www.1in10arecocks.com

oh mez, what have you started.

A few weeks back our tutor Mez linked a website on her twitter feed called www.chatroulette.com. if you have not tried this, i suggest you do before you read on. Otherwise you'll not have the same twisted view on reality that i now hold very close.

I instantly called it like i saw it and responded on twitter with a simple 'i wish i could see their hands at all times' stab at the clear masturbation going on over the camera feed. However, having linked this over Facebook. Two very bored friends of mine have done some actual scientific research. The first found out that if your female and you say your 14, 80% of the guys on the website become more sexually explicit, the other a male canvased until he had found 50 males. In this time he found 6 females and was greeted with 12 counts of male genitalia on entry. We have had unconfirmed reports of sightings of both Boba-Fett and an all girl orgy, however there is no screen grab proof to either at this point. Im sure the research will continue and this will rapidly become an internet fad. Apparently they've reviewed it for the guardian website too.

All hail the marching cock army!

Guardian blogs;

chatroulette-webcam-voyeur-site

zoe-williams-chatroulette

location scouting and theory craft

Spent the day location scouting for places we can apply the pre Raphael-ite paintings I've chosen to attempt to replicate for the picbod# module and i've come away with a degree of success. Not as much as i was hoping for, but then again, there's only so much you can do in late winter when your relying on greenery. I also have had the question of colour or black and white come up and i need to address that a.s.a.p.

Firstly, here are the images im going to try and modernise...


(info i'll fill out in a few on each image)

These images have in part been chosen because i think they best suit the model i have for them and in part because there locations are easily replaceable. But also because the clothing all has one simple characteristic, it flows. Tomorrow i will find an outfit to use for this, as its Rosie it'll probably end up being tie dye or hippyish to look at, but long and flowing. 

Ive whacked on my flickr account (which you can get to on the right) the location shots ive taken for these images and now i just need to prey the weather holds out for me so i can get these images done in time. 

I've whacked a colour one on there and some black and white ones. Something i want to talk through with jonathan tomorrow is whether he thinks i should go digital+colour+professional printing. Colour film+professional printing or monochrome film and print myself. I've found a few places who's quality seem good enough and their lead times are around 48hrs. So no real pressure there. 

Im still passing masonry, but instead of breeze-blocks im down to rubble. 

In Depth, The Tom hunter tribute project.

For the picbod# module, i wanted to study my relationship with my partner. However, for various reasons im at a point now where im getting very close to breaking point and im still not happy with the images we have created. A major problem for me is my composition in the images, they dont feel striking enough or dont explore the environment correctly. They say it takes a photographer 4 years to find their eye for such problems and if thats the case ive still got a little over 2 years still to go before i find mine. However i've only got 2 weeks left to produce and prepare an image and turn it into a digital and analogue artefact that can be submitted to the gallery show titled picturing the body.

I also have to consider cost and manufacturing time. If i want to make a book for example, i'd need to submit it for printing by mid week at the latest. For top quality digital prints i have 1 week before i need to submit images to a professional print company and i also need to factor in cost. So, being realistic im limited to two options. Either digital prints like above, or shoot on medium format film and do the printing myself. I can say now without any worry i'll be doing the latter. There is a freedom when you make your own prints. You have so much control on tone and contrast at such a late stage that a lot of developing can still be done to the work.

Think im getting ahead of myself? Me too. Should probably tell you my idea whilst were here......

I, in a panicked state decided to go back over the past 12 months and look at the photographers i've met or spoken to and the work i'd done in my own time as well as whilst at university. I was very concerned about my composition and post production and wanted to address both issues. As i flicked through my notes i came across Tom Hunter. For those not familiar with Tom's work go here...

toms work is brilliant and i enjoy it for many reasons. However for the inspiration tied to this module we only need to reference one image. This is Tom's version of 'the lady in the lake' a highly famous pre-raphaelite painting. He used the image as the basis of his composition and then brought it into his own neighbourhood. He used modern clothing and didn't fear to leave in the original skyline.

I considered this... Could i apply the same basic framework and find some paintings that i feel could also be used to represent my partner in some way? Could we pick a few paintings and have a go at replicating them ourselves, in my style. Not Toms, to give the work at least a flavour of originality?


We had a good look though quite a few genre's of painters and movements and have settled on 4-5 images as our start point. Im not promising i'll stick to them, more that they will form the basis of a simple exploratory shoot this afternoon when the sun's a bit lower in the sky. I also know i wont get the final images today. That will have to wait till wednesday, as i dont have a medium format camera here right now and i want a bit more control over what my model's wearing than just the clothes she'll turn up in. But the really important part of this is that, with maybe 4-5 days to spare i finally have an idea im happy with. I now know what im doing and what im working towards. I know that im going to shoot these images and that im going to make them work. They will then be a series of 3-4 prints, that i will develop and print myself and frame ready for the exhibition. I need to do a fair amount more in my sketchbook and ive written some critical essays on the photographer's i've looked at to this point that need tweaking and then sticking in, but i feel for the first time like ive got this under control. Which is nice... trust me.

QR codes and staying cutting edge

This odd assembly of pixels, if read with the correct device, will lead you to my website. Im reliably informed by wikipedia that the two dimensional bar-code was created by japanese corporation       Denso-Wave in 1994. The 'QR' is derived from 'quick response' and the code acts as a gateway for further information.

I remember years ago, when these first came out they, like bar-codes were used in toys for kids. I digital top trumps style set of games where opponents would scan in their favourite cards so the stats could generate a winner. With the spread of camera technology and augmented reality i can see matrix codes of all styles spreading world-wide quite rapidly.

'What is augmented reality?'






Above is an example of the technology already being implemented into iphones and blackberry's world-wide and fully augmented reality is current tech, that just requires a role-out. Personally i think its fantastic. Never again will i get lost, or bored with an application such as this. Although the 'app' shown above only works the housing market, there are apps for finding everything and i would imagine that eventually they'll be like 'rss' feeds brought to a centrally controlled browser where you subscribe the feeds that interest you. Examples would be art gallery's, history, story feeds, restaurants, night clubs.. the possibilities are limited only by our imaginations


I see potential for QR and matrix codes to slot into this world. Maybe as information points, or in advertising. Maybe one day we could have an exhibition of just QR codes, each one leading to a separate website with a whole body of work? Its not quite time for that, maybe in 6-12 months. Not enough people currently own the correct types of phone or software so rather than being cutting edge, you'd just be obscure. Either way, its interesting to see the development in data handling. Were starting to compartment and gateway the data we handle in every day life. The age of the iphone has begun.

Tom Hunter and why he may just be a life saver

So im struggling for idea's and i'm prone to look through what i've already done in these situations...

So i looked at my Tom hunter tribute picture, i wondered why i did it. I wondered why he did his and looked through his work.

I looked at the pictures that inspired him, i looked in detail at the pre-raphaelite paintings that he transformed into his own work.

I turned on my itunes and listened to my music and showed them to my model/partner. We wondered if we could find paintings that we could modernise in the same style as Tom did. We found some we thought would work really well. In context to the images already shot and as stand alone images.

I realised i could do it in my favourite wishy-washy short D.O.F indie/grungy style.

We sourced locations where we could do it and realised with minimal props we could make it work really well. We could use places like Rokkit vintage in london to find an outfit or two thats striking and individual.

We realised that with the use of my remote control we could do some pretty weird photo's together. Including the two of us in a pretty abstract style. Using the paintings as a start point, but not being afraid to drift away from them.

And would you believe it, the sun's due to make a pretty large appearance tomorrow in the skies above me. Guess i'll have some good stuff to show Jonathan on monday after all.

Why the internet is a bad thing pt 1 - Addiction

I love the internet. I wanted to declare my love early in this post as i need everyone to know i'm very much pro-internet. Im also pro recreational drugs but that doesn't mean i can't see the obvious problems with both. But unlike drug use, the internets failings or problems are not often publicised in government warnings so im going to take a few minutes of your time to point them out. Starting today with addiction.

ad·dic·tion  (-dkshn)

n.

1.

a. Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance

I speak from experience when i say that the internet can destroy your life. Not that many years ago I was living with my partner of 3 years, had a full time job in a position of responsibility and owned a cat. I was the going places kid who had settled early. Then, one day i realised that all i had once taken for granted was gone and the most horrible realisation kicked in, they had lost me to a computer game.

I wonder how many of you have turned on your computer to check an email, then logged off 2 hours later because of constant internet based distractions. It could be anything, wikipedia, imdb, Facebook or maybe like me you were pulled into a computer game. I remember years back a football manager game produced by Eidos (the makers of the tomb raider series) ran a warning and helpline for addicts of the game. Even now it has a game status bar on it reminding you to wash or feed the cat and the more software developers realise our weakness, the more your pulled in.

The main threat to your sanity these days is M.M.O.R.P.G.'s. Massively multiplayer online role playing games such as world of warcraft or eve online are deadly. In these you team up with other addicts to work together and complete in game tasks for pixillated rewards. The games themselves are addictive, but no more than the silly flash games on Facebook. What really makes these games deadly is that your not playing against a computer, your playing with real people who you can talk to through various voice software. This means the game builds a sense of importance and friendships are formed between people who have never met or live in different countries, destined to never meet face to face. At the height of my addiction i would easily consume anything up to 20 hours a day online. Talking to people on both UK and US timezones. But i also made the effort to meet the people i played the games with. Numerous times i have gone to london and will soon be going to america for many reasons, one of which is to meet some people i spent 4 years of my life with, via my modem. I know how easy it is to get addicted to these games or any game now and i feel lucky i could step away and pull out of the mess i was getting my life into. However some people on this earth will not have the same mental strength as me and sadly this week it cost a baby its life.

South Korea child 'starves as parents raise virtual baby'

It a horrible thought, but i dont think this will be the last case of internet neglect. My own neglect cost me a relationship, a job and a cat. Not mortally, she took it with her. But somewhere out there, people need to realise real life comes first.

Picbod# catch-up; Triptychs, textures and tights

i continued to shoot all through the rough patches and always had in the back of my mind that some of my images needed to tell a story, either alone or as a group. I'd never explored triptychs before this year and decided that i wanted to at least have a go at trying to represent a night through the format.

As valentines day came up it became the perfect opportunity to try this method out. I was still reeling from the aftermath of what i've since come to call 'flesh-gate' and i think that shows in the few photo's i plucked up the courage and took that night. My aim became more about being ambiguous and subtle rather than address what i should have, and that was the intimacy between me and my partner. That aside i like the images. There not emotionally charged really, just some nice plain images. I'll only whack one of them up here for that reason, in triptych form of course...

picbod# catch-up; The clothed Body

There is definitely a lesson in this project that i have learned that i did not expect to and that is to use caution when choosing subjects close to you over long periods. When i first set out on this project i was planning on a simple but striking overview of the relationship i share with my partner and how we interact. I figured i'd take lots of photo's of my normal everyday life and base the narrative around my own life, as a visual diary of a few weeks. but that has simply not happened.

I did not know it at the time, but my partner had a few issues she needed to work through and in turn, that we needed to work through. This coupled with a fairly serious bout of S.A.D meant that a lot of my motivation and stability left me for a good two months. During this time i continued shooting my partner, taking pictures when i felt it was appropriate or when we'd been close enough to attempt it and what im left with are some images i struggle to look at. They are probably just some crappy, piss poorly framed portraits to you, but to me i can see the anguish in her face and remember them as a very negative time. Its taken a long time for me to try to post product these, i think the last photo i took for this project that i was happy with was back in week 2 and contained her next to the window in here flat (5? posts back). These may not be the best photo's in the world and they definitely wont be winning any competitions, but the photo's bellow mean a lot to me. More now because i believe we have started to overcome our problems. They are a yardstick in my life and mark the lowest point in a good 5 years, they remind me how much things have got better already.

I'm also becoming overly obsessed with narrative. maybe im trying to do too much with these images. I want them to be awesome alone. I want them to stand out as being quality photography and i want people to understand why i took them. I want people to feel like they know the person in the image or can at least relate to what they make me feel like looking at them. But i fear there just flat staple images. I'll whack more on my flickr if people want to look further into them.

picbod# catch-up; Building the frame

Whilst still in exile i continued to try and work through my motivational black hole and tried to find some inspiration.

When i become lost of directionless i try to take a few steps back and have a go at something i wouldn't usually consider. A few weeks beforehand we as a group had visited painter Paul Wrights studio and done some work on illustrating and drawing. I had a look through his work as i quite like his style and decided that his work would be my start point. I knew pretty much straight away that this was a dead lead. It would be something to help pass the time and keep my sketchbook ticking over but would have very little bearing on my final piece.

I found a few portraits that Paul had talked about in depth in a talk last year where he multiplied himself in his portraits. He explained that he was trying to form a triangle in the portrait to the left and that he had become increasingly interested with how people viewed his work and how the work viewed them. This is why the Paul on the right is looking directly at you and something struck me about it. It made me honest in a way, the gaze had caught me and i felt i was dragged into it a bit.
I decided i'd have a go at the double portrait idea myself and began by shooting myself in around 30 different poses slouched over the couch in my living room. I tried to build a picture from the various poses of me and at the time i was not really fussed about my scruffy appearance or that the camera maybe a stop out of slightly out of focus. I didn't really care about the lighting either, all that was important to me at the time was that i was continuing to take pictures. (The cat was just good timing, not planned)

pic: 1
pic: 2
pic: 3
contact sheet (mini)


Here's what I came up with, it was a fun exercise but i'm aware nothing more will ever come of it. I've included one page of the contact sheet to give you an idea of the poses i was going for and so you can fill in the blanks so to speak. Would be interesting to see what Paul thought about it, maybe i'll get the chance to ask him one day.

During this week and any week i feel lost my reading focused on people such as William Eggleston and around Gus Van Saint and Zach Braff films. Im consuming literature and movies at an alarming rate at the moment, however its all pretty scatter bombed until i finally decide on a direction to push this project forward.

Chronological catch up part 1: picbod - nude V's naked

I've been incredibly slack at posting online recently my progress for the picturing the body module. I could go on about the reasons but lets just summarise that my attentions were distracted by some personal issues and a loss of direction on the project itself, but this is where i'm at divided into weeks of work.


Nude Vs Naked.

The images i shot for nude V's naked polarised our group and knocked me on my arse in terms of constructive critique. The images shot for it i don't wish to put up on this blog again, i put them up briefly on the lead-up to that week, however after that session i pulled them down. They were very loosely based around exploring the more erotic side of the model's personality and were more driven by her than me. It was something she requested and i was happy to oblige however it was also to see how far i was capable of pushing sexually charged nudity without feeling too uncomfortable.
This was actually a really important step in my development as a lot of my favourite photographers deal with nudity and sexually charged images relating to their private lives. Part of the criticism i received was the shots were very staged which they were, however that was the whole idea. These were confidence building exercises, for both myself as a photographer shooting someone close to me and for my model. Who is also someone i share a close relationship with. After taking the photo's i felt more confident in essentially showing a bit of flesh, in a more natural environment because i'd now done it in a very staged way. I'd stripped the emotion from the images and turned it into a quite technical exercise and the model received the confidence required to be a large part of this project and the main focus of my lens for the next few weeks as i intended to explore our relationship, or at the very least capture her spirit as my final submissions.
What ended up happening is i lost a lot of confidence as i showed them to people which may have been a bad idea. Im a found believer in group critique but i also believe that sometimes it really damages the cause of the work. This is definitely one of those cases. Because of that reception 4 weeks on no one has seen any of the images taken that followed it and i completely lost focus in the work. I felt i needed to play safe, i had to subscribe to other people's theory's rather than push forward and develop my own. Its take 4 weeks to pluck up the courage to just even write the above.

I did continue to work through the blank spot. 4 weeks of random attempts and lost scribblings. Over the next few updates i'll show you where i've got to.

Online Communities

(From the comic strip xkcd)

Its odd to think of the internet as landmass to be conquered. Even more so as the land would have to constantly be expanding. meaning unless your superman and can fly around the internet at supersonic speeds and digest words easier than crackers, you arnt going to be reading everything out there. The map above actually looks quite dated these days, Myspace is populated solely by bands and facebook has conquered at the very least 50% of its land mass but it still is interesting to put everything into perspective, a planet where the first language is lolspeak and the dominant population is lolcats

I spend maybe 5-10 hours a day online. Im part of numerous social networking, gaming and forum orientated communities and i still feel im always two steps behind. RSS feeds can only feed me so much, i can only read so much... yet there is far more out there for me to find. The modern never ending struggle. 

The Power of the network

http://tutorsite.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/networks/




Today, we received a great lecture into the science of networks. Their application and there uses were explained fully and my corrupt brain just constantly made me think of all the bad things. Maybe its because i watch a series called Battlestar Galactica. In the said series, networks are used to disable all defences of an entire race through the spread of logic bombs and virus's. Now, whilst were a long way away (sadly) from interstellar travel and combat i do think that there are many downsides to the network that we really need to address. 

Networks are more and more being used to spy/ 'hac'/exploit the common man for numerous purposes. Take spyware as a very innocent example. Spyware in the most cases is designed to follow you as you explore the wonders of the world wide web. It'll look to see where you go most and build up a profile on you, it'll become your secret friend and then suggest targeted products and adverts that will most appeal to you. Facebook, the social networking site is the worst for this, i log in now to exclusively photography and live music based adverts.
With the right software, these can of course be nuked back to the dark ages of dial up and far away from your hard drive, but you are fighting a loosing battle to think you are always spyware free.
The main problem with networks though i find, is with social networks. Its turned everyone and their mom into a part time spy turned voyeur. I dont get the need to update every bowel movement i have but the amount of information shared over networks now is beyond silly. In the united kingdom we kick up and laugh every time someone looses some important data on a train but then go home and tell anyone who care's to listen or hack into any accounts our darkest and inner most secrets. Perhaps im old school, from a different generation where sudo-names were recommended and every application form was filled in with the address of the geeky kid from science class but im not comfortable in giving anything away freely without a suitable return. 

Is virtual, Digital?

This to me is a slightly alien concept. Is virtual digital? And what is the difference between the two?

Virtual; 1. Existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name: the virtual extinction of the buffalo.

2. Existing in the mind, especially as a product of the imagination. Used in literary criticism of a text.

3. Computer Science Created, simulated, or carried on by means of a computer or computer network: virtual conversations in a chatroom.

digital; 1.

a. Relating to, or resembling a digit, especially a finger.

b. Operated or done with the fingers: a digital switch.

c. Having digits.

2. Expressed in discrete numerical form, especially for use by a computer or other electronic device: digital information.

3. Electronics

a. Relating to or being a device that can generate, record, process, receive, transmit, or display information that is represented in discrete numerical form.

b. Relating to or being a service that provides information expressed in discrete numerical form: We subscribe to digital cable.

4. Relating to or being a profession or activity that is performed using digital devices: a digital librarian; digital photography.

5. Using or giving a reading in digits: a digital clock.

6. Characterized by widespread use of computers: living in the digital age.

n.

We live in the digital age where i feel that through the medium of virtual we are pushing the boundaries of possible. Does that make sense to you? ill explain in wall-o-text format just in case.

'We live in a digital age'

Previous 'ages' of man have been easier to understand because of the more linear title we gave them. The age of steam for example was the advent of combustion engines to power machinery that aided humans in their tasks, be it a train or a textile mill. In the digital age, the enhancement to our lives is that of the way in which we exchange information and the tools which we use to do it. The digital age has spawned such great inventions such as file sharing, the ipod and (begrudgingly....) windows operating systems.

'Through the medium of virtual'

And not because the medium of dance was too energetic. Leonardo Da Vinci many many years ago sat down and through the power of his imagination, sketched his idea's for a flying machine. However if he was alive today, im fairly sure he'd be using computer aided design to 'realise' his dream of the first intergalactic passenger transportation ship or moon colony. Virtual puts a bit of flesh and bone to our imagination. It takes the improbable and then tries to say we can do it now. Virtual worlds, or images or people are now all over the place. It is our way of seeing the world or the future, but may not have any bearing on the true fact of its counter and 'nemesis'... real life.

Hopefully that explains my take on this. Virtual is not digital. Its a delivery method to advancement through imagination. But we can still learn f rom it and it can be manipulated to tell important and thought provoking stories. See the video below.