catherine_c's blog

viz. Collaborations

catherine_c — Fri, 06 May 2011 18:39:50 +0000

Mindmap: Noel Radley with NovaMind

This mindmap reflects a number of of viz.'s connections in 2010-2011 including those with other blogs, photographers, museums, and initiatives, centers and programs both in the DWRL and at UT, Michigan State, and Rice University. Find out more details on our outreach after the jump.

BagNews is a progressive site dedicated to visual politics and the analysis of news images. Editor of the site, Michael Shaw, contacted us last semester, excited by our work and interested in collaborating. He's provided a lot of helpful analysis for our writing and we've communicated frequently regarding posts and potential topics. Last month, Cate Blouke had some of her viz. materials cross-posted on the BagNews site, and we're hoping that the collaboration between viz. and BagNews will continue in coming semesters.

Blanton Museum: Viz. members collaborated with Jennifer Garner, Manager of School and Family Programs at the Blanton, to research the intersections of social tagging and visual rhetoric. Using a tagger provided by the STEVE-in-Action project, the group asked undergraduate students in Rhetoric classes to tag a selection of abstract art from the Blanton's collection. The group will code and review the results of this experiment in order to learn more about tagging as a form of writing.

Department of History, UT: History PhD student Jessica Werneke contributed a blog entry on Soviet photography. This entry contributed an interesting historical perspective, particularly given that viz. often focuses on current events.

DWRL: Immersive Environments project group member Marjorie Foley contributed an entry on QR codes in the Greek and Roman sculpture room of UT's Blanton Museum last October. Immersive Environments is now planning to assist UT's Harry Ransom Center (HRC) with installing QR codes for the Center's 2012 exhibition I Have Seen the Future: Norman Bel Geddes Designs America which will run from September 11, 2012 through February 3, 2013. A preview of this fascinating exhibition with fullscreen images is available on the HRC site.

Institute of Museum and Library Services: This institution of the federal government might be an important resource for the DWRL in the future.

Jessica Alpern: Local Austin photographer whose work combines fine art photography with everyday, discarded objects in an effort to reconsider what we see as valuable.

Landmarks: The Landmarks program on UT-Austin campus has many important points-of-contact with the interests, practices, and values of the Digital Writing and Research Lab. Landmarks provides free, constant public access to important cultural works by art installations across UT-campus. The Landmarks website provides important multi-media materials to supplement these works with pod-casts, videos, historical context, and bibliographies. Their Drupal-based website has become one of the main exemplars for a viz. website redesign. Their ongoing exhibitions of video art in the Visual Arts Center links with our work in film and video. Finally, the Landmarks program offers an opportunity to collaborate on potential projects using ARGs (Alternative Reality Games), QR codes, or other multi-modal projects. For the past two years, the viz. team has met with Leah Griffin of Landmarks. Landmarks is eager to continue developing a relationship to share resources and provide mutual support. Also of note, see the viz. blog for a recent post on the Landmarks acquisition of an important piece of sculpture by Sol Lewitt.

Michigan State University's WIDE Research Center: We have been in contact with Jeff Grabill and Stacey Pigg of the WIDE Research Center to discuss how to code the data we obtained in our research with the Blanton Museum. The rubric we will use to code the data is a derivative of a rubric Grabill and Pigg produced for their own research.

New Media Consortium: Our relationship with NMC has been coordinated with our work with the Blanton Museum of Art on the STEVE-in-Action project. You can read more about the project on the HASTAC blog and on the most recent write-up on the viz. blog.

Rice University's Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality: We are in contact with Dr. Jennifer Tyburczy a performance studies scholar post-doctorate and at Rice, who helped with a recent viz. post and who has expressed interested in doing an interview regarding visuality, pedagogy, and performance.

TACC: We have been in contact with the TACC about potential visualizations for the STEVE-in-Action study results. Since we recently completed data collection, we can now consider what the resources at the TACC could provide for our evaluation phase.

Twitter: Our Twitter account has grown to over 160 followers. The Twitter account connects us with past DWRL and viz. contributors, current instructors (who often tweet our content to their course lists), and important scholars in visual studies. Our relationship with BagNewsNotes and the lab's account with the online software Dipity both began via Twitter, among other important interactions. A notable number of visitors come to viz. via Twitter.

The Adipositivity Project: Ashley had the opportunity to interview New York based, award-winning photographer Substantia Jones, whose website, The Adipositivity Project, has achieved cult status in size acceptance and social justice circles.

QR Codes in the Classroom

catherine_c — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 22:37:22 +0000

Image Credit: Screen capture of a powerpoint from my E314 course

For my final viz post of the semester (I'm officially off duty in the spring, but might pop back in occasionally), I'm going to reflect back on one of the more pedagogically interesting technologies I've discussed this semester -- using QR codes in the classroom.

I've talked with a lot of people about QR codes this semester and encountered discussions of them all over the web. On viz, I've written entries on their history and background, use in outdoor art intended for Google Satellites, and use in artwork in general, including material generated by this semester's DWRL guest speaker, DJ Spooky. viz has also had the pleasure of collaborating with the DWRL's Immersive Environments group who are getting up close and personal with QR codes and incorporating digital links into real world environments.

Image Credit: Link from DJ Spooky QR code ("Nauru Elegies") at Art Basel, Summer 2010, from Mickie Quick's Flickr photostream

While I only discussed QR codes in passing with my Reading Women Writers class this semester, I've found several interesting discussions of their use in pedagogical contexts on several teaching blogs. I've also been asked several times if I think that QR codes are going to stick around for good in cultural contexts, though their commercial applications seem increasingly entrenched with Calvin Klein featuring them in provocative ads and Ralph Lauren allowing customers to shop instantly from their ads through a QR code link.

Image Credit: New York Calvin Klein Ad, by way of Signature 9

One seemingly unavoidable collision is presented by the increasing number of smart phones in the backpacks of college students. Having been a student all the way from when phones were an abnormality to be warred against through when they were an unavoidable annoyance - "don't even have it on vibrate, just turn it off!" - I'm eager to embrace this technology. Teaching in the DWRL has shown me that students are more likely to be engaged in course materials when these materials are available to them in the mediums that they use most often and with which they are most comfortable. Use of new and familiar technologies should not undermine standards of classroom etiquette -- in fact, incorporating these technologies into the classroom has inspired me to present materials in my Rhetoric and English courses in ways that engage students' attention and keep them focused on the matter at hand. QR codes are a great way to encourage this kind of learning and exploration.

Pedagogy blog Eat. Sleep. Teach. has several outstanding suggestions for incorporating these codes into classroom life. QR codes are a great pre-class "hook" (and can be seconded by shortened URLs in computer classrooms for students without smart phones). QR codes can be linked with YouTube videos or other media, class blogs, or other online resources to get students thinking about the topics for the day. They also suggest linking up additional information or questions during presentations, featuring information for new students on a tag. Other activities where images or facts are linked to QRs and must be researched or identified or where visual images for rhetorical analysis may be presented out of context and then analyzed are also possibilities. Social games are a more in-depth option.

Image Credit: Example of QR Tag in a Powerpoint from Eat. Sleep. Teach.

UK eLearning blog Don't Waste Your Time expands upon the usefulness of linking shortened URLs with QR codes. The codes generated by shortened URLs are less complex and more likely to be read easily by more mobile phone readers, even at the back of the class. Shortened URLs also ease access for students using computers. Some uses suggested on this site are mainly for presenting additional information that you don't have time to cover in class including videos, links, online readings, etc. Instructors could even link to library e-book links or call numbers for interested students, links to polls or surveys, or to audio copies of the lecture, online course content, extra credit or take-home assignments. QR Codes are also quick ways to allow students to share contact info for out-of-class collaborations or peer reviews or to create direct links to blog entries. I've also found browser plug-ins that generate QR codes to be useful in allowing students to instantly and paperlessly save articles they have found online or library call numbers.

Image Credit: QR Link to Mobile Project Gutenberg Site on Main Page

For classes focused on digital media and writing that seek to incorporate mobile technologies into the classroom, QR codes are a great way of linking up information. In other types of courses, they are a convenient way to link sources and ideas together in a flowing and natural way. While quite a few exercises in QR coding end up being too complex - I have found that simple codes like URLs, phone numbers, email addresses work better than the more complicated codes like those featured in QR Comic (where I frequently had to "cheat") - these codes are great for linking up information in simple and easy to use format that encourages students to learn using a variety of different platforms.

As technologies improve, the smart phone market expands, and more students become familiar both with how these codes work, QR codes will likely play a significant part in classroom life. These codes suggest a horizon of future possibilities for visually encoded information that will not only spread information but suggest new connections and possibilities.

Street View Art

catherine_c — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:10:20 +0000

Image Credit: Apres Garde, by way of Google Maps Mania

The above image is the Saturday, November 13th entry from the Tumblr photo blog of local writer Matt Bucher, Apres Garde, where he collects picturesque images from Google Street View. Apres Garde is one of several Google Street View art sites featured on Tuesday by the Google Maps Mania blog along with Montreal-based artist Jon Rafman's 9 Eyes Tumblr which presents a mixture of scenic views and interesting or suggestive situations captured by the Google Street View Camera alongside Lehel Kovács Google Street View inspired cityscapes and Bill Guffrey's Virtual Paintout. All of these blogs use the images captured by Google Maps street view as (or for inspiring) their work.

In exploring this body of street view (inspired) art, I was particularly struck by the question posed in the title of the Google Maps Mania post, "It's Street View but is it Art?" The selection and recontextualization that shape Bucher's and Rafman's collections particularly intrigued me. The images that they select are essentially random, taken by the nine cameras on a pole attached to the roofs of Google's hybrid vehicles.

Image Credit: 9 Eyes Tumblr logo

Bucher and Rafman have both given recent interviews on other art and Google Sightseeing blogs. Bucher describes the origins of Apres Garde in an image of the Texas coast with an directional arrow pointing off into nowhere. Other such transcendent or subliminal experiences like the trip to inferno posted on Reddit and reposted on Gizmodo last year have been made possible by the nature of Google's image capturing. For Bucher, this image from Port Lavaca, TX was the spark that culminated in Apres Garde:

Image Credit: Matt Bucher, by way of Google Sightseeing

Bucher writes off the aesthetic interest of the image in his post on Google Sightseeing, claiming that it is a "throwaway image" and an example, like the inferno, of the not uncommon "idiosyncrasies" of Google imagery (Google Sightseeing). However, it led him to post screenshots like the following while asking a question similar to that posed by Google Maps Mania -- "is this just cool or could it be art?"

Image Credit: Apres Garde

In his entry on Google Sightseeing, Bucher justifies his decision not to "link to the map of the location or embed a zoomable map" because he finds Street View to be a tool for "exploring the world" and he chooses to simply report back. Bucher finds static images taken "out of context" to be "more powerful than the embedded map" where instant locatability "takes some of the fun out" of exploring.

Image Credit: Apres Garde

Similarly, Rafman writes in an essay on his Street View collections that the presentation of images (for which he also, at least on 9 eyes, does not provide locations) that Street View "reflect[s] the excitement of exploring this new virtual world" which seems "more truthful and more transparent because of the weight accorded to external reality" and "the perception of a neutral, unbiased recording" as well as "vastness" of the Street View project (AFC).

Image Credit: Rafman's The Nine Eyes of Street View Essay at AFC

Rafman explains the artistic qualities of the Street View images themselves, as well as the act of recontextualizing when he describes them as "a cultural text like any other, a structured and structuring space whose codes and meaning the artist and the curator of the images can assist in constructing or deciphering" (AFC).

Image Manipulation and Self Esteem

catherine_c — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:11:52 +0000

Image Credit: Rachel Stephens Photography, by way of the Nashville Examiner

At the same time that several European governments are considering trying to force advertisers and brands to include disclaimers on photoshopped promotional images for the purposes of bolstering viewers' (and particularly young girls') self esteem, American photographer Rachel Stephens has promoted the use of photoshop to her clients on the premise that image manipulation can function as a source of empowerment. Anna North's November 8th Jezebel entry "Photoshop Treatment Not Just for Models Anymore" includes an unsolicited email from Stephens forwarded by a reader of the site in which Stephens writes that "every woman deserves to see herself retouched."

Stephens' site (slightly NSFW) bills itself as "Photography for Women" and features the tagline, "Empowering Women Through Photography." The site features sample photographs, and testimonials. In an interview in the Nashville Examiner, Stephens explains that photography played a significant role in rescuing her from depression. She explains the premise of her photography and photo manipulation in terms of women's self esteem as being a response to a need she first felt herself: "Being someone who has struggled with her weight and the self image and self esteem fallout from that, I know first hand out amazing it feels to see an image of yourself devoid of the flaws you always hyper-focus on...Seeing myself beautiful was like allowing myself to accept good things in my life again...It opened so many doors for me to live life again" (Nashville Examiner).

Image Credit: Rachel Stephens Photography, by way of the Nashville Examiner

Stephens' photography presents a new side of the debate on photo manipulation. Rather than being used to promote the sale of clothing by presenting models who are digitally tailored to the clothes, Stephens captures consenting women who desire their images to be manipulated and corrects their flaws. One might argue that working toward accepting "the flaws you hyper-focus on," or at least an earnest attempt not to "hyper-focus" on them would be better long term solutions. Whether or not these pictures boost esteem in the long run seems to be a matter of one's personal outlook. Stephens' photography grants its subjects the right to look vicariously at manipulated images and to counter a world of manipulated images with the confidence that they too can be made to appear "ideal" or "perfect" through photoshop.

A number of Jezebel commenters defend Stephens' photography. One user suggests that there is no reason to approach Stephens' work with as much "negativity" as North does in her article and suggests that image manipulation, in this case, seems actually empowering. For my part, I wasn't able to detect "negativity" in North's claims that there is "nothing wrong with wanting a retouched photo of yourself if that's your thing" or in her reaction to Stephens' presentation of her photo manipulation on her site with "waist-whittling animations" that she finds "a little disturbing" (Jezebel). Some commenters point out that most professional photographers do some degree of image manipulation while others claim to be more reluctant to accept significantly altered images of themselves, preferring high-quality realistic images instead.

Image Credit: Rachel Stephens Photography, by way of the Nashville Examiner

In an age where some advertisers insist that the manipulations that lead to their presentation of an "ideal" makes their products more appealing to real women, Stephens suggests that making real women live up to these artificial ideals is a inroad to empowerment. While I remain reluctant to accept that the solution for a photoshop saturated world is more photoshop, particularly, as a commenter on Jezebel points out, when this "empowering" photoshop commits some of the same sins as the most controversial photoshopped ads including cutting down waistlines to unnatural proportions and occasionally erasing belly buttons, I am fascinated by Stephens' outlook on the power of image manipulation to affect self-esteem.

I'll conclude with one of Stephens' statements from the Examiner piece: "Rachel will show the women their photographs, during shooting, and "I always hear 'is that me? Who is that!' followed by girlish laughter and often times a few tears.' When her subjects leave, Rachel sees the women feel better about themselves than when they came in, 'and they earned it. It is no small task to strip down, literally, to you most vulnerable self and allow yourself to be photographed. I don't take that lightly and am very humbled by each woman who gives me her trust in this way. I strive to give them the gift of their true beauty and I hope that they allow those feelings to stay with them'" (Examiner).

Fall 2010 Rallies

catherine_c — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:21:40 +0000

The Restoring Honor Rally held on August 28, 2010 and the Rally to Restore Sanity (and/or Fear) on October 30th were two media-led rallies with the former appealing to the political right and the latter mainly to the left. The images featured in the SoundSlides presentation above are from both of these rallies.

The media figures involved in the rally -- Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert (in character) shaped the tenor and audience of these events. Beck's Restoring Honor Rally was serious in tone, making copious use of red, white, and blue in event decorations and using images of the nation's founders and prominent leaders in decor and memorabilia designs. The coincidence of the location of Beck's rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech was contested before the event. Indeed, it is rather strange to see MLK "speak" at Beck's event, as one of the pictures in the Soundslides presentation depicts. According to news coverage including an updated USA On Politics article on the event Beck claimed that the event was intended to be a return to the traditional values that he claims made this country great, encouraging faith in God among attendees of all religions, and the use of the rally as a chance for them to "change [their] li[ves]."

The combined events of Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity and Stephen Colbert's March to Keep Fear Alive responded to the climate of Glenn Beck's rally and a civil rights march held several miles from Beck's Rally by Al Sharpton, the "Reclaim the Dream" March, according to the Washington Post. The tone of this rally was more sarcastic and ironic with a number of signs mocking the practices of rallying and creating and carrying signs.

According to Jon Stewart by way of AFP, this rally was intended to gather "a million moderates march" on the National Mall in Washington DC in order to "make a strident call for rationality." Stewart continued on to suggest that the Rally would allow the "70-80 percent of Americans who try to solve the country's problems rationally" to "be heard above the more vocal and highly visual 15-20 percent who 'control the conversation.'" The combination of Stewart's and Colbert's events led to an environment where signs joking about moderation and reasonableness and less political jokes and memes blend together.

Infographics and Image Creation

catherine_c — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:59:18 +0000

Image Credit: Screen capture of Colors of the Web infographic from Colour Lovers by way of Cool Infographics

Lately we've been discussing image production in our viz meetings including slide shows using Sound Slides, Animoto, and other ways of encouraging students to create images while getting beyond the basic slideshow. One of my pet projects for this semester was to learn more about creating infographics and to determine whether it would be reasonable to ask students to create a basic one-layer infographic (no statistics, just visual relationships) of an essay for an English or Rhetoric class. After the jump, I'll give a brief overview of my findings so far.

I started off working with a guide to infographic generation by Sneh from Spyre Studios that explains the basic anatomy of an infographic, giving a basic idea of the visual and conceptual structure of infographics. The breakdown of infographics into visuals, content, and knowledge is particularly useful, as is the distinction drawn between one-level deep and two-level deep infographics - the former being simple and mainly driven by visuals and the latter being more advanced with thematic aspects and color coding. This tutorial would be suitable for students, perhaps even more suitable than a tutorial I later found helpful for issues with design. This guide covers the entire process from sketching and research to the difference between theme and reference graphics. Their approach makes it easier to wrap your head around the basics of what an infographic is on a more detailed level than a pretty or polished image relating data.

After reading this guide, I tried to make an infographic. The results...were not pretty. I wrestled with creating the image using Photoshop and, by the end of designing the most basic of infographics, concluded that it was not so feasible for students.

Image Credit: From Spyre Studio's Anatomy of an Infographic

My next discovery came in the form of an outstanding step by step tutorial on creating infographics in Adobe Illustrator from Vector Tutorials. Jonathan Patterson has created a step by step guide (rated intermediate) to creating a sophisticated infographic in 3 hours using Adobe CS4. His step by step guide answers a lot of questions I had about design and formatting and shows that Illustrator is clearly a better choice for creating a complex visual document like an infographic. From creating a grid to filling in text and creating clip art images, Jonathan's guide is informative and yet simple enough for a student or infographics noob like myself to follow along.

I haven't had a chance to sit down with Illustrator yet, but I hope to shortly. In closing, I would like to take a moment to discuss why infographics might be a great option for use in the classroom. Encouraging students to reconceptualize their ideas according to a visual rather than a textual schematic will cause them to approach and address their ideas in new ways. Like mind mapping, infographic creation requires students to come up with a visual schematic to organize their argument or information, but it goes beyond even the sophisticated media embedding achievable with Nova Mind in giving them ultimate freedom. At the same time, the assignment can be as bounded as instructors need or would like. My original draft of the assignment required students to use different colors to indicate their argument and formal, cultural, and historical approaches which form the basis of my sophomore level English course and required that they incorporate a set number of images. The possibilities are even more unlimited for rhetoric classrooms as the "Colors of the Web" and the following "Grand Taxonomy of Rap Names" from World Famous Design Junkies suggest:

Image Credit: World Famous Design Junkies

My primary concerns remain the amount of time required to teach students and whether or not, within that amount of time, they will be able to create a visual work in which they can take pride. Spending several hours on a rather basic and boring infographic in Photoshop has made me all the more concerned with the learning curve and quality of results. At the same time, the one to two class periods that it would take for students to follow along with Jonathan Patterson's tutorial could be made up by having abbreviated presentations or web presentations. Translating infographics, which are generally used to make statistics or data sets more inviting or for marketing purposes, to the writing classroom presents a number of challenges, but also a wide range of possibilities.

DJ Spooky's Sound Unbound lecture

catherine_c — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:09:00 +0000

Image Credit: DJ Spooky's Website

In the wake of DJ Spooky's Sound Unbound rip mix burn lecture here at UT yesterday evening, I'd like to recap some of the topics covered last night. DJ Spooky's discussion of remixing, music and sound, art, and space and global adventuring resonate particularly well with recent discussions here on viz. Above is a representation of global ocean currents that DJ Spooky presented as the inspiration for his symphonies on ice.

Yesterday evening DJ Spooky discussed a little bit about a wide variety of his work (mainly his music and his writing) and his inspirations. From playing an old battle rap featuring Run DMC and discussing the history of experimental music and the remix from noise compositions to Stravinsky's national anthem - which Spooky points out got him arrested, though essentially the same act earned Hendrix wide acclaim at Woodstock - Spooky's lecture focused on the ways in which sounds can be changed, the dilemmas of copyright law, as discussed in the documentary film Copyright Criminals featuring Spooky among other artists (view the preview below).

Image Credit: Stravinsky's Mugshot, from Rate My Band

Spooky also talked a great deal about space and place and its effects on our ways of approaching music and sound. He discussed his escape from his usual influences in New York and his recent trips to both Antarctica and the North Pole. Spooky's global adventurings play a significant role in his explorations of music and remixing.

Image Credit: DJ Spooky at the North Pole, from his Facebook photos

Spooky also discussed the influence of graphic design on his outlook on remixing. He explained that design is a forum where drawing from a variety of influences is expected -- a topic discussed recently in viz by Noel and even discussed his interest in and use of QR tags to enhance public spaces, a topic I discussed in my entry last week.

Image Credit: Viewers interacting with a DJ Spooky QR tag at Art Basel 2010, from Mickie Quick's Flickr Photostream

All in all, DJ Spooky's visit made for an inspiring evening that wrapped up with some fantastic questions on the meaning of the remix, the significance of the act of remixing different types of media, and the future of music distribution. DJ Spooky brought up a wide variety of topics, and his lecture flowed through a number of contemporary debates and their historical contexts. In conclusion, I'll leave you with the preview for the Copyright Criminals documentary that DJ Spooky played last night:

"Nerdscaping" and QR Code Art

catherine_c — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 23:16:27 +0000

Image Credit: Eric Rice's Flickr

H/T : 2D Code Blog and Hampton for the QR reader demonstration

In anticipation of Viz Blog's upcoming collaboration with the DWRL Immersive Environments Group, I'm devoting this week's post to a bit of background on QR codes - two dimensional barcodes that can contain several different types of data: URLs, a limited number of plain text characters, phone numbers, or SMS. In the image above, Eric Rice's "nerdscaping" of his driveway has been captured from space by Google's satellite view. Although the code wasn't quite completed when the photograph was taken, Rice's project will inevitably be only one of many giant QR codes that will soon appear on satellite images. Driveways, yards, parking lots, and building rooftops are all spaces where these codes can be placed to embed information on specific locations in the real world.

QR codes are matrix type codes created in 1994 by Denso Wave that have begun to catch on the U.S. in the last few years. Unlike basic barcodes which only contain information in a horizontal direction, QR codes contain information in both horizontal and vertical directions.. According to Denso Wave's informational page, this allows QR codes to contain "a considerably greater volume of information than a bar code"and more than other forms of 2D code developed in the United States including PDF417, Data Matrix and Maxi Code (the 2D code found on UPS packages).

Image Credit: QR code (links to Viz) created through Kaywa's free QR code generator

QR codes are fascinating images in themselves. They resist ready classification for they are not only visual, but informational. In a way, they are like rabbit holes that have an immediate presence and simultaneously function as a gateway to data or virtual spaces. As such, they have already begun to be incorporated into art and design such as the work of Italian-Belgian artist Fabrice de Nola:

Image Credit: Interaction with Fabrice de Nola's painting Auditorium Roma, from de Nola's Flickr photostream

Auditorium Roma is a De Nola painting featuring QR codes that link to information about Rome and pertinent Wikipedia pages.

Image Credit:Fabrice de Nola's painting Auditorium Roma

In his work, De Nola explores the linkages between visual art (and the visual elements of QR codes) and information. The meaning of his work is enhanced by the information featured in the QR Codes, as in his piece Still (Mirror Edit), a brief history of viewing Earth from space:

Image Credit: Fabrice De Nola's Digital C-Print Still (Mirror Edit) from De Nola's Flickr photostream

Perspective affects meaning even more significantly in artistic work featuring QR Codes. Furthermore "Scannability" becomes essential to the process of making meaning, and this process itself more intentional than associative.

Image Credit: Close up of Fabrice De Nola's Digital C-Print Still (Mirror Edit) from De Nola's Flickr photostream

In some of the QR Artwork I viewed on the main Flickr Photostream, my iPhone QR Code readers (the basic and rather efficient free QR Reader and the less reliable pay app quiQR) had difficulty scanning the images, particularly those in which the design of the QR code itself had been visually altered. De Nola's artwork was highly accessible because he does not manipulate the appearance of the codes themselves, but instead places them within the context of a work of visual art. His work is a prime example of the ability of QR codes to link aesthetics with information.

Reboot: Photoshop Disasters by Tim Turner

catherine_c — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:20:56 +0000

Image Credit: Ralph Lauren, by way of Photoshopdisasters

As a followup to my post last week on the British government's plan to meet with health officials, fashion executives, and advertisers in October 2010 to discuss the legal status of the un-indicated use of photoshopping in advertisements, I would like to re-showcase a blog entry by Tim Turner from October 2009 when British and French politicians began discussing possible photoshop disclaimer requirements.

The above ad, in which the circumference of Filippa Hamilton's waist appears to be less than that of her head, is a prime example of photoshop abuses in fashion photography and the rationale for next month's meetings. View Tim's "Photoshop Disasters" entry reposted after the break, or link to the original post and the comments, which include a video interview with Ms. Hamilton.

Some of you may have seen this story on the Huffington Post about an apology issued by Ralph Lauren for the peculiarly skinny model pictured here:

The image was first noted by Photoshop Disasters, one of my favorite blogs about visual culture (other than Viz., of course). The images collected there are often hilarious and sometimes unintentionally tragic (as this super skinny model indicates). The blog itself is a terrific read, and a hilarious way to pass a few spare minutes. What's great about it, however--in addition to its delightfully relentless snark--is how it invites a deeper engagement with images. In many cases, the tragedy of the poor photoshopping is obvious, in an impossibly thin waist or a terrifyingly elongated neck. In other cases, you have to look harder and closer to locate the details. One of the unintended consequences of living in the age of photoshop may be an increase in visual literacy: spotting the falsifications sometimes requires a keen eye for close-reading.

Illegal Photoshopping

catherine_c — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:37:49 +0000

Image Credit: The Illusionists.org

The pervasive use of photoshopped images in advertisements and magazine features has stirred up a veritable maelstrom of debate over the ethics and legality of image manipulation. On Monday, CBS News published an article on the British government's decision to meet with "advertisers, fashion editors, and health experts to discuss how to curb the practice of airbrushing and promote body confidence among girls and women."

Over the last year, British and French politicians have debated whether photoshopped images used in advertisements should be required to feature a digital modification disclaimer. Next month, several British politicians will argue that labeling airbrushed photos will make it clear that the images are mere "digital fantasies."

The image above is from the promotional materials for a project-in-progress by filmmaker Elena Rossini entitled The Illusionists. Rossini's documentary will seek to locate "the obsession over the pursuit of fairness, youth, and thinness for women - and the exaltation of those qualities," in a "deep rooted fear in the power of confident, mature women" and will seek to explore the ways that such expectations function as "one of the most effective weapons used...to stifle women's advancement and thus maintain the status quo."

The real issue, as identified by Rossini in her proposal, is one of age and impressionability. From youth onwards advertisers and fashion mavens attempt to train us (increasingly through the use of altered images) to associate diversity and age with unattractiveness, and whiteness, youth, and thinness with beauty.

Rossini's stance is akin to that articulated by Jo Swinton, a member of British parliament, in September 2009. Swinton proposed that modified photos should be banned "entirely in ads aimed at children under 16" according to the New York Times. Swinton explains that photoshopped ads lacking disclaimers may cause "teenagers and women" to feel "unhappy with themselves." The kind of digitized perfection made possible by photoshopping, demonstrated below in a video from the Dove "Real Beauty" Campaign, is utterly impossible to achieve in reality:

Video Credit: Dove Real Beauty Campaign

The Liberal Democratic Party, of which Swinson is a member, adopted her proposal into their official platform a year ago and is planning to take action next month. Similar legislation was proposed in September of 2009 in the French National Assembly by Valerie Boyer (U.M.P), who claimed that photoshopped images "can lead people to believe in realities that very often, do not exist" (Times). According to the 2009 article, Boyer called for warning labels on retouched photos used for "editorial purposes as well as on those in print ads" and would threaten violators with finds of 37,500 euros (currently $49,676) or "as much as 50 percent of the cost of an advertisement."

In Monday's CBS article, a number of European health professionals sounded in on the issue including Susan Ringwood, chief executive of Beat, a British charity focused on eating disorder awareness, and Dr. Adrienne Key of Britain's Royal College of Psychiatrists. Both suggested that the inclusion of legally mandated disclaimers on photoshopped images might help to counteract their ability to function as triggers or cues for individuals with eating disorders. Dr. Key points out that the link between "repeated exposure of thin or perfect bodies" and "a drop in mood, more dissatisfaction in the viewers' bodies, and drastic dieting behavior" is increasingly supported by research. Indeed, depictions of extreme (and digitally enhanced) thinness or, as the feminist blog in the Gawker family, Jezebel.com, has waged an ongoing anti-airbrushing campaign to demonstrate, the reduction or elimination of bones from models in store catalog item images and promotional campaigns, grant viewers - regardless of whether or not they believe these often startling images to be realistic - an open invitation for self-criticism.

Image Credit: Ann Taylor, by way of Jezebel.com

Dodai Stewart of Jezebel poses her apt take on the issue in a response to Monday's CBS article, asking whether it "won't...take more than legislation to correct how we currently look at women's bodies?" Stewart writes that "although extensive Photoshop is detrimental - magazine editors and advertisers are, essentially, lying to us, the public - the real problem is that what we consider 'attractive' has also become, for the most part, unattainable." She calls for a broader campaign, extending beyond legislation (though that "would be great"), and "demanding diversity," "offering feedback" and relying on consumers "cognizan[ce]of the brands we support."

Jezebel's insistence on raising awareness of the widespread use (and abuse) of photoshopping in promotional materials and their refusal to bow down to the demands of corporations to obscure their attempts at misrepresenting human figures and elevating unattainably "desirable" beauty standards is a step towards a broader realization of the effects of visual manipulation upon self-image, perceptions of beauty, and body confidence.

Citizenship Unveiled

catherine_c — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:43:28 +0000

Image Credit: Flickr (Creative Commons)

Translated text: "Do you feel at home when you go out? view discrimination.nl"

On Tuesday the French Senate voted 246 to 1 to ban full face veils, burqas, or niqabs in public spaces. Should the law pass review by the Council of State and the European Court of Human Rights, a six-month grace period will commence during which women will be encouraged to live life in the French Republic with an open or uncovered face, ("Vivre la République à visage découvert") according to French minister of justice, Michele Alliot-Marie (Le Monde).

Marie contends that the veil undermines individual, communal, and national identity and blocks the full integration of Islamic women into French society.

The Senate's vote emerges out of a long-term debate over faith and personal appearance within public spaces which has spurred a number of striking visual campaigns alternately seeking to defend the right of Muslim women to wear burqas or niquabs in public or arguing for the suppression of these garments for reasons of women's rights or on account of heightened national security concerns.

The image above is from a Dutch campaign that deems burqas an infringement upon womens' freedoms. The link provided at the bottom of the poster invites viewers to "view discrimination" on their website.

A similar campaign was produced by the ISHR (International Society for Human Rights):

Image Credit: ISHR

This image depicts the eyes of a woman in traditional Islamic dress with bars over them, indicating that her outfit is a prison. The text at the bottom calls for a stop to be put to "the oppression of women in the Islamic world." Like the Dutch "view discrimination" campaign, the ISHR draws attention to the link between dress, faith, and women's freedom, a connection that is upended in the following image:

Image Credit: ThePeoplesCube.com

This image is perhaps the most complex (in spite of its humor) in the sense that it dares to depict women dressed in traditional garb while suggesting that they are not repressed under their burqas. In spite of lending itself to a humorous interpretation, this image gives rise to several important considerations. Firstly, it suggests that dress alone does not necessarily define or restrict personality, political affiliations, self-image or self-confidence; and secondly, it implies that regardless of their dress, it is impossible to expect that the 2,000 French Muslim women who currently wear burqas (.003 percent of the French population) will be transformed into standardized or "safe" French citizens within the space of six months by being forced to reveal their faces. Such legislation, which is also pending review in Spain and Belgium, will only make burqas more politically charged.

The situation in France is no joke. Following the transitional period, women wearing burqas in public could be fined 150 euro ($185) and might also be required to take a French citizenship class, according to The Guardian. Individuals forcing a woman to wear a burqa could be charged up to 30,000 euro ($38,000).

This controversial decision comes after the passage of a 2004 law banning head scarves and other "conspicuous" religious symbols in state schools and is supported by 82 percent of the French population according to the Washington-based Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, as reported in Spiegel Online International.

Off-Screen 3D

catherine_c — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:44:45 +0000

Image Credit: Preventable.ca

3D images define the cutting edge of cinematic entertainment in 2010. Since the release of James Cameron's Avatar in late 2009, almost every cinematic release with a broad market appeal has been released in 3D. 3D-HDTVs have also blazed their way into the home entertainment market, presenting viewers with a fresh perspective on visual media. ESPN-3D went live this summer with other networks expected to follow suit soon.

The 3D craze is nothing new, particularly in entertainment and the arts. The first 3D cinematic release was Lew Landers' Man in the Dark, which premiered on April 8th 1953. Early 3D films were made to be viewed with anaglyph viewing glasses - the classic 3D glasses with chromatically opposite colored lenses based on the same principles of perspective as inventor Charles Wheatstone's 1838 stereoscopic viewer.

More recently, 3D has gone beyond the screen and made its way into real life. Edgar Mueller's popular pavement art and BMW Joy 3D - an "interactive 3D building projection" in Singapore are two attempts at changing how we experience public spaces. This week brings the debut of a somewhat controversial public safety campaign created by the British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) and the Community Against Preventable Injuries or Preventable.ca in West Vancouver.

This "3D traffic warning" is meant to work towards "shifting [drivers'] attitudes with illusions." In what Joseph Calamia of Discover's Discoblog suggests "sounds like a terrifying experience," drivers approaching within 100 feet of a 2D decal of a girl chasing a ball affixed to the street will witness the image appear to rise up in front of them. If they are traveling at the appropriate speed of 18 miles or 30 kilometers per hour, they will have time to stop before "hitting" a young girl dressed in blue clothing and pink and white shoes who is chasing a pink ball into the flow of traffic. The image will recede into 2D after drivers pass the optimum viewing range. Police will be on hand to monitor driver reactions.

Video Credit: Preventable.ca

Commenters on Discoblog voice concerns that the illusion of the girl might actually cause other kinds of traffic accidents if motorists attempt to swerve to miss it or even that drivers might become conditioned by 3D warnings like this one and be less likely to believe their eyes on the road. Calamia points out that virtual speed bumps have already been used in Europe and in Philadelphia in 2008, but notes that these "less anthropomorphic" speed bumps were in the shape of spikes. According to CTV-BC, the goal of the installation is to "jolt" drivers "out of their regular routine" and to cause them to "pay attention." David Dunne of the BCAA claims that the "static image" should not be a hazard to drivers who can "respond...appropriately" and suggests that those who cannot "shouldn't be driving."

Yet this "Pavement Patty" gives rise to a number of important considerations as not only media environments on-screen but our off-screen lives become increasingly permeated by visual techniques intended to "jolt" us and attract our attention, whether for the purposes of art and entertainment, advertisement, or public safety. Dunne claims that such an image may have the power to shift drivers' attitudes, just as viewers of Mueller's art and the BMW Joy exhibit are affected by manipulations of their perspectives of public space. Our attitudes toward the world are increasingly shaped by visual representations that are not confined to traditional mediums and which are, by their very nature, intended to interact directly with our perspectives on the world that surrounds us for the purposes of affecting our experiences and behaviors. The power of these illusions resides in their verisimilitude and their ability to cause us to radically reconcieve the spaces in which we exist.