Eye, Tanya

What does a bionic hair style look like? Engineering my mane for the future.

Tanya — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:35:42 +0000

YAY!!!!!!! Funding Successful!

Tanya — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:19:30 +0000

YAY!!!!!!! Funding Successful! I’m so incredibly happy! Thx all & #SquareEnix 4 helping me in developing my prosthetic camera eye. @EyeTanya

Last 50 minutes

Tanya — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:38:20 +0000

Last 50 minutes til the #GrowaNewEye Kickstarter deadline. If you wanted 2 contribute & haven’t yet now is the time! http://kck.st/ojotanya

Las ultima 50 minutos para “Crecer un Ojo Nuevo”

Tanya — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:33:27 +0000

Las ultima 50 minutos para Grow a New Eye Kickstarter, si quiere donar, ahora es el tiempo! http://kck.st/ojotanya @EyeTanya Viva la vision!

Grow a New Eye, SF! Tonight.

Tanya — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:57:16 +0000

24 hours to go! SF Event tonight! and 1 million updates yet to come.

Thanks to you and the generous donation of Square Enix, of Deus Ex Human Revolution fame (more on that later), a couple of large donations by Individuals, and countless of donations from all over the world — we made our Kickstarter goal, meaning we will be able to fund the development of the prototype of an eye-camera.- but again this is the minimal for just stage one of building the prototype. We definitely need more than 100k for it to be a viable device! So we need to keep raising money!

But we are so incredibly thrilled we reached our Kickstarter goal! There are still 24 hours to go and we are hoping to raise over 1K to reach a 20K mark. Besides helping create a sustainable enterprise; this will go to planning other aspects of EyeTanya’s transmedia mission: Interactive Website (A Bionics and Healing Resource for the Visually Impaired & Disabled,) Graphic Novel, Experimental Documentary, Interactive performances, ETC.

Read our latest Kickstarter update here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/growaneweye/grow-a-new-eye/posts

There are so many things to update you all about. But there hasn’t been time for me to sit down and blog – I guess that’s a good thing when life takes you galloping and all you have are the reigns, and the knowledge at some point you will have time for a breather and reflection. But the meantime, I’m back from a brief stint in NY just in time for
our GROW A NEW EYE, SF event tonight! In our final 24 hour window we want to celebrate with you tonight before the deadline tomorrow!

EVENT DETAILS: http://growaneweyesf.eventbrite.com/

The evening is guaranteed to stir the imagination. There will be music, video installations, film screenings and heated discussions about the possibilities and limitations of technology on the human body.

Live Streaming

The Retro-Future Experience with performances by

Project Agora

Haggai Cohen Milo

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT TICKETING:

Entry is via donating on Kickstarter. If you have already backed the project on our Kickstarter campaign at the $25 level or higher, your name will be on the Will Call list.

To purchase a ticket in advance, back our project at the $25 level or highter at: http://kck.st/jOsMw0.

All walk-ins are welcome but you will be asked to contribute via Kickstarter at the door! Of course if you want to pay cash only – we won’t turn you away!

To learn more about Tanya Vlach, and her personal story visit

http://www.EyeTanya.com/

Follow on Twitter: @TanyaVlach @EyeTanya

Tanya Vlach’s ‘Grow A New Eye’ Camera On Kickstarter (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)

La “Lucha” continues

Tanya — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:57:23 +0000

193 BACKERS

$6,823

PLEDGED OF $15,000 GOAL

18 day count down.

Time: Monday Night
Location: Kezar Bar (local Cole Valley watering hole)
I am taking a break from obsessing over the Kickstarter campaign, and more specifically from my computer. A few days ago I had a wild night and a friend kicked his champagne glass practically into my keyboard. At the time, I didn’t think any liquid got in, then at 5am when I was instantly wide awake, to start on emails and social network; my beloved Macbook Pro, let’s call her “Lucha” wouldn’t start. And I about freaked.
Then I had a creeping, soothing feeling of a letting go of my attachment to my ever dependence to the box, to the screen, to the virtual connectivity. That world is a slippery slope of addiction.

I am sure these words are not what one would expect from geek like myself, someone who defends, utilizes, provokes more integration with technology. But this singularity or whatever you want to call it is also like any type of relationship; there are inevitable compromises, loss of freedom, and of course I find best expressed in the lovely Baudelaire quote (I discovered via Paul Auster’s City of Glass)

Il me semble que je serais toujours bien là où je ne suis pas, et cette question de déménagement en est une que je discute sans cesse avec mon âme.

I like to crudely translate it to an english cliche, “The grass is always greener.”

But la “Lucha” continues.

Grow a New Eye – Kickstarter Update!

Tanya — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:08:30 +0000

Hi – sorry for the long LONG pause before my first update. June was a hectic month! I met a ton of people at TEDxSF and hoping to keep in touch with those who I connected with and hopefully collaborate somehow in the future.

Grow a New Eye Kickstarter Campaign

Current Donor List

For International Donors who have had a problem donating through Amazon I found this on another Kickstarter!

For those of you outside the U.S. who have tried to back my Kickstarter project and cannot because Amazon “sometimes” has problems with foreign accounts… I finally received a response from Kickstarter – they are aware of this problem and said Amazon offered them this inelegant solution: Have the person start a new account at Amazon to make the payment from. It should go through no problem. Sorry! I hope that helps you guys!

News:

July 13th – Gizmodo.com http://gizmodo.com/5820839/nows-your-chance-to-buy-a-bionic-camera-eye-for-a-lady

July 10th - Engadget.com http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/10/insert-coin-prosthetic-eye-digital-camera-video/

July 9th – Tecmundo.com.br http://www.tecmundo.com.br/11415-olho-bionico-promete-dar-zoom-e-ate-gravar-em-hd.htm

We are 30% funded for the Grow a New Eye Kickstarter campaign and I’m thrilled that you all have contributed as much as you did – we are still a ways off and have 20 days left! Seriously stressful stuff.

I’m continuing to collect the suggestions and will post the highlights in each update. Video update is coming!

1. First I want to clear up that this project by no means will

entail connecting to my occipital lobe to regain sight in my left eye. This is invasive surgery and I’ve been told I’m not a candidate anyway – my Grow a new eye project is primarily a technological artistic experiment, transforming something that was lost into another type of seeing device.

2. Grow a new eye is phase one in engineering the eye-camera. This will entail building a bread board to make sure all the parts work together. In other words it will take some time to get the technology to work and be small enough to fit inside my prosthesis.

3. Battery Power – is one of the biggest challenges with the project.
In terms of heat, size, and affect on the body.
Spoke with an engineer today who specializes in battery and wireless power,

And he mentioned energy harvesting – sounds pretty darn cool.

4. One of the earliest suggestions was using silicone for the prosthesis instead of Acrylic – this is the first I heard of a silicone eye-prosthesis and I’m open to experimentation. I think the upside to silicone is that it may handle higher temperature than acrylic.

5. I am looking to build a community forum for my website on EyeTanya’s Community Page this will separate the One-Eyed comments and the Engineering suggestions and inquiries (there will also be an art section). I’d like place for all of the new and old info to go and to be organized. Currently my website is still wordpress.com and I need to migrate to wordpress.org

6. Thanks all who have contributed – complete list up til the minute is added to the BACKER Page! UBER GRATEFUL – video updates coming I swear. And I can’t wait to get you your EyeTanya schwag.

7. Call to action: please tell your friends! or someone who you think might be interested in the project. We accept $1 donations and $5000 donations and anything in between.

8. If you donated you are invited to attend an exclusive event in NY July 30th and/ or San Francisco August 2nd (the day before the end of the campaign.
And if you haven’t donated you are invited to contribute via Kickstarter at the door!

9. Yes I know who the EYEBORG is! We’ve met and our cyborg rivalry continues – he is not interested in collaborating. So I say let the best WOman win!

While I’m teasing; our projects are different and both of us have something to offer in terms of our unique perspectives. I’m open to collaborate in the future if a Cyborg peace offer is made.

10. Other things: Open source!

Much appreciated! See you on the flip side!

~tanya

Eye Tanya

Tanya — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:41:31 +0000

New Collaborator / Partner in crime, Lynchita AKA Cristina Rivera took shots of me in the bathroom at Waizema on Divasadero in SF.

June is the month of firsts and we hit the $2000 mark! Still a long way to go.

Tanya — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:50:53 +0000

Image by David Berkowitz via Flickr

The night before a shoot with Colibrita Productions and Desktop Engineering about Cloud Computing for Parker Aerospace; I’m holled up in a Marriott in Irvine watching Repo Men, the sinister dystopic version of growing, engineering body parts and owing the private medical industry if you can’t keep up payments. An ironic way to write a post an update for my Kickstarter Grow a new eye.

Just a few personal words about this month, which has been a ridiculous life and learning curve pointing straight upwards towards the heavens. Friend’s marriage, cousin’s baby shower (first in the family), spreading the ashes of my grandparents in the San Francisco Bay, falling in passion for life, screening a short of my project through TEDxSF, launching my Kickstarter in the audience, curating an art show, and opening a gallery. Literally all in one month. With a few short days left til July it doesn’t stop; this video gig at Parker Aerospace is the first for my production company.

All This has taken time out of working the Kickstarter. So I’m asking for your help please consider telling your friends my plight and any donation would be so greatly appreciated!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/growaneweye/grow-a-new-eye/widget/video.html

Art I.S. getting (t)here – June 18th!

Tanya — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:18:44 +0000

You are invited to the opening of “Art I.S. getting (t)here”.
transportation —> transformation

CONFIRMED ARTISTS:

LAUREN CRABBE
KRIS ENGEL
FAERN
DAVID FULLARTON
GIANLUCA FRANZESE
DEVIN KELLER
CHRISTOPHER MACOLINO
ANNA MARIE PANLILIO
CRISTINA ISABEL RIVERA
FRANK RODRIGUEZ
ADAM SMITH
TANYA MARIE VLACH

Featuring live music by David Molina and his band, Earthlike.

Themes of transportation, journey, process, destination, road less traveled; whatever transporting means to you.

Curators Tanya & Faern

Art I.S. getting (t)here will be on display at the Gallery at Everybody Bikes from June 18th to August 13th. On the night of June 18th we will also showcase site specific installations, as well as live musical performances.

This theme has arisen from ART I.S.’s new collaboration with Everyone Bikes (1352 Irving St @ 15th Av) and as a means to point out that there are no galleries in the Inner Sunset and Sunset District as a whole. We want to let folks in the city know we are here!

http://is-art-here.com/

In collaboration with
Everybody Bikes http://everybodybikessf.com/

Arizmendi

Muni Diaries

Colibrita Productions

By the way I love my city, and yes it’s my ball & chain … While culturally sophisticated there is an embarrassing lack of art representation in the very neighborhood that I was born and raised in; the Inner Sunset. My besty xbf & brit xpat mocked me for complaining and not doing anything about – so here we are.