if costs continue to rise
forensic scientists will be
parried with insurgents there and
starkly different than the one at
His Agency
best for the long haul
Found Spine Poem #1
Medicated
NEW GIF
Sums up some of what I have been feeling with a two week migraine and enduring the horrors of the US political system.
[original photo: Medicated]
Looking through Old Files
Looking and re-thinking… searching for something else and found these photos. A few years ago I bought a digital projector and returned to my old method of working by projecting images – using the newspapers and their reference to history as a backdrop. Images interest me now that didn’t then….
In my studio
ABOVE THE FOLD
16 years of NY Times Front Page Sections categorized by content of the photo above the fold. Arranged chronically and then photographed, images in stacks play as slideshows. Twelve categories playing here: Men with Guns, Dead Bodies, Memorials, 911, Grieving, Domestic Protest, International Protest, Celebrations, Weather, Rescue, Refugees and Immigrants, and Photos of Photos
Positive Visions – December 1 Day With(out) Art
Day Without Art began on December 1st 1989 as a national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis… In 1998, Visual AIDS suggested Day With(out) Art become a day WITH art, and change the name to Day With(out) Art, to recognize and promote increased programming of cultural events that draw attention to the continuing pandemic. [read more at Visual Aids]
In 1996, I launched Positive Visions, a special section of my Collected Visions web project for Day Without Art 1996 with photographs and stories by and about people living with HIV/AIDS, who have died of AIDS, or who are caretakers of people with HIV/AIDS. The Web was young but was already a site of activism. I remember contacting Creative Time who used to coordinate the online DWA activities. It was very exciting to be able to connect online with people I did not know and be part of something bigger.
In 1997, I collaborated with young people at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, not-for-profit agency serving gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth in New York City, to create an online gallery. Each year I would try to collect more stories, but it became increasingly hard to get the word out and there were increasing number of projects dealing with stories around the AIDS pandemic, so I stopped collecting stories for Positive Visions in 2001.
Today I search #DayWithoutArt #WorldAidsDay
#HIV activists warn #Ebola policies causing same fear from early #AIDS http://ow.ly/DA9Hg
More history and perspective at Art 21 in conjunction with Visual Aids: 1989-What We Lost by Jim Hubbard.
Woman in Blue Bra – Egypt
Today I was looking through images that I had posted to this blog to add to Random Interference, and I came across the image above which I posted on February 29, 2012 . It was linked to an article in Buzzfeed, and that link is now dead. So I did some searching. A google ‘search by image’ came up with “best guess for this image: blue bra girl,” which I quickly realized refers to woman in the newspaper image who is being dragged. The image was taken December 17, 2011. US feminist me resents that this image and the women becomes know as the ‘blue bar girl’. I didn’t do follow up at the time so I did not realize until today the extent of the anger that the event (and image) caused. It became a symbol of outrage against abuse of power by the military. The following screen grab from my image searching sums it up.
Links to more information:
Egyptian women march against military rule – War in Context (with attention to the unseen)
The ‘Girl In The Blue Bra’ – NPR
‘Blue bra girl’ rallies Egypt’s women vs. oppression – CNN
The “Blue bra girl” comes back as a masked avenger – EastWestWestEast
It’s International Women’s Day – Will the Blue Bra Girl Be Forgotten? Between the Lines
Mass March by Cairo Women in Protest Over Abuse by Soldiers
May 4, 1970: O HI O
Photos: The killings at Kent State – CNN.com.
Other LInks
- Kent May 4 Center
- Links Galore
- KentState1970.org from WKSU radio > can add your own story
- Search for Historical Accuracy – article from Kent State website
Art in the 1980s: The Forgotten History of PAD/D
Art in the 1980s: The Forgotten History of PAD/D
Great piece in Hyperallergic about the PAD/D (Political Art Documentation and Distribution) collective and its archive which is now at MoMA library in Queens.
A lot of this was happening when I first moved to NYC. In retrospect, I don’t understand why I didn’t get involved.
I love the last line of the article in how it speaks about why we make archives: “The archive is in a place that will forever be there, and perhaps no one will show it much attention. But maybe one day, someone will see it, and will.” [by artist Mimi Smith.]
And there is a second essay
with many great selections
from the archive.
First Photograph of Electric Chair
From TIME Lightbox
Interesting story about this famous photograph and timely in that Tennessee is about to vote to reinstate the electric chair. Just voting on it is horrifying enough.
How the photo was taken: The New York Daily News knew that the prison was familiar with many journalists from their staff, so they hired someone from out of town, Tom Howard, a then-unknown local photographer from the Chicago Tribune. Knowing he would never be allowed in with a camera, Howard strapped a single-use camera to his right ankle and wired a trigger release up his pant leg. Remarkably, he was allowed in. From across the room, Howard pointed his toe at the chair and took but one photo as Snyder took her last breaths.
[Read more: The First Photograph of an Execution by Electric Chair – LightBox ]
… In my mind, this image is the one Andy Warhol used for his Electric Chair series, but no.
Things to read/re-read/watch
IV. Here’s Looking at Me
by Marvin Heiferman @ still searching blog
Trevor Paglen writing for still searching
Whitney Biennial for Angry Women
from the New Inquiry
Interview about New Inquiry
Oliver Sacks on Memory, Plagiarism, and the Necessary Forgettings of Creativity
Amelia Jones on Nao Bustamente