Discovery is always within reach… whether it happens via the limitless encyclopedia and image library that is the World Wide Web, or by flying to a different country and immersing yourself in another culture. “The Great Beyond” means something different to everybody.

In this issue, Beyond the Ordinary, we can see how other perspectives, cultures, and influences can shape our everyday lives and artistic meanings.

Jewelry artist Kate Moore’s work is inspired by international culture and history.

Photographer Prashant Palsokar uniquely blends art and science in hopes of showing a new perspective of the everyday. Palsokar’s method in working is very precise, so that each photo shows great definition.

Robbie Fraser travels to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and shares with us his experience of living in a uniquely fun and art-focused area. Fraser describes Chiang Mai as a great place to absorb Thai culture without the “cheesy” tourist aspects of traveling.

Michael Widman is on a quest for other intelligence is his interesting article about The SETI Institute: A nonprofit organization in Mountain View, California. Widman talks to Seth Shostak, SETI Senior Astronomer, about what is currently happening at SETI.

We are featuring 3 book reviews this month:

• Martin Rushmere on The Right To Be Lazy, by Paul Lafargue
• Dave Douglas on Craft Beer Bar Mitzvah, by Jeremy Cowan
• Bruce Roberts on Ivan and Misha, by Michael Alyenikov

Bruce Roberts also reviews the performance of Ophelia: A Musical, held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California.

In poetry, we are delighted to publish returning contributor Tatjana Debeljacki. Debeljacki’s poems in this issue focus on love and insecurity, lust and betrayal, and contradiction. The work is published in Croatian with English translation.

Also featured is poetry by Dave Douglas. Douglas’ piece, Nothing to Write, will have you feeling its considerable emotional undertones.

Bruce Roberts’ poem, Tiny Bubble/Tiny Tears, is about relationships and family. The result is both surprising and tragic.

Check out Leena Prasad’s monthly column: Whose Brain Is It? Presented as a mystery with fictional characters and clues, this is a monthly column with a journalist’s perspective on brain research.

In addition, last month, we featured paintings by Artist Erik White. This month, we are including White’s essay, Gravitational Art is God’s not Pollock’s, which further explains what “gravitational art” really means.

Thank you for reading Synchronized Chaos Magazine! All of our contributors are always open to your feedback and questions, so please don’t hesitate to leave your comments or use the contact information provided.

Artist statement:

I am a self-taught photographer who likes to blend his two passions: Creativity and Science. I have been interested in photographing cities, landscapes and other still life imagery for several years now. My inspiration comes from things that awe me, or from presenting everyday scenes from angles that other people haven’t noticed.

I am a technologist by training and education, with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and  business. My “daytime” job consists of architecting and designing e-commerce systems.

On of my favorite techniques featured in several images in the selection, is known as HDR (High Dynamic Range) and consists of blending multiple exposures (between 3 and 6 usually) of the same scene to obtain definition in all parts of the picture.

-Prashant Palsokar

To contact the artist, email masterjockey@sfcamerajockey.com. Visit the artist’s website at www.sfcamerajockey.com.

Artist statement:

I started making jewelry in 2002 in Indiana. My life has been one very long adventure ever since. I started with stone bead work and only teaching myself how to create unique and interesting pieces of jewelry.

Armatora catena has been my company name since 2009 with an Etsy site and a jewelry blog under the  armatora catena name. Armatora catena means ‘chainmaille’ in Latin. I have been making chainmaille for 6 years and have created anything from earrings to full armor out of chainmaille.

I am currently a regular artist at CityArt Gallery in San Francisco, CA and show in the back room shows every other month or so. As well as the SF Arts Market among other art shows and galleries in San Francisco, CA and other parts of the United States.

– Kate Moore

E-mail ancienthistorykem@gmail.com for more information.

[Article by Robbie Fraser]

It’s not easy to interview a city, but I’ve done my best. Two months ago I touched down in Thailand and soon made my way up north to Chiang Mai. This wasn’t my first trip to the country. I’ve been through the insanity that is Bangkok, a city that is home to over well over ten million. I’ve been to the breathtaking beaches and scattered tourist traps that make up Phuket, and even to a few small towns along the way. But Chiang Mai is something entirely unique. It’s that uniqueness that has the city on the verge of becoming a UNESCO creative city. The possibility of such a title is something the community here takes great pride in, a fact visible on the hundreds of roadside signs promoting the potential honor. If Chiang Mai is successful in its attempt to become an internationally recognized city of craft and folk art, it will join only four other cities in the world.

The primary factor in Chiang Mai’s ability to rise above the dozens of other cities vying for similar recognition is the fact that it sits at a cultural crossroad. If you spend enough time in the city, you will undoubtedly come across a few children in the intricate dress of the Lanna tribe. The Lanna are traditionally a hill people that were an independent nation until a few hundred years ago. Today, they have melded with mainstream society in many ways, but in many ways they remain proudly independent, careful to retain an art-focused culture that has persisted for centuries. They are most visible at the city’s night markets. Some are selling art, always handmade, and almost always incredible in its quality. Others are making art, performing it. Children dance while the smooth sound of drums and a bamboo flute drifts through hundreds of individual stands.

Robbie Fraser is an associate editor for Synchronized Chaos Magazine. Fraser may be reached at robbiedfraser@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

Gravitational Art is God’s not Pollock’s

It is true that I use Jackson Pollock’s painting technique to create Gravitational Art.  The mechanization of the body creating fractal patterns on the canvas mimics forms found in nature, and looks much like looking up at the sky through tree branches.  His process is truly inspiring, but Jackson Pollock and I paint very different paintings.  Jackson Pollock talked about using the mechanization of the body to create forms that are found in nature, but his paintings are a mirror to the nature of the human body’s movement, as much as they are reflections of the natural world.  Using sweeping arm movements, as he threw paint at the canvas and dripped thin lines over each other, there always remained a trace of himself as the creator.  His lines remain distinctly his own, and the movement of his body is evident in each line.  He let each layer dry, and built up a montage of splatters and lines to mimic the forms found in nature.  He never fully relinquished his control over the final outcome of the painting.  This is the leap that Gravitational Art makes.  I use Pollock’s technique to create fractal patterns, mimicking the forms found in nature, and then I paint until the paint is so thick it starts to move to the middle, and fall over the edges.  I paint until there is no trace left of the lines I have made—until the lines are no longer my own, but God’s.

To contact Erik White directly, send an email to erik@erikwhite.com.

Continue reading →

Tiny Bubbles/Tiny Tears

The text message arrived
As we watched the tiny dancers,
Half-pints who hula,
Sparkling cuteness
Swaying hipless-
And sometimes in harmony-
To scratchy music
Onstage surrounded
By parents proud and corn dogs delectable,
Baby ducks and bunnies and the mechanical bull just next door.

“Old acquaintance, high school years, Facebook friendly, arrested: wife strangled!”

And abruptly
The music darkens,
Discordant rhythms
Assault swaying serenity
As I strain
To see a future
For these giggling, awkward menihunis–
Happy ever after
As the storybooks vow?
Or stretched early on a slab,
Victim of life’s pitfalls,
And love gone bad?

Was the wife once herself
A tiny dancer,
Braving the stage
Hair pinned up,
Rouge and lipstick,
Trembling at the crowd,
But happy to hula
As a step toward life-
Stretching out bright before her?

Who knows
What little minds think,
Staring out at families
With smiles, cameras, applause?

Can any of them fathom
That Prince Charming —
Of whom they already dream-
Might one day encircle their neck
With his loving hands,
Squeezing and squeezing and squeezing
Until dreams,
Whether mundane or glorious,
Depart?

Aloha!

Bruce Roberts is a poet and ongoing contributor to Synchronized Chaos Magazine. Roberts may be reached by at brobe60491@sbcglobal.net.

Nothing to Write

I see starving towns and big money
I see blood and false-testimony …
And if Paul Simon was President
In a world when no one repents
To a god they say does not exist
On the forgotten list
He may have nothing to write

In moments when I can only scream
For a dieing child, attached she seems
In the village called the earth
Her flesh is traded without worth
While my eyes remain chained to the flat panel
Another channel
And nothing to write

And through the iron spyglass
Shared with a view exceedingly fast
I saw an image, but in reverse
Dictating my pending verse
On a page blank and crumpled and torn
Forlorn
With a pen and nothing to write

Yet, a faultless messenger
Humbled himself before anger
And revealed a vision from the past
One which was meant to last
But he was met with fight and flight
When he had nothing left to write

And I hear of wars and rumors of more
I hear of battle lines drawn at the front door …
But if Paul Simon is President
As if he is the one sent
And if, he indeed, repairs ev’ry shattered heart and broken window
With a peace below
He will whisper, “I have nothing new to write”

Dave Douglas may be reached at carpevelo@gmail.com.