after working on the collages and wrapping up stage one of this project, it seems like a virtual collection , similiar to the way Boltanski or another archive artist may use found objects, specific objects or objects that take on significance because they belong to an individual. That individual may be significant in that they represent a type of individual (inhabitant of a particular town for instance), not really anything to do with the person but where they happen to live.

My virtual collection is one that is evidentiary in nature. the requests i’ve made are for objects that link to the basics of existence (food-fridge;  bed-sleep, body;  sink – bathing, daily ritual; hand – action, imprint of life experience). these requests are cliche but how one interprets and transforms these is not cliche. in this regard, the project belongs to the participants.

so instead of a physical installation of the same type of objects it is the trace of the trace , then reconfigured to become part of the larger community of images. Even if presented as an installation later, it will be a further trace, the original objects are never physically real or messed with. This makes this type of project very different than that other modes of installation such as Boltanski’s which call for an experience of the physical materials and weight.

got stuck with at the sink collage – not enough verticals to work into the format well.

all for now.

i’ve got a handle on how to present this for now but for the future, i think a wall of hands or a wall of beds would be effective.  maybe a wide column which the images would wrap around  although flat surface has the advantage of comparison-viewing.for that presentation, i’d have to grid carefully, re-size all photographs exactly the same and work on some of the psd files re contrast and brightness and revert back to higher resolution.  the sequence and arrangement would probably be based on aesthetics, i don’t think the use of city source names or other identifiers would really add there.  i’d have to have a kind of map with that info elsewhere.

this kind of wall could work inside or outside, the outside would be fun, the seasons could play on the images.  A public place like the subway or airport could be interesting. The home headquarters needs to be a website.

funny, how the fridges and sinks wouldn’t be as strong. we seem to want to sense the individual, not the sameness. (even with the beds, they don’t reveal as much of  the occupier’s body as i would have thought…also people use a lot of pillows i’ve noticed.) i suppose the read is very cultural though.  which is why it would be great to show outside of north america, in all the cities where people participated.  ok, so now i need a grant.

down with the flu, on Tamiflu. it’s put me at home alot without the energy to do much, so i was watching TVO last night and there was David Hylnsky being interviewed by Steve Paikin. David was talking about his photographs of store windows in the Eastern bloc before the wall fell.

He described the style of presentation as the inverse of western advertising. He mentioned that we all buy the same stuff, we need the same things. that idea is certainly reinforced by the photos i’m getting. i guess there isn’t that much variety in the basics. the variety is subtle, in the details.

occasionally a strange email comes in:

“Subject: Request for Photos (Hong Kong- Any Asian country)
Date: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 10:02 PM
From: Scupper Marburg, Jr. <scupperjunior@gmail.com>
To: <database704@gmail.com>
Conversation: Request for Photos (Hong Kong- Any Asian country)

in reply to: http://hongkong.craigslist.hk/crg/1429239510.html

Hello. Your project sounds quite interesting! What sort of
compensation is involved? Cash, barter or credit? What is this project
going to be used for? I hope you answer these questions as I find this
intriguing. Thanks for your time.

Scupper  “

what a fantastic name. unfortunately i don’t think i’ll get any photos from him.

tomorrow i expect some photos from Yellowknife. we’ll see, i may have to write everyone with a reminder of the deadline.

a friend sent me a link to the current Enroute Magazine. there was a feature of celebrity chef fridge insides. well, i knew i was working with cliches on this database. those fridges were much cleaner and more symmetrical than the ones i’ve been receiving. interesting how there are various levels of staging. those were staged to the point of looking unnatural and inauthentic. the ones i’ve been getting are still staged, there is a consciousness of being for public view, even though the owner is anonymous. very few people are showing any aspect of these shots as messy, even the unmade beds are a bit “primped”. the people who send shots with messy and chaotic interior glimpses are my heroes now, it must take a kind of bravery or lack of narcissism. but as i was saying… the level of staging i’ve been receiving is less than those in the magazine and so feel more authentic but not entirely.

some hands which came in yesterday and today

these came in tonight

another anecdote

in  Schwartz’s essay that was so interesting was Daguerre’s negotiation with various groups to help launch his new invention, with the community of scientists in Paris as the lobbyists that were able to influence the government to purchase his process in exchange for his lifetime annuity.  like instead of bill gates owning it..

back to database: i hope i’m on a track that has legs so to speak. database704 refers to the email address gmail assigned me. as i began to articulate in my first blog entry which is deleted, i didn’t see a reason to apply a database to my thesis project since it has its own structure and a truly analytical, dissecting process would squash the discovery for me, at least at this time.

my friend D sent me these links about a newly published book about Walter Benjamin, in relation to his writing about Arcades:

“Walter Benjamin’s Arcades archive – apparently he was really into index cards:

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BENARC.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jan/27/society

….the lacan book I’m reading has a footnote about a book that is not in it’s place in a library – the real book continues to exist but it has lost it’s position in the system”

the object subverts the system and disappears.

afterthoughts on the copyright issues:

i think the impact of internet download and other modes of open access varies greatly depending on the art medium. as a photographer i don’t mind people downloading my images for personal reasons or for sharing. the only control i exert is their low, web resolution, so they can’t be made into large, high-quality prints, which would  undermine photo sales through the gallery i’m repped by. to me that’s fair. any usage on small scale is fine, but any commercial usage (such as ad or publication) or one that would hinder archival print sale (which derives from a tiny niche market as it is) is another story.

but on a larger scale, downloading seems to affect music and musicians more than any other art form.

the crux of the issue is that artists have such a difficult time making a living through their art. having their livelihood contingent on the sale of their work to the public is problematic, allowing corporate market practices to control it. if artists incomes could be distributed in some other manner (other than having artists take all manner of unrelated jobs to support themselves) it would allow the new technologies of open access  to keep flowing which seem quite unstoppable in any case, and have great potential.

interesting comment by Erna Paris in the articles from Vid today, about salaried academics vs unsalaried, professional writers, in terms of distribution of their work. points to the same issue.

Barthe’s idea of art belonging to the culture it derives from and to the viewer,  rather than to the artist who facilitated or channeled the work is interesting and true i think. but again our society measures things in terms of production and artists are given value based on what they produce and it’s perceived value. This creates contradictions around relinquishing control while holding some measure of integrity over one’s work and livelihood.

on another level, the internet explosion has affected my work. 1991 was the year i began photographing bathers in nudist, co-gender hot springs in california. with some coaxing i was able to photograph people. most participants were concerned with image use in a general way, and put their trust in me if they agreed. but there was no thought of their image on the internet or youtube. for the subsequent 11 years i worked on the project in a variety of countries. the world was quite different in 2002 when i did the last shoots. it would be almost impossible to do the project now i suppose.

re sophie calle’s detective project: another interesting detail about the project is that she had her mother do all the arranging and communicating with the detective, sophie was pulling the strings, but lightly.

more later blog.

It seems my previous post is gone. I was trying to delete excess files ( a dangerous compulsion), and away it flew.

This new entry is to claim a hint of progress concerning the creation of a database. It was challenging to think of how to fit a given topic into that structure when my approach tends to be contrary to tables, columns and neat piles. I kept remembering the words “organizing system” and came up with ideas like…

lobby footage from my building

the words people use to describe themselves on social networks

color-coding the interviews i’ve been doing about religion into degrees of belief or surrender to the unknown

a comparison of the language, voice intonation, gestures, etc, of news broadcasters on various networks such as BBC, CBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, reporting on the same event. or local newscasters reporting local crime, looking at a single event from a multitude of angles and materials.

and so on..

I think I’ve found the project, not like any of the above. It will involve sending out postings on craigslist and other sites asking anyone/everyone to send me certain images, perhaps with a written portion or not. The images and writing will revolve around a very specific theme and will unify the whole. The findings will be presented as a book, or powerpoint or prints… the idea is to suggest a bridge between anonymity and intimacy.