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JJason Recognition
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Reverse Archeology by JJason Recognition

May 19th, 2008 10:14 PM

INSTRUCTIONS: Do the opposite of archeology.

This Praxis is brought you by the Ezra Buckley Foundation and builds on the work done in Reverse Shoplifting.

Archeologists dig up and study artifacts. Reverse archeologists create and bury artifacts.

(Unfortunately, the photos taken during the creation process were lost and we will have to make due with pictures taken after the fact. Which is sad, because there were some pretty good photos in there.)

Things italics are lies, but they are lies that are true.

Part 1: Creation

The creation process begins with the clay.
Clay
The clay is scuplted into the shape required,

which is then used to make a plaster mold.
><br />The clay is removed from the plaster mold<br /> <img src=
and the mold is allowed to soak for a short period before being painted with molten wax.

The wax is allowed to harden before being removed from the wax. This wax shape will be the form for the final item. Any changes that need to be made at this point will be made by heating the wax shape

and then cutting or molding the softened wax. Once the wax has achieved it's desired shape, a frame is built around it, also of wax,

to ensure proper flow of the metal when the item is cast. The wax shape and it's frame is then capture in a large plaster cylinder.

The cylinder is loaded upside down in a large oven

which melts the wax. The now empty cylinder is then buried in the sand

while the metal (in my case copper) is melted in the forge

When the coppter is melted, the cup within the forge that holds the molten copper is lifted using a crane

and then guided over the buried cylinder using a large claw tool

(the metal pouring process is, by the way, extremely cool and I'm super sad that I lost all of the photos I took of it) Once all of the cylinders are filled, the metal is left to cool in the sand.

It takes about a day for the metal too cool down enough for it too be handled safely. Once it is, the cylinders are pulled out of the ground, broken open with hammers and the copper is retrieved. The frame is cut off

and any remaining impurities are cut, sanded, or grinded away

If desired, the copper can be stained to achieve a variety of colors by first heating the item

and then applying the correct chemicals to achieve the desired colors.
Part 2: Mythology

During the process I created two wax items that I ended up not casting and finally casting a third one. Before I go on to show what I did with the final item, I wish to take part in a little myth building.

Within the Masked Society, different masks have different meanings and were made via different processes. Each mask has its own individual meaning and citizens can know each other's intentions from the mask that they current wearing.

dscn159854245.jpg

Hollow Eyes - used for law enforcement and specifically for the tasks of investigation and peace keeping. Note the lack of a mouth and the featureless eyes, each of which marks the wearer as an individual without emotion or deeper intentions. Always made from wax so that it may be created quickly, when required, and destroyed just quickly, to ensure the objectivity of Hollow Eyes.



Suspicious Gentleman - used for dealings with noncitizens. Note the straight line of a mouth, the narrow eyes, the mustache. Also made of wax, so that outside authorities cannot locate the individuals they dealt with in their second life.

Both of the above are temporary, generic masks. On the other hand,


Delighted Child is of an entirely different class. Used for rituals, it is the first mask that most new citizens will make themselves and it is the mask that they will wear at all officials rituals over the course of their life. Note the wide eyes, the slight smile, and the more ornate version of the Masked Nation symbol. While most masks attempt to be as generic as possible, Delighted Child takes on consistent and permanent individual features. More than any other mask, this could be said to be real face of any given citizen.

Part 3: Archeology
I went down to the Mississippi river to bury my creation, since that's the closest bit of land where I could dig a hole without people stopping me. Lacking any tools, I used a stick and a rock to dig my hole, which I figured only strengthens the opposition.
There are no Masked Nation cemeteries - every citizen also has a second life, and it is the second life that lays claim to it's body.
But citizens mourn like any other human and so the Masked Nation has funeral rituals like any other society.
Lacking a body, the Masked Nation buries instead the older and most constant mask in the dead citizen's life - usually but not always Delighted Child.
Before it is buried, the mask's eyes are covered, to represent how the citizen's eyes are now closed.
Masked Nation graves are not dramatic affairs - citizens are hidden in death as they were hidden in life.
There is usually only the smallest indicator that anything has been left behind at all.

+ larger

Clay
Plaster
Mold
Empty Mold
Brush
Wax
Torches
Frame
DSCN1665.JPG
Investiment
Cut away
Oven
Sand
Forge
Crane
Claw
Sand
Saw
Grinder
Heads
Safety Equipment
Torch
Chemicals
Hollow Eyes
Suspicious Gentleman
Suspicious Gentleman
Delighted CHild
Seal
Face
River
DSCN1635.JPG
DSCN1636.JPG
Down
And down
Waterfall
River
River
Ground
Hole
Mask
Mask Again
DSCN1638.JPG
DSCN1655.JPG
Leaves
Leaves and Stone
Symbol
River

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14 comment(s)

(no subject)
posted by JJason Recognition on May 19th, 2008 10:16 PM

Behind the Praxis
I had a hard time getting this one to be the way I wanted - I was going for an effect like lecturing with a slide show. I would've put the praxis in the photos like I did with my dérive, but I really wanted the italic text thing which I can't do in the picture descriptions. So I went with this, which means it'll probably take forever to load. Oh well.

Also, if completing tasks that you created is wrong, I do not wish to be right.

(no subject)
posted by help im a bear on May 20th, 2008 10:49 AM

yeah i almost wasn't able to read this because it kept freezing up my browser because of all the pictures.

that would have been a pity.

(no subject)
posted by Loki on May 20th, 2008 3:51 PM

Q: When is a shplank not a shplank?
A: When it crashes half the browsers that try to load it.

This is a beautiful completion. Top notch, leader-board stuff. It's perfect.

But, it takes a *long time* to download, and 750 MB of ram just to display the thing. (A figure that's many times larger than it should be owing to gecko's fault rather than yours. . . but still. . .) Making your viewers download 3 MB to display a 300 pixel wide inline image of a grinder wheel is, as they say, the suck.

For the love of old hardware, slow connections, and SSI's bandwidth bill, give us a break next time. Either rescale your images to roughly the size at which they'll be displayed, or format the whole thing as an actual presentation and give us a single pdf. (Or a video lecture? hmmm. . .)

Anyway, I'll stop ranting. Great tasking.

(no subject)
posted by JJason Recognition on May 20th, 2008 9:29 PM

"Either rescale your images to roughly the size at which they'll be displayed [...]"

Dammnit, why didn't I think of that?

*One downloading of GIMP later*

Ok, the whole thing should be much easier on the load time now. Thanks for the advice Loki.

(no subject)
posted by Burn Unit on May 20th, 2008 6:50 AM

pow-solo.jpg

If this isn't, i don't know what is.

Win.
posted by Lincøln on May 20th, 2008 11:27 AM

Great work.
I love it.
I was gonna do something very very similar, I will now re-strategize.

(no subject)
posted by JJason Recognition on May 20th, 2008 12:00 PM

Remember though - the Ezra Buckley Foundation is always looking for more false history.

(no subject)
posted by Dela Dejavoo on May 20th, 2008 3:02 PM

this is really wonderful

(no subject) +1
posted by help im a bear on May 21st, 2008 11:39 AM

i just wanna post on this thing again so that people who skimmed over it the first time, maybe because of browser issues, will come back now that it is much easier to load.

because, y'know, it's perfect.

(no subject)
posted by rongo rongo on May 21st, 2008 2:38 PM

Wow, I like this.

(no subject)
posted by Burn Unit on May 27th, 2008 1:38 PM

yeah, 24 is too few. . .

(no subject)
posted by teucer on May 27th, 2008 1:58 PM

Indeed.

(no subject)
posted by ENØ Sock on June 8th, 2008 9:07 AM

wow how long did that take?

(no subject)
posted by JJason Recognition on June 8th, 2008 11:31 AM

Making the mask took like two months.

Burying it took about a day.

By the way, I was going to put this in the behind the praxis, but then I forgot: My Thoughts On Combining Work/School Assignments With SF0 - I cannot recommend it enough.