I Agree...

"I'm really increasingly disheartened by people pretending that digital technology creates real emotions. I'm tired of people saying, 'I have facebook friends.' I have friends." -- Alexie Sherman

Digital tech. has it's uses and its good things. But it becomes nothing more then a crutch. It creates emotions but really they don't last. I've been part of this digital world for over ten years now. I've thought I had good friends and maybe I did at the time. However, there isn't a single person I talk to regularly online any longer that I knew even a year ago, now.

There are two people that I keep in touch with off and one, but it's casual it doesn't really mean a great deal. Where as the people that I've kept in real life that I've become friends with in person, face to face. Some of them I've known for over ten years. They end up being the people that come and go, those that matter return. Now, perhaps this isn't always the case but it does seem to be a trend.

While networking and such online might be a great thing and have it's benefits. Reaching a diverse group of people,  more people around the world and such. However, much of it is changing, fleeting and unstable. It is just as easy to unfriend someone on facebook as it is to friend. After all what in the end does a friendcount mean when you don't even know anything about most of them, you just add them so it looks like you have lots of friends. It's an illusion, like people putting well known books on their book shelves in public rooms in their houses so that visitors think they've read them.

So much is a facade, perhaps even more so online then it is face to face. While, I use facebook and I find it fun at times and no offense to those of you that I enjoy talking with online and there are a couple of you. But I would rather have friends. This is a dichotomy that I become in creasing aware of the older I get. I used to think my online friends would be there forever. However, there comes a time when things change when those friends you thought would always be on the inside of your screen disappear. People do it in real life to, don't get me wrong. But what I have found is that people in real life come back and those who vanish from the ether rarely return and when they do... it's never the same.

Cherish those friends around you, make they last. Talk to people online be friends. But remember it's the people you can see, you can year and you can touch that really matter. The internet is but a crutch that allows us some measure of safety. It allows us not to be forced into the vulnerable situation of social interaction that can tie our stomach in knots and make us want to throw up. Living is tying yourself up in knots, it is throwing up a little, it is getting hurt and it is reaping the rewards for your nerves. vanishes

Slide Show Event

So, I've shown you some of what went into putting this project together. Here's some of what went on that night. Most of these images are mine; however, there are a few that were taken by a friend of mine. I'll mark those. ;)

Here's some of the shots I took of the work it's self. Remember, is sort of a collage of memories and a visual representation of the way that we remember things. I've been thinking a lot about how we remember things lately. For example, I'll be talking with a friend about something that happened years ago and what she remembers of the event is completely different from my own memories. So, the idea was to create windows that are windows but overlap and cross over in a way that makes it no longer simply a window. The second and underlying idea was about childhood and reading books beneath blankets at night. So the piece is actually made out of old bedsheets, that are worn to the point of being see through. The slides represent a different sort of window, a visual window. That glimpse into another world that we get through memories and through books.

I'm not and wasn't completely happy with the lighting system for these piece. However, I did what I could with what I had at the time. Which was mainly four clip lights set up behind it. In the future, I think I'd prefer one main light or a more seamless lighting system.

The slide towers were created by Sara and Candace. Sara is the one in the window, Candace isn't in this set of images. They were created out of old slide trays, filled with slides and then lit from the inside and zip tied together. :)

Here's a few shots of people who came to the event, and of the larger space. And below are the images that were taken by my friend Mica (the girl in black in the first frame above in the center).

So my piece decided to fall down about half way through the night. This is me fixing it with the help of my friend Jim and my mom.

And then here are just a few more images, all of which were take by Mica. The first one is me wearing Amy's piece. The second one is Candace and the third one is Amy and Sarah, both wearing bits of Amy's piece. ;)

So, that's the update on that. Enjoy and I hope that your day or evening is a good one. ;)