Saturday, September 17, 2022
Friday, September 16, 2022
Not my Problem by Marianela de la Hoz
Will be at CONTEXT Art Fair in booth A29 during Art Basel Miami Beach week of art fairs in Miami!
 |
| Not my Problem by Marianela de la Hoz |
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Empirical evidence for Murphy's Law
I live in a cul-de-sac in the Marylandian suburbs of Washington, DC. In order to drive from my house to the main street in the area, I have to drive three quarters of a mile and take three right turns in my neighborhood's streets.
The neighborhood itself is made up of single family homes - each one with its own driveway and two-car garage. Assuming that most people have their garage full of junk, there's ample space in their driveways for two cars to park and be off the street.
One of the planet's smartest minds is Malcolm Gladwell, who has eloquently discussed the 10,000 hour rule for becoming an expert at anything. He discussed this in his amazing book “Outliers.” As Gladwell tells it, the rule goes like this:
It takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials.
I've somewhat adapted the rule to gather 10,000 points of data for an interesting experiment. Here how it started.
I moved into this house in 2009. Soon afterwards I started to notice an interesting and baffling series of curious events whenever I drove away from my house towards any destination (or the return trip) - for the first 3/4 of a mile they're nearly always the same. Or when I enter the same entry point (from the main street towards my house) and drive home. In other words, a round trip.
The streets leading to the neighborhood exit are mostly clear of parked cars, as nearly every house parks in their own driveways. Households with more that two cars do often park on the street, as do visitors, etc. Whenever a vehicle is parked on the neighborhood streets, it essentially blocks that side of the street, forcing any traffic on that side of the street to have to use the oncoming/other side of the street to continue on.
The neighborhood also has a lot of "regular" street walkers (not hookers), dog walkers, and runners, and car traffic is generally very light.
Vehicular traffic is generally very light in the neighborhood - usually only the people who live there, delivery vehicles, visitors, and garbage and/or recycling trucks.
A few months after we moved in, I noticed that there seemed to be a higher incidence of the following scenario... that one would expect statistically.
The scenario is that the incidence of two oncoming vehicles "meeting" at the spot where one side of the road is blocked by a parked car appeared to be weirdly tilted towards a Murphian dictate of events.
Add to that the odds of the random dog walker, stroller or runner, a parked car and two oncoming vehicles meeting at precisely the worst spot on the streets from my house to the neighborhood exit, and my curiosity was kindled.
And thus, I started to keep a log in my car - using a calendar book - to record these instances of two cars, driving towards each other, meeting at the narrowest space created by a third car parked on the street.
A few days ago, my 10 thousandth drive took place - about 12 years or so of trips, usually at random times of the day or night, and 12 yearly calendars full of data.
Of those 10,000 data points the following was recorded:
- No oncoming traffic was met whenever a parked car blocked one side of the road 4,611 times
- An oncoming car was met at the blocked spot (forcing one car to stop and wait for the other car to pass) 5, 389 times
- Of that 5, 389 times, 2, 673 times, not only where there two cars meeting at the "blocked" spot, but there were also either walkers, runners or dog walkers in the same narrow area - thus making driving maneuvers even more complicated.
54% of the time that I drove from/to my home I came across an oncoming vehicle at precisely the one spot (in an otherwise generally open street) where there was a third car blocking one side of the road!
Under what statistical scenario does that make sense when there are .75 of a mile of streets which are 98% empty of parked cars (on the street)?
Murphy!!!!!!!
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Sleep is the Cousin of Death
Finished! Will be at booth D15 at the Affordable Art Fair in Chelsea in New York City 22-25 September!
 |
| Sleep is the Cousin of Death Mixed Media Painting on Paper 36x36 inches, c. 2022 |
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Wayson Jones Artist Talk
Montgomery College’s Visual and Performing Arts Department presents Artist in Resident Wayson Jones Artist Talk on Wednesday, September 28th, 2022, at 1 PM.
The Montgomery College Visual and Performing Arts Department of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus presents the first artist talk of Fall Semester 2022 featuring artist in residence Wayson Jones. He is a painter, musician, and spoken-word artist. A virtual artist talk will be given at 1pm on Wednesday, September 28th, 2022. This event will be held via ZOOM webinar. A workshop with the artist will be held on November 1, 2022, at 1:10 pm in room # CF 218 at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, 930 King Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Both events are free and open to the public. Please go to www.montgomerycollege.edu/artsinstitute to register for the artist talk.
About the Artist
Wayson R. Jones is a painter, musician, and spoken-word artist. He received a degree in music from University of Maryland and later went on to perform with renowned poet Essex Hemphill, as part of Washington DC’s burgeoning Black LGBT arts scene of the 1980s and ‘90s. His visual art is informed by these experiences and by an exuberant approach to materiality and process. Wayson has had solo shows at BlackRock Center for the Arts, Arts/Harmony Hall, and the Northern Virginia Community College Margaret W. and Joseph L. Fisher Gallery and he is the recipient of a 2017 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council. His work has been purchased by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Maryland/National Capitol Park and Planning Commission, MGM National Harbor, and The Hotel at the University of Maryland, and is in private collections in the DC area and nationally.
Monday, September 12, 2022
The curious case of the Washington Commanders and Washington state
Phone ringing...
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Hello...
Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Hey! Is this Fill in the blank Graphic Design?
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Oh, yeah... yeah - can I help you?
Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Yeah... hey we need a design for our new team name for our mugs and stuff...
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: No worries - I can have something back to you in a few days...
Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Great! We'd like our new "W" on top of the outline of Washington
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Cool! Email me your new "W" and we'll design a great new graphic!
Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Great... I'm sending it over now.
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: OK man! Just got it -- I'll just put it on top of an outline of Washington!
Two days later and $20K in design fees later...
Phone ringing...
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Hello...
Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Hey! Is this Fill in the blank Graphic Design?
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Oh, yeah... yeah - can I help you?
Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Hey man... this is the Washington Commanders... I just got your email with the design - looks great!
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Who's this again?
Someone in the Washington Commanders team: This is the Washington Commanders???
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Oh yeah man... sorry... did you get my email with the new design?
Someone in the Washington Commanders team: Yeah... looks great man!
Fill in the blank Graphic Design: Thank you man!
Then this goes up for sale... cough... cough...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
