The area around 7th St. Stretching from Snyder to Shunk.
Tech: Nikon F100, Arista 400 film (same as Tri-X, I think). Lab development and scan by Photo Lounge.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
12 31 09 Images from the Neighborhood
The area around 7th St. Stretching from Snyder to Shunk.
Tech: Nikon F100, Arista 400 film (same as Tri-X, I think). Lab development and scan by Photo Lounge.
12 31 09 Update
Photo: Former Jeweler's Row jeweler, Harry Azoff discusses with Tom Carroll the finer points of harmonica playing.
The transferring and burning to DVD of the six plus hours of interviews took a big chunk of time. I already everything transferred but it took the better part of the previous evening and the morning of Tuesday, the 29th, to get everything on disc. Additionally, there were a number of musical references that surfaced over the course of the interviews and I put together a CD of them from my own collection. The interviewees were very happy to get both and I saw everyone except Harry Azoff, who probably stayed home because of the bitter cold that day. I got to spend some time just "being there" at the center rather than for some specific activity. I had a very interesting conversation, with a center-goer about felonious activities that used to go on in the neighborhood, something that so far none of those interviewed ever mentioned.
While I was in the neighborhood, despite the cold, I took some pictures, which I should have later today. I really need a dslr! The price of film and developing keeps on rising.
Phoebe and I are working this week to development a lesson plan for Taggart. I am meeting with Margaret Chin, principal at Taggart next week. More details soon.
Meanwhile, I am in consultation with Frank Siciliano, the man who built "Boris" my magic lantern projector, concerning building a prototype mutoscope as lead up to the final model. I have my Phase I wrap done save for the budget, which spurred my contact with him.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
12 23 09 Update:
I spent yesterday transferring all the interview video onto a mirrored RAID drive. I then need to convert the video again to audio mp3's for Tom Carroll to use, and to DVD format so it can go to the various interviewees and also be easily watched. I'm retaining everything on the one terabyte drive for easy future access. It's over six hours worth and though I didn't watch all of it, I revisited much.
There is more planned for after the New Year, which will round the Stiffel interviews out to eight. Additionally, I hope to interview other people who do not attend Stiffel.
Two things struck me as I watched the videos. The people interviewed rarely talked about objects and their acquisition. Many talked about poverty, but not about things they purchased other than perhaps saving up money for a musical instrument. My point being, as a group, their lives appear to have been very much not oriented around material gain for its own sake.
Also, recollections of how difficult or tough the neighborhood was in terms of street life varied with the women not mentioning it at all and emphasizing the connectedness and harmony in the neighborhood for the most part. The parallel story being that Stiffel has filled the void for many older residents, creating a new sense of community and even connecting people back to neighbors and relatives to which they had lost track.
The men had more "war stories," but then again it varied from recollections of doing a wrestling tackle on a larger opponent (David Welsh) to fending off a group of neighborhood toughs with a burning stick. (Joe Pepper) My only surmise is that like today, one's perception and experience has a lot to do with what circles one runs, personal temperament, and the ability to avoid trouble before it escalates.
There is more planned for after the New Year, which will round the Stiffel interviews out to eight. Additionally, I hope to interview other people who do not attend Stiffel.
Two things struck me as I watched the videos. The people interviewed rarely talked about objects and their acquisition. Many talked about poverty, but not about things they purchased other than perhaps saving up money for a musical instrument. My point being, as a group, their lives appear to have been very much not oriented around material gain for its own sake.
Also, recollections of how difficult or tough the neighborhood was in terms of street life varied with the women not mentioning it at all and emphasizing the connectedness and harmony in the neighborhood for the most part. The parallel story being that Stiffel has filled the void for many older residents, creating a new sense of community and even connecting people back to neighbors and relatives to which they had lost track.
The men had more "war stories," but then again it varied from recollections of doing a wrestling tackle on a larger opponent (David Welsh) to fending off a group of neighborhood toughs with a burning stick. (Joe Pepper) My only surmise is that like today, one's perception and experience has a lot to do with what circles one runs, personal temperament, and the ability to avoid trouble before it escalates.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
12 6 09 Update.
Tom Carroll and I visited the Lao Buddhist Temple on 20th and Washington on Saturday, 12/5. The space is extremely visually rich, overflowing with color and pattern. It was a bit much to take in, but we were made very welcome and I spent most of the time just gazing at the altar and the paintings on the walls, some done locally.
I found that I'm not the first one to envision a giant mutoscope. An RIT student and friends built one in 2008. I have contacted them, but no reply as yet. I have a pretty good idea how to go about constructing such a unit and what the engineering problems are, but it would be nice to talk to someone who has been that route.
Why a "giant" unit? I want the rig to be very hands-on and the larger the drum and more spaced the cards are, I believe, the better it will run with fewer problems of sticking cards, etc. Also a large size will allow for large, vivid images that have lots of detail and texture. I think that's important.
Where my thinking is right now is that I want to bring something to the mutoscope reel or the unit itself that is different and reflective of what I've found in the neighborhood. I'm thinking about "an interrupted narrative." That is, there would be some kind of story line but from that, I would remove sections or draw/paint/overlay them with other images. I'm thinking too that a great project for Taggert might be to have the students make flip books and incorporate some of those sections into the reel. It's really a daunting formal problem, which is probably why I like it so much--the permutations are virtually endless and full of possibility. Another possibility is to have two or more reels with different sequencing for people to view--sort of a them and variation or even have that within the one reel, having the same narrative repeat, but also change. I'm hooked.
Don't ask me why I thought of this, but a long time I had an idea for a conceptual piece that was a filming at foot level of the joining where building meets sidewalk of a full city block. Maybe something like that could serve as an anchor.
I'm going to need to make a small mutoscope soon, preferably one where the cards can be changed. I saw one online called a Retroscope. It's probably harder to build than it looks, but I think it would be a good starting point.
I found that I'm not the first one to envision a giant mutoscope. An RIT student and friends built one in 2008. I have contacted them, but no reply as yet. I have a pretty good idea how to go about constructing such a unit and what the engineering problems are, but it would be nice to talk to someone who has been that route.
Why a "giant" unit? I want the rig to be very hands-on and the larger the drum and more spaced the cards are, I believe, the better it will run with fewer problems of sticking cards, etc. Also a large size will allow for large, vivid images that have lots of detail and texture. I think that's important.
Where my thinking is right now is that I want to bring something to the mutoscope reel or the unit itself that is different and reflective of what I've found in the neighborhood. I'm thinking about "an interrupted narrative." That is, there would be some kind of story line but from that, I would remove sections or draw/paint/overlay them with other images. I'm thinking too that a great project for Taggert might be to have the students make flip books and incorporate some of those sections into the reel. It's really a daunting formal problem, which is probably why I like it so much--the permutations are virtually endless and full of possibility. Another possibility is to have two or more reels with different sequencing for people to view--sort of a them and variation or even have that within the one reel, having the same narrative repeat, but also change. I'm hooked.
Don't ask me why I thought of this, but a long time I had an idea for a conceptual piece that was a filming at foot level of the joining where building meets sidewalk of a full city block. Maybe something like that could serve as an anchor.
I'm going to need to make a small mutoscope soon, preferably one where the cards can be changed. I saw one online called a Retroscope. It's probably harder to build than it looks, but I think it would be a good starting point.
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