If the craziness of this week with the proposal video wasn’t enough, I got some more great news today.
One of photos taken during the last Critical Mass Chicago ride won third place in the Hidden Chicago photo contest in Time Out Chicago!
The winning photos are available in the “Photo Issue” in Time Out Chicago today and online here.
Woot!
My Early Muir Owl - FAQ and thanks.
After a few days of riding a huge internet wave, the flood of comments, links and hits are starting to calm down around here.
This tiny insignificant, gnat of a blog went from picking up accidental traffic from random Google image searches (not even real text searches!) to at one point, getting 18,000 hits in one hour. That was more hits than this blog has had in its entire lifetime.
Even though I mentioned this in my last post, I would like to take another opportunity to thank everyone for their support. Sara and I are still in shock over how much heartfelt goodwill this video has generated. We’re honored to have read so many lovely warm wishes.
Some of my favourite comments I read so far:
“You had me at laser cut foam core”
“the feel-good YouTube video of the summer”
“Just an all around feel good video. You watch this video - you’re gonna feel good!” as spoken in a strong southern drawl, by JohhnyTV.
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I’d like to acknowledge a few people whose support was critical in all of this:
Annette Ferrara, my friend the writer and art historian who dug the idea from the start. She was instrumental in helping me find a gallery to host the event.
Britton Bertran (from 40000), for being such a supportive gallery owner and idea patron. Throughout the build and during our initial talks, he was able to give really helpful constructive design critique that made the installation so much more stronger. I think that any artist would do well to have Britton in their corner.
Eli Robb, for his performance on the night of the opening. He brought the artiste, Serge Gandaora to life. The black cut-off t-shirt was a nice touch.
To all my friends that were so good for playing along with the ruse. In particular, I’d like to thank Emily (who also took the photo above). Also to her husband, Craig for his fantastic photos of the night that I used for the video. Also to Erin and Chad for their photos.
And to John Grimley and Matt in the studio for helping me understand how to use the bench drill and for letting me borrow the tools from the IDEO workshop.
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And now some answers to the growing list of FAQ:
The soundtrack is by the Icelandic band, Sigur Ros. The song is called Sæglópur from their album, Takk. Please don’t sue me Sigur Ros! I love your song and think of all the people that now do too.
Everyone at the gallery that night was in on the plan. But I think there were a few people who walked in off the street, thinking it was a real opening. Thanks, random people, for making the event look more “real.”
“My Early Muir Owl” is an anagram of “Will you marry me.”
“Serge Gandaora” is an anagram of “george and sara”.
The white ‘art’ on the walls were the original 3′ x 2′ foam core sheets that I used to cut out the letter forms.
I only got one paper cut during the entire build.
The installation took about 24 hours in total. 4-6 hours each day over four days.
How the installation was made:
Each base was cut from a few bits of spare MDF with a circular saw bit on a bench drill.
The tall rods were made from 8′ length of aluminium screen door frames cut to length. Each stroke of the letter forms was a made from stacks of identical cutouts or folded together from a flattened ‘net’.
The full ‘artist statement’ written by Eli/Serge can be found here.
Sara said yes!
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In the end of all this, we’re just glad we can share our happiness.
