Images from Stiffel II

The materials from Stiffel continues to be an cache from which things can be excavated. I thought the criticism that the objects were not obvious was a good one and the juxtaposition of the video captures against the "image archaeologies" sets something in motion.

I was particularly pleased with the portrait of the gentlemen with the whistle.

The 39th Ward

I went to the Free Library yesterday and visited the kind gentlemen in the map section. I wanted to see if I could glean anything about the neighborhood's earlier history from the insurance maps which sometimes list businesses, and other information, most often indications that would be pertinent to fire risk.

The maps confirmed that most of the extant structures in the neighborhood are likely original and are of typical design--narrow row houses having smaller extensions on the back that face onto a common air space. Row homes stood where the Stiffel Center is now. I could find only one row-house shul, where it indicated people also dwelt (2455 S. American St.) , but it's likely too many could have been "off the radar." I was surprised to see how large the synagogue at 8th and Porter had been. I need to take a look at what is currently on these lots. 728 Moyamensing was also indicated as a "Hebrew Church."

A lot of the businesses were unmarked, just "store/dwelling." The concentration of these along Seventh Street was largely at the corners or interspersed as you get down towards Porter St. Approaching Wolf and Rittner, it's almost 100% "store and dwelling" --very dense. In 1916 there were still stables and a rag, rubber and junk yard in the area. Only one drinking establishment is noted, I believe on 5th near Moyamensing. I saw the usual gamut of what I would call "portable trades"--tailor, barber, shoemaker, but also a large number of bakeries and one surprise, a number of businesses marked as "Chinese Laundry" (613 Porter). The laundries, like the bakeries are notated because they were a fire risk, most likely employing large, gas, or even coal-fired boilers. How items were dried is an interesting question.

At 2nd St. and then further up Porter there were a number of these laundries. Were the operators from China? Why, in what by all indications was a poor neighborhood, would people send out all or part of their washing? Perhaps this was the one chore households were willing to scrounge a few coins for, even occasionally. In an age pre-dating the electric washing machine, where water was often boiled on the stove and laundry done in tubs with a washboard and ironing accomplished using sad irons heated over a coal brazier, the amount of labor needed to keep a large family in clean clothes and linens could be overwhelming. There is the question too of how many single men and perhaps women, most likely boarders, new immigrants without family, were in the area at that time, thus the need.

Only one pool hall was indicated, this was further up Porter past seventh St. In the neighborhood there was also a candy-making kitchen and a bicycle shop.

Call # 912.7481 Er659i v. 32, 1897-1919, Wards 23 to 39.

Taggart Shoots:

Many months ago, I planned a workshop at Taggart Elementary School. The original plan had been to do a vintage-type shoot or use a pinhole camera. After the preliminary orientation with the fourth graders, it became clear this was not going to work; there were too many kids and they were too boisterous to do something as slow and concentration-demanding as that. Bi Jean Ngo, a local actress and educator who worked with me on this, suggested bringing in props but having the students photograph each other with disposable cameras. Sarah Gladwin Camp, an educator working in the field of dance also assisted, guiding the students through some excellent warm-up exercises.

Bi's idea worked great! I got a whole bunch of Fuji "Quicksnap" cameras online for a very low price and CBOP/Cardinal also gave me a discount on the processing. We split the class in half and worked with about twenty students in two sessions a week apart. There was a distinct difference in the energies of the two groups. The first was more "wild" but more into the whole photographic process. The second was more well-behaved, but less spontaneous with inventing tableaux for the camera's eye.

I just got back the photographs, digitized on disc. The ratio of usable images is not huge, but there are some good ones. The real issue now is getting permissions for all of them. The kids were told to be sure to get their parents to sign, but I got back less than ten out of forty. So, I can't post the photos yet.

All in all, this was quite a learning experience. As is evidenced by other images I've seen of children, there is something very poignant when children take on the trappings of adult roles. I would do this again, but it really needs to be a process that is worked up to much more slowly--we threw a lot at the kids all at once, but everything considered, it still flew.

05 02 10: Experiemental Prototype

The next logical step seemed to be to build a small zoetrope. I wanted to get my "hands dirty" and see what the issues and pitfalls might be. I knew from looking online that the slits needed to be 1/8" to 1/4", and that a traditional zoetrope apparently has thirteen images. Perhaps this is why, zoetropes were sometimes called "Wheels-of-the-Devil." I made mine with sixteen images since if you bisect a circle and keep on bisecting the parts, this works out easily. I dragged out my old drafting tools I hadn't used since the early 1980's when I was an undergraduate. I made the unit from one solid piece of poster board. I had not intended such an elegant solution, (this unit folds flat for easy transport) but it just worked out that way, developing in two dimensions what would fold and link together into three.

The public kiosk is going to to be most likely run on a 20" diameter drum. This one is exactly 1/2 scale at 10", which is perfect for running on a small phonograph turntable. A musty hand-cranked portable is optional, but at about 40 rpm, the spring motor runs an very long time.

Does it work? Yes! My animation skills are not that wonderful, but it will be more than fine for demonstrations purposes tomorrow at Taggart. Way better than just showing a video grabbed off of Youtube.

Evolving Forms:

I'm 99% sure this is going to be the technical basis for the final piece I do. A zoetrope, sometimes called a wheel-of-life, is the precursor to the modern movie.

It creates a short moving image effect in a loop.

The kinetoscope had a a number of drawbacks. The biggest was the problem of 16mm film that could easily rip. The other was, an important part of a public art piece is that it be able to run, over and over again without interruption. The kinetoscope required the film to either run in an endless loop (difficult and complex) or be rewound (also involved).

I should be able to build a maquette that will run on a phonograph platter. Instead of a simple drum, I plan to make a tall cylinder and the images can run in a helix. I can't wait to see what the effect will be, but one advantage of doing this is allows a much longer chain of images to be used and it will surely lead to some serendipitous overlaps/juxtapositions as well. The viewer will have to view from the bottom up--with the imagery in the zoetrope perhaps going from old to new, tracing a kind of archaeology.

The large drum can be made out of fairly light weight materials. The most difficult part will be the platter to spin it. I'm going to start making inquiries to see if there might be a machine shop around that could fabricate this--essentially something like a potter's kick wheel, except pushed by turning a crank and running on a freewheel like a bike wheel, which might form the basis for the mechanism.

04 26 10 Another Image.

Portrait of retired jeweler Harry Azoff playing a very large harmonica that was my grandfather's. This probably wraps it up as far as working with the Stiffel photographs, which is not a bad percentage--three effective images out of a shoot of nineteen total captured.

04 23 10 Another Image and Some Commentary

Just a germ of an idea but I see a parallel between the often invisible layers of the 7th street neighborhood and the hidden forces in the portraits I'm creating there. One has to perhaps look and look again, fill in the missing pieces, maybe even reverse one's conventional thinking, labor and dig, and then an image, an unexpected portrait, emerges.

The layering up of the image in Photoshop could definitely be pulled into a video, showing a similar dynamic process.

The image on the right is what was started with (reversed tonally for a better comparison).

04 19 10 Update: Stiffel Workshop

The Stiffel workshop went very well. Four people brought items and we were able to improvise, from what was at Stiffel and from what I brought, to connect another four. The center-goers at Stiffel were very enthusiastic about the vintage black and white images.

I spent Saturday scanning the fragile paper negatives and importing the video Ian Duffy took during the shoot.

The shot posted here (reconstructed from the "remains") is closest to the kind of imagery I was hoping to get. There are a few more from the shoot that are also pretty strong and will require more time to finalize. This was really a whole new thing for me--a very different population and not costumed, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, or sure of what I wanted. It will be interesting to see what happens with the other groups I'm lining up.

04/09/10 Update: "Objects of Memory"

Photo: Participants in the pre-workshop session for next Friday's shoot, "Objects of Memory." As you can see, a very nice turn out.

I showed images from previous shoots and talked about the mobile studio as well as showing photos of Kinetoscopes and a sample of the video montage work I've done.

We also talked about what kind of items people should bring. One woman, who lives across the street is bringing a small snare drum! I believe each person took home a reminder to post on their refrigerator, so they don't forget to bring an object to next week's shoot. There will be more reminders as the shoot date approaches as well.

Since I'm not versed in Powerpoint, I did all the work via a generic DVD program. It worked fine and seemed a lot less anxiety prone from what I know of the program people usually use for slideshow-type presentations. Actually my preference is 35mm slides.

Special thanks to Lynne and Susan for spreading the word and rounding up people.

04 04 10 Update

I've pretty much finished the preparations for Friday's preliminary meeting at Stiffel, including a sheet that each person will take home to hang on the refrigerator to remind them what to bring on April 16.

Since we finally had a decent Monday, the day I keep free to work on Journeys South, I was able to hit the neighborhood and do some videotaping. I want to have a lot of clips I pull from.

I always forget how static cities really are. Apart from cars and humans, not a lot moves. The 7th street area is ever more still. I focused primarily on architecture and spaces doing pans over cornices and house-fronts. I'm always fascinated by remnants and reminders of things that somehow stick around despite progress's best efforts to obliterate them.

The photos are video stills that I extracted.

03/22/10 Update

Not the most exciting day, but productive none-the-less. Worked on getting together the nearly twenty addresses I've lived at since 1975 so I could send in the PA Child Abuse form. I cast into words the specifications for the kinetoscope kiosk and re-did the budget, but cannot finalize until I hear back from Frank Siciliano, the craftsman.

I then spent the remainder of the day working on the presentation I'm to give at Stiffel on the 9th. I have a DVD well underway. Anyone have a video projector? Unfortunately a lot of time was "eaten" struggling with software issues which seem to now be straightened out. I'm also at work at putting my PC (using a Mac right now) back into service (new hard-drive and total rebuild) so I can video edit with the full suite that will also drive a full-sized TV monitor via a very nice converter box.

Tom Carroll has arranged for a tour and meeting with the Southeast Asian constituency for Friday, April 2. We may also go to the Wat Khmer this Sunday.

March 15, 2010 Update

Met with Susan Hoffman and the social director, Lynne, to get everything in place for videotaping people with their saved objects. The preliminary session will be April 9 with the video being done on the 16th.

At Susan's request, I also put together a hand-bill for her to give out. I did my best to keep things grounded and concrete. People will also get a hand-out at the preliminary meeting and will write in what they are bringing so they can post it on a refrigerator or somewhere prominent. I also plan to bring objects in case someone forgets or perhaps they'll see something from "my museum" that grabs their attention.

This morning I did preliminary drawings of what the kiosk will look like. I'm still experimenting and since there will be loops of 16mm film, I'm trying to figure out how they and the pulleys might enhance the whole design and connect with the overall idea of the project. I will be talking with the planned fabricator, Frank Siciliano, on April 1.

Additionally, I did more poking around the neighborhood, unfortunately my video camera gave out, but I have some ideas of what I want to capture. I also stopped in at the store across from Happy Clams and did some shopping, just to kind of make my presence known.

Historical Images

I didn't think many existed, until yesterday. These are all from the area around the Stiffel Center, on the way to the center, or were mentioned in the interviews. These are just a sample. I went through about 1700 images in the City's online database.

Stiffel and Community Workshop Outline

03 08 10 Adult Workshop: “Objects of Memory”

Facilitator: RA Friedman

Place: Stiffel Center

Proposed Dates: Friday, March 26 & Friday April 2

^Overview:

^{The objects that we keep or collect often connect us in a very direct way to our family history, where we lived, what we did; how we saw ourselves, and the world. The goal of this workshop is to employ small, easily transportable objects that people may have saved: articles of clothing, a letter, a piece of jewelry, or small tools, as a way of revealing these usually unseen connections and inner visions.}

^{The culminating work for this part of the Journeys South project will be a hand-cranked, mechanical movie kiosk that will be able to travel from neighborhood to neighborhood and also appear at various events. The movie “reel” will be very short, only about two minutes and will be a silent narrative montage made up of workshop footage, images and video captured in the neighborhood, oral history clips, and perhaps historical materials.}

^{The workshop is split into two halves. In the first half (1 hr) I’ll explain what the piece is to be and the ideas behind it. I want to see what peoples’ ideas are and what objects people would like to bring, and to handle any logistical issues. For instance, I may be able to provide certain objects from my own collection or borrow should the need arise. I don’t want people to rehearse, so I’ll probably keep exactly what is to happen in the second workshop, somewhat un-specific.}

^{In the second workshop (2.5 hrs), I will set up a backdrop and lights and center-goers will be videotaped somehow engaged with their object. This could be such things as: putting on a hat, opening and closing a folding camera, making paper cutouts, changing a steel phonograph needle. Ideally, I’ll have a second cameraperson on hand. I want to be sure to capture things like close-ups of hands and facial expressions.}

02 14 10 Coney Island Museum

I was able to meet up with Lee Deigaard, the artist who created the memorial to Topsy the Elephant mutoscope and Aaron Beebe, who is the curator of the Coney Island Museum. Lee used a vintage mechanism that she rebuilt and then fitted a new reel that she made. It was great to see things in action and how it was fitted together. The reel mechanism is pretty much what I had envisioned, but I was not aware of how the spring-loaded "thumb," the piece that holds back the cards comes into play (the topology is somewhat complex) and that there is also a catcher of sorts (the inclined metal plate below the bulb) that is angled so that the cards get slightly wedged after they flip; prevents backlash.

Overall, I think it will be do-able, the most complex part of the Topsy mutoscope is the coin operation mechanism, which the one I plan to build will not have. I like how history and concept integrated in this piece. It's both fascinating, heart-rending and poetic.

Update: Week of Jan 4.

I met with Margaret Chin, Jason Mango, and Robert Riffel (art teacher) at Taggart to discuss the workshop Phoebe and I want to do. Phoebe put together an excellent lesson plan and we are slated for early May. What the exact project will be, is still undecided. It may be small groups of students each doing a collaborative tableau that I will photograph.

Students will be asked the prior week to interview either a parent, grandparent or relative concerning their coming to the United States. The stories will then be given visual form and may be incorporated into the giant mutoscope.

I will need to put together a really nifty take-home package for the students.

While I was in the neighborhood, I also went and talked to John Tenaglia, again, more as a friendly visit than an interview, but I will probably do a formal taping of him as well. Phat Long's restaurant is still closed, so I will need to reconnect via email. I also took more photos. I'm still shooting on film for lack of a decent digital camera. The camera did not like the extreme cold and hung up a few times.

I hope to make a small prototype mutoscope in the next few weeks.

Second video test is above.

The process of putting still and moving images together is quite interesting. The overlays, transitions, pace and how the whole piece "breathes" are going to be pivotal, especially since it there is no sound track. At most, I'm going to have two minutes of run time, at about five frames per second, that's 600 images. It's all contingent on time and mechanical considerations.

01 01 10 First Experimental Clip

Above: A five second clip at six frames per second, about the lower limit of human persistance of vision. I should be able to compose the video collage in Adobe Premiere and then export a sequence of .tif files at six or ten frames a second. For a minute of watching that will be about 360-600 cards. A good size for the cards should be approximately 3" x 4" for the images, or possibly somewhat larger.