I'm going white water rafting this weekend and I'm not taking my camera. Maybe I'll do an artists' rendition to post when I get back. Blogging will be even slower than usual over the next week or two as summerish activities and getting the $#@& out of town are taking precendence. I am aware that some of you are eager for Mods and Rockers follow up and installation shots. I'm sorry this is taking me so long, there are reasons but they aren't very interesting. I haven't forgotten, and it will happen eventually. I have heard reports that the show was very popular with the masses of children at Harbourfront over the Milk Festival. And there is no question in my mind that if kids like your art you must be doing something right.
I make all my art for the Children.
I live for the Children.
Have fun. Sunscreen and a helmet.
Actually now that I think about it maybe the main reason is kind of interesting since I bet other people have the same problem: I don't have the right camera for the job. I have nice little video camera which takes great DV and doubles as a pretty awful still camera. The photos are okay for raw material, but no damn good for documentation. But a camera that is really good enough for art documentation would cost upwards of $1000 or more. I also kind of need a little light-weight digital camera for carrying around everywhere with me. So, even though I have a functional camera, I find myself wanting 2 more cameras. Which I'm not going to buy. So I have to borrow a nice-ish camera from someone to take shots of the show. And I've been putting that off because some bits in the magic-thinking part of my brain believe that a really swank digital camera is going to drop into my lap if all the little children (yes there they are again) in my mind clap their hands at once.
Thanks Mark. After our great snow-day in May adventure I am more worried about hypothermia than UV. I keep jamming extra sweaters into my bag. And I just made an extra lining for the tent floor out of dollar-store shower curtains and duct tape. ahh our old placebo-pal the duct tape. Slows my heart rate just to hold it in my hand.
I'm not too concerned about "proper" documentation. Bill has a cell phone shot of my performance I've been coveting. Grainy shots...crappy shots...just to get the viewer in the ballpark so I can post it and fill in the rest with verbiage.
The worse the shots are the more "legendary" the event becomes.
Not saying you shouldn't have better ones, too.
As I told Sally, I'm sensitive on this topic because I've had a rash of zero-documentation shows lately. It's almost enough to make me start traveling.
The installation is pretty straightforward, it wouldn't take that great of a camera to shoot lots of bracketed images and merge the properly exposed screen views with the best looking installation. Another thing that I do when I want a good video installation for a catalogue image is to drop in the a video still into the monitor or onto the wall if it's a projection. (I've done that for other artists and they've been happy with the results, my first attempts sucked, but I got better) There are all sorts of tricks with skewing and retaining small glass reflections that can fool the eye. (there will be good shots from this show coming your way for sure)
I believe that Lyla Rye did a lot of photoshop on this image (from a 2003 show) to get a quality closer to what you'd see in installation.
I cut out around the wires (supporting the projector) to slip in a screen shot of Chantal Rousseau's video, the high res print version looks good too. (it was brilliantly installed above a false ceiling in an office space, accessible only by ladder, and very difficult for the photographer to work with)
Oh yeah. Canada. Cold water. Forgot about that. I'm a big fan of Mysterioso nyloprene. It's less bulky/heavy than wool sweaters if you go for an unscheduled swim. But wool is great too.
I should qualify that I believe that any photo of an art piece automatically mythologizes it, whether it's a camera phone or a high res camera, (so it's an extension of your taste in images.) I find that I get frustrated when I get back documentation that makes everything look sharp and wonderful except for a washed out image in the video monitor.
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- sally mckay 6-02-2006 8:56 pm
I make all my art for the Children.
I live for the Children.
- L.M. 6-02-2006 10:27 pm
Have fun. Sunscreen and a helmet.
- mark 6-02-2006 11:02 pm
Actually now that I think about it maybe the main reason is kind of interesting since I bet other people have the same problem: I don't have the right camera for the job. I have nice little video camera which takes great DV and doubles as a pretty awful still camera. The photos are okay for raw material, but no damn good for documentation. But a camera that is really good enough for art documentation would cost upwards of $1000 or more. I also kind of need a little light-weight digital camera for carrying around everywhere with me. So, even though I have a functional camera, I find myself wanting 2 more cameras. Which I'm not going to buy. So I have to borrow a nice-ish camera from someone to take shots of the show. And I've been putting that off because some bits in the magic-thinking part of my brain believe that a really swank digital camera is going to drop into my lap if all the little children (yes there they are again) in my mind clap their hands at once.
- sally mckay 6-02-2006 11:03 pm
Thanks Mark. After our great snow-day in May adventure I am more worried about hypothermia than UV. I keep jamming extra sweaters into my bag. And I just made an extra lining for the tent floor out of dollar-store shower curtains and duct tape. ahh our old placebo-pal the duct tape. Slows my heart rate just to hold it in my hand.
- sally mckay 6-02-2006 11:12 pm
I'm not too concerned about "proper" documentation. Bill has a cell phone shot of my performance I've been coveting. Grainy shots...crappy shots...just to get the viewer in the ballpark so I can post it and fill in the rest with verbiage.
- tom moody 6-03-2006 12:43 am
The worse the shots are the more "legendary" the event becomes.
- tom moody 6-03-2006 12:45 am
Not saying you shouldn't have better ones, too.
- tom moody 6-03-2006 12:59 am
As I told Sally, I'm sensitive on this topic because I've had a rash of zero-documentation shows lately. It's almost enough to make me start traveling.
- tom moody 6-03-2006 1:02 am
The installation is pretty straightforward, it wouldn't take that great of a camera to shoot lots of bracketed images and merge the properly exposed screen views with the best looking installation. Another thing that I do when I want a good video installation for a catalogue image is to drop in the a video still into the monitor or onto the wall if it's a projection. (I've done that for other artists and they've been happy with the results, my first attempts sucked, but I got better) There are all sorts of tricks with skewing and retaining small glass reflections that can fool the eye. (there will be good shots from this show coming your way for sure)
I believe that Lyla Rye did a lot of photoshop on this image (from a 2003 show) to get a quality closer to what you'd see in installation.
- L.M. 6-03-2006 2:12 am
I cut out around the wires (supporting the projector) to slip in a screen shot of Chantal Rousseau's video, the high res print version looks good too. (it was brilliantly installed above a false ceiling in an office space, accessible only by ladder, and very difficult for the photographer to work with)
- L.M. 6-03-2006 2:19 am
Oh yeah. Canada. Cold water. Forgot about that. I'm a big fan of Mysterioso nyloprene. It's less bulky/heavy than wool sweaters if you go for an unscheduled swim. But wool is great too.
- mark 6-03-2006 2:22 am
I should qualify that I believe that any photo of an art piece automatically mythologizes it, whether it's a camera phone or a high res camera, (so it's an extension of your taste in images.) I find that I get frustrated when I get back documentation that makes everything look sharp and wonderful except for a washed out image in the video monitor.
- L.M. 6-03-2006 2:48 am