The Power of the Few

In his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Malcom Gladwell notes that one of the key factors important in creating a movement  (in our language that =art) is the Power of the The Few. Over and over products, people, actions, and movements  move from obscurity to popularity, from low parrticipation to celebrity status as a result of the actions of a few key players. He calls these people…CONNECTORS. »»

Thoughts On Paradigm Shifts, Collaboration, Community, Tribes, and Open Source Art

Yesterday I received my preview copy of Seth Godin’s new book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us in  it he addresses a growing movement that I have been mentioning in previous posts when referring to social media. The subject of community and tribes and the role they can play in cultural growth and eventual paradigm shifts is something I have been chewing on for several decades, going back to my days in city planning. The power of the book stirred up  memories, of the ‘60s and later graduate school, as I read on, I started thinking of Godin’s premise in the context of our current state of things especially the shifts I have been noticing lately.  There was something familiar about it all. »»

Prometheus to the Cave Man and Now Igniting Ingenuity

At the beginning of the Disney movie Ratatouille, the main character, a small rat, says there is something interesting about humans:  “they don’t just survive; they discover; they create.”  The young child, cave woman, adult, professional, pirate, educator and artist in me held on to this observation by Remy, the rat, as the cornerstone that supports art and art making.  When asked to articulate a low-tech metal casting process to a high-tech computer crowd, I felt compelled to investigate a new angle. 

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Murder on the Avatar Express

I bought my first computer in April of 93 after my typewriter broke. A trip to the local electronics store and two thousand dollars later, I walked out with a Compaq 386 windows 3.1 jam packed with 2 megs of ram. I could have gotten 4 megs but as the salesman noted, "Nobody will ever need that much memory."

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PhotoVoice

It is well established that if you give someone a fish, they’ll have dinner for one night. Teach someone to fish and they’ll have dinner for the rest of their life.

In 1998, Edinburgh University Social Anthropology students Tiffany Fairey and Anna Blackman established two projects which sought to integrate participatory photography into their MA dissertations. These projects, the Rose Class project in Nepal and the Street Vision project in Vietnam, encouraged and inspired refugees from these areas to capture their everyday lives on film, with cameras supplied by the two projects. »»

Sebastiao Salgado: Eye Contact

It’s something about the eyes.

In times of conflict, war, rebellion, or natural disaster, it is so often the civilian who suffers, and it is the children who suffer most for they had supposed themselves to have the longest future yet to come. It is not the terrible shock of seeing homes destroyed or parents or siblings killed.  It is not just the hunger that eats at the body or the tiredness in that same body; it is the loss of innocence that changes the eyes. »»

Invite Beauty To Remind Us Of Hope

Ah, my last outdoor show — last weekend, in Peoria, IL –and it was actually quite good, considering…
and I had to do a lot of grounding to keep myself from panicking — one of the things
I did was write this piece –

Hope and Beauty

“it is an ethical obligation to search for hope.”  Tony Kurshner »»

book review

PRACTICAL HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging For Photographers

November 5, 2008 by Dr. Michael N. Roach  
Filed under Books, Photography, Top

Jack Howard should be a familiar name to many of you photographers as he is the Editor of PopPhoto.com/Popular Photography & Imaging where he tests and reviews cameras, lenses, software and a multitude of camera gadgets. 

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Photofunia.com

November 4, 2008 by Lesli Jason  
Filed under Art Commentary, Digital Lifestyles, Media, Photography, Top

It never fails.

Just as I get rolling on something I need to finish, someone emails me something which completely catches my attention and takes me away from whatever it was that I was doing.
(what was I doing?)
 
Distraction du jour: Photofunia.com.
There are several online tools which allow you to have fun with images, Dumpr and Gooifier are two free sites that I’ve used in the past, but Photofunia, also free, offers a more sophisticated selection and I like their interface better. Using face detection technology and offering 50 different templates which allow you to apply funny, creative or artistic effects on your images with just a few clicks, Photofunia can help you transform your everyday photography to something you can have fun with and even frame and give as a gift. The results are that good. There is no need to have any deep knowledge of photo editing. No program download or registration is required. Just upload your picture or graphic, select your desired effect from the comprehensive assortment of image thumbnails, and viola! Then, just click and save.
 
I had such a good time with this program that I sent my kids all the funny and cool photos I made of them on Photofunia. After about the seventh or eighth photo, I received an email back from my 19 yr old son who is away at university. That, in and of itself was a miracle.
 
"Dear mom, Get a hobby. Love you. =)"
 
"Dear Bobby, I found a hobby. Have you found a job?"
 
I haven’t heard back…

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inspiration via email

Photojojo can set your creativity free

November 3, 2008 by Britt Stokes  
Filed under Digital Lifestyles, Media, Photography, The Not-So-Daily Edition, Top

No kitsch here. Photojojo.com is an original, exciting breath of fresh air. The slightly irreverent tenor and decidedly different ideas and photo projects make this site required reading for photographers and other artists in general.

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