Next Blog

I know I just posted something... but I also just discovered the "Next Blog" button on Blogger (its on the top left hand side for me). So entertaining - kind of like Blogger's version of stumbleupon. I also found some pretty cool pictures that way, too...

Even though this picture isn't conventionally pretty, I like it, especially because my favorite flower is featured in the foreground. I also thought it was really awesome because it came off of a page that was written in French, and Google Chrome gave me the option to translate the page; I did, and being someone who can't speak another language fluently was thankful to be able to have the experience of reading the thoughts of someone in a non-English speaking country. Hooray for universality!

Decisions, decisions...

During our trip to The Mayflower on Monday, Arlene decided what she wanted to do for her book! She wanted to highlight the happy years of her union with Bernie by making a small (4X6) "Snapfish" album with photos from throughout the years. She also would like to include some small passages throughout the album. I gave her the assignment of collecting photographs and thinking about what she would like to write in the book. We are also going to take a picture of Arlene and Bernie together next week to put on the last page of her book.
I am really excited to get started on this project with Arlene. I feel as if she has a great vision for what she wants to do and I can't wait to work on it with her. I found it great that both Arlene and Bernie want to create something so meaningful that they can pass it down to their children.

I found your camera!

While I was viewing this weeks PostSecrets, I noticed that someone posted a link to a website with "orphaned photos" called I Found Your Camera: http://www.ifoundyourcamera.net/
This website is pretty cool - a spin on found photographs. Instead of picking up a photograph off of the street, those who post on this website post pictures obtained from cameras that they have found around the world, in hopes that the photos and the cameras will be claimed.
I thought that it was interesting to consider what photographs those who have discovered the cameras choose to post :)

Pondering the Artist Book

Theming this artist book has been a very difficult task for me. As someone who likes to draw and paint, doing art with photographs is something that I feel will be challenging. As we were listening to our guests speak about the different techniques for manipulating and using photographs, as well as listening to Dawn talk about examples and what to do/what not to do, I feel a bit more confident in my idea of an artists book. I plan to somehow relate this book to what I'm studying now - biology and chemistry, mainly - and feel as if I can do this in a few ways. My general idea is to focus on how the brain categorizes and processes images and memories. To do this, I will focus on each of the themes that we cover in our class, one page or a spread devoted to each of these themes: 1. History of Theories of Memory/Studies and History of Photography, 2. 

Personal/Autobiographical Memory, Part 1 – Development of Identity and Your Story, Voluntary/Involuntary Memory, 3. Personal/Autobiographical Memory, Part 2 - Thinking Photography (Roland Barthes - Studium/Punctum, time, history, memory, 4. Socialization and the Sharing of Your Story, 5. Memorializing - Memory and Objects/Memory for Special Occasions/Flashbulb Memory, 6. Collective Memory/Archive/Hisory, Cultural Differences in Memory and Photographs, 7. Memory/Time/Perception - Amnesia and Memory Reactivated/Recovered - Cinema and Still Photography, 8. memory and Testimony - Eyewitness Memory/Typologies/Photojournalism, 9. Memory and Trauma - Recovered Memory/False Memory, and 10. Photograph and Everyday Memory in the Digital Age. The corresponding photographs will not cover every aspect of these themes, but I am going to try and include as much as I can.I also would like to incorporate how the brain processes memory and photograph at the beginning of the book.

T

he general layout of my book is going to be a journey through the mind and through our class and what we've learned. The first page will have a photo of someone with an exasperated or overwhelmed facial expression tape transfered over an assortment of photographs (small and collaged in a haphazard manner) as well as with some letters, numbers, and symbols thrown in there. The next pages will be devoted to how memory flows through the mind, perhaps with a picture of someone superimposed over a picture of the brain with arrows indicating the flow of information when it comes to processing memory and processing images; possibly, these would be next to each other to show how they are different/similar. The next pages will be a progression through the class, including the theories we have learned about how we process information and how memory and photograph contribute to our development and our personalities. Throughout this book, I plan to use textures to evoke feelings. Then, the last page will be a picture of the same person looking relieved tape transfered over the same assortment of photographs, letters, symbols, and numbers - except they will all be organized, as if through viewing this artist book the person has learned how to better organize and interpret their thoughts when it comes to memory and photograph.

Lost and Found

The other day, my cousin Cara posted some pictures of me and my family that I had never seen before. I find it pretty funny and cool that these photos show up seven or ten years after they are taken, and I don't remember ever seeing them before. It makes me wonder what pictures people might have of me that I don't know exist! And another thing... I don't remember any of these occasions. At all. These photos bring back memories in the sense that I know where they were taken, but I don't remember them being taken - even the ones that were taken when I was a little older. The things that I do remember are the clothes - the bathingsuits, the dresses - I remember their feel and what I loved wearing, as well as what I passed down to my little cousins (they're wearing them in some of the pictures). Also, I am going to post a few of my cousins, even though you won't know them - however, I just love all the facial expressions and that ... well... they pretty much make the same faces today!
My thought process in reviewing these pictures hearkened back to what Kuhn said in "Family Secrets":

"It is possible to take a critical and questioning look at family photographs, and this can generate hitherto unsuspected, sometimes painful, knowledge as well as new understandings about the past and the present, helping to raise critical consciousness not only about our individual lives an dour own families, but about ‘the family’ in general and even, too, about the times and the places we inhabit...… [they] stand as guarantors of the past actuality of some person or event."

Here are a few that I thought were cute/funny:

loved that pink velvet dress ... and will never forget that gate in the background

and we passed my sister's pink and yellow flower dress down through the generations of Nys'

I love this one of me and Cara!

Cara and Ivy still make those faces.

Arlene and Bernie - 60 years and counting

On Monday, we took our second trip to the Mayflower. Aside from traffic being very bad and making us late, it was amazing! I learned so much more about Arlene - more about where she grew up, her favorite activities as a child and young adult, and what she likes to do now. I find it fascinating that writes short stories and loves to do art!
We also learned that Arlene and Bernie's (Bernie is Jenny's community partner) 60th wedding anniversary is on September 24, 2010. We are planning to bring something to them as a collective Happy Anniversary gift. It makes me so happy to see that they are together and still so in love after 60 years! It is my goal to be as happy as they are and as dedicated to my husband as Arlene is after 60 years of marriage!

Proust and Scallops

This past weekend I went on a trip to Crystal River with my family, Jonathan, and some of our family friends. The purpose of our trip was to go scalloping, and I had no idea what that meant.

We made our way out to the Gulf of Mexico from our beautiful hotel, The Plantation Resort. It undoubtedly reminded me of Cross Creek, by the way (comment intended for all of those in the American Identity Honors class last Spring) - the scenery seemed identical, until the nuclear power plant came in to view (AWESOME, but not at all Cross Creek-ish). When we reached the gulf, it seemed to be a vast expanse of dark water and I couldn't help but think to myself - how are we going to snorkel in this? I'm used to the water at home in Jupiter, bright, clear blue - go 10 feet out from the shore of the beach and you're already in over your head, the dropoff without any intention of stopping. We went about 2 miles off shore and were somehow, miraculously, in only about 4-6 feet of water. Needless to say, the gulf has a channel.

Before we plunged into the water with our snorkel masks and scallop bags (aka laundry bags) in hand, we were told to look for the bright blue eyes of the scallops. They sit on the sandy bottom or among the seagrass and, in a moment's notice, can pop up and swim away from you (it's quite funny, actually). As we snorkeled along, we slowly learned how to spot the scallops. It was like I was on an underwater Easter Egg hunt - except for that, on occasion, the eggs could decide to swim away from you. Most of the time, though, they just snapped shut when you went to reach for them and resigned themselves to being caught. As elusive as they seemed, our team of 13 people, including myself, caught four 5-gallon buckets full of scallops. It took us 2 1/2 hours to clean them all!

One of my goals of the weekend was to spot a starfish - out of all my years of snorkeling at home and in the keys, I have never actually seen a starfish in the wild. They were apparently abundant in all the spots that we were snorkeling, but I couldn't find one. After a few hours, I finally saw one in a bed of seagrass and was super happy! Hence these pictures:

My cousin Cara and our starfish

When reading Proust, I couldn't help but think about our scalloping trip, especially since Proust's petites madeleines bear an uncanny resemblance to scallop shells. Scallops and memories are a lot alike, both elusive and unpredictable... but when uncovered can spark excitement!