Metro Nature

metro nature class guest post: max uriarte

2012-02-10T00:37:00.001-08:00

I can't seem to get those chimpanzees I saw at the zoo out of my head. While looking at the animal within its far too-small enclosure, I couldn't help but feel empathy and pity for the ape. It's entirely possible that this is a result of our tendencies to project personality and anthropomorphize animals, but I feel like it went deeper than that. Looking into the eyes of a chimpanzee, one sees not just a beast of nature, but a reflection of ourselves and what could have been.

Descartes would like us to believe that there is an intrinsic and unabated difference between "man" and "animal". Unfortunately, as science advances, we learn that this is simply not true. In the case of the chimpanzee, we actually share 99% of our genetic identity. In fact, we're actually more genetically identical to the chimpanzee than an African elephant is to a European elephant. Chimpanzees are us, and we are them. Well, specifically, we're a different version of them.

About 4 or 5 million years ago, the common ancestor of both of us began spending more time on the ground. Since their bodies were adapted for tree-living, the animal developed two different answers to the same problem: how to traverse the ground. One camp began walking on its knuckles and back legs, the other stood up on two legs. This simple evolutionary step conserved vast amounts of energy and allowed us to traverse long distances, which resulted in us never returning to the trees.

So then the question becomes, what is the line? Is there even a line between man and animal? This question becomes even more gray when you consider that some chimpanzees have even outclassed humans in various cognitive exercises. In this article published on BBC's website, the chimpanzee Ayumu clearly demonstrates his ability to memorize numbers and recount them in order faster than a human can blink.

This kind of intelligence simply doesn't happen with homo sapien. If we're to believe that intelligence is the defining verdict between man and animal, what kind of intelligence should one value? Chimpanzees have been known to exhibit every emotion we know of, from glee to depression, and are capable of complex problem solving and advanced usage of tools. While homo sapien has a clear advantage for philosophical and theoretical thought, to say that the chimpanzee is not intelligent is a complete fallacy. The kind of intelligence that chimpanzees possess is the kind that lets them survive in the wild. For all our advanced use of computers and understanding of science has gotten us, the average person would die within a week if they were left in the jungle on their own. When, physically, we're mostly identical to the chimpanzee.

For Descartes though, his crossing line is that of genuine communication. He believes that homo sapien is the only creature on the planet that can communicate to one another in any meaningful context. For this, I refer Descartes to the mighty bottlenose dolphin.

In this video, as seen on Nova, the dolphins were instructed to not only perform a trick, but to create a new trick and perform it in conjunction. The dolphins go underwater, perform some squeaks and whistles, then come to the surface and perform a new trick completely in-sync with each other. There's no way either dolphin would have known what to do if they hadn't had communicated and understood the trick beforehand. Dolphins are believed to be the only other animal on the planet that practice any sort of advanced vocal communication, next to homo sapien of course.

In the end, the difference between man and animal comes down to only one provable actuality: power. Homo sapien possesses power unlike any other. Our strange and random gift of intelligence has given us a power beyond anything ever seen in nature. With it we have built great and amazing spectacles of human accomplishment, as well as developed weapons that can turn any living creature into its carbon element in milliseconds. As the cliche goes, however, with great power comes great responsibility. Unlike any other animal on earth, homo sapien is gifted with the ability to determine its own fate. With any luck, we'll continue to use our power as a means to help other animals on the planet; and hopefully, never find ourselves in the predicament of pan troglodytes, behind bars while another, smarter species of ape laughs and take photos.

Lastly, feel free to check out my photos from the zoo trip on Flickr!

- Max Uriarte

metro nature class guest post: max uriarte

2012-02-10T00:30:00.001-08:00

Lastly, feel free to check out my photos from the zoo trip on Flickr!

- Max Uriarte

metro nature class guest post: corie fielden

2012-02-02T22:30:00.001-08:00

"For a more human architecture in harmony with nature"

For this weeks blog I wanted to enlighten everyone about the Austrian architect, philosopher, and painter, Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000), who I have been in awe of since I was introduced to his work a few years ago. While Hundertwasser was very well known as a contemporary artist throughout Europe, there seems to be little knowledge of him in the United States. Although Hundertwasser started his artistic career as a painter, he is better known for his architecture. His architecture is characterized by its overall organic nature, often compared to the work of Antoni Gaudi. Hundertwasser's designs had an irregular shape, and were incorporated into the natural landscape. His buildings often had rooftop gardens, and trees growing out the windows. Hundertwasser also had a strong opposition to straight lines, and incorporated bright colors through tile work on the interior and exterior of the buildings. He did a wide variety of designs, including apartment buildings, a factory, schools, and a power plant, mostly throughout Austria and Germany. However, Hundertwasser also built the Quixote Winery in the Napa Valley, California, which I was fortunate enough to visit a few years ago. The building is filled with beautiful, brightly colored ceramic columns, and the woman working there showed me one of them that had a big cracked area. She told me that when Hundertwasser came to visit the finished building, he took a hammer and hit the column with it, causing a big area of cracks, and said, "Now it is perfect". I found this so intriguing because it really demonstrated his value of imperfections.

A major reason why I find Friedensreich Hundertwasser's work so significant is because he was working with ideas and designs involving the environment and the future prior to architectural and environmental conscience, and the hippie and "green" movements. In addition, his relevancy to the Metro Nature course is highlighted by his philosophy on the human relationship to the natural world.

I encourage you to do further research on Hundertwasser. His work is so diverse and he was incredibly comical! - Corie Feilden

sky appreciation

2012-01-29T22:25:00.000-08:00

Every week over the semester students in the Metro Nature course are given a metro n'sych task that builds their connection to the natural systems we depend on and/or ignore in our city lives (like; water, food, lunar cycles, waste, etc.). By the end of the semester the hope is that the class will become much more in tune with nature from within the city and better appreciate the complex systems that effect our lives and biological selves.

This week's task it to pay attention to and keep track of the weather which has us all looking to the sky a bit more than usual. If there ever was a city or urban area where the sky should be considered and regarded regularly it is the that above + around San Fran...

'If the earth is the record of what has happened, the sky is the realm of portents and prophecies, from the practical stuff of incoming weather to the apparitions of dieties and omens.' - (From Rebecca Solnit's 'Excavating the Sky'.

Check out: The Cloud Appreciation Society + Berkeley Weather Cam (AKA The View)

CCA metro nature round 3

2012-01-26T01:11:00.000-08:00

So begins spring semester 2012 and round three of the CCA Metro Nature course. I'm looking forward to getting into it with the new team.

and we're off...

AK6 Unknown Fields Division

2011-12-11T23:54:00.000-08:00

I have just happily arrived back to Alaska to keep working away on my latest project Markers of Time in the dim short light of winter. This time around I am traveling for 12 days as a guest collaborator with a group of nine graduate students out of the architecture school at AA in London with fellow Headlands Center for the Arts 2011 resident Liam Young and his teaching partner Kate Davies. As a collaborator on their latest Unknown Fields Division graduate nomadic studio 'Strange Times: Far North Alaska' I will be leading some workshops, working with these fine students to help them develop their range of fascinating projects and they in turn will be assisting me with my work.

(photo into the night from my flight north)

Day one adventures included a visit to a world famous taxidermist, tour of the arctic studies exhibition of the Alaska native collection at the Anchorage Museum and a presentation by Charles Wohlforth author of 'The Whale and the Super Computer' (a great book that explores differing Inupiaq and science based perspectives on climate change). The day ended in a search for infrared camera gear for some graduate projects at a massive hunting store (after about half an hour I have to admit I started to freak out a little. A lot of camo. A lot of weaponry. A lot of decoys... the kid section and baby bottle with camo on it kind of took me over the edge).

Tomorrow we are off into the wilds all geared up... more soon.

In the mean time here is a description of the program:

Strange Times 0 - 180 Longitude. Far North Alaska

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."Kurt Vonnegut

Far from the metropolis lie the dislocated hinterlands and remote wildernesses that support the mechanizations of modern living. Diploma 6 - the ‘Unknown Fields Division’ - probes the fertile territory between nature, technology and culture to explore our contemporary condition through critical acts of speculation. We map the complex and contradictory realities of the present as a site of strange and extraordinary futures.

The Division is a nomadic design studio embarking on expeditions to explore these unreal and forgotten places, techno-landscapes, alien terrains and obsolete ecologies. The otherworldly sites we encounter afford us a distanced viewpoint from which to survey the consequences of emerging environmental and technological scenarios.

Last year we speculated on the reinvention of nature and spun aboriginal creation myths with the modern mining technologies of the Australian ‘Never-Never’. This year we continue to slip suggestively between tradition and science as we voyage to the edge of today, through the strange times of far north Alaska.

As Winter Solstice approaches we will head into the darkness of an eternal night. We will dance along the Date-Line, our paths illuminated by twin electric skies, as we spend neon afternoons in the city and bask under the flickering Aurora in the wilds of the frozen tundra. We will stalk the arctic fox, marvel at the vast military outposts scanning the frontier and listen for the roar of ice road truckers snaking along the oil lifeline stretching south.

It is a cyclical landscape of natural and artificial time. Alaskan Inuits, informed by ancestral memories of their environments and its patterns, embrace the uncertainties of the future with a deep belief in their own adaptability. Meanwhile, environmental scientists attempt to assemble their observations into climate models in order to predict the future as precisely as possible. Caught between improvisation and premeditation these cultural relationships to landscape and time will define the future of the North and in turn our cities beyond.

Here in the darkness we will be explorers in time, deploying time-based media. Film, animation, storytelling, gaming and choreographic drawings will define dynamic spaces of motion and commotion, cycles and shifts, ebbs and flows. We will draw on the rich uncertainty of this territory, speculating on possible futures, rewriting histories and altering the present. Joining us in the division will be fellow time travellers from the worlds of technology, science and fiction and together we will examine the Unknown Fields between cultivation and nature and spin cautionary tales of a new kind of wilderness.

"The future is not google-able."

William Gibson

pop up magazine issue #5

2011-11-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

I'm excited to be participating in another sold out issue (#5) of Pop Up Magazine tonight at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

f.lux

2011-11-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Over the last year I've been constantly musing over humans' relationship to time and natural cycles while working on my new project Markers of Time. In 2010 I moved to Alaska for a 6 month stint from summer to winter solstice in order to experience what it feels like to go from the longest day of the year (with 20-24hrs of sunlight) to the shortest (2-0). It is fascinating to be at a latitude where, whether city or country bound, the solar cycle dominates. The human biological relationship to light is a mighty powerful thing (I recommend heading N or S at some point in your life around one or the other solstice to really experience this). Now back in my busy urban life closer to the equator I am constantly thinking about and noticing how out of touch and out of synch we are with natural rhythms as human urban animals. So when on a recent stretch in New York City artist friend Penelope Umbrico passed on F.lux I was instantly fired up.

©seely

F.lux is a software program you can install in your computer that,'...makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.' Not only am I wildly into it because it's SO much better for your eyes and brain if you need to work into the night (past the natural time your eyes would be exposed to any 'true' light source that is nothing like the harsh cool tint of your screen) BUT it gets us urbanites to actually PAY ATTENTION to the solar cycle in a really nice way. It links the incredibly distracted experience of computering with the natural rhythm of the day (yes in a simulated way but I'll take it). Better than continually ignoring the fact that we've evolved since the dawn of time with this cycle, right? I can already report fewer late night computer headaches and a deeper appreciation for the shift from day to night at dusk even if it is merely a computer screen sunset...

Try it.

books.3. library shout out

2011-09-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

On a further book note I am also a huge nerdy fan of libraries. The best libraries in my opinion have dramatic interiors that honor their function and encourage reverence for what they house.

Two of my favorite libraries span the spectrum of contemporary to old school. One is the Seattle Central Library designed by Rem Koolhaas that opened in 2004.

It is basically one giant window with slick primary colored design elements that make up its five storied inner structure including shiny bright yellow escalators and a candy red hallway in the center of the building.

My other favorite is the New York Public library main branch on 42nd street which was built between 1902-1910 and apparently has 75 miles of shelving to house its massive collection. This is a classic building and one of the few left where it is apparent real thought went into its longevity and what it would represent about the city for years to come.

My favorite space in the New York Public Library is the Rose Reading Room where I will spend all afternoon tomorrow and a few more days working while I am in New York over the next few weeks.

The Rose reading room's gilded ceiling is complete with painted clouds. Not a bad place to read, think about or work on a book or two.

books.2.notes

2011-09-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of books. Always have been, always will be. As I'm in the throes of producing one of my own they are on my mind with a new fervor. There has been a lot of debate lately over their future. In most of my classes I often bring up the book in terms of its importance as a context for viewing and experiencing art and photography and its role in the history of how we have experienced and come to understand photographs in culture. For the most part I am glad to find, even from the younger laptop/Kindle dependent generation, there is still a dedication to and adoration for books and what they can offer that the indirectness of an LED screen cannot especially when it comes to viewing photographs.

In 2009 Andy Adams, creator of the blog Flak Photo, started up a dialogue with the photo art world particularly about the future of photo books that sparked a lot of lively conversation. I posted contributing notes then that still ring true for me now and I find that as the threat of losing real live books increases the interest in designing and preserving unique books is becoming a consistent trend. Publishers like Aperture and Twin Palms Press are publishing books that push a little outside of the traditional book design box. While the threat to their future is gaining a lot of attention we may be on the cusp of an exciting time for books. It will be interesting to see where things settle.

books.1. prototype

2011-09-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

Last October after five long years I finally finished photographing all 45 cities for my project Lux and last week, almost a year later, I finished the production of my first prototype book of the entire project. I have been dreaming about this book for the last 6 years...

I did some serious paper research, 'mastered' the basics of Indesign with the help of a designer friend to proof all of the cities in two days on my new Epson 3880, and one week of non-stop-studio-time-out-at-the-Headlands later I had designed and printed my 100 page dream version of the book. I then took the pages to an incredible book binder, John DeMerrit, to work his magic.

We decided on using a tipped binding that allows the book to fall open perfectly flat no matter which page the book is opened to and settled on a dark blueblack cover cloth with a pearlescent foil dye cut for the title on the front. The 12x15 inch book flips up as it runs through all 45 cities and then turns to open from right to left to reveal the NASA map of the world at night KEY and thumbnails organized by region. A pocket is tucked into the back cover that holds a smaller version of the NASA key so the viewer can pull it out and start again in order to identify each city.

I am coming around to the Epson 3880's capabilities (though it still lacks the arc of brightest brights to darkest darks you can get with an analog print) and the binding work is gorgeous (thank you John!).

To hold the whole project, completed in my hands after so many years, so much travel and work, I have to say feels amazing.

Wrapped tight in white paper and bubble wrap, we're off to New York...

summer 2011 update

2011-08-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

Because of a busy summer spent with periodic spurts off the grid I have not kept up on my Metro Nature posting as diligently as I might like but here begins again a more frequent habit of doing so...

- SUMMER 2011 -

Sadly summer seems to be winding down after an amazing few months.

HEADLANDS

My summer started at the beginning of May with the end of the CCA semester, which marked the last month of my official Headlands Center for the Arts residency spent mostly in one of, if not the most amazing studio spaces I will have the privilege of using in my art life. My time there working on my latest project, Markers of Time was spent along side an incredible set of creative folks and Headlands' generous and gracious staff (and the most insane food).

denver holt being dive bombed by a protective snowy owl father

ALASKA

I then packed up and took off in June for six weeks of travel to continue photographing in Alaska for Markers of Time. The trip started with six days of perpetual sunlight in Barrow, AK, on the edge of the Arctic Ocean where I photograph the midnight summer solstice sun and had the incredible honor of working with owl guru, Denver Holt, to photograph snowy owls in their tundra habitat on the edge of the world.

glacier boulders @ byron glacier

Next was the adventure of collecting glacial ice boulders from Byron Glacier outside Anchorage (and then shipping them back to California through an unfazed seafood company). This was followed by a tour along and near the Kenai Peninsula to make portraits of 6 of many glaciers that are rapidly receding due to climate change.

photographing matanuska glacier

The visit north was topped of by the consumption of some of the best smoked salmon I've ever had, caught fresh and smoked by my summer neighbors. I even squeezed in kayaking and some brave swimming in gorgeous frigid Alaskan waters.

Kayaked to a waterfall, Prince Edward's Sound

boat spray Resurrection Bay, near Homer, AK

KICKSTARTER

While in Alaska I also successfully raised 10K through Kickstarter for The Markers of Time project with the support and help from all sides of about a thousand souls. This experience simultaneously made me realize, connect to and broaden my community and was a way to see and understand the incredible and intricate foundation of support I have in my life and for my work.

I have never felt more overwhelmed with gratitude and in what can be a both taxing and seemingly solitary venture on the edge of things. The reminder of this experience now gives me great strength when things get rough or I get overwhelmed or exhausted. Plus I gratefully gained the funds to cover my travels this summer and to focus on the next phase of the project.

LUX BOOK

And now I am back in California working on the design of the Lux book. So next will come posts related to research and thoughts about book design and the relationship between photography and the book.

Thanks for checking in.

success!!

2011-07-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

The Markers of Time 10k Kickstarter was a success!

Thank you so very much to everyone for all the support and help along the way.

I am deeply grateful. Thanks to you all now I am back to it.

Markers of Time updates to come...

3 DAYS LEFT TO COLLECT...

2011-07-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report I have reached my goal of 10K for the Markers of Time Kickstarter campaign with 3 days left! There are still some great artworks to be collected. Take a look:

EIRIK JOHNSON: His Kickstarter print donation Melrose Montana is from his series "Animal Holes". By presenting the motif of the abandoned burrow in a direct and as close-cropped way as possible, Johnson allows the full differences, similarities, and significance of his subject to speak directly to the viewer, unencumbered by distracting elements. What is left is the stripped-down simplicity, variety, and adaptability of hiding places lurking amidst the ever-changing realms of property developers, a catalogue of survival, preservation and, ultimately, escape. (Press Release Gail Gibson Gallery)

edition of x 3 Archival Pigment Prints of"Melrose, Montana" @ 11x14 inches, $400 pledge

BIO: Born in Seattle in 1974, is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, George Eastman House and Aperture Gallery. His first book, Borderlands, was awarded the Santa Fe Prize for Photography in 2005. in 2010 Eirik had an exhibition of his project and published the correlating monograph Sawdust Mountain with Aperture Foundation in NYC. He was also awarded the Foster Award by the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston. www.eirikjohnson.com

REBECCA FOSTER: Her donated print 360 degrees is drawn from a series of twelve etchings of houses on stilts. The series is an investigation into the concept of "home"---a place from which we go forth and return, a place of origin, destination, and longing. The practice of building a house on stilts is utilized globally, presumably to create an interior space that hovers above an inhospitable exterior landscape.

360 degrees 9" x 12". 2008. etching $300 PLEDGE

BIO: Rebecca Foster is an interdisciplinary artist who was trained as a printmaker and has collaborated on the production of a limited edition, hand-sewn Louise Bourgeois artist’s book. Originally from Baltimore, MD, she earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008 and a BFA in Printmaking and a BA in English Literature from Cornell University in 2001. She teaches courses in printmaking and drawing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rebecca is spending the month of July in Amsterdam working on her latest project July 22, 1941/2011 for which she is taking 5.5 seconds of film footage, the only existing moving images of Anne Frank, and translating it into 132 meticulously rendered drawings and a short experimental film. (Read more on her funded Kickstarter page). www.buildupteardown.com

MIGUEL ARZABE: Miguel’s donated piece Kings Canyon Wilderness Remade is a fossilized interface for exploring the wilderness. Each piece in this series is made up of an Etch a Sketch drawing that first were photographed. The grey screen areas of the resulting photograph were erased by hand in Photoshop and the subsequent line drawing was laser etched onto an oak panel and filled in with wood filler. The process of taking a material first found in the natural landscape, then depicting it through a machine (Etch-a-sketch) whose negative is then limned (engraved) through another machine (computer), creates a dialogue that seeks to disrupt the common dichotomy within levels of processing - analog with digital, the manual with the mechanized, also the original with the copy. The works form nested frames of reference for the natural world.

Kings Canyon Wilderness Remade. 2009 $400 PLEDGE

BIO: Drawing from his interests in landscape and sport, in his work Miguel explores the tension between an idealized conception and a perceived experience through measured negotiations within time and space. He has shown his work at the Pompidou Center in Paris, in the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, and the Berkeley Art Museum. Arzabe holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, an MS in Fluid Dynamics from Arizona State University, and an MFA from UC Berkeley. www.miguelarzabe.net

KICKSTARTER $100 PLEDGE SPOTLIGHT: CIVIL TWILIGHT

2011-07-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

My amazing colleagues from Civil Twilight Collective and creators of Lunar Resonant Streetlights have donated the $100 pledge reward for the Markers of Time Kickstarter, a podcast guide for a full moon hike personalized for your location. Here's a little bit about them...

In 2007 Civil Twilight Collective formed and won Metropolis Magazine's Next Generation Competition with their Lunar Resonant Streetlight project which has since received attention from around the world and in and out of the city. They've since had their hand in many an exciting project and check out the latest, the incredible Oru, a folding origami kayak designed by Anton Willis that weighs 20lbs, takes 5 mins to assemble and handles like a dream! Trust me I've tried it (It also received an I.D. design distinction at the 2010 Index Award Design Annual). Take a look:

for inquires: orukayak.com

COLLECT EIRIK JOHNSON + PARKER TILGHAM PRINTS

2011-07-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

TWO MORE AMAZING ARTISTS, EIRIK JOHNSON + PARKER TILGHMAN have generously donated work to support the Markers of Time KICKSTARTER:

EIRIK JOHNSON

has donated and edition of x 3 Archival Pigment Prints of "Melrose, Montana" @ 11x14 inches from his Animal Hole series. www.eirikjohnson.com

PARKER TILGHMAN
has donated a limited edition print of "End of the World", 11x14 Inches Chromogenic Print. www.icaughtaglimpse.com

LIMITED TIME OFFER...KICKSTART.

2011-07-01T03:09:00.000-07:00

COLLECTORS + ART FANS ALIKE, TAKE A LOOK AT THE ARTWORK DONATED TO HELP RAISE FUNDS FOR THE MARKERS OF TIME KICKSTARTER…

DON'T WAIT!

This crew is no joke. If you are prone to collecting or have an itch to start these guys will make it worth your while PLUS your investment will support Markers of Time to boot. I would jump on it if I were you...

(INDIVIDUAL IN DEPTH POSTS on each artist and artwork TO FOLLOW SHORTLY…
AND LOOK OUT, 2 MORE WILL BE INTRODUCED THIS WEEK...)

REBECCA FOSTER

360 degrees

9" x 12". 2008. etching, edition of 25

buildupteardown.com

KOTA EZAWA

A mystery piece to be determined...

www.hainesgallery.com

YOUNG SUK SU

Huangshan, China. 2011

11x14". Archival Inkjet Print and Rag Paper (Special Donation Edition)

youngsuksuh.com

MIGUEL ARZABE

(detail)

Kings Canyon Wilderness Remade. 2009.

laser etch-a-sketched etched drawing on salvaged wood (english white oak) w/ wood filler

www.arthike.com

YOU MIGHT JUST WANT TO COLLECT...

2011-07-01T02:50:00.000-07:00

TAKE A LOOK AT THE ARTISTS WHO HAVE DONATED THEIR WORK TO HELP RAISE FUNDS FOR THE MARKERS OF TIME KICKSTARTER…

REBECCA FOSTER

360 degrees

9" x 12". 2008. etching, edition of 25

buildupteardown.com

KOTA EZAWA

A mystery piece to be determined...

www.hainesgallery.com

YOUNG SUK SU

Huangshan, China. 2011

11x14". Archival Inkjet Print and Rag Paper (Special Donation Edition)

youngsuksuh.com

MIGUEL ARZABE

Kings Canyon Wilderness Remade. 2009.

laser etched drawing on salvaged wood (english white oak) w/ wood filler

www.arthike.com

EIRIK JOHNSON

has donated and edition of x 3 Archival Pigment Prints of"Melrose, Montana" @ 11x14 inches from his Animal Hole series.www.eirikjohnson.com

PARKER TILGHMAN

has donated a limited edition print of "End of the World", 11x14 Inches Chromogenic Print. www.icaughtaglimpse.com

fluffy co interview

2011-06-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Fluffy Co just posted and interview with me about my travels in the arctic and my latest project Markers of Time. I just launched THIS KICKSTARTER campaign for it so check it out and pass it on when you have a second.

These guys are cool! Started in San Francisco in 2005, they design some kickin stuff. Fluffy Co is a small, friendly business that sustainably produces apparel, accessories, and decor with a Metronature style.

Here is a Markers of Time owl and fox themed selection of some of their designs...

Check them out!

markers of time chronicles: the snowy owl

2011-06-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend the better part of the day hiking out to snowy owl nesting sites on the tundra outside Barrow, Alaska with Denver Holt one of the formative snowy owl expert in the world.

How I connected to Denver, is one of those long stories of serendipity that make you feel like you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. Denver Holt, a Boston native and founder of the Owl Research Institute in Montana, has been coming up to Barrow for 20 years (this is officially his 20th) to study the snowy owls that live in the area year round. Along with being gorgeous creatures that people tend to visually connect with the snowy owl is a major indicator species for the health of the arctic and impact of global warming on the area.

When I met Denver yesterday morning I liked him immediately. He had a playful sense of humor and a thoughtful self possessed demeanor. He asked the right kind of questions and seemed glad I was unfazed by the arctic and knew what I was getting in to. He lent me some camo lady waders and l was instructed to jump on the back of his caribou padded ATV to head out into the arctic day with him.

We visited two nests yesterday. First drove well out of town on a dirt road under a cloudy sky, parked and set out on the tundra toward a spot on the horizon. The tundra is a vast spongy set of moss and shrub and grasses, wetness everywhere. Waders are essential. From a distance it looks infinite and calm but as we got out into it I was immediately surprised by the number of birds and the range of activity. We hiked out about 1.5 miles before Denver spotted the brown and white speckles of a female snowy sitting on her nest and her pure white male mate near by. We had to be mindful to head in slowly as the female will flush to distract any predators and we could easily lose the location of the nest. She did flush but we managed to find her nest and 5 eggs sitting in a soft bowl of dried grasses on the top of tundra mound strewn with white owl feathers. While we kept the mother away with our presence Denver covered the eggs with his hat to keep them warm and he quickly began to take his necessary notes. I sat there next to this collection of unborn owls on the top of the mound in the middle of the arctic summer wondering for a moment how I had gotten to be there. I watched the wary parents in the distance wait for us to leave and thought how majestic and powerful these birds are. If climate change effects the lemmings, their food source, who knows what will become of them… It was one of those moment of recognizing how much I believe in this work and how much I believe in helping bring light to what is changing up here.

lemming skull

Soon enough we left the nest to it’s worried owners and took off back to the ATV. We headed on to a new spot and this time hiked about 3 or 4 miles into the tundra to another nesting site. Along the way Denver and I talked about the power owls have as a poster child species. Across many cultures they are the most revered of all birds and the theory goes that because of their wide symmetrical faces we see ourselves in them more than we do with any other bird speices. Denver mentioned they are also the oldest recorded birds drawn in cave paintings (one is included in the 32,000 year old cave in France Herzog’s latest film explores). As species impact is one of the things I am looking at in the Markers of Time project I have to think about which species will connect the viewer to the ideas I am engaging in. The beloved owl definitely makes the cut.

snowy father attack

The second nest approach of the day was far more exciting than the first. After at least an hour of hiking we first spotted the male sitting on a hill next to a rusted out snow mobile watching us approach. Denver warned me to keep a watch on him in case he might swoop in for an attack and just as Denver was getting out his gear I called out to him and the male dove down and tried to get him. It was both startling and somehow gorgeous. This white winged creature against the bluish sky and brown tundra diving down seemed totally unreal. While this time Denver managed to avoid any injury he has jackets with holes in them from previous experiences. This was a good father, a solid protector though he stopped at one pass and settled down a distance away while we tended to the nest. Next to it we found a dead lemming and in it we found 4 eggs and a newly hatched chick, a fluffy little floppy owlet leaning on it’s unborn brothers and sisters. Denver worked quickly as we could hear the mother calling from a short distance. Once finished weighing the lemming and taking a few notes he generously held up the lemming and gently the chick for me to photograph before we took off to let the family recover.

We stopped shortly after for a well earned lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and trail mix and then hiked back to the ATV. It was all around a lovely day. 8 miles of tundra walking, some good solid science, art and owl conversation, and 2 owls nests later I was wiped out and while this project has no doubt been a mother lode of unglamorous work, days like these make me feel lucky this is my job. And if my work can in some small way help protect these amazing animals and the habitat they live in I will keep, keep, keep at it.

Denver @ nest 1

To help me help the Snowy Owl please check out my Kickstarter link and donate to the Markers of Time project.

Thank you!

happy summer solstice

2011-06-21T02:57:00.000-07:00

midnight sun over the arctic ocean. barrow. ak. 12am 6.21.11

KICKSTARTER

2011-06-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

I just arrived back in Alaska to continue my latest project Markers of Time over the next six weeks and I’d love your help! Please read on…

Markers of Time investigates how climate change is altering natural rhythms in the delicate ecosystems of arctic.

I have just launched a Kickstarter campaign in order to help fund my travel and production costs for the proejct. Please check it out:

Tomorrow, to start off my six weeks I will head up to Barrow, Alaska on the edge of the Arctic Ocean for 5 days of perpetual daylight to photograph summer solstice and the snowy owl and lemming relationship with Owl "guru", Denver Holt.

Check back soon for updates from Barrow...

To donate please follow this link: http://kck.st/l6ER2N

inspiration from the headlands institute

2011-05-09T15:54:00.001-07:00

With the intention to find out more about how climate change is affecting California in preparation for my upcoming presentation at the Headlands Center for the Arts on May 22nd I have been visiting with a range of related organizations out in the Marin Headlands.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend half a day out with a group of 5th graders through The Headlands Institute. Founded in 1977 The Headlands Institute provides environmental science education through two- to five-days residential outdoor science programs for grades K-12 that are customized to enhance classroom curriculum.

Aside from the excuse to explore the area with some cool kids I wanted the opportunity to observe different ways the Institute is facing the challenge of educating kids about a topic as complex as climate change. As an artist I have many overlapping problem solving issues and it was interesting to see how similar our goals are in terms of trying to get folks (of all ages) engaged and connected to these complicated ideas.

discovery of sea lion carcass on the beach

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to head out with educator Ben Graves and a group of well prepared and lively 5th graders for a climate change themed day that included a game of plankton and whale tag, single and multi-celled phytoplankton examination under microscopes in the Institute's lab, followed up by a chalk drawing session of what we found and a hike along the beach and over a ridge to lunch at an old Nike shelter. Songs about slugs were sung along the way and I was also honored pre lunch to be inducted into the apple core club for eating my whole entire apple, core and all. My consumption was impressive enough to warrant the learning of the secret apple core handshake (which I can only teach to those who earn it!).

It was a great day and the students' enthusiasm and knowledge about climate change was so inspiring (and honestly put me to shame)!

drawing of a diatom phytoplankton

I am a huge supporter of the Institute and feel lucky to have witnessed first hand what they are offering these kids, a lot of whom have had little if any opportunity to spend time out in the landscape. All of them seemed incredibly excited and I have no doubt the experiences of many out there will end up being formative.

another drawing of a diatom phytoplankton

Overall the experience gave me great hope for the future and I left with a deep admiration and respect for the Institute along with new thinking about how to translate ideas about climate change effectively.

Thanks to the Headlands Institute for letting me tag along...

event at the headlands: markers of time, perspectives on climate change

2011-05-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

As a current artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts I will be giving a presentation about my artistic practice and my latest project-in-progress, Marker of Time, on May 22nd at 1:30pm. The presentation will culminate in a discussion with Park Service ranger, Will Elder about overlapping challenges in regard to communicating about a complex topic such as climate change to our respective publics. Elder will also lead a climate change focused walk in the Headlands following the presentation/discussion.

Lux: Metropolis 38° 45' N 90° 23' W (st louis)

About my new project Markers of Time:

The act of recording man-made light in my project Lux coupled with a edifying trip to the arctic during the long light of summer led me to contemplate our various attempts to control time and how this tendency dangerously eradicates our relationship to the planet’s inherent natural rhythms and cycles. While based in the Alaskan and Norwegian Arctic from summer to winter solstice of 2010 I began a photo and video based project entitled “Markers of Time” that explores and interprets our understanding of time and shifting scientific data that reflects incongruities in natural markers of time due to the warming of the planet.

For this project I have been using still and real time media (photography and video) as scientific and artistic tools to explore and interpret ideas surrounding:

1. fixed markers of time (day/night length, moon cycles, glacial and tundra core samples, winter/summer solstice…)

2. shifting markers of time reflected in a range of scientific data (ice melt and freeze dates, changes in sea ice formation, tidal levels, wildlife migratory patterns, effect of temperature change on the food chain and food supply…)

3. Human control of time (use of manmade light in both arctic winter and summer, year round food supply (out of season, non local), use of technology to interpret/relate to time - computers, internet, telephones, etc…)

Along with standard photographic methods I am experimenting with photographic language, formats and processes - some that serve as historical reference for cataloging and interpreting data (cyanotypes, xrays, straight documentation) and others that reflect and draw attention to our understanding and perception of time (sequencing, grids, stop action, etc.). The use of media correlates with the concept explored.

Species Impact: Arctic Fox, White on Brown (Seely 2011)

Please join me on May 22nd at 1:30pm for:

Artist Presentation

Markers of Time
Perspectives on Climate Change + Interspecies Impact

Headlands Center for the Arts

944 Fort Barry
Sausalito, CA

metro nature class guest post by tommy stuber

2011-04-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

The Only Home We've Ever Known...

The Pale Blue Dot is one of the most important photographs ever taken. It shows the earth from across the galaxy, and from so many light years away the our planet appears not much different than the other thousands of stars surrounding it. It gives us perspective, reminding us how small our world really is and how important it is for us to protect it. The speech Carl Sagan made about the photograph sums it up the best. There is one part that is often quoted, but the whole thing is beautiful, so I wanted to share this video with the audio from the original speech. - Tommy Stuber

The monologue is spoken by Carl Sagan. Here is a transcript:

On February 14, 1990, NASA commanded the Voyager 1 spacecraft, having completed its primary mission, to turn around to photograph the planets it had visited. One image Voyager returned was of Earth, 4 billion miles distant, showing up as a tiny dot.
"The spacecraft was a long way from home. I thought it would be a good idea, just after Saturn, to have them take one last glance homeward. From Saturn, the Earth would appear too small for Voyager to make out any detail. Our planet would be just a point of light, a lonely pixel hardly distinguishable from the other points of light Voyager would see: nearby planets, far off suns. But precisely because of the obscurity of our world thus revealed, such a picture might be worth having." "It had been well understood by the scientists and philosophers of classical antiquity that the Earth was a mere point in a vast, encompassing cosmos -- but no one had ever seen it as such. Here was our first chance, and perhaps also our last." "So, here they are: a mosaic of squares laid down on top of the planets in a background smattering of more distant stars. Because of the reflection of sunlight off the spacecraft, the Earth seems to be sitting in a beam of light, as if there were some special significance to this small world; but it's just an accident of geometry and optics. There is no sign of humans in this picture: not our reworking of the Earth's surface; not our machines; not ourselves. From this vantage point, our obsession with nationalism is nowhere in evidence. We are too small. On the scale of worlds, humans are inconsequential: a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal." "Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings; thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines; every hunter and forager; every hero and coward; every creator and destroyer of civilizations; every king and peasant, every young couple in love; every mother and father; every hopeful child; every inventor and explorer; every teacher of morals; every corrupt politician; every supreme leader; every superstar; every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." "The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings; how eager they are to kill one another; how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light." "Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand." "It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the only home we've ever known: the pale blue dot."

metro nature class guest post quin graddy

2011-04-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

TOPIC: Environmental Justice
Literacy for environmental Justice (San Francisco, California)
www.lejyouth .org/

Earth House Center (Oakland, California) www.earthhousecenter.org

These are two organizations direct at addressing, educating, and advocating for environmental and social justice, a key issue in terms of the urban/nature relationship. Both organizations look at sustainable practices in educating people to empower them to have a voice on environmental issues that affect the sustainability of communities as well as empowering individuals to find solutions through modes of education and producing media. Environmental Justice in a simple definition of all people having the equal right to their basic needs. LEJ works on a local scale in San Francisco's southeastern communities to combat the significantly disproportionate levels of economic inequality compared to the rest of the city, as well as its disproportionate flurry of health problems that have risen from decades of industrial waste/dumping/pollution. the organization specifically focuses on youth as these neighborhoods have the highest densities of children out of other districts in the cities that have the least services.

Earth House functions on a much larger scale, working toward academic research and support for other grass roots operations that are addressing issues of environmental justice. The team works on a global, national, and local scale, utilizing printed media as a means of creating spheres of awareness in community, political, and social spheres of influence.

I worked with Sam Slayter who graduated from CCA a year ago on a community arts project that was in partnership with LEJ. We worked with a group of youth from Bayview Hunters Point in SF creating work that deals with current environmental issues in their community. Along with meeting and working with some of the other artists as a volunteer, it was one of the most wonderful experiences I have had.

Here is a link for that project.... which is constantly evolving and growing:
welcometotheneighborhood.us

- Quin Graddy

stewart brand - undeniable progress

2011-04-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

I am a member of the Long Now Foundation and periodically get a these lovely short optimistic and thought provoking essays from founder Stewart Brand. Here's the latest:

Undeniable Progress

Hominids had upright walking, stone tools, fire, even language but still remained in profound stasis. What led to humanity's global takeoff, Ridley argues, was the invention of exchange about 120,000 years ago. "That's ten times older than agriculture."

The beginnings of trade encouraged specialization and innovation, which encouraged further innovation, specialization, and trade, and the unending virtuous cycle of progress was set in motion. The quality and speed of the progress depends on the size of the population doing the exchanging. "It's not how clever we are but how much in contact we are with each other." Thus the 5,000 Australians who became isolated on Tasmania 10,000 years ago didn't just stop progressing, they forgot how to make and use bone tools and even how to clothe themselves against cold weather. Their individual brains were fine, "but there was something wrong with their collective brains."

What really is being exchanged is ideas. The Pill-cam (for shooting video of your gut) was invented, Ridley points out, when a gastroenterologist had a conversation with guided missile designer.

catherine wagner

The acceleration of progess can be measured in objective terms such as the amount of labor it takes to earn an hour of reading light. In 1997, with CF bulbs, it was half a second. In 1950, with incandescent bulbs, eight seconds. In 1880, with kerosene lamps, fifteen minutes. In 1800, with candles, six hours. In every decade various intellectuals keep saying that progress has stopped or is about to stop, but Ridley showed chart after chart chronicling constant improvement in everything we care about. Life expectancy is increasing by five hours a day. IQ keeps going up by three points a decade. Agriculture gets ever more productive, leaving more land to remain wild. Even economic inequality is decreasing, with poor countries getting rich faster than rich countries are getting richer.

On the subject of climate change, Ridley has a similar set of detailed charts showing that sea level has been rising slowly for a long time, but it is not accelerating. The same with the retreat of glaciers. Overall global warming is proceeding slower than was predicted. Humanity has been decarbonizing its energy supply steadily for 150 years as we progressed from wood to coal to oil to natural gas. A few years ago it was thought that only 25 years of natural gas was left, but with the invention of hydrofracking shale gas, the supply is suddenly 250 years worth, and it is a hugely cleaner source than coal. (Among nuclear innovations, Ridley is particularly intrigued by thorium reactors.)

"The story of history is of more for less." Paul Ehrlich's formula (I=PAT--- environmental Impact equals Population times Affluence times Technology) is better stated as I=P/AT--- Impact equals Population divided by Affluence times Techology. As affluence and technology increase, and population levels off, environmental impact can go ever down.

An historian once wrote, 'On what principle is it that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?" That was English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1830, even before the industrial revolution.

--Stewart Brand

metro nature discoveries in nyc

2011-03-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

chelsea. a terrarium in the back of a trailer (?)...

chelsea. a banana holding a reflector (for a video shoot) of course...

the highline.

the highline.

madison square park signage.

metro nature class guest post nicole klein

2011-03-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

Mitch Epstein from his American Power series

For this week's Metro Nature guest blog post Nicole Klein takes a look at an article that reflects on the nuclear plant issues in Japan and a need for a cleaner energy path in the US:

In light of the recent events I was compelled to display my interests of this CNN article by Patrick Doherty about our need for a path to cleaner energy. Cleaner energy is something I think that is very relevant to the Metro Nature class, and also our daily lives. The power plant disaster occuring in Japan right now should be a wake up call to the rest of the world. With after shocks and other disasters close to residential areas I think that lack of action toward converting our energy to solar is detrimental to our future's sustainability! - Miss Klein

The article discusses a new push for a return to the main street environment made up of smaller greener units, and suggests this push could help stabilize the money market:
"America is experiencing a great demographic convergence around a new design for our communities. Baby boomers are emptying their nests while "millennials" are setting up their first households. Both groups, more than 50% of the population, want smaller, greener units in more walkable, transit-connected and healthy communities.

Tapping into that demand, in the same way Presidents Truman and Eisenhower tapped into the post-war housing demand to create today's suburbia, can provide America with its next economic boom. This is the best chance to unlock Wall Street's $3.6 trillion in cash and money market funds that is waiting for more "certainty" before being invested."

It also touches on the current ready state of supply and demand:

"On the demand side, meeting Americans' hunger for more walkable communities will mean the commute moves from car-dependent gridlock to efficient, convenient transit. The kids' activities and weekend errands will require a walk into the neighborhood park or the village center. Families that used to have three cars will move to two; two to one, and one to none. The Chevy Volt shows that Detroit can make and market affordable and attractive electric cars.

On the supply side, we must move toward an all-electric future. We already know how to engineer a 21st century smart grid that allows for the distributed generation of renewable electricity, ending today's dependence on the mix of centralized, disaster-prone sources of energy. The trick is moving away from centralized power generators fueled by coal and nuclear."

And touches back to a note made in Ana's recent blog posting: "The key is reducing demand and changing supply."

The article also points out that there is more than enough renewable energy to power the country:

"A 2005 California Energy Commission study showed that rooftop solar installations in California could produce almost 68 gigawatts of electricity by 2016, surpassing the state's total demand of 65 gigawatts.

Concentrating solar power installations in the Southwest could deliver an awesome 7,000 gigawatts; nearly seven times the amount of electricity produced from all sources in the United States.

According to the Department of Energy, America's accessible wind resources total 12 times the current electricity consumption of the United States. China, too, can make the switch. It has more than enough wind to replace its current demand and plentiful solar resources on top of that."

While I am surprised to see such a green take from CNN I was happy to read in conclusion:

"One thing is clear: The sun is setting on disaster-prone energy. It's time to put America's economy to work making our nation more sustainable, secure and prosperous." (full article here)

john pfahl's smoke series

accidental monsters of meaning

2011-03-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

Another fellow Arctic Circle Program participant, choreographer friend Aimee Smith just sent over an announcement for her latest event/project:

In March the WA Museum will transform its temporary exhibition space into a living environment of dancing bodies. Accidental Monsters of Meaning is a live-art installation examining the monsters of our time and where they are leading us.

In a room filled with display cases five dancers twist and turn through imagery of consumer culture, are remote controlled by the audience, travel through an arctic wonderland and converse only in advertising slogans Choreographer Aimee Smith invites you to navigate through this space and ask the question, what will take for our species to survive?

Photo: David Collins

Performers: Rhiannon Newton & Aisling Donovan

25 March - 3 April 2011

Weekdays: 10 – 2pm Weekends: 12 – 4pm

Western Australia Museum - Perth

Perth Cultural Centre, James Street

www.aimee-smith.com

If you happen to be in Western Australia check it out. Wishing I could...

two quick trips north

2011-03-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

I spent six months of 2010 living in Alaska and traveling in the arctic to work on the start of a new project in the far North. I'm back up here for a few days during my spring break from teaching and am happily falling back into the quiet arctic headspace I've desperately missed these last few months back in my more manic life in San Francisco. After a long weather effected journey up here to Anchorage yesterday with a final arrival at 3:30am (welcomed by a brilliantly bright "super moon" bouncing off snow covered mountains) I am recouping today and prepping for a shoot of that same super moon tonight. During this day of recovery I have been catching up on the venture of a fellow arctic loving friend whom I met on our travels through the Arctic Circle Program last October. Filmmaker, illustrator, musician, photographer, Tem Doran's very currently accompanying British polar explorer Ben Saunders to the start point of his north pole speed record attempt from the north coast of Canada and filming his efforts and preparation along the way.

In March 2011 Ben Saunders sets out to reach the Geographic North Pole solo and unsupported, and aims to break the North Pole speed record in the process. In 2005 a guided team using dog sleds and several air-drops of food reached the Pole in 36 days, 22 hours, and in 2010 a Canadian team reached the Pole on foot in 41 days, 18 hours with one resupply flight. Ben is travelling solo and on foot, with no support en route.

He starts from Cape Discovery, on the north coast of Canada, and he will travel on skis and snowshoes, hauling a sled containing food, equipment, and a cutting-edge satellite tracking beacon that will enable real-time position updates as Ben heads north.

Here are a few of Tem's excellent and gorgeous very recent clips of the start of Saunder's expedition:

Here is an excerpt about the struggle with a lack of control from Saunder's Blog posted yesterday:

"...If I’m dropped on Tuesday 22nd, I’ll have a maximum window of 36 days to reach the Pole before the Russian ice base Borneo -and the opportunity for a flight home via Norway- closes for the year. We could not be cutting it much finer. This was always going to be an expedition that was at the outer margins of what’s possible, and in stalling me for six days, the weather has narrowed those margins yet further.
The lack of control is the most frustrating part. On the Arctic Ocean my progress north is up to me, and even on the worst days I can battle with blizzards and headwinds and negative drift to win a few miles. Here in Resolute, where the wind is still and the sun is shining, the weather somehow has me pinned down, with no chance to fight back (read more here)

While my ventures here at this point are in no way comparable to Saunders exploits I wonder at weather and control, at what this brief trip will offer up for my work, of the gap between readiness or preparation and what actually will happens or unfold...

Wishing Saunders the best of luck and safe travels on his quickest trip North with speed yet unparalleled...

ode to bees

2011-03-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

© seely
Before moving over to San Francisco a few years ago I kept bees with a good friend of mine Curiosity Shoppe owner Derek Fagerstrom in the back yard of the house I lived in in Berkeley, CA (yes, very Berkeley of us I know). While I have to admit Derek did the bulk of the "heavy" bee keeping work I learned an incredible amount and fell hard for bees. Their dynamism and industry, their general knowing of how and what to do individually and communally is just insane and their generosity in terms of honey offerings was very much appreciated.

© seely
I have never been stung by a bee even as a bee keeper and I have to say if I had or ever do I will take the pain for what they give is well worth it. They keep us fed and our food growing. They specifically make California what it is. The Central Valley is kept alive and running because of their industry. And bees are in trouble. Our first batch just disappeared one day. Maybe they got sick, mites can often bring disease and wipe out colonies, or maybe the queen died and they moved on, lost without a "leader" (when this happens they tend to leave the hive and swarm, which actually means they hang in a bundle bunch not killer bee style buzz in a group, somewhere that might seem like a nice spot for a new hive like your dryer vent...) but we just don't know. Vanished...
And this is happening all the time everywhere. At our Bee Keeping Association meetings in the East Bay and San Francisco we heard similar stories and learned the latest theories but no one really seems to know the deal. A more recent concrete theory is that a combination of two common infections - one fungal, one viral - work together to create a condition far more serious than either would in isolation. As quoted from this article in the Telegraph, "There are complex interactions taking place between a number of factors, pathogens, environmental, beekeeping practices and other stressors, which are causing honey bee losses described as Colony Collapse Disorder in the US. No single or combination of factors has satisfactorily explained CCD to date." CCD has been in the news a lot this last year and still the findings are unclear. No one seems to know what is going on.

Here Dennis vanEngelsdorp the Acting State Apiarist for Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture, who studies colony collapse disorder gives a TED talk on the state of bees. It's easy to forget how dependant we are on nature and it's resources, how the bees' vulnerability mirrors our own. VanEndgelsdorp introduces Nature Deficit Disorder as a cause for our disconnection with nature and it's cycles and the bees' issues/decline and I will say that the experience of keeping and tending to these amazing creatures definitely changed how I perceive both life in the city and our interspeciesdependance. Fact: we save them, they save us. I give bees much respect and every time I eat honey now I slow it down and savor the hell out of it. If you pay attention you can taste life in there. All that was growing during a specific period of time. Each jar like a little time capsule. Just like gold...

metro nature class guest post ana mason

2011-03-14T00:41:00.000-07:00

This week's Metro Nature class guest post is a New York Times article from Ana Mason that starts off..."For the sake of a cleaner planet, should Americans wear dirtier clothes?" Interesting question. Here are Ana's comments:

The headline for this article When Efficiency Sullies the Environment really caught my attention, mainly making me ask, "Can efficiency really hurt the environment and how?" So I clicked to read more. In our Metro Nature class, Christina is always quick not go to extremes during class discussions, and always tries to play devil's advocate. I've always tried my best to keep an open mind and be skeptical, especially with things that seem too good to be true, but I couldn't really believe that energy efficiency could have a potentially destructive side. But the points made in this article make sense and mainly seem to support the universal truth that moderation is best in terms of how you lead your life.

The article goes into the problem known as the energy rebound effect. An example from the article states: "While there’s no doubt that fuel-efficient cars burn less gasoline per mile, the lower cost at the pump tends to encourage extra driving. There’s also an indirect rebound effect as drivers use the money they save on gasoline to buy other things that produce greenhouse emissions, like new electronic gadgets or vacation trips on fuel-burning planes." It gets into the fact that we once lived by candle light and then with the introduction to lighting started lighting all kinds of places we never did before.
Like Ana says, the overall conclusion seems to get back to the whole less less is more thing. Moderation is the key....

metro nature class guest post jennifer mirch

2011-03-14T00:26:00.000-07:00

Badgers vs Civilization

I decided to write about badgers in the city and in the country because there is a colossal controversy about them in the UK. I also wanted to show the continual encroachment from humans into wildlife. Where do we plant our feet, and where do animals go when we are in their space? Badgers are an integral piece in stories and lore in England and have been a well-loved familiar animal for hundreds of years. I wanted to show the continual encroachment from humans into wildlife, and how humans react when the closest animals in proximity have an incident with them.
The first video is of a badger wandering into the city in Oslo Norway who takes a stroll confident that it will find a way back to it’s home. The people are somewhat interested, but look as if they’re used to seeing this occurrence.

The next video is of the controversy in the UK of badgers inhabiting the countryside are carrying Bovine Tuberculosis and transmit it to cattle. Thousands of cattle have been destroyed and farmers are facing tragic situations of going out of business. Farmers are loosing so many cattle that they’ve asked for a widespread cull of the badgers. The government was proposing a strategy for farmers to be licensed to trap and shoot badgers but also vaccinate them when caught as well.
Badger conservation groups and citizens all around are in an outrage, and have demanded a halt to this decision. Success came to winning a halt, as scientists and experts are sure that culling doesn’t solve a Tuberculosis problem. It would probably take about twenty years of shooting and vaccinating badgers to eradicate TB in the UK.
Will the love of badgers outweigh the giant cattle and dairy industry? Read more here...

I also wanted to show this piece in “Livin’ Orange” about a news story in the BBC. It’s a hilarious look at how the English portray tragic or startling stories in an exaggerated way. I’d like to think that it’s a total misunderstanding on their part of nature or wild animals because of a removal of it from their everyday lives.

Jennifer Mirich March 6, 2011

metro nature class guest post julia guarneri

2011-03-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Julia Guarneri's Metro Nature class post looks at Art For Earth artist Jorge Pujol who creates very large scale candle installations assembled to make large pictographs that speak about environmental/political issues. These installations occur around the globe, and can be seen clearly from an ariel viewpoint. The symbols Pujol uses are basic, which allow accessibility to a large audience to make a global impact. The materials used are not hazardous to the environment, and are set up in fire-aware and fire-safe areas. 'It can’t be denied that Art For Earth is more likely to lend their expertise to enlightening left-of-center causes: it’s doubtful they’ll be illuminating a Tea Party rally anytime soon. With that said, however, there’s definitely a case to be made when it comes to equating so-called “causes” with universal human values.'

Art For Earth "Let Them Be" save the whale project in Hervey Bay in Queensland, Australia in correlation with a protest against international whaling taking place in the neighboring town

2011-03-13T00:16:00.000-08:00

Silence broken...Due to some posting/tech issues Metro Nature has been on hold this last week and a half. Problem seems to be solved so to catch up with our class shortly to follow are class guest posts that have been accumulating for subsequent publication....

stewart brand: adulthood II

2011-02-22T20:18:00.001-08:00

I have been reading Stewart Brand(cultural innovator, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog (1968)'s, author of Whole Earth Discipline, founder of the Long Now Foundation/co producer of the Clock of the Long Now,...)'s book, "The Clock of the Long Now" in relationship to my newest body of work (in progress) that deals with our obsession with time and it's relationship to climate change. As a member of the Long Now Foundation I recently received an email that consisted of this brief and poignant essay by Brand discussing how with the lengthening of our life span a new phase of life, Adulthood II, has developed in the form of a few decades post retirement. This segment of life now offers a longer period of time for deeper reflection on the one's past and our collective future. And he asks, what will we do with it?

The birth of a first child is the most intense disruption that most adults experience. Suddenly the new parents have no sleep, no social life, no sex, and they have to keep up with a child that changes from week to week. "Two ignorant adults learn from the newborn how to be decent parents." Everything now has to be planned ahead, and the realization sinks in that it will go on that way for twenty years.

More than with any other animal, human childhood dependency is enormously prolonged. That's a burden on parents and the species, but that long childhood is what makes us so adaptive, so capable of hope and love, so able to think ahead. It makes us the time-binding species.

Lately there's been a new development in the human lifecycle---extended adulthood. In the twentieth century human lifespan got thirty years longer. "Increased longevity," Bateson proposed, "may make a difference for the human species as momentous as our long dependent childhood." A whole new stage of life has emerged---what Bateson calls Adulthood II.

In the old days a child would be lucky to have one living grandparent. These days kids have seven or eight grandparents of various sorts, and their laps are not available because the oldsters have gone back to school, or eloped with somebody, or started new careers, or are off cruising the world.

They say, "I don't feel 60!" That's because they internalized stereotypes of "60" that no longer apply. A lot of cultural baggage about age now has to be thrown out, just as with previous liberation movements---civil rights, women's rights, gay rights. With each new equality comes new participation. Women who fought for the right to work, for example, get insulted afresh by the idea of mandatory retirement.

So our elders will be active, but will they be wise? It's not a given. "Experience is the best teacher only if you do your homework, which is reflection," Bateson said. Adulthood II offers most people the time to reflect for the first time in their lives. That reflection, and the actions that are taken based on it, is the payoff for humanity of extended adulthood.

Herself reflecting on parenthood, Bateson proposed that the metaphor of "mother Earth" is no longer accurate or helpful. Human impact on nature is now so complete and irreversible that we're better off thinking of the planet as if it were our first child. It will be here after us. Its future is unknown and uncontrollable. We are forced to plan ahead for it. Our first obligation is to keep it from harm. We are learning from it how to be decent parents.

--Stewart Brand

metro nature class guest post adoria elias

2011-02-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

For this week's Metro Nature class guest post Adoria Elias sent over this news clip about a new hybrid breed of cat that "looks like a leopard and purrs like a kitten..." the Ashera.

Adoria: "I'm a totally cat lover but I thought that this might be an interesting controversial topic having to do with our influence on nature. We did this to wolfs and now have poodles and chiwawas I'm just interested in what others' perspective might be on these cat hybrids."
In researching the Ashera I also stumbled on the site: Lifestyle Pets. Here is their introduction:

Interesting to call a manipulation of an animal breed an "invention"...something that relates to our recent readings about Cartesian thought and Decartes philosophies of animals as machines.
Plenty to think about. One, it is some times clear that we are a strange culture when it comes to your relationship to nature (and animals!)...

notes on: bjork-the inner or deep parts of an animal or plant structure

2011-02-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Notes on the documentary Bjork: The Inner Workings of an Animal or Plant Structure about the making of Björk's album Medülla, for which all sounds on the album were sourced from human vocals. (Here is a bit of a teaser from YouTube:)

Whether you like Bjork's sound or not there is no doubt, as a rightly self proclaimed music scientist, she has genius. Depending on the creative project I've found sometimes it's better to know less about the process or practice that led to the final outcome of the work, that knowing too much dilutes the power of the work. In this case I would argue that this documentary is not only a fascinating look into an artistic practice relevant to all makers but makes the album ten times more powerful and interesting to listen to. I highly recommend it in it's entirety especially if you are at all interested in the human voice as instrument or creative/editing processes in general. It is also a well crafted documentary.

I also love that I found the Video Earth Intruders on National Geographic's site.

egypt: power of + to the people

2011-02-15T21:32:00.000-08:00

I can't get over this amazing photograph of thousands of pro-democracy protesters taking part in prayers ( for an immediate end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule) in Tahrir Square in Cairo last week

metro nature class guest post jason hansen

2011-02-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

This week's Metro Nature's class guest post is from Jason Hansen on artist and collaborator Mark Jenkins' work:

"So I picked this somewhat recent piece(2008), it's a collaboration between Green Peace and Mark Jenkins. Known for his anatomical forms which are done with only clear tape, he sets up humans in unnatural and surreal situations around the city.

Although in interviews he doesn't directly state that he has any intentions whatsoever, other to impose himself(often the figures are casts of himself) onto the world, in a way 3-D Graffiti. But a look through the gallery(Here) will give you an insight into his mind, which from the looks of it is a very distraught and downtrodden city dweller who with his own pains sees the distress in others caught in the jungles of city life. In contrast to his Nature(Here) and Inside(Here) work you see individuals struggling to correspond with nature in a heavily city instituted mindset.

The Green Peace Collaboration(Here) shows a distraught future for a polar bear which has been ripped from his home and must fend for himself on the streets.

It offers a different rendition than the 'cute cuddly' polar bear and anthropomorphizes it in order for the correlation to be drawn between all Ecological Refugees from around the world.

Anyways, an amazing artist that takes a simple concept and execution and takes it to extremes which really makes people stop and pay attention in a place where you're supposed to mind your own damn business." - Jason

(Click HERE to read an interesting interview with the artist)

rem koolhaus - delirious new york

2011-02-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

Greetings from New York. I am here for the College Art Association Conference and outside my 19th story midtown hotel window snow is falling...

“The Metropolis strives to reach a mythical point where the world is completely fabricated by man, so that it absolutely coincides with his desires. The Metropolis is an addictive machine, from which there is no escape, unless it offers that too... Through this pervasiveness, its existence has become like the Nature it has replaced: taken for granted, almost invisible, certainly indescribable. ...Manhattan has generated its own metropolitan urbanism—a culture of congestion.”
Rem Koolhaus, Delirious New York, 1994

diaromas: sugimoto vs barnes

2011-02-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

Musk Ox - Hiroish Sugimoto ( from dioramas series)
vs

Man With Ox Richard Barnes from "Animal Logic"

metro nature class guest post allati henson

2011-02-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

For this week's Metro Nature class post graphic design major, Allati Henson sent over Metro Nature related links to the movies: Astro Boy and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

With a focus on the distinct differences between human and machine, Astro Boy, the 2009 computer-animated 3-D film is loosely based on the long-running Japanese series of the same name by Osamu Tezuka. The film is set in the futuristic Metro City, a metropolis which floats in the sky above the polluted "Surface" where robots co-exist with humans. Its focus is on the adventures of the titular "Astro Boy" a powerful robot created by the head of the Ministry of Science, Doctor Tenma to replace his son Tobio. Dr. Tenma built Astro in Tobio's image and treated him as lovingly as if he were the real Tobio, but soon realized that the little robot could not fill the void of his lost son, especially given that Astro could not grow older or express human aesthetics. Astro goes on to be adopted by a nurturing professor and to hone and use his super powers to save the world from a range of disfunctional robots and intruders.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is about an inventor who invents a contraption that turns water into food that is accidentally launched into the sky causing it to rain food. Emulating a disaster movie the plot touches on a need for moderation in terms of our relationship to food.

email-less saturdays and other attempts at spending more time in Reality...

2011-02-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

My work is about nature, the landscape, real outside the house/studio/work life and our relationship to it and it's become abundantly apparent that I spend far too much time glued to the computer. After 6 months of living in Alaska where most of my days were still linked to the computer but dominated by being out in the landscape I have returned back to San Francisco, where that life is seemingly nearly impossible to replicate. Though I am trying at least to tip the balance a little more away from so much computer time it is tricky with a mighty load of responsibilities that necessitate computing but I have been doing some figuring... For one, in order to keep email life under control I recently decided to make my Saturdays email-less and introduced a communication advisory note as part of my email signature that say so. One day a week seems possible. While we get pressure to be logged in and accessible all the time, I mean one day of rest out of 7 is even reinforced or one might argue was introduced by the bible, right? So Sat is set aside...It's been a bit of a free for all as no rules have accompanied the onslaught of technology and our subsequent dependence on it. This means we have to build our own set of rules. In this case rules to protect sanity. On that note, friend/artist, Steve Lambert (appropriately) also recently introduced me to 3 sentences.es a website that helps you keep your email responses to 3 sentences or less by offering this brief explanatory message:

"--------------------------------------------
Q: Why is this email three sentences or less?
A: http://three.sentenc.es"

with a link to it's site to include in your email signature as a disclaimer (you can actually decide if it's 2 or 5 or whatever you want...)
Nice. I like the discipline and it might even hone clearer communication skills.
Keeping it concise + to 6days a wk = more time for outside, real life in real time...here, here.

chad stayrook - the evolution of hyperreality

2011-02-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Evolution of Hyperreality = an excellent multimedia piece by Chad Stayrook, a fellow Arctic Circle Program explorer:

(playing on monitor seen above)

road kill for dinner

2011-02-02T20:18:00.000-08:00

For a taste of modern day Metro forgaging stylings: Check out this account of some good friends, writer (of this article and many other excellent texts...) Catherine Price and husband Peter Leckman's ,shared road kill from-highway-discovery-to-dinner-plate adventure published through Slate Magazine....

witkar

2011-01-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

Witkar [White Car], one of the first car sharing projects to be introduced to the world, was a computer-managed co-op network of urban electric cars, that actually operated around Amsterdam for several years in the 1970s and 80s. It is the invention of Dutch social inventor and politician Luud Schimmelpennink, an industrial designer and at the time Amsterdam city councilor.

The first actual Witkar project made up of 35 cars and five stations, provided daily service for more than four thousand registered users between 1974 and 1986 though the project never got beyond the limited demonstration phase due to a lack of support by government.

The core concept of Witkar is the sharing of small environmentally acceptable vehicles specially designed for urban use which in the current global climate of city greening sounds right on and something that may gain more support today. It was seen by Schimmelpennink and his team as a way to wean people away from conventional car ownership and use, on the grounds that such vehicles have no place in densely settled cities but sadly just did not get the support needed to remain sustainable.

Schimmelpennink,who also launched a fleet of communally used white bicycles in the 1970's in Amsterdam, and his associates are planning a new Witkar program for Amsterdam, an already progressive city in terms of pedestrian and bicycle traffic and one of my favorites for it. Here's hoping it will launch because who wouldn't want to see less car traffic and more little white pods to buddy up with the bikes around Amsterdam?

(From 2009 travels in Amsterdam to photograph for Lux...)

steel trees

2011-01-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

Roxie Paine's steel trees:

Inversion, 2008
Stainless steel
42 feet high x 35 feet wide
Installed: Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Fallen Tree, 2006
Stainless steel
Approx. 11 X 20 X 20 feet
Installed: Millbrook, NY

Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2009

symbiotic relationship

2011-01-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

Peter Coffin is an old friend plus one of my favorite artists. While prepping a lecture I came across a piece of his I'd forgotten about, Symbiotic Relationship/Dance Party and another favorite Log With Model of Universe that both touch on the intersection between nature and the man made or "built environment" with a rare trait in art, humor.

Untitled (Symbiotic Relationship / Dance Party), detail 2003
Drum, Mexican Jumping Beans, lights, heating device, amplifier, contact microphones, effects box, and headphones

Untitled (Log with Model of the Universe) 2005
Hollow log with moving light
30 X 30 X 60 inches

metro nature week one class post: julia guarneri

2011-01-27T13:40:00.000-08:00

Each week during the semester a student from the CCA Metro Nature course is invited to be a guest blogger. For week 1 Julia Guarneri passed on this animation/stop motion film called "BIG BANG BIG BOOM".

Julia's comments: " A team of artists, called "BLU" painted a narrative of an "unscientific" perspective of evolution and the destiny of mankind. Its incredibly well done, by the end of the film I find myself awe-struck and exhausted. I thought it especially applied to what we were discussing in class about the general theme of integration with nature and urban city life."

aaron koblin

2011-01-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

Below are a few projects by Aaron Koblin, an artist specializing in data and digital technologies whose work takes real world and community-generated data and uses it to reflect on cultural trends and the changing relationship between humans and technology.

His flight patterns piece I fell in love with at MOMA's Design and the Elastic Mind show in New York a few years ago and is another form of mapping I keep coming back to... (Click here for more info on the work and views). In this piece data from the U.S. Federal aviation administration was processed to create animations of flight traffic patterns and show their density.

The eCloud project is a dynamic sculpture inspired by the volume and behavior of an idealized cloud. Made from polycarbonate tiles that can fade between transparent and opaque states, its patterns are transformed periodically by real time weather data from around the world. It is installed between gates 22 and 23 in the San José International Airport and created in collaboration with Dan Goods of NASA's JPL, and Nik Hafermaas of Art Center College of Design.

check out more of his projects here.

back at it

2011-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

After 6 months of living and traveling in the far North in a world far more integrated with nature and it's cycles + rhythms I am back to the ultra urban here in SF with fresh eyes. Today begins round two of the Metro Nature course at CCA and the ramping up of bloggings and musings over art and our ever changing relationship to nature in the city...

rodney graham "napolean tree"

Metro Nature is back.

Stay tuned...

engage @ cca

2011-01-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

ENGAGE is the name of an initiative at the California College of the Arts "combining community engagement with the project-based approach of the architecture and design disciplines." Earlier this year ENGAGE connected design students, marine biologists, a social activist group and an eco-science nonprofit with "Designing Ecology," a project to design and make nesting modules for threatened sea birds on California's Neuvo Island. Check it out:

david ellis

2011-01-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

Fellow Country Club artist David Ellis' work keeps coming to my Metro Nature mind, so I post...

esquire spotlight for danny hillis

2011-01-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

I love this equire spotlight by Chris Jones on insanely amazing inventor Danny Hillis, for pushing out of the conventional magazine format to express the act of thinking and problem solving in a visual way. Danny Hillis is a force behind the Clock of the Long Now, was a Disney Imagineer and is a co-founder of Applied Minds Labs in LA. Click on any image to link to the original and larger sized source:

john cage - a dip in the lake

2011-01-19T14:16:00.000-08:00

I often talk to my students about "the box" about understanding our collective consciousness and learning it's edges in order to push beyond it as well as to use it as reference to guide the viewer/audience in their work. John Cage pioneered a movement away from the traditional box in terms of our expectations and understandings of musical sound. I recently ran across his words of advice to musicians and composers that seems appropriate for the start of the semester: "If you develop an ear for sounds, it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience." Like so much of his work, this piece A Dip in the Lake pushes outside of our usual thinking of place and mapping, navigation and the understanding of a city and the experience of sound by their integration inspiring new thinking/perceiving of all and each...

John Cage's A Dip in the Lake is the exploration of a city by means of a 'random' soundmap that leads performers, listeners, or participants to places they may never have been before. The score identifies up of 427 locations within a city. The 'locations' are either very specific (such as the intersection of two streets), or more general (such as 'a park' or 'Lake Ontario'). Recordings are made at each of these locations, and divided into 10 groups of 2 (quicksteps), 61 groups of 3 (waltzes) and 56 groups of 4 (marches). These groups of recordings are then mixed live by the performers.

rebecca bird

2011-01-19T10:07:00.000-08:00

Rebecca Bird
Everything that ever existed still exists

This series of paintings re-presents photos of nuclear bomb blasts. As reference material I use government photos from the National Archive and published sources. The images tend to be somewhat familiar, as there are a limited number of photographs documenting a discrete number of events.

This imagery is defamiliarized by isolating the explosion in the center of a blank page- the setting is removed and the form of the blast appears abstract or biological. In the paintings any details that would assist a historical reading have been omitted, so that scale becomes difficult to make out; what remains are organic looking forms rendered in intricate detail, floating in expanses of white. Some pieces are minutely rendered in watercolor, as if I have gone through a process of examining every grain of the photograph without grasping the event pictured as a whole. These pieces are small compared to a person, so they might be mistaken for images of something microscopic. Sometimes the explosions are compounded into landscapes or growths. p;nbsp;

Other times the black and white photos are reinterpreted as glowing sunsets, expressing nostalgia for the idea of the end. The core issue of this imagery is the distance inherent in it, the built in barrier to understanding the meaning or content.

Some of the pieces include pencil lines, positing rulers by which to measure. The concern with accuracy, cataloging, tabulation reveals an underlying anxiety about the limits of knowing, of empathy, as well as other forms of understanding. The paintings attempt to duplicate mental distancing techniques. The formality and static-ness, the clean paper and cool shades of watercolor disassociate aesthetic appreciation from recognition of the subject.

extinct species wooden toy set

2010-11-29T20:42:00.000-08:00

I've been making work these last few months about species in the arctic that are being effected by climate change and I stumbled on this wooden toy set of Extinct Species by Muji today and had to stop for a second...
It's kind of profound to have the babies playing with these guys, no? And what is someone saying with this as a gift? What does it even mean that they are being produced? It's kind of a sensitive topic these days and it almost seems like a kind of resignation to the direction we're heading in? I am huge fan of Mujii but am not sure what to do with this one. I do see a Moa in there but also a few common looking animals (seal,pelican,donkey) to boot that could at least be confusing to the newbies and is a little concerning. You don't want the babies getting the wrong idea.
It's kind of the antithesis of the Noah's ark set. It might be smart to market the two together and test the babies to see if they are half empty or half fullers and then maybe we can get the optimists to go work for the EPA and get this ship headed in the right direction...

steve lambert's top secret greenpiece video

2010-11-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

Top Secret Greenpeace Project Part 1 from Steve Lambert on Vimeo.

eric von hove

2010-11-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a recent email announcement sent from Eric Von Hove whom I met in October as a fellow resident on the Arctic Circle Program. Eric went straight from our trip in Longyearbyen in the Svalbard arctic region N of Norway to Mali to work on a project. Here is his report:

My initial proposal for an intervention for the Danse l’Afrique danse! biennial was to stage a space within a space in the urban scenario of a red light district of Bamako, using imported Chinese light bulbs found on the African markets, hence putting in perspective the ever growing presence of this rogue donor on the continent. But as I arrived, I was given 16 boxes of lamps and decorations by the French company Blachère, a leading supplier in outdoor Christmas and festive lighting responsible each year for the illumination of the Champs-Élysées.
Though surprising, this was foreseeable since this company had become a sponsor of the biennial in the mean time; but I was slightly puzzled by the fact that even though Blachère has a Foundation for contemporary African Art, this company would support an outdoor site specific installation occurring in a largely Muslim African city with light garments designed for the consumerist feasting of the birth of Christ in western public spaces.
In response, I simply took one goat for each boxes, and dressed the latter with its content.

Up coming shows this month:

Danse l’Afrique danse! biennial
Work displayed at: Rue princesse, Bamako
Phone: +223 (0) 2 23 94 29
Dates: October 29th to November 6th 2010
Sponsored by the Blachère Foundation
danse-afrique-danse.org Biennial
Curated by Kettly Noel for Donko Seko www.donkoseko.org / Culturesfrance

agnès b, Brussels, Belgium
from November 15th to December 12th 2010
opening on November 17th from 6 to 9pm
address: 27, Waterloo boulevard
www.agnesb.com
info: +32 (0) 2 512 08 77

Museum of Ansembourg, Liège, Belgium
from November 19th 2010 to January 31st 2011
opening on November 17th from 6 to 9pm
address: 114, En Féronstrée, 4000 Liège
museum website
info: +32 (0) 4 221 94 02
Curated by Virginie Pierre

resurfacing baby carrots

2010-11-16T19:42:00.002-08:00

This out of control baby carrot commercial snapped me out of my Metro Nature blogging lull...

to explain...

2010-09-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

The Metro N Blog has been on hold for a while now due to the need for a serious tech-timeout.

This NY Times article is a good explanation and the blog will be back on (most likely with less frequency soon).

elvis the zebra

2010-08-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

Elvis the Zebra from Matt Eich's series "Carry Me Ohio"

sound post 2: bubas meet rothenberg

2010-08-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

Argentinian park ranger Roberto Bubas plays music for a group of Orcas on the Valdes Peninsula. Author of Thousand Mile Song and Why Birds Sing, David Rothenberg plays music for Belugas.

adam's quote

2010-08-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

"I think we have been too quick to dismiss what city people can know about nature. Their deprivation may actually help them to see better the few animals that they are allowed, and to experience with compensatory depth those occasions when they are permitted to visit the country." - Photographer Robert Adams

True humility and reverence in relationship to nature I would argue are rarely felt in western city environments except by the most diligent souls but I have been encountering large wild animals more than during any usual city times in my life these days here in Anchorage. The pureness of these interactions inevitably jolts the mind into a completely different state. There is such a well trained idea of otherness about wild animals that I find somewhat strange in our culture as most cultures don't separate animals from the human world. Maybe this is why these interactions are so deeply powerful, because we've lost that connection and these experiences are such a contrast to the control we feel we have over our daily doings. With so much "information" at my finger tips at all times I am relieved for these bear and moose 'visits to the country', for the sense of wonder that comes from their unpredictability and mystery and the privilege of having them become a usual and real part of my life.

pet highchair

2010-08-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

"Satisfying a mutual desire for companionship, this high chair permits your dog or cat to accompany you at the dinner table. The high chair clips securely to tables up to 2" thick and its height adjusts without tools to elevate your pet to near eye level. It has a frame of powder-coated 5/8" steel tubing and its arms are rubber-coated so they will not mar table surfaces. By providing an alternative to sitting on your lap, running disruptively underfoot, or outright banishment, the chair assuages a pet (and its owner's) frustration, and promotes more refined behavior. The chair's 600-denier tan/brown nylon fabric cleans easily. Two tethers on the chair protect your dinner guests against any lapses in etiquette. Folds for convenient storage and travel. For pets up to 10 lbs. 10" H x 12" W x 9 1/2" D. (4 lbs.)"
(Available at Hammacher Schlemmer)

'playing with pictures' meet thomas draschan

2010-08-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

The top set of images is from the exhibition "Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage" (MET). The bottom set is by Austrian 'filmographer' and artist, Thomas Draschan.

céleste boursier-mougenot's barbican comission

2010-07-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

I would love to check out Céleste Boursier-Mougenot new commission for the Barbican. It is in the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.

andres serrano's new rock album

2010-07-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

So Andres Serrano, artist most famous for outraging conservatives with his piece "Piss Christ", wants to be a rock star.
wait what?
Hard to know what to do with that...but hey more power to him. At 60yrs old kinda cool to go for it. Rock on Brutus.

(interesting conversation here between Bill Moyer + Sister Wendy about "Piss Christ" and art.)

sound post 1: violin phase

2010-07-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

I've been obsessing lately about ways in which sound + music exist in more conceptual roles and how they expose or elaborate on the passage of time. Here starts a sporadic series of posts touching on different thought provoking uses of music and sound.

Steve Reich is not a shocking first example but I studied Steve Reich's Violin Phase in college and have been intrigued by it since as it is one of a handful of pieces because of it's melodic qualities, that inspired without the need for further explanation, a deeper listening to his conceptualization or musical experimentation. I listened to this piece for hours straight through over and over again. It feels as if you're almost "watching time"or at least I begin to visualize the violin parts shifting so my listening is inevitably translated into something visual as I follow. I'm fascinated by Reich's ability to inspire this synthesis of sound and visual and to enforce attention on the passage and slippery qualities of time.
Violin Phase, as an example of his phasing technique, it is insanely difficult to play live due to the fact that the parallel parts subtly and continuously shift and overlap making it incredibly difficult to keep the correct time. In 1968 Reich published Music as a Gradual Process in which he began playing with compositional processes which are clearly audible to the listener.

"He (Reich) argues that in order to facilitate closely detailed listening a musical process must happen extremely gradually, like the movement of the minute hand on a watch or the slow trickling of sand through an hour glass. The first type of gradual process which Reich explored was that of moving a rhythmic pattern out of phase with itself. This idea developed out of Reich's experiments with tape music. In 1965 he recorded the voice of a black preacher in San Francisco. Afterwards in the studio, he selected a short phrase and ran two tape loops of it on supposedly identical tape machines. Because of minute differences between the two machines the phrase was heard marginally out of synchronisation with itself. He then began to control this discrepancy by delaying one spool with his thumb, but to such an infinitesimal degree that pitch was not affected. Out of these experiments came two tape pieces: It's Gonna Rain (using the preacher's voice) and Come Out (1966) in which the single phrase "Come out to show them" is recorded on two channels, first in unison, and then with channel two beginning to move ahead. As the phrase begins to shift a gradually increasing reverberation is heard which slowly passes into a sort of canon or round. Eventually the two voices divide into four and then eight. Gradually, the intelligibility of the voices is destroyed - one hears only a constantly changing polyphony of rhythmic elements.

Reich's first attempt to apply the phasing process within an instrumental context was Piano Phase (1967). Here a twelve note even semiquaver melody consisting of five different modal pitches is set up in unison with itself on two pianos. The lead player gradually speeds up until he has moved one sixteenth ahead. The dotted lines in the score indicate the movement of the second pianist and the consequent shift of phase relation between himself and the first pianist.

The process is continued, with the second pianist gradually becoming an eighth [3], a dotted eigth [4], a quarter [5] and so on ahead of the first until he finally passes through a cycle of twelve relations and comes back into unison at [1] again. By this simple mechanical method Reich discovered a completely new way of playing, thus allowing one to become totally absorbed in listening while one played. "

- Roger Sutherland, article Steve Reich from his book New Perspectives in Music

Performed at Concert 13 of Music08 June 21, 2008 by Matthew Albert, Nick Naegele, Yei-in Jin, and Chi-Fan Tai.
In Violin Phase, usually two violins are recorded and played back, together at first. They are then made to go slowly out of sync by adding silence to one of the tapes. A new melody is formed by the interaction of the two out of sync instruments and is then accented by a third violin. This process is repeated with variations throughout the rest of the piece. Link here to see visually how difficult this might be to maintain throughout the entire piece. These guys do a pretty nice job.

wildfires

2010-07-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Youngsuk Su's excellent new series, Wildfires is now up at Haines Gallery in San Francisco

(49 Geary Street, Suite 540 • Jul 15 – Aug 20, 2010)

Check out this recent write up of the exhibition in Art in America.

"The Wildfire series was initially started by my need to revisit and reevaluate some of the subjects explored in my earlier "Instant Traveler" project. The common thread running through the two projects is my perception of nature as a highly engineered and civilized institution. Through the images in the "Instant Traveler" series I intended to contemplate on the failure of the familiar nature-culture dichotomy. The human struggle to tame the 'untamable' has historically been rendered as a heroic victory of our civilization and brought us the concept of management in our relationship with natural environments. What used to be wilderness became remote memories petrified in national parks, the primary subject of the “Instant Traveler” series.

Wildfire and fire management are another aspect of the same interest. Despite the media saturated rendering of wildfire as a destructive force and firefighters as heroic individuals protecting our civilization, the modern firefighting has become a highly complex web of activities involving numerous government and private organizations. My interest, however, is in the position of individuals, often found in the fringe of this colossal system of 'nature-management'. No matter how marginalized it seems, the desire of the individual subject is the primary focus of the new series.

It is the 'anxious desire' that drives us to nature, in which the desire to be 'in nature' is continuously prolonged of its fulfillment. Individual encounter of nature is often accompanied by illusoriness that perpetually defers the concrete experience. The smoke in many of the photographs mediates this very anxiety. It is the shapeless nature that we encounter in the thick smoke of our own anxiety. I am attracted and feared simultaneously by this airborne beauty.

The luminous tones and colors of the photographs are used ironically. Modeled after the 19th century American painters such as Bierstadt and Gifford, the picturesque sunset is enhanced by the haze of the smoke from a nearby fire. Like honeybees that are numbed by smoke before harvesting of honey, fire burns through the history of the representation of nature and tranquilize our senses. The romantic tradition also tells me that nature is as much an invention of the modernity as history.

The mundaneness that I depict in many images in this series also denotes a characteristic aspect of the modern fire management and disaster management at large. It is the result of a sophisticated social engineering that is aimed at total control of public psyche, which is achieved by careful control of the visibility of any disastrous events. Individuals are often 'protected' from the direct contact and left with mediated images seen on TV and newspapers. One's own sense of threat is replaced by the color-coded ratings determined by the authority. Once this process is established, the wildfires are no longer a threat in a real sense. The thick smoke seems to transform the real event into a remote memory."
-Youngsuk Su

sign misuse

2010-07-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

My father recently passed on this shot a friend of his took...
...that reminded me of this blank sign I saw in Point Reyes a month ago.

...that also reminded me of this rest stop I visited in Colorado a few summers back called No Name Rest Area....except wait, that's it's name.

okay, what????
People, pull it together.

new docugraphics exhibition cpw

2010-07-24T05:00:00.001-07:00

Two of my pieces from Lux are included in the exhibition The New Docugraphics, at the Center for Photography At Woodstock's, Part II of 2010 Photography Now exhibition juried by Lesley Martin of Aperture Foundation.

Show opens tonight: July 24th 5-7pm at the Center for Photography at Woodstock

59 Tinker Street, Woodstock NY

The photographers in The New Docugraphics are concerned with how to best depict and describe the World around us, focusing on specific sociological issues and observations. And while this particular set of photographers puts us in touch with the most timely and topical issues of our day, they are hardly traditional documentarians according to the old-school conventions of the genre. Foregoing the aesthetics of traditional photojournalism, these photographers have opted for approaches that have more in common with the conceptually driven photographers of The New Topographics than with old-school Magnum Photos.

This now-historic movement of The New Topographics has been described as signaling “the emergence of a new photographic approach [in which] romanticization gave way to cooler appraisal” and also as “more attuned to conceptual concerns of the broader art field.” These aspects of the New Topographics inform all of the artists here to some degree. The critical difference— however, is that despite the mostly restrained aesthetic approach, each artist also injects a personal or “concerned” approach, accomplishing a hybrid of the “cool’ and the subjective—the topographic and the personal, the broadly documentary and the particular.

bear post 1: no photos

2010-07-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is the first of a few posts in humble respect for bears.
I have seen 3.5 since I have arrived in Alaska and I am proud to say with a career based in photography that I have no pictures to show you or anyone. You will have to take my word for it. All of my encounters so far have been with black bears and they are gorgeous creatures. But all my glimpses have also been short and sweet as I have been well trained by the best. My WWF, Nature Conservancy, and Denali National Park friends from my travels on the Bering Sea last summer drilled it in: do not linger, do not document, step away from the bear(s)...
I have to say I love that they have the right of way, that in some places on the planet and in the United States particularly we do not dominate completely. I also have to say I am happy I have no photos to show and I have been asked by most. I would say it means that I thoroughly experienced these brief and privileged moments:

First siting was a momma and her cub on the hike back down from Exit Glacier near Seward a few weekends ago. I was deep in conversation when I saw a dark shape ahead with a smaller shape next to it. We stopped in our tracks silent. The baby scampered up a tree so for a brief moment we had a good look but then backed way way up, waited and nervously sang loud show tunes to pass on down the mountain. Angry protective mommas are no joke (no matter the species really).

Second siting was on a run in Anchorage along the Chester Creek Trail near my house. I was walking slowly at the end of my run and looked up to see a black bear amble across the path about 15 yards in front of me heading off into the narrow strip of woods between city blocks completely unaware I was there. They are shy as I am there daily and have never seen one before or since.

The 3rd was the other morning in the Eagle River Valley north of Anchorage. I stayed one night solo in a park yurt and was heading to the outhouse in the morning when I looked up and saw a bear siting on it's haunches curiously checking out this contraption sticking out of the back of the outhouse (It did look weird and must have smelled crazy to the bear). Upon seeing it I about-faced and headed right back up to the yurt. A split second later I could hear the bear scramble off at speed upon seeing me. Neither of us needed a meeting. On my delayed 2nd trip to the outhouse I sang a very loud song about how enormous I was and how little the bear wanted to mess with my fleece laden scary self. All went well.

No photos. Safety first.

streetlight time

2010-07-22T21:30:00.001-07:00

I've been slow to blog here in Alaska. Mostly because I'm trying to just take it in for a while. It's been a month and the sun still only goes down around midnight. I can't get enough of living on this other system of time though I have to admit I haven't been sleeping too well even with an eye mask to block out the light. I am still deeply fascinated by how this light affects us biologically, how we think about the day differently and experience a 24hrs that is pretty much nightless.

Lately I've been thinking particularly about the crooked streetlight across the street from my Anchorage house. It flutters and sputters on in the late late late eves, never too sure if it's really needed. I can't quite tell either for about an hour where it just stays dim out. Though now about a month since solstice eventually the darkness sets in for just a little while and it is surely streetlight time. I've started to photograph the S light and think a lot about streetlight time in this new northerly zone. After a few years of working with Civil Twilight on the Lunar Resonant Streetlights and the idea of syncing streetlights to natural time (the lunar cycle) it's interesting to reflect on it here sin night. It's 9pm now and blazingly bright. Our streetlight is nowhere near ready to even start to figure if it has a job to do this "night". It will be hours until and in the meantime the sun is doing just fine to illuminate.

One night a few weeks back around 11pm ready for bed I told my housemate I would turn off the living room lights. Once I got to the living room I realized it was the SUN. Yea, the sun. My brain had not quite grasped the long light I guess and it was shining is a long angle into the room like a standing lamp. Can't turn that off so it was onward to my eye mask...
Next job is to find the moon. I have missed her with no darkness for her to shine in....funny to think about missing the darkness, the stars, the celestial blue. In a few months I will begin to get to know it again gradually and then so thoroughly all I'll be able to do is make work about it and write a sister blog entry. For now appreciating the long day, the extra energy I have and is saved by my insecure streetlight. And enjoying the lucky bonus, perpetual sunset. I can go for a run or walk the dog, or read in my Yurt while camping this week until late late late. Pretty dreamy. When it comes down to it let's face it, even if we are savvy for our electrical inventions natural light is just far superior...

playtime

2010-07-10T12:58:00.002-07:00

launch

2010-06-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

I took off for Alaska late on a clear Saturday evening, one way, north bound. Out my window the curves and grids of San Francisco were glowing pink in the low westerly sunlight. Golden Gate Park and the Pan Handle looked enormous set amidst the wide grid of northwest SF. I never quite realized in relation to the city how big the park really is and a wave of pride swept over me for those with the ingenuity to fight for and set aside that great swath of green. 3 miles long and 1/2 a mile wide, a great contrast to the neutral urban scape surrounding, from the airplane window it stands a healthy gem in the heart of one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

With anticipation for what lies ahead I can't say I was sad to go but SF looked glorious on the road out and I've been happy to learn it these last few years, comforted to know that a (slightly) warmer place exists to come back to once the cold of winter creeps in to stay in Alaska.

My northerly migration, a 6 month stint from solstice to solstice, is in order to create a new body of work dealing with markers of time in the far north. To get me started my flight up was the perfect experience to reflect on the disconnect between industrialized/westernized time and natural time.

My flight took off at 7:40pm. As described the sun was almost set in SF but we were chasing the light, keeping pace with if not lapping time, or at least our habituated sense of it...

8pm

9pm sun still setting over Washington state

brighter at 9:30 + ice crystals...

much brighter, 10:45 pm

dip under the clouds to land...

Chugach Mountain Range outside of Anchorage

Daylight 11:18pm landing

And so it begins...