12/31/2010

We got all packed up and made our way to the train station early this morning with enough time for one last hostel breakfast. We had planned to take the bus but on New Years Eve traveling back to Cesky Krumlov is a sold out affair. The train trip was a rather simple transition through with little lay over. I spent time taking photos in the train with the Nikon for a more purposeful and specific investigation of facial features.
Our arrival at the train station was met with an encounter with an individual who was quite confused as to which country he was really from. As far as an incident is was minor however it did elevate my anger level and it causes me to wonder: if your actions do not in fact cause the fear and intimidation you meant to occur then what do you really intend to happen? It is unfortunate that one can not walk side by side to discuss an event after the fact. You only have your angels and devils feuding over what you think the outcome might have been.
The rest of the afternoon was spent making sure that what did happen at Christmas didn’t happen again for New Years- Doh! I mean to say the rest of the afternoon was spent repeating the same steps as before! The one difference this time was our ace in the hole. She goes by the name of Lucie. Lucie had arranged for a reservation at the Gypsy Bar which had a cover charge, but included live music, garunteed seating and a bottle of champagne for the witching hour.
We arrived around 7ish and ordered a very reasonably priced dinner and enjoyed the Roma five piece band and were also treated to a bit of dancing. At twelve we hastily said cheers and rushed to the town square where the arsenal was being ignited! If tonight was a battle than the sky was our enemy. With a relentless sense of zeal for fireworks audience became participants and participants reloaded their arms while becoming for a moment merely an enthralled spectator. There was this rumor that the New Year’s in Praha would be simply “INSANE!” One can not judge what one cannot see, and one should never consider the unexperienced as better or worse. I will say that our New Years was a spectacular one spent, for the first time, amongst the winding streets of castle village Cesky Krumlov.

12/30/2010

One thing that I have been doing with my photographs on this trip in particular is to try and capture the perspective and actions that best describe various sculptures I come across. This is a fun way to think about narrative. Sculpture concerns itself primarily in this case with veneration of the person, myth or idea. The piece set in stone or metal usually sits atop another structure and occupies a space well above the gaze of most viewers. Suffice to say that most people cannot view the sculpture in the round or even on equal terms. With my lens I have attempted to imbue the scene with perspective that only a lens can. Mimicing the framing of cinema I attempt to distill the moment into a single frame. The easy part is that my actors never get tired of posing.
Did I mention it is cold? Very much so that our daily treks are a course plotted out by a series of connecting entryways that guard against wind and bitter cold, perhaps even offering liquid sustenance. I must say that as much as one hates to indulge in tourism one must experience a bit of it just to get the details of the visual culture as it manifests across segments. This humor I spoke of earlier when I was highlighting Jára I also found in other places, such as a hanging statue of a man riding on an upside down horse which apparently is making fun of aristocracy and the need to venerate important figures on horses. I also found other manifestations of this type of irreverent humor in pubs, on signs and in public bathrooms. Hidden treasures that aren’t hidden are still treasures.

12/29/2010

I am taking lots of photos as the case demands it. So much texture, context and form to interpret. I am trying to take some “normal” photos so that others can “see” Praha. I have also in the process been trying to retain my attention to small details and constantly scan the walls and crevices for hidden treasures. The problem becomes that when you are new to an area everything is a treasure, but not everything has field dominance, especially when advertising motifs have moved in from the west. Lights are nothing new but the malls are quite new as are KFC and Mc Donald’s sinage. There are definitely declinations between new tourist areas and old tourist areas. One seeks to capitalize on culture and history while the other is concerned with pure modern commerce. The one thing I do love though is the conversion of older arcades into more modern and flexible places for mixed business. In America we have less reverence for old structures and how they may be repurposed. This also may be due in part to our poor construction of quick build projects.

12/28/2010

I will simply say what an honor it is to exist in a city with this many sculptures. The architecture in Prague is an amazing. There are so many co-mingling of styles all in such a relatively small area its nothing short of pure excitement.
I don’t remember too much about my first trip to Prague almost 20 years ago… scratch that, I do not remember much of the city as such. I remember traveling with my friend Walle as we first arrived in the outskirts of town and took the 1st “youth hostel” we came upon which amounted to a spare room in a man’s apartment. In the morning before we left for the train station the owner gave us a cup of “cowboy” coffee, the type where the grounds are in the bottom of the cup your drinking out of.
I remember meeting a Nigerian man who shares my middle name of Bandele in our next choice of youth hostel. Upon arriving at the main train stations it became clear that there would be many choices of “youth hostels.” The one we ended up choosing I can scarcely even imagine where that would have been 20 years after or even if it still retained its function. Bandele was traveling much like we were and between the three of us we tried to have a conversation with the clerk at the desk of our hostel. She was an older woman from Hungary and did not speak, English or German. Bandele spoke Bulgarian, which seemed similar enough to get basic gist of what she was asking of us-, which were posters. Posters from the west. She wanted images to put up around the hostel and it didn’t seem to matter what sort of images as she named many different names of pop culture icons like MLK, John Lennon, Bob Marley, and so on. It had never really dawned on me the cultural currency images were and are such that there might be a desire to import such images and that simply the acquisition of such images might be important. During this time I was only maybe twenty years old and not too aware as the trip to Germany was my first excursion out of the country, first real excursion out into the rest of the world. The fall of the Berlin wall was televised across the world and made it into my bedroom, however the events of the Velvet Revolution remain elusive in my memories.

12/27/2010

In the early early morning we set out onto the cobblestone streets of Cesky Krumlov bound for a big yellow bus vaguely reminding me of the Flonase drug bee. At seven o’clock in the morning the sun was non-existent and viewing the landscape was difficult. Eventually the sky began to brighten and the snow covered fields were revealed, only interrupted occasionally by small towns and commerce centers. It was during this time an alternative view of Cesky Budejovice via bus window. Our only other vantage point had been from the steps of the train station between transits to Cesky Krumlov. Most of my time on the bus was spent staring out the bus window while listening to Czech radio which played a mixture of eighties pop and Czech hits. It’s funny how normally I feel that becoming immersed in cultural media like television and radio helps navigate the new space we inhabit, but now it seems somewhat remote as my usage of such centralized devices has lessened and fallen by the wayside in favor of more decentralized forms of communication such as the internet. Actually it’s not that funny since it has limited my “access” so to speak, the TV signal seems to be carried most preferably by satellite, theoretically this is the same in the US between the densely packed cities and the migration to an all-digital signal.

The following is inspired by this trip. I am posting this well after the fact due to an indecision on how to process the experience. I accumulated more than thirty minutes of footage during the bus ride, and recorded as much radio broadcast to match. However, the impulse to include all the material seemed excessive, and the thought of covering and dealing with so much seemed counter productive. In short, I became blocked. In the end I was able to encorage myself to "let go" of the vast majority, in effect abandon the original idea and simply go for something less literal and less demanding. I encourage comments.

12/26/2010

Today was spent mostly processing images and preparing for our trip to Prague.
Once there we shall await Joe’s arrival. We have plans to stay at a hostel while we are there and taking in the sights. I do not plan on writing much during this time, as this is the perfect time to play tourist. The one time where it will be “OK” to stand around and gawk like a befuddled child with no agenda. Of course it will be interesting since we have no money, well virtually no money anyway. But this is exactly the same as it happened last time I visited Prague back in 1991 only maybe I have more than ‘”Zwanzig Mark.” Back then it was nearing the final months of a yearlong stay in Germany. We had always talked about the desire to visit Prague and we were told that this would be the last time to go and get the “real Prague.” After this everything would change. We shall see.

12/25/2010

What do two artists who are living in another country do on Christmas day? Go adventuring with our cameras, that what! We made it out before it began to snow and toured the fairly deserted streets. We crossed over the Vtlava river and over towards the Egon Schiele Art Centrum near their artist residency studios. What we found in that area was really quite cool. Small bits of paper art and stencil art could be found nestled within crevices and nooks all around us. It was like we stumbled into a secret art bubble. When we have walked around in other parts of the city we’ve noticed repetitious images here and there, small schools of paper fish made from grocery store advertisements, spray painted and stuck on images of eyes and birds. In this one area, slightly off the beaten path, it seemed that everywhere we cared to spend time letting our eyes rest revealed some hidden art surprise. The rest of the time spent with the available light we had was spent documenting and recording footage of this find.
The element that I find really interesting is in the chance encounter with the unexpected. A situation that requires a certain level of curiosity and openness in order to recognize patterns and slowly begin to use them as bread crumb trails leading to the hidden treasure left by others. These treasures may simply be thought of as a temporal footprint, a sign of a social, cultural, or even an individual presence and passing. Street art in all of its subtle and overt variations manifest themselves over top the seemingly rigid and orderly façades of architectural landscapes. Each style representing an individual ethos or philosophy, interest or message, influence or medium. Layered upon one another either on purpose or by opportunity the canvas begins to resemble a soil layers filled with rich evidence of the past for some new visual archaeologist to gaze upon and react to. And in that same breathe, street art is as illusive and varied as to almost become background noise to the uninterested or unobservant. The knowledge, the language, the insights, colors, trends, fads, messages and deviations all cloaked in code as one must first encounter place, then orientation combined with interest reveals the world others wish you to notice.

12/24/2010

            Living in a time bubble is not a good thing when you forget that 1) it’s Christmas time and 2) maybe one should pay more attention to shop closing times.  We finally motivated to go outside later in the early afternoon only to find out that most of the shops, grocery stores and such had already closed for the holiday.  So at two in the afternoon, on Christmas eve Jennida and I began to walk the cobblestone paths looking for food.  Having adopted a culture of buying small amounts of food day by day and not over stocking we had no food for a proper dinner much less the special feast that most might want or expect.  We lucked out that the Vietnamese grocery store at the base of the stairs next to the hill was still open.  There we stocked up for not one day but three because Saturday is Christmas day- no one will be open for sure and Sunday is limited always.              Our pickings were not unlike Alex P Keaton trying to shop for Christmas presents in a 7-11.  Sorry for the pop culture reference however it comes to mind as we searched for, again the things that make a holiday special even though it’s not the things that make the holiday special.  We ended up purchasing a small frozen chicken, potatoes, the normal assortment of sausages and some new ones just to experiment with.  Jennida was sad because as such she is separated from her family for the holiday and it is compounded by the notion of Christmas not seeming like Christmas.  And this might be some of my fault, as I don’t attach myself to specific holiday trappings.  I have had my fair share of “alt” Christmases, some spent with family, some spent with friends, some spent with friend’s families, and some spent at a Chinese buffet. When it was all said and done though we had a very nice Christmas meal made of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, veggies and warm bread.  Oh and Ella Fitzgerald on the ipod.

12/23/2010

The Germans have David Hasselhoff and now Chuck Norris is big in the Czech Republic. No one ones why the Germans love “the Hoff,” but I think I know why the Czechs have recently embraced Chuck Norris as a national icon (or at least the T-Mobile spokesmen). He is the living reincarnation of Jára Cimrman. Who is Jára Cimrman?
I stole this from the Wiki:

“According to his biographers, Jára Cimrman made extensive contributions to mankind, in all areas. He proposed the Panama Canal to the U.S. government, including a libretto for an opera of the same name. He reformed the school system in Galicia. With Count Zeppelin he constructed the first rigid airship using Swedish steel and Czech wicker (the wicker being for the cabin). He was deported from Germany as an anarchist, and his personal documents carried a note that he was "a source of unrest." This led the Swiss company Omega to offer him a job to improve the balance wheel for their Piccolo line of ladies' watches. (N.B. the Czech and German words for a watch's balance wheel ("nepokoj", "Unruhe") mean "unrest.") While in Switzerland, he introduced (and practiced for some time) the profession of obstetrician, under the difficult Alpine conditions. He conducted investigations about the life of Arctic tribes who eat their fellows; and once, while running away from a furious tribe, he missed the North Pole by a mere seven meters.
In Paraguay he supposedly created the first puppet-show. In Vienna he established a school of criminology, music and ballet. He corresponded with G.B. Shaw for many years, but unfortunately the dogged Irishman never replied. He invented yoghurt. He generously helped many great scientists: On his own back he carried 45 tubs of pitchblende to the basement of Mr. and Mrs. Curie, he assisted Prof. Burian with his first plastic surgery, he reworked the electrical contact on Edison's first light bulb, and he found an under lease for Mr. Eiffel. He is the creator of the philosophy of Externism. Because of his enthusiasm for natural sciences, he discovered the monopole (as opposed to the then well known dipole), but this discovery fell into oblivion until it was confusedly revived by 20th century economists. He is also known for having advised Mendeleev, having seen the first draft, that the Periodic Table should be rotated to its current orientation.
Another one of his great inventions is also the Internet itself, [citation needed] although without widespread usage of computers, he had to rely on telephones. His internet basically consisted of an old circus tent where he had a telephone aparate and various pensioned high school teachers, who answered all kinds of question people had. Also the well-known WWW prefix originated here. One of the teachers' names was Weber and since he stuttered, he also introduced himself as "W-W-W.Weber."

Now compare these awesome feats of prowess to those of CHUCK NORRIS
1. Chuck Norris does not wear a condom. Because there is no such thing as protection from Chuck Norris.
2. Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.
3. Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack. His heart isn't nearly foolish enough to attack him.
4. Chuck Norris can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
5. Chuck Norris doesn't breathe, he holds air hostage.
6. When Chuck Norris crosses the street, the cars have to look both ways.
7. Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
8. They once made a Chuck Norris toilet paper, but it wouldn't take shit from anybody.
9. Chuck Norris can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.
10. Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that's why there are no signs of life there.
(stolen from http://www.chucknorrisjokes.net/)

I’ve been trying to figure out why Chuck is so popular here; he doesn’t speak Czech in the commercials, and usually seems genuinely bewildered most of the time. But after learning about Jára I think I am beginning to understand both “why” Chuck? But also Czech cartoonist like Kaja Saudek and others who achieved sort of cult status as underground cartoonist in America.

12/22/2010

I spent most of the day engaged in the politics of procrastination. It funny how the act of reading the news and worrying yourself about world affairs qualifies as distraction. I also began to think about composing a sound score for Jennida as a Christmas present. I wanted it to be the equivalent of an extravagant pop song that had many parts and sections so I spent a great deal of time listening to pop songs on Youtube just to get me in the mood. After much meditation and consideration I set out to produce the sound constructed version of a pop song. Normally I do not have a big draw to “pop” but I can appreciate it. Most of it reveals itself to me in the production. The individual singer isn’t the concern usually as they are easily replaceable. Rather the singer is the outward manifestation of the producer, as is the other parts of the song. Each has its place and timing and are inflicted with much thought. I may not have produced a sound art pop song, worthy of Barry Gordy, Al Jorgenson, or Trent Rez-ner, but I am satisfied that it carries me to places that are congruent, different and nuanced to the ear and brings pleasure. Not bad for a days work. Look to listen to it soon in bite sized morsels.
Krumlov Traveller's Log by Judasprime

12/21/2010

  
     Tonight we ran out to a symposium at the Schiele Art Centrum that didn’t happen because it’s the wrong night.  We ended up just roaming the town looking for new and interesting places and found them.  We walked up toward the castle gates and walked down an alley and found ourselves in the courtyard  that seemed straight out of some slightly horror film mixed with noir.  It seemed that it might have been the old brewery for Eggenberg brewery.  It is truly special to wander into an area and have it transformed simply by its own atmosphere.  Afterwards we walked outside the outer ring around the town and took in the sights and appreciated the nature of all things.

12/20/2010

      Thoughts on the past year- I have just begun to realize that over the past year my attention to the photography I have posted on line has been along two lines almost exclusively.  With the beginning of 2010 I have been actively exploring the path commercial photography.  This has entailed my continuing work with Church Hill Photography and other Mid-Atlantic commercial photographers as a photographer’s assistant as well as helping out with and seeking further information of the ASMP.  Mostly these activities have been to benefit my further knowledge and education of photography as well as the business of photography. Outside of this I have been shooting in much the same ways that I have been in a cultural documentary/promotional sort of way.  In many respects my record of personal work has been buried.  It is not exactly fair to say all of my personal work so to speak, rather in the way it has been represented.  Over the past five years or so I have existed in the Richmond, Virginia area immersing myself in the art scene.  One way that I perused exploring my new town was through the art of photography.  It seems that photography is the one art form that seems to be in a high demand for documenting work, events, and representational headshots.  Web design is close but even still web design requires the photography to convey an accurate façade to any business, performance or art practice.  I have dealt heavily in trade and good will, which has allowed me access and the freedom to play and experiment.  My output has largely found its home on Flickr.com as a way for others to quickly view my work and perhaps to many, more importantly what happened.  Thus my perceived “possible” audience has shaped my online offering.  Certain images, certainly interesting and entertaining to me may not see the light of day based on the “average” viewer’s disposition to wonder “what the fu-?”  The esoteric and fuzzy photos where image and grain remain intimate lovers.  This is not to say however that all of my odd and secret photos are gems.  I have learned to discern for myself what in fact makes for a compelling photograph in my own mind, and have learned that evolution means looking back and saying ‘ewwe…I thought that was good?”  Such is the life of learning.

            Still the result that I now look at is the idea of being on photographic autopilot with in a community of artist, musicians and promoters, which in great.  I know that I have a lot of really great photos that I am proud of and I feel represent periods of time depicting who, what and how.  The tough part is in contextualizing to myself and synthesizing it into representative chunks of my work in this vein. 

            My life has always found a way to manifest itself through my artwork and these photos are no exception.  They are a culmination of an effort to both improve in my photography as well as engage a social and art scene offering myself in service and in friendship.  It represents my connection and attention to what transpires and what potential symbiosis might evolve out of the mutual beneficial relationships.  Perhaps not all the time have things panned out where careers have been made or fortunes been founded, however I can look into my photos and see the intention, the drive, the dreams and the continuity of life amongst a varying group of creative and aspiring individuals who converge and diverge forming one facet of the Richmond cultural animal.

12/18/2010

            It is important to note that one must always remember to indulge oneself in what totally geeks them out and serves no productive outcome.  Star Wars and comic books are that indulgence.  (And video games…duh!)  I don’t think I got too much accomplished today, I mean I probably did, but the day went really fast and I can say that I watched a bunch of trailers for the Star Wars MMO “the Old Republic.”  This of course throws you out into other realms like watching the trailer for “Sucker Punch”  and then watching promos for SP and then watching the “Green Lantern” trailer. And then there was the trailer about cowboys and aliens too… I blame it on my brother.  I talked to him today and we chatted a lot about movies.  Now I do not see many movies and have seen even fewer recently than I ever have so watching some trailers I guess was in order.  I also got a surprise in the mail as well.  A tiny two-pound bag of popcorn.  Might as well been a brick of gold.  People here don’t appreciate a tub of popcorn like the American people.  We likes out corn!!  We likes it with everything.    But I digress.  Popcorn is my snack of snacks and it’s hard to come by here in the Czech Republic.  So the Trifecta is talking to your family, receiving popcorn in the mail and watching tons and tons for fantasy geekdom on the web.  Excelsior!

PS the Green Lantern trailer is a fake, but a good fake.

12/19/2010

            Tonight we attended the fourth Advent celebration in the town square of Cesky Krumlov.  Unfortunately it seems that even though we arrived fifteen minutes after five the festivities were winding down.  I had read that the program for today centered around sending letters to baby Jesus, much like I suppose the practice of sending letters to Santa?  But alas upon our arrival I proceeded to the back of the square to see the view held looking back past the fountain and the giant decorated tree towards the stage.  Within minutes of scoping my new vantage point I heard an announcement that signaled the end of the program.             

            It was not the worst thing in the world really.  We hung close to the square for a while simply shooting around.  After a while the square began to clear out giving us a quieter scene to play with.  We then took the opportunity to walk around a little more and explore the town at night with our lenses.  It was a nice change from shooting during the day and fighting the tourist passing by.  In this sense coming to Cesky Krumlov so late in the year has been advantageous.  We would have have had more temperate weather however more tourist to deal with as well.  Besides being sick, I’ve loved having the snow and of course there is a very nice compliment paring the snow and this small castle town, something I think Schiele termed it “dead city.”  There is something quite fascinating in the idea of a town trying to retain the austere of the past by preserving it against change and progress while simultaneously courting it in the form of tourist attraction and retention.  

12/17/2010

     Several more video/sound are pieces nearing completion.  Jennida has several bits of footage that she shot around town of fences, walls and the river that she has been editing and I have endeavored to produce complementary tones either to accentuate or guide these visuals.  Mostly I feel like I am playing until I hit that moment when something sounds “just right” and then it becomes a little bit more like work.  These are also good moments to relish.  There is a cathartic moment when everything turns to shit and then rebounds.  I think Jennida is having more of these moments than I as she has been having more software problems along the way.  We need a grant to fund our equipment needs.  Our Pilottone project has similar problems as on one hand we need a certain amount of tech to conceive and prepare material, but also to perform and execute the final product.  Secondary but still related, how do you store it all?  We can’t always borrow or rent, but we cannot afford to buy and house it all.  It is fair to say that the average video and sound artist has no less than $10,000 dollars wrapped up in something as small as a laptop at anyone time.  Go to the Apple store and start by putting the top level laptop into your cart and then proceed to load whatever video, photo, data, sound programs you feel you might need and then start looking at to facilitate it all.  It is ridiculous!  But so fun!

12/16/2010

WaterfallsaffectTrack1 by Judasprime

     I am really glad to have finally dusted off the audio equipment.Having them within arms reach at any second has proven quite pleasurable as well as productive.  I finally taught myself how to record loops form external sources on the fly, which will enable me to make much more use of my iphone in performances.  I’ve been cherry picking audio app recommendation from Michael’s post on Facebook and Instagram.  Anything that is free and once and a while something that is cost effective and cheap are fair game.  I am a big fan of audio for the rest of us. I have always been a low-grade noise artist in the sense that I am unable to keep time and really hate practicing- but I love playing.  I think everyone should play more and forget about needing to know how to perform with an instrument to an exact rule of thumb.  I do enjoy the idea of know the rules before you break them, however if you are not of that culture then those “rules” do not apply as it might normally.  I do not attempt to perform classically motivated music.  I am familiar with them, but I am equally in not more drawn to the slow spiral into entropy.  I enjoy the point where all chaos lets loose and everything looses its form.  And its also fun to bring it back out but only in the service of giving the ear some rest and time to indulge in the air between loudness and tonality.  Am I talking out of my ass again?  Yes, because I am not a music student and do not pretend to be, but I enjoy having my eardrums tickled by something new.

12/15/2010

            I’ve been spending a lot of time on Lynda.com over the past week or so.  I’ve been giving myself a sort of grand overview of the web.  I need to deal with some website issues soon and I am not looking forward to it.  Simply put I am going to need to redo my sites.  It’s been a year and I haven’t touched them at all, mostly out of fear.  I just haven’t had time to devote…hold it!  I think it’s been two years since I changed hassanpitts.com…ouch!  Well as it happens, I am one of these personalities who has a hard time relinquishing control over things that maybe I can do myself.  Especially if it has anything aesthetic involved.  Unfortunately for me most things have some sort of aesthetic involved with it and also a lot of other stuff that I am not familiar with.  Another problem is that I don’t always feel like my work, photos, videos, etc look as good in templated forms as it seems like other people work looks.  I am never satisfied with the final outcome and would much rather just avoid the whole subject rather than suffer through my own anal retentiveness.  So in anticipation of having to make decisions between the ultimate customization of learning HTML and the ease and quickness of a blog I am trying to learn as much as possible to accommodate as many options that I can stand!  I have always wanted to learn HTML, always wanted to be able to build websites, but never had the time.  I don’t necessarily have the time now but I figure I do have the time to try and research as much as possible and produce as much as possible to make this money-sucking-hole-in-my-pocket worth every penny.

12/14/2010

            We have been looking at the Transmediale/CTM festival that will happen in Berlin the first week of February.  Lots going on there in terms of art, Tech, Business, and Science, plus lots of dialog about open source and sharing.  Open source, sharing, collaboration, remix culture and the future modality of business are huge  topics on my radar right now.  I don’t claim to have an immense understanding but they seem to be on my radar nonetheless.  I’m not sure if I had noted this earlier, however someone had published his thoughts on augmented reality browsers having some development hurdles specifically because of a lack of sharing between companies.  He pointed to the fact that there were only several key players in the development of AR Browsers and that only one seemed to have the best chance in progressing as it made its code available as open source allowing other developers to design apps and other technologies around this code.  Over all this person saw landscape benefiting greatly if all the heads came together to lay down some common foundations and standards so that a greater progress could be made in this field.  Similar sentiments have been echoed by web standards advocates that site the ability to be more productive in perfecting a product rather than coding against several very different browsers  simply because some companies see proprietary as a more controllable field to play in.             

            Open source or not I am fairly excited to check it all out.  Some of the people who are up for awards at this festival have had some pretty fun and interesting projects.  Seppukoo.com is one, a second interesting idea is from the creators of Wikapedia Art:

“Wikipedia Art is a conceptual art work composed on Wikipedia. The ongoing composition and performance of Wikipedia Art is intended to point to the 'invisible authors and authorities' of Wikipedia, and by extension the Internet, as well as the site's extant criticisms: bias, consensus over credentials, reliability, accuracy and vandalism.”

You should wikipedia Wikipedia art.

There are other project up for awards, check them out here:

http://www.transmediale.de/award/transmediale-award

and

http://www.transmediale.de/award/open-web-award

Internet eggheads should definitely check out the open-web-awards as one of the choices that YOU may vote for is a social media/microblog concept that uses “finger!”  J

12/13/2010

            I find that my thoughts are gravitating more and more towards Germany.  Our stay here is almost at an end.  To a point where it is pertinent to start considering travel plans, and preparing to be in another country.  My brain is less likely to flip back and forth as much between trying to remember the little Czech I know.  Unfortunately that means that more and more I am answering questions in German by default. 

            Questions loom over our heads as we begin to think ahead to what we shall be doing in Berlin.  I am beginning to research QR codes.  One avenue is to try and have a small show with QR codes as stand-ins for actual pieces.  The QR placeholders are squarish barcodes that you might notice on a FedEx package or UPS perhaps.  With the right reader the info from the QR can direct an Internet enabled device like a cell phone to a website with our work. Video can be cumbersome to show, as it is very much dependent on tech.  It maybe possible to stage an event with no art on the walls! 

            The second thought is a work around for my locative ideas.  Since I do not have a 3G enabled phone at this point I must rely soley on WiFI but others may not have this problem.  The comprimise could possibly be similar to the dead man’s chest of thumb drives I’ve been reading about.  QR stickers could be placed strategically where others may find them.  The QR code itself may act like a sign to those who are familiar.  The access point to an audio message that will only be accessible by happening upon the code itself.  Of course if you know the code or have the Internet address a head of time then it defeats the purpose of the discovering the location, but that just means I have to keep that info a secret.  My ideas and thoughts now are growing to include more of just what that audio will pertain to.  I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the geography of Berlin as I have never been there, I do not have a sense of where things are and their spatial relationship in terra firma.  I am also curious about the history of this building  we will be housed in.  Lots of questions, not to mention the unfinished ones I have already stated.  I read in Der Spiegel that there is a 3D version of Berlin on Google Earth.

12/12/2010

     Today was the third day of Advent in the town square.  Despite the fact that it seemed like it another day of kids- kids- kids we decided to attend one the less. One reason was to actually avail ourselves of the fine Czech cheese and meats of the Christmas market but also there is one certain truth in pursuing an art form;  if you don’t think there is anything new to do with something, this is the time to try all of the crazy things you wouldn’t normally try.  I don’t know if we tried anything truly crazy but we shot some photos, relaxed a little, and indulged in some of the fresh cut potato chips and market sausage.  Despite the fact it was snowing it really wasn’t that cold, however either the snow kept folks away or the huge kid draw might have also been the culprit.  Note to self: Large bag of potato chips should be consumed either before or after sausage, especially when it is snowing.  The chips will be more enjoyable and not so soggy.

12/11/2010

     So today was another adventure of sameness.  Its funny how being in a new situation literally makes you alter all of your habits.  Our sleep work cycles are fairly stable but unquestionable skewed towards my temperament, which is to be in bed by about 5 or six am and arise around noon as a compromise between 10am and 3pm.  We must however always consider the food run, which may or may not consist of going to several different shops to get whatever is needed.  The refrigerator isn’t very big and there are no staple of huge mega groceries here to buy huge bulk items that will last you for a season.

Most shops here are not open on the weekend.  Let me clarify, most actual non-essential to tourism shops are closed on the weekend.  Thus is the curse of living in a tourist town.  I can’t quite wrap my head around the idea of clothing shops, fashion or otherwise being an essential to tourism but they are.  There is snow on the ground but I walk by a shop everyday that has a sandwich board style advertisement with a very tan and healthy looking female dressed in lingerie on it.  Seems out of place given the season, however well it suits its function.

            A month and a half and we still flirt with the idea of tourism on a daily basis as we head through the streets of Cesky Krumlov, the castle town, recent recipient of UNESCO historical distinction, on our way to stabilize our quasi normal lives with the basic necessities of life.

            It is also important to point out that we don’t have tourist money much less the mind set to constantly indulge in the luxury of tourism.  Tourism in this sense is defined by the odd sort of social commerce that takes place by which artifice is normally sought and employed under the guise of culture.  Am I talking out my ass, maybe?  But one example is in the manifestation of higher prices for similar goods and services based on location and tourism.  The understood notion that if you have arrived here you have money to travel and disposable income to spend on comfort.  Similarly, it may be also be acceptable to acquiesce that proprietors and service individuals should seek higher compensation for providing such comforts not withstanding such invisibles as being able to understand a multinational clientele that knows very little if any of the local language and customs.  When we walk into any store the shopkeeper can expect a certain level of miscommunication as we fumble through our intercourse.  “Why can I not find the word for Gouda cheese in my dictionary?”  So instead I ask for “cheese,” which cheese?....”Cheese please.”  Which salami?  “That salami, the salami next to the other one…no the other one.”  But this happens in my head because what is happening here is a complex conversation, not the one that is in the language course where I ask for beef and they give me beef.  Why?  Because I am a tourist and tourist do not go to the grocery store and ask for specific kinds of products.  We just point and grab at the expense of seeming slightly childish and dim.  The alternative is to go to a restaurant where you order off the menu…um and there will be non of this odd petulant questioning of weather the eggs can be poached instead of fried, or if its possible to substitute asparagus for the potato.  Why?  Because you don’t know how to ask for it so sit back and let the nice gentleman take care of you in his own quintessential cultural mode, because you came here to experience another culture, not enforce your own.  And with that, I smile and act very humble when I walk into someone’s shop knowing full well that it’s going to take extra long to help me pick out the right food item and I appreciate your patience and grace as I , no matter how inappropriate it may be,“ do not speak the language.”

12/10/2010

Drone#2 by Judasprime

     I signed up for a soundcloud account today.  The basic idea is again cloud storage, but it is a valid way to embed audio clips into a variety of websites, blog, and other applications.  Cloud computing is a tricky thing, boon or pitfall?  The great thing about cloud computing and cloud storage is in the ease of access from any location away from home computer or terrestrial storage device, also adding the advantage of ease of share and multiple contributors and input across geographic boundaries.  The idea of digital convergence becoming more integrated and less a sales tool- its actually becoming a necessity.  The evolution of the Internet has definitely begun to move in avalanche towards the cloud, of course the experts predicted this along time ago.  Apple’s move toward cloud commerce was signaled with the advent of itunes but has been sealed with the app store.  It is simultaneously exciting to see Apple endeavor to kill the CD/DVD rom drive with quickness, but also unsettling to consider the rise of the gatekeepers of online independence.  I’m not really here to say that Apple is a dark overlord.  My thoughts simply center on the idea of goods and services that are bought and sold- bought out or sold by larger corporation as assimilated into the parent company.  Many times these companies are acquired with the aim of augmenting their own stable of offerings and others being simply a way of killing off competition.  This has always been the case, however the question nowadays has been a matter of cultural, personal and intellectual property.  If Walgreen’s comes in and buys out or forces out the local pharmacy then for the customer the choice is simply how to proceed with getting their hair dye, band aids and maybe transferring over their prescriptions.  This outside of the local vs. big box corporate retail battles, nothing tangible of the customer is at risk (I generalizing here).  In the digital realm there is a trickier landscape being tread.  Take for example the various online social networking sites that at their core trade in personal information.  Does it seem odd that you must pay to find out what kind of personal info can be accumulated about you on the Internet?  And those operations such as Facebook claim your personal information as their property?  Claim you photos?  Claim your contact list?  Claim your accounts?  There is a site called http://www.seppukoo.com/ Seppukoo.com where by signing up it can access you FB profile and kill it.  It effectively renders your profile useless, as it seems.  Useless to you, useless to your friends, and most importantly for this discussion; useless to FB.  Useless in the sense that it is in fact antithetical to FB’s status and business model which is to acquire more and more information.  Seppukoo invites everyone to jump ship and take their friends as well.  Facebook has since of course issued a cease and desist order along the legal lines that access to Facebook accounts are in fact Facebook property.  Never mind that the Facebook user initiates the act of seppuku.  In normal terms this would be thought of as a rival company or service coming into a market and scooping up the customer base.  In the world of Walmart- this is just how you do business. 

            So why am I even blathering on about this other than it fascinates me and I draw my own conclusions about the state of the world as it evolves?  It also speaks to me in my thoughts about the idea of home.  We as a digital culture are constantly trying to make digital nests, homes if you will.  Seeking to stake some stake and claim to a sense of stability weather it be a personal homepage (sorry tripod) or a social network website that everyone isn’t going to abandon (sorry friendster) or maybe just wanting to make sure that your files are always easily accessible and on hand- just in case and when needed. Sorry Delicious, I was just finding a need for you.)  Our digital river runs fast and the eddies change drastically on any given day.  How does the idea of a digital sense of home function on the Internet when the foundations of some of the very platforms we support and stake claim to are as static as the boundaries regions on tectonic plates.

12/09/2010

     I think my separation from the US has made me more sensitive to things going on in the news.  Partly because I now have time to pay attention to the news again, but also probably because there is this last minute blowout going on in American:  How ridiculous can things get before the end of the year!?

            I just don’t know though, the more and more I watch the headlines and read the articles I am beginning to see things that really are disturbing me greatly.  There seems to be a great confusion going in American culture and more importantly politics.  It is clear to me that the pervasive mode of operation is to turn everyone against each other so that the people who can- can do whatever they want.  Look over there, red herring!  Oops it’s a blue herring coming right back at you!  I think that’s called flip-flopping! 

Everyone is in such a sad state that people speak from their asses even when it’s the most counter intuitive thing ever.  Someone said that politicians are playing a pimp game, which is true, but the person who said it has no political or social credibility so they were written off as crazy.  But it is true, and the example is the result of this type of tactic.  I tell you the truth but then someone mentions something else (true or not) to discredit me and therefore “my truth” is also nullified.  We have a gangster’s moxie political system in which we defeat what we do not like not by leveraging fact vs. desire, but rather falsehood vs. fear.  There are people who have convinced a very large segment of the population that not only do they have the populace’s best intention at heat, but also that regardless of what you think is best for you- it isn’t.  They tell is how to think!  And we do so. 

            The things that make me the most uncomfortable is that my viewpoints are unwittingly becoming aligned with the paranoid.  The problem really isn’t if I’m paranoid or not- it’s what if the paranoid really aren’t paranoid!?  No I jest.  The real problem is that the paranoid people are actually the people identified as being so far out politically that they have been effectively silenced in popular discussion because their views aren’t even valid to the general confusion that exists within the mainstream argument.  The political landscape is in reality very very vast and nuanced across the American populace.  What our current crop of politicians have done is distilled everything into a binary existence.  “DANGER WILL ROBINSON!”

12/08/2010

     I almost whish we had TV here.  I know it’s the demon and I probably get lost on the internet too much as it is but in lieu of constantly roving the Czech landscape taking in the sights, it is always interesting to absorb the cathode rays of a foreign land.  For foreigners it may be a bit put offish to stare at the screen and not understand context, however I find the flux of information new and fresh.  If you think about the screen as a frame one can interrogate the information as a series of puzzles consisting of color combinations, balance and visual rhythms in motion.  It is a challenge worthy of any soduku fanatic’s time to figure out how “SALE!!” is represented and if a particular product is being targeted towards males or using males to sell the item to women…or even if that is the strategy at all.  Deciphering tone and inference is more telling overall when it comes to advertising because when you don’t know what is said, you can only rely on visual and audio cues.  Also watching TV is an interesting way to pick up phrases- especially from game shows where repetition is key and the audience is generalized.  But I do not need TV.  I have enough to work on.  Movies and Youtube are the only distractions needed…except to escape these walls.

12/07/2010

Enjoy these photos from the second day of the Advent Celebration at the town square in Cesky Krumlov!

12/06/2010

I have been reading a lot about locative media as I comb through my twitter feed predominantly cluttered with tweets from UXfeeder, a feed dedicated to the development, marketing, design, study and theory of the internet and mobile technologies. Mostly the post have nothing to do with locative arts per say rather the underpinnings of some of the technologies being developed and the future implementation of global mobile tech. With that being said, I am realizing that I am on one hand woefully behind the curve, but on the other hand so is everyone else. One writer cited the fact that most locative media aps are designed from a business-to-customer model. Meaning that these apps are really big advertisements that do one thing- attract and maintain customers. And that inattention to design, interface and use for the “end user” is a major flaw for how locative media is evolving. The writer, who's name I forget asserts that companies with a social/communal/functional based practice will be the ones to help this segment of new media evolve by taking a look at who really benefits from locative media.

And here I stand, a stranger in a strange land thinking, "how in the hell do I find the bus stop?"

Travel is one of the biggest markets to study the needs of people and how they will (or would like to) use this technology. Information assistance is probably the number one thing travelers will whip out their mobile devices for, not simply to locate a Starbucks- but to read and translate signs. Augmented reality browsers that help decipher and guide a person either by audio (i.e. if someone might me sight impaired) or visually. (I will of course refrain from screaming that we need #cloud Internet.)

Other things of interest are open source engines for video content streaming; investigating non-corporate owned cloud hosting, sound apps and (again) audio friendly cloud hosting options like Soundcloud.com and divshare.com. Mostly as I am continuing this blog thing, I am becoming more comfortable with the ideas that swarm around content dissemination and the problems therein. Plus combining all this information (open source, cloud storage, communal sharing/remixing, mobility and marketing) is making me more and more excited, like my idea for a sound/locative art project could be done quite easily very soon- if I knew how to do it! I need some smart people to partner up with. Maybe if I do this: #locative art, then someone might read this on twitter and retweet it and someone will help me (and give me money). Does the Internet work like this? No? Well tell me how it does work because I understand everything else... I think.

12/05/2010

The second day of advent was held today. It was a night of angels and devils as both roamed the streets for young children to encounter. The fun part was watching all of these people dressed up as horrible creatures whose sole purpose that night was to frighten the wits out of children. The Angels were interesting too. They gave out candy to the children so they were “the good guys” I guess. All in all it was a very kid friendly and oriented event so the market looked like a pediatric drive-in with baby carriages lined up in rows, mothers and fathers beside them shivering in the winter cold.

So two little videos have evolved into two merely short videos with lots of edit time. I edited the video portion and Jennida did the sound.

Snow Globe-

The impetus for making this little video was to have a motion based descriptive image of the view outside my window of Cesky Krumlov during a light snow. After compulsively playing with all of the various footage I had collected over several days I began to craft a small piece entitled Snow Globe. It comes from thinking about the image as it is and how it almost looks like a miniature child's toy, a snow globe and how simplistic that function is. A snow globe contains a small scenic or landscape where when activated mimics the idea of a snow fall. I also was thinking about the role reversal in my situation, being behind glass looking out at a real snow fall over a real landscape. The simple allure of the snow globe is in the preciousness of the idea, a meditation on things far a way and foreign, or commemorates a trip or keepsake. Jennida composed the sound for the piece that I think combines very nicely, a sentimental mixture childhood innocence and adulthood complexitiey. She also put the finishing touches on the piece and produced two versions, LaLumier and Sombre. The two are fundamentally the same, but exude two slightly different feelings.

The Difference Between Reality-

I was walking outside one night during a light snow and I kept noticing the way the snow flakes entered the light field of the streetlights as I passed. I became so interested in the moment, or "drama of the scene" I felt compelled to capture the scene with my flip. These are the moments when we become attuned to phenomena and the simple beauty of motion and movement, but only if we are open to these occurrences. I ended up capturing the play between light, snow and the accumulation of water on my lens. The water drops produced and unexpected flaring within the image. To my imagination these aberrations of light must surely exist in nature much like a spirit or ghost. Knowing full well the phenomena in action, it still caused me to wonder about the idea of the real vs. the perceived. Does something truly exist if seen and experienced, and therefore by recording non-existing phenomena what about the experience was real? And then what if I manipulate the document of said "un-reality?" Jennida Chase again crafted the audio score to accompany the visual.

12/04/2010

The day was spent being low key. The weather was nice enough but without concise plans for Saturday and concrete plans for Sunday we just took it easy. I spent more time turning small projects into large projects...and rendering them. Over and over. Oh yes- Youtube instructional videos, and research into “why the Internet and Comcast Cable sucks” were also on the agenda. Research comes in all forms and just maybe researching net neutrality and writing a letter to the FCC counts as "research" today.

12/03/2010

It’s my Birthday and I'll sleep if I want to! I have been working on more of these little blog support materials while doing my Internet research and staving off sickness. Jennida is getting better and tonight after lounge-working we went out to one of the more well known grilled meat restaurants in town that we had been eying. The interior of the place was very dimly lit and decorated with medieval themed tools and paintings. The fire (grill) is positioned out near the patrons so you can see and smell the meats cook. We underestimated the portion sizes once again as we doubled up and ordered a bread and cheese platter as well as a mixed grill “for two.” This dish consisted of two beef fillets, to pork medallions, two turkey fillets and two different types of potatoes, fried and baked. As far as I can see, traditional Czech cuisine is excellent! Later we stopped by the Gypsy Bar, that as it turns out did not have live music after all. But home is just a hop skip and a jump away so we did with great haste, as the smoke was getting beginning to pester Jennida’s lungs once again.

12/02/2010

It was my turn to go be hunter-gatherer as I went out into the streets looking for meat, cheese, bread, honey, mustard, raisins, water...and butter. My journey also took me to the outskirts of the town center in search of more medicinal tea and an expectorant. I am really fascinated by the pharmacy icon that is the medical cross fashioned in lime green neon. At night you can see this cool green glow emanating from what might as well be a non descript stone building. It's fun to have eyes.

12/01/2010

I spent the first part of today doing some last minute tweaks to some videos.... I mean contextualizing them in a manner that makes them more understandable so that the viewer can put things into a better context and that the meaning and process behind which the piece operates on and is derived from can more easily be accessed.
This is what writing artist statements make you become- a babbling brook, a stream of consciousness brimming with ideas and concepts that you might find appealing, that is if you could ever take the time to figure out why you did the piece in the first place, but until then this statement has got to get done now! Does this even make ANY sense?! No? I must be sleep deprived.
The second part of my day was spent in the snowy landscape that Cesky Krumlov has become. As Jennida is not allowed outside, I made a trek first to the Info Centrum to make some print outs of our applications. As we do not have a printer we must go back to the internet enabled beautifully polished keyboards of the Info Centrum where "Lo and Behold" I got on a different machine than the last time and had a different PDF and .doc program come up- but all still in Cesky. ;) After a couple failed data access attempts and a few almost-blank pages printed I was post office bound. The snow had kicked up a bit and was managing to infiltrate my head dressed defenses quite well. I think I was the only person in town wearing sunglasses in the snow- but hey it helps. I was able to ask for envelopes, fill them all out, stuff them and then get them all sent to their appointed destinations without too much time and effort.
The walk back to Milkwood was much more pleasant as I knew it would be. I took my time and walked leisurely back through town snapping the occasional photo with my phone. It’s nice to be around snow again. The rest of the evening was dedicated to a long nap to make up for the marathon lack of sleep endured up until now.