Head Full of Air » grassrootsmapping

February 28th, 2011

Reed Arts Week, RAW: Geographies

I’m proud to be participating in Reed’s Art Week. I’ll be giving a lecture and demonstration of aerospace in the arts and Grassroots Mapping tools on Saturday, March 5 @ Noon. ~~Location is still TBA~~. At the Gray Campus Center room C. There will be complementary supplies and instructions for building your own solar hot air balloon.

Essentially this kit, minus the expensive stuff (wind speed meter, infrared thermometer).

Come for balloons, stay for Francis Alÿs

At 4pm Saturday there will be a showing of Francis Alÿs’s When Faith Moves Mountains, and other works. Of course, you could watch his work on your computer, but get out and enjoy the cinema!
Francis Alÿs, “When Faith Moves Mountains” (2002). from Daily Serving on Vimeo.

February 27th, 2011

Follow the kite balloon working page over at the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science. There’s a lot of research in there that I’ve only now gotten on the web.

October 20th, 2010

These are the best basic balloon kit instructions, beautiful. Check out the awesome maps he got with Bonny and other grassroots mapping folks.

October 20th, 2010

September 24th, 2010

Sketch of an elliptical kite balloon like the Allsopp Helikite constructed with a rolling heat sealer (on left).

Jeffrey Warren and I discussed these kite balloon designs when I was at his studio. Southern Balloon Works, where a lot of spherical Grassroots Mapping balloons come from, makes a similar kite balloon with a drag rather than lift structure for stability. John Borden of Peace River Sudios loaned me the roller sealer. I showed Jeffrey, he found one for sale at retail, and Dan Beavers found an online store that sells roller sealers.