The portrait is of Amanda Fucking Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) and the photo I used was one I took of her in Los Angeles at a secret show she had for 30-50 twitter followers the day before Coachella this year.  She twitters links to “art of the day”about her or the Dolls every day and I was hoping she’s tweet this one out – which she did! (stoked!).

The photo was projected on paper hanging on the wall. I used a variety of pastels, paints, markers, and some charcoal in the drawing.  I like how her hair glints from the gold metal paint, and I used some white paint to cover up more serious “oopses”.  I’m not entirely happy with it – it feels a bit forced to me – but it’s a good start. I’ll definitely be doing more.

For the raid, my goal was actually to create an 80′s style fim strip of the raid (to be projected)using a cheap half frame 35mm camera.  I did get some great shots, but I had the camera 90 degrees the wrong way the whole time (horizontally positioning the camera resulted in….vertically framed shots. ugh).

I’ll try and figure out a fix for that later, but for now I wanted to post some of my digital shots from the raid. I think they’d some of the best shits I’ve gotten in awhile. In keeping with the theme, though, I did break one of my rules and really played with the colorization of the shots to make them feel more apocalypse-movie than they did by themselves. Let me know how you like the results?

Last I left this blog, I had plans to head out to Eastern State Penitentiary to do a model shoot with my wife and a group of DC Strobist photogs. We did end up going and the results were fabulous.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with ESP, it:

is considered one of America’s most historic former prisons…Its revolutionary system of incarceration was the first to establish the policy of solitary confinement, emphasizing principles of reform rather than punishment. Notorious criminals such as bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone were held inside its unique wagon wheel design. When the building was erected it was the largest and most expensive public structure ever constructed, quickly becoming a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide.

When we went, we were escorted into areas of the peniteniary normally closed to the public. It was dark, dank, and – more than anything else – dusty. There is still moldy, rotted toilet paper in some of the cells left over from when the facility was closed down in 1971.  Walls were collapsing, old equipment rusted through, and you could fell the mold clawing at you.  Usually, this is the kind of thing you only see on movie sets.  I’ve been walking through thousand-year-old temples in Cambodia, but despite how “recent” its history is, all of the human detrius laying around still helped ESP give off much more of a creepy, immediately visceral vibe than the temples.

Regarding the shoot itself, I still felt a little out of place around the Strobist crew because I don’t use off-camera lighting. I still feel like I’d like to concentrate on working the camera until I know it was well as I breathe. Then, I’ll work on using lights to enhance the shots and increase the number of options I have. If I do it before Im totally comfortable with the camera, I think I’ll use the lighting as a crutch and that, psychologically, they’ll limit my creativity.

Working the shots was also interesting. The models themselves wonderful and many of them were willing to sacrifice both comfort and clean clothes to help get the shot. On the other hand, I really don’t feel like – in these group situations – I get to develop the kind of photographer:model relationship that I think would lead to some good shots.  In my installation art, I always need to get a feel for the relationship between the space, the viewer, and myself before I really make good art.  In model photography, I feel like I’d like to work the models into the space and into the kind of shots I want. Instead, we get a few minutes at a time and pass them off to someone else (or there are many people directing at once).

Still, I managed to get some images that I’m very, very happy with. In particular, Lacy (one of the models) put on a nightgown and went stumbling down one of the darker, wetter hallways in the penitentiary looking quite zombie-like.  You can find the whole set below.

Enjoy.

•  
  • Lacey – http://www.modelmayhem.com/739297
  • Ashley – http://www.flickr.com/photos/millios/2902645264/in/set-72157607611515413/
  • Maureen – http://www.flickr.com/photos/maureenhaley/
  • Danielle – http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharid/3201602587/

Of course, I’m not one of te Strobist people and don’t typically use flash or my own lights, so I’m a bit of an odd man out. Still, I can’t wait to get there and do some shooting.  Maybe I’ll even find some time to plan what kind of shots I’ll want…

Look for images to be posted next week.

Summary:

I’m going to be creating a homemade projection screen out of black out cloth and something called “Screen Goo”. Screen Goo is supposed to be much better than regular paint for projecting things onto and, considering there is a lot of ambient light during the day, I need the best available.  The screen will be roughly 50 sq feet and will -probably- be framed by molding purchased from Home Depot. On either side and above the screen/frame will be black drapery. This is to darken the area around the screen and focus the eye. I could paint, but I really dont want to (I may have to paint beneath it, though).

Onto the screen will be three framed charcoal drawings (possibly with glass).  Those drawings will have been done from photos I’ve taken (right now I think it’ll be three girls from the Landon House Civil War shoot)….and will be slightly different moods than the original photos….but still proportionally accurate in key areas.

The original photos will be projected onto the framed drawings to make it look like they’re glowing, and to provide a conflicting perception of what mood the girls in the pictures are actually in.  Behind the framed drawings, a moving vividly colors abstract projection will provide the background.  The content of the abstraction will be generated by (via Quartz Composer) a webcam pointed at the audience looking at the piece.  The movement, size, speed, and color of the abstraction will be generated in real time based on whatever music is playing on my laptop at the time (youll be able to hear it).

The reason for the Civil war era-looking dress, b&w vs color, and calm expressions in the pictures Im choosing is that they’re intended to contrast so sharply with the ludicrously noisy background that they’ll somehow form a complement.

The neat thing will be that the framed pictures will look like theyre actually in front of the projection, when they’re not really. They effect is striking when done right.

(For those of you keeping score, this is a combination of plans B and C with some extra decisions on how to handle the area not being projected on)

Where am I in this?

1. I finished the moving (some would say seizure-inducing) abstract webcam/audio visualizer background last night. Some of you have seen this projected, but I wasn’t happy with the effect or it’s ability to keep time with the music.  I’ve since dramatically improved the look, feel, and performance of this and I’m happier with it than Ive been in weeks. The two biggest changes were to swap a rotating cube with 2 2D squares which move around the screen, big bigger and smaller, and rotate on the Z axis. This resulted in significant performance and aesthetic improvements
2. I ordered the Screen Goo. I just got a UPS notification that it was on its way 5 minutes ago. When that arrives, I’ll go to Walmart and pick up a huge blackout drape.  I’ll probably paint the drape with the goo (on the rubbery side) in the street near Artomatic after I move this weekend.
3. I’ve also settled on three black and white photos that I’m going use as the framed  focal points / anchors.  I chose the B&W to contrast with the crazy colors in the projection.  Once I move this weekend, I’ll make the drawings of them in the new apartment. Ill use projections of the photos as the stencils for them since they need to be pretty much 100% proportionally accurate.  Each will take about 3 hours to do.
4. I probably still have the same black drapes I used last year (and I actually still have 1 from 2007), but Ill need to check that next week. I also need to go buy the frames and the molding.  If I have to paint under the projection screen, ill probably use someones leftover paint since it’s not a huge area.
5. I still have to set up and test the “recover nicely from the power being cycled every night”
6. Put the projector on its mount, lock it in place, and get measurements.  If I do the drawings after this, Ill do them AT Artomatic…might be interesting.

So….pineapple.

All in all, Im pretty happy with where I am, but there’s still a lot to do.

(Framing them into orderly minions, as Paivi might call them)

The suit is a little bit wrinkled, but not so much as to raise eyebrows or receive note.
Other voices behind, beside me. No quieter than usual, but subdued into a
creamy bokeh.
Stacey in the distance, around the corner, cheer bounces off the walls in a
zig zag
before reaching our cube here and settling in to
talk.
Sleep is either creeping up to or slinking away from me, but I can’t tell over the loud protests of my insides which are, like cats,
yowling to be fed.
Did I not eat yesterday? Grazing, more like.
(A tense switch, here, reduces lyrical tension.)
Over just beyond me, on a patient screen, Word waits with an underscored cursor and type too small to read -
Savage remains and disembodied remnants of a thought process gone by.

Edit: Ok, it was a really weird day/morning. Sue me Just wanted to concentrate for a few minutes on what was going on around me, because that gets lost sometimes.

“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record: prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own, for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that such things cannot be confined… to The Twilight Zone.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monsters_Are_Due_on_Maple_Street

Often, I’ve wondered if my skittishness with regard to staying with specific projects implies of level of dilettantism that I’d rather not have to attribute to myself. I mean, between pastel and other 2D drawing media, Second Life, art installations, and – now – photography, I seem to be just cycling through whatever catches my interest.But then, I read my own artist’s statement and remember why I wrote it.

I’m not interested in “working in pastel”. Nor does the live digital art playground hold my particular interest for its own sake.

Rather, as my artist statement indicates, Im interested in the fabric of life itself and the myriad of ways it can both manifest itself and be explored. And by “fabric of life”, I mean specifically “people”: Who they are, what the word “self” means in an age where day to day reality itself has become functionally abstract, and the difference between automation and soul in terms of what it means to be alive.

Lest my unusually flowery and overly descriptive language put you off, you should be aware of two things. First, I’m sitting in Reagan National airport for the next two hours and really have nothing better to do. Secondly, and probably more pertinently, this entry had a distinct, concrete moment of birth in my head.

Last week (let’s call it Tuesday for the sake of detail), I was looking at my recent flood of photographs and noticed that the ones I – and others on flickr – seemed to consider the most interesting and mature were of people. Portraits, specifically, were what comes to mind when looking at them.

Funny – I hadn’t consciously intended to do that. I don’t look around and try to grab “people”; I photograph whatever seems to be an interesting or off perspective of wherever I am at the time. And I do get the rest of the world – objects, landscapes, flora, fauna, etc. But (at least to me) they lack that special something that makes them live. I try and look for the times when the body, environment, and mind are in sync – the moments when the soul is looking out of the eyes instead of inside. For most people, those moments are only brief and I like to capture them when I think I see them.

More interesting, still, is that that is (as Ive said elsewhere) where my 2D drawing focus is most of the time. It’s what Im drawn to. Ive even tried to trick myself out of drawing people – and it doesn’t work. The other material is passable, but only just so
Well, you might ask (if youve made it this far) – what about Second Life? That’s about as soulless as you can get! Maybe so, but virtual words force us to take apart and examine, piece by piece, what “existing” as a human consists of and means. We’ve always assumed, in a secular sense, that location and presence and appearance are all properties of existence. We cant be “here” unless “here” is “somewhere”. So what of ourselves when we’re not “here”, but somewhere without physical properties? With the phone, the web, and even online text chat we’ve managed to avoid that question by virtue of not having a replacement “there” from which to reference ourselves. In those cases, we’re very much on either side of the line.

On the other hand, in virtual worlds, we’re dead smack in the middle and it fascinates me. What I think it will force us to do is to rethink some of the core concepts which have ruled our philosophies and ways of life since time began. I don’t think of this in terms of high level abstractions, but core one – almost at the meta linguistic level of human thought. We, as a species, may begin to think (at a root level) in terms more formally (from an engineering perspective) in harmony with the reality of the world around us and not be limited to those abstractions we’ve evolved by way of input from our 5 senses.

In all cases, though, it’s about people, life, and their contribution to “real” – regardless of medium

Meep.