May 11, 2008

Mary A, His Wife; Bonnie Jean, Their Daughter

Recently, a friend from out of town came to visit. She wanted to go to Arlington Cemetery to visit her father’s grave and she invited us to go with her. As I stood looking over the rows and rows of tombstones by her father’s grave I turned around and saw a familiar sight. Looking around I discovered it isn’t only wives who can be buried next to their military husbands, but husbands of military wives, daughters, sons, grandchildren and even stepchildren.

• [ Photography, Arlington Cemetery ]

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May 3, 2008

My Tweet Tooth

It’s all Melanie’s fault. In March I received an email from her extolling the virtues of twitter, that micro-blogging, naval-gazing, Web 2.0 service. I knew about twitter but was totally uninterested in subscribing to a service that would allow me (force me!) to post short little “tweets” about what I was doing at the moment. More importantly, why on earth would I want to follow others doing the same? But she persevered.

In her email she said: “You’re receiving this because you’re among those open minded smart people I know who gets that things have changed and we need to understand the future. Right?” Right. And she went on to demonstrate how she was using it in the classroom. Ok, I was intrigued. A former prof, I have always been curious about how to get people interested in new ideas. And, now that I’m a veteran museum professional (ten years last month!) I’m constantly exploring and evangelizing new ways to connect the net to the museum.

So, I opened a twitter account. The artist in me soon found the limitations of the medium interesting: how could I be creative in 140 characters? And, given the flotsam and jetsam of the majority of twitter posts, how could I say something interesting? My posts weren’t numerous and those following my every word were minuscule. Not a problem. I could see the creativity in the endeavor so I continued.

Last week, as I sat in my endodontist’s office waiting to be evaluated for a possible root canal I tweeted: “Waiting to see root canal doc. Of course, my tooth doesn’t hurt today.” Suddenly, I got an email notifying me an endodontist from somewhere in Canada was following me. I asked for a consult in a short 140 character burst. My real doctor laid it out: 90% chance I’d need the procedure within six months. So I scheduled my appointment and suddenly I connected the dots. I saw the potential for something more interesting than drilling into my enamel: I would broadcast my root canal via twitter.

My twitter-based endodontist thought that was a great idea and tweeted my plans to his twitter followers. Suddenly, as I sat waiting for the drilling to begin geeky dentists and endodontists from around the continent were following me. It was a smart mob of dental professionals.

With iPhone in hand I called up both my twitter page and my twitter reply page so I could post a play-by-play and see the tweets of those following me. They were asking me questions as the procedure began. My endodontist didn’t really understand my groundbreaking attempts to use social media to communicate during this medical procedure. But she was a great sport about it. She explained what she was doing and every now and then would stop so I could inform my audience (PDF of my tweets: read from the bottom up).

And, like any conceptual artist worth his weight in ideas I realized the most important thing was to document what I’d done. Just that very morning Rob Pegoraro, the tech writer for the Washington Post had written an article on Twitter. I wrote him and Marc Fisher, another Post writer who had covered my eBay auction back in 1999 (where I auctioned my personal demographics). Marc wrote a piece about my twittered root canal. I’ve posted the transcript of my tweets as well as the replies (PDF) from those who followed along during the procedure.

I must admit, I was afraid to tell my more normal friends and coworkers what I’d done. Groundbreaking as it might have been, this was pretty crazy, even for me (and some of my fellow conceptual artists thought I was nuts). But a little idea art always makes me feel alive (and after a root canal, that’s a nice place to be). This was a demonstration of how social media could forge some interesting relationships. The best art is about just that. I never thought I’d “connect” with dentists from around North America. But my tooth is much better for it.

Related Post: My Previous Root Canal Experience

• [ Twitter, Social Media, Root Canal, Dentist ]

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April 21, 2008

Flickr: Anatomy of a Long Photograph

Earlier this month flickr announced that short video clips could now be uploaded to the popular photo site. Some photo purists were skeptical, even spawning a huge “No Video on Flickr” group. After all, the sanctity of the best still images, rich in implied meaning, could be diluted by zillions 90 second video clips of someone’s keg party (and we already have other sites, like YouTube for that). Flickr said the ninety-second limit was to encourage “long photos.” There are contemporary videographers and filmmakers who have used video or film to create sublime still images: the best long photos. And one of my favorites is Godfrey Reggio.

I will never forget the first time I saw Koyaanisqatsi, Reggio’s 1983 film about contemporary “life out of balance.” I was mesmerized by his long drawn out shots. It gave me time to study the scene and, in part, that was the point: to stop moving and consider the consequences of going through life at an increasing interstellar speed. Sometimes there was lots of activity in the frame. But there were times when he pointed his camera at a scene that, on first glance, appeared to be a photograph. It was a still image with all the implications connected with still photography: observations of a slice of frozen time and a consideration of the photographer’s framing and associations within that frame.

Yet given the chance to observe closely there was movement. The characters in this “still” were breathing and blicking and moving. When I saw his scene of Las Vegas waitresses standing still but not still, I was blown away (the vernacular I used in the early 80s when I first saw the film). To this day it is my most favorite scene of any movie I have ever watched. I literally held my breath for its entire duration wondering how long it would go on. The intensity of that shot was immense. It forced me to really look. And that has always been my goal as a photographer: to make people observe what’s going on inside my images for as long as I can. That is the mark of a successful photograph. Not so easy in a culture heavy with daily sound and sight bites always vying for our attention and beckoning us to move quickly from one to another.

Life precariously balanced on a fulcrum. Las Vegas Waitresses is the best long photograph I have ever seen. I could watch those women stand still forever.

• [ Flickr, Photography, Koyaanisqatsi, Godfrey Reggio ]

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