photocultures- ala's blog

2006-12-11T16:07:00.000-08:00

documentation from hanging the exhibition

2006-12-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

2006-12-05T05:49:00.000-08:00

almost the end

2006-12-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

We will put our work up for display in the book shop. We will print around 15-20 photos, hopefully they will all fit in the space we have been offered. We will print the photos on book format paper and bind it as an addition to the photographs for people to have a closer look. It is also our plan to have a CD player with headphones on display in the bookshop as well, then people can listen to our intervies and look in the book at the same time. We will compose a text as an introduction to the photo book, but leave the printing of a book for later, because we want to continue the work for a while. We have been offered to display our work for about two months so we will try to update the work (starting after christmas) along the way. We would like to live a book(empty one) in the shop, so the audience can write down there their opinion about our project. That would not be too time consuming either. I think our problem all along with this project have been that we have had too many ideas and have not been able do decide on what to do. Now we are focused on a certain space with the intention of documenting it and letting people have their say about the regeneration. So far we have been in control of the work, we have chosen what to do and what to display. It might be a good idea to let the start of the exhibition be the start of a further interaction, and let go of the control. Let others decide and have opinions what we should do.

2006-12-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

more recordings

2006-12-01T06:32:00.000-08:00

walkways:

it creates jobs as well:

hopeless plans:

good with something new:

jenny owen:

don't belive it's gonna...:

elephant&castle in the evening

2006-11-22T08:08:00.000-08:00

recording from yesterday

2006-11-21T06:10:00.000-08:00

...

2006-11-21T04:05:00.000-08:00

yesterday we went to the shopping centre again to take some more photos and do some interviews. one lady was very unhappy, she wanted to arrest us, she wanted to see the written permission from the management that we are allowed to take some photos...silly to be honest, of course before taking any photos we asked for the permission the manager of the shopping centre, and even when we are taking some photos of the shops or shops keepers we ask them if they want to be photograph. in the end she called the security guys,security guys called the security manager, he came down and explain us why she was so unhappy about, apparently in the past someone was taking some photos of the product she was selling(she owns the small shop selling cheap jewellery and stuff)and then produced similar items and was selling them on the market half price cheaper. in the end we continue to take some photos of the shopping centre.
also we spoke to the owner of the book shop selling second hand magazines, postcards and books- Marek, and he agreed to display some of the photos in his shop, so we can print them in the end and do some small exhibition over there.
at the moment I don't have an interent access at home so it is very difficult for me to work on my blog.
we have some more recordings to work on, but I need to download lame mp3 for the audacity program(the program is good itself but I don't understand why it's cutting the audio files into peaces).
now I figured out how to post the mp3 files on the blog. I created another blog on the liflogger web page which allows to download sound in different format, then I just copied everything to the elephantstory blog and to my blog.
tonight we want to take some night shoots of the shopping centre, on Friday we will return there and we want to just take the photos, following week I think it will be a production time to put everything together in some way.

reflection time-project analysis

2006-11-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

It is time to start thinking about how to write the project analysis, just four weeks to go until the project is going to be finished. Here is the outline for our project analysis, this is what we think will be worth considering while we will be writing the analysis:

Essay 1500w

0. Introduction 100 words

1. Different ways of intervening, thoughts about them, how our ideas developed, refer to other projects, 325 words
Topic, photography, site specific intervention.

2.1 Our work, what we chose to do and why, 325 words
The project brief, Elephant and Castle, the proposal for our project.

2.2 Our work, how we did it, aestetic influences and inspirations (photographers, artists e.t.c.), 325 words
The work in the shopping centre, explain how we worked, interviewing people, collecting the sound, photographing uploading it to our blogs.

3. The interaction, the actual result, how did it turn out, what happened with the project? 325 words
Placing the work in the shopping centre.

4. Conclusion 100 words

some recordings

2006-11-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

here are some recordings we done with Jennie, finally I found the way to put them in the blog:)
all of them are the one which we done with our class mates, I'll try to put some recordings from the shopping centre in a couple of days time, hopefully before saturday(as from the next week I won't have interent acces for some time-I hope not for a long time).

2006-11-14T06:13:00.000-08:00

some photos which Jennie took yesterday:

2006-11-14T06:12:00.002-08:00

2006-11-14T06:12:00.001-08:00

http://static.flickr.com/120/296815229_b72062ab3d.jpg

I hate mini disc

2006-11-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

why why why?
I really hate mini disc from now on.today we went with Jennie to the E&C shopping centre, we spoke with the manager, we got the permission to take some photos and do the interview we have a good material now and... I was trying to upload the recordings from the mini disc to my pc and it just not working, I even downloaded the special software for mini disc(from sony) and still it doesn't work, so we will have to do it tomorrow in uni and ask someone for help.next time I won't use mini disc I think it will be easier to do it with mp3 player at least it's working perfect.so today no post from our material, hopefully we will put it tomorrow onto yourelephantstory blog.

2006-11-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Progress

2006-11-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

from the Jennie blog:
Strategies of the intervention

Even though we are still working on our practical project, we have to start thinking and planning ahead for how we think about intervene with the public. I think we still would like to screen the slide show onto a building. But getting the right equipment and plan the dates of screening might take some time so we should get started as soon as possible and work with it alongside the development of the project itself. We need to find a building to screen it on and a building to screen it from. We also need a decent projector. The sound is also a problem in need of being solved. I came across a site called mobmov (short for Mobile Movie), which is an Internet based movement that started in the U.S in 2004, for people who likes the concept of drive-in movies. People can sign up to get info about the where and when the screenings will be and all they have to do then is to show up in a car equipped with a radio, at the announced spot, often in parking lots next to a wall suitable for screening. The projector and the FM transmitter is placed in one of the cars.
This is interesting to our project. I don't know how it works yet but if it would be possible to get a FM transmitter this could be the way to get people the best chance of hearing the sound recordings. The photos can hopefully work for themselves but if people want to engage more I thought maybe (?) hopefully (!) they can tune the frequency in on their mp3 players, if it has got a radio receiver. I really don't know much about this, but I am trying to find out more about it since it would be a nice thing to do. If it is possible to do technically I hope it's not gonna cost too much to go through with. So if you read this and have knowledge about the matter please let me know!

well that's the text from the Jennie blog, because we are working together on that project I thought it might be interesting if I'll put it in on mine blog as well.
today we suppose to do some more interviews but... well all my fault, I was to tired, last week I worked 50h and it just wasn't possible for me to do anything, sorry.
tomorrow we want to discus some more issues about the project not only me and Jennie but also we have some questions to Paula, she is always very helpful with the advise(last time we got from her links how to upload sound on our blog- cool).
on Friday I spoke with Aviv and Patrick, so we decided we want to do some stuff together as well, they are interested in projecting the stories on the buildings and so on.this Friday we would like to continue with the interviewing the people, collect some more ideas from them.

Interviews part 1

2006-10-31T08:28:00.000-08:00

Me and Jennie did some interviews yesterday in Elephant&Castle area. we started in the pun Duke of York in Borough Road. we were using mp3 player with facility of recording to do that. first as a test we asked our classmates to share their opinion about E&C, Jennie took some photos as well with her camera phone(so people are not so scared if we want to photograph them, for sure it will be much better then using a professional equipment). after interviews in the pub we moved on to the Perry Library and we spoke with the security guys working there, then we walked near the shopping centre and we asked some people in the street about their opinion about the area. we spoke to Bill, a homeless guy who is begging near the shopping centre, I think that his point of view was very different then the other people. anyway the opinion about the regeneration plan wasn't the same(not that I expected that it will be). some would like to modernise the shopping centre and around E&C as well, but some also would like to live it how it is with the diversity of cultures and that they like the way it is.
all the material will be posted shortly to our separated blog(which I mention in some posting before). I think it will be necessary to do the website or if not to advertise our blog that there will be bigger interest in what we are doing.
we decided with Jennie that we will do that kind of interview session each week, or even twice a week, so hopefully it will grow to a big project:)
what is difficult is to photograph the person who we talk to, not all of them agreed yesterday to be photograph, also I don't know how we will put everything together as a one peace, we would like to do it as a slide show, but some of our stories are short and some of them are long, so the question is shall we decide which one is more important? and what to do if we don;t have an image to go with the story? anyway I think that we will put it together somehow.
now I need to transfer the recordings from my mp3 player and edit them in some software so we will have a clear voice without the messy background.

some example of the photos Jennie took with her camera phone:

Intervention- progress

2006-10-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

So what to do with the intervention?

This week on Tuesday, we had a chat with Paula, our photocultures teacher, we were discussing different aspects of how we can improve our new blog and she also gave us some ideas what we can do next. We all decided that from now on, each week we will be working on small interventions in the E&C and later on we would like to put everything on together as one peace onto our blog and also we would like to work with Aviv and Patrick and with some more people from our class.
My and Jennie R would like to still do some interviews in local pubs, to ask maybe elderly people about their memories with E&C and about their vision about the future and if they think it will change the area for better.
I would like to photograph E&C each week from different angels, so I can present the variety of E&C, I will be interested more in architectonic shoots of buildings.
Also from now on me, Jennie and Sandra will be working separately and together, so we still want to keep a brain storm, so there will be many different ideas what to do and how.

Elephant and Castle

2006-10-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

2006-10-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

2006-10-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

2006-10-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

2006-10-24T13:51:00.000-07:00

Project intervention in E&C

2006-10-17T05:06:00.000-07:00

For the project intervention we decided to work in the group of 3, not because it easier but because we all got quite the same idea what to do, so 3 brains put together is not one... and that change the situation.
when you thinking about Elephant&Castle you not only think about the future but also about the past. So who is in the intervention project group? 3 very ' smart' brains: Jennie R, Sandra M and Ala S. We thought it will be interesting to collect peoples memories who used to live in E&C, to know their opinion about the are and how it used to be to live here in the past and if it changes a lot during the years. So for example we think it will be interesting to point out the place where some of the stories of peoples which we will interview took place. for example by putting up posters or stickers in the area.
we created a separate blog, which will be anonymous. for this blog we are going to design a sticker( it is still in the progress), or a kind of logo which will identify the blog, so people who will see it in the location, hopefully will check the blog.
the separate blog will be present to the class shortly, so also people from the class will be able to post some comments if they want to.
just to explain: the separate blog don't have any connection with this blog, because we want to keep in anonymous.
what we need to do know is to start working on the intervention.
first we thought we should stop people in the street and ask them some question about E&C, but to be honest who will stop?if they don't stop for the annoying advert and stuff, we don't think they will stop for 3 students from South Bank University...

Elephant and Castle Research

2006-10-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting links regarding Elephant&Castle area:
that one is just showing panorama of E&C:
http://www.urban75.org/vista/elephant.html

http://www.elephantandcastle.org.uk/

some info from wikipedia about E@C underground station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_&_Castle_station

The face of the Elephant wears all expressions - victorious, defeated, homely and hoodlum... Faces to laugh at. Faces to wink at. Faces that hit you like a blow.”
this link is for a web which contains a photographic project of :

BERT HARDY: THE ELEPHANT AND THE CASTLE. VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS OF LONDON LIFE IN THE 1940S - 2004

some very nice sepia photos of old E&C you can find there, how the E&C area used to look like 60 years ago and so on:

http://www.jameshymanfineart.com/pages/exhibitions/information/535.html

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=453

http://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

2006-10-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

Photocultures

http://www.photocultures.blogspot.com/

2006-10-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

2006-10-02T10:35:00.001-07:00

Photos which you see below were taken today in the afternoon. we were asked to walk around Elephant&Castle and get lost somewhere...to drift. well I don't really know E&C so well, even after one year studies in London South Bank University. I never actually walk around much, only to the terrible shopping centre- Tesco exactly and to the tube. so it was very easy for me to get lost and drift around. I discovered abandoned streets and off street passages. abandoned places, looking very horrifying. E&C is a various area of different places, streets, buildings, pubs. Is it beautiful? not really I would say. I think in evening time it can be really dangerous in some places. I was for me exiting exercise and I think I will do it again soon, I would like to drift more E&C. All the photos which you can see I took using my small digital camera, not the digital SLR, I thing for than kind of exercise small compact cameras or mobile phones with built in cameras are perfect, giving you more options as you can behave as paparazzi and shoot everywhere and everything, also I felt much more secure with this Sony cybershot.

P.S I found this nice description of drifting on the web:

..The situationist' desire to become psychogeographers, with an understanding of the 'precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals', was intended to cultivate an awareness of the ways in which everyday life is presently conditioned and controlled, the ways in which this manipulation can be exposed and subverted, and the possibilities for chosen forms of constructed situations in the post-spectacular world. Only an awareness of the influences of the existing environment can encourage the critique of the present conditions of daily life, and yet it is precisely this concern with the environment which we live which is ignored.

"The sudden change of ambiance in a street within the space of a few meters; the evident division of a city into zones of distinct psychic atmospheres; the path of least resistance which is automatically followed in aimless strolls (and which has no relation to the physical contour of the ground); the appealing or repelling character of certain places - all this seems to be neglected."

2006-10-02T10:17:00.001-07:00

2006-10-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

2006-09-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

2006-09-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

own space

2006-09-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

what is own space and how it will work? well I don't really know yet but I think it will be mostly about photography and different reflections about everything what is going on the world around.it should also help me with my project an with drifting... not only in space:)