Another Photo From Australia

Lots of nice cars in Melbourne

"That's the Law o' tha Northern Territories"

I'm back from Oz.

Digital is Dead

Long live Analogue (photography).

Been adding to the Ongoing Lomography Project: a few from Glastonbury. This one is my favorite.



more fear and loathing.

GeoTwitterPhotoMashupMappingVideo project

Well... there I was the other day; walking round Soho with my N95 taking Geotagged photos, sending them to Flickr, then to a GoogleMap, while at the same time with my old phone, sending Twitters at the same moment. The aim was to match up the timestamp on the Twitter with the GeoTimeStamp on the uploaded photos to get a GeoTwitterPhoto.

Confused? Fucking hell I was... "Why can't somebody invent one system which does all these things?"... I thought.

Anway - my student GeoFriend Matt Collins has just sent me a site, where one of his friends is experimenting with GeoTwittering, GeoPhotos, GeoVideos.... the works. He's definitely one to watch!

Star Chamber: doing it yourself in life 2.0

So Facebook, Bebo, Flickr, Tickr, Twitter and Bitch-Slap-Her are all great toys for us 2.0 kids. We do like to play, add each other as contacts, and fuel the desperately incestuous concentric circles of mixed opinion regarding all these new gadgets, gizmos and various wastes of time which seem to get rolled out by the hour these days without ever thinking how we could really put them to better use. At least that's just me right now.

I was refreshed on Friday evening however.

Old time friends of mine; star chamber put on a bloody good rock and roll show last Friday evening, down in New Cross. A light show, a concept performance, a real professional job. They're now making an attack on the music industry 2.0. These guys aren't signed to some tin pot wannabe rock and roll label - they're doing it themselves.

mp3's, itunes, last fm and by going to tune tribe - you can help put them in the singles chart, without even buying a CD! Do it. Now!

Photo by _Ade

Lo Fi on a grand Scale

I took this on my camera phone back in September.



Just thought I'd post it in the spirit of moving along my various Lomo projects.

Putting the Rock into the Roll

And Eggbox Creative has started to move out of the cellar and into the the music world. It's 1.50am and I've just got back to my flat after undertaking the co-direction of a 10 hour rock and roll photo shoot for star chamber with the amazingly skilled @_ade behind the camera and my creative partner Mikey mixing the colour pallet. A day of synergy, experementation and creativity; with the band at ease to let us explore our concepts of toying with light over long exposures, neon 80's glows, rich materials, movement and motion blur to our hearts content.

Today was testament to what you can achieve with no budget, a simple concept and a child like exploration of your subject matter. There's something about these no-budget lo-fi creative projects which brings a greater sense of satisfaction to their process; for me a nice contrast to the high-paying clients in the adverworld where budgets bring conformity and brand guidelines as often as they bring satisfaction. Either way you have to look for the rock to go will your roll; today I think we were lucky to have them both served to go. Hats off to all involved. Now if I can just get some sleep....

Some Thinking I Did A While Ago

I Found my old little black book while moving house. No Poems this time but here's where I left off the last time I was keeping notes in it:

8 - 9 - 2004
On the Tube,
Approaching Solone Square

What is the nature of the evidential link between technology (specifically optical technologies) and self perception?

-As optical technologies and imaging techniques develop, thus the resulting feedback helps us redefine the way we see ourselves.

Eg;

invention of the x-ray image made our inner skeletal structure universally accessible. It made the concept of interlocking bones far more palpable.

Invention of the lens enabled short sighted folk to experience a world in focus.

How do Virtual Reality and 3Dimensional Avatar based games, role-plays and worlds alter the way I see myself? Is there more to the term "Residual Self-Image"; than a throwaway line in Wachowski's The Matrix?

23 - 9 - 2004
On the Tube,
Approaching Uxbridge
-So just what is this relation between what we see, and the way we see it or how we see it? Reading Blow Up; here's a good passage:

"Visual and Cognitive ergonomics are the tacit processes through which the aesthetic transformation of our perception and our subsequent cognition of the physical world and it's changing nature, affects the way a particular set of stimuli is perceived and cognized"

-Neidich, W : Blow Up - Photography, cinema, and the Brain.

I think this could boil down to the simple example of a man who has never seen in focus suddenly being given corrective lenses. He will experience a perceptive renaissance in how he experiences the world around him, based solely on his new-found aesthetic reappraisal of what he sees.

Is it taking this silly example too far if I then question the reality its self as being only that tacit interpretation of Neidich's particular set of stimuli in the first place? Here we return to the classic tree falling silently in a forest if nobody is there to hear the sound.

end note - this is getting a little silly; these days I'm interested in the techno-perceptive link, not tinpot attempts at post modern philosophical playtimes. Next:

Lomo or Photo

I wandered into Metro during the my lunchtime today to buy some 400iso, 120mm Fujicolour Roll Film for my fantastically retro Holga camera.

This week sees London hosting the Congress for the International Lomography society with a nice week of events, courses for horses and the Lomo Wall project over in Trafalgar Sq.

This made me think. 10 years ago, when I was shooting with my little inherited instamatic camera; I was always striving for the best results. I wanted to learn about photography; grow up and afford some serious photographer's kit. I work in a Digital Agency, and it's all about having the right tools for the job; tools that make my holiday snaps look like this if I want them to:


This is something that I would have creamed my pants to have taken 10 years ago, I would have framed it and put it on the wall saying it was the best picture I'd taken.

That was 10 years ago, now I'd rather frame the happy mistakes; the Lomo Prints that I've made of abstract light patterns, or a burnt through negative which destroyed what was once a potential photo when the back of my lo-fi camera fell open because I haven't used enough gaffer tape to keep the thing shut tight. A photo like this little lomo:



The Philosophy - of the lomographer is one which I subscribe to. Phrases such as, "Shoot from the hip", "Don't think, Shoot", "Just take the picture and worry about the framing afterwards", "Lucky shot"... etc. This serendipity, the importance of the unknown in the picture equation - these things to me suddenly make a happy accident into a work of frame able art or design.

Maybe this says a lot about me, maybe it dosen't; who can tell and does it really matter? But now I've got two new 120roll films, and there's a week of things about town to shoot in my lunch hours.

Nice Typography

by Jack Turner

Me

Me - a photo taken by Ade Rowbotham