Seeing that people are not allowed to photograph Chicago’s newest most provocative sculpture of a 110-ton reflective bean, I’m going to get my hands on a mini reflective bean and photograph that all around the city of Chicago.
Problem is finding a reflective bean that is maybe around a foot long. The closest thing is these things called a Hematite egg. But they aren’t quite big enough, and they aren’t quite bean shaped. Then of course there are the gazing globes, which are a good size, but are too round. They would make for a chicago orange, not a bean.
If anyone could find a reflective bean that I could buy, that would be wonderful. As to not double our searches, I’ve already looked for the following terms at on froogle.com, amazon.com, shopping.yahoo.com, and ebay.com:
ï reflective oval
ï reflective bean
ï reflective oblong
ï reflective egg
ï mirror oval
ï mirror bean
ï mirror oblong
ï reflective egg
ï Hematite egg
ï bean sculpture
ï big bean
(I searched all these terms with quote marks around the phrase)
If we cannot find a reflective bean to buy, I will just make one. The trick will be to get a mirror-like reflective surface. Metallic paint would seem to be not refective enough. And foil would be too wrinkly. Any suggestions there would be welcome here as well. Please leave them in the comments. Thanks.
Wait, is that true? How are you going to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from taking pictures of a public space?? There are already pictures of “the bean” all over the Internet … and in fact, one of the note cards the company I works for shows a man looking into the very sculpture you’re talking about. I’m not sure I believe what I read on the site you link to …
The Reader did a story about this a few months ago. Apparently, the actual rule/law is that if you plan on using the photos of The Bean for profitable distribution, you have to get some kind of permit, because the sculpture is a private work, or some such stuff. For a while, park security was not clear on what the exact rule was, so they were ordering people to stop taking pictures of The Bean, particularly if they were using professional-looking equipment, like tripods. Ridiculous, I know . . . But I guess that’s what happens when not everything that’s at the park is “public,” per se.
i think it’s ok to photograph the actual bean now. Cory Doctorow from boingboing has been on this from the beginning. Here’s his latest post on the matter: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/27/chicagos_bean_sculpt.html
i still like the idea of a mini bean all over chicago, though. be sure to get one at the weiner’s circle!
the bean and the hot dog! how cute! a hot dog with beans!