When I came to in my drivers seat, head suction-cuped against the window, I was surprised to find that my stomach and fatigue were a lot more under control.  The grogginess wore off in a couple minutes and I thought, what the heck, I'll check out this art event after all!

The venue felt very different when I arrived back on the scene, there was a security guard outside now, and the lighting was all very dim and "moody."  The bartenders were hard at work grabbing drinks for people, and there was a new menu of spirits and refreshments above their heads.

                        Our exhibit, Cultural Integrity, complete with mood lighting!

Curiosity prevailed of course, as I immediately rolled over to our exhibit to see if people were engaging with it. There is something really fun about being a spectator of spectators - to see how our project was grabbing people's attention in its silent way, inspiring curiosity and maybe even a little bit of awe or wonder.  I felt a bit like a social scientist in some sort of strange paradox; both art maker and art critic.

There was a couple reading very intently on the newspaper articles I had cut out:

"Thanks for noticing all the detail I put into that," I said.

"It's really interesting.  There's a lot of different messages," said the onlooker.

I spoke with them for a little while.  It was surprising to experience how engaged they were, full of questions and something I can only describe as authentic enthusiasm.  The woman, Iota, was so thoughtfuly inquisitive.  The chatter of attendees gave the gallery that boisterous concert feeling, where you feel you have to choose your words carefully, and that they should be important, since you have to practically yell them out.

I hung around the exhibit speaking with a couple more people.  Everyone seemed to be taking the art seriously, absorbing its messages, asking about its creation, and (the fun part!) sitting in the spikey seat.  Some found it to be a sort of massage, while others definitely felt the uncomfortableness of it all.  In this strange way, our art piece reminded me of those carnival house-of-mirror types of attractions for kids.  It wasn't just something you stared at and talked about, you could feel it too.

My admittedly low expectations of some snooty wino entrepreneur tech connoisseurs was quickly being replaced with sincere patrons who really cared about social issues and the betterment of San Francisco.  What a treat!  And the ambiance swelled with professionalism and invitation; Gray Area had really put together a magnificent curation.

After talking with attendees for a while, and embarassing Julia a bit with shouts of "...and this is my partner!!" I decided to meander about to take in the other exhibits.  Amy, through her exhibit, convinced me to throw my arms up in front of a camera where I was projected onto the wall with a animated box.  My arm throws could increase the stock market value of would-be tech overlords.  Another project with fun bits of physicality, which was definitely attracting people.

The project Jess and Koi worked on was probably the most abstract; there was a camera programmed to detect eye movements so that when you blink the screen would show a picture of a...fetus?  It was strange, but very cool.  I greatly admired the quality of the coding which had built in hysteresis for what was essentially a "debouncing" effect.  I was told later by one of the makers that the stool in front of the camera was integral to its success, because it forced attendees into a particular position for the camera to capture your face.  It was only then that I noticed the stool was actually taped to the floor. Clever!

I spoke to Jess and Koi a bit about the exhibit and found that they had both come down with the food poisoning as well.  Since just wasn't feeling well, she kindly gave me her drink ticket.  I proceeded over to the bar and got myself a "Cock and Bull" nonalcoholic ginger beer.  The crass marketing wasn't to my taste, but the flavor was alright?  I found I wasn't allowed to drink it right outside the door though, as Gray Area has strict security rules against that...

Back at the bar I chatted up with Andre- I discovered he was moving to my neighborhood and that he also liked hip hop.  Julia joined us and I embarassed her a bit more by recounting the time when I asked her who 2pac was and she said,

"I know...50 cent?"  (this immediately led to me smacking myself in the face).

I somehow wound up reciting the lines of "The Message" by Grandmaster Melle Mel before moving over to try another exhibit, which had a video display of "the kings of tech" - all giant heads of the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Kanye West, and other douches of the highest order.  A microphone was set up with a pillow on the floor.  The exhibit worked by speaking praises into the microphone which would inflate the head of your respective Tech God... Until they elevated and exploded into outer space.  I decided to have some fun by reciting erotic adoration for "Elon's Musk" and was rewarded with a quickly exploding Musk head (with confetti animation, not blood sadly).  Another fun and creative art piece.

I also really enjoyed a piece called On Our Terms; perhaps the only overtly political piece besides Cultural Integrity.  It flipped the script on Facebook by making the corporate platform agree to what users demands are.  I thought it was a creative and excellent interpretation of the theme!

                                                     Title card for "On Our Terms"

     "On Our Terms" - the exhibit had this message on a desktop computer screen

And who could forget the office printer elevated on top of the hydraulic lift 20 feet in the air?  Dean was one of the artist minds behind this one, and I thought it was a brilliant use of the limited resources available.  You could text messages using a QR code to a microcontroller hooked up to the printer, which would then spit out cryptic messages of the existentialist variety.  I can't say I fully understood the concept, but I thought it was cool as heck, and watching paper occasionally float through the air definitely gave the gallery more of that nifty "theme park" aesthetic.

This reminded me of one of the interesting limitations that made for this kind of creative art: the 48 hour build period.  This is just enough time to make something interesting, while not enough time to actually order parts and materials off the Internet (or at least, not without a very risky game of Amazon Prime chance).  One of the key takeaways to the event for me was how this inspired creativity, and forced us to use our immediate surroundings, as well as support local businesses!  Badass.

Another fun add-on to the fetus video exhibit was some kind of squishy embryo pool in the back.  It looked a bit like one of those children's inflatable swimming pools for the backyard, with multicolored lights and a bit of topology in the middle.

                Dean, Julia, and I Having some silly fun in the inflatable...floor condom?

Toward the end of the night Julia, Dean, and I decided to lay down on the floor condom (well go with that decription), which inspired me to try and figure out why it was so soft. As I began poking my hand under the exhibit, Julia reminded me not to dismantle the art(!) and Wade joined in on the silly times (I told terrible fetus puns).  Someone snapped a photo of us, all a little drunk on success at the end of Dethrone - it was a great night!

[To be continued...]