A photograph of a staircase against a red dumpster, which I took on a recent trip to Montreal, was selected for the Utata home page as the image of the day. This was a treat in itself but what is even nicer is that Greg Fallis has written a thoughtful piece of prose to go along with the image that reflects upon the human desire to decorate.
From the instant I saw the picture of the furry blond lobster, the Kiwa hisuta, I was mesmerized. Apparently I wasn’t the only one as Mark Murford has written a wonderfully insightful article about the recently discovered crustacean and it’s power to invoke wonder in us. After reflecting on the feelings invoked by this fury little marvel, he states:
Kiwa hirsuta is, in short, a reminder. Of how little we know. Of how much we have forgotten. Of the wonders that exist everywhere, from oak leaf to vestigial tailbone. Of how we have to remember to look around, to cultivate the skill, the ability to see, lest we slowly go blind. Some say we have lost our power to be awed. We are too jaded, too saturated with media images and the relentless barrage of unspeakable war horrors, too soaked in the info overload of the Internet to be able to process and filter and pick out the gems and stand back and say, Oh my God, would you look at that, and what might that mean, and isn’t that just the most amazing thing and doesn’t it put everything in a fresh perspective, just for a minute?”
The Kiwa hisuta is a wonderful example of something different inspiring a new way of seeing and as Murford suggests, the ordinary, like an oak leaf, can equally invoke awe and provide a fresh new perspective. As a photographer, I enjoy capturing both the mundane and the extraordinary and both serve to remind us of the importance of keeping our minds and eyes open to discover new ways of seeing.
Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else’s vision.
Penn Jillette, Interview in WIRED magazine
Growing up I was a huge fan of both Choose Your Own Adventure books and more traditional linear novels. I certainly liked the idea of being able to choose my own path in the story, however, I never seemed to choose correctly and always ended up making choices that lead to an unfortunate and premature end. On the other hand, with the more traditional novels I was never left disappointed at how things ended. Whether I finished the last page with a feeling of sadness or joy I cannot recall a single time where I wished it had ended differently, even in the most tragic circumstances. The linear novel may have restricted my involvement in plot development, however, I think that it was precisely because my involvement was limited (i.e. that I sat back and plugged in to some else’s vision) that I was more satisfied and enriched by the experience.
Matters of choice have been on my mind as of late (mostly due to the fact that I am reading The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz) and issues of technology almost always are. I’ve pretty much taken it as a given that more user choice, more interactivity, is the golden standard that is being aimed for as technology develops and evolves. However, I can’t help but wonder if there are certain situations, in entertainment, education and user interface (three areas where interactivity and user choice are touted as ideal) where choice should be restricted and the flow of the narration or the experience should be left to those who are skilled enough to make those choices in the first place.
Would I have felt differently if I had made more successful choices while reading the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a child, or is there something to be said for sitting back and plugging in and letting a experienced storyteller choose the adventure for you?
I had hoped to do a proper write up of this year?��Ǩ�Ѣs FITC, however, now that several weeks have passed and my mind has settled slightly, I thought I would share this list of key lessons learnt instead.
Event pics can be found here.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the historical and charming Quebec City with a friend. On a sunny yet extremely cold Sunday morning, we roamed the streets snapping pictures detailing the old architecture and quaint narrow streetscapes of Old Quebec. We stopped to warm up in a cafe and took turns looking at the pictures I’d taken on my cameras tiny LCD and my friend was surprised at how many pictures I had taken and the varying quality of each. Although he was pretty familiar my Flickr photostream, I realized that viewing these pictures freshly taken on the LCD was quite a different experience for him. Not only were there more pictures, many of them variations on the same theme, but some of them were a bit off - perhaps slightly slanted or in need of a tighter crop. I don’t do a lot of Photoshopping, but I do like to clean the pictures up a bit. My Photoshop philosophy is very similar to my make up philosophy - I’ll darken my eyelashes with a bit of mascara smooth out my complexion a bit of concealer but I don ‘t try to hide the fact that I have freckles or try to convince anyone that my lips are red instead of pink.
All of this got me thinking about the process of taking and sharing pictures. Clearly, the advent of digital photography has changed the way pictures are taken - I can assure you that I wouldn’t have taken 400+ photographs over three days if I was shooting film. I have more pictures of my weekend in Quebec City than I do of film photographs of my trips to Guatemala and Greece combined. Looking back to 2003 when I first started taking digital pictures while traveling Southeast Asia, I took a mere 344 pictures after spending a week at the highly photogenic Angkor Wat. Not only am I now taking more pictures, but I’m also sharing a lot more of them, thanks to great tools like Flickr. As I was browsing my archives, I couldn’t help but wonder what the relationship between pictures taken and pictures posted is and if this relationship changes over time. On the one hand, I like to think that the ratio decreases over time as presumably I’ll be taking better pictures. On the other hand, the more time I spend taking pictures, the more I want to take and the more I want to experiment. I decided to graph the ratio between pictures taken vs. pictures posted over the past six months to see if there were any patterns and came up with the following graph:
From the variation of the graph it looks as though some photo shoots turn out better than others. I also haven’t taken into account that some of those collections include photos for other projects not meant for my Flickr stream. On average though, I upload 19% of the pictures I take from a particular outing which pretty much matches the number that I had in mind before charting the data. I think that this number says a lot about my own creative process. Whether it is photographing or writing, I tent to start out with a sort of “stream of consciousness” approach to get it all out, then edit and revise numerous rough drafts until I feel that I’m happy with the outcome. I’d be interested to hear what other people’s number are - how does selecting and editing impact your own creative process, whether it is writing, painting, photography or any other creative pursuit?
I just completed my PersonalDNA - a fun, free and eerily accurate personality test. According to the DNA test results, I’m a considerate creator which is explained a bit more in the personalDNA map below. The map can be read by moving your mouse over any part of the box or strip to learn more about the traits that the colors represent. For those who prefer words, the full report can be found here.
Not only can you share you tests with others but you can also invite them to assess your personality. Click here if you’d like to asses me - I’m curious to see different assessments and if they match up at all. I must admit, all of the traits seem rather positive so it’s hard to go wrong however you answer. There is no obligation from either myself or the system to share the test once completed, and I’d be happy to return the favour. I?��Ǩ�Ѣd also like to see how other people did on the test, so feel free to post links your own assessments in the comments section.
In addition to being a pretty darn accurate personality test and a fun way to get to know others, the test itself has a pretty cool interface. Instead of using your standard checkboxes and radio buttons, the interface was designed with sliding scales and animations. Having a range of values makes the questions a lot easier to answer as you aren’t stuck in the “yes/no” or “yes/maybe/no” trap. My favourite was the glass animation where you had to “pour” your answers into a glass. I don’t know if these features make the results more accurate, but they sure do make writing the test all the more fun.
Update: I had a few friends asses me and it turns out that in addition to being a Considerate Creator, I’m a Dynamic Inventor, Animated Creator, and a Benevolent Creator x 2. Thanks to everyone who helped out - it 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.