The somewhat infamous Brooklyn Museum, known mostly for it’s berated Sensation exhibit, is sponsoring a “crowd-curated exhibition” by means of the internet.

Click on this link to get started. After confirming an easy registration your browser redirects you to the curation pages. The first step is to fill out a two question form asking about your personal artistic knowledge. As you can see in the following screenshot, I chose “ABOVE AVERAGE.”

And then you curate! There are a total of 389 submissions, and the museum asks that you evaluate each one using these criteria:

* How well does the image illustrate or express the theme “The Changing Faces of Brooklyn”?
* Do you consider this an exceptional image, given the technique and aesthetics?

If I taught a photography class, this is something I’d assign to the students for extra credit. So far I’ve made it through a measly 15 entries. The registration process allows you to login later if you can’t get through the list in one sitting. The crowd-curating process will go through May 23rd.

I learned of this story via TechCrunch.

My sister was in Chicago this past weekend for an award ceremony related to her college classes. She graduates in less than a month with a degree in interior design. Last night she posted some snapshots from her trip, and the following one really intrigued me.

This photograph, somehow, does what I always want pictures to do but can’t get them to do — and, frankly, very few people seem to be able to do — which is genuinely convey to the viewer what it’s like to be in a particular environment. Photographs can do a lot of things and do them well, but engaging the viewer in a spatial manner isn’t one of them in my opinion.

My sister’s photo works towards this spatial engagement on a number of levels. The perspective, the negative space (the sky), the framing (or composition) and textural contrast between the two structures on each side of the alley brings the environment to life. The viewer is drawn into the picture in a way I seldom find in photography. The abstraction (i.e. blurriness) and monochromatic nature of this piece also aid in the intrigue. I’m not sure if this was intentional, but half of good photography is knowing which negatives to use and which to toss. Even if this was just a “happy accident,” she should be commended for knowing what and what not to share on Facebook!

As I’ve said before, I like photography but don’t consider myself a photographer. It’s a visual art that lies somewhere between the digital and tactile realms, although it’s becoming more and more a digital phenomenon. I’m getting to know the photography prof at John Brown University, and he recently confirmed my suspicion that getting palpable paper to print on is getting more and more difficult. Despite this, if I remember our conversation correctly, the school is installing a new dark room in the near future in its recently remodeled art building. JBU is in the process of adding a BFA to its college of arts. Presently they offer digital arts along with illustration, drawing and painting classes. The hope is to add sculptural studios and professors in the very near future.

John Brown University photography student Natalie Slater held her senior show this evening at the Sager Creek Arts Center. I generally don’t talk about photography here — it doesn’t fall into my definition of tactile art — but her show is worthy of a blurb. My scrappy photos here were taken with my cameraphone.

All of her photographs in this collection were taken at night and printed on metallic paper. (This is only my second exposure to metallic paper, the first being Tuesday night at the JBU gallery which featured student’s work while touring Spain.) Both of these facts in and of themselves present the opportunity for very interesting works. What sets her work apart, however, is some very nice composition and a sense that she pays good attention to details in the frame. A few of the pictures really caught my attention, including the one in the foreground of the above snapshot, taken in a railyard.

It’s difficult to describe the visual power of her works with words. More than most photographers, she gives you the feeling of actually being in a place, something I value in a photograph. This seems to be a result of how she frames the objects in combination with her use of the metallic paper, which adds depth to the image.

Neal Holland, her professor, told me the images were all taken with a digital camera. I didn’t get to talk much with Natalie; we were kicked out of the upstairs gallery before a play began in the adjacent theater. I would have liked to walk through the show again.

I’ve written sparsely about photography, even though I enjoy it, because it doesn’t seem to fall into the realm of the tactile arts as much as I’d like — especially digital photography where you never set foot in a dark room. Dark rooms are part of why photography is fun.

The last couple of weeks I’ve been putting together some of my and my wife’s better photographs for a calendar as a gift for Christmas. I figured these would be worth putting up here. Long-time readers may recognize a one or two of these that I’ve uploaded to Flickr (or may have actually put in previous posts).

These and some others I’ll probably upload soon to my mostly ignored Etsy shop for sale if anyone is interested. What I like about photography is how it forces me to slow down and intentionally observe my surroundings. It’s a good exercise for me as an artist, even though I don’t really consider myself a photographer.

Tasha (”T”) is a speed skater and Monica (”M”) is a synchronized swimmer.

Two members of the International Arts Movement (IAM) are featured in this month’s ARTnews as one of 25 trendsetters of 2007. Sadly, this magazine is still stuck in the dark ages and expects us to subscribe or purchase a paper copy of the publication to read this article. (I say this even as someone who touts the tactile, and who would actually rather read on paper. The simple fact is that most business models for print publications have to change if they want to survive in this digital age.)

The TM Sisters are actually sisters and work out of Miami. I received an email from IAM alerting us to this article. The TM Sisters are apparently most known for their performances and videos, which apparently aren’t available on their website — sadly. Both have BFA’s in art, one in photography and video and the other in electronic intermedia. The website also features a few mixed media pieces, including this one

titled “Are you a hypnotist?” I like the direction of the series this piece is a part of as featured on their website — which I can’t link to because their website is, unfortunately, entirely Flash. I’m not certain I would hang any of them on my wall, but I would consider it.

It’s great to see a couple of IAM members featured on the cover of a mainstream publication. I hope in the near future I can root out some of the TM Sister’s videos and actually see what all the fuss is about!

I ran across a post this week suggesting that digital art is not fine art: “Again, I must say that Art is experimentation, questioning, etc. When designers, illustrators, crafters claim their art/practice/product is Art, that’s when people get tricked.”

I tend towards clarity whenever possible in language, and thus believe distinguishing between different visual arts is appropriate. The best solution may be for each craftsman to refer to himself by his craft: Painter, sculptor, web designer, dancer and so forth. But we humans seem prone to generalizations, and with that in mind I suggest the following:

* The tactile arts: These include architecture, painting, drawing, sculpture in any medium, printmaking and so forth.

* The digital arts: As the name suggests, these are anything visual where a computer was employed for the majority of the creative process. I’m tempted to put photography, with the more and more ubiquitous nature of digital cameras, in this category as well.

* The theatre arts: These include theatre, opera, dance, and basically anything else that occurs on stage other than a concert.

* Film and photography: As this title suggests, this category is for anything on or produced from film.

Calling something “art” is fairly meaningless, as it could refer to music, china painting, opera or ceramic sculpture. I’ve noticed this, personally, in the music community. Musicians seem to be referred to as artists much of the time. In some cases, without proper context, I’ve been a little confused when running across this. Why not just call them “musicians?”

Another part of my aversion to such a broad use of the word “art” carries certain uppity connotations, the whole artist-as-genius mess.

Streetsblog reported yesterday on New York City bicyclist trends:

* For Bicycle Commuters: 44% start in Manhattan and 41% start in Brooklyn; 81% end in Manhattan and 10% end in Brooklyn.

* At the work place: 52% park and lock their bikes outdoors, 48% indoors.

* The average commute time for cyclists is 35 minutes.

* The most common reason that non-commuting cyclists do not commute by bike is because of driver behavior/traffic and lack of safe storage at work.

* The most common reason commuter cyclists do commute by bike is because it is healthy/good exercise and because it is environmentally friendly.

I empathize with the most common reason for non-commuting cyclists, that being related to driver behavior towards pedestrians. This is especially true in our little town of Siloam Springs, with its blatant lack of sidewalks and very narrow roads. In fact, I was more comfortable biking to work in a town of 250,000, sharing a four-lane road with city buses, knowing that the drivers knew something of courtesy to people on foot or cycle.

Nonetheless, I bike to work whenever I can. I used to ride more often — in the rain and even 10″ of snow — but my “good” bike is out of commission, and my present job requires me to be a little more professional. Biking, as the Streetblog article points out, is good for exercise and saves on gas money.

It also slows a person down. If I had driven to work today, I would likely have been in too much of a hurry to stop and appreciate the morning light piercing the clouds,

the beautiful blue sky and the fog burning off in the distance. Nor would I have made the opportunity to stop and talk to friends who live along my daily route.

It’s sad to me that a place like Beijing — a city reportedly adding 1,000 cars a day to its “fleet” — feels the need to participate in something like World Car Free Day, in a place that used to be connotatively synonymous with bicycles.

I feel cheated on days I “can’t” ride to work because of rain, or the need to pick something up from the printers. I have more energy on days that I bike, and I get the opportunity to stop along the way and talk to people or take pictures.

Why don’t more people bike to work?

Reblogging from the Eyebeam reBlog:

Thank you Chris Jordan. Thank you for photographically recording the mass consumption in America stemming from mass production (and, among other things, a robotic consumerism). From his website:

“Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake.”

An acquaintance, Meghan, recently uploaded a new album of wedding photography — photos from her own very recent wedding — to her Facebook account. The album is a delight to the eyes and made me realize how average my own wedding pictures are (My wife and I chose the only professional photographer who shot weddings in the town where our ceremony took place. And he was very professional, and did a good job, but the result was less creative than I now wish it to be.). She and her husband Matt are photographers themselves who focus on weddings.

I recently posted the best of my first amateur attempt (with consumer-grade equipment) at any sort of wedding photography. I love weddings and very much appreciate good photography, but my first unofficial entry into the seemingly saturated world of wedding photography pales in comparison to the creativity and candor of Aus10’s work:

The light across the bride’s veil is wonderful in this recent Aus10 shot.

When I asked how Aus10 keeps it fresh, Meghan replied, “Our idea of ‘wedding portraiture’ is a lot more exciting than most photographers out there. We try not to take pics at the front of the church — in my opinion it just stifles creativity unless the church is just a gorgeous gothic cathedral or something.” I don’t take her saying “our idea is a lot more exciting” as a pompous attitude; their work speaks for itself in comparison to other wedding albums and photos I see. And for me, the connotative understanding of “portraiture” is a stiff one, often lacking any kind of creativity and resorting to formulaic ideals.

Another friend in town also does some nice things with weddings at Main Street Studios, certainly more creative, again, than the $2,000 album my wife and I keep under our couch. It’s a little weird knowing both sides of the competition in such a little town. Each studio is a stellar choice for couples who value the ability to clearly remember their important day, a day often recalled through a haze of haste and stress, detail-mongering, unexplored emotions and fatigue. Main Street Studio’s website is easier to navigate, I must say, than the most recent iteration of Aus10’s creative but cumbersome Flash product (which is also impossible for bloggers to link back to).

Despite my (and my wife’s) disappointment with our own wedding album — she became disappointed with it earlier than I — I’m very glad to have it. In the last year I’ve prayed constantly that I retain a clear and vivid memory to the end of my days, particularly of such important events. What did people do to remember these things 150 years ago, when photographic tools and methods were in their infancy, when developing pictures required mercury baths and silver? When wedding photos, let alone albums, were a luxury. I feel blessed to be in a family with photos even from the 1920s, a blessing which hinges upon the fact that more than one member of the family worked for the town photographer. We are extraordinarily blessed in our day to have photographs to aid our fallible memories.

“By no stretch of any imagination do I consider myself a “romantic.” In fact, I’d sooner admit that I possess no understanding of the idea of romance at all. I don’t say this, as a male, to suggest I’m uber masculine — in fact I might at times call myself a metro-sexual, using a mild sense of the word.

Yet during my sister-in-law’s recent wedding my mind mulled over the myriad aspects of the celebration, of married life. After it was all said and done three words came to mind: Wedding, simplicity, and relationship.“

A few of the better snaphots I took as “Official Unoffical [candid] Photographer” at the wedding of Sarah Wahlgren (my sister-in-law) and Jon Anderson this past weekend: