Flickr is AWESOME!

The second picture that I uploaded to flickr in 2004.

I have been a  flickr.com pro user since 2004.* I have invested heavily in its service for my own creative needs and to share with a larger community. Now with the NBN I also backup all my jpegs and  tiff files. I have unlimited storage and bandwidth for about $75.00 AU per year. It is worth every cent. If you care about your photographs and want to keep them safe and not be used as some kind of ad or artificial intelligence fodder then consider using flickr as a minimum to store your work, but consider getting involved as well. Smugmug as the new owners are doing a great job with flickr. I see no reason why SmugMug would allow this great service to fade! Don't just listen to me I am biased after all; 16 years of biased in fact, Read this article if you need some clarification.  Ferdy Christant says it in much more detail, more eloquently and logically than I ever could. Follow me s2art. Or not. Flickr is still the best place in the world to share and store your photographs!

* This is not a paid endorsement, although I have used flickr daily since 2004. I continue to enjoy it and use it creatively and socially and now as a secondary backup service.

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Ways of Seeing Algorithmically

Lewis Bush is going to republish John Berger's seminal work Ways of Seeing to include and examine AI and machine vision. Excited!

"...I am currently in the progress of reworking and updating ‘Ways of Seeing’. Just as Berger’s book sought to educate audiences about the ways we perceive and interpret art, my project ‘Ways of Seeing Algorithmically’ aims to do something similar for the new visual system of algorithms and artificial intelligences, helping audiences understand how these technologies see and understand the world around us. 

To do this, material drawn from my research into artificial intelligence is overlaid on to the pages of ‘Ways of Seeing’ in a way which creates contrasts and juxtapositions between Berger’s text and images and my own. In doing this I will also collaborate with Richard Hollis, the original designer of ‘Ways of Seeing’, in order to ensure the update remains true to the original."

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Photographic Storytelling: A Poverty of Theory

I read this article over on Medium, Photographic Storytelling: A Poverty of Theory by Lewis Bush.

"...why there is such a poverty of theory about storytelling in photography compared to other fields, and why there is so little precision about the terms and techniques we use. Why, for example, are so few photographers able to differentiate between such fundamentally different things as story and narrative." 

Definitely food for thought.

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Early memories of the internet?

Embassy of the internet survey

The embassy of the Internet put out a survey recently, here are my responses.

• Username/Name:  s2art
• Age: 50+
• Gender: M
• Location: Antipodes
• Job Role/Description: Educator; since 1993

What do you first remember most fondly about using the internet?
My first exposure was really to the WWW. I was doing my teacher training. One subject got us looking at technology in the classroom. I sat at a computer and “surfed” not really knowing what to look for or find. I guess due to bandwidth concerns my University blocked ALL images. So I was completely underwhelmed by that experience. I was an Art/Photography major at that school. Within 12 months however I was working in  a photography department of a school whose HOD saw that this was important and connected the department to the internet with a dedicated line. I also acquired a desktop computer and had my own connection to the WWW. At the time had a friend who was a  from Rochester in the USA. He put me onto listservs and mail groups. My early days of internet communications came from these groups and I spent many an hour dutifully downloading my mail each working. Reading it offline. Then reconnecting the next morning and sending my replies. Over the years I found many tools for online communication. My favourite has always been email however. Not long after came learning html and blogging, then flickr.com, and instagram. What I really loved about my early years of the WWW was to ‘surf’. Drifting from homepage to homepage. Discovering some real gems.

What do you think has changed the most since your early years on the web?
The demise of homepages and to a certain extent blogging. The WWW is really now an ‘app’ and few people experience it outside of their phones and tablets. When it so much more than that.

How do you use the internet and what do you mostly use it for?
Research, entertainment, shopping, as well as my own publishing to flickr and blogging.

What is your biggest concern about the internet and/or the future of the web?
The balkanisation of the web by a few services, apple, facebook, google, instagram etc.

What would you change about the way we use the internet or how it is controlled now?
It’s difficult to know how to reclaim those early days. Maybe it isn’t even a wise premise to expect?

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Twenty First Century Publishing?

A screen grab from Craig Mod's Website.

From April 15th Craig Mod is shunting off on a 1,000 kilometer walk across a chunk of Japan. Six planned weeks, possibly a few more.

The trails and sub-trails he'll be walking are numerous, but broadly speaking, he is walking from Tokyo to Kyoto along the historic Nakasendo highway. He wrote a bit about the planning over on Ridgeline: “Exquisite Boredom and the Long Walk.“

While walking, he is going to run a publishing-over-SMS experiment.  You can join in by texting “walk” to +1-424-543-0510 (that link should open your SMS app on the phone).

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