Escaping Flatland

Rotterdam-based photographers Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek toiled from 1994 to 2002, taking photos of people off the street, and photographing their Exactitudes.

"By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people's attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity." [Link]

Distinguishing from others by assuming a group identity - and you thought only rebellious teens did that! Though not an entirely unique concept, I think this was certainly noteworthy for its scope and scale.

Personally, on the posed vs. unposed continuum, I am a strong fan of unposed photography. I prefer its natural flow, find it closer to reality - unlike the artificial rigidity of conscious poses. In that respect, I find these images to be extremely posed, and hence extremely unreal. Ironical, since the artists' intent is likely to capture the "reality" of a cross-section of sub-cultures for anthropological documentation.

I can imagine doing a similar project within the different subcultures of India: states, religion, races, castes. A snapshot of contemporary India culture across its many cross-sections.

Exactitudes is reminiscent of August Sander's work in the 1920s. [Photos]

"In an analytical style often associated with the Germanic temperament, August Sander set about to construct a comprehensive study of his fellow citizens by creating photographic portraits of the various social "types" of his time. Sander went on to develop his own classification system, which segregated subjects into seven essential types: the farmer, the skilled tradesman, the woman, classes and professions, the artists, the city and the last people (social misfits and the handicapped)." [Link]

"Coming out of Germany's new objectivity movement (Die Neue Sachlichkeit) that reacted against abstraction in favor of realism, Sander presented a typological difference in portrait studies to what had been previously achieved. Rather than capturing the projected 'idea' of a person as had been idealized in classical painting, Sander sought to capture and categorize a person's 'essential character'." [Link]

Curious - like Versluis and Uyttenbroek, Sander too sought to capture reality through formally posed photographs. Some of his photographs are taken in the citizens' natural surroundings, with less rigidity than V&U, making them less ironic.

"...in the 1930s the Nazis confiscated the publication of Sander's first volume of work called Face of Time (Antlitz der Zeit). Apparently, the people in the photographs did not conform to the Nazi ideal. Since his images deviated dramatically from Aryan propaganda, they were destroyed." [Link]

More sins for contemporary Germany to repent.

After the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, a study was performed by Redefining Progress, an environmental policy think-tank, to track the sustainability of human beings' need for resources vs. their availability. For each nation, the biologically productive areas necessary to provide their resource supplies were calculated, and termed "ecological footprints" of these countries (Note: This report was presented in 1997. I expect the situation to have worsened by now)

The "Footprints of Nations" report compares the ecological impact of 52 large nations, inhabited by 80 percent of the world population. It also shows to what extent their consumption can be supported by their local ecological capacity. One key finding is that today, humanity as a whole uses over one third more resources and eco-services than what nature can regenerate. In 1992, this ecological deficit was only one quarter [Link].

The report is available here: [Link]. Each country's individual footprint can be found here. Iceland and New Zealand, due to their large natural resources and low populations, had the largest per-capita ecological surplus (14.3 and 13.6 hectare per capita respectively). Singapore and Hong Kong, with negligible resources, had the highest per-capita deficit (-7.1 and -6.1 ha/cap respectively). On an absolute scale, America had the largest ecological footprint (27M km2), though China and India were catching up (15M and 7.7M km2 respectively). The Russian federation stood in third position with 8.7M km2 in 1997 - by now, I believe India must have caught up.

Earth Day network has an online quiz that makes this more personal. Based upon the country you live in, and your individual lifestyle and living environment, they compute your very own ecological footprint. Being a single person with a jetsetting lifestyle (100+ hours flight time, no carpooling, 100% processed meals, high-rise living), I am ashamed to say that I am consuming 7.5 times my share of Mother Earth's love. Food for thought: If I moved to India and lived with my joint family, I would be consuming 1.0 times my "entitlement".

Check your own score here: http://myfootprint.org/

I attended a photo critique organized by the Atlanta Photography Group today. Having been mostly self-taught, I have not had much interaction with other photographers, and was looking forward to learning from other amateurs and professionals' photographs and critiques. Sadly, I was disappointed.

This was my second critique session, and I found that discussion (again) centered around photographic equipment (stereoscopic 8x10 pinholes, digital backs, Nikon D100s), archaic - albeit imaginative - production techniques (tea-soaked toning), and photographic locations and history. The actual photograph seemed to be less important than the mechanics and equipment used in achieving it. Personally, I would like the photo to speak for itself. Complicated narrations of darkroom chemical process iterations, photo setup requirements, deliberate errors in exposure, processing and printing, though (marginally) educational, serve little purpose if the end result is not appealing.

I liked one aspect of the creative critiques - an aspect I find commonly in the individualistic psyche of most Americans - that the art object is the artist's brainchild. There are no prescriptive rules in art (e.g. the image must be cropped square, the subject must be placed two-third from the right, exposure must spread equally across all gray levels) - only guidelines. If an artist ignores them, it is his creative choice. Only out of this acceptance of rule-breaking does true creativity rise. This is a refreshing change from the self-doubting, let-me-tell-you-the-correct-way mindset with which creativity is taught in India.

However, I felt that the group took this mindset too much to heart. There was little actual critique in the meeting. The vaguest, ugliest, most pointless photo would receive only positive reviews ("If this is what (s)he wanted to show, who am I to judge?"). However, for improvement and growth, the positives need to be reinforced and negatives discouraged (or atleast, pointed out). Without a dissenting opinion, a critique is a mere sycophantic ego-booster. Simon Cowell is necessary, entertaining evil.

Another interesting feature of the critique was the photographers' creative usage of their multicultural background. By culture, I mean patterned beliefs and behavior resulting from orthogonal creative ecosystems - other art forms. People used their background in music, painting and sculpture, and applied them to their photography, with curious results.

Like any hobby group, my expectations and skill level needs to be in line with the group to benefit from them. I don't feel this group is the right fit for me.

Ever since I can remember, I have been quite fond of learning. When I was growing up, I was allowed to buy one book a month - no more, no less. I would look forward to my monthly trip to Popular Book Store in Kamla Nagar (Delhi), where I would buy a book on math puzzles, crosswords, magic tricks, or a plain old Enid Blyton (or later, Hardy Boys). It is perhaps during these formative years that I developed a taste for learning by reading from books. At school, the CBSE-regulated, one-size-fits-all course curriculum, lack of vocational facilities and poorly trained teachers further reinforced the need for self-sufficiency.
"We Learned More from a Three Minute Record Baby Than We Ever Learned in School"
Over the years, I have experimented with three didactic models: self-learning, formal classroom teaching, and learning through osmosis (from experts, groups, and associations). So far, I have found self-learning to be the most effective, and learning through osmosis the least.

Self-learning: When I'm passionate about something, I will research it to death - read books in the library, scrounge the WWW for insight - and practise the skill myself. That's how I learnt computer programming, photography, classical music / modern art (appreciation only, unfortunately), and information visualization.  I experimented with formal classroom teaching, but was disappointed with the results. Computer programming classes at school focused on rules, syntax, structure, and unimaginative homework assignments, instead of teaching us how to explore logical concepts, implement algorithms, develop games - the reasons I was drawn the computers in the first place. Ditto with Photography. My B&W photography class at Pittsburgh Filmmakers taught me mechanical procedures for photo exposing and darkroom processing, instead of delving into theory (say, the theory of optics, photochemical chemistry) or creativity (photographic techniques, photo study and critiquing). In short, my creative, abstract skills and interests have been self-inculcated and self-developed.

Formal 'classroom' training: When I'm dealing with the physical world - doing things with my hands and assorted body parts - more than my mind, I find that a physical teaching space helps. When I was learning Salsa, Ice Skating, Golf, Swimming, or Yoga, I seemed to perform much better in a schooled environment - dance classes, practice sessions, hands-on training. My guess is that these tactile skills require an internal, physical intuition that I sorely lack.

Learning through Osmosis: In developing my abstract interests, I have joined many clubs and societies over the years, in the hope that hanging around like-minded people will teach me something. For the most part, this has not been worth the effort. I have been a member of a variety of groups, ranging from intellectual masturbation clubs like AAWD (Anything Abstract Will Do) or the Objectivist Club, to study groups like SAHA (South Asian History Association), to hobby clubs like APG (Atlanta Photography Group). To gain from such a group, members must be at similar skill levels, have similar expectations, the group dynamics should be conducive to learning (non-judgemental, yet providing honest critique - not sycophantic banter; not heavily moderated) and individual members must be committed to learning. In other words, too many stars that need to be in alignment - making this a cumbersome model for learning; I have yet to see it work.

Netflix has provided official reviews and recommendations online as long as I can remember. They introduced a Friend's Queue feature which showed you what your near and dear ones were watching, supposedly to make you want to see it too. Extensive research shows that people are more interested in using it to blackmail their cousin on the next family gathering about his 5 star rating on "Legally Blonde 2" and "All  About Love".

Now, Netflix customers are writing their own "Nothing-official-about-it" reviews, and sending them on Post-its to the next customer (or the sorting warehouse employee, whichever comes first). Flickr, which caters to groups of all stripes, including Dead Creature Photographers and Devil Worshippers, now has its own NotesToNetFlix group. Though I haven't seen any notes in my incoming queue yet, I've decided to share  the love and creating my own reviews.

This pointless desire to share a trite experience with a stranger - an irrelevant, irreverant message in a bottle - reminds me of another bug that bit the U.S. on December 23, 1998: wheresgeorge.com. This site tracked the "natural and geographic circulation" [see definition] of specially marked US currency bills. Anyone who naturally received a marked bill was supposed to enter a tracking report on the website. Luckily for Georgers (as they call themselves), the US government's definition of defacement of currency [Link] is much broader than its definition of torture. The George experience has given rise to fascinating sub-cultures: Yahoo groups with regular in-person gatherings [Link], memorial pages for Georgers who've passed on [Link], George bills Bingo players [Link], armchair statisticians [Link], and stamping technique afficiandos [Link].

I wonder what the future holds for NotesToNetflix-ers?

Napster was the killer-app which made peer-to-peer music sharing software a household name. This was before it went legit and "sold out" to the music industry, of course. Then came along Kazaa, and it did the same for video files. The founders of Kazaa then moved on and created Skype, an IP Telephony company based in Luxembourg. Skype's latest marketing ploy... er, technique is downloadable online avatars [Link]. Users can create their own avatar "in their own image", and load them onto their personal Skype (for a small fees, of course). Now, since Skype has a major presence in London, it panders to British muticulturalism, and allows customers to create very 'diverse' avatars (or weemees), with all manner of headgear (cowboy hats, santa caps, turbans, veils, tiaras), tops (school uniforms, leather jackets, even cross-dressing) and lifestyles (sports, pets, musical instruments, even angel wings). I tried my hand at a self-portrait, but couldn't settle on just one:

I have long been fond of German cars, inspite of their low reliability ratings. Over the years, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and Volkwagen have been consistently ranking near the bottom of the reliability chart. Many reasons have been proferred by experts.

"For some high-end carmakers, like Mercedes-Benz, technology has proven to be the Achilles heel... At a time when the average development time of new cars has shrunk from five years to 32 months, not enough so-called "soak-testing" time to establish the reliability of these new devices was allotted.

The root of the problem at more mass-market manufacturers like VW is a bit harder to pinpoint. Faulty advanced electronics may have a bit to do with it, but most models are not nearly as complex as those of, say, Mercedes-Benz. Experts can only guess." [Link]

Unlike the Americans, who introduced mass assembly-line manufacturing (thanks to Ford) and the Japanese, who embraced and perfected it (thanks to Toyota), the Europeans have long held the artisan mindset to car manufacture. Making cars was long considered a highly skilled and labor intensive process. Creating a masterpiece required craftsmen with all-round skills in machining, tooling, trouble-shooting, painting etc, not the micro-specialization of the assembly line worker. The stress was on creating a work of art, not six-sigma minimization of error rates. Quality control was the last step of the production process, with significant time and effort spent on repairing, retooling or recycling faulty product.

The marriage of this mindset with the robotic efficiency of assembly line production has produced fascinating results. The transparent Volkswagen factory in Dresdon is one such example. So proud are the Germans of this plant that they offer daily guided tours of the Phaeton plant, complete with driving simulators, multimedia displays and piano concerts (rollover the German flag, bottom left, to view in English). To be fair, very few companies can pull off superior design and execution - Apple being a notable exception. A detailed high-resolution phototour of the site is available here. They also make custom cars. Wonder how much a two-door convertible with leather seats, open-top airconditioning, full-color voice-operated navigation system with traffic level interface, and an iPod cradle put me back by?

Having an entire factory be transparent and spotlessly clean seems sybaritic - I can't imagine their maintenance and cleaning costs, not to mention the pressure on workers in that setting (no grease or grime, no unruly tools, fully tucked-in shirts - there's people watching!). But it has its benefits: for one, implementing the 5S's of workplace organization should be a cinch!

Seiri: Tidiness - Throw away rubbish and unrelated materials in the workplace, everything in place
Seiton: Orderliness - Everything in its proper place for quick retrieval and storage
Seiso: Cleanliness - Clean the workplace; everyone should be a janitor
Seiketsu: Standardized clean-up - Standardize the way of maintaining cleanliness
Shitsuke: Discipline - Do 'Five S' daily - make it a way of life; this also means 'commitment' [Link]

As an aside, VW does not seem to have privacy concerns about their factory. Wonder whether this is symptomatic of the usual European acceptance of low privacy, or whether they use it as a PR / recruitment tool. As the latter, it can be powerful, though one could argue about the cost-benefit! Adobe has a similar phototour of their San Jose facilities [link] which made it seem like an awesome place to work, as does Pixar [Link] . I would love to see tours of Apple, Amazon, Tiffany and MGM.

After the unabashed success and critical acclaim of Vela Afternoon, I decided to dedicate more of my precious time to surfing the web, looking for entertaining media for my dear readers. From the same-to-same folks who brought you Girls Gone Badmash, here is an American-Desi comic strip: Badmash

Some of my favorite strips: marriages in US/India [Link], the NetIP fan-club [Link1, Link2], competitive Indian parents [Link1, Link2], and religion [Link].

Bush Jr, as we all know, is quite shy about taking questions from an unsycophantic audience. That's why everyone was surprised when, after a speech to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, he decided to open the floor to any and all.

The Daily Show on Comedy Central provided a good summary of the country's reaction [Link]. It is a sad state of affairs when we have to turn to a Comedy Channel for unbiased reportage. My favorite quote: "It's nice to see the President estimating casualties with the same inflection you use to guess the number of Jelly Beans in a jar".

But one can understand Georgie's reluctance to face hostile interviewers - as this debate between the 43rd President of the United States (G.W.Bush) and the Governor of Texas (G.W.Bush) shows: [Link].