Dear Photograph Project
An interesting participatory photography project. What is a photograph? What is a photograph of a photograph? I am interested in how this captures not only a moment in time, but the passing of time.
July 14th, 2011
For new teachers or experienced teachers looking for Web 2.0 inspiration. Check it out!
Everything’s Amazing & Nobody’s Happy
Brilliant commentary by comedian Louis C.K. about how much we take our technology for granted.
July 13th, 2011
Why You Shouldn’t Give Too Much Weight to Anonymous Online Critics
A humorous reminder that most of us out here in cyberspace are uninformed bumbletwits. Don’t listen to us. After all, you’re the expert, remember? ;)
Great. Another favourite photographer. Just what I need. ;)
It’s the boots that got me, but there is so much more. Landscapes, seascapes, calla lilies, and Billy Corgan. Images to surround yourself with.
eddie o’bryan
black and white photographs. odds and ends. edwardobryan@gmail.com
July 12th, 2011
Captivating. One of several series of seascapes by Alessandro Puccinelli
July 11th, 2011
Dragonfly, Fredericksburg, Virginia 7/3/2011
Technical Schools Face Deep Cuts
It has bothered me for a very long time that politicians, beginning with the President himself, tell us every chance they get that if you do not graduate from college, you are worthless. Of course, they don’t use those words; they say that we as a people have let you down, that you have fallen through the cracks. But the implications are the same. The implication is that everyone really wants to go to college, and that they should be entitled to do so. There is no credence given to those whose natural abilities or interests lie outside of the hallowed halls of academia. More than that, there is no acknowledgment of the fact that a population of predominately white-collar knowledge workers simply can not sustain itself. Being a machinist, a mechanic, an electrician, a farmer, etc. is not only hard work, it is also necessary work, thinking work, and for many, desirable work whether we choose to acknowledge that fact or not. As a country, we are eating ourselves from the inside out, hacking away at our roots to build ever higher into the sky.
How do you feel about this issue?
Throughout the millennia, for 5000 years, artists have tried to input a variety of different qualities into their works of art. They have used different materials: marble, stone, bronze, wood, fresco and paint. They have created mythological and religious images, figurative and abstract images. They have tried to do bigger or smaller works and a lot of different qualities. But there is one quality they have never used, and that is the quality of love and tenderness that human beings have for what does not last. For instance, they have love and tenderness for childhood because they know it will not last. They have love and tenderness for their own life because they know it will not last. Christo and Jeanne-Claude wish to donate this quality of love and tenderness to their work, as an additional aesthetic quality. The fact that the work does not remain creates an urgency to see it. For instance, if someone were to say, “Oh, look on the right, there is a rainbow,” one would never answer, “I will look at it tomorrow.”
Jeanne-Claude 6/13/1935 - 11/18/2009
From the web site of the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude: http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/
July 8th, 2011
Personal Challenges
I recently watched a short TED talk by Matt Cutts about creating personal challenges, and the affect that doing something for 30 days can have on your behavioral patterns. It made me think of friends who have challenged themselves to take a photograph every day. It also made me think of all the things that I have really wanted to do, and intended to do over the years, and never been able to quite get in the habit of. Like journaling. Or Blogging. Or taking photographs.
It also made me think of my future students and how to challenge them with something simple to help them realize the place of visual communication in their lives. So I have decided to challenge myself to Draw something every day for 30 days. Something, anything.
I hope to extend this and continue drawing with my students, but the trick is to get into the habit, and supposedly, 30 days is long enough to form a habit without seeming too daunting. I have seen some very cool challenges with more stringent themes, but we’re staring small here. Maybe I’ll post a few from time to time. I started with a rendering of proposed kitchen improvements, and yesterday I drew a sprig of lemon-balm that Margaret had picked for tea.
