this blog

I want this blog to be more personal, written in my voice. The last post I was trying to be scientific or something, build an argument that could never be felled, but after re-reading the post I feel it's dry and weak.

But today is a new day. I will try to write more about my experience in Budapest and Hungary,. I'll also write about constraints and examples, and that kind of thing.

So here's a new start to this blog. I'm an American living in Budapest. I'm working on a Fulbright project. The project is to create videos related to the prolific Hungarian mathematician Erdos Pal (two dashes over the 'o' and one over the 'a'). In the U.S. of A. he's called Paul Erdos (Air - doosh). So far in Hungary I've worked on 5 videos, some relating to math. Earlier this month, I started two projects that I'm really excited about. The first is like a big jellyfish, huge and amorphous. It is perhaps the main piece of my Fulbright project, yet (under my professor's advice) I am letting it define itself based on the resource available, rather than me defining it ahead of time. That only makes sense, but it seems quite difficult for me to be patient in practice. The second project seems to be coming together really well, even though I've worked on it for only a week. I hope that the humor of the project doesn't detract from the meaning that is in there. It's an experiment... I guess I'll find out.

The first project is to create a documentary about the math research center in Budapest called the Renyi Institut. I will be talking with a professor from the institute on Friday. Apparently there are some recorded interviews of Erdos in Hungarian that perhaps I could use/translate/get someone to translate. I hope to talk to professors at the institute about their research. I want to learn about the current research, what interests people. The film that comes out of my work could go many different directions depending on who is interested in talking to me. I'm holding my nose to see where it goes.

The second project is a public art piece that I will do in collaboration with some German students from Stuttgart. They are continuing the series 'Interventions in the Everyday'. My part will be to make prime numbers fashionable - or rather, to exploit the fashionability of prime numbers. It will be awesome. The project has 3 parts.

First, there will be surveys and advertisements near Oktogon. I want to determine which is the sexiest/coolest prime number under 1000. Participants will be given a list of the prime numbers less than 1000 and will be asked to select just one number as the sexiest. Additionally, there will be so-hot-it's-not-funny-style pamphlets about famous theorems related to Hungarian mathematicians and prime numbers (probabilistic number theory, the prime number theorem, cryptography). They will be written in that all-you-can-eat voice, if you know what I mean. All of this will be in Hungarian. Perhaps some fliers will be in English and Hungarian. I'm not sure yet. Along with handing out these fliers, I will be selling prime numbered tee-shirts and prime-numbered necklaces (does anyone know where to get hemp string in Budapest?). I've found someone that will make the tee-shirts. I am working on logo design right now. It's all very exciting. Another aspect of the public art project will be little additions to the half naked pictures of women that are being thrown around town on billboards and such. I will add little cartoon dialogue boxes that say things like, 'I think 357 is sexiest.' (And perhaps another dialogue box coming from offscreen that says 'But 3 divides 357.') (Also, I want these interventions to happen on Mondays because in my experience it is a common belief that Monday is the most boring day. Survey?)

The second aspect of the project is that there will be a fashion show of prime-number-related clothing. If you've had the lifelong desire to be a model, well now is your chance to shine. This means you: Jeanette, Damian, Sofia, and Charity(?). The fashion show will occur in the middle of March. I envision the models walking down a homemade runway to blasting techno music strutting. The t-shirts will be ordered: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, etc. I hope to get some photographers to join me in snapping some photos. I hope that by some small miracle the number of photos snapped will be the exact same as the number on display. We'll see what happens. The shirts and jewelry will be on display and for sale after the fashion shoot. All of the shirts and everything will be hand made, hand printed (with a linoleum cut) or sewn. Even the beads on the necklace will be handmade in a ceramics studio in the U.S. by Emily Melander. Of course, I will not try to make any profit, I will just try to recoup the cost of making the shirts and putting together the fashion show. and it's expensivE!

The third aspect of the project is the exhibition. It will be a mini-store in the gallery, where shirts and jewelry are displayed on a table. I would really like to have a mannequin, but we'll see what happens. If you know where to get one in Budapest for a couple weeks, please call me or write. I would also like to display documentation of the coolest/sexiest number (ten bucks it's not 7). The documentation will probably be bar graphs. Very scientific. Very composed. Or perhaps I should copy some marketing posters. There might also be some video footage of people talking about the sexiest prime number.

So, as you can see, the prime number project has grown and grown. It will be big, but not too big. There may be aspects discussed here that are axed due to not having the time or resources. I think this post is long enough. I will keep updating this with a link to the 'Interventions in the Everyday' blog, and other things that I feel are pertinent to your daily life.