davidnormal, Author at David Normal Archive

July 19, 2024July 19, 2024

Cathenge DC -In Proposal to the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities – July 2025

Would you like to see Cathenge installed as public art in SW DC?

Support artist David Normal’s goal of installing Cathenge in “Linear Park” the park in the roundabout at the terminus of Maryland Av. SW in DC SW, Ward 6.

Cathenge DC is in proposal to the DC Commission on Art and Humanities for consideration in the “Public Art Building Communities” grant program that awards funds annually for new public art throughout Washington DC. The grant deadline is July 22nd 2025.

As a 3D printed sculptural installation, Cathenge represents the leading edge of ambition for the artistic application of large format additive printing. The sculptures are a multi-media fusion: 3D printing, LED lighting, lasers, sound, vibration and electronic interactive sensing are integral to the effect and provide visitors with a direct and palpable experience of the mystical Space Cat consciousness.

Visitors to Cathenge experience the majesty of the Catoliths through their interactive sound and lights. People moving within the circle of cat statues are detected by LiDAR beams. Soft harmonic purring tones and synchronized pulsing lights are generated which respond directly to the movement. These interactive light and sound effects evoke the power of Holofelinity.

Cathenge DC Visualization

Proposed Site of Cathenge: “Linear Park”, Maryland Ave. SW, Washington DC

The Catolith. Mystic cat statue of the Ancient Space Cat.

Cathenge at Patricia’s Green, Hayes Valley, San Francisco

Currently, “Cathenge DC” is being proposed to the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities for their “Public Art Building Communities” (PABC) grant which provides funding for public art installations that foster and strengthen community throughout Washington DC.

Background:

Cathenge was on display for 16 months, from October 2022 to March 2024, in downtown San Francisco. Sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission, it was displayed at the prestigious Patricia’s Green sculpture site in the fashionable Hayes Valley district of SF near the Davies Symphony Hall.

Cathenge began as a Burning Man Foundation funded “Honorarium Project” that was presented at the annual Burning Man arts festival in the Black Rock Desert of Northern Nevada.

“Cathenge DC” will be a newly revised and improved version of the recent SF installation that features great improvements in the sound and light interactivity of the installation the SF Standard called “Insanely Popular”.

Press:

“Cathenge” Glowing 9-Foot Tall Cat Sculptures Come to SF

https://sfstandard.com/2022/11/17/cathenge-comes-to-sf

https://www.timeout.com/usa/news/a-massive-cathenge-is-being-unveiled-in-san-francisco-with-glowing-feline-monoliths-112522

About the Artist:

David Normal is a painter, animator, and installation maker based in the SF Bay Area. Normal got his start making fliers for the hardcore punk scene in the Bay Area in the mid-80s. Normal began contributing to the Burning Man Festival in the mid ‘90s. Normal’s accomplishments were recognized in a solo exhibition of lightbox-murals at the British Library in
London in 2015, “Crossroads of Curiosity”. In 2022 he created “Cathenge”, the Cat Temple, for the San Francisco Arts Commission. This public art installation was displayed at Patricia’s Green Park in Hayes Valley, San Francisco from October of 2022 through March of 2024. Currently David Normal has newly established a studio in West Oakland for producing 3D printed installation art.

@postnormalism
@cathenge_cat_temple
https://davidnormal.net
http://cathenge.net
http://crossroadsofcuriosity.org

More info about Cathenge can be found on the website:

About Cathenge

Note: This proposal was begun in 2023, but couldn’t be completed in time for the 2023 grant cycle, so I am finishing it now, and hope to turn in the grant by the deadline on July 22nd 2024.

For the seriously interested:

Here is a link to the proposal draft underway. You can learn all about Cathenge DC by reading the answer to the DC CAH questions:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQRdIu3gWpKOtPPx0exW2Ae90d5NWgEmwjifdXFEkIjRX1wOIcRgYtXHhFwvdnMkXLf0X0A0RlL8Upc/pub

July 7, 2024July 8, 2024

June 2024 – Print of the Month Club

“Sentimental I & II” June 2024 selection for Print of the Month Club

This is the June 2024 offering for Patreon Print of the Month Club. These images are part of the ”1943” digital collages. Each month Patreon “Print of the Month” subscribers will receive an 8.5 x 11 in. print on Moab Entrada Natural cotton rag paper. The print will feature two collages with variations of the similar elements. It is $15. a month to subscribe and that includes postage and handling for the monthly print sent directly to you.

You can join here:

https://patreon.com/davidnormal

If you would like to order a specific past print from the series, please contact me at:

davidnormal (at) gmail.com

About the “1943 Collage Series”

During the Pandemic, my friend and collector, Josh “Doggy” Norman, gave me a stack of old LIFE Magazines all from the year 1943. Of course, in ’43 the world was plunged into the depths of WWII – the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad, The Japanese defeated at Guadalcanal, and, in the Fall of ’43, after the resignation of Mussolini, Italy made a truce with the Allied Forces.
Even as the war seemed to turn in America’s favor, at home, and certainly in the pages of LIFE Magazine, nothing was certain. It is strange to view this era through the looking glass of its advertising because the advertisers, whose stock and trade is illusion, swing fervently between efforts at buoying up an All-American status quo that is faltering*, propagandizing against the enemy, and rallying the citizenry – especially the women whose men were fighting overseas – to patriotism and sacrifice. It is difficult for me not to feel a poignant empathy for this time, the generation of my grandparents, and the period in which my own parents were born. Despite all the many momentous things that have happened since then – atomic power, space travel, political and cultural revolutions, computers and the internet – 1943 is not a year from the distant past. Not only are the cultural values expressed in these images still relevant, but the entire world continues to feel the consequences – good and bad – from this momentous period.
Yet, in making these collages I have not sought to make a statement of any kind. Rather, I just sought to playfully re-combine the imagery of the period into new configurations that evoke the dream of the collective consciousness (or “unconsciousness” – if you will) of America. Nor did I create the images to be static finished pieces, rather the images are what I would call “instances” of imagery as though they were just stills of a film (or perhaps keyframes of an animation). For this reason the work remains “Work in Progress”, or as my hero, machine artist, Jean Tinguely, would put it: “Remains static in motion”.

*Has the American “Status Quo” ever actually existed?

June 26, 2024

Totems of Dystopia

Interactive 3D printed totem poles of dystopic futurism.

Based on my “Virtual Assemblage” technique of 3D junk sculpture, and building on the mechanics and interactivity of my popular Cathenge “Catolith” Cat Statues (cathenge.net), the “Totems of Dystopia”, would be a set of (3) 10′ tall 3D printed totem poles arrayed in a triangle. Within this array is a zone of intricate interactivity facilitated by the use of LiDAR (as deployed successfully in Cathenge) that triggers a collage of sound samples and lighting effects. The goal is to create an atmosphere of beautifully unsettling discord and majestic suspense that is both fascinating and cathartic to the audience.

The images below are quick 3D sketches that are “for example” and are not the finished design. Potentially, they will be 3 individually different totem poles. Also, the color and finish in the render is only provisional – the finished work would be painted and illuminated differently. The specific details of this project are to be determined, but these images, and the brief text give an idea of the projects style and concept.

June 24, 2024June 24, 2024

Miami Art Basel: David Normal’s Futuristic Installations

Documentary and Interview by Julia Schroeder

In December of 2023, I brought artwork to Art Basel Miami for the first time. It did not go unnoticed! Art historian and videomaker, Julia Schroeder, spotted it and approached me about doing a short video about my work. Over the Spring of 2024, we conducted a number of interviews and sifted through project documentation and last Friday, June 21st, the finished video popped up on the web.

It focuses on my adventure of bringing the Kittolith to Miami Art Week and displaying it in The Maze installation at Hotel Faena’s beachfront. Full story here.

June 11, 2024

Ride ’em Snailboy!!

Lately, in my sparetime I’m working on these “Virtual Assemblages” – preparing these 3D junk sculptures to be 3D printed.

I couldn’t resist doing a new render of this.

June 9, 2024June 9, 2024

Kittoliths Grow Up To Be Catoliths

Refurbished Catoliths with new bases and “KISS” (Kittolith Interactive Sound System) adapted to the Catolith

It’s only natural that cats should have kittens, and plastic cat statues should therefore have their progeny too. The Coven of Catoliths gave birth to a Litter of Kittoliths.

After 5 years of design and production I feel that the Catolith is at last nearing its potential. The newly refurbished Catoliths that were just installed at KALW with their LiDAR based interactivity, battery operation, independent control via Raspberry Pi computer, and lighter more mobile wooden base actually exceed what I imagined for this artwork 5 years ago.

Below is a table showing the progression of techniques from one iteration of Cathenge to the next.

Component	New Catolith (2024)	Kittolith System (2023-24)	Catolith System (Patricia’s Green 2022)	Catolith System (BMan 2019)
Interactivity	LiDAR (“Time of Flight”), Raspberry Pi	LiDAR (“Time of Flight”), Raspberry Pi	Passive Infrared	Capacitive Sensing by Theremin Barney
Purring	Solfeggio Tone Based	Solfeggio Tone Based	Purr Data interactive composition by Jacob Tonski	Purr Tones by No.e
3D Printing	PETG/CR-10 S-5 Self-Printed	PETG/CR-10 S-5 Self-Printed	PETG/CR-10 S-5 Self-Printed	PLA by Titanic Design
3D Modeling	“Voxel Modeling” for 2-ply model with “shiplap” joints.	“Voxel Modeling” for 2-ply model with “shiplap” joints.	“Voxel Modeling” for 2-ply model with “shiplap” joints.	No joining system!
Base	Wooden Base	Wooden Base	Concrete Base	Concrete Base
Sound	Transductive Speakers/Inverted Sub Mounted in the Base	Transductive Speakers/Inverted Sub Mounted in the Base	Transductive Speakers/Bazooka Sub	Car Audio Stuff

The Vision of Cathenge

From the beginning, the vision of Cathenge and of the Catolith Cat Statue has been exceedingly difficult to realize because it combines lighting effects and interactivity in very specific ways and is dependent on the large format 3D printing to achieve. However, each installation of Cathenge succeeded in communicating this vision in different ways, but never completely to my satisfaction, and that’s why I have continued working on the project.

The goal has been to express the concept of “Holofelinity: Universal Cat Consciousness”. Holofelinity is the magical power of the Ancient Lyran Space Cats to manifest their minds over matter and to transform themselves into any shape. This is expressed in the artwork as “Harmonic Purring” (AKA; “Purrbration of Holofelinity”), an evocation of the capacity of the Space Cats to purr their visions into material form.

Ancient Lyran Space Cat materialized as Bastet idol levitating pyramid using chromatic spectra of the Purrbration of Holofelinity.

The Kittolith

In order to reach this goal, it was instrumental to create a smaller version of the Catolith, the “Kittolith”:

Because the Kittolith presents as a single statue instead of a circle of statues (as in Cathenge) it has been necessary to condense the interactive harmonic purring system into one sculpture. This has been done using LiDAR. People interact with the LiDAR beam extending from the collar of the Kittolith and trigger different frequencies (“Solfeggio Tones”). The infographic below shows how the Kittolith works with the use of Solfeggio sound healing tones:

From Kittolith to Catolith

The “Kittolith Interactive Sound System” (KISS) was adapted for use in the Catolith. The photo gallery below documents our process of creating the New Catolith. Essential to this process was the design and construction of a new wooden base for the Catolith.

This new, lighter base not only facilitates a wider range of possibilities of exhibitions because of its much reduced weight (compared to the previous concrete bases), but also resolves acoustic issues since the wooden base acts as a ported speaker cabinet for the subwoofer installed in the base. Below is a gallery of photos of the new Catolith and its new base under construction:

June 1, 2024June 28, 2024

Opening Tues. June 11th: The Catoliths at KALW Studio Gallery!!

Group Show featuring:

Exhibition Opening and Live Broadcast Panel discussion with the artists moderated by Ben Trefny:

5 – 7 PM (doors open at 5, discussion at 6)
Tuesday, June 11th
KALW
220 Montgomery St., SF, CA 94104
Admission free – All ages

The exhibition will be up through August 1st 2024.

(Eventbrite link at bottom of page to reserve free tix)

Public broadcasting station, KALW, recently moved their radio station’s studios to the heart of San Francisco’s financial district where they reside in the ground floor lobby of the historic Mills Building located at 220 Montgomery (Montgomery and Bush). The spacious lobby provides a new and exciting arts and events space. KALW executive director, Ben Trefny, is curating a series of art exhibits in the lobby.

The KALW lobby space features large storefront windows looking out on busy Montgomery St. which are a perfect place to perch the Catoliths. Two Catoliths will be placed, one in each large window, on either side of the entrance to the radio station where they will be seen by motorists and pedestrians alike, and, of course, by visitors to the station. These Catoliths will feature their hallmark interactive purring (Purrbration of Holofelinity).

For further info about the Catoliths, Cathenge, and the lore of the Lyran Space Cats visit cathenge.net

May 27, 2024May 27, 2024

Sonnets – Illustrated with AI (MidJourney)

Since 2022 I have been writing sonnets. A total of 45 to date. I’ve been experimenting a little bit with using the sonnets, or phrases from the sonnets, as prompts for AI art program, MidJourney.

I’ve taken the results from 4 of these experiments and overlaid the entire sonnet. I’m not completely satisfied with this. For me, so far, making stuff with MidJourney (of the various LLM image generators MJ is the only one I’ve worked with, but I have experimented pretty extensively), is semi-random. I toss in phrases and other parameters, and the bot spits out its many different interpretations. I don’t think it has much capacity for metaphor, simile, or narrative. I guess what I am really experimenting with is how to test what capacity it has for these qualities of poetic language.

I’d like these experiments in illustrating poetry with AI generative art, to lead to a curated use of poetic language in an interactive and immersive theatrical context where the audience can explore the poetic vision and help evolve it through their participation. I’m not being very specific here, but I guess you (or I) could enter the preceding sentence into ChatGPT and ask it to expand on the topic.

IXX.

Behold the elephant bearing many dreams!
He farts profoundly and expands very greatly
Consciousness that floats like incense streams!
Like strings of pearls! Like jewels beheld innately!
Like harem girls spinning tales spoken ornately
Of a certain Sultan they served exclusively,
Who, arriving a little drunk, and only very lately,
Ad-libs an odd soliloquy spoken effusively,
“Death is but a mirage!” he states conclusively.
Tottering, his ivory tower trembles and it cracks
And across shimm’ring sands he stumbles elusively –
Like a drunken elephant covering up his tracks.
The fleeting visions of distant lands so strange to remember,
Like warming your hands by the glow of an incense ember.

XXVI.

Jealous wind sweeping away grieving sand
Revealing her sleight of a severed hand
Clasping the eyeball of his mountain mortal
Where shadow castles loom ungrateful grand.
Clown bordello cum unanimous chortle
Of troglodytes ‘pon the spacetime portal
Encucumbered by mystic contraband
Shameless gender-bender gerrymand.
Gothchick debauchka stylishly putrid –
Creature teacher’s pet beyond reprimand.
Dimestore detective lust pinup lurid
Half-eaten sandwitch word salad stupid.
As for his victims she left them nameless,
For her achievements he was but blameless.

XXX.

Die countless deaths – love’s not mummified!
On the contrary, love is glorified
To persist beyond all earthly bounds.
Love is the essence of life electrified!
Music of the spheres, all celestial sounds,
Hooting of night owls, baying of sad hounds,
All sing the song of death inevitable –
And dance the mortal dance incredible!
Splendor that subverts the rule of reason –
Vainglorious love inestimable!
Every flower has its own season,
And each lover commits some small treason
To just live or justly die for something –
Loving someone, somewhere, somehow, some dumb thing.

XXXIII.

Count each grain of sand, the joys of springtide!
Inner conflicts wrestle as we sit ringside
Reminiscing, wagering, who did stand
And who was blinded and who fell tongue-tied.
Prophets and exiles of that promised land
Where milk, honey – even heroin – grew bland.
Like ghosts smoking cigars of the good life –
Gimcrack pulp fiction superpower strife –
We wander and wonder and mostly muddle,
Mix things up, mistake your best friend’s wife
For a beluga, or platypus to cuddle.
With strange bedfellows we conspire and huddle
To gravely confound the New World Order
And hail Jupiter from Ganymede’s border.

May 26, 2024June 1, 2024

Pulp and Circumstance

“Pulp and Circumstance” is the title I gave to a set of collages made in the winter of 2017-18. Life’s circumstances had led me to recoil from the outer world and retreat into the haven of collage. I made most of these collages laying in bed using (miracle of technology) a “Wacom Mobile Studio Pro” graphics tablet. I surfed the web for old pulp magazine covers and similar illustrations to use as source material, and worked up one design after another which I posted on my Instagram profile as soon as they were ready.

I’ve always been enamored of the pulp magazines; sci-fi, detective, and otherwise, and otherwise. The sheer fecundity of the outpouring of imagination into these cheaply printed publications is astonishing, and the imagery, with that hunky-dory all-American robustness, has a certain homogeneity which I find useful for the “seamless” style of collage that I favor. What I mean by “seamless” is that the finished collage looks as though it is not a collage at all, but the illustration work of one artist. A successful example of this is “Insanity Claws” a kind of Norman Rockwell-like Xmas satire:

This image combined the cover of a sleaze paperback novel about a Parisian prostitute with a saccharine vintage Christmas Eve image of an elfin Santa beaming over a couple of small children sleeping innocently in a green easy chair. A lot of careful retouching had to be done to get the girl to fit in the chair. I added the Freddy Krueger style fish-knife gloves, and replaced the children’s book illustrations with kinky porn images. The result is a pretty “seamless” collage that gives the illusion of being the vintage relic of one demented illustrator of yesteryear.

May 22, 2024July 8, 2024

May 2024 – Print of the Month Club

Print of the Month for May 2024: 1943 Series Collages

This is the May 2024 offering for Patreon Print of the Month Club. These images are part of the ”1943” digital collages. Each month Patreon “Print of the Month” subscribers will receive an 8.5 x 11 in. print on Moab Entrada Natural cotton rag paper. The print will feature two collages with variations of the similar elements. It is $15. a month to subscribe and that includes postage and handling for the monthly print sent directly to you.