OFF/ON Project: Screenshots

Although the post-it visual has everything to do with the analog idea of turning off, I've also thought a lot about how screenshots have become a valid way of tracking funny things we see on the internet or snippets of conversation and communication - perhaps not valid, but a way to remember these "internet" moments nonetheless. I keep an album of them, and it is amusing, but it's also become part of the documentation of our everyday - isn't that strange? a gchat window now functions also as "that time that we..". it is also a nice way to remember stupid things, such as when google is tracking your searches and matches it to interesting ads on facebook or while you are searing for something else. below are a few of my "memories" (perhaps not the most nostalgic or sentimental ones):

Documenting a Process: Video clip

I published still images, but I thought a sped up version of video had interesting sounds for documentation.

(3.) Documenting a Process

(1.) My "piece of technology"

The piece of technology I brought into class was actually a "seeing" toy - a small trinket which you can look through and see "up" or "down" due to a small mirror which reflects the view.

During class, I started with the question of: what does this object do? it reflects sight from up to down while your eye is still looking "forward" - it creates an interesting disorientation of vision and the "physical" difference of direction and what is actually reflected.

With this in mind, I thought an interested lesson might be for students to create their own gadgetry that would interrupt, enhance, or alter their line of sight, in a hypothetical way.

Question: What is the act of seeing? What do we see?
- Things are backwards in mirrors
- Images can be obstructed by your blindspot
- Colors, refractions of light

If we were to enhance / change / alter our eyesight what could we do?
- see "all around"
- see behind you
- think about your "plane of vision"
-see vivid colors. see only black and white.

Think about:
eyes who see out of the sides of their heads (placement)
cropping (in movies)
carsten holler's upside down glasses
"rose-colored" glasses

Can experiment with:
Black bars (covering, cropping)
Mirrors, titlted
kaleidoscopes (multiplicity)
cellophane (color filters)
eye "extensions" - lens, depth
Magnifying glasses

These experiments could be documented through photography but it could be interesting for students to actually construct objects to "alter vision" or to play with vision (such as boxes to peep through, like nickelodeon animation, etc.