likeothers
12-15-2005, 01:08 PM
http://zeeman.mit.edu/fbyte/
his art was some of the most amazing stuff i've ever seen. simple and brilliant.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/12/11/he_died_pushing_the_limits_of_art_and_life/?page=full
He died pushing the limits of art, and life
By Sally Jacobs, Globe Staff | December 11, 2005
The party at Warehouse 23 was a high-tech marvel, even by geek standards.
But what struck one young attendee most vividly was not the astonishing sea of guests churning through the vast industrial space in the Fort Point district. Or the towering sculptures of thousands of tiny lights blinking in rhythm to the music. Or even the lasers overhead and the fog machines pumping dense clouds around video screens.
No, for Emily Chew, then an 18-year-old freshman at Simmons College, it was the solemn way in which the drugs were distributed. The tiny tabs of acid were passed about, she recalls, in a silver cigarette case. And for each guest who took one, another person stepped forward to be a sober companion, a sort of designated driver for the trip ahead.
Stunned by what she calls ''the gravity of the process," Chew took nothing and fled to another room. A few minutes later, the party's host, Kevin D. McCormick, known to his friends as ''Frostbyte," appeared at her side and said, ''You don't look like you're having a very good time."
McCormick, an MIT-trained engineer and highly regarded artist, led her to a far wall. He flipped a switch and thousands of lights erupted into a shimmering band of color shaped like a rainbow.
''The whole crowd just stopped and looked," recalled Chew. ''The entire room went quiet."
It was a vintage Frostbyte happening. McCormick, who was found dead in Warehouse 23 last month, was a young man drawn to the edge, always pushing beyond the conventional limits of knowledge and sensation.
His frequent gatherings -- more exhibitions than parties -- were fully intended to knock his guests breathless, to take them somewhere else. And McCormick, according to several of his friends, believed drugs could be the passport to some of the more intriguing destinations.
When police found McCormick's body Nov. 13 in the Congress Street warehouse where he lived, he was surrounded by chains and wetsuits -- props, evidently, for erotic activities. The 29-year-old, who was openly gay, had died of a heart attack during sex. Two of the men who shared the warehouse space told police he had taken ecstasy -- his drug of choice, according to several friends -- a few hours earlier.
During their investigation, police also discovered one of the most sophisticated designer drug laboratories that US Drug Enforcement Administration chemists have seen in the region. The DEA is examining the array of chemicals and equipment seized from the lab, which DEA investigators believe was dedicated to the making of such drugs as MDMA, or ecstasy. Law enforcement officials say an investigation continues into whether there are grounds for charges against any of the four others who lived there.
...
his art was some of the most amazing stuff i've ever seen. simple and brilliant.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/12/11/he_died_pushing_the_limits_of_art_and_life/?page=full
He died pushing the limits of art, and life
By Sally Jacobs, Globe Staff | December 11, 2005
The party at Warehouse 23 was a high-tech marvel, even by geek standards.
But what struck one young attendee most vividly was not the astonishing sea of guests churning through the vast industrial space in the Fort Point district. Or the towering sculptures of thousands of tiny lights blinking in rhythm to the music. Or even the lasers overhead and the fog machines pumping dense clouds around video screens.
No, for Emily Chew, then an 18-year-old freshman at Simmons College, it was the solemn way in which the drugs were distributed. The tiny tabs of acid were passed about, she recalls, in a silver cigarette case. And for each guest who took one, another person stepped forward to be a sober companion, a sort of designated driver for the trip ahead.
Stunned by what she calls ''the gravity of the process," Chew took nothing and fled to another room. A few minutes later, the party's host, Kevin D. McCormick, known to his friends as ''Frostbyte," appeared at her side and said, ''You don't look like you're having a very good time."
McCormick, an MIT-trained engineer and highly regarded artist, led her to a far wall. He flipped a switch and thousands of lights erupted into a shimmering band of color shaped like a rainbow.
''The whole crowd just stopped and looked," recalled Chew. ''The entire room went quiet."
It was a vintage Frostbyte happening. McCormick, who was found dead in Warehouse 23 last month, was a young man drawn to the edge, always pushing beyond the conventional limits of knowledge and sensation.
His frequent gatherings -- more exhibitions than parties -- were fully intended to knock his guests breathless, to take them somewhere else. And McCormick, according to several of his friends, believed drugs could be the passport to some of the more intriguing destinations.
When police found McCormick's body Nov. 13 in the Congress Street warehouse where he lived, he was surrounded by chains and wetsuits -- props, evidently, for erotic activities. The 29-year-old, who was openly gay, had died of a heart attack during sex. Two of the men who shared the warehouse space told police he had taken ecstasy -- his drug of choice, according to several friends -- a few hours earlier.
During their investigation, police also discovered one of the most sophisticated designer drug laboratories that US Drug Enforcement Administration chemists have seen in the region. The DEA is examining the array of chemicals and equipment seized from the lab, which DEA investigators believe was dedicated to the making of such drugs as MDMA, or ecstasy. Law enforcement officials say an investigation continues into whether there are grounds for charges against any of the four others who lived there.
...