The Wax Grid

Hard Haunted Mansion 2009 - Photos

2010-01-26T00:59:00.000-08:00

I got to roam around a bit on Halloween night to take pictures of some of our mixed visuals at HARD Haunted Mansion.

Fortunately, I wasn't the only one out there with a camera, here are some photos with COLLABO's visuals in the background of the DJs.

Photo by Timothy Norris for LA Weekly

Photo by Timothy Norris for LA Weekly

Photo by ClubSoda.fm

Photo by ClubSoda.fm

Photo by Rony's Photobooth

HARD Haunted Mansion 2009

2009-10-30T00:43:00.000-07:00

COLLABO will be live visuals for both days of HARD Haunted Mansion. Check us out on the Expos Stage.

Autumn Lights 2009 - Conclusion

2009-10-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

While it's been a month later, Autumn Lights turned out well. Lots of work between building and getting the projections set-up at Pershing Square, but COLLABO as a whole fulfilled what we had in mind. Special thanks to Lilli Muller for curating and organizing such a large, well-attended exhibition. Also, the structure would not have been possible without Phillip Cameron, who designed the massive structure in collaboration with us. Below are some of the photos I took during the night and a video is on its way.

Autumn Lights 2009

2009-09-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

COLLABO will be participating in Autumn Lights 2009 at Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles. As a team, we have been ambitiously constructing a large-scale tetrahedral structure that will provide a multifaceted projection surface to display our installation-specific video pieces and motion graphics.

Additionally, this multimedia installation, titled "A Manifestation of Collective Subconscious", loosely encompasses the various stages of the sleep and dream cycles. The themed video pieces are further enhanced by a custom soundscape and score from the experimental rock group, Golden Hits.

The art festival will be held this Saturday, September 19th from 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM. For additional information visit the official site.

Within this post are some of our preliminary tests on the structure surfaces, which I photographed during one of our assembly days. You can see more photos on my Flickr photostream.

HARD Summer Fest 2009

2009-07-31T01:05:00.000-07:00

After a bit of hiatus to focus on getting some more original content produced, COLLABO will be making a profound return to various mediums and venues this August / September. Coming August 8th, will be the HARD Summer Festival, where COLLABO will debuting completely new material. We'll also be performing at a fundraiser (warm-up session) this Saturday, August 1st, at the Nomad Gallery in Echo Park.

However, HARD will be the place to be, if you want to catch some new COLLABO content. Below is one new clip for the mix:

Summer COLLABO Happenings

2009-04-21T00:54:00.000-07:00

I swear this blog isn't devoted to club events, though it is starting to look like it. COLLABO is simply nailing some big events, we finished our residency at CONTROL and we also visualized HARD 13 in March, see video below.

COLLABO video mixing at HARD 13:

COLLABO at HARD13 from Collaboratory on Vimeo.

Oh... and another thing. If you haven't already check out the COLLABO website, the COLLABO Myspace, and follow us on Twitter.

COLLABO was also recentley featured in the online Japanese design magazine, Shift, as seen here.

HARD 13 and Control

2009-03-12T02:37:00.000-07:00

Busy as shit, so I'll be brief. COLLABO has a lot action lined up this month, including a residency at the Avalon for CONTROL, which can be read about in the previous post below.

However, we are also slated as the sole visual crew for HARD 13, this weekend, Friday, March 13. See flyer for the line-up or visit the website here.

While most of the group will be at HARD, I'll be at the Avalon for CONTROL, we are double-booked for the night.

And some weird Joshua Tree footage of my brother running around below:

Upcoming COLLABO Events

2009-02-04T01:52:00.000-08:00

Alright, 2009 is here and draining my sanity. Still designing my portfolio website, though I have finally made some progress with it and hopefully I'll be able to go live with it kind-of soon.

In the meantime, COLLABO has several events lined up for this month of February, including an event being organized by my friends Chris Laughter and Skwerl, from Enjoy Human and Antiquiet respectively.

The Enjoy Human / Antiquiet launch party kicks-off this Saturday, February 7th, and includes musical performances by 8MM and Pop Levi. There will be an open bar, free food, no cover charge, and some fresh new visuals by COLLABO to accompany the DJ sets following the main performances.

If you can't attend the Antiquiet / Enjoy Human event, which you definitely should (it's fucking free), COLLABO will be performing every Friday night, until ~~March~~ April, at the Avalon in Hollywood for their CONTROL events. I'll also be helping out where I can.

Some footage I have been working on for the upcoming events:

Goodbye 2008

2008-12-22T02:55:00.000-08:00

The year 2008 has consumed a lot of things in my life, including updates to my own personal website and / or blog. It is annoying that it has been nearly 2 months without any blog entries, but this obviously isn't because the year has been uneventful, quite the the opposite actually.

I am currently in the process of redesigning my main portfolio website, thewaxgrid.com. I might even migrate this blog over to WordPress, still researching that a bit. More importantly, I have just completed my final term at UCLA in the Design | Media Arts program, which has resulted in the arduous task of getting my head straight and my portfolio materials in logical order. Important tasks that were slated to be finished by year's end have been pushed to 2009, but for good reason. There are couple events coming up during this last fragment of 2008.

One event is a fundraiser for "medical, educational, vocational, and nutritional support for HIV+ orphans, vulnerable children, and pregnant women in Zambia". The event is being organized by my friend Mike Avesar (amongst others), with all proceeds / donations going directly to Tiny Tim and Friends, an non-profit organization focused on these life-saving aims. Along with two other artists, Ryan Chin and Charlie Carroll, we are providing some art for this venue. I will specifically be exhibiting a retrospective of some graphics made during my studies at UCLA, including some new photographic pieces. The event will be held on December 27th, 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM at the Avesar Residence.

Lastly, COLLABO is preparing for a massive New Years' event in Downtown Los Angeles, called GIANT Maximus. We will be doing our usual intense visuals and will be sharing the Destructo stage with Mickey Avalon, Dirt Nasty, and other electronic artists. Musical tastes aside, we should have some cool visuals in a very large space. If everything goes as planned, I'll be contirbuting some footage and will probably be mixing that night.

Vote NO on Prop. YES

2008-10-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to vote "No" on Proposition Yes, the American way of life is at stake.

Psychic Bitch

2008-10-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that since the completion of Garbage In Garbage Out, I updated my online music project, Psychic Bitch, with some new work, etc. I play all the instruments and handle all the production, especially as the most recent compositions have been accompaniments to my experimental videos.

Some semi-recent tracks:

Garbage In Garbage Out

2008-09-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the last post, I have uploaded my experimental film to QOOB, titled Garbage In Garbage Out. It has a running time of about 3 minutes.

In addition to the people thanked in the credits, I would also like to thank Chris Laughter and Jeremy Azevedo at CraveOnline for allowing me to borrow the Panasonic DVX-100. And thanks Megan.

Experimental Film Screening

2008-09-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

The recent months of August, and now September, has been devoted to my last non-major class at UCLA, Experimental Filmmaking. It has been intense in terms of filming and editing, not to mention finding a cohesive structure for a film with no narrative or actors. I have recorded my own original soundtrack to the film, thus making it an even more introspective piece, but I also hope that some of this progress will lead to some more sonic / visual experimentation, maybe pushing the boundaries of my COLLABO contributions a little further.

I am pleased to say that this "experiment" has come to a fulfilling end and there will be a screening today, September 11th, 1:00 PM, at UCLA's James Bridges Theater.

Of course, I will be posting the film online tomorrow to my usual outlets, including this blog. Stay Tuned.

Mixed Episodes - Documentation

2008-08-07T01:43:00.000-07:00

The Mixed Episodes show launched this July and the pieces are still up until the end of this month at Santee Lofts in Downtown Los Angeles. Being a two-person show, I contributed a total of 11 pieces, including 3 new collage graphics that were completed earlier this summer. We will be re-launching Mixed Episodes on August 14th to coincide with the Downtown Art Walk, check it out then if you missed the opening, as there was definitely a lot of action, check out the videos and photos...

Slideshow: This video covers all the pieces that are in Mixed Episodes.

Event Footage: A walk through the gallery with some detailed shots. Also featured is Daniel Figueroa's video installation on the gallery wall, which includes some of Jarrad's older collages. He was kind enough to let us project his work for the opening night.

HARD Summer Fest 2008

2008-08-03T02:26:00.000-07:00

COLLABO, the visual performance group I am involved with, just completed a major contribution to the HARD Summer Fest. While it might have gone unreported on my own blog, it was a major happening, and I am grateful that I was able to project some brand new video work along with the other COLLABO members.

The below photograph features a still from one of my video pieces:

Large crowd, even though we projected on the indoor stage:

We divided the time-slots around to correspond with technology from the "past", "present", and "future". I was part of the "future" group and below is some found fan footage of our slot for the night with DJ Steve Aoki.

Mixed Episodes

2008-06-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

So the collage show is coming soon and the web flyer is included in this post. I should have a significant amount of work featured in the show, as a compliment to Jarrad's new pieces. More on this soon... I am getting ready to hustle some SPAM.

Coalesce - Conclusion

2008-06-18T01:30:00.000-07:00

Coalesce was deinstalled on Monday, but it was an entireley successful show, in spite of the difficulty in setting up during finals week. It was hell for a few days. I contributed four pieces to the show, 2 videos and 2 posters, which are all documented in this post.

Soft Radiation
Edited archival video footage with an original sound score

Coalesce

2008-06-03T00:50:00.000-07:00

Busy busy busy... This whole year at UCLA has been leading up to the Senior design show case, Coalesce, this Thursday, June 5th. Lots of preparation and I will be featuring two new pieces (posters). Additionally, I will be exhibiting some of my video work. Also, my brother and I will be doing our own art exhibition next month in downtown LA, but more on that later. Coalesce will be a nice preview of some of the work for the July show. More about Coalesce here.

Beamed By MACHINE

2008-05-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

Seems that I forgot to mention all the action from last week on this blog. Dutch design collective, MACHINE, and graffiti artist, Niels "Shoe" Meulman, conducted a special 3-day workshop at UCLA, where we learned the basics of VJ culture and video performance. It was an extremely grueling week, but it culminated nicely with two performances, one at the UCLA EDA and another public showcase at Jimmy's Lounge in Hollywood, as part of P.Y.T. Overall, it was tremendous success and there is some progress being made in scheduling some more performances, stay tuned.

Photos of the event available on Flickr and here.

College Tonight

2008-04-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

These past few weeks I designed some corporate art pieces for the social-networking site, College Tonight, to coincide with some of their promotional campaigns. I produced a large format, logotype banner, as well as, two corresponding graphic pieces.

Hand Slider

2008-03-27T03:08:00.000-07:00

An early version, I am thinking about making some changes.

TheWaxGrid.com Redesign

2008-03-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my first blog post, I had plans to redesign my portfolio website to coincide with my Creative Web class. Well, 2008 has arrived and this week, I have gone live with my redesign (thewaxgrid.com). No longer will this blog be a substitute for my real portfolio and better yet, I can keep this blog for other interesting content and projects that do not make the cut. Expect to see more frequent updates and items that would usually not fit my "aesthetic" requirements per se. For better or worse, this blog will maybe turn into a manifestation of my time-wasting Internet habits.

Hybrid

2008-03-19T00:40:00.000-07:00

For my Creative Web class, I contributed to a group project involving some video work and Flash navigation. Definitely creepy shit, we filmed and photographed most of the material in UCLA's underground steam tunnels / storage facilities.

UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival

2008-01-30T13:17:00.000-08:00

I submitted a design for the UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival, which was unfortunately not picked. Could it be the lion's evil red eyes? The trumpet blasting in its ears? You tell me.

Micro-Solid

2007-12-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Just created a graphical collage last night utilizing some Asian electronics catalogs and some other uncommon media items.