Running and Passing.

Pushdot Studio will be hosting a solo exhibition of my work this November.  They will be showing my 2008 project, Open Books.

The opening reception will take place November 6th from 6pm to 9pm.

@ Pushdot Studio
1021 SE Caruthers St
Portland, OR 97214

More details as the exhibition approaches.

I just completed a fun two weeks as Digital Media Instructor for the My Story Summer Camp. The camp, split into 3 sections, each two weeks in length, was held at New Columbia Housing Development Community Center and the Rosa Parks Boys & Girls Club in North Portland. My section met during the final 2 week period and we worked on developing communication, digital media, and arts skills. The class utilized the Rosa Parks elementary school computer lab and the Boys & Girls Club’s Media Literacy / Arts room. The completed work was shown in a mini-art show and poster prints of the students work will be showcased around the club.

The student photography was done with Holga cameras and Fuji color film. The negatives were scanned and the students utilized Sumo Paint to edit their photos and create alternative digital imagery. Below are selected photographs and creative works.

I just discovered the site Art Fag City through their IMG MGMT image based artist essay series.

In the essay, IMG MGMT: The Nine Eyes of Google Street View, Jon Rafman discusses amongst other things, the contemporary experience, organizing the worlds information, and documentary photography. From the article…

These collections seek to convey contemporary experience as represented by Google Street View. We are bombarded by fragmentary impressions and overwhelmed with data, but we often see too much and register nothing. In the past, religion and ideologies often provided a framework to order our experience; now, Google has laid an imperial claim to organize information for us. Sergey Brin and Larry Page have compared their search engines to the mind of God and proclaimed as their corporate motto, “do no evil.”

Although the Google search engine may be seen as benevolent, Google Street Views present a universe observed by the detached gaze of an indifferent Being. Its cameras witness but do not act in history. For all Google cares, the world could be absent of moral dimension.

I feel a strong sense of nostalgia when viewing the curated Google Street View images. Place seems to be slightly separated from time. It is an incredible archive and will shape our visual culture for years to come.

My Story, the photography organization for which I volunteer, is hosting a Gallery opening this Friday, August 7th, from 6-9pm @ The 100th Monkey Studio, 110 SE 16th Ave..  The exhibit features the photographs taken by youth participating in LifeWork’s Transitional Age Youth Program. View the whole invitation.