Creative Commons...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License.

YEA!! Dont you forget it...Thats means all of it on here

Working Photos/Test shots

ScanCam again...

Two More...

Two More awesome and very inspiring photographers:

Julia Fullerton-Batten:
http://www.juliafullerton-batten.com/ (wont let me steal her images)

and Noah Kalina:
http://www.noahkalina.com/photos/418


There is somethig that is really simple but really epic about these two images and heaps of his other work as well. Really simply lighting and angles etc but used in a way to create striking images. These images in particular seem to resonate with a feeling of loss...of something missing that's is right there, almost tangible but somehow out of reach. The are very impressive for their simplicity and beauty.

The Scanner...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License.


These show the problem with how the LiDE scanners work. They reflect RGB light off the object being scanned, however if the object is not flush with the glass you get a monochrome image because the coloured light hasnt been able to bounce back into the scanners receiver...i think that's how it works...

So you can see this happening to bits of my face and hand as they get further away. In saying that, i like these images, the face(beard)shot is especially creepy and i like the added distortion of it being upside down

First ScanCam Images

These are the first two images i took with the set up shown below. the tech issues are clear...

FlickR Guy:

Hes even got a 73 page book published of black and white scanner portraits!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcgiffert/page3/

My attempt at a ScannerCamera ...8x10 Style...

Iv used a Canon CanoScan LIDE 100 and slipped it in behind the glass plate on a TOYO 8x10 inch view camera.

This is pretty sweet but there are a few tech problems:

-The scanning lamp is reflecting back on the inside of the housing and causing the limited image. this could also be the problem listed here:
http://golembewski.awardspace.com/cameras/scanner/index.html
about the recessed groove for the CIS housing, which picks up the image data...i dont want to take apart a school scanner to alter this...

-Its clunky having to focus by scanning a preview. Need to build two backs that you can slip on and off, one to focus and one with the scanner actually on it...

-COLOUR! There isnt any...because of the way the LIDE scanners work. BUt how is Robin Howies work in colour? (see below) Thats what i am after, the beautiful saturated colour that his portraits series has.

Michael Golembewski.

This guy appears to be the man for Scanner Camera set ups....

http://golembewski.awardspace.com/photographyGallery/cityscapes/index.html

Photographers Everywhere

Virginie Otth




http://presque-rien.net/mythologies/index.html

A ptiy her website is all in French cos the only thing i can make out is that the above image was printed 110x160cm....

Josh Smith

Another cool photographer stumbled across in the world of blogs linked to other blogs linked to sites that are mentioned on blogs that link to more blogs....it goes on....

http://www.joshgsmith.com/photo1016377.html

Timothy Saccenti

Emily found this guy yesterday, amazing photos and has doen some videos and photos for some very well known people/bands.


http://www.timothysaccenti.com/

Robin Howie

Awesome scanner as a massive format camera... very cool and possibly what i am going to go on with if i can get a cheap scanner...

http://www.robinhowie.co.uk/html/newportraiture_5.html

Morpheus: .... What is "real"? How do you define "real"?

Matrix Qoutes

Morpheus: I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Neo: The Matrix.
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
Neo: Yes.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

I really like this interechange...even though its super geeky i like the way that it talks about "the truth"...and the search for the truth in the world. The bit in bold is awesum and it applys how i feel driven to keep doing what im doing

Photography/.Video Capture Stuff

See the new stuff for the post that was here. Should be newer though as iv just stuck it up.

Media Frenzy Rant

Hoefully post in some stuff here for the seminar that im giving in a couple of weeks about "Photojournalism: Media Frenzy"

Havnt got around to putting stuff up here yet but ive been thinking about lots of things for it:

-The Iranian Doctored Photos of the misslie launch - propaganda yet created a frenzy in the press.
-The APA (or was it Getty?) photographer that was fired for doctoring photos of a bombing in Beirut in 2006
-I'm sure there was another one recently when Israel attacked Gaza (not last time but the time before)
-The way in which these images are treated as "the truth" because they come fomr the press/meida. But thanks to the Internet they do get questioned...
-The Image of James Bolger being lead out of the train station...i think the word 'frenzy' definatly applies to the treatment of that image. The effect that this image and the medias treatment of it has had on the use of surveillance??
-Uhhh should probably slip in some photographers??

Maybe the ones that look at the perception of teh real and what is the truth. The way in which we accept the image as the truth because it is a photograph, a moment of time captured. Yet today more than ever this is so changable and easily manipulated but it do we now see more people trusting what they see on tv/in the press??

Reason and Logic...and a Video

We were really pleased with what became the performative aspect of our work. So many of the people that weren't teaching staff bought our security guard act (I even got mistaken for a Chubb guy earlier in the day by some first years)

The idea of removing oursleves from the space and the opening but acting as security gurads monitoring the event was very effective. The feedback we got on the placement of the second camera watching us was usful as this was something we didnt get the angle quite right so that our screen was totally visable out in the gallery.
Heres a wee vid, shot by Jodie edited by me; of us and the opening... when i resize it....

More Shots of the set up

Install Shots of Exhibtion setup:

Watching the watched

Set up Photos:

Theses images are of our Surveillance station set up adjacent to the gallery space. We have installed the Wireless camera in the cabeling beams of the gallery (thanks to an awesome Electrician!!)

Exhibition Bits...

I purchased a wireless 2.4Ghz colour camera (hat also has Infra_red like this one) yesterday. This is not only for the exhibition but it also means we have a wireless system we can employ out in "public" space when we continue our detournement (a word first coined by Steve Mann in his work that replicated and turned the mirror of surveillance back on retailers and shops that employ massive surveillance operations) of surveillance apparatus in our society...

Looks like this:
But isnt quite as hard out (Jaycar didn't have my exact one on there website) and its got a wee wireless antenna///

Diagram of Exhibtion Installation

Exhibtion Notes

Here is what we are planning to set up for fridays exhibtion:

-We have a Computer with two monitors running the HDV deck in through Firewire.
-Connected to the HDV deck is the Wireless reciever (with Antenna) This is receiving the signal from the wirelss camera watching the gallery space (see diagram above)
-The above gear is set up on a desk with keyboard, mouse etc to make it look like a surveillance station. It is also in a loading hallway which ads to this look. We have put up "unauthorised persons not permitted" signs on both doors coming into our space. When in the gallery you cannot see any of this setup.

-In the gallery we have a large standard TV set up on a black plinth. This is connected by hidden cabeling to the Pin hole camera that we have set up watching us as we sit at our desk watching the gallery space... So the wathcers are being publicly displayed in the gallery space...while the gallery space and its 'distinguished' guest are being wathced by us...

Quote from The SCP

Yet there is an absurd and somewhat poetic quality to performing a play, an art work, in front of these mechanical eyes. Do you think that this aspect of absurdity is important in what you are doing?
Yes! We think the so-called logic of surveillance is absurd: the cameras make people paranoid in the hope that these paranoid people will act rationally and won't commit crimes. But paranoid people are Not rational.

CTRL [SPACE] Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother. 'Surveillance Camera Players_George Orwell's 1984's

-This is pretty key as to where we are looking at this issue from. Surveillance and groups that implement it are all about "the public saftey"...
Yet how does constant surveillance of percieved public spaces add to this safety? The above qoute form the SCP highlights how flawed this logic is...

The other interestring part of this is the Apathey shown by people in this sort of environment. Mishca's installations were supposed to highlight to people how they are often being watched...but to what end>? It was designed to draw attention to this but the lack of response to his installations were interesting as they highlighted how people dont seem to think about this or care...

The Hilton...

Exhibition Work

Mishca and Myself are installing a piece of work based on this project in an exhibition this friday the 13th of March to celebrate the opening of our schools new building and Gallery Space. This is our Artist statement for the work. It makes use of wireless and wired surveillance apparatus:

"///FOR YOUR OWN PROTECTION SECURITY CAMERAS IN OPERATION

From a very young age we are taught to sift out that which is an irregularity. In today’s society one such misconceived irregularity is surveillance. This building is holding an official opening today, a regional politician and other guests, with varying degrees of involvement in the completion of the building, were sent invites. A feature of this building is the gallery in which you are currently standing. Our class requested the first use of this new gallery space for Friday the 13^th of March. The date coincided with this opening and gave us the opportunity to move our surveillance system from a public area into an invite only (private) opening. Consequentially, even though it is our work that you are about to see we still had to ask to get an invite."

///Wireless camera

Wired camera

Television Screen

Computer Monitors

Cables

HDV Deck

Desk

Telephone

Dimensions Variable

Mischa's Set Up

Talking to the Council

While me and Mischa where out testing his gear near the council building we were approached by a member of the security team. He was worried that what we had set up was tapping into there cameras in that area (We deliberately set our system up directly beneath 3 of their cameras)

Once he worked out they weren't his cameras he proceeded to turn a blind eye to what we were up to. This reinforced the feeling of total apathy that we had received in all of the locations we had tried this set up. Mishca has been running a TV with a camera looping the view in front of the tv through it. As people walk past the TV they appear on the screen. We have been installing this in many public places around Dunedin./

So many people fail to notice themselves on the screen. So many more don't Care...



To see images of the set up we had at the Council Ally go here>>:

Still Frame from Camera Broadcast

Image grab from video feed intercepted using portable 2.4Ghz receiving system. This video feed is unencrypted and is being broadcast up to 50 meters from its origin. Urban spaces are full of broadcast signal of varying degrees...

Portable Camera Detection

Surviellance

I have been working with Mishca Rhys Hill on his project for Electronic Arts in the last few weeks. Along side this i have also been exploring my own projects on surveillance and the use of wired and wireless surveillance equipment in our society.

While Mishca has been experimenting with a looped camera system (using a pinhole camera and a tv running off of a power inverter - see above) i have been building a portable wireless surveillance intercepting device.

I have built this so i can travel through urban space and track points that wireless, 2.4GhZ range surveillance cameras are being used in. This also allows me to monitor the signal from such cameras. Photos above >>