Inscribed

... and Away

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

Off in faraway places for a while... have fun without me!

Home...

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

Box cam, tobacco filter, x-pro'd Fuji Velvia 50.

Final submission for Iydea Cafe exhibition before I head off for a few weeks. (N.B. Can re-scan & tidy, etc if needed). Yes, it's yet another pier shot. Yes, I kind of like it.

Brighton Diversity map

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

Think I'm going to need smaller icons...

View Clone Brighton in a larger map

Any I've missed? It's been a while since I've updated it, but had to add the new Starbucks on St James' Street.

Transparency should not be for Blame

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

I was going to write a small blog post, but Peter Kawalek's discourse on what isn't said around MP expenses says what I was going to say, and far, far more elegantly.

I'm encouraged by the flurry of interest and activity surrounding the release of expenses data, but at the same time I can't help but question whether it really matters after all that.

Did people really care when this all hit the headlines? I, for one, got the impression that the weeks of blathering waffle on the radio and in the papers was being drummed up and forced on to stage by either politicians wanting to embarrass other politicians, politicians wanting to un-embarrass themselves, or media outlets looking to embarrass politicians - which, incidentally, is like taking sweets from a baby in a sweet shop.

For everyone else, talk of expenses was dull, dull, dull, and generally a good excuse to flick channel, turn off the radio, or go and do something interesting like make pasta shakers.

The point of this rant is this then: Is it important to spend time and energy releasing the kind of data that, while ideas of transparency might be in the public eye, doesn't actually either a) contribute to our understanding of the state of things, or b) offer a positive solution?

After all, the main reason for releasing expenses data is to find people to point fingers at, rather than to actually applaud MPs for not spending money. (Personally, I'm thinking of sending my MP some better coffee than the Kenco stuff he orders...)

Data can be good. Transparency can be good. But shouldn't we be careful that we're not just opening up an attitude of blame culture? Can we avoid a society transparency and monitoring are no better than CCTV or a nanny state - a culture of wrist-slapping people for their mistakes, rather than encouraging and rewarding valued behaviour?

Y.A.P.S. II

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

All taken with this

Y.A.P.S. I

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

All taken with this

Experiment in filtration

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

Turning Pictures into Words in Other Places

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

Recently, I've fallen into the dangerous trap of writing words that don't actually control any kind of machinery. Instead, they're like I've entrapped thoughts about photography and forced them to perform in a traveling circus.

My first article for HolgaBlog, your premiere source for everything plastic-camera, is now up and readable. It was originally called "The Holga 120 WPC and me", but now reflects the idea of a review more. I enjoyed writing it, re-writing it, and writing it again, and can't wait to write more.

...including, at some point, an introduction to my world of photography. In the meantime, however, I wrote a version for a competition over at Four Corners Dark. For those who missed it, here's my why-lomo story.

But I've been here all along...

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

Link: The Ubiquitous Matrix of Lies at Reality Sandwich

By: Charles Eisenstein

Quote: "We have all the technology and all the knowledge we need to live in beautiful harmony with each other and the planet. What we need is different collective choices. Choices arise from perceptions, perceptions arise from interpretations or stories, and stories are built of words, of symbols. Today, words have lost their power and our society's stories have seemingly taken on a life of their own..."

Thoughts: The link between language and action is a very good one - we live in a time when politics is ruled by soundbites and headlines, but nobody feels that any real decision are being made, or at least not in any meaningful way. A single vote is, perhaps, the ultimate expression of a collective-choice symbol - one vote to symbolise all that you believe. One vote to symbolise your hopes, fears and dreams about the future.

We have more information at our fingertips than ever before. But is this just more symbols, more noise? If so, are these symbols detached from "reality" because this noise replaces "reality" as the landscape against which things are judged? If the landscape is noise, then the evolution must be towards attention, towards difference, towards novelty. And then, where is "real"?

I have been thinking recently that while some power comes from being Loud, ultimately more power comes from Silence. Loudness, attention, novelty - these all work, so long as nobody else is louder than you. But silence... Silence re-connects us with the "real" maybe. Without words, there is no persuasion, only observation. There is truth, and beauty, and strangeness.

Perhaps that's why this blog has been so quiet recently.

Street

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

More results from the 120WPC. Review coming soon.

Grave lines

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

More results from the 120WPC. Review coming soon.

In a moment of silence

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

Arcos de la Frontera, May 09, x-pro Fuji Veliva 50, Holga 120GCFN, triple exposure.

She sat so long she turned to stone

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

Utility

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

First roll, first diptych, from new Golden Half half-frame 35mm camera.

Soup

2009-07-16T18:33:01-00:00

scribex posted a photo:

First roll from new Golden Half half-frame 35mm camera.