Month: January 2006

Philoneist – Philoneist chronicles breaking news stories about innovations in science and technology. – Interview With Digg.com Founder, Kevin Rose “Digg’s registered membership is currently at 140,000 and is doubling every three months. 500,000 unique visitors come to the digg site every day, a figure that is growing by 100,000 each month. New content is submitted to the digg site on an average of 1,000-1,500 stories/content per day.”

When asked about if digg has changed the way people blog Kevin answers: “I honestly believe that the blogging phenomena will continue its strong growth with or without digg. We’ve just made it easier for the blogs with the best content to quickly be recognized by a large group of users.”

I will say it certainly has changed the way that I blog.

Jack Kerouac’s On the Road Manuscript on Display at the San Francisco Public Library — a Forbidden Photograph

Pinned to Jack Kerouac’s wall to inspire his writing: “Art is the highest task and the proper metaphysical activity of this life.”
–Nietzsche

In 2001 Indianapolis Colt’s owner Jim Irsay purchased the bible of the beat generation, a 120 foot scroll copy of Jack Kerouac’s original manuscript of On the Road. It is currently on display here in San Francisco in our main Public Library.

On the Road is perhaps the most inspirational of all beat literature — it is a classic stream of consciousness, mostly autobiographical tale from seminal beat writer Jack Kerouac. The book is rumored to have been written in a Benzedrine and caffeine induced three week frenzy and, as the physical manuscript supports, was written on a single page from a giant roll of paper. And what better place now to show the manuscript than San Francisco, a city that was central to the entire beat movement.

Although Jack was a great writer, he was also a talented visual artist. According to the book Departed Angels, which presents his paintings and drawings, Kerouac on a number of occasions told friends he would have been a painter if he had not been a writer. “His enthusiasm for art was omnivorous, he drew, he painted, he designed covers for his books, and as he sketched with words, so he sketched with images: organized and deliberate but spontaneous.

So the irony of Jack’s great life as an artist, both as a visual artist and a writer, is that with his great manuscript now on display at the San Francisco *PUBLIC* library you cannot as a photographer and artist take photos of it. I went by the library yesterday excited to view this great manuscript by a hero of mine and excited about using my EF100 macro lens to document this great work and give it my own artistic interpretation, only to be told by the security guard at the library that I was not allowed to photograph the manuscript.

Jack Kerouac’s classic manuscript of “On the Road”

The current owner of the manuscript Jim Irsay, when he purchased the manuscript initially, said that he did not want the scroll locked away as it had been for many years previous. He said that it “belonged to the people.” And yet ironically enough a manuscript in a *public* library that belongs to the public cannot be photographed by his edict. This runs contrary to what Jack would have been about as an artist, runs contrary to the idea of a public library being a place where the public can explore and create art and is disappointing.

When the manuscript was initially put up for sale by Christie’s back in 2001 an article on the scroll of Jack Kerouac by James Eimont cited Christie’s similar objections to the scroll being photographed then citing “copyright issues” and “flash damage.” “One of the gentlemen working at Christie’s was very kind in answering some of my questions. “No, you can’t take a picture of the scroll (copyrights and they don’t want the camera flash to wear out the ink on the paper).”

These types of objections are red herrings. It would be easy enough for the library to prohibit flash photography, while allowing non flash photography. Further, given the size of the document, it would be nearly impossible to photograph the entire thing. At best snippets could be shot with macro lens which might provide a minor passage (something perfectly acceptable to do under copyright law as a quote). A photograph of the entire document would not be legible.

It is a shame that after making my trek to the library I was unable to use my macro lens and shoot this great document. There is so much artistic value to examining close up how the work was created — the pencil edits, the stream of consciousness typing, the age of the important work.

I would have hoped that in a desire to truly return this great document to the “public” that Irsay would not have placed this irrational prohibition on this document. While it is possible for people to come see the scroll when it is on display in major cities to be viewed, there are many people who live in places who will never be able to see the scroll. Letting those people in through the lens of a camera and the eye of an artist would have been ok by Jack and would be something enriching for all people for who Mr. Irsay claims the document now belongs.

I did express my disappointment in the message book that accompanies this great work and hope that Mr. Irsay might reconsider and allow artists to document this great work using non flash photography in the future.

Play hundreds of classic Commodore 64 games online I couldn’t get this to work but will need to try from home. I used to love to play Boulder Dash when I was a kid.

Xbox 360 – The Official Magazine – We chat to Bill Gates! Bill Gates: Whenever you enter a new business, you expect to make a significant initial investment – Xbox has always been a long-term strategy for us. And in just four years, Microsoft has become the world’s second-biggest player in the console industry. At the same time, we’ve established a core audience that is incredibly enthusiastic about the cutting-edge technology and amazing games that will make up the Xbox 360 experience. So we’re confident that we already have the foundation for an extremely strong growth business for Microsoft.

Flickr: The DM Gallery – revenge is best served cold Pool What happens when you let 581 members collectively build a top 200 image virtual art gallery on Flickr? DM Gallery is a rotating pool limited to 200 images that are voted to be saved by the rigorous judges in the Deleteme Uncensored Group.

The difference between DM Gallery and other voting groups on Flickr is that DM Gallery is capped at 200 photos, which means that as each new photo is voted in, one must be removed. Over time this should produce one of the most stunning 200 photo galleries on Flickr.

We just reached our 200 photo cap and photos have begun being removed. If you would like to see 200 of Flickr’s best photos, click here. If you’d like to see them in an even more stunning slide show, click here. Be sure and check back as well as the collection in this virtual gallery will only get better and better over time and is updated pretty much daily with new shots being added and old one’s being taken out.

While there are no currators beyond our collective wisdom at this gallery, it is an interesting experiment in the ability for a group of 581 individuals to collectively choose which art belongs.

We are also saving a much larger pool of all of the images that are saved by this group at The Folio.

A life online: living decentralised (Mercurytide) A Life Online has a post out which showcases some of the most useful Web 2.0 software online and how you can use it to better organize your online life.

USATODAY.com – New digital camera? Know how, where you can use it: USA Today has an excellent overview by Andrew Kantor of what your rights are as a photographer including links to the Photographers’ Guide to Privacy, the Missouri Bar’s Journalist’s Right of Privacy Primer and Bert Krages’ (an attorney in Oregon) excellent pdf, The Photographer’s Right.

From Kantor’s article:

“Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. Aside from sensitive government buildings (e.g., military bases), if you’re on public property you can photograph anything you like, including private property. There are some limits — using a zoom lens to shoot someone who has a reasonable expectation of privacy isn’t covered — but no one can come charging out of a business and tell you not to take photos of the building, period.

Further, they cannot demand your camera or your digital media or film. Well, they can demand it, but you are under no obligation to give it to them. In fact, only an officer of the law or court can take it from you, and then only with a court order. And if they try or threaten you? They can be charged with theft or coercion, and you may even have civil recourse. Cool. (For details, see ‘The Photographer’s Right.’)

It gets better.

You can take photos any place that’s open to the public, whether or not it’s private property. A mall, for example, is open to the public. So are most office buildings (at least the lobbies). You don’t need permission; if you have permission to enter, you have permission to shoot.”

In an era when we as photographers are increasingly harrassed by security guards, property and store owners, individuals on public streets and cops, it’s important that you are well aware of the laws surrounding your hobby, passion, activity or art.

Clouded Judgement | Delta Tango Bravo Cool. Tag Clouds are coming to dig. The cloud designer Daniel Burka talks about how they will make Digg a better place.

Also, some of the other improvements that Kevin Rose was talking about yesterday seem to be bubbling out. One is that search in Digg, including searching buried stories, seems to have been enhanced.

Update: Tag Could can be seen here on Digg.