ARAC Visit Day 01


Today was the first productive day of my Visiting Artist gig at Anderson Ranch Arts Center (ARAC). After breakfast I was given a tour of the campus by Olivia Martinez. I’m still processing how amazing this place is and so I can’t go into more detail right now.

After the tour I was shown to the private studio I get to call my own for the next month. It was made ready for me with tables/desks, computer monitors, and a large printer. The studio is in the Gates Family Foundation Barn, which has been dedicated in honor of Takashi Nakazato who has occupied it as a faculty member here for the last 20 years. There are still bisque ceramics of his on a shelf, awaiting his return. I am honored to manipulate silicon — albeit in a much more abstract fashion — in this studio.

(I had to check myself just now to make sure I was speaking/writing accurately. Clay minerals are composed essentially of silica, alumina or magnesia or both, and water, but iron substitutes for aluminum and magnesium in varying degrees, and appreciable quantities of potassium, sodium, and calcium are frequently present as well. (c.f. Britannica) so, okay, yes, I can say there is some harmonic resonance here).

Once I was shown the studio I started unpacking my gear and setting up my workstation(s). Brought a laptop and a small windows machine.

After these were set up I checked to see that Crosser and La Migra ran on the windows box, verifying the version up at sudor.org/betatest/ functions as planned. I then loaded some development software on this box: BitsyBox in particular. This spun me up to create the planning document for a future Dizzy Spell pop-up event, working title Bitsy Bits. I roughed out a set of milestones using G-docs new product roadmap template and shared it with my collaborators.

I then loaded GB Studio on the windows machine and spun up a new project called Juan Entre Cordilleras using the GameBoy Color template world so I can learn.

I’ve been playing Ratcheteer on the PlayDate hand-held console and its likeness to Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past has had me thinking. I’m reminded of how I want to create something that is at the intersection of this Zelda game and Harvest Moon.

Trey, the documentarian for ARAC paid me a visit and so I ran quick demos of Bitsy, Pulp, and Scratch running some version of Juan & the Beanstalk. Trey has been editing video shot of me and so he has become familiar with my ideas.

I’m going to call it a night. I’m tire.