Big Muskie First Person
This is a video exploration of the monument to Big Muskie from my point of view.
Big Muskie was the Second Largest piece of land moving equipment ever made.
Here are some of the Dimensions I found on the following site: http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/extreme/muskie.html
Weight:
12 million kilograms (12,000 tonnes)
27 million lbs. (13,500 tons)
Bucket Capacity:
165 cubic m (220 cubic yards)
295 tonnes (325 tons)
Height: 68 m (222 ft)
Length of the boom: 95 m (310 feet)
Total length with boom: 149 m (488 ft)
Width: 46 m (152 ft)
Empty bucket weight: 209 tonnes (230 tons)
Power cable diameter: 12.7 cm (5 in)
Electrically powered: 13,800 volts
Big Muskie moved, as do most large mobile drag lines, on two huge hydraulically driven walking feet.
Big Muskie First Person POV from Jeff Lovett on Vimeo.
Ghosts of Repetition – Shawnee
The following high resolution surface scans are taken with the MPSU (mobile platen scanning unit). These images, upon inspection, reveal a glimpse of the decline from a once thriving community center to the meager town that Shawnee is today.
In these scans, time is compressed; past becomes present, present becomes future, the artificial and natural co-mingle and the artifacts become “ghosts of repetition”.
MPSU Shawnee 091204
Another cold day on the streets of Shawnee with the mobile platen scanning unit (MPSU). From time to time the MPSU requires more hands thank I have and on this trip I had an assistant with me, Kent Cubbage.
We explored the main street of Shawnee finding our way in to the rarely opened antiques store. We walked in and the door jingled a bell over our heads. Two old men craned their necks around to see who it was. The coal fed pot belly stove in the middle of the room gave a welcome warmth. The propriter and his friend were kind but dismissive to our strange motivations as we searched the interior of the building.
Back out into the cold. We encountered the pile of coal and lumber that the old men were using to keep warm. The few remaining traces of ice crystals from the season's first snow remained in the shadows of once noble buildings.
MPSU in Shawnee
This afternoon was a cold one in Shawnee and it was as empty as a ghost town. In stark contrast, beneath every fallen leaf and embedded in every patch of dirt, artifacts of this community's previous glory were abundant.
The following high resolution surface scans are taken with the MPSU (mobile platen scanning unit). These images, upon inspection, reveal a glimpse of the decline from a once thriving community center to the meager town that Shawnee is today.
In these scans, time is compressed; past becomes present, present becomes future, the artificial and natural co-mingle and the artifacts become "ghosts of repetition"*.
* - "ghosts of repetition" is a phrase coined by W. G. Sebald. I came across this phrase in the article An Archival Impulse by Hal Foster (October 110, Fall 2004 pp 3 - 22).
Shawnee Main Street Expedition
The following images are an early iteration of exhibition of my time travelling body of work.
The video seen on the screen and / or in the head mounted display unit is the following:
Shawnee Main Street Expedition from Jeff Lovett on Vimeo.
The following video is objective documentation of the Shawnee Main Street Expedition:
Shawnee Main street Expedition Documentation from Jeff Lovett on Vimeo.
Time Travel Statement
Jeff Lovett
Artist Statement:
I am a time traveler and my destination is 80 years in the future.
I gather experiential data that consists of video taken of myself, by myself, on my exploration. Upon my return I create drawings of the unique architectural identifiers of the places I visit.
me⋅ton⋅y⋅my
[mi-ton-uh-mee]
–noun Rhetoric.
a figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part.
Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.
The Little Cities of Black Diamonds is a micro-region in Southeast Ohio and the locus for my research. This area prospered greatly during the coal boom from the mid 19th century until its crash in the early 20th century. When I am exploring these places I am experiencing them as the metonymy for a future world that has suffered an identical crash from the oil boom that is currently peaking.
Shawnee Main Street Expedition is a video to be viewed through a head-mounted display. The video was created using the Third Person Pack. This device is a wireframe backpack that provides a third person view by positioning the camera several feet behind and above the body of operator. The imagery captured by the camera is viewed live and recorded through the head-mounted display unit. On my expeditions this pack acts as my time machine, transporting me 80 years into the future. With this in mind, I am able to see relics from the past as a direct representation of a possible future and record those findings as experiential data.
Shawnee Main Street Silhouettes are drawings of the porches unique to the Little Cities of Black Diamonds micro-region. They are 14” x 17” marker on paper. These porches exemplify both the historical prosperity and the subsequent economic decline of the last 80 years.
My exploration of this micro-region as a historical metonymy for the next 80 years of our future gives me the opportunity to accumulate firsthand experience of this region.
It is my intention to continue my travels into the future and develop a stronger understanding of our trajectory toward this point in our future and what can be done to divert our course. I will continue to research and document my travels with the best time travel equipment that current technology has to offer.
Entangled Citizens Ohio Site Visits
A Plastic River
Video of the log jam in the Hocking River that is collecting all the garbage that normally floats down the 20 something miles to the Ohio not quite 800 miles later it merges into the Mississippi River only 950 miles from it's new home in the Gulf of Mexico and the greater Ocean System.
Plastic River from Jeff Lovett on Vimeo.
Belize 2006
In February of 2006 Marit and I spent nearly a month in Belize Central America. We visited every major town and city in the country, explored Mayan ruins, climbed waterfalls in caves, snorkeled around the famous blue hole, visited Guatemala and found our favorite hot sauce. Belize was a wonderful place filled with generous caring people. Marit has a travel diary with specific details of our adventures which should be coming in the next month or so.
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