Ok, I know. Lot’s of zombie pics on this site. This batch, however, while they are from the same raid I posed about last time, are actually examples of what I really wanted to accomplish visually. One of the ideas had been to take a retro/70’s documentary style film strip of the event and have the film developed as if the shots were taken from a tourist camera while said tourist was running for her life. I used a half-frame 35mm camera and some slide film.  I then projected the developed slide film through one of my old-school film-strip projectors and took digital photos of the projected results. The results are awesome and I feel like they really tell a story. Enjoy:

(Shots at bottom of post)

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.

You can find out more about the project described in this post by going here:

http://jackwhitsitt.com/installation-and-concept-art/#num1

Repost from artdc.org:

I finished yesterday. For once – despite last minute technicaal glitches – I wasn’t there until the last minute of the last day. Just the last day.

The space is clean, cables hung (although, its still pretty ugly…maybe ill cover it with a box friday at noon), the laptop is DUCT TAPED to the projector for lack of a better solution (it is in the cage bag, so if it comes undone, it wont break), and the projection is mostly in-line with the drawings and frames.

I’m still not sure if it will (and this is important) a) turn on when the show starts or (less important) b) play music. I made a last minute decision to use internet radio instead of mp3’s to avoid broadcast rights issues, but there are some technical hangups with that that I wont get into.

This also means I’m typing this from a $300  tiny Eee PC laptop which will be my only personal home computer until AOM is done.

I do count myself lucky, though. Poor idiolect (rebound design’s bf) lost his HD -the last day of install-. It crashed. He weathered through it gracefully and put an “out of order” sign up. Hopefully the AOM gods will let him come in to fix it off-hours – he did everything right and it’s just pure bad luck that the drive crashed.

It’s been lovely getting to know my fellow AOM-ers (mostly, heh) and I regret being so focused on getting my own shit working that I havent been as chatty or social as Id have liked. Trust me, it’s me not you. I think many people have stepped up this year and I really enjoyed walking around and looking at the art yesterday.

I can’t wait for opening night, meet the artists night, and zombie prom and being more focused on having fun and lss narrow mindedly self-centered about gottagetthisdonegottasgetthisdonegottagetthisdone.

I also adore how my wife’s wall came out. I know Im her husband and all, but Im truly a fan of the pictures  she put up from Vietnam and Cambodia. She is two core walls over from my space, so please check her stuff out.
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Finally, this year I’ve felt like Ive really been able to come into this and use past artomatic and art outlet experience, take a broad vision, execute it, deal with and change my plan as it starts to flesh out into reality, and still come out of it with a piece that im happy with, still has roots in the original vision, and remains a satisfactory  progression of the rest of my art this past year.

I want to make special thanks to: Lexi, Sherill, Sean, Stephanie, Paivi, Barry, Caitlin, Justin, and Tom – all of whom made specific, repeated, concrete contributions to my art, my sanity, and my ability to get it done this year.

(edit: added lexi…she’s been super helpful. i knew i forgot someone important.)

Pics:

It’s been a long week for me (ive actually had to wake up before noon to go to a risk management class…5 hrs is the most sleep ive gotten since last week) and I dont think I’ve been at AOM once.  But! I’ve completed a couple of important steps and now have a concrete plan: I’m going to create a piece that combines my programming, video, theatrical, photographic, and drawing proclivities into a single piece. Alllll of it at once. There will probably even be curtains again for the third year in a row (although this year they serve a specific, utilitarian purpose…see below). Hopefully the overall effect of so much at once will be (as sagworks said elsewhere) mesmerizing (or did she say hypnotic? something like that).

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.

Paivi and I have a number of pictures up at DC9 from November 15 – November 22 as part of PixTour, which is part of Fotoweek. I wasn’t sure what or how many pictures to put up, but when I was talking to the Bill (the owner/manager?) I noticed that the 7 big mirrors provided the only really clear space, so I put 2-3 up per mirror. There are 3 “sets” of mine up – “Picture of a Picture” (suggested by Heather), “Doll Angst” (a set of suicidal blondes), and “Misc” (just a few that seemed to fit together) in the back.

These were my final selections:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sintixerr/sets/72157608876695189/

Paivi put up some of her BritishInk pics from Artomatic (hers was more last minute than mine since her original venue, Bar Pilar, fell through. Too bad!)

ABOUT:
—
PixTour: a project of FotoWeek DC 2008
Travel the city to check out PIX TOUR.

PixTour, a project of FotoWeek DC 2008, is showing the work of
area photographers at 40 bars, clubs, restaurants, theaters, and
shops around DC. Artist and Place meet and invite you.

PixTour brings art to the people who are out and about.
Take a walk, have a drink and a meal, and see the art of photography in Dupont, Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, 14th Street, Anacostia and More. PixTour is an informal showing of photography on local walls and windows.

Curators: Molly Ruppert, Heather Goss, Beth Baldwin

PixTour was created as a project for Fotoweek DC 2008 by Molly Ruppert molly@warehousetheater.com and Warehouse.

VENUES:
—

DC9                                            1940 9th St NW
Nellie’s Sports Bar                  900 U St NW
Vegetate                                    1414 9th St NW
Velvet Lounge                           915 U St NW
Dos Gringos                            3116 Mt Pleasant St NW
Gala Theatre                            3333 14th St NW
Red Rocks Pizza                     1036 Park Rd NW
Room 11                                   3234 11th St NW
Sticky Fingers Bakery             1370 Park Rd NW
Wonderland                             1101 Kenyon St NW
Asylum                                       2471 18th St NW
Bedrock Billiards                     1841 Columbia Rd NW
Bossa Bistro Lounge              2463 18th St NW
Chief Ike’s Mambo Room      1725 Columbia Rd NW
Idle Times Book Store            2467 18th St NW
Tryst                                           2459 18th St NW
Caramel                                    1603 U St NW
Lee’s Flowers and Cards      1026 U St NW
Mocha Hut                                 1301 U St NW
Polly’s Cafe                               1342 U St NW
Solly’s u street tavern              1942 11th St NW
Vinoteca                                    1940 11th St NW
Cafe Tropé                                2100 P St NW
DC Café                                     2035 P St NW
Soho Tea and Coffee              2150 P St NW
Stars Bistro                               2120 P St NW
Tangysweet Yougurt  Bar      2029 P St NW
Garden District                         1801 14th St NW
Playbill Café                             1409 14th St NW
Timothy Paul Bedding            1529A 14th St NW
Universal Gear                        1529B  14th St NW
ARCH Training Center            1231 & 1227 Good Hope Rd SE
Baked and Wired                     1052 Thomas Jefferson St NW
Big Bear Café                           1700 First St NW
Mocha Ground                          4706 14th St NW
Warehouse                               1021 7th Street NW

ARTISTS
—

Giamoco Abrusci
Ken Ashton
James Calder
Daniel Cima
Jason Colston
Brett Davis
Thomas Drymon
Elsie Dwyer
Josh Gibson
Steve Goldenberg
Jason Gottlieb
Kyle Gustafson
Justin Harris
Linda Hesh
Justin Hoffmann
Seth  Kaplan
Angela Kayklers
Angela Kleis
Brian Knights
Marie Kwak
Bridget Sue Lambert
Pamela Leahigh
Jeffrey Lear
Martin Locraft
Dale Lowery
Cesar Lujan
Pat Padua
Linda Plaisted
Mark Planisek
Michael Platt
Drew Porterfield
Katy Ray
Bruce Robey
Lisa Rosenstein
Julie Seiwell
Kerri Sheehan
Myrna Smernoff
Matthew Smith
Parikha Solanki Mehta
Paivi Solonan
Michael Starghill
Linda Strating
Sanjay Suchak
Ira Tattelman
Raul Valda
John Thurman
Jack Whitsitt
Pete Van Vleet
Amber Wiley
Ken Wyner

Erf. I just got done saying I wasn’t going to do one of these (Artomatic Experience Posts), but I just saw the base image assembled as a whole for the first time and was excited enough that I wanted to post pics of the image at least. Just getting that out of the way first – this is a blatant excuse to post pics..(yet somehow this is long-winded…I have nights like this).

Artomatic Piece

Originally uploaded by sintixerr

So -

As mentioned earlier, when I first really started thinking about AOM this year, I thought I was going to be in Arkansas for the majority of the show and wanted to put together something “simple” (yeah, right, me? simple?). I was so strapped for time, in fact, that Angela and Paivi had to grab me some space for the second year in a row while I was out of town. ( My space is on the 8th floor at SE D6 btw.)

Ok. Great. Have space. Project? Art? No so much.  Ultimately I decided to do a huge (6′x6′) self portrait installation (covered in earlier blog posts – http://sintixerr.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/python-photography-digital-art-artomatic/ )

So, uhm, how do you print a photo that’s 6′x6′??? I ended up deciding to print the picture in 9 sections, 24″x24″ each. I originally wanted to do an 8′x8′ image, but at 24×24″ sections I could go one price category lower at Chrome than 32″x32″. Still, lots of cash. Hrm. Where else will print this? For a much more reasonable sum?

It turns out that -Ritz Camera- of all places will print really large images for less than half the price of Chrome. Supposedly archival. I test printed one 24×24″ section and it came out perfect. Sweet. I had a printing solution.

For framing I went with Angela’s suggestion of American Framing and picked the smallest frame borders I could – with no matting. The ultimate effect would hopefully look like the face was peering in through…something (window-esque?). That was an easy process and everything showed up toot-sweet.

I went with overnightprints.com for the business cards. They did a good job but, in hindsight, I didnt. I think my cards are a little bit juvenile and cheesy, but, we all make mistakes sometimes I mean, who puts “Artist” on their cards? I guess I do. Meh.

While I was still playing with my final image, I met Angela and Paivi at our spaces last Sunday to help them paint, do lights, and take a look at my space.

I got there first and spent an hour or so mocking up what I wanted things to look like with rope and gorilla tape (it made sense then). The final result was looking pretty good and I was feeling very satisfied. Until Ang and Paivi showed up.

“Thats not your space, Jack”

“Whu?”

“Thats. Not. Your. Space. Its the one next to it.”

–Insert vulgar words here–

Luckily I hadn’t done anything permanent and I sheepishly took down all my stuff. At any rate, I knew what it was going to look like and everything was good.

Angela and Paivi that day managed to paint their space, buy lights, put up lights. I managed to…put down duct tape and put up one wall of the shadowbox (seen in pics later). Really, I hate this part. Im slow as HELL at painting walls and usually a mess. People always regret asking me to help them paint their house/interior. I suck at it.

I came in the next Thursday after work by myself to try my luck alone and got a lot further. I managed to put up the second shadowbox wall, put down a layer of paint, and not end up with blood or paint all over my clothes. It was a good day in that regard. Still, I had forgotten paint rollers and had to use a brush. Those partitions, even with primer, suck. up. the paint. I was despairing a little bit about how things were looking, but put that aside knowing how much was left to do.

So far, I’d run into a couple of people here and there that I knew, but the AOM space is -so- large this year that unless youre actively wandering around looking for people or just outright lucky, it’s entirely possible to work with a dozen people you know there at the same time and miss them completely. (Except for Melissa, whom I run into every single time Im in the elevator.)

This past Saturday night I had my first volunteer shift with Angela and Paivi, so I came in ahead of time to get some work done. I met my “partition-mate”, who’s name I can’t recall at the moment, but who’s work I had been familiar with and am really psyched to be next to. If I had space in my apartment, Id buy some of it honestly. More painting ensued and things were good.

Queue the volunteer shift.

I have a gripe here. We were given a 3 minute introduction to our responsibilities by the GM on duty. The instructions did not mention two big things that we were asked about -all- night:

1. Lights. Anything about them. Where to get them? What to do if any were broken? Etc. I know this was a GM responsibility, but by Saturday you’d have figured that there were enough questions being asked that the volunteers should be given some sort of heads-up.

2. Brightest Young Things:

Anyone who was at AOM that night figured out very quickly that there was some shindig on the first floor. The only instructions of info we were given by anyone about the first floor party was “oh yeah, tell people bathrooms are on the 10th and 12th floors if they start bitching about the first floor bathrooms”.

What about the first floor bathrooms? Huh? And who’s making all that racket next door? Apparently Philipa Hughs’ Pinkline and Artomatic collaborated to help throw a relaunch party for a website called BrightestYoungThings.com ( http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/events/byt-relaunch-party-1200-1st-street-ne/ )

So, in addition to AOM people, there were tons of the trendiest, coolest, hippest, artsiest, brightest young things wandering in and out of the front door. Nothing against them (and it was cool something else was going on there), but it was really a pain in the ass to do “lobby” duty while there were bands playing, a plastic fence between us and them, etc.

I was asked to “keep people from there going up to AOM”…but really…how was anyone supposed to tell the difference? There were also a lot of people bringing in artist materials through the lobby that I didnt catch because I couldn’t always pick them out from the crowd milling about in the lobby.

This all would’ve been cool if we had been given heads-up….but we weren’t. We were left to piece it together ourselves…

I also wish I’d NOT worn the -skankiest- shirt I own to paint in. Felt like I was bringin the place down just sitting next to the party Wink

The monotony was broken up a bit by a trip to Sketchies (aka Wendy’s) to bring us back some much-needed diet cokes (Angela and Paivi were covering Loading Dock duty that night) and also by Jim, who gestured for another volunteer and myself (I think he meant me too) to come out front where he proudly showed us the new lighting for the Artomatic signage in the windows. The “ART” in “ARTOMATIC” was glowing red! Cool!

By the end of the shift, we were all -done-. Id gone running that morning for the first time since the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and between that, working on the space, and the volunteer shift, I was no longer human. Paivi wanted to take some pics of the graffiti kids up on our floor (Cool doing their thing (didnt work out), but we did run into Halo and Arty4ever putting down some finishing touches on Michael’s space (which looks great!).

I also met a couple of cool volunteers, but unfortunately was too brain-fried to ask for the business card of one of them and now forget her name. Ill need to check the volunteer list later if I can…

That brings me to today. Lights are up, painting is finished, etc. I just need to get some fabric to frame the shadowbox, hang the piece, and add some other artistic touches to the installation (and it will be an installation) that I dont want to describe here. I managed to frame all 9 sections (woohoo – Im really slow at that, so Im proud of myself here) today as well!

Ok, whew. Finally, this behemoth of a post is at it’s end.

(As a side note, the lighting in the first pic is provided by a couple of White Lighting 10,000 strobe, which we’ve now started using as generic apartment lamps lately. Heh.)