100 Days in the News: day eight project: Floppy Flash! How to make your own!!!
Welcome to day 8 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 92 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!
Following yesterday’s post I had some pretty good responses from friends about the snappy concept of the Not So Obsolete project that I’m now renaming the Floppy Flash!
Skimming today’s news I just couldn’t let go of the idea that everything about today might be a message to modify yesterday’s attempt at a cool crafty way to house my boring flash drive!! How to keep to my new project a day requirement? Beginning grad school several years ago I wrote an essay after my first theory class extolling the virtue and necessity of PLAY as a means to not only learn but to be refreshed as well. I proposed that through play we find space in our lives to not only be creative, but to re-create things which seem fixed and resolved in the world around us. So today’s project is a yesterday’s project with a more informed twist- an effort not to just make something but show how it is made!
Today’s project is inspired by:
The Varieties of Play Match the Requirements of Human Existence
Today you have the opportunity to make your very own Floppy Flash!!
You will need:
A flash drive that’s easily opened. I used a 4GB Lexar flash.
Black foam core.
Shiny silver, white, and orange paper.
Glue
Set of keys- err.. you really only need one key.
An x-acto knife- useful for cutting materials, opening flash drive, and hollowing out space in foam core.
LET’S GET STARTED!!!
*Just to help you out I suggest looking at the real 3.5 floppy as you do this or pulling up an image of it as a visual aid yo help you as you work.
Step 1:Crack open that Flash Drive! It feels really good to have the sensation of breaking something when you’re really not. That naked little Flash Drive body is pretty amazing… 
Step 2: Cut a 3.5 x 3.5 square out of black foam core. I rounded my corners with an x-acto knife and sanded the edges for smoothness. Measure the body of your naked flash drive and let that tell you how far you want to cut into your square for the part of the Floppy Flash that will be hidden under the faux metal part of the disc.
Step 3: This is where you get to use those keys! I started hollowing out a space in the foam core (carefully!) with an x-acto knife and then finish by pressing down some of the hardest to reach foam with a key. This worked great for me and made sure that the path was clear so my flash drive could slip right in. Start with hollowing out the space for the flash in the small cut-away part of the foam core that will house your flash body.
Step 4: Take small plug-in of your flash drive and push it in to larger part before you begin to cut a place for it. This will help you make sure to put the hole in the right spot. Remember to press down the foam with the key before shoving in your flash- you don’t want to get a bunch of foam up in your flash drive!
Step 5: Now for the fun part. Cut and glue on a fake label for your Floppy Flash. Cut and Add the “metal part” at the top and the certifiably real metal circle of the back of your floppy disc. Yea! It’s looking really swank at this point!! Write something witty on the label part like “Floppy Flash” or ” Not Obsolete”
Step 6: leave it on your desk and wait for the fun to begin. Someone wanders by and asks
” Whoa- are you still using these?”
At which point you crack that puppy open and show them the relevant data storage inside!!! Blam!!!
Total Time Spent: 2hrs.
Total Cost of Material: $0
Amount of Fun had: 9!
100 Days in the News: day seven project: Not So Obsolete
Day 7 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 93 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!
FAQ: Are you making work for 100 consecutive days?
A: Yes! 100 days! Back to back!
Today’s news sources are:
From Gizmo Watch:
Today’s idea came to me rather quickly as I skimmed the news. Gizmo Watch posted yet another modification on the flash drive which has been housed in a variety of unlikely ways in the past several months. Following an inspiring lecture by Stephanie Syjuco who incorporated fake 3.5 floppy discs into an art project of hers, I was reminded of how quickly data storage devices become obsolete and I started wondering when the flash drive would bite the dust. There seems to be some irony in housing the flash drive in unusual outfits. It’s almost as though we can’t wait for the next mutation.
…and so without further delay today’s project: Not So Obsolete
Total time spent: 30 min. Gees!!!
Total Material cost: $10
Total fun had: 9!!!
100 Days in the News: day six project: International Good Luck Charm
Day 6 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 94 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!
Today’s news sources are:
From Google News:
Asia Markets Brief
Asia Stocks Fall Apart Despite U.S. Bailout Progress
Vivian Wai-yin Kwok, 09.29.08, 2:02 AM ET
From Boingboing:
Interview With Crafter/Toy Designer Amy Jenkins
100 Days in the News:day 5 project: Fecundity Report
Day 5 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 95 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!
Today’s news sources are:
Barbie: Manufactured by Mattel, designed by evolution V
100 Days in the News: day four project: I’ve Got a Bracelet 2!!
Day 4 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 96 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!
Today’s News Sources are:
from Psychology Today (which is becoming a favorite):
McCain-Obama and 10 Rounds to a Draw…Sorta
100 Days in the News: day three project: Privacy Invasion on a Whole New Scale!
Day 3 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 97 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!
Today’s News Sources are:
From Google News:
ISPs: We Swear, We Won’t Watch Your Every Move
12:41 PM EDT Fri. Sep. 26, 2008
and
from BoingBoing:
Britain will make foreigners carry RFID identity cards and will put us in a huge, Orwellian database: the rest of Britain will be next
100 Days In the News: day two project: Wall Street Cheer Gear
Day 2 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 98 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!
Today’s News Sources are:
From Psychology Today:
Rewards are Better than Punishment: Here’s Why
and
From the LA Times
Lawmakers reach agreement on bailout framework
As I skimmed through my Google news reader today it was impossible to ignore the mess in the financial world. I spent most of the morning trying to think of some prank that involved mailing a fake cake to Capitol Hill but ultimately didn’t want to pay for postage and thought it was a one liner sort of joke:
“Here’s a cake!”
“That’s not really a cake!”
Okay maybe it was two lines. I was wrapped up in annoyance that the very government that will hold me to my student loans is cranking up a millions of dollar style get out of jail free card for banks that are supposed to know how to handle money. Fortunately a Psychology Today posting changed my mind:
Why not try a positive approach?
and so today I give you: Wall Street Cheer Gear
* Pom Poms made from shredded Wall Street Journal
* Hand sewn spirit jacket
* enthusiastic Wall Street Cheerleader
“LET’S GO FINANCE!”
Total cost of materials: $6.50
Total time spent: 5 hours
Amount of fun had (scale of 1-10): 7
100 Days in the News: day one project: iPhone VOODOO
Today’s inspirations were:
The Power of Negative Thinking
and
Keepin’ it real fake, part L: The “Ipod style Mobile Phone iPhone”
My day started with a meeting during which a friend and I talked about our obsessions with iPhones- they cost a bit too much for us, one brand dominates the market, and well, we want them anyway. I started thinking that I needed to come to terms with the fact that perhaps in the next few months I would not be getting a high paying job, would not be getting an iPhone, and would still be lugging around my laptop so I could catch that one e-mail I was waiting for.
What to do? Well for one the situation is not so terrible. I have a phone that has a truck load of sentimental value, not to mention that it flips open in a fancy way. Also, it’s good to remember that it can be a relief to be unreachable. I replay to myself an experience this summer when a friend’s boss e-mailed him an angry note in the middle of a camping trip effectively reining in the good times being had.
I’ve realized it’s not so much the “having” of the iPhone that’s driving me nuts, but the fact that it seems like an extremely handy tool that many in my social circle see as the ultimate authority in problem solving when it comes to directions, weather, looking up words, and on and on. Just once or twice I want to find the word in the dictionary faster than on wikipedia- I want to make it outside and get hit by rain drops before my friends can look up the local weather conditions.
How to even the score?? With the use of Today’s 100 DAYS IN THE NEWS project. The very first in a series of 100 projects based on my responses to news items in my Google reader!
I’ve decided to level the playing field with my very own hand crafted iPHONE VOODOO!!!
The next time a friend pulls out the iPhone, I plan to whip out my little evil equalizer and stall that high-tech gadget with some electronic soul-poking.
“Why isn’t my iPhone working?”
“Hmmm…wow. I don’t know…sure is strange!!! Oh Look! We can just use this paper map to find our way!!”
Total construction costs: $20.00
Total time in construction:3hrs.
Amount of fun had (scale of 1-10): 7
A Vow(to you oh kind readers)
For those of you who are subscribed to my blog, a vow:
No more lengthy essays, no matter how much I love a subject: a blog is a place for a brief and clever divergence.
So what new a clever tidbits are on the way?
A game played w/ current news media:100 DAYS IN THE NEWS
in which I will concoct daily artistic responses to info and gadgets found in my Google reader.
Waves and Water
an indulgent journal entry:
Leaving school this evening I looked towards the horizon and was shocked to see how fast the clouds were moving. This was the beginning of Hurricane Gustav’s spin off moving over PA and within the hour the sky was filled with a mix of cirrus, cirrocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus, stratocumulus and stratus clouds. For those of you who aren’t savvy to clouds and their altitudes this means a wide variety of cloud cover functioning on three different levels ranging in shape from wispy to fluffy.
I realized it would be ridiculous to miss this cloud parade so I headed up to the city water reservoir in Highland park and went walking right as the sun was setting. The setting sun colored the sky a pale yellow and orange that emphasized the dark cerulean blue of the clouds surrounding. As I circled the lake the winds picked up steadily and thrashed the trees around me.
A few nights ago I had talked to someone who told me that box kites had once been used in battle to lift a solider up and above a battle field, presumably so that they could both awe and attack someone below. I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to have a person-picking-up sized kite with me at that moment. I imagined myself lifting up with a sudden rush, thinking:
“This isn’t happening!! Yes it is!!”
…and being yanked up into the clouds to ride the crest of the hurricane into some other state.
I always thought this would happen to me when I was a kid: that I would construct some craft and would leave the house as a storm approached. I would set up my kite or glider or para-sail and be gone. I would drift up and away from the neighborhood and coast for miles over forests, trailer parks, rivers and unsuspecting deer. Of course I never imagined how it would all end. That was the boring part- the important part was to imagine the take off.
As I rounded the far side of the reservoir I hit the point at which the wind had the most flat space to roll uninhibited over the water. You could see the wind suddenly hit the surface in the distance and travel towards you in a dark ripple- like some herd of invisible animals at full gallop. The wind blew hard enough to make me think I was going to be knocked down and I gripped the railing along the water as one dark ripple after another traveled towards me. It was like having a face off with nature and it stirred a fight or flight impulse in me. Mostly it was hypnotic. If I squinted my eyes clouds flew around me in a way that emphasized the curvature of the earth. Wind pushed at me and roared in my ears. I called a friend and left a message that was just the roar of the wind.
Surprisingly, I was the only one around that end of the reservoir. As I turned to finally walk back to the entrance of the park the lights surrounding the water flickered out. The brightness of the moon was visible and with it, a sudden view of hundreds of ducks on the water bobbing up and down. A cloud drifted over the face of the moon adding to the darkness. Gusts of wind shook the trees around me and I finally ran…not out of complete fear but out of simply wanting to participate in the pleasant feeling of danger that seemed to be swirling around this place.
What is it about nature that is so grounding? Returning home and sitting down in front of the computer again I feel like some heavy hearted feeling was scrapped off of me… I feel satisfied to think that some portion of my thoughts was in fact caught up in all the blowing, and is now floating carelessly and confidently north of Pittsburgh at some treacherous altitude.
Thanks Gustav.
