two if by sea

A wayward chronicle of ideas relating art, boats, history, politics, and public/social space.

[artboatmpls]

It’s hard to say which I love more, a floating library or a floating sauna. Thanks to Glenn at SaunaTimes for the images, interview and video. This is the stuff of dreams! 

[artboatmpls]

Art projects + travel + work travel + work projects constant since early summer have me feeling weary (and so very behind in storytelling about all of these ventures).  Right now I'd like to live in this house on this island. Seems like a place free of deadlines, eh? 

Maybe a place where the only decision you have to make each day is which boat to use to get ashore, if ashore is even necessary? 

[artboatmpls]

It's golden late summer in Minneapolis. This is my favorite water-place in the city -- the channel carved between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles. Private property edges the water, a train bridge crosses over the top and the light at the end of the leafy green tunnel opens into a wide, windy lake. A place for imagining. 

[artboatmpls]

"A house being towed by a schooner after a tidal wave hit the south coast of Newfoundland in 1929." 

Thanks Andria. 

[artboatmpls]

Right now, in midsummer, the internet is full of pictures of people going on vacation.  While several projects keep me here, I'm making a list of places to go the next time I don't plan a major public art installation for the end of August and early September (e-hem). 

Fisherman's Wharf in Vancouver, BC is close to the top o' the list. Floating home wonderland! 

As always, re-blogged for your eyes from the Tiny House Blog. 

[artboatmpls]

What a treasure to have discovered in a Free Little Library near Kristen's house.  

Published in 1973.  Complete with a bibliography and "Polar Glossary." At 175 pages, this should be a quick summertime read on the water.

[artboatmpls]

75 degrees in Minneapolis today and no ice left on the lakes. We're excited! Big things coming this summer on the waterways of our fine city. Stay tuned. 

[artboatmpls]

Dreaming of summer in Minneapolis and open shanty boat structures. 

Source: Tiny House Blog 

[artboatmpls]

Lake Hillier, Western Australia.

I'd love to row the orange and blue Sea Clamp around on this lake. The waters of this particular pink lagoon are a bit of a scientific mystery, but other pink lakes in the region are said to be colored by a dye made by organisms in the water.  Learn a tiny bit more about that here. 

Be amazed by additional wonders of our world here. 

(Unless this is all a photoshop + Wikipedia trick. Who knows.)

[artboatmpls]

[artboatmpls]

Nearly two weeks ago the Floating Library set adrift on the calm waters of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis. Stocked with about 70 books made by 50 or so artists, the raft provided uncommon reading material for the many people recreating at the lake on a lazy August weekend. 

Over the course of two blue-sky days, we checked out books to 50 people who came upon the Library by kayak, canoe, and inner tube, and those propelled by their own limbs through the water. 

Some folks were on a mission to find us (turns out that finding a small raft on a medium sized lake isn't that easy), while others were confused / delighted to learn of a library on a lake. Several fishermen asked for books about fish (really) and some first-time canoers requested materials about paddling strokes.  Unfortunately we couldn't comply, and instead offered books about all of the food in Prince songs or photographic meditations on ice, or educational pamphlets on the nature of time and the dangers of being an R & B heart throb.

Surprisingly, not a single book was dropped into the water, although a handful of patrons failed to return their materials. There could be a number of reasons for this ranging from laziness to confusion about the system, which admittedly was all an experiment and perhaps not always well communicated. (Our cause was not helped by the fact that the book return box at Wheel Fun Rental was pushed into the weeds behind the bike rack by the end of the first day...)

All-in-all, I consider the inaugural float of the Library to be a success and am excited to spend the wintry months planning, fundraising and scheming for a return to the water in the summer of 2014.  

Many thanks to the volunteer Floating Librarians: Chelsea, Kris, Anh, Molly, Susy, Fred, Anne, Amelia, Jenny and Clarence. And thanks to the Library movers, Bryan, Zvie and Chevrolet. And props to the Library builders: Ted, Kristen, Phil and Ady!

If you'd like to see more images, please visit Flickr. 

[artboatmpls]

This weekend, August 10-11, the Floating Library will set sail on Cedar Lake in Minneapolis. 

This repository of artist-made publications features nearly 70 one-of-a-kind book works by 50 local and national artists, and is here to serve all of your lake-reading needs. 

What is it / how does it work? The Floating Library is a custom built floating structure with bookshelves specially designed to hold printed matter for perusal, check out and give away on the water. Designed for access by canoe, kayak, and/or paddleboard, boaters are welcome to paddle up to the Library, tie up and browse the shelves from inside their boats.  Library materials are cataloged by artist name and subject. A small sampling of subjects include: ecology, snow people, fate, ice, space exploration, weather, fear, uncertainty, algae, farm life, kittens, lakes, drawing, entropy, weeds, the TransAlaska pipeline, bird migration, philosophy, youth.  The Library will be staffed by an attendant who will kindly facilitate the check out system and make reading suggestions based on your interests. The check-out and return system is honor-based, PLEASE be Minnesota Nice and return your materials to the Library or to the book return boxes on Cedar Lake's beaches.  All lending and give away materials will be transported in waterproof bags. 

More info on time and location here. 

Thanks to Timothée Génot for the logo! 

[artboatmpls]

Floating gardens. 

"The Sci­ence Barge, pic­tured above, is an envi­ron­men­tal class­room and green­house cur­rently located on the Hud­son River and docked in Yonkers. The farm, built in 2007 by the non­profit New York Sun Works, is pow­ered by twelve solar pan­els, five wind tur­bines, and veg­etable bio­fu­els"

from New York's City Atlas 

photo from National Geographic

[artboatmpls]

Here is another floating cinema -- in the green ocean waters of Thailand. This is a boat-in movie watching experience. Might be hard to concentrate on a film while in such heavenly surroundings, eh? 

via Slate.com, more pics at Atlas Obscura. 

[artboatmpls]

It's a cold and drab Memorial Day weekend here in the City of Lakes, so we can only dream about the sun-filled days ahead, like movies in the park and boating around without a coat on. The Twin Cities has no shortage of these kind of festive summer offerings. Unfortunately, what we don't have is a combination of cinema and water -- London beat us to that.  The Floating Cinema will return to the waterways of London this summer after launching in 2011 during the Olympics. The onboard program includes canal tours, small-scale screenings, larger docked screenings, talks and workshops. If anyone goes for a filmic float, tell me about it! 

More pics here. 

(Thanks again to Colin.) 

[artboatmpls]

Oops.

Floating art house sinks in Venice during the Biennial.  (In 2009. I'm a bit behind the news.)

Thanks to Colin for the link.  

[artboatmpls]

paper ship.