Google Maps: Ben Versus Ken

Both Ben and I are extremely competitive people. We also happen to be close collaborators and very good friends. During the Google Maps project, competition outweighed our bond. For the project, we thought it would be a great opportunity to have a foot race from ECU to the Vancouver Art Gallery. To keep track of our mileage and document our routes, we used a combination of video footage which has been uploaded onto Youtube and of course, Google Maps. As a final result, we wanted to integrate video footage with the map as a way for users to interact with our project and view highlights of our documented trip.

Here is our Google Map and if anyone is interested in watching any of the clips on Youtube, you can find them here.

By the way, Ben won the race by one kilometer.
Not like it matters. It would matter more if I had won to be quite frank.

Urban Intervention

When approaching this project, I felt as though I needed to offer some sage or witty advice. Then I realized that any advice I’d offer would neither be sage, witty or considered serious advice at all. In the end, I thought it best to offer up one of my favorite recipes as a way of suggesting to people that they should inject some gastronomic joy into their lives. Speaking of injecting, I also thought it’d be interesting to add a bit of dry humor to my recipe. So for those considering this recipe, I assure you that it’s well worth it not only because you’ll have a delicious roast chicken dinner but taking the carcass and putting it in a pot on the stove for about two hours with some water, onions, peppercorns and a few bay leaves gives you a delicious stock that’s great for risotto. In retrospect, I should have done a triptych of recipes. One for the roast chicken, another for the stock and finally one for risotto. But it anyone is interested in making risotto and needs a little advice, you won’t need to refer to a wall in the cafeteria for it (which is where the roast chicken recipe was installed), just ask me.

Stranded

You may be familiar with Amy Stein’s work. Most notably her series “Domesticated”. However, while I was revisiting her site for a bit of inspiration, I came across “Stranded”. In this series, she documented motorists stranded roadside throughout America. What is unique about her project is her use of Google maps as a way of documenting where she found her subjects. When clicking through the locations she’s traveled you can actually see the photo she took and the corresponding location of where she took it on the map.

You can check out her series at…
Amy Stein’s “Stranded”

And more importantly, check out her google map…
Amy Stein’s “Stranded” Google Map

Modern Proverbs

After taking a look at the other projects on offer as examples on the ElectroDIVA blogroll, I realized the ones that I found most inspiring were those that strictly used text (and used it cleverly, I may add). Being a previous fan of Holzer and Kruger, I thought I’d like to go in the same vein. I didn’t want to feel limited to those two artists so I sussed out some examples including “Modern Proverbs” a project by Nikki Farquharson. Check it out at nikkifarquharson.com

The Places We Live

Yes. I know that the panorama project is a slain beast. But I thought that this is too cool to pass up.
The Places We Live is a panorama project that captures the living spaces of those in slums. In addition, the project includes a commentary track from the people living in those slums via translators. The project gives a face to the impoverished districts all over the world and each participant in the project has a very unique personality.

Check it out at placeswelive.com

Before & After

Cleaned up the pot.
I’m pretty sure there’s a joke involving dirty dishes here but whatever.
Anyway, I used the clone tool and a bit of the blur.
Changes are a bit subtle but it’s definitely an improvement.

We’re All Going to Die

Copenhagen photographer Simon Hoegsberg created a piece called “We’re All Going to Die” which is a photograph assembled from 20 days of shooting. The result is a 100 f00t long panorama of 178 people in Berlin during the summer of 2007. In a age where street photography has become a regular fixture in visuality, “We’re All Going to Die” seems to capture the essence of it with pure naturalism, spontaneity and a kaleidoscopic range of subjects. The sheer immensity of the piece is also something to be seen, especially during a time in which we’re all working in a similar vein. Check it out on his website at simonhoegsberg.com

Evening Well Spent

The picture above best explains my night. But two phone calls and four glasses of water later, I’ve finally remedied the inconsistencies in my panorama. Through cloning, isolating parts of my photo via feathered layers and the pen tool, I was able to create a balanced image and a tea pot that doesn’t look completely lousy. While I’m excited to bring it over to the DOC on Friday, I also can’t wait to get some feedback on it in class.

Sorry about the Karate Kid references. Quoting movies from the eighties is my way of coping when I’m in a bind.  I’ve also fooled myself into believing that it impresses girls. You can be the judge of that.

Panorama II

If you search for “sleepy uncharismatic boor” on Google Images, you’re likely to come across a picture taken of me on any given morning with my mouth slightly agape and my left eye partially shut. I’m obviously not a morning person so it was a challenge to return to Rita’s apartment on Tuesday morning. Nonetheless, I was at her door bright and early with a camera in hand and a fiery determination reminiscent of a young Ralph Macchio from Karate Kid. I was ready to crane kick the crap out of my second attempt at the panorama. The photo shoot went swimmingly and after a long day of classes, I went home to assemble the photos I had collected. The panorama fit with ease and looked good minus the focus and color issues with Rita’s yellow tea pot. So now, if you ever decide to Google Image search “I pulled myself out of bed and all I got was this careless mistake on my panorama project!”, I’m pretty sure this picture will show up. Anyway, I played around with it in photoshop and I’m still having problems so if anyone has any Mr. Miyagi-esque advice on how to fix this issue, I’d be happy to hear it.

Panorama

Rita is a friend of mine with a charming apartment in Mount Pleasant and an eclectic collection of miscellanea. She keeps it all on shelves, tables and hanging from the walls. It’s all an undoubtedly eccentric disarray of quirk a. So when it came to working on a panorama, I enlisted her help. The other morning over tea and homemade fruit cake, we collected photos for the project along with the help of our mutual friend, Kate. In my excitement, I tilted the camera to catch the collection of tea pots sitting on her coffee table without any forethought. When I brought the photos home to assemble them, I was disappointed to find that they didn’t match due to the skewed angle. Fortunately, part of the photo worked as seen above with Kate on the left and Rita sitting opposite of her with a mandarin orange resting atop her head. With the combination of beret and spear gun, Kate reminds me of Patty Hearst… that’s if Patty was held captive by a gang of pirates on a boat.

Thanks to Rita’s support, she has offered her apartment and modeling skills up for yet another attempt on Tuesday morning. I’ll make sure to keep the camera straight and hopefully I’ll get it right.