A trailer put together by John Behrens of Omega Recoil and Brad Cooper showcasing some of the industrial art coming out of Oakland, including 2pir. Also showcased is Omega Recoil, The Golden Mean, Electrobite, and the Golden Zeppelini (oilpunk.com), and Boreus Hyemalis (graywrxfabblog.blogspot.com/​)

And yes, all this stuff is available for events!

As many of our photographer friends know all too well, 2pir is notoriously hard to photograph. While we were in Denmark, Smukfest undertook the challenge of not only photographing 2pir, but photographing all of it! The result is this amazing 360 degree panorama of 2pir taken from the viewpoint of the dancer on the platform.

NIMBY is having a funraiser on Saturday, October 16th! We’ll be there, running 2pir fresh from it’s journey back across the sea from Denmark. A number of other sights, sounds, and experiences will be there as well, including Extra Action Marching Band, CoRE, and the Boiler Bar. Also in attendance will be 4pyre², trying to one-up us with their 3 dimensional equations. I predict a friendly “flame war” between them and us.

The party starts at 9pm and the cover starts at $16 (if you can afford to donate more, please do!) More info can be found at the Facebook event page.

Saturday, October 16th
NIMBY
8410 Amelia Street (off 85th)
Oakland, CA

It’s been almost two months since Smukfest and still no update on the blog. Wondering why? It’s because everyone has been incredibly busy with Syzygryd, Burning Man, and the aftermath of the annual excursion. But for those wondering how 2pir and Smukfest went: It was awesome.

2pir ran so well raised 10 feet in the air that we’re looking into how to do this for every run. It really changes the dynamic of the piece and not only makes it easier to run but more fun for the participants as well. Just like our normal 2pir runs, we let anyone from the audience up on the stage to dance and play with the fire. What was a little bit different this run was that we had actually scheduled and rehearsed performances. We had a belly dancer as well as several break dancers who impressed the crowd before we opened it up to the general audience. We even managed to incorporate the Top Gun Theme. And of course the crew had way too much fun themselves, whether it was Mustache Night, suiting up in the Faraday suits, letting kids play with fire, freezing tanks, or digging around in Danish scrap yards.

Another difference from our normal runs was that we shared the spotlight with two other pieces. We alternated between 2pir, Omega Recoil and Boreus Hyemalis over the course of the night, blowing the Danes’ minds with Zap, Burn, and Crush. All in all it was a great run. And now 2pir is back in storage, waiting for the next run.

For a bunch of pictures and videos check out:
Ed’s Flickr Set
Tom’s Flickr Set

Getting ready to fly 2pir

We just got pictures of the 2pir build-out happening in Denmark for this year’s Smukfest. This run we’ll attempt something 2pir has never done before: make it fly. The fine Danes over in Skanderborg are putting together the platform that will raise all of 2pir (both flame effects and performers) 3 meters off the ground. So far it’s looking pretty awesome. Check out all the pics below:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Omega Recoil: Denmark container load from oscar champagne on Vimeo.

After almost 6 months of rebuilding 2pir, testing, doing paperwork, and way too much time at NIMBY, 2pir is on it’s way to Denmark for Smukfest 2010! As you can see above, we spent the last Saturday afternoon stuffing everything into a shipping container for the journey across the ocean.

In the container with 2pir is Omega Recoil‘s Tesla Coil, and Therm‘s brand spanking new robot. Last year we put DDI on a boat. This year we’re putting 2pir in the air. The flame effects and the platform are going to be 3 meters in the air with festival goers milling about underneath them. We’re going to take the beach at Denmark and show the Danes more fire and electricity than they’ve seen in a long time.

We’ve got a Kickstarter going that will help us pay for all the parts and some of the fuel to run at Burning Man this year. For your donation, you’ll receive all sorts of schwag, ranging from a sticker all the way up to your own private DDI or 2pir run! Also quite enticing is the chance to get your own personal flame effect built by us!

A short video showing off our early software design for our latest project, Syzygryd.

The sequencer and the display layer are written in Processing, the iPods are running touchOSC by hexler, and the computer making the noise is running Ableton Live with Native Instruments’ Massive. We’re working on getting better sounds set up for it, now that we have the software generally functioning.

Thanks a ton to Audrey, Yosh, and Nicole for editing, and Ian for filming.

It’s time for another Ardent Heavy Industries/Interpretive Arson Open Shop! We’re inviting everyone to stop by our (newly cleaned and reorganized) shop space at NIMBY to take shop tours, hear about our upcoming projects and events, and play with some fire. We’ll also have a little food, but mostly some hot coals to cook whatever you want bring. This time we’ve got a tentative schedule:

• 7:00 – Coals are hot and doors are open!
• 7:30 – Shop tour #1 begins
• 8:00-8:15 – Syzygryd (aka that thing we’re building for That Thing In The Desert)
• 8:15-8:30 – Robots with Sam and Morley
• 8:30-8:45 – What AHI/IA is up to this year & how you can get involved with Ardent
• 8:45-? – Fire toys outside, hang out and chat about projects, etc
• 9:00- Shop Tour #2 begins

Swing by and enjoy some friends, food, and fire.

Friday, January 29th, 7:00 PM
NIMBY, 8410 Amelia Street, Oakland

Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition

Dance Dance Immolation is officially in the Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer’s Edition for the “Hottest Video Game”. You can check out our full color spread online, complete with photo (original photo by Kristen Ankiewicz) of a player getting blasted with fire.

Interpretive Arson can now proudly say that we are an international, award winning, record setting fire art group.