On Friday February 24, 2006, Hamilton Artists Inc. presented Interactive Interactive an interactive multimedia show of McMaster and Sheridan multimedia student works. I was an entrant back in 2004 and was honoured to be a judge this time around. The student works were excellent and playing around with them on the Smart Boards was a lot of fun.
I happy to announce that just officially signed up for FITC 2006, Canada’s first and foremost Design and Technology Festival. This will be my third year in attendance and I’m very excited about this years line up. A few of the Speakers/Sessions I’ve been eyeing include:
I’m sure the list will grow with time, but for now I see plenty to keep both my left and right brain happy.
The other day I was designing a web site for a cardiovascular research group and I needed a simple graphic image for the site that would take up a good chunk of horizontal space without being two distracting. I choose to use this image of an EKG - a graph of the electrical voltage in the heart - for it’s graphical nature as well as the fact that it is a symbol that most people have come to associate with the heart.
I showed the design to the client yesterday, and needless to say I was shocked to find that that the EKG I had selected was that of a person on the verge of death. Oops! Turns out that that numerous peaks represent someone who is suffering severe cardiac arrest that would most likely kill them and apparently a normal EKG has far less of those. Luckily the client saw the humor in the situation and has since provided me with a healthy EKG so that visitors won’t be greeted by a graph of someone having a heart attack on their next visit the site.
Last night I had the opportunity to attend A Million Steps: Stories, Images and Music from the Camino Santiago, a photo exhibit of Peter Coffan’s two month pilgrimage from France to Spain along El Camino Santiago. Not only were his images beautiful but the stories and the sounds that accompanied them were fascinating thanks to the wonderful talents of his violin-playing companion Oliver Schroer. The presentation stirred something in me, an often forgotten yet ever-present urge to go on a pilgrimage of my own. The appeal of a pilgrimage isn’t so much about religion as it is the participation of a sacred ritual. It’s about the journey - the walking, the gradual progression - as well as the sites and sounds along the way. I’ve always been fascinated with sacred sites, from the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal to the temples of Angkor Wat. It’s been almost three years since my last visit to a scared sight and viewing this presentation made me realize that it is about time to go again.
After the presentation I found myself inspired and online searching for my next adventure. I came across the excellent Sacred Destinations Travel Guide and immediately came across the trip I always knew was going to be next - Peru. Given it’s rich ancient history and the fact that it is home to Machu Picchu (a place that I’ve wanted to visit ever since I first saw a picture of this magical city in the mountains) it became clear that the 4 day ascent to Machu Picchu was exactly the pilgrimage I was looking for.
A few months ago I blogged about a remixed trailer for The Shinning and how easily our perceptions can be altered by a voiceover, a bit of music and some selective editing. Around the same time I also blogged about how an innocent hug between mother and son could be transformed into an erotic embrace by simply changing the speed and frequency of frames in the Alone. Life Waste Andy Hardy film piece. So naturally I was pleased when I came across the following two trailer mashups for Brokeback Mountain - Brokeback to the Future and Top Gun Brokeback Squadron. Not only are they hiliarous but they also touch on the deeper issues of how editing effects (and potentionally distorts) our percpetions.
There have been several times after sitting through a long session at the computer that I’ve re-entered the real world and found myself wishing I could hit CTRL-Z to undo something. This often happens after an intense Photoshop session as image manipulation is an activity requires constant revisions, a series of undos and redos until you get it just right. Apparently I’m not alone in this as other Photoshop users as well as gamers have reported experiencing a similar phenomenon. This transference of computer commands into real world activities has always puzzled me, so I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this commercial.
As someone who can often be found snapping pictures in public I was deeply disturbed to find out that photographers in Australia were met with police resistance while taking photographs of a gas storage cylinder of a Shell oil refinery. I could see the need for police involvement if the photographers had illegally trespassed on Shell property to take the photographs. However, I fail to see the harm or threat in photographing that which is in plain view. If I can stand on the street corner and see it why can’t I photograph it? The photographers and the club that they belong to have chosen to ignore the directive issued by the police and I applaud them for their resistance. Taking pictures of private property is one thing but when so-called private property is part of the public landscape photographers should be able to photograph it without fear of police persecution.