Moonscapes and Ruins....

...that's what I was led to think of during this evening's visit.  It's really enjoyable to hover around the periphery of the construction zones later in the day, when they are quiet and the sounds of machinery and airplanes overhead are subtle.  

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Mounds, Piles and Dynamic Compaction

A few more lightly edited images (and some raw video clips) from yesterday's site visit.  We were on top of one of the fabricated inclines yesterday (that's what I'm choosing to refer to it as today - although I also like the sound of "modified mound", "relocated earth pile", "reconstructed dirt mass"...and so on.

I'm excited to start thinking more about this, specifically in terms of the sheer amount of volume/mass involved in the project - the fact that an enormous amount of tonnage is being transported from one place to another to make this happen.  That, coupled with the fact that this mini-mountain is being built on top of a swamp (hence the need for the dynamic compaction) is fascinating to me.

Much, much more on all of this later...

NOTE:  The audio from the video clips below will not be used - at least not synchronously - and the footage will likely be altered fairly substantially, if used.

First Airport Images....

Had my first real opportunity to begin gathering material today in the form of still photographs and video.  I'm posting a few unedited (well, very lightly edited) test shots here.  Will probably follow up with some video clips.  I'm here in Ft. Lauderdale through Friday.  Recovering right now from a particularly hot and buggy day in the "field".  

(NOTE:  I'll be posting about the progress on my airport residency/public art project here in stops and starts over the next 20 months or so.  When I've got more brain energy, I'll post something lengthy about just exactly what it is I'm doing/working toward.  That time is not right now, however....)

Click on images below to see larger version:

Only Dust

Could I respond to (with the camera) only dust for a year, or so?
just crap in the air.
flux
movement
crud
What led to this thought?
Something about looking at a photo of me, older, with lots of grey in my hair.
grey dust
atmospheric, dust
ground fallen, dust

Dirt, skin, plant.
Floats in the air - matter, matter, everywhere (but not a....?)

A Brief Hiatus - For Window

My blogging/research energies are going to be temporarily directed to my new project, window.  Please join in on the conversation at the window blog, HERE.  Find out more by visiting the website, HERE.

Isolated Frame(s)

A quick transmission from Portland.  Had a fantastic couple of days with Leigh-Ann Pahapill and Lisa Zaher, as usual.  Extending our ongoing conversation/continual questioning of how/when/where meaning is located within experience and representation.  They had their first chance to see the triple-projection of Goldfields installed in a gallery, as opposed to on the screen of a computer.  Lots of good talk about the nature of experiencing the simultaneous streams within one space, but without the body having to be fixed in any one position.  And subsequent chatting about the role of focus in relation to both the camera eye as well as the spectator’s focal shifts. 

Discussing the relationship between subject matter (the particularities of the space – the Goldfields region) and the broader subjects of the work led to more thinking on framing and positioning (both literally in terms of camera placement as well as culturally, conceptually, methodologically – negotiating within particular histories of photographic practice).  This I think is going to be helpful as I continue with my recent work (see my earlier post, Frame Follows Focus) which seems to be moving toward working in these kinds of long strips of space, butting “isolated frames” up next to one another and in some instances overlapping and pressing in a manner that is a bit disconcerting (both optically and psychologically). 

Yeah, lots, lots, lots to think about again.  I’ll close with a portion of a Hollis Frampton quote that seems to almost serve as a metaphor for the manner in which the conversations between Leigh-Ann, Lisa and myself seem to unfold – looking around in all directions and grabbing thoughts from one another, adding them to the ever looping strip of film, occasionally plucking out the perfect snippet.

“A polymorphous camera has always turned, and will turn forever, its lens focused upon all the appearances of the world. Before the invention of still photography, the frames of the infinite cinema were blank, black leader; then a few images began to appear upon the endless ribbon of the film.

A still photograph is simply an isolated frame taken out of the infinite cinema.”

In a Matter of Moments...

....this instance (instant?) had passed.  I thought about writing down what time of day the light was hitting the table in this precise manner, but quickly realized that sunrise and sunset, rotation of the earth, all that jazz - just as fickle as anything else.  The idea that we can somehow be precise with time is absurd.  (See my previous post HERE to read an extended little tangent on my thinking around the term/idea/word - moment).

Click on the images below for detail view -