The deadline is quickly approaching for the end of submissions to the Canada CODE website as part of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Canada CODE is part of the digital edition, CODE, of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. CODE is made up of four parts: CODE Live, an 18 music and digital media festival, CODE Screens 2010, an interactive journey that brings the art to your home computer, CODE Motion Pictures, which is a film line-up of commissioned short films from Canadian filmmakers and Canada CODE, a user-generated photo, text and remix experience. The coolest thing is that all of the content that is uploaded to the Canada CODE website, including remixes, will be put into a pool of potential material that could appear on the giant projection screens during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
I have been having a lot of fun tinkering around with the Canada CODE website. You can upload photos and text to the site, under your user profile, and then create remixes of the content that has been uploaded to the site. The site gives you the choice to rate your submissions by its energy, intention, word tags and color association. It is kinda foreign to think about the “intention” behind something, especially a photograph, so the rating takes a bit to get used to. They also have weekly “challenges” which can act as inspiration for submissions.
I think the coolest feature behind this whole site is the generally accepted and overly encouraged idea of remixing. All of the content, not just yours, is available for you to remix. The remix UI is relatively similar to a simpler version of iMovie, with content viewer windows, transitions and audio samples. The remixer allows you to create a 30 second slideshow video to upload to Canada CODE. The fantastic result is that you can create full stories from the images and text available on the site, which is way cool.
With the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games right around the corner, the city is in a buzz with all the arts and culture programming that is scheduled for the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. For the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, the Cultural Olympiad has a digital edition, otherwise known as CODE, that is split into four separate areas, all with different arts programming during the month of February. The four areas of CODE are CanadaCODE, a photography website that encourages submissions and remixes, CODE Screen 2010, an interactive experience that brings the arts to your home computer, CODE Motion Pictures, a curated film schedule from Canadian filmmakers, and CODE live, an 18 day festival of music and digital media installations.
All of the different areas of CODE will be an awesome way to experience the cultural side to the olympic games, yet CODE live’s 18 day festival will be an on-site experience that is best not to be missed. CODE live is split into two areas: music and digital media installations. The digital media installations are open to the public daily, at one of the three CODE live sites. I wrote an article where I picked the best digital media installations of the CODE live festival, which could help act as guide through the art portion of the festival. The second part of the CODE live event is a series of weekend concerts that are sure to make music-lovers rejoice and locals dance.
There are about 8 concerts scheduled during the CODE live Night Life section of the festival. The shows are scheduled on the three weekends that occur between the sporting events of the Olympic Games. All of the concerts will be at the Code live 1 location which is at the Great Northern Way Campus. Tickets for all the shows are available at 800-TICKETS or tickets.com and range from $20-$28.
I just wanted to highlight a few of the shows that are bound to bring the house down…
Mike Relm (photo courtesy of Myspace/Jonathon Remulla)
This opening night of the CODE live evening series is two act line-up that is sure to wow your eyes and ears. San Francisco audio/visual artist Mike Relm is quoted as a video “turntablist” that mixes video with audio, manipulated in real-time with astounding results. He has shared the stage with the Blue Man group and has performed at the closing ceremonies of the Pan Am Games in Rio de Jianaro and Bay Area Baseball game Giants vs. A’s. His notable eyeglasses and business suit are sure to set the stage for his amazing performance.
The second act of this opening night show is British duo Addictive TV, a dynamic team of audio/visual artists that is taking the world one remix at time. Addictive TV is becoming well known for remixing full feature films. Their remix credits include versions of Snakes on a Plane, Slumdog Millionaire and Iron Man. They have graciously shared the stage with Goldfrapp, Chemical Brothers and Moby. Noted as the best audio/visual artists in the world, Addictive TV is sure to make this event an unforgettable event.
The Golden Filter (courtesy of The Golden Filter/Myspace)
For the last few years, the New Forms Festival has been a Vancouver festival that was established to promote local artists/musicians and to create an environment where art, technology, media installations, and music could be viewed by a wider audience. It is really exciting to have this years New Forms Festival partnered up with CODE live to give us a killer line-up of non-stop dancing. The Saturday show is jam-packed with sets by LA Riots, a rising LA DJ duo that raises the bar for club hits, The Golden Filter, a live electronic duo based in New York, a DJ set by Junior Boys, a Canadian downtempo electro-pop band, U-Tern, Vancouver DJ, Humans, rad Vancouver rock band and Konrad Black, a heavy bass DJ based in Berlin. This showcase has a perfect mixture of East Coast and West Coast, with a heavy accent on the Vancouver scene. New Forms Festival is always a great time, and this Olympic edition is no exception.
Kid Koala (photo courtesy of Alex Billington/Myspace)
International turntable artist Kid Koala is no stranger to his hometown of Vancouver. Known for his impeccable scratching skills and his ability to manipulate records into unique sounds, Kid Koala has shared the stage with Bjork, Radiohead and Cut Chemist. This Montreal based DJ, born under the name Eric San, is one of the pioneers of eclectic turntabilism, with his style including diverse samples and elaborate turntable set-ups. Short Attention Span Theatre was a piece that is a full audio experience of masterful sound and media manipulation. It is very exciting for Kid Koala to be bringing this show to CODE live with accompaniment by Lederhosen Lucil.
This show’s title literally speaks for its self; this saturday night event will be jamming all the networks. This dual city experience will be a combination of parties happening simultaneously in Montreal and Vancouver. The very stacked line-up is comprised of international heavy hitters from the digital music landscape. Supergroup Modern Deep Left Quartet which consists of members Matthew Johnson, Colin the Mole, Danuel Tate and Tyger Dhula is an experience in analog-infused jazz sound. This four-piece is well versed in their digital instruments which strengthens their apparent musical relationship with each other. The rest of the show line-up includes Berlin-based artist Deadbeat, Mike Shannon, Montreal’s Jedi Electro with Vincent “Freeworm” Letellier from National Parcs, and a site-specific performance by Germany’s Groupshow. It is unclear as to what this site-specific performance will be, but I am sure it will be full of the same energy as the rest of the night. Packed with this many artists, showcased from so many different cities, this evening is sure to be an all night dance session.
Martyn (photo courtesy of Myspace/Shaun Bloodworth)
A night of heavy bass and lots of dub is sure to make a lot of happy dancers at this friday event at the Great Northern Way Campus. Invigorating mixes performed from some of the top players in the dub genre will grace the stage including Martyn with some infused soul rhythms, 2562 bringing the off beat heavy bass line and Deadbeat coming back for a second night of deep minimal bass. This dub-filled line-up will be accompanied by additional genre all-stars, musician/producer Michael Red, Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Charly and Gallus who are otherwise known as BAF Soundsystem, and Vancouver’s own DAEGA Soundsystem. If you like dark, heavy bass tones mixed with body-moving dub rhythms, then this is the show for you.
The closing concert for the entire festival is a sold-out show by Chromeo. The show is on Saturday February 20th and I sure am kicking myself for not getting tickets!
During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, there will be alot going on in the city. The reality is that you won’t be able to see it all! Hopefully this guide to the music shows presented during the CODE live festival will be a good reference if you feel the need for a night out dancing during February.
Stay tuned for more information about the must-see events of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad!
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games are right around the corner and the town is buzzing. Every set of Olympic Games has a separate cultural line-up that showcases the country’s communities in the arts, theatre and music. This line-up is curated by the Cultural Olympiad by every host city and runs parallel to the official sporting events through out the host city. Vancouver is putting its name on the historical map by adding an additional component to its Cultural Olympiad 2010 called the Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition, or CODE for short.
CODE is running four separate scheduled tracks of digital components that included Canada CODE, an interactive website that encourages photo submissions, CODE Motion Pictures, commissioned film works by Canadian artists, CODE Screen 2010, media pieces that you can access from your own computer and finally CODE Live, an 18 day media-arts-music live festival. All of these tracks are packed with opportunities for participation and digital interaction but CODE Live has the potential for making the most impact with visitors and locals of Vancouver.
With about 50 different artist scheduled for the CODE live festival, it might be hard to narrow down the best installations to check out. The two weeks of the Vancouver Winter Olympics are going to be a whirlwind, so I wanted to highlight some of the most interesting installations to check out during the festival.
The CODE live festival is split into two themes: media installations that are available to the public during the day for free and a series of evening concerts with international musicians. There will be three different locations for the CODE live festival: CODE live 1 is located at the Great Northern Way Campus, CODE live 2 is located at the Emily Carr Institute and CODE live 3 is located at the Vancouver Public Library.
Here is my highlight from the first part of the CODE live lineup: the media installations!
CODE live 1 – Great Northern Way Campus
Artificial Moon - Wang Yuyang (photo courtesy of ArtHub Asia)
This large-scale installation is created by Chinese artist Wang Yuyang and creates the atmosphere of artificial light in the shape of our naturally occurring moon. Compromised of many different elements that create a beautiful texture, this Artificial Moon is a commentary on relative space and perception.
Paparazzi Bots - Ken Rinaldo (photo courtesy of Paparazzi Bots)
These three robots clearly represent the creation of ordinary human subjects to celebrity status. Consisting of cameras and sensors, all located on a moving platform, these robots travel in spaces taking pictures of the people around them. Isolating single subjects, they create the dynamic relationship of celebrity and ordinary.
Reactable - Reactable Systems (photo courtesy of Reactable Systems)
This flat screen table is an electronic musical instrument that allows the user to manipulate the sounds of the device by placing and moving objects on the screen. The size and color of the object denote what it can do in relationship to other objects. Reactable systems has created an interactive experience that could change the way you think of sound and music production.
This large scale installation recreates the theory behind witnessing large scale suffering. A large projection screen is triggered by a vest that the viewer wears and when the vest is activated correctly, the screen responds with destruction of the images being viewed. This piece speaks highly to our reaction to others’ suffering.
Akousmaflore - Gregory Lasserre and Anais met den Ancxt (photo courtesy of Scenocosme)
Two French artists Gregory Laserre and Anais met den Ancxt wanted to create the sensitive relationship that can arise between plant and human. Each of the plants in the installation emits a sound when softly caressed creating a garden symphony when interaction occurs.
Montreal based media artist Valerie Lamontagne uses her curated media pieces as performance based objects that can interact with her audience. Both of her installations combine wearable media pieces, reflective of high couture fashion, and intuitive technology that has direct, active response to the person wearing it.
Electric Skin - Suzi Webster (photo courtesy of Suzi Webster)
Canadian multimedia artist Suzi Webster illuminates the third space in the relationship between the object and the subject in her wearable art piece of Electric Skin. Creating visual displays in reflection of the wearer’s biological responses, creates an experience that is soothing and potentially threatening at the same time.
This two piece installation is the collective creation of the media artists Di Mainstone and Sara Diamond, during their shared residency at the Banff New Media Institute. These wearable art pieces are activated by sensors to respond to the wearer’s mood. The response is activated in order to realign negative emotions.
Captain Electric - Joanna Berzowska (photo courtesy of Captain-Electric.net)
Master of Science MIT scholar Joanna Berzowska created independently moving garments, titled Skorpions. These garments challenge the wearer in their own actions by creating averse situations in movement and ability. Captain Electric is a set of three kinetic dresses whose design was influenced by the body’s safety responses to unsafe environments. Joanna is co-founder of XS Labs which helped incubate the installations of Sara Diamond and Di Mainstone as well.
Artist Ying Gao creates moving pieces of clothing that are tailored with sensors for activation. Unlike other wearable technology, these dresses have individual movements that can be triggered by wind, environment or human touch.
Director of the Enternal Gandhi Multimedia Museum in India Ranjit Makkuni is well versed in multimedia presentations as a connecting element between traditions. This installation is bridge between technology, spirituality and culture, and not specific to any one geographical location.
This large scale presentation makes a perfect intersection between the mythology of classic Indian spirituality and new media. Combing the techniques of animation and action-packed filming, Srinivas Krishna recreates the best moments in Indian mythology and brings the gods and goddesses to life.
There will be so many events to check out during the Vancouver 2010 WInter Olympic Games it will be hard to see everything! This is definitely the must-see list that I will be checking out with from the media installations during CODE live.
Rebecca Bollwitt wrote a great Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad post with info on what’s going on around town. Check back for my must-see list of the CODE live evening concert series and the Cultural Olympiad 2010!
We are very lucky in Vancouver to have such a rich and diverse art community that has really supportive galleries and spaces for a wide variety of shows. W2 Woodwards just recently opened their art space in the Perel Gallery in the DTES, which serves a multi-purpose art space for shows, performances and workshops. Their most recent artist in resident is Jeremy Crowle, a Vancouver-Galiano Island painter, who’s new show will open next Thursday January 14th at 8 pm. His curated show titled ‘tHere in Spirit‘ is a collection of large-scale paintings that will be shown through the duration of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
Jeremy Crowle is a prolific international artist whose main medium is painting but has dabbled in other aspects such as video, pastels and photography. His large paintings are often dynamic portraits that engage the audience in an environment of curated emotions.
Here is his show statement for ‘tHere in Spirit’:
“There are many times in which the boundaries of our two landscapes are blurred when our physical reality is a catalyst in creating our digital reality. Contextually each place is the same but our response can be pulled towards the easier, accessible digital landscape that sustains gratification at any given moment. Do we give priority to our digital environment? Wherever our priority lives, our loyalty and responsibility will follow suit no matter what our intended course may have been.
Time and direction can be subtle commentaries on space as they exist in their most rudimentary forms. Here or there, we can encourage the experience of reaction through a physical environment that promotes a responsive, internal dialogue. The boundaries of our physical environment are met against the boundaries of our digital environment, creating a dynamic relationship of question and response.”
I am huge fan of Jeremy’s work, not only because he is my best friend but also because of his immense talent that shines through everyone of his creations. The two of us have collaborated on a projects, mixing my photography with his painting. It is always really awesome when I am able to create art with the best of my friends! There is also a growing collection of his art, hanging at my studio which creates the air of having my own personal gallery at home.
Jeremy is also hosting a week long workshop at the W2 Letterpress that is housed at the W2-Perel Gallery. This workshop will consist of 5 full days of hands on learning about this amazing printing process. With hundreds of different organized types, the W2 Letterpress is a great experience of analog art creation and historical based learning of the evolution of printing. There is still time to sign-up to be a part of this awesome workshop!
This weekend I’m in Seattle for the Journalism that Matters conference taking place at the University of Washington in Seattle. Journalists, photographers, media-makers and documentarians will gather for this three day event, to discuss issues that are effecting the world today. This conference is set-up as an open space, “un-conference” where the participants determine the actual content of the conference days, and the schedule, though structured, is flexible in attendance and movement.
Within the last few years, a visible divide has emerged between all media with this idea of new media versus traditional media. It doesn’t really make much sense to divide media into two sparring factions when in fact they can be working and collaborating together. I often find myself in the citizen journalist role, not so much by my strive for journalistic photo features but more by my own personal documentation that I funnel to the internet. I have been known to say that “if you didn’t stick it on the internet, it didn’t happen.” This often arises fits of laughter, but most people find this statement very true. This extends past your twitter and facebook, but into hyper-local citizen journalism as well.
My professional photography career has taken me all around the world, covering various events from TED events, to conferences, to the last two Olympic games, to the most recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. My camera has been the eye through which I view historical events, as they are happening. My ability to successfully showcase my photos in a digital format, allows a wider audience than just me, to also view these historical events in potentially realtime.
Citizen journalism is role that I have just found myself in within the last few years, solely because I happen to be at the right time, in the right place, with the means to capture the events around me – which for me is my camera. The amazing thing about citizen journalism is that anyone can fill this role, with their highly professional digital camera or simply the camera on their cellphone.
Having the opportunity to travel to Copenhagen as a photographer for the Fresh Air Center really pushed my own personal boundaries of what the role of a citizen journalist really is. I was able to shoot photos during the actual negations in the Bella Center, on the media floor amongst international NGOs in the Fresh Air Center and then actively on the streets during the many protests and marches that occurred during the two week conference.
My camera was witness to some of the most intense police brutality and overt militarism, as well as celebrity climate change activists, to the Yes Men who pranked the entire world. The challenge that arose for me was trying to find my connected heart in my photography during COP15 when the structure of photo-journalism up until most recently has always taught us to be objective and disconnected.
Here at Journalism that Matters, Chris Jordan gave a presentation about the photographs he took during his trip to Midway Island. He presented a video that he made, which was first debuted at PopTech this year in Camden, ME. This video consisted of images he shot of young albatross, that had died from plastic consumption. The 6 minute video was accompanied by the musical soundtrack of Christen Lien and challenged his viewers to feel the immense feeling of such images. The one driving point of his whole talk was that the next evolution of journalism or art creation, is finding the passion in your work and allowing it show through your art.
Some of the questions that are being raised at this Journalism that Matters are:
- How do we envision the role of the artist in the future of journalism?
- What is the potential for news as a performance?
- What should journalism be in the 21st century?
- How do we create sustainable freelance communities in an increasingly decentralized newsroom?
Currently I am actively involved with organizing independent media coverage for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. W2 Woodwards is hosting a media house for the duration of the games, which will play host to many citizen journalists, including Fearless City Mobile, the Olympic Legal Observer program and many other communities that will be covering various events. There will definitely be a passionate side to this particular kind of coverage of the games because as citizens of Vancouver, we are personally invested in the news that will be occurring in our own neighborhoods.
The entire world will be watching the Olympic Games from various media outlets, but this particular Olympics proves to stand as the most highly covered on the internet than any previous one. Citizen journalists are more than ever working together as a collective, in their collaboration, sharing of resources and general support. This network will definitely be necessary during the games so it is very exciting that W2 will be a host as a central homebase.
The definition of journalism is changing in the revolution of our documentation of the world around us. I am very excited to be able to capture the games as they happen in my own neighborhood. Stay tuned for my photojournalist and social media documentation of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference , the Fresh Air Center has acted as basecamp for many media people and NGOs, accredited and unaccredited alike. Situated near the Bella Center in Copenhagen, the Fresh Air Center is a part of TckTckTck , a global campaign platform designed to bring climate justice organizations together in solidarity. This center acts as the main news hub so that the rest of the world can be connected and informed of the negiotions in real time.
It is very exciting to have such a Vancouver crew represented at the Fresh Air Center. Countless numbers of Vancouver people have worked on the TckTckTck campaign and with other climate justice organizations, so it is really no surprise of their strong presence at the conference. We even have our very own Mayor Gregor Robertson here in Copenhagen where he is set to attend the Copenhagen Climate Summit for Mayors .
Vancourite Jason Mogus has been working as a web strategist for TckTckTck, while based out of Vancouver. He has helped with the organization of the Fresh Air Center and all of its participants.
The Fresh Air Center turns out alot of media on any given day of the conference. Vancouverite Steve Rio has been the web producer and media manager during COP15. He is a very busy guy!
The work is never over! Hardworking Vancouverite Kevin Grandia has been part of the Vancouver group working at the Fresh Air Center.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is here in Copenhagen to attend the Copenhagen Climate Summit for Mayors but has been very supportive of the Vancouver crew at the Fresh Air Center. It's nice to know that our mayor supports climate action and change!
Many celebrities and public figures are very prolific in their support of climate justice and have come to Copenhagen to support the negotitions. I had a chance to meet Daryl Hannah while she was at COP15 and I was lucky enough to get a photo! Darryl has a biodiesel El Camino and is well-known climate justice activist.
The COP15 conference will be over soon and hopefully will result in a global deal that is fair, amitious and binding. The world is waiting.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark has been a flurry of activity, in the Bella Center with the negiotions, in the Fresh Air Center with the media and NGOs and in the streets with the marchs and protests. Each country brings to the table its own sets of concerns, contributitions and baggage revolving around carbon emissions and climate control. Canada has been no exception this rule, yet has been thrown into the not so positive spotlight by the culture jamming activist duo called the Yes Men .
The Yes Men punked Canada by merely pointing out their basic regulations on climate control and where Canada stands in the proceeding at COP15 . The Yes Men's media stunt included a fake press release from Canada, a fake response from Uganda, a fake retraction from Canada and multiple fake news stories surrounding all of the fake media. They even created a fake website, Good COP15 for their entire coverage. Static Photography 's Kris Krüg has been at COP15 photographing all of the events, including the Yes Men.
The Yes Men are well-known for their SurvivaBall, which is a tongue-in-cheek inflatable suit designed for catastrophic sitautions in which basic survival is engaged. The SurvivaBall was seen in multiple marchs at Copenhagen.
The Fresh Air Centre is large enough that chance meetings occur at the most random times. One half of the Yes Men met up with Mayor Gregor Robertson of Vancouver, unbeknownst to Gregor, just hours before Canada is punked.
The gypsy-inspired band from Brooklyn Gogol Bordello performed a special show in Copenhagen for COP15. The Yes Men opened up the show, also fellow New Yorkers.
NDP Canadian Member of Parliament Olivia Chow and NDP Party Leader Jack Layton were in Copenhagen at COP15 with support for Canada. After speaking at the Fresh Air Centre, Olivia and Jack put forth good nature and were photographed with the Yes Men.
Sometimes bad press is bad press and sometimes bad press is good press, but either way, the press took notice when the Yes Men punked Canada at COP15. In a good way, Canada took notice as well. Stay tuned for more photos from Copenhagen or check out Kris Krüg's Flickr Photostream for daily updates!
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There’s a ton of interesting stuff going on inside the negotiations at the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen but there is also a ton taking place on the streets. Those of us working here are a lil worried that the stories you may be seeing on TV aren’t an accurate portrayal of what’s actually taking place over here.
Yeah, the police cracked down on protestors with unwarranted brute force… and I was caught in the middle of it… but there are other stories too. For instance the 100,000 protestors on braved the streets for a peaceful candellight vigil despite freezing temperatures and an over-eager, riot-ready, police force. Follow allong my realtime updates from Copenhagen at @kkon Twitter and check out all my photos in the COP15 UN Climate Change Summit photoset over on Flickr. Here’s an photographic recap of what I’ve seen on the streets of Copenhagen.
The streets are old school, beautiful, and shockingly car-free! People walk, bike, and take buses and trains everywhere. It’s very effecient. People walk in the streets, I’ve never seen traffic congestion, and its just generally one of the most human friendly places Ive ever been!
The day of demonstrations started at 10am for a march called ‘The Flood’. We walked from a square across town to the Danish Parliment building. The crowd was older, happy, and well organized. The demonstration started and finished with speeches and music. I was just wakin up and taking it all in. I walked the march with Anport Jacob, World-Changer Heather, and Nympho Maggie… we had great conversations about the city and conference. The demonstration was probably made of up about 15,000 peeps and was a great ‘intro’ to the streets of Copenhagen.
Happy peeps from a variety of nations marched in the demonstration showing solidarity amongst citizens in seeing concrete action taken by world leaders here at the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen.
Even the Tibetan Yaks joined in on the demonstration. They’re sick of all the YAK YAK YAK taking place at the highest levels on the issue of global warming and climate change and everyone wants to see the 15th meeting of the UN on the topic of climate change yield some tangible and binding results.
Joining the Tibetan Yaks at the protest were these uber c00t polar bears. There were also some awesome peeps dressed up as trolls with signs that read ‘When you cut down all the forrests, where will the trolls live?’. The demonstraters were super creative and in good spirits. There was a sense of commroderie between all the participants and a feeling of doing positive action on behalf of the whole planet.
Choppers like this news one followed the snaking line of protesters through the old cobble streets of Copenhagen and many riot police in armored vans were visible but there were no stoppages or even any confrontations. The group was happy and celebratory if not a lil bit cold!
As the march wound through the city streets the volume got turned up. Singing, chanting, and pleading started to drown out the quiet conversations of earlier in the morning.
Near 1pm we met up with the larger demonstration which had the theme ‘System Change Not Climate Change’. People really started arriving en mass… literally spilling onto the streets and into parliment square from every direction. In the end the news reported that more than 100,000 people marched in the rally.
Things took a turn for the chaotic when riot police decided that a group of young and vocal activists threatened the security of the event and preemptively cut off the protesters from the rest of the march with a display of overwhelming force including dogs, riot gear and armored personal carriers.
Twas very apparent that the young climate change activists that were arrested in the protest were not a threat to the security of the march. The police had 6500 officers on hand… you dont mobilize a force like that and not use it… even if there isnt any reason too. Its sad that things went down the way they did.
The dogs and gear they used were gnarly and vastly disproportional to what was required in a situation like this. The police explained they were taking a preemptive better safe than sorry approach but most people here agreed that those reasons didnt justify the arrest and harrassment of so many innocent people during what had been an otherwise peaceful and constructive march.
The news coverage of the event labeled all the arrested as ‘anarchists’ and ‘black bloc’ and claimed they had come from all over Europe to interrupt the UN negotations.
Clearly that wasnt true as the people arrested in this picture arent anarchists or black bloc but just a bunch of young Danish teens who were demonstrating.
Does this look like black bloc anarchist bent on the destruction of civil society to you? No not to me either. The police cheif aplogized to these people but they were still dealt with harshly.
Amidst all the confusion of dogs, sirens, shouting cops and crying protesters it wasnt really clear to anyone why people were being detained and arrested or what would happen to them.
When it was all said and done 948 climate change activists and protesters were arrested without any cause or explanation. They were made to sit in human chains on the ground for 4+ hours in below freezing temperatures. Many of them peed on themeselves and their neighbors after being denied access to bathrooms.
This is the police spokesperson. I asked him why the protesters were arrested. He told me the reason was that they found a bomb in one of the protesters backpacks. I said ‘a bomb?’ and he said ‘large fireworks’. Either way, I think they were looking for an excuse to lock down the young angry protesters and overstated the nature of any threat.
I will give the Danish police a thumbs up on one thing… they do value freedom of the press. I was caught in the crackdown on the block of protesters and being detained and processed for arrest. I notice several journalists running around on the ‘free’ side of the police line and when I showed the riot officer my media accredidation he pulled me out of the group of detainees and allowed me inside the police line to take all these photos. I havent taken off this badge since that day! :p
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The UN Climate Change Summit is in full swing in here in Copenhagen. The first week is over, most of the delegates are here and working hard, and many of the world leaders arrive this week. Main negotiations are taking place at a large convention centre called the Bella Centre. I’ve got media accredidation and have been taking photos inside the Bella Centre. For real-time updates follow @kkon Twitter or check out the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Summit photoset I’ve created on Flickr. Here’s a recap of the first few days in images…
Youth activists from all over the world are in attendance. It’s important to have them their as they have the must at stake in the fight against global climate change. Many of the worst predictions are likely to happen in these guys lifetimes!
Delegates from all over the world assemple and hash out the nitty gritty details of an international climate change treaty that everyone hopes will be signed here in Copenhagen.
If temperatures rise only 1.5 degrees some countries will dissappear completely. These guys are standing in a demonstration in solidarity with the Association of Small Island States… the nations that will be effected first by climate change and global warming. I’ve heard stories of some nations buying land around the world to relocate too. For them this is an issue of survival… life and death.
Tuvalu is one of the small island states expected to be ravished by the early effects of climate change and global warming. They’ve sent a delegation to let the world know… pls don’t forget about us. I want to buy one of these mats they’ve made and brought from their island as one of my souveneirs from the conference.
Despite the heavy nature of the negotiations… smiles, optimisim, and positive action abound. Check out TckTckTck and 350.org to get involved with the mobilization movement towards battling climate change and calling our world leaders to sign a treaty here at COP15 that is fair and binding.
Myself and a bunch of other rad peeps from around the world including Mija pictured here are blogging, photographing, streaming video, tweating, and doing whatever we can to involve people throughout the world in the events taking place here in Copenhagen. Great content from lots of sites is being aggregated in real-time here at http://live.tcktcktck.org
Awesome director Yang Li wins a UN Award for a video he made in an international contest about climate change.
Gonna be a tough process. The answers aren’t clear. On what to do internationally about climate change there is little consensus. We gotta stick together and stand strong!
Steve Rio is a digital producer from Vancouver who is helping with media management and content strategy. Send him some love… we’re all working long days and nights.
Next photo essay coming will be Streets of Copenhagen. Thx for following along!
Darren Rowse interviewed me this week about taking photos of people – portrait photography specifically – for a new book he has coming out on the topic. Thanks a lot for including me Darren. You do great work and it’s an honor to be a part of it!
1. Q: What do you know about photographing people that wish you’d known when you started out?
A: I have shot literally hundreds of people’s portraits, in all types of spaces and environments. Portraits of all different types of people, from various angles. All different kinds. The one thing I have learned from all of this is that you can make a single face look a hundred different ways. There is no “one” way to shoot a person’s portrait. When I started out I was under the impression that there was “one” way to capture people, from “one” specific angle or with “one” particular light source. Granted I am still learning within this particular process because everyone’s face, their everything can be so different from the next that you can’t rely on the same things working from person to person. The beauty of all of this is that you can make a face look inspired or approachable or even prestigious, just from how you capture it. We all don’t have “one” true face but a face that is made up of different parts. I am learning on how to invoke those different parts, specifically focus on them and bring out their attributes and qualities.
2. Q: What mistake do you see beginner photographers making most when it comes to portraits? How could they overcome them?
A: I like to get really close to people when I am taking their photograph. The most common mistake I see is that photographers tend to be too far away when taking portraits. Sometimes you can overcome that by zooming in real close but the better way is to physically get closer to the person you are shooting. It is only when you are physically close, that you can properly interact with with them and then that spark can carry over to the camera.
That’s probably the biggest mistake. But I also see photographers making smaller mistakes. Some portraits are good or fine but could ten times better if the photographer had just taken a second to look around and work with their environment. Whether it is moving the subject into a light or moving something in your background or changing the angle of the shot, those simple things can make a portrait so much better. Just taking a few seconds before you take the photo, that’s all.
3. Q: What advice would you give someone starting out when it comes to interacting with and posing a subject/model?
A: Spending time with the person before the shoot. Like have coffee with them or flip through some magazines to grab a sense of what they are interested for the photos. Getting your photo taken can be very intimidating so it is nice to buffer the shoot with some sort of activity to get to know the person before you dive into taking their photo. You want to get a know a part of them and get acquainted with them like have them tell stories about themselves and show their personality. Some of my best photos of people have been with people that I have gotten to know before the shoot or are at least acquainted with somehow.
4. Q: Can you share one of your favorite portraits with us and how you achieved it?
A: I have three favorites actually:
Malloreigh: During this photo shoot Mallory had brought over a bunch of fun stuff to work with and my studio tends to be a museum/art gallery/flea market so we had a bunch of stuff available. We were just listening to music and having fun really. I helped her pick out a bunch of outfits. During the shoot we became comfortable with each other and just started playing with different props. She picked up their weird old boxing gloves I had and it just worked. All the elements were really strong: her sexy, playful personality, the strength in the boxing gloves mixed with feminine nature of her outfit. Plus the light is great in the shot and it reflect off of her lipstick perfectly. We were just hanging out and experimenting really.
Kim Cathers: Kind like how Chace Jarvis says that the best camera is the one that you have with you, the same goes for the best model you have is the one you are always with. Kim and I had lived together for awhile and we were always carrying our cameras around and taking photos of each other. This particular photo, we had been sitting around, drinking wine, discussing life, love, media and whatnot. It was super spur of the moment but the moment was very comfortable, so I didn’t shy away. It turned out to be a great portrait.
Pete Doherty: I ran into Pete on the streets of London and I didn’t recognize him initially as the musician/rockstar. I just noticed him because of his style really. So I ran across the street and asked him if I could take his photo. The first shot I got I was too far away and it didn’t work. So I just gave him a bit of direction, to move closer and lean in a bit and then the shot turned out amazing. It was really just serendipitous. It was seeing something I liked and then going after it. The round trip literally lasted about ten seconds. I was super happy about the image and immediately stuck it up on my Flickr. I still didn’t know it was Pete Dougherty at this point. The internet quickly let me know who he was though!
5. Q: Could you leave our readers with one last practical piece of advice on shooting portraits that stand out from the rest?
A: In a time where everyone has a fancy DSLR camera and a laptop with the newest version of Photoshop on it, you really have to make an effort to differiante your photos from the next. You literally have to make them special or have them have your own personal fingerprint or signature on them. You can achieve that in many different ways. For me I carry a reflector around with me so that I am able to reflect or manipulate my light in my photographs.
I also have several low end film cameras that are super easy to carry around. I change up my film so that I can cross-process to change the variance in color or make my photos look more grainy, depending on the approach. Sometimes for light sources, I use desk lamps, overhead lighting, lighters, matches, candles, just so I can change the lighting up a bit and possibly redirect it where I want it go. Depending on your camera techniques, whether you use your IPhone, a Holga, or digital and then how you use your available light sources will really make your photos stand out from the rest of them.
Thx to friend and collegue Ryan Holmes for wrapping up my tenure as President of Raincity Studios so eloquently.
“Kris is a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. He has been known to remodel train stations on his lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the areas of heat retention. He translates ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, Occasionally, he treads water for three days in a row.
He woos women with his sensuous and god like photography, can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and can cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. He is an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.
Using only a large glass of water, he once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. He is the subject of numerous documentaries, when he’s bored, he builds large suspension bridges in his yard. He enjoy urban hang gliding. On his spare time he tirelessly volunteers to help create a better world.
He is an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a voracious socialite. Critics worldwide swoon over his prolific flickr account. He is a private citizen, yet he recieves fan mail. He bats 400 and he’s internet famous.
His deft floral arrangements have earned him fame in international botany circles. Children trust him.
He can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. He once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. He knows the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. He has performed several covert operations with the CIA. He sleeps once a week; when he does sleep, he sleeps in a chair. While on vacation in Austin, he successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to him.
I shamelessly paraphrased this from someone more clever than myself, but honestly think that 50% of this applies to Kris.”
He posted this to my LinkedIn profile where I’m currently working on updating my resume, CV, and portfolio in preparation for some grants I’m applying for.
photo by gone but not forgotten photographer friend Fiona Garden.
I’m giving a talk tonight in Calgary to a group of event planners. They want to know how they can use new tools and strategies to plan and manage their events. I’m gonna start with a lil philosophical talk about citizen journalism & media making as well as particpatory group culture and principles and move on to a bunch of tools and tactics people can start implementing today. Here’s a copy of the slides I’ll use.
Over the past 5 years I’ve been involved in various event planning and management activities as a part of my community development work. I’m on the organizing committee of Northern Voice & BarCamp Vancouver. I plan regular PhotoWalks and PhotoCamps for photographers in Vancouver and around the world. I helped organize the first BarCamp in China with Robert Scales and others in 2006 and advise and consult to a variety of other events from the Canadian New Media Awards to South By Southwest in Austin, TX.
Before that I when I was working deeper in the corporate world as a Marketing Director for several software companies event managment and tradeshows also fell under my area of responsiblity. I’ve been planning and managing events large and small for over 10 years now.
Here’s my current list of tools I use to help pull together meetings, events, and conferences cheaply, quickly, and effectively….
– EventBrite – manage registration (smaller: Evite & Mobaganda & Meetup)
– PB Wiki – free hosted wiki that let’s attendees connect and organize talks, rides, couch surfing, etc
– BaseCamp – project management for event team, vendors, advisors
– WordPress – free open-source content-management system to power the event website
– Ning – Create a social network for your event
– Flickr – collect photos of event via tags & groups
– Twitter – connect with attendees, sponsors, & the media. monitor mentions of your event
– Doodle – takes the pain out of scheduling meetings with busy people
– Google Apps – docs, alerts, groups, calendars, etc
– Upcoming.org – great place to list events (also ZVents & Eventful)
– Slideshare – give the presentations from your event life and value after the speaker has stopped talking
– NetVibes – create a dashboard from the RSS feeds generated by all of the above
Also check out this great 48-slide presentation shared on SlideShare by Katie Laird:
My photograph studio Static Photography has had the opportunity to travel to many different conferences for awesome photographic opportunities! Whether it is shooting portraits at Microsoft Tech Days , or giving a photo recap talk at Gnomedex 2009 , or even heading back to Pop!Tech to be their official photographer, Kris Krug is definitely busy at conferences. Come this November Kris will have the awesome opportunity to lead a PhotoCamp at the first annual [Re]Think Hawaii conference .
(Re)think Hawaii is proposed as an intersection of forward thinking leaders from all corners of the world. Focused around technology, sustainability and business, this five day conference will provide networking events, panels, discussions and other various events to further the discussion. The attendees for this conference will span a wide spectrum of career and business levels, intention levels and motivation levels. Disclosed as a space to retreat from the confines of your daily thinking, meet offline and rethink the ideas that are the crux of your daily life, this conference is sure to be a one of a kind.
This conference is the by-product of the hard-working team of Christine Lu from Cilantro Media and Neenz Faleafine from Pono Media . This dynamic team has helped organize almost all the details of this conference, with some special help from some amazing people from around the world. These two are the main organizers but have delegated international organizers to spread the world to their communities. By connecting global communities in the organizing process they have set the stage for a diverse conference attendance. Kris is also working on a book with Christine titled Chinameme Vol. 1 Shanghai . We are very excited to working with Christine on another project!
This conference will be four days of events that are ensure to inspire and connect all the participants to each other and especially to Hawaiian culture. With a Welcome Party on the first night of the event with an introduction to Hawaiian culture including music, food and traditions. Larry Chiang will be teaching an all day workshop called 'What They Don't Teach You At Business School' . Startup2Startup , which is a group of geeks, entrepreneurs and investors that provide education and help to new internet startups, will be hosting a dinner during the conference. Blogworld will be hosting a Social Media Business Summit on one of the days of the conference. Lead by Rick Calvert and Jim Turner , this Summit will provide information and support for businesses of all sizes. Dave McClure will be running a one day workshop called Startonomics . This workshop, designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, will provide information on how to create metrics that will continue for long-term growth.
Kris will be leading a full day Photocamp during the conference as well. Photocamps are fun because they give experienced and novice photographers a safe and creative environment to explore new territories with their cameras. The day will include sessions on basic photography techniques, low light event and portrait photography, photography and social media, stock photoraphy and then an afternoon photowalk. This kind of camp offer a space for collaboration, information sharing and just general awesomeness. Plus set upon the landscape of beautiful Hawaii, this event is sure to provide amazing scenery for photos.
There are still spots available for this rad conference! If you are interested, you can request an invite here. There is also an Rethink Hawai Eventbrite page that has more conference details. There are day passes available for individual tracks as well as full week passes for the whole conference. If interested, feel free to use the referral code of 'Photocamp'. Whether you attend the Photocamp, a single day of Technology, Business or Sustainability or possibly seclude yourself to the beach for a week and attend the whole conference, this event is is sure to be an inspiring one! From attendees, to speakers to organizers, the island of Hawaii isn't going to know what hit them when all these geeks arrive!
Gnomedex is the geek’s geek conference. This single track conference produced by Chris Pirillo and Lockergnome has always provided the best and brightest in high-tech to technologists and enthusiasts alike. This conference is in its ninth year. The first few Gnomedexs were held in Des Moines, Iowa, with a quick crazy year spent in Lake Tahoe and then finally settling into its Seattle home where it has been for the last few years. This conference has always hosted a prolific line-up of speakers and created an experience that is optimum for attendees.
We all get our own electrical outlet and power-strip.
There are some really awesome speakers this year at Gnomedex 9.0. Here are just a few from the rockstar lineup.
Amber Case – Prosthetic Culture
Amber Case is a cyborg athropligist who resides in Portland, OR. Spending her time taming the robots and spiders on the internets, Amber is a wealth of knowledge on human interaction with the cyborg culture. Her talk on Prosthetic Culture will be an interesting look into prosthetics and human interaction with enhancements. Her talk will be the closing session on Saturday at 4:15 pm.
Drew Olanoff – My Cancer is Social
Drew Olanoff is a community director at GOGII who currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Drew was diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer earlier this year. He has turned the unlikeliest of situations into a new media campaign based around Twitter hashtags called #blamedrewscancer. His full of life approach to a heavy topic has changed the way people interact with new media on topics like cancer. This talk will surely be informational, awesome and might even shake a few tears out of some eyes. His talk will be on Friday at 4:30 pm.
Leah Nelson and Jay Grandin – 20,000,000 vs. 20: Audience versus Impact
Leah Nelson and Jay Grandin are a dynamic duo that are integral components to the video production and media studio Giant Ant Media in Vancouver, BC. Their studio has produced documentaries, micro-campaigns, web series, commercials and even stop-motion productions. They have lots of experience with how numbers can dictate how content produces a general impact and what kind of audience is created in the wake. Their talk will be on Saturday at 11:30 am.
I will be creating a photography showcase/recap of Gnomedex 9.0 on Saturday at 5:00 pm right after Amber Case’s talk. It will be a selected portion of the photos that I will be taking at this year’s conference. It will be an awesome experience to recap live the chaotic events of the conference in real time with new friends and old.
There should be a lot of fun events planned around the Gnomedex single track this year. From parties to networking the events somehow tie all the awesome presentations together to make this two conference the awesome geekfest that it is. One of these events being scheduled around the main track of programming is a photowalk with some professional photographers that will be in Seattle for the conference. Robert Scoble, Chase Jarvis and myself will be heading up this fun outing Friday morning at 7 am. The early bird gets the worm and the best photos.
Just a side note: I will also be booking some photoshoots during Gnomedex this year. This would be the good opporunity for those of you who need to update your headshots / avatars.
Gnomedex is always a blast. Hopefully I will see you in Seattle!
Mid-august can be exciting for a few things: summer vacation, hot weather, long days. For the geeks of the digital community, this is always a very exciting time of year. It is this time of year that the panel picker is released for panels submitted to the SXSW festival. This year over 2200 panels have been submitted, all of which 300 are selected for the Interactive portion of the SXSW festival. Of the voting system, 30% of community user votes count towards the final selection. The list is quite impressive but it can be a daunting task to sort through all the awesome submissions. I did a bit of wandering through the list and found a few rad ones.
Pretty Rad Panel Submissions: Tantek Celik – Open Science on Today’s Web
The open movement is growing in all areas and this panel on open science should be a really interesting introspective into how open science will play out in the internet. The idea of developing science in the open and public eye will revolutionize the way science discoveries are made.
Angela Schroeder – Photoshop and Other Photography Tips for Concert Photography
This panel should provide a interesting overview of the basics for live concert photography. Capturing the energy of a live concert can be pretty confusing while worrying about your gear, the lighting and your camera. This should be a rad discussion with tips that can be applied for the music section of the SXSW festival.
Hillary Hartley – Building Your Local Open Government Tribe
The idea of an open government is an important issue that is becoming a reality. Having an open government makes information available at a public level which can create better informed decisions and dialogue.
Tassos Stevens – Beyond “Choose Your Own Adventure”: Theatre meets Games
Theatre is often overlooked when commentary is made about the digital evolution of the arts. Is the next step in theatre a radical one that eliminates the actors and dynamically creates the show from the audience? Sounds awesome.
Roy Elkins – Self-Made: Record Labels Battle Social Media
We are having to rethink how music is distributed. The music industry is quickly evolving and a lot of bands are turning to new media outlets for new ideas of distribution, licensing and representation.
Ian Davis – Set Your Data Free
Data is definitely different than content and this talk should shine some light on data within the context of copyright, creative commons and public domain. Concise talk about data is perhaps one of the few not addressed issues in new media literacy.
Thankfully I am not the only one tackling the 2200 SXSW panel submissions to give a list of suggestions! A few others have done the same with awesome lists of their own. Rebecca Bollwitt and Dave Olson provide great suggestions of panels submitted by Vancouverites. TechZulu provides a great listing of panels submitted by people in the SoCal area. Alexandra Samuel gives some awesome suggestions of panels submitted by women.
Phew. That was alot. Have fun voting! (voting ends September 4th!)
TED is a great conference format that is focused on the theme of ‘ideas worth spreading’ in technology, entertainment and design. Showcasing the brightest and coolest minds our times, TED is an all around impressive event that videotapes all their speakers and puts the videos up for free on their TED talks list. They really stand behind their principles of sharing ideas, even if people are unable to attend the highly anticipated TED event.
They just recently announced TED x which is a franchised community version of the bigger TED conferences. They’re encouraging folks to take the spirit and format of TED and have local events focused on the coolest in technology, entertainment, and design. It’s a great concept that initiates community support, discovery and definitely promotes ideas that are worth spreading. I had the chance to speak at TEDxShanghai this past June. It was a great experience to give my ‘Open Everything‘ talk to an international audience in Shanghai and I was surrounded by brilliant local and international speakers that were incredible. TEDx is a great experience and really opens up the TED idea to a broader audience.
It is very exciting to hear that we have a TED x Vancouver event coming up for the first time. Vancouver (and its surrounding area) is saturated with brilliant innovators and pioneers, especially in the sectors of technology, entertainment and design. This event will hopefully be a great presentation of the amazing people and ideas that are coming out of the Lower Mainland. Nominations are now open for speakers and everyone is welcome to throw the names of their favorite heroes in the hat. Here’s some hardworking, interesting, kind peeps that I think would be great to consider as speakers for the event. Some of these people I know, some I don’t know, but either way they’re doing good work and it’d be rad to hear them speak.
Bev Davies is an international rock and roll photographer. She has been photographing live concerts since the 70s and has pioneered the art of capturing the energy of live concerts. Her most famous work is based around the punk scene in Vancouver for the last three decades.
Michael Turner is a Canadian poet living in Vancouver who’s writing explores the concept of the seemingly ordinary adapted from the concept of the means towards a desired end. Turner is also a musician and a film maker.
Carla Bergman is a youth activist who’s theories around working with youth are revolutionary in their dissemination of minority status. She works with the Purple Thistle Youth Collective, the Rain Zine Collective and is part of the Unschooling movement.
Dan Savage is the author of Savage Love, which is an international relationship and sex advice column. Located in Seattle, Savage is poignant in his discussion of sexuality and rounds out explicit controversy with humor and wit of pen.
Irwin Oostindie is a Canadian activist who co-created Under the Volcano, a music festival that has a social-activism theme. He was also the executive director of Gallery Gachet in Vancouver’s DTES which is an art gallery geared to promote DTES resident artists. He is currently the executive director of the W2 Woodwards project that is a legacy project for the new Woodwards building.
John Fluevog is a internationally renowned shoe designer whose flagship store is based out of Vancouver. His designs often push the conventional boundaries of shoewear but have maintained a popularity devoid of mainstream conversion. In 2002 Fluevog opened up Open Source Footwear which allows people to submit shoes designs and if chosen, the shoes are produced and named after them.
Dave Olson is a literary genius that has dabbled into the visual arts as well. Whether it is constructing love letters from a Russian War era to water color paintings of natural settings, Olsen captures the renaissance attitude of the modern day beat generation.
Tzeporah Berman is an environmental activist who lives on Cortes Island. She first began her work with forestation in BC and most of her work was put into national forest campaigns. Lately her central focus has been around Climate Change and has started up PowerUp Canada to spread information to Canadians about climate change.
Tim Bray is a Canadian software developer. He co-founded Open Text Corporation in 1989 which helped create a commercialized search engine. He was also selected to co-edit XML and XML namespace between 1996 and 1999.
Eoin Finn is a yogi instructor who created the wellness portal that is Vancouveryoga.com. He also co-founded the largest yoga-focused fundraiser called the Camp Moomba Yogathon & Blissfest in 2007. He founded Positive Force Yoga System which is framework for a healthy yogi lifestyle.
A few other noteworthy nominations: SFU professor of Communications Richard Smith, semantic web programmer Jim Pick, founder of Happy Planet/Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, security specialist Dragos Ruiu, former politician/writer Gordon Gibson, electoral reform activist Shoni Field, and former Minister of Education and Children and Family Development Christy Clark.
It is a pretty amazing time that individual communities can host TED events like these. Hopefully the spectrum of speakers will represent the diversity and awesome people of this area. Make sure to nominate someone! You can find the TEDxVancouver speaker nomination here.
PS. I’m not involved with the planning of TED x Vancouver… just an excited and hyperactive community member!
Our digital world is changing as rapidly as it is expanding. When the internet was first introduced to our world, the main concern was understanding websites and their proficiency in this new landscape of media. This was the first time ever that we had an online format to say anything and we were just figuring what to create for this new outlet. The idea of dialoguing was not even part of the picture of the internet for we were just learning to how to speak in this new way. Yet as the internet grew and the world explored new ways to communicate with each other, content management systems started to appear.
Flickr was the first content management system for photos and also the first inclination towards interactive social community networks. The world was given the opportunity to comment and favorite the content posted on Flickr with the artist themselves. Then Youtube was introduced under the same format as Flickr but with the management being around videos. Purely social networking systems were also surfacing so that as individual, we could have a identity online and communicate with others online via their online identities. We went from having sites representing us, to having images, videos and personal information creating our online identities.
At one point our identities were a centralized idea, housed wherever our internet ‘address’ was. Now our identity is housed in smaller bite-sized pieces all along the map of the internet. We were the curators of our own digital identity, using the videos, photos and information from our lives to create it. The videos that I favorited on Youtube or the photos that I uploaded to Flickr spoke louder about who was I than one static website could ever say. The internet has turned into a massive playground of information cultivating, self-identity, discovery and expression.
We are seeing the static nature of sites evolving into the open-platform of blogs for the nature of the internet is evolving as well. Blogs tend to be a personal look into a person, place or thing with a centralized theme around the writing. Micro-blogging is a relatively new term evolved from the process of blogging, which is creating written digital content. The construct of minimizing blogging for the internet has made this an impressionable part of our digital stream and footprint. The most common micro-blogging format is Twitter, with over 22 million users creating miniature blogs in a stream-like format. Read individually as tweets or collectively as a stream, these bite-sized pieces help to make up who you are online.
The most common complaint of the current evolution of the internet is the inability to ‘keep up’. I don’t believe it is potentially possible for all of us to keep up with the fast changes that are happening on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. All of the expanded ability of different content management systems, search options, data, and social networking can create a false sense of convenience at a high price of time investment. The beauty to this current state of evolution is that the internet is creating ways for it to work for you and not just having you work constantly at its demand. I like to call this new technology ‘robots’. The robots act as filters that listen to the internet so that we can continue creating dialogue in a concise format that is not time-consuming.
The idea of robots or filters can be pretty confusing. First we are given the freedom of an online format. Then we allowed to create information, content and art which can be quite overwhelming. The next logical step would the aide of a filter that helps sorts through all the information, content and art so it is not all viewed as noise. Noise is literally when a dialogue becomes to saturated; we are unable to hear the really important stuff. A great filter that I use to listen to the Internet is a dashboard system called Netvibes. This system basically lets you pick out the streams on whatever person, place or thing that you want to listen to and delivers them into one format. Netvibes is completely customizable so the internet can work for you.
Growth is a natural state of evolution even within technology. The internet is something that almost everyone has some sort of interaction with on a daily basis. We email, tweet, blog or upload photos and videos to our friend, family and co-workers. Though it is a big place the internet is here for us. If we are able to understand it better, understand our digital footprint, and how to listen to the internet, our entire online experience will be amazing. If the internet works for you then having access to all of mankind’s knowledge at your fingertips, isn’t a very scary thought at all.
For the last two years I have had the opportunity to be the official photographer of Pop!Tech , a 4 day fall conference that happens in Camden, ME. Over the past two years I have shot dozens of speakers while they were presenting on a wide range of topics, including inner-city violence , the fate of the oceans , musical possibility , linguistic theory and emotional robot technology . From musicians to leaders to the change makers of the present world, Pop!Tech has hosted them and I have photographed them.
Pop!Tech started in 1996 as the Camden Technology Conference . Originally it had a more focused theme which was the impact of information technology. Since its creation this conference has broadened its topics to encompassing discussions with world leaders and the social change makers about issues that revolve around the events, media, information and projects that are affecting their lives globally.
Each year Pop!Tech has a designated conference theme in which all of its discussions and talks are more or less focused around; the past few years have seen such themes as "Dangerous Ideas", "The Human Impact" and "Scarcity and Abundance". The entire conference is held in a 19th century opera house which provides a visually stimulating and inspiring environment. Andrew Zolli has been the curator and director of Pop!Tech since 2003 and has helped develop the conference into what is known for today.
There are many different components to the Pop!Tech conference that happen before, during and after the actual fall event. One the really amazing ones is the Fellows Program that has since evolved into the Social Innovation Fellows Program . This program is an intensive training for 10-20 people from around the world that are working on global change through the vehicles of innovative projects with potential widespread positive repercussions.
This program provides the skills in networking, media relations, branding, social media, finances, organizational development as well as many other areas that are necessary skill sets in the work that they are doing. All of the fellows involved in the program also get a chance to present briefly at the actual Pop!Tech conference with additional mentorship for a year following the program. Last year I was also given the opportunity to photograph the Social Innovations Fellows Program, which was its first official year.
This specific conference hosts a variety of speakers and often incorporates music from innovative creative musicians from around the world. Some of the musical highlights from the past years have been John Legend, Amos Lee , Imogen Heap , Zoe Keating , Vanessa German and Abdominal . Each of the musicians presents and performs at the conference which provides a musical interlude between some of the heavier topics.
Between shooting presenters and discussions, I had the opportunity to help out in the National Geographic Photocamp that was held at last year's conference. Whether it was documenting other young and inspiring photographers as they took photos at sessions or general photo assisting tasks like holding up reflectors, I had the chance to share my photography knowledge with others.
Each year the conference hosts so many amazing people from around the world that is definitely hard to pick favorites from all of the various sessions. Each presenter is creatively captivating on the topics that they are speaking upon combined with the vibrancy and impact of their presentations, which are often filled with infinite energetic passion.
Pop!Tech Conference 2007:
Elizabeth Streb is considered an action inventor and presented on her dreams of the future of human body motions.
Jonathan Harris redefines the theory of story-telling thru various platforms.
Van Jones is an activist whose new plan of promoting a green revolution for green jobs instead of jails.
Frank Warren , the founder of PostSecret, discusses his initial solicitation of people's secrets on the streets of Washington, DC. His presentation was just a snippet of the thousands of secrets that have accumulated into PostSecret.
Malcolm Gladwell , author of the Outliers, discusses what separates the extraordinary people from the average people.
Saul Griffith , inventor, engineer and the recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, discusses his own investigation into his personal carbon footprint and the shocking discoveries that are made in that journey.
It is very exciting that I get to shoot Pop!Tech for the third year in a row. This year's conference should be just as amazing as the last two!
The following is an interview with me done by Kemp Edmonds of the British Columbia Institute of Technology. We spent a couple hours talkin’ “Philosophy of the Internet” and this is what came out of it. Thanks a lot Kemp for capturing lots of my ideas and writing them up!
Kris Krug is a technology, idea and thought leader with a strong presence in the digital world. He is also described as ‘a tech-artist, quasi-sage, cyberpunk anti-hero from the future’. The more you get to know him the more that description rings true.
I like to imagine him as a cyber surfer on the front of the wave enabling arts and culture in the internet age. If you’ve never heard of Kris check out his Wikipedia page here. Kris describes himself on kriskrug.com as, “a photographer, web strategist and author based in Vancouver.” Kris speaks all over the world on the topics of technology and the arts. I was inspired by his presentation at Pecha Kucha in Vancouver titled, “Open Everything”. In the presentation Kris talks about the move away from traditional blogging towards a digital footprint.
To Kris the ‘digital footprint‘ is represented by his photos on flickr, his videos on YouTube, his blog posts, links he shares, comments he leaves, interactions he has and comments others make about him. See a digital footprint by googling his name or mine. I am writing with many links embedded in the hopes that if you are interested you will explore and try these tools for yourself. Powerful computing tools are increasingly moving online and Kris knows his stuff. So join me as I go into the mind of a current thought leader for a lesson or two.
When did you realize that technology was part of your vocation? I really started working with web technology while I was at University. In early 1996 I was introduced to Netscape(?) and I started creating web pages. It was when my Communications professors approached me to build web pages for them that I knew things were really changing. It was an upheaval of the traditional power structure. Normally students want help from professors, suddenly these same professors were coming to me for help with their work. I went onto to create web pages for my professors, to promote and sell books, and the university.
In 1998 I created Spark-online.com, an online magazine exploring electronic consciousness and digital philosophy. It grew pretty big and we were using content management systems before blogging which required us to build new HTML pages every month. 11 years later my life is a continuation of those explorations and the addition of more. I am publishing online and speaking live exploring how we are changing and how the medium is changing.
On Blogging…
When blogging first started it was for everything [pictures, videos, discussions]. Now each of these media has their own tools outside the blog [flickr, YouTube, Twitter/Facebook]. People are no longer blogging every day; comments on blogs aren’t the place for discussions they once were. One great new tool [Disqus] aggregates tweets about a particular post and then includes a link or embeds those tweets into the blog in the comments section.
Now, instead of writing a blog post after an event I can tweet from the event, post photos and video directly to the web in real time and the day after the event I can do a blog post. I can use tweets from others about the event, embed some of the photos or videos I posted the day before into the post. I feel like we are moving from a web of pages to a web of streams. These streams allow us to aggregate our presence into one central place.
On the Olympics… [from a video of a recent Olympic roundtable w/Kris]
I currently represent “The True North Media House” and we are working to build an independent, alternative media center for the 2010 games. There will be a period of time in the future where the stories we are sharing 20 years after the games will be things that happened online. This is the first Olympics sitting on that brink and I hope to help tip the scales in that way through the organization of this 2010 media house.
A video from Northern Voice 2009 with True North Media House and others
KE: You often talk about a ‘digital footprint’, what does it mean to you and where do you see it going?
KK: Every time we interact online we are leaving digital breadcrumbs. These little digital ‘bits’ leave a trail of information about us. We reveal things about ourselves and others make statements about us. This could be what you read, when you favourite a video or post a comment. It’s an amalgamation of what you do online. Even when we think we don’t exist on the net in fact we do. [Google your name and add your main city of residence to see for yourself]
What do you think of Aggregators? Will that be the digital footprint?
Tumblr is one aggregator but it sucks things from other people and puts it together so it is not necessarily original content. Friendfeed is for your own stuff. These days we aren’t spending all our time in one place online so aggregators do a good job of bringing together our online persona. Our information and activity online makes up our persona. I see aggregators like Friendfeed but with better filters and more ways of making things fit together enabling a true digital footprint.
[Get an idea of how FriendFeed represents the digital footprint at Kris' feed or mine]
Do you see any really good Filters out there?
I am currently consulting for 2010 and the David Suzuki foundation, building custom dashboards. I am running searches for “Cultural Olympiad” through PostRank. It tells me who is saying what about this topic anywhere on the internet. I am also using Netvibes and Yahoo Pipesmixing and filtering feeds, Technorati and Google Alerts to track online content in real-time. The really good filters are custom built for their users to enable the most focused result.
Should we be using custom or proprietary filters to gather information? The easiest to use and cheapest solution is good for the average individual. For companies or individuals needing custom in-depth solutions complete with statistics and analytics a custom solution is the way to go. The current market for these custom solutions is a bit of an arms race and the key is to dial in and refine searches and filters. Techniques like keyword segregation and optimization help enable custom solutions to increase the value for users. To those who understand the power of the media, know what’s possible and want to utilize that power will use custom systems going forward.
The internet is an incredibly visual medium, what does this mean for the written word?
I don’t know. Media literacy is very interesting. In the advertising age with TV we saw a movement away from literacy and ads towards visuals and real stories. Young people are continually tuning out traditional advertising. The internet is based on text, HTML=Hyper Text multi-language. It’s all about machines being able to read text and understanding linking and language. We are observing changes in communication. Things may not be better or worse, but they are certainly they are different. The approach to media is changing as media power becomes more decentralized. We are now able to receive many different perspectives, a myriad of voices representing different sides of an issue. Biases are now more explicit compared to the old system where biases were less obvious and people were tuning out advertising a lot less.
What would u like to see on the internet/web that is not currently available? I would like to see more philosophical dialogue and less pure entertainment, more art and culture and less funny cat videos. I would like to see more true art online, more cultural interaction and above all; more collaboration. Canada Code is a great example. We now get to tell our own stories. VANOC’s people are doing a great job working inside an organization [the IOC] which is resistant to the internet as a means to create culture and identity. I would like to see us reaching out to artists and Canadians because we can tell the best stories.
You are an artist and creator who wears many hats, how do you keep it all in order?
I am constantly trying to do things that I love. I was raised on TV and the internet. My advice is to stay engaged in your passion projects. My love has resulted in my business. I love teaching, photography, geeking, creation, web design and promotion. The tools I am leveraging are fulfilling the promise of greater efficiency for me. I see a drastic increase in digital literacy, but there are still a large number of people who believe that if you reveal info online you will be stalked. This is the fear. Geeks used to be loathed and laughed at. Now there is great credibility to the knowledge that former geeks possess. Any people or businesses that steadfastly stay away from the internet will need a new solution to remain relevant in the digital age.
What about bloggers or creators whose work isn’t really seen by anyone?
In regard to doing stuff that no one sees, if they keep it up people will eventually stumble upon it. Do it for the love of subject matter and it will come; the audience and the money. Learn more about your subject matter and figure out how to use it. I am a firm believer that there are different strokes for different folks. ‘Create your own reality’ with these tools and a community will grow around you if you engage them.
Do you think the sale of the Pirate Bay is a turning point in the proliferation of piracy on the net?
People’s attitudes about piracy are changing. BitTorrent is becoming like TCP/IP to email. In the sense that everyone uses email but few people know its backend is TCP/IP. People will get content anyway using peer to peer sharing. BitTorrent is a way to handle billions of users.
KE: Is web video the new billboard?
KK: A billboard thinks one message is good for all. The internet is the best place to spend your ad dollars because you can customize your message to your audience. It’s the best bang for your buck and you can’t argue with the measurability of it. Billboard analytics are messy at best. They’re hard to track while web tracking and analytics are freely available and very measurable; segment and target. I see more Facebook ads of friend’s businesses. Targeting ads to my interests is pushing me to click more. We want to know more about what we are interested in. Advertisers are picking up on this and making smarter decisions based on that data. -kk Photo Tim Bray [For great free analytics for your site check out Google Analytics]
In your opinion are Facebook Apps an effective way to engage your audience? I love connecting other info into my Facebook account using Facebook Connect. Spammy apps, like quizzes, will eventually die off. Smart apps are rad. They can now add cool functionality to Facebook through outside sites and applications. The old way of site transition was difficult and now with various API (application programming interface) I can integrate everything. This is the promise of the internet. Using widgets and linking I can unlock true power by transferring my work, stories and reputation from one medium to another. [Check out Kris' Netvibes page it is a great showcase of some of his 'hats'] You have spoken in the past about the ability to access your all of your personal information online from any internet terminal anywhere on earth, how does that work?
Storage is the essential thing in this concept. Amazon s3 (simple storage services) is the simplest storage area right now. That is where I would store files and information. You can use Plaxo to store all of your contacts online, while videos can be stored in one place and pictures in another. Using web based email access allow you to access your email from anywhere. (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.)
What do you think the iPhone will do to the mobile computing landscape?
The iPhone essentially puts the power of a printing press in your pocket. It has the power of video creation and study with YouTube integration. Oh yeah, it also has access to all of mankind’s knowledge. It allows us to be always connected to everyone and to all the information in the world. All consumers of this product also have the ability to produce as well as consume. It will help bridge the digital divide. With an iPhone I can do 70-80% of the work I normally do on the computer. The iPod Touch and the iPhone are available to a larger group of the people than conventional computers. This fact has the potential to allow a whole new group of people access to computers.
What do you think educational institutions should be doing with new media/social media that you don’t see them doing right now?
A lot of the changes we see in the classroom will be around wikis and online collaboration. Students and teachers are moving towards posting homework online. They are using technology to create roundtables and meetings, to share more freely. The essence of this shift is the integration of collaboration. I have really enjoyed the benefits of using twitter at events and conferences by putting a Twitterfall on a background at the front of the room. The discussion is democratized and leads to more diverse feedback.
Some teachers are using Twitter in the classroom to aid and encourage discussion
How do you think higher education institutions could be using new media and social media to improve recruiting practices?
Recruiting is only one area where social media should be used. Collaboration is the most interesting aspect of these tools in education. It changes recruiting from a traditional top down system to an inside out system. It’s about drawing people into the real community/culture that is going on around the institution. There is an opportunity to highlight the content being created from inside institutions. It’s about being a storyteller inside the institution not about marketing and sales. It puts the responsibility on the institution to have programs, research and teachers to draw in students in a real way.
What is your least favourite thing about all of these new tools?
I love all of these tools although I can’t see my screen very well at the beach. So I have to be inside too much. The one thing I miss is being outdoors more because this stuff ties you indoors. Also because it’s always on, sometimes it feels like a moving goal post. There is a feeling that, whether we are present or not, things continue to go on without us. It’s hard to get away from. There is no more end of the work day. These tools bring the world into our lives 24/7.
[Kris' photography was brought to global prominence by a bizarre situation where another user attributed his work as theirs.] Can you tell us about that incident?
It was back in 2004-5, I had developed an audience online and they had a good sense of the style of my work. Eventually it came to my attention that this young photographer was passing off my work as his. It was obvious that it was my work. I proceeded to blog about it and the blogosphere was angry and pushed back at this guy. The subsequent blog posting was picked up by Digg resulting in over 1700 ‘diggs’. I was then was sent a phony cease and desist order to try and get the post taken down. You see because of the strength of my blog in search engines whenever anyone searched his name this story about how he stole my work and passed it off as his own would come up at the top of the search results.[Three years later the incident is still the top three search results from the thief's name]
Kris talks with Leo Laporte about Creative Commons License
He was trying to pull a fast one on the internet, but it didn’t work. Legal academic journals have used this case study as an example of intellectual property rights and the internet. After I was served this fake cease and desist order he has continued to beg me to take down the blog post, but it remains up to this day. At one point I even told the guy that he should change his name, it’s the best option.
Thanks so much for all of your great insights Kris it’s greatly appreciated. I look forward to speaking again in the future. –Kemp Edmonds
When you live in Vancouver, summer time is all about spending time on the Gulf Islands and this summer is no different. I just got back from a seven day adventure on Cortes Island which five of those days was spent at Hollyhock at the Summer Gathering. The Summer Gathering is an invitational conference that gathers the best thinkers, activists and social change agents from around the world! Artist Chris Jordan, scientist Rupert Sheldrake, wordsmith Rachel Bagby, photographer Kevin W. Kelley, filmmaker Bill Weaver, social technologist Leif Utne, engineer Jeff Vanderclute, and educator Rennie Keats were just a few of the participants of this event.
The entire week was hosted by Rick Ingrasci who specializes in consciousness research and poverty eradication activist Torkin Wakefield. Each day started off with an opening circle invocation, a series of morning talks that were organized around a specific topic and then an afternoon of offered workshops from all of the 120 participants.
The morning sessions included talks like global climate change with Tzeporah Berman, student activism with Michael Cox, living with hope and a spirit of possibility with Pravin Pillay, the support & healing of marginalized people with Aqeela Sherrills, the destruction of the world’s oceans resulting from plastics with Chris Jordan and Manuel Maqueda, global peace and social justice with Dot Maver, aboriginal and first nations issues in Canada, and lots of other super intellectual powerful presentations… thankfully the intensity of the topics was broken up by performances by some of the remarkable musicians in attendance. At any given point I could hear drums beating, a flute playing, a trumpet, guitar or even Christen Lien-McArdle’s viola carrying a melody somewhere on Hollyhock.
There were so many really brilliant people here that often times the morning sessions were so jam packed with information. When proposed with what afternoon session to attend, I was drowning in the flow of awesomeness. I managed tho and spent my time attending sessions on akido, climate change activism, creative writing as well as swimming in the ocean and hangin w/ people one on one. I really liked the closing night puppet show by Little Woo for it was a highly creative way of incorporating new media with brilliant story-telling.
I had the opportunity to give one of talks during the ‘emerging cultures’ morning session. I gave my ‘Open Everything‘ talk from Pecha Kucha 5 Vancouver and TED x Shanghai. It was great to be able to share the ideas of free culture and openness with a group of individuals where some had never even heard about Creative Commons. My talk was a lead into an afternoon skills workshop I facilitated with Leif Utne called (New) Media Literacy. This session was a success in the fact that it was well attended but also generated a lot of discussion around new media skills that could be great additional skill sets for all of the other discussions that were generated this week around activism, global issues like climate change, social justice, empowerment through technology and poverty eradication.
The Summer Gathering was also a full week of exchanging ideas and making connections with people from all areas of study to find cross-disciplinary connections. Wilford Welch announced his Beyond Sustainability conference in 2010 which connects the weeks discussions on climate change with the notion of what is really beyond the next step in such a task. Another connection that was announced was Manuel Maqueda and Chris Jordan’s morning talk about the effect of plastic on our society and the devastating effect of it in our oceans. They announced, along with Bill Weaver, that they were taking a trip to Midway Atoll to explore and document the effects of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This garbage patch is one of the largest collections of plastic and garbage in the ocean and is destroying the local oceanic ecosystem. Combined with the artistic talents of these three individuals plus their drive in activism, this trip will be a huge eye-opening experience for everyone on the downward spiral that is happening to our oceans.
Established over 25 years Hollyhock is a retreat center that hosts many conferences all year round that range in topics from writing, to social entrepenuership, to leadership and philanthropy. Often quoted as providing “learning holidays”, each of the retreats provides information sessions by talented experts in all fields. Their mission statement says that they inspire, nourish and support the people who are making the world a better place. The actual land of Hollyhock is surrounded by beautiful ocean, a flourishing garden full of flowers and 15 different building structures that host the talks, workshops, meditation and sessions for all of their programs. A few really amazing conferences happen at the center are Bill Weaver’s Media That Matters, Jason Mogus‘ Web of Change, Open Everything which was a retreat conference focused on the open culture and Joel Solomon and Pam Chaloult’s Social Venture Institute. I had the opportunity to attend a few of these conferences and the experiences were life-changing.
This September Hollyhock will be hosting Web of Change again. This conference gathers the upcoming leaders and forward thinkers that are involved with social media, technology and the digital world. Started back in 2001 as a smaller gathering on Cortes, Web of Change has just continued to grow every year with the newest addition of Social Tech Training being added to the WoC umbrella. This conference helps leaders and peers to share their wealth of knowledge and become adept with skills in the digital social change area. When I attended in 2005 I was connected with many different people interested in the area of social change in the digital/online spectrum. I learned a lot from these connections. I hope to attend the Web of Change 2009 at Hollyhock!
For 3 years I was the editor-in-chief of a great online magazine called *spark. It was a culture and technology monthly with a philosophical bent and great design and photography. Here are the archived issues.
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