The truth is, I really haven’t traveled that much in my life. Part of that has to do with the fact that I’m afraid of flying (like really really afraid.) But, for the sake of ArtBabble, I had the amazing opportunity to visit Los Angeles last May. Fellow Nugget Danny and I documented the whole experience with photos and video. On our trip we met a lot of interesting people and dogs and enjoyed the sunshine, the warm weather, and (Danny especially) fresh tacos.

The reason we traveled was to film on location the construction of Andrea Zittel’s project, a large floating island to be installed in the lake of 100 Acres back in Indy. The island was fabricated by Barnacle Bros studio in East L.A. where upon arrival, we were greeted by a cast of characters led by a heavily tattooed man known as Smilee Barnacle. They brought us up to speed on the project and led us around the work shop,  which looked more like a carnival parade storage room than any kind of studio! The interview we did with Smilee turned out to be pretty hilarious:

And here are some pictures I snapped throughout the day. You can find more here.

That's Danny filming Smilee and crew

Shop dog

From the desk of Mr. Barnacle...

The colorful alley behind Barnacle Bros

Danny filming Smilee as he explains what materials were used for the island

There in the middle of the shop sat a snow-white igloo, which on closer inspection was not made of snow, but foam. And even better, it really looked like it would float! Smilee and his team used homemade tools to claw, shave, and mold the foam into a smooth, round shape. I can only imagine the spraying bits of foam as they hacked away at the towering mound of white.

It's snowing in L.A.! (standing in a pile of foam bits)

Here’s an interview we did there with Andrea to get a little more background info on the whole project.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when the Barnacle crew brought the island to Indianapolis… only to be greeted by chilly temps and mud in the Art and Nature Park… Indiana at its finest! There was a lot of activity in 100 acres lake that week. Both the island and Eden II are now floating in the lake for all to see.

I felt kind of sorry for Andrea and the Barnacle Bros, wading around in the frigid lake, because their visit to Indy was a cold and damp one. Then again, they get to experience the beautiful California weather all year ‘round. (Special thanks to Smilee, Theresia and the whole Barnacle Bros. crew, Andrea, and the cool cats at The Getty for their kind hospitality.)

It sure was sunny in California but I think I’ll stick with Indiana. I’m kind of partial to the sunsets.

I snapped this photo outside my house a couple months ago

It’s been mentioned in past blog posts. It’s been described in IMA press releases. It’s used regularly by staff. It’s listed on the IMA internal phone list. It’s a space. It’s a way of thinking. It’s The Nugget Factory.

Simply put, The Nugget Factory is IMA’s New Media department – a team of four. The longer story is this – it’s the creative approach to creating digital content. It’s the process of finding the perfect ‘nugget’ in revealing a story. It’s this process that gave birth to the Nugget Factory. It may sound ridiculous (actually it does) but it’s this approach to developing audio, video or web content that drives our department and many of our colleagues cross-departmentally. It’s a creative and fun approach – but don’t get me wrong, we take our nuggets and work very seriously.

Two of the four Nugget Factory members blog regularly (Despi and I), but what about the other two – Dan Dark and Danny Beyer? In true Nugget Factory style, we decided to sit down and create a short audio interview about their roles in the Nugget Factory and much, much more (don’t worry, we’ll get Despi in an audio interview soon).

Take a listen below.

thenuggetfactory.mp3