Steamdorks Descend on NY

8/11/08

GJKSW, Stephen, Rayray, Megan, & Zachary arrived at JFK Monday evening. We proceeded to drag all of our gear around on the subway for quite a while. Finally, we found Andrew and Boxcar and headed to a super swank Upper West Side flat belonging to one of Andrew’s ol’chums. We started in right away with “studying” for the big trip. We went to the roof to enjoy the amazing Gotham City architecture and a digression into an uninformed macho-guy kerfuffle about the plumbing going on inside all of the beautiful wooden water tanks that dotted the skyline. After a quick and heavily fried dim sum supper, Andrew took us to a dumpy little cowboy bar for further study. PBR ruled the evening, followed by an onslaught of stout little bridesmaids. Of course I’ve been eating constantly and after we left the bar, Stephen and I enjoyed our first slices of NY style pizza. Back at the flat, Greg, Megan, and I fell asleep watching a charming History Channel program on the history of Hillbillies and all of the cultural highlights of West Virginia past and present. W. Virginia is the only state in the Union that has not outlawed snake handling (for religious purposes)!

8/12/08
I slept in a bit and was rousted by the amazing Megan and Andrew, having just returned with outstanding bagels and coffee. In less then 24 hours we managed to destroy this 3 million dollar flat. We spent the late morning making repairs and scraping pudding off the ceiling. Andrew had his Mom’s hybrid and his lovely lady Boxcar had borrowed her sister’s pickup for all of our crap. We picked up Sunny, who had arrived in NY a few days earlier to visit friends, on our way North to the state capitol. Arrived at the build site about 1900, in time for the master orientation meeting for the entire project, and we started to pick up on the feel of how things are going to run. Since we dropped the boat off 3 weeks ago, the volunteers have made a ton of progress and it looks really nice. They are running a bit behind, but we all were impressed by the level of organization. More about this later...

Welcome!

This is the official blog of Kinetic Steam Works.


We've done a retrograde Twain and headed Out East to Albany/Troy, NY. Right now we're lying on the banks of the mighty Hudson River with the gentle slosh of the water in our ears, staring up at the stars through the leafy night. We're getting ready for The Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, a large scale mobile art installation project that'll float down the Hudson, round the tip of Manhatten.

But first, a little history: It began three years ago as the The Miss Rockaway Armada, a group of New York City area artists and assorted others who decided to travel down the Mississippi on very handmade rafts bedecked and festooned with art... equal parts continuous happening, Vaudeville happenstance, and Mark Twain gumption. The Mississippi has long been the Country's psychic dividing line between the past and the promise of the future. The highfalutin idea was to, "solicit dialogue around subversive and constructive ways of living." The impetus was to explore America outside of the bohemian boundaries of the NYC hipster arts milieu by taking it to middle America. The neat thing was that it was intended to be a two-way street. From all reports, Middle America gave as good as it got. Boundaries were blurred; social interactions occurred that would not have otherwise. Bohemia infected the broad banks of the Mississippi and the communities along the way infected Bohemia right back.

This year, the project is called the The Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea. In August of 2008, the Hudson River is the canvas, from Albany-Troy all the way down to Brooklyn. Seven crafts will soon float down the river the Mahican confederacy called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk. The boats will be powered by alternate energy systems, which is where K.S.W. comes in. We spent the Spring and early Summer hard at work restoring an old paddle-wheel steamboat. K.S.W.'s steamboat (she arrived by truck) will support an enormous sculptural array installed by an artist named Swoon, the larger project's creative leader.

Where (maps too) we'll be and when should be posted on the Swimming Cities site, look under "Performances."