection into the house, and it required getting a new IP address for
Walden 3-D, Inc. I can send e-mail out, and I can not receive e-mail. It might be Tuesday before the
new IP address is registered with NIC. This means if you send me an e-mail, it will be in the queue for
a few days before it is delivered, and you will get a message saying delivery to rnelson@walden3d.com
has been delayed.
Given all of the above, let me know at your earliest convenience if you have an interest in purchasing
any more 5 cent shares in FSI. I will be in Lafayette on Tuesday (hopefully staying with Melanie and
Jared Monday night) and New Orleans October 1st-5th (again hopefully going to church with the
Wrights on Sunday the 1st on the way over to New Orleans). So the best way to get hold of me is
probably via my cell phone.
Best Regards,
H. Roice Nelson, Jr.
Walden 3-D, Inc.
answering machine: 281.579.0172
cell: 713.542.2207']]>
Saturday morning I mowed the lawns, and spent from 10:00 until 2:00 cutting down branches on the other two cypress trees in the back yard. For the second Saturday in a row I was totally wiped out. As I cut down these little 1-10 inch diameter branches, I couldn't help but think about Mic's dream of building houses like a tree, and tying the whole think into the words heard earlier in the week from James Turrell. In the evening Andrea went to a Ward Relief Society dinner and the General Relief Society broadcast. I went to Wendy's and ate a bacon cheeseburger and a small frostie, to the Post Office to pick up the mail, and home, where I wrote a song I call Transition:
<![CDATA['P: Transitions, Passages, Graduations, Changes
1. Astrophysical images showed
Universes, galaxies, stars, and gas flows
Reflected light and light that glows
Planets and suns and eclipse halos
C1. Transitions are everywhere
Matter surrounded by air
2. Geological processes
Rising sea level washes
Rocks and sand to the beaches
Material for future structures
C2. Transitions change our world
Things we knew become unfurled
3. Biological levity
Undoing nature's entropy
Marked by increasing complexity
The source of all uncertainty
C3. Transitions are hard
Not knowing the next card
4. Daily life is a test
We just need to do our best
Poor to rich is a questions
And we pass entering the Lord's rest
C4. Transitions happen
We do our best to map 'em
E. Changes, graduations, passages, transitions']]>
Sunday was quiet. My primary class was on talents. It was Fast and Testimony Meeting. I went home teaching with Scott Whitrock to the Minors, the Schmidts, and Dong Liu. Also caught up last week and this week's Thoughtlets. Too bad there are so many other weeks that are not caught up. There was a Houston Business Journal which came and I was looking through it. There is an interesting article on natural light, and how natural light is being used as one of the "green" features of the new Texas Women's University's Institute of Health Sciences - Houston Center, designed by Kirksey Architecture. Kirksey had the lease on HyperMedia's last space, and had to write off the lease we walked on. Mr. Kirksey is a nice guy. The article reminded me of the talk and presentation by James Turrell. Small world, and especially when there are ideas which seem to keep coming at me from a lot of different sources."
Since the 38th week of 1996 I have written a weekly "Thoughtlet"
(little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me).
Until the 43rd week of 2004 I sent these out as an e-mail. They
were intended to be big thoughts which mean a lot to me.
Over time the process evolved into a personal diary. These notes
were shared with my family because I know how important the
written word can be. Concerned about how easy it is to drift and
forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of
daily life, I thought this was a good way to reach those I love.
It no longer feels right to send out an e-mail and "force" my kids
and my family to be aware of my life and struggles.
Everyone has their own life to lead, and their own struggles to
work through. I will continue this effort, and will continue to
make my notes publicly accessible (unless I learn of
misuse by someone who finds out about them, and then will
aggressively
pursue a legal remedy to copyright infringement and I will put the Thoughtlets
behind a password).
The index to download any of these Thoughtlets is at
http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets,
or you can e-mail me with
questions or requests at
rnelson@walden3d.com
(note if you are not on my e-mail "whitelist" you must send 2 e-mails
within 24 hours of each other in order for your e-mail to not be trashed).
With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)