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on May 10
walter mason
commented on a projectyours isn't out yet david, but it will be. give me one more week, and it'll be on its way (sorry that yours is among the very last sets)
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on April 16
walter mason
commented on a projectgreat stuff, i hope you post photos and videos once its been built!
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on March 26
walter mason
commented on a projectthings are definitely moving along better than they used to be. i would say it is quite realistic that i will have shipped the last sets within the next two to three weeks -with the exception of course, of the marble runs that are part of what is still hanging here in berlin.
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on March 12
walter mason
commented on a project updatei have really no idea, pedro. there were two tracks, separate, but interwoven, and each of them must be about 60 - 80 meters long.
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on March 12
walter mason
Posted project update #13new video footage
i finally managed to finish a video!! there is another one in the works that involves my other marble run. i will post a link as soon as i'm finished with that one.This is a marble run that I built for the science museum phaeno's kugelbahnen exhibition in wolfsburg. I called it "inclination", because they said I had to give it a name, and because I built it on an inclination. here's a link to the museum's page about the exhibition; http://www.phaeno.de/kugelbahnen.html
What they wanted from me was that I integrate my marble run into the museum (which is an absolutely fantastic piece of work by Zaha Hadid) as much as possible, and because of that I decided to let the ping pong balls rolling on the chute roll off the chute, bounce off the incline and back onto the chute again on three different occasions, as can be seen in the video. It wasn't easy, and I had major issues with the hanging of the marble run because I used fishing string -against my better judgement- to hang it, and the ajustable attachments I used to hang the chute kept readjusting themselves long after the marble run was finished, so that gave me lots of grief, but I learnt alot, what more can you ask?
the best part about hanging my marble run in wolfsburg was getting to know the other guys building up their marble runs, or sometimes just getting to know their marble runs. here's a link to a german tv channel where they talk about the exhibit; http://www.hannover.1730sat1.de/aktuell.html?&cHash=5b9211202780965504e04c1b589b2563&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=14&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=86064
now, regarding the other artists i met;
mark bishof was there most of the time i was there, and his markokosmos basically stole the show; http://youtu.be/KRfdxQtIwUM then there was a very cool minimalistic work called "Odyssey of the spheres" by george rhoads; http://youtu.be/qN2ya48C6Lo in high contrast to everything else was the work of pierre andres who was an influential french artist who died about six months ago. his work is very rough -it looks almost like it was taken straight out of an ethnological museum, and the fact that he always used wood, and that he always made his work to be interacted with, was a lovely contrast to the polished/painted metal, which is favored most as a material for rolling ball machines. on the opening night, i met his grandson, who told me a good anecdote that his grandfather used to tell; during an exhibition years ago, he had seen an old lady push a child away from one of his marble runs so she could use it herself http://pierre.andres.pagesperso-orange.fr/pierre.andres/index.html also a good friend of mark bischof, hans martin wagner was there for a couple of days, installing a huge new interactive piece of his 4 meters which used snooker balls; http://www.kugelbahn.ch/steeple.htm
my favorite was the superplexus, by michael mcguiness; http://youtu.be/9wohFfpLU7s i had trouble concentrating on building my own marble chute once the superplexus arrived, i was always wandering over to try just another round with the superplexus. last but not least, i had a very enjoyable time getting to know the sonic artist rory buckley. regardless of how much time i spend in germany, regardless of how fluent i become in the laguage, i miss my own language, and people whose own language it also is. i just hope i didn't scare rory by being too garrulous. here's his website; http://theshortwave.blogspot.com/
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on February 24
walter mason
commented on a project updatehey axel, that's great! -you're the first to have actually reported using the marblechute. if you post photos or videos online, do send a link!! cheers, walter
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on February 23
walter mason
commented on a project updatejeff easter: you're right. my communication has been miserable, and i understand how annoying that can be. i think the reason i've been reluctant to post updates is because i'm always giving bad news. nonetheless, you guys have the right to know.
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on February 15
walter mason
Posted project update #12still alive -hang in there!!!
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Alex Kroeller on February 24
A few days after complaining here I got a package... What a coincidence! :)
Beautifully built, had a lot of fun with assembling and hanging. Ran down the stairs to find lost marbles all evening. Surprised how short 15 meters are... Looks like I need 100+ meters to fill my stairwell. Oh boy.
Thanks for all your work, it's truly stunning.
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walter mason on February 24
hey axel, that's great! -you're the first to have actually reported using the marblechute. if you post photos or videos online, do send a link!!
cheers,
walter -
roman.hegglin on March 7
Hey Walter
I am still waiting for my package. My kids birthday is a few days before easter.
Any change i can receive the marble run until then?
cheers
roman
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on January 8
walter mason
Posted project update #11marble runs are in the mail
i've finally started shipping your marble runs!!!
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on December 18
walter mason
commented on a project updatethankyou everybody for being so understanding!!! roman.hegglin: yes, the design in wolfsburg is quite different from the original design. it was at their request. they wanted bigger, more visible marbles and black rails, so i used 5mm kapa foamboard for the run, and ping pong balls as marbles. at first i was very reluctant, because i realized that it would mean alot more work, but once i started working with ping pong balls, i started asking myself why i hadn't tried them before. they roll 10 times better than glass marbles!!! -of course they wouldn't roll against a wind, so i could only hang the chute inside, but the advantages are inumerable; i can hang it as high as i like, and don't have to worry about glass or steel balls falling on ppl's heads. basically perfect for a museum, or public spaces... no, i won't be sending all the sets at once, but rather in batches of ten or so.
walter mason
Berlin, Germany
I'm English, but I've been living in Berlin for the last 10 years or so. It would probably be most accurate to call myself an artist, but I mostly earn my living doing construction work.
i have really no idea, pedro. there were two tracks, separate, but interwoven, and each of them must be about 60 - 80 meters long.
Wow! Looks like I have to go to Wolfsburg this summer.
Walter I received my first set and it is really lovely!