pixel degradation

These are from a side project I've been working on in a class I'm taking with Brian Ulrich entitled "The Medium is the Message". The class' focus is really about everything within photography that can't be printed on paper, specifically, working within a digital medium. It may not be a side project for very long though... people seem to like them.

observatory(s)

williams bay, wi

williams bay, wi

views from the top

some views of the show from approximately where our grad lounge is at Columbia College. I think these were actually taken from the Hilton or Blackstone Hotels about a block south. I really wish we could have seen it from here...




and this one is particularly interesting...


photos from the chicago tribune

new show, new president

Kisumu, Kenya

New Dehli, India

Manila, Philippines

you gotta love these cutouts. from the nytimes. and here's a new show i'm in, opening's 11/6/08, 5-7, in the CCC library 2nd floor. 

rain man

chicago art open

Jennifer Ray

Starting tonight, Wildcat Canyon is in a show at the Merchandise Mart put on by The Chicago Artist's Coalition. 5 other Columbia photokids are in the show as well including J-Ray whose so thrilling and enigmatic work can be seen above. It looks to be a very well rounded event showcasing up and coming artists working in Chicago. It runs through October 19th.

let the bidding begin

This stunning and poignant photo of our next President by Tim Davis will be auctioned off on artforobama.net The auction begins October 1. Todd Hido, Richard Misrach, Justine Kurland, and Eirik Johnson are a few of the other many outstanding artists donating their art to the cause.

by the way... in case you haven't seen it yet...
barackobamaisyournewbicycle

wisconsin romance

shore's journal

No new photos in this post, the lab at my school is shut down for the entire month of August. I will probably be going on another short road trip to an unsuspecting Midwestern city in the near future.

This morning on my way to work, just like every other morning, I listened to NPR's most emailed stories podcast. This one was from like 2 days ago though and the second story just so happened to be about the photographer I have come to so greatly admire... Stephen Shore. The topic was not his photographs but the most enigmatic thing about his photographic trips that I've always wondered so much about... his journal. Apparently it is out in limited edition form from Phaidon signed and numbered. You can probably guess what I did next... hopped on to Amazon and bought one for $157.

Like all photo books I consider this an investment. I've saved a few important receipts and things from my trip but have not written a single word about where I was or what was going on when I took the pictures I did. I saved all my maps and have traced the entire trip in black pen. Something about these maps and the randomness of the routes I chose intrigues me. The ramdoness of the locations, the routing of the trip, and the digital editing of the photos to include/exclude pieces of landscape are all parts of my art that I can't exactly pin down into an artist statement yet... but I hope to soon.

get it while it's hot...

even more trip pics

more trip pics

the first shots back

The first few images I got back today from my long, long trip to Wisconsin and beyond. More to come very soon...

old school

I was browsing art and design websites while at work today and happened across my old undergrad school's graduate program requirements. It sounds all a little too familiar and in some cases sounds tougher than what columbia has already put me through:) The 5 year time limit thing sounds a little problematic to me, I think I knew about that when I went there but had no real sense of what that actually meant. Time in grad school speeds up. But then to be in it for 5 years would- in a lot of ways- actually set you back. Notice the part about the written thesis/defending your thesis in front of the whole faculty for two hours... candidacy summed up more or less.


from the University of Missouri, Columbia MFA program

Student Evaluation

The full graduate faculty of the Art Department reviews every MFA candidate once each year to determine the rate of progress. If the candidate fails to receive a passing evaluation during the review, which must be an average score of seven (7) or higher, the student is placed on probation for one semester and is required to be reviewed the following semester. If two consecutive unsatisfactory reviews occur, the student is dismissed from the MFA program.

During the semester prior to graduation, the student must receive clearance from their MFA graduate committee to write the thesis and to mount the thesis exhibition in order to graduate. A two-part thesis is required, which must include:

• A thesis exhibition selected and installed by the MFA candidate to display visual, artistic and professional achievement.
• A written thesis that defends the conceptual and philosophical ideas of the visual artwork. Photographic record of the pieces discussed must be included in the written thesis.

Each degree candidate must pass a two-hour oral examination that focuses on the aspects of their academic study related to the thesis and visual work.

The time limit for completion of the MFA degree is five (5) years. Time spent in military service is excluded. For an extension for other reasons the student must petition the Graduate School through his/her primary advisor.

The five-year period will extend from the beginning of the first semester of enrollment in which the student is accepted to the MFA degree program to the date of his/her clearance to graduate.

bloggin

I don't think I'm addicted to blogging but I got scared today. I read this article from the nytimes magazine about this girl who is my age and has become so immersed in the blogging world that it is her job, her social life, her religion. That led me to examine my own blog to see if I was guilty of any of the same patterns or things she was writing about. That led me to examine my fellow photog's blogs to see if they were doing anything or all of the above. Well, it turns out, we all are. And some of us thrive off of it and others like me, well, I don't care much... yet.

On that note, here's a link to a fellow artist's blog/site/whatever thing that I think is the quintessential style of a certain 90's-html-nightmare design (for art nerds). I was made aware of this style last summer by brian ulrich whom I was so fortunate to have as a web design teacher. I've picked up on it ever since. It's kind of extraordinary and weird. It's so engaging, I looked at everything. I just wonder about making things for and putting things up on the internet (by things I mean fine art).

Being discovered via the internet is not how I ever envisioned becoming famous in the art world... google having a stake in everything you put up, i don't know, it seems fishy. I put a copyright stamp embedded in the metadata of my images but wtf does that mean to google? probably nothing.

colorado II

Here's the latest images I've been working on from my Colorado trip. I've been a little slow to post them because a lot of them needed, and still need, a lot of work. I had a little light leak that burned the bottom right side of about a 1/3 of the negs. I've worked with them though and I think I've overcome the problem.

The critiques I've had recently with these photos has revolved around where to go next, literally. I'm gonna stay in the midwest for right now (to find some more "puny" landscapes) but I will be taking at least 2 trips this summer. hopefully one to the new york area and one out west again... maybe wyoming- maybe california, i don't know. I know one thing, traveling is the least of my worries for this project.

colorado I

space

the final frontier...



-from the nytimes recently.

starved rock

rocky mountain pics coming soon...

I want one

I was watching the election coverage on CNN last night and something really amazed me: John King's freakin awesome magical touch screen wall that he used to zoom in and out of states with close votes. They used it famously on super tuesday in february too. When Missouri's race was so close, Hillary had the lead all night but King could tell that Obama was going to take over because of where and how many votes were still coming in, instantly. Not only do I want one of these things, if I had any money and if it were public, I'd buy shares today. here's the demo video from the co. Perceptive Pixel

new landscapes