Wednesday, September 22, 2010

solutions

poeple are late constantly? we have many administrative annoucments that have nothing to do with school or class and we have them after class starts? poeple take too long breaks and are late to return?

let fix it by making the class shorter with less things to do. that way we can set a goal we can actually meet rather then having to do too many things we need to and never have enough time to do them.
or better yet, lets have less of the class so that less poeple can more time to sit around in silence, and not have to stop a discusion right when it get to be intresting at the bottom end of 40 minutes of silence.

lets not meet on time, not have administrative matters dealt with out side of class time, not have proper adult short breaks, not talk about the work at hand with out thinking for 30 minutes and lets have alot less work and show it less times.

this makes good sense and is the fruit of straight logical thinking, just like Mr spock would have suggested.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

new year resolutions: class of 2012

the problems:

1: the add drop lasts just one week, this means you have only one chance to decide if you can or want to take a class you know nothing about. if by chance the two calsses you are debating between happen to fall on the same time block you are fucked because you will not have another chance to go check the other one if you attend one of them. bsically this means what you get is what you get and thats that.

2: you must be rich, but not only rich and have lits of cash lying around so that you can pay 40K a year for school plus 40K a year to live with out having a job, there are no scolarships available for regular white people like me. so if i did not have the cash upfront RISD would not accept me.

3: i have 33 credits to complete this year. on top of that i may have another 3 credits (if i can find a class that has room) for free. 18 credits + 6 credits are grad crit and thesis classes. that is more then 2 thirds. 3 credits are an obligatory graduate seminar (there are no photo grad seminars), that pose no real intrest to any one who is not a multi media artist, especialy not for someone who is not an artist at all, but only a photographer. so that leaves you with 6 credits for elective classes, 3 of wich must be taken as winter session classes. i will be taking a guided study (wich is not really a class, since there are only technichal and beginner level calsses in winter session) and now i am only left with 3 credits - this means i have only one class i can choose to take this year. and this better be an intresting class. just one class for the whole year.

4: there is one photo class that is not a techinchal class. history of photography. i cannot take it due to scheduleing restrictions. other then that there are no graduate level classes offered by the photo departament.

5: all classes are help in a high school type regime with hnmework and papers and all kind of attendance restrictions, with spelling counted in to ones grade along formatting errors in your academic styling of a paper. this means that any resreve mental capacity you might have left is spent on trying to deal with a class you are not really intrested in but must take and that reqiuers you to know things you never learned how to do in a formal way. yes there are many official classes out there to help you improve your english and writing skills, mespecialy if you are an asian student and english is not your first language. but they are out of regualr hours and do not give you any credit, and have even yet more homework and even strickter rules.

6: resoucrses are limited, or usless, i have all the gear i need at home. the one photo class that is a theory class, is one that i have at least 3 times,  (and once more in english in america), i hate mac computers and think learning on a mac is silly and counter productive. faculty memebers apaprt from a select few are not readily available for help or questions, and those who are would have been so even if i did not go to RISD.

the conclusion: i love RISD, it is a great school with a well planned and though out system that is friendly to the student, forthcoming with help and abundant with knowledge and learning material. i am so very happy to have the opportunity to go to RISD and will absolutely dedicate every minute i have to completing my MFA there.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

ideals

Now, it is the end of the Ocean State. out with the poor, old and small, and off to the new rich Spirit of America.
no more of that numbers only crap. we are here for letters too.
our very last tie to the smallest state, so long RI.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Sunday, September 5, 2010

A mystery

Who is Shai Gabbai?
i dont know, i have started looking for more photo books on ebay, and have seen a few absucrities here and there, including a few israeli photographers of whom i have never heard but found some info about them or a website. this is a book by Shai Gabbai found on ebay called "Asia", the only other reference to this book or photographer was an israeli used online book store here, this time the book is titled in hebrew.
what can i learn from the one photo that adorns the cover of both the hebrew and english versions?
its a black and white photo, of a kid sleeping inside a carton, in an unundetified location, house or street. the photo clearly has dirty edges of the 80's agenda style of photojournalist purism of full frame printing (I.E. Aliza Auerbach, james nachtway) its only moderately wide angle.
is it worth the15 dollars asked on ebay? or the mere 28 shekels asked for used hebrew one?

a new world


my stomach is turning now when i am looking on ebay at used film cameras.
what was a real thing only a few weeks ago is now somthing that is almost completly useless.
i am wondering how much longer will there be sheet film around? how many more months will the stock of medium format films last? another year? 2 years? and then what?
tetenal has discontinued the c-41 kit i was using for color developing. lucky for me the kit has 10 times more bleach fix then developer so all i need to find is someone who sells c-41 developer for a rotary process, not an easy thing to do. of course in 2 years when all films are no longer around the companies making the current developer will stop selling it as it will have no more need, and as a result, my very expensive scanner will be worthless in an instant.
this is a grim prospect only because i like using film. but its not such a bad deal considering that i will probably be able to change out all this gear for a neat new digital back for a fully articulating camera in not so much time and get similar results...the real question is what is the cutoff point at which selling the scanner will still get me what i invested in it and not before i cannot use it anymore.