ksmart’s blog

PowerPoint Presentation

Here’s a link to Alex’s website, which includes pics:

Click to See

Response to Reading:

“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin

All of this talk of “loss of aura” and imperfect reproductions is just driving me crazy.  Who is Mr. Benjamin to say that a work of art (reproduced) “is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space…” (p. 2)? What rubbish. Every time the observers perceives it, criticizes it, comments on it….the art is there, it’s aura is there, if anything, it only obtains another layer of time and space. The aura is layered with a new aura, adding depth to the original work.  Suddenly (or not so suddenly) light falls in new ways, time passes, and the aura of the work metamorphize and it maintains ”its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (p. 2).  You may be affected more deeply by a print of a painting depending on the specific time than you are by viewing the original work—this is not to say that the print is just as good but the folds of mood and chemistry in the room at the time of viewing all plays a part in the overall effect.

 And why must we compare the cameraman with the painter (p. 8 ) and further, these with the surgeon and magician (p. 8)? I can take this point on board (”the representation of reality by the film is incomparably more significant than that of the painter” (p.8)); however, they should be able to stand alone and if the painter doesn’t want to represent “reality” he or she shouldn’t be attacked or marked as not doing so as well as the filmmaker, if this isn’t even their intent.

 It’s kind of late, but at this point, I prefer Walter O to Walter B.

  Here’s the photo I got from Yingxian and Zannah. I quite liked the images of Bush on the back of the guys shirts and the beautiful landscape before them, but I thought the guys were looking for a greater truth here, and perhaps so is Bush, so of course I added………Buddha

  This is the photo I got from Zannah. I thought….hmmm, this guy needs a dog with him….

 …so I added our yellow lab, Taz, which we had to leave behind in Thailand. I’m sure he would appreciate a trip to Easter Island with Zannah’s brother.

    This was my first image that I sent to Yingxian. I’ve never really used photoshop before, so it took a little while to get going. I decided to take the boys and buffalo out of a picture I took at the Ban Kwai Buffalo Farm in Thailand and put them in front of my photo of the Parliament House in Canberra, Australia.

Monday Thoughts

coffee. tea. cookies.
coffee.

morning tea.
    afternoon tea.
        late night snack.

if i have coffee now, i might be
up all night.

click to view
or view here on google
This is probably a little silly to watch, but I’m always interested in frames, reflections, shadows, movement…so when I found all of these by passing in front of the oven, I just had to add another dimension–the camera–also, recording, reflecting.

click to view

Happy Hour 

Carefully, slowly, Roger cracked the cubes of ice into the glass. He looked out the window.
Nancy would be home shortly. Carefully, beautifully, he poured the cyanide into the glass. Vodka. A drop of sweat. Then the cranberry juice. A little swirl of the ice now. Nancy at the door now. Swirl, twirl; drink, Nancy.