Helen by Lincøln, Bastard
June 10th, 2009 8:02 AM / Location: 30.287507,-97.78589The hardest part was the folding of 1000 origami ships. This took over three weeks, maybe as many as four or five. We didn't really count. We mostly folded during Laker playoff games. We found we couldn't do it while watching movies, as it was too distracting. But for all seven Houston games and the six Denver games, we folded ships. It seemed like we would never finish. 1000 is a really big number. Doing anything 1000 times is wearing. Monotony was a constant companion. But we plowed through. And we folded all 1000. Actually we folded 1006. Just in case we lost some or whatever. But we didn't lose any, and whatever didn't happen. We managed to launch all 1006 ships.
I packed all of the ships into a big red cooler, and early one morning before the sun came up, we headed out to Lake Austin to launch us 1000 ships.
The sun was just rising as we started, and as we were finishing an hour later, was when the dog walking crowd came out. We had a lot of spectators and a few asked us questions. One man asked us if we were doing it for SCIENCE! and I told him that yes we were. Also art. I used the word aesthematics, but he didn't understand. He said it was one of the best things he'd seen in a very long time. There was one woman who asked a lot of questions and hung around for a very long time and took a lot of pictures, and I directed her to this site, and maybe she'll find this task.
I would love to sum up how I feel about the whole adventure, but I'm glad to not be folding any more ships and happy to have it submitted after a lot of time working on it. I just hope you enjoy what we put out into the world. I know this doesn't come close to the experience of seeing all of those ships sailing out there in the world, but it's all you get, I tried to take as much video and as many photos as I thought would be interesting. Enjoy!
There they go
Off to find Helen I presume.
28/1000
The beginning. These are the first 28. 
Pile o' ships.
Same pile, different day.
Neatly folded.
For transportation purposes.
The pile gets larger.
1000/1000
Giant pile o' ships.
1000/1000
Giant pile with feet.
Ships!
Boat Bath!
A few rode shotgun
Most were in back in the cooler, but some rode up front with us.
The launch site.
Ready
A cooler full of ships waiting to taste the wild free waters.
Open wide
There they are ready to go.
That's where they're headed.
They just need a gentle push to help them on their way.
1/1000
The first brave little ship is on its way.
3/1000
That big one was a joke. We folded up the pakaging the paper came in. We thought it would lead the way. It chose not to.
Don't watch this.
Download FLV
Seriously, don't watch this. It's over ten minutes, it's just us launching ships. And talking. And the video quality is very poor, I didn't know how else to upload this giant file other than dumbing down the quality. But if you want to hear us chit-chatting while launching boats, by all means, click the little play button.
There they go
The first dozen or so.
Venturing forth
More join in.
And more.
And more.
Close up of a lot of ships.
Bastard launching ships.
Collection
Eddy
Download FLV
Not the player Eddy, but a current of water running contrary to the main current especially a circular current.
On their way
To who knows where. This is a big file, see it big.
Launching
There they go. Off to destinations unknown.
Spectator
A man and his dog lean in for a closer look.
img_1551.jpg
Sure it's only 80, but getting 1000 ships into one shot is tougher than you'd think. But in lieu of the other 920, you get my feet. My feet are worth at least 920 ships, right?
Spectators
Download FLV
As well as Spreading SFØ. Sorry again for the poor quality, it was the only way to get it uploaded.
A lot of boats
Docked.
Will they ever get out?
I don't know if they'll ever get unstuck, but with 1000 ships, it doesn't really matter if a few hundred get stuck in eddies or behind rocks.
Exodus
Some get held up, but progress continues.
Fan
Download FLV
I never asked this marvelous woman what her name was, but I told her about SFØ and she said she'd look for the task because she took a lot of pictures. Let's hope she finds us.
Ship POP
With dogs!
Ship POP
there they go!
Download FLV
On their slow eventual trip downstream.
Ducks like ships
Brave soldier
Look at her breaking the rough sea with her tiny bow!
1/1000
Alone on the high seas.
Two is the loneliest number...
There are two ships in this shot from way downstream. Once we got downstream further, the ships were way more spread out.
26 vote(s)
- Ben Yamiin
- Myrna Minx
- Waldo Cheerio
- The Found Walrus
- Bex.
- rongo rongo
- Sombrero Guy
- Goddess of Doom and Thievery
- Beta Orionis
- saille is planting praxis
- misschraddøn
- done
- Optical Dave
- teucer
- MonkeyBoy Dan
- lefthandedsnail
- artmouse
- Loki
- Kommando
- Spidere
- Michael Bend
- Dragon
- A M
- Pixie
- the trace
- Amoeba Man
Favorite of:
Terms
spreadsf0, art, science, casyj, boat, water, beautiful18 comment(s)
Boat Bath: nearly the very definition of win.
What about the Nature??
I thought about that too.
We used recycled paper which is biodegradable.
I did a test to see how well it does in water. I made a boat out of a piece of our paper (after using it to take some notes) and put it in a stopped up sink.
The next morning, there wasn't much difference except that it laid down.
Then that night as I put more water in the sink, the motion of the new water caused the boat to break apart.
The next day, as I refilled the slowly leaking sink once more, it completely dissolved.
I'm sure if I'd continued to see it dissolve for longer periods, it would have just disappeared completely.
I'm sure it's at the bottom of the river by now acting as fertilizer for some river plant.
I suppose I should have included these photos and this explanation in the task, but I forgot about that test boat and the fact that I'd done the test, it was so long ago now. I'm lucky I still had those photos on my phone.
It is particularly thorough and cool, that you tested out what would happen to the boats.
yay! I tentatively voted for this while worrying about the biodegradability or lack thereof of the boats, and forgot to ask. This makes me much, much happier about my vote.
Wow.
If vote points could go higher, I'm not sure I'd know where to stop...
Wow is right.
(But I have to ask...were you at all tempted to write messages or anything on the paper before folding the boats? It would have been poetic to think of all the words, mixing together, drifting around, and then sinking to the bottom.)
I wrote messages on many of the boats.
I documented none of them.
Most of the messages were personal and nobody will ever see them, and that's the way I intended it, and that's the way it'll stay.
I did write SFØ on a few of the bows in case somebody happened to find them.
That's the beauty...that nobody will ever see them. Awesome.
if there was a lincoln stereotype, it would be 'unstoppable'.
and 'nudity.'
Lol Lincoln gets naked again.
That is a lot of boats. this is an epic task. you are win
a praxis where several people launched a candle for every member of UoA? I can't remember the task or the taskers.
Those cloudy skies...
The night was clear.
That Bach theme tune...
'Twas Mozart, dear
Ah yes - I remember it well.
Just brilliant.
*Simple bold idea realised through dedication.
*Aesthetcally pleasing result.
*Well documented.
*Spreads sf0.
TICKS EVERY DAMN BOX
I was semi-seriously considering creating a sock puppet account so I could vote for it twice.