Artist control or lack thereof

How interesting or scary is it for an artist to not be able to completely control the outcome of their work; to not be able to walk into a gallery and know exactly what it will look like or function like. Ethan told us on Monday that his pieces don't really work without the aid of the sun and therefore he is completely at the mercy of nature and the elements for his work to exist. I contemplated that on Wednesday when the sky was overcast, thinking about what a great visual we saw as opposed to the poor people assigned to that day's field trip. Not being there on Wednesday I don't know for sure what they saw, but going by Jackson's commentary I would guess it was less optimal than our own experience.

That element to his work may in the end not be stress causing or scary, maybe it's actually freeing knowing that the artist isn't in control and therefore there is nothing he can do but wait for a better day. I like that, relax and allow nature to create the show. I have to make sure I do the legwork that creates the right environment for success and after that it's out of my hands. Something to consider in future projects...

ps. be sure to check out my beginners attempt at time lapse photography in my camera obscura posting.

Camera Obscura

Ethan Jackson's Camera Obscura exhibit at Kennilworth has been my favorite screening this semester. It was truly exciting to see the use of a thin piece of lens, garbage bags, painter's low tack tape, a moveable wall, and available sunlight come together to create such a wonderful masterpiece. He mentioned in his Monday lecture that this was a medium that encouraged group participation and involvement. Unlike many gallery works where you'd be lucky to get a group viewing a single piece all at the same time, this work definitely can draw the crowd and keep them engaged as the work changes constantly depending on the setting and weather.

It was particularly humorous when Carl and various students decided to become part of the work and "perform" on the sidewalk. I would love to see the time-lapse creation from that, UWM will be famous! :)

I really enjoy the way that photography and technology came together to create the time-lapse visual presentations as well. What a great way to market his obvious talents to both the photo and film communities. I love the fact that he can create such inspiring/intriguing work for so little money as well. Using a digital camera and some editing software he can set up his camera obscura sometimes for only as little as $100.00. I am always interested in beauty for cheap!

I recently challenged myself to get up early and shoot a sunrise at Lake Michigan. I ended up with about 200 photos, but I've only included 22 shots in this movie. I hope you enjoy my Quicktime version of time-lapse photography (in the spirit of the video presented by Jackson) even though not created with a camera obscura. One important element I gleaned (after I'd shot these photos) was that time lapse will do best if the camera is completely still and mechanically timed to trip the shutter in a regular interval. My action of pressing the shutter has caused the frames to not line up perfectly, but the spirit and intention is genuine.

Learning to Love You More

The Learning to Love You More site encourages people to get out and interact with the world and make connections with people. It challenges the shy to be bold and the lazy to be more inquisitive. Family relationships and communication skills can be worked on, society and culture rediscovered...but we have to be the ones to make the effort and the website gives us the place to share our discoveries with others. Classrooms in schools are doing the posted assignments and group posting their results to the point where the poor one person tech dept at the site had to kindly ask them to refrain and publish their results in a different manner. What a great problem to have, too many people exploring, discovering and wanting to engage and share their experiences with others. Connections are becoming seemingly easier with today's plethora of technology, but because it is so much more available I find myself communicating less and less due to sensory overload and a desire to withdraw and retreat. Sites like this one encourage me to reconnect in a fun way and share something from myself with others.

I was introduced to this site last semester in Media Archeology and found the assignments intriguing, but never actually did any of them. Today I have decided to actually do one of the assignments and post the result here.

Assignment #11: Photograph a scar and write about it.

I have a few interesting scars, but this one on my left arm is the most noticeable and noteworthy. As a child I had a raised mole on my arm that my parents thought was ugly. They always felt that I was ugly in general and so anything they could do to "help" my appearance they did. This beautiful small perfect mole plagued them to the point of bringing me in for removal surgery. It would have been better to leave well enough alone, because the doctor didn't fully get the entire mole under the surface and it grew back 1000 times uglier than it ever was originally. About 2 years later I was back to the doctor, but this time for more invasive surgery to make sure they got it all. I felt like I was having a tumor removed (interestingly enough I had my eigth grade innoculations and my ears pierced besides this surgery all on the same day--talk about glutton for punishment) it hurt so bad. After the doctor was convinced she got it all she had to suture my arm with three layers of stitches because of its location and how deep she had to cut into my arm. She promised me that it would heal nicely, but instead I gained what I can only refer to as my "cat's eye" scar. It is shaped just like a large cat's eye and even has a stretched out freckle in it to add to the eyeball effect. The moral of this story is leave well enough alone and stop being so concerned about appearances to the point of making matters worse than they were to begin with.

I leave you with these two images to bring home my point.

A normal looking young man

What is it?