March | April 2005 - Boston Photography Focus

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140,000 geocaches found in over 200 countries and an estimatedmillion users. Each cache is usually a water-proof plastic box thatcontains a logbook, some trinkets (you take one and leave one), andsometimes a disposable camera. (Interestingly, many caches are hiddenin film canisters and a new “webcam cache” has now debuted.) Afterthe cache is found, the discoverer is invited to post to the website, andinclude any comments and pictures.As Kelley explains in the book’s preface, “Because geocaches are designatedby latitude and longitude, hunting for them involves the curiousexperience of simultaneously knowing exactly where you are goingbut having no idea where it ‘really’ is or what it will look like untilyou finally arrive. While that experience was common for explorers inearlier eras, it has become a rarer and rarer experience in our mediasaturatedworld.” When photographing, Kelley underscores this, thusyou actually will never see any caches in her photographs, but thesentiment, a detail, a moment, that perhaps this person (known onlyby a username) wanted to share with the world. Among the locations/photographsare a dock near Alfred Stieglitz’s home in LakeGeorge, the underpass to a popular Boston subway T-stop, and even acache on a classified government site in the Arizona dessert. In herpoetic descriptions that accompany each photograph, Kelley toucheson everything from natural history to philosophy in guiding us visuallyin how people, seen and unseen, mark the land.Kelley has a diverse background that includes a Ph.D. in AmericanLiterature from Indiana University and a MFA in photography fromMassArt. She currently teaches literature at Bentley College. As a partof the Nature & Inquiry artist group related to MassArt’s SIM (Studiofor Interrelated Media) program, she collaborated on the award-winningartwork “Invisible Ideas,” a GPS-enabled Artwalk through theBoston Public Gardens and Common for the Copley Society of Artheld during the 2003 Boston Cyberarts Festival.nates of where foot meets pavement—an oft-overlooked interface—were later notated and then overlaid over the scene. To these tools, alllocations are just a collection of numbers and thus, via a sort of democraticleveling, the Empire State Building becomes the same as TimesSquare. Cracks in the sidewalk, the elevation of a step, and the grainof granite seem both alien and monumental. Likely, his act of photographingwas quite humorous to passers-by, a bizarre twist on thetourist photograph (“I was literally standing here”). Hung in a2-column grid, 4 frames high, the shape of the final display evenalludes to the height of buildings and the shape of Manhattan.Knight’s other work “Every Environment is Text Rich #2” was completedsimultaneously with Landmarks. Using a digital video camera atthe same locations, he spelled out title phrase by moving thecamera in the shape of each letter. In new series created for this exhibition,he will select minute intersections of latitude and longitude,and make rubbings of the ground—literally and metaphorically"traces"—combining them with photographs of the sky above.Knight’s background in literature combined with a long-standinginterest in semiotics has led to his current work with words andimages. His art often deals with writing, and involves the act ofinscribing onto a variety of substrates. Almost all of his pieces addresstechnology and most interface with the internet, with some existingonly in that space. (See more online at brookeknight.com.) Knightreceived his MFA in photography from California Institute of Artsand is currently an Assistant Professor of New Media at EmersonCollege. Regionally, he has shown at Art Interactive in Cambridge,ArtSpace in New Haven, and University of Maine.J OSH W INERWiner’s work is a part of an ongoing series depicting landscapes influx. Using a view camera in the tradition of 19th century Westernphotographers, Winer travels to scenes of earth as raw material or byproduct:a Quincy quarry filled in with excess dirt from the Big Dig,a gravel pit in Vermont, and a stockpile of road salt under a bridge inChelsea. While the photographers of the US geological surveys documentedfor the purposes of expansion, namely the railroad, Winer’swork addresses in part New England’s penchant for reclamation,transformation, and the automobile. Here the land is a discursivespace, Winer claims, and "Through these very acts of excavating theearth and creating new landscapes, the earth itself becomes an agentof our ambitions and desires."Josh Winer (Boston, MA), 42° 57’ 11N, 073° 12’ 24W, 2004, C-print, 40 x 50 inches,Courtesy of the artist and Clifford•Smith GalleryWiner received his MFA in photography from Massachusetts Collegeof Art in 2004. He has served as the media stockroom manager at theSchool of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Boston Photo Collaborative.Recently, he accepted a position as Lab Manager andAdjunct Faculty at the Art Institute of Boston. His first solo show wasat Clifford•Smith Gallery in October 2004.Y ELLOW A RROWAs stated on their website, yellowarrow.org, Yellow Arrow merges"sticker culture with wireless media, creating an interactive forum forpeople to leave and discover messages pointing out what counts in theirenvironment." Participants place arrows drawing attention to locationsand sites of their choosing, and are invited to post photographs to theirwebsite. Each arrow has a unique code, and by sending a text-message(SMS) from a mobile phone to a number a short message becomesattached to a site. If someone encounters an arrow when amblingabout, he or she can send the code to the number and immediatelyreceive the point associated with it. Cities from Berlin to Zürich to SanFrancisco are included in their database, with new additions addeddaily. Through this location-based exchange, the group asserts, “the YellowArrow becomes a symbol for the unique characteristics, personalhistories, and hidden secrets that live within our everyday spaces.”Remarkably, after learning about Yellow Arrow, I began to notice themeverywhere: on the BU Bridge (text = "Perspective helps us see the way.We choose bicycles to discover every angle in our urban playground"),and in a classroom at the Art Institute of Boston. On display at thePRC will be a live-feed slideshow from their online photographic database,which during the Cyberarts Festival will showcase only Bostonarea arrows. In a city known for its established landmarks, this projectputs the control in the hands of the people who know it well. Newlandmarks will be created and the city activated in a recipe that is onepart subjective mapping, one part annotated environment. In essence,Yellow Arrow allows Boston to curate itself and every person to be apart of an artistic act.Yellow Arrow first emerged during the 2nd PsyGeoConflux conferencein May 2004, launched completely in the Fall, and mostrecently participated in Art Basel in Miami. Yellow Arrow has beenfeatured in Wired Magazine, Metropolis, Mass Appeal, TimeOut NY,and countless international publication publications including LeFigaro, Liberation in France, RAI in Italy and Diari de Barcelona inSpain. Yellow Arrow is a project initiated by Counts Media, a mobileart, entertainment and theatre company based in New York City.(For more information visit www.countsmedia.com.) Their combinedbackground includes photography, experimental live performance,urban exploration, computer programming and location-basedstorytelling. >>Brooke Knight (Winchester, MA), Landmarks series, Empire State Building, 1999, Ink jetprint, 11 x 14 inches. Courtesy of the artist.B ROOKE K NIGHTIn his series Landmarks, Knight traveled to well-known New YorkCity cultural and civic attractions. Instead of looking up, the waymost visitors do when ingesting culturally dictated spaces or becomelost, he looked down and photographed the sidewalks. The coordi-The only indication of specificity comes via Winer’s choice of titlinghis compositions using their GPS coordinates. This point of entry,however, is paradoxical, and ultimately invites and releases viewers.We could return to the vicinity, but similar to the Greek philosopher’sadage that "one can never step into the same river twice," oncerecorded, these landscapes have indelibly changed. These piles arebuilding blocks and leftovers from other sites, destined to move andbe torn down at will. One is struck by the lunar quality of many ofthe scenes (an imprint from a construction vehicle might be likenedto a moon rover) and consider how minimal can a landscape actuallybe? Viewers are plunged into the picture plane with little or no notionof the place—the periphery becomes the focus—and we apprehendthe place-in-itself. Although initially alluding to the hand of man andcommercial and political ambitions, agency sometimes seems transferredto the earth. Sand and rocks fall, and ultimately, gravity andentropy take over. Thus we witness the land being marked, and alsomarking itself.Yellow Arrow #g3034 by “newurban.”“Oh, if only I had the words of the poetHenry Wadsworth Longfellow. But sometimes,you just don't need to say a thing.”Photo courtesy of “newurban” andyellowarrow.org.89
ConclusionsClearly, something new is happening—these artworks here stretch theboundaries of what is known as the photographic and geographic—andterritories need to be redefined, if not leveled. (Interestingly, both of terms,photographic and geographic, reference mark making—literally meaninglight and earth writing.) Remarking on new technologies begetting newmaps in You are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination,writer Stephen S. Hall offers that new delineations “lend themselvesto a form of bushwhacking that is more interior, philosophic, imaginative.”kanarinka, one of the founders of a local art collective of a psychogeographicalbent, likewise ponders, “Cartographers used to make maps.Artists used to make pictures. What do we do now?…”The hunting origin of the photographic term "snapshot" helps in navigatingthis topic. This urge underlies this exhibition and is an apt coda for thisessay. Guided by an internal compass and armed with unexposed film, thisconnotation serves us well in thinking about the changed topography (physically,politically, and culturally) that we now inhabit and our urge to locateand capture it photographically. I leave you then where we began: lost, buthopefully liberated. A quotation, then, to conclude: the “Bellman’s Speech”from Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark (1876), in which a group of adventurerssearch for a legendary, fictional, beast using a plain sheet of paper:He had bought a large map representing the sea,Without the least vestige of land:And the crew were much pleased when they found it to beA map they could all understand."What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators,Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?"So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply"They are merely conventional signs!"Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!But we've got our brave Captain to thank"(So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best--A perfect and absolute blank!"SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHYHarmon, Katherine. You are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination.New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004.kanarinka, “Maps and Ovens: An Incomplete Dictionary of Mapping Practices,”Cartographic Perspectives, Special edition: “Maps and Art” edited by Denis Wood,publication forthcoming.Kelley, Margot Anne. Local Treasures: Geocaching Across America, Stauton, VA: Centerfor American Places, publication forthcoming (October 2005, ant.).Solnit, Rebecca. Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.Glowlab, www.glowlab.com, the hub of psychogeographic practices and sponsor ofPsy.Geo.Conflux conferences. Note that the next conference will be held in Providence,in Mid May. Visit provflux.blogs.com for more info.MAPPING Related Events, Exhibitions, and PerformancesSeveral community partners are also hosting programs and events related tomapping and the urban environment. We encourage everyone to visit them all.GEOCACHESIn order to point to other events and locations and as an act of artistic geocaching,Margot Kelley will be hiding several geocaches in or near the followingplaces: 1.) the PRC 2.) 199 Gallery in Lowell 3.) inside of "One Pixel"4.) Space 200, featuring iKatun with the Institute for Infinitely Small Things.Visit geocaching.com to learn how to begin finding and participating in her“cARTographic multi-cache.”EXHIBITION: On the MapApril 22-June 24, 2005119 Gallery, 119 Chelmsford Street, Lowell, MA119gallery.orgCurated by 119 Gallery Director Mary Ann Kearns, On the Map explores realand virtual maps and places. The artists featured are printmaker and composerDeborah and Richard Cornell, new media artist John Craig Freeman,and cartographer and printmaker Steven R Holloway. Cornell's installation iscreated with the assistance of the Scientific Computing and VisualizationGroup at Boston University. On the Map is the first exhibit in the new 119Gallery in Lowell.PUBLIC INSTALLATION ANDPERFORMANCE: One PixelA “satellite” component of theexhibit On the Map, One Pixel is acollaborative public installation thatwill be staged in the Fenway area ofBoston during the Boston CyberartsFestival. Participants and volunteerswill be directed to visit and documentwith various means theapproximately 30 x 30 meter areaon the ground that is represented bya single pixel in a Landsat7 satelliteimage. A “Performance Map” bycartographer Steven R Holloway,One Pixel is meant to demonstratethat the spirit of a living place cannotbe appreciated without directexperience.Steven R Holloway, One Pixel “PerformanceMap”: the mapping, observation,and reading of one pixel. First performancein Knoxville, TNSPEAKER SERIES:Floating Points 2: Networked Art in Public Spaces at Emerson CollegeBill Bordy Theater, 216 Tremont Street, Boston, MAAll events take place at 7pm and will be streamed live on the internetFree and open to the publicFor more information, links to the artists’ sites, and sponsorship please visitinstitute.emerson.edu/floatingpointsEmerson College and Turbulence.org co-present Floating Points 2, a fourpartspeaker series that explores the ways artists use wireless and networkingtechnologies (Internet, WiFi, GPS, etc.) to transform our interactions withone another and our urban and natural environments by taking their workout of the desktop PC and into the streets.March 30: Pete Gomes and the collaborative team of Jeff Knowlton &Naomi Spellman will talk about their recent projects, that engage the landscapeof the internet, wireless technologies, databases, computer editing,portable computers, GPS as well as local surroundings.April 27: Part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival, a panel of internationallyrenownedartists—Julian Bleecker, Elizabeth Goodman, Andrew Shoben ofGreyworld, and Teri Rueb—will discuss new directions in locative, networked,ubiquitous, and mobile media. Rueb will debut a newTurbulence.org commission.PERFORMANCE/SHOWING: iKatun and the Institute forInfinitely Small ThingsSpace 200, 200 State Street, Boston, MA and ???Be on the lookout for the local art collective iKatun (ikatun.com) and theInstitute for Infinitely Small Things’ temporary laboratory at Alternative Current’s(alternativecurrents.com) new Space 200 in Fanueil Hall as well as publicexpeditions around the city. Donned in their white lab coats and usingadvertising phrases such as "Just do it" as starting points, the Institute willvisit Boston landmarks and Cyberarts sites and invite participants on anurban journey of critical cartography. To contribute a corporate commandand photographic documentation visit corporatecommands.com. To find outthe exact times and location of the expeditions, see infinitelysmallthings.net.Visit bostoncyberarts.org or pick up a special edition of the Boston Phoenix for acomplete listing of all events.Mississippi, 1998 ©Peter Kayafas Strawberry Suit, 2004 ©Tama HochbaumMARCH 1 - 26, 2005Peter Kayafas Selected PhotographsTama Hochbaum Claire with Flowers, closely notedAPRIL1 - 30, 2005Thomas Gustainis Pin-wheel RomanticismSilas Shabelewska Roads1011
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March | April 2005 - Boston Photography Focus

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