Mike asked me an interesting question as we were hanging work last friday in Kaya:

"So, do you want to make work to exhibit?"

Now, anyone who knows me knows I'm a terribly classicist prude when it comes to all things art, and religion, related. I suppose he is asking if making work needs to be justified, and if so if hanging it is justification. Some say "the process" is the real art, and that the finished piece is simply an "artifact" of that process... but to answer Mike's question, and because I'm stepping into the void myself, here is why I do what it is I do.

I don't know if what I make needs, or necessarily deserves, a gallery space; I've never really considered myself an "artist." Artists have an artistic vision, an inner expression they want to share with the world. This has always befuddled me; I've never had such a consistent outlook on life or art. Much of the art world bothers me for some reason or another [this isn't the place to analyze it] and, like most of my personal life, I've discarded labels which don't work all that well anyway.

I believe in exploring, and use the camera to do that. Others may use other things, but I explore scale, locale, space, and time.

Yes, I explore time. And that is why I shoot film. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-digital [if I were, why would I write on the internet?] and digital is fantastic for everything it does. But if you were to look into my camera drawer you wouldn't find anything made after I was born. These tend to be Kodak box cameras made in the 20s, 30s, and so forth... they are simple, cheap, reliable- and easily modifiable.

In other words, I can add, remove, and modify lenses and shutters... manipulate space and scale, and understand how this thing works in a visible way a digital circuit can never show.

I can explore, in an unexpected sense, the times we're living in now- yes, these times are history of their own right- and give them a taste of times past.

So do I want to make work to exhibit?
Occasionally I do, but that's not why I'm doing it.

World Digital Library to Launch Later This Month

The site will be launched on April 21 which will include manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. Access to all this information will be free of charge.

The contents of this World Digital Library include relatively modern contributions such as the early films of the Lumiere brothers, stretching back to ancient texts and artworks.

Should be a nice tool for research as well as getting the old creative juices flowing.

mp3 experiment

so jake and i have had a sort of revelation this morning. we will talk about it at our next meeting. until then.... keep this video in mind

(btw this is mike, i had to change names)



The Mp3 Experiment New York from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.

IMPROV EVERYWHERE

Leibovitz pawns off rights to her images

Well this is pretty crumby, but get this. Annie Leibovitz and the late great Susan Sontag had been partners for some time up until Sontag's passing in 2004. Well it seems that Sontag bequeathed several properties to Leibovitz but the problem arises from the fact that...as we all know, same-sex marriages are not recognized as legitimate marriages, and so the tax laws state that you have to pay up to 50 percent of the value of inheritance in taxes. Being that Leibovitz was left these properties by Sontag, she has to pay nearly 16 million dollars in taxes to the government....WTF! Of course if, lets say for instance that you and your partner were recognized as a married couple and you were then left a large chunk of change, then you would not have to pay a single dime. So with that being said Leibovitz has had to take out a loan against properties she owns as well as putting up the copyright, negatives, and contract rights to every photograph she has ever taken or will take in the future as collateral. Makes me want to protest.

Time for a TON of BUTT

Ok all you mother truckers. If you are interested in making those buttons for the club, the template can be gotten from


http://www.americanbuttonmachines.com/Button_Templates.html


towards the bottom we have the 2.25" Diameter Badge-a-minit round templates

happy designing!

Art*O*Mat

I just found this site recently. I know Missa was talked about it in one of our meetings. I REALLY like this idea, I almost want to go to Detroit or one of the other locations just to see one of these.

This is awesome...

Downloadable hi-res satellite images.

GeoEye

Trying out a new way to show work from flickr. If you want to post something and have a flickr let me know and ill add you do the flickr group. Anything from this group SHOULD go right into this slideshow....




Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

World's Longest Exposure?

This site claims that this is the world's longest exposure, I am not sure whether or not they are correct. Either way the image is beautiful. It is a 6 month exposure from solstice to solstice with a tiny pin-hole camera

Hubbard/Birchler

I remember seeing some of Hubbard/Birchler's images in textbooks, but I was unaware that the artists also create video. There are short clips from many of their videos available and they are amazing. Awesome lighting, reminiscent of Gregory Crewdson. I suggest viewing atleast "Eight", "Single Wide", and "House with Pool."

hubbardbirchler.net

Cellphone Photography

Here is a short article (with video!) talking about Shawn Rocco's cellphone photography.

I've also included a link to a Google Books preview of Susan Sontag's essay on Happenings.

Shawn Rocco

Susan Sontag

Color Pickr

So I ran into this site recently. I feel like this may be one of those things that I am the last to find, but I was impressed with it anyway. I guess when you put photos on to Flickr it somehow scans it for color and this thing lets you look up Flickr photos by color. Pretty cool idea, not really sure I understand how it works though.

Camera phones too voyeuristic?

Well, it seems a congressman from New York has recently introduced a bill that would make it mandatory for camera phones to make some sort of audible noise when taking a photograph. Apparently the growing number of voyeuristic photos is reason enough for Republican Peter King to try and gain support for his Camera Phone Predator Alert Act. Hmmmm.....I wonder if it would be like when you here the beeping of a large truck going in reverse...or maybe a loud siren blaring "I'm taking a photograph"

Her Morning Elegance

I just found this video. I dont know the artist (music artist or the creator of the video) but I was pretty impressed with the illusion, it is very convincing. Check it out.


Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance
by IgnitionVM

FOTOFEST 2010

Hello all! Mr. Kent and I were talking about FOTOFEST not too long ago...if by some chance any one is interested in trying to show their work during FOTOFEST 2010 then the deadline is Monday February 9, 2009. Check out the FOTOFEST website! This is basically a huge photographic event that takes place once every two years in Houston and there are hundreds of galleries that participate in showing photographs and videos. Like I said check out the site for details.

Website I Came Across

Here is a pretty interesting website I came across. It has some good photographic information and video interviews that would come in handy. www.americansuburbx.com

From the image I uploaded it may look kind of commercial but it really is geared more towards the arts.

JPG mag MAY not be dead

So I have heard from more than one person that JPG MAG was going to go under thanks to the money problems in the world today. BUT HOPE! It seems with the help of its community their may be a chance that it will stay. Some members started www.savejpg.com and other sites dedicated to help the photographic magazine through these hard times. It seems that they now have people showing interest in them once again.

I dont know how many of you read JPG but it seems like now would be the time to show them support if you have in the past. here is a link to their blog talking about how things are looking.

Hmmmm...What Is This I Hear?

Can it be? A rescue bid begins for Polaroid instant film! I'll believe it when it's official. Looks like an eccentric Austrian artist and businessman named Florian Kaps who has dedicated the past five years to instant photography and has set up the largest Polaroid gallery on the net and the first Polaroid-only gallery in Vienna (Polanoir) has taken it upon himself to fight for the future of instant film. Here is the exciting part. He is working with Ilford, and supposedly the machinery is in place to produce film of two exposure types, each compatible with both the classic SX-70 cameras and the 600 series.

Hazzah!!!!!

Another sign of the times....almost makes me sad...sniff, sniff.

For the first time a digital camera has been used to capture the official portrait of a United States president, according to the office of President-elect Barack Obama.

I wonder if this ends up marking the official death of film...or do we wait till Kodak and Ilford goes the way of Polaroid. :(

Here is a glimpse of the new digital polaroid camera

Ahhhhhhh! You know you want one.

Prints a 2"x3" image in about 40 seconds.
It is a 5 Megapixel camera.
And will cost about $199
30 pack of the special ZINK paper will be about $12.99

Will be available in March of 2009

Sounds awesome but I may hold out for the larger version......then again.