New Living Room

A visitor at open house suggested I approach IKEA as a corporate sponsor. Softbox is dangerously close to being one complete IKEA Hacker project, more found and adapted than bought IKEA goodies.



My friends at Mango Leaf let me borrow some great bamboo pieces that really accent the space and bring some much needed organic textures.

Open house

The open house was a success. It was great to hear reactions and ideas from visitors, including 2 tour groups led by the Living Room curator, Chen. It feels like a big shift to talk about the project as actual, not theoretical, as physical rather than virtual.

One great thought posed by a sometimes boss Daniel Smith of Disign LLC: What is the principal "unit"? Are the pods subservient rooms within the overall space "unit," or are the pods the "units" and the space the "landscape."

Hosting came up over and over again as the overarching concept, explaining both the design and the program.


Panorama view of Softbox, all dressed up for Open House.


Setup for sweet corn from the Sunnyside farmer's market.


Visitors exploring guest pod.

Pod, day and night

New guest! Lidy Six

Lidy is an acquaintance of an acquaintance staying with me for a couple of weeks. She is a theatre director from Holland in town to research for a potential project here. She had a production called Tower of Babel at PS 122 in 2006.

I had some fun Merle Ukeles moments getting the room ready, taking maintenance and into process and performance. Hostess with the mostest.

Guest Pod

Got the guest pod geared up for my first visitor, Lidy Six, from Holland.

Pod progress!

New Garden

They were having a sale at my local florist on their starter plants, so I got some new friends. I got a bunch of cute peppers, I hope they can deal with diffused light plus my DIY grow lights.



My good friend Marion Cowings, jazz singer extrodinaire and experienced urban gardener said "...well, you only know a plant after you've killed it four times..."

1st pod

Rounding the bend on the first pod. It looks so purty and naked.




The wall panels are coroplast corrugated plastic, 4mm thick.

Pod construction! Finally!

Got started on the first pod floor today. Super psyched. The corner/caster placement engineering has been a challenge. I got a professional advice from Joe Petrilla, a carpenter and cabinet maker I met on a freelance gig with
Disign LLC.






This is my super nerdy jig for making the corner braces/caster supports.

Construction and reorganization

My awesome neighbor Jae (AKA my favorite Shelty Momo's dad!) lent me his table saw which is making quick work of my projects, like...

...revamping some shipping cartons from Vietnam into a rolly, double cabinet.





Out of sight, out of mind. I'm generally streamlining material stuff around the space, this sure helps keep up appearances!

Floor circles

Here's the plan for the new paint job. Oil based this time, will be fumey but a helluva lot more durable. My friend Tilman recommended an equal surface are for the big circle and remaining white, a proposition made possible by the awesome SketchUp!




I premarked the circles the old fashioned way, a nail, some string, and a sharpie! There will be a small circle around the column around the benches, a medium circle accentuating the stage and a large one off center in the middle.

OHNY/FLux factory Living Room!

Softbox will be a part of the openhousenewyork/Flux Factory partnership and show the first weekend of October. It is called Living Room and curated by Chen Tamir (also one of the curators of a show I was in there last year
NYNYNY: So Nice We Named it Thrice). I originally proposed to do a site specific intervention with a host site participating in OHNY, but in the end, and thankfully to Chen's suggestions, I'm going to "debut' Softbox instead.

See Press Release below for more details:

Living Room
Flux Factory in collaboration with openhousenewyork
October 4-5, 2008


Flux Factory has invited ten artists to transform strangers’ homes into sites for interactive works. Domestic or historic locations throughout New York City will become arenas for exploring what it means to inhabit a space, to make it one’s own. In conjunction with openhousenewyork, “Living Room” locations range from private living rooms to historical sites throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Explore a wall of secrets, a room-cum-optical-device, and rooftop camping, among other exciting projects!

“Living Room” is a continuation of Flux Factory’s interest in the urban experience, in New York history, and in the overlap between private and public space. Being a live/work collective, we are fascinated by what it means to make a space one’s own. Aside from satisfying a mild desire for voyeurism common to us all, this project is an opportunity for the public to peek into private sites normally off limits.

This special exhibition is one of the many itinerant projects Flux Factory is mounting in the face of immanent eviction from our Queens premises.

Works will be on view throughout the OHNY Weekend on October 4-5, 2008 from 11:00 – 6:00 unless otherwise noted. A free, 20 person shuttle will leave the Center for Architecture on Saturday and Sunday at 12pm to transport visitors to the sites. To RSVP for the shuttle bus, and for detailed information, please visit fluxfactory.org.

Openhousenewyork is a non-profit organization celebrating New York City’s architecture and design, culminating in America’s largest event of its kind, the Annual OHNY Weekend.

Participating Artists:
Emily Clark
Rodney Dickson
Kim Holleman
Prem Krishnamurthy
John Monteith
Jo Q. Nelson
Filip Noterdaeme
Trong Gia Nguyen
Douglas Paulson
Tattfoo Tan
Lauren Wilcox

Curated by Chen Tamir

“Living Room” is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Queens Council on the Arts, as well as generous support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,
and Carnegie Corporation of New York.

farmin', part two

Got the seedlings for the garden box, the drainage works! I made a "watering can" by drilling small holes in the lid of an old water bottle. Much better than the full on dumping method.

Stage trim

My little-stage-edge-trimmer-jig. The bottom leg rests against the sides so I could mark on the top to trim with a circular saw.

Farmin', queens style

Most recent IKEA hack are the Ivar shelves left behind by the old tenants, cut down with casters leftover from an IKEA file cabinets assembly freelance gig. The recycling bins and soil beds are cut from extra shelves and the storage really cleared up the storage area, AKA "the back 40."



Gravel/rocks from the neighborhood for drainage, cheesecloth, then potting soil.


Drainage spout into a cut 2 litre bottle, H2O can be put back into bed.



I made out like a bandit at the farmer's market at 43rd St. and Skillman, one of the cenyc markets. Hudson Valley Farmhouse was out of the kick-ass cheese ravioli I had last week, so I'm trying the spinach pasta instead.

A day's work

The best part about this feeble attempt at time lapse is Rusty bustling around. Good view of the state of things, though.

Major progress moving the kitchen off of the stage so I can finish the floor and "lounge it out." I should've learned my lesson about white shag carpets in dusty lofts, but I still want one. Bad. The artist I'm working for, Fabian Marcaccio, has one in his loft, it is wool, nice quality, needs a cleaning once a year. Hmmm. I got inspired about the floor paint from helping him with his new space. Oil based "silver grey" from janovic/plaza. Did wonders on raw plywood and may be a bit more manageable than white, even if it means sleeping on a friend's couch while it dries.




Fabian's new studio, before and after.

To Do

After a visit with my sister Sarah I realized there are a ton of half-done projects, the short-term mixed in with the long-term.

Thus the new to do list. Small bites, chew each 10 times before swallowing.