DrJoolz Snapshotz on Life

in NYC a week or so ago was so exciting. That is to say, there were people that I was in contact with on the Flickr website who I met in meat space NYC while on my week there.
What I found really amazing about meeting the people was HOW RIGHT we were (TT and I) in thinking we would get on well. We had felt pretty confident, as we had seen people’s photos and been talking with them online about their stuff and ours for a number of months. Photos are pretty revealing about people’s lives and values and interests even if they are not intimate or in domestic/ personal settings.

But what was amazing was exactly how similar we are … our expectations were surpassed. We were people who were all interested in ideas, in education, in writing. We did not know what anyone’s job was before we went, but we met teachers and journalists (and other writers) , social workers and people who were in careers advice. So similar to the work we both do. Of course we do not use such crude criteria for assessing whether we like people or not, but we were amazed at how somehow, we had managed to sift through all the possibilities on Flickr and use our social knowledge and habits and lingiuistic rituals to find ‘people like us’ with similar values and life expectancies and lifestyles. It made me realise how much unconscious work we do all the time with our antennae detecting who we will talk with and who we will pass by. They were people who go to the theatre and visit photography and art exhibitions … but somehow it was more than this. We ‘clicked’.

When we talked about this we agreed that on Flickr we like to communicate with people whose photos we like; who make ‘good comments’ and who respond to remarks, who reciprocated similar behaviours. I am sure it is the quality of the comments that were key - Niznoz said for example that he liked witty, clever comments. I think that humour is something that we use to convey our values - what we like, dislike etc. There are linguistic rituals I think we take part in that help us make judgements. I need to look into this. Want to think about this more. We have fun on Flickr and really sift through the people.

We were looked after by people who gave up whole days to take us round their favourite bits of the city, or to show us things they thought we would be interested in. Other days we spent on our own. The shots I took below reflect interests I have newly developed since going on Flickr - looking at streetart is not something I was previously interested in. But the habit of walking round with my camera all the time has made me aware of the things in cities I used to ignore. And what was once the background, has become foregrounded in my eyes as I walk the streets. I am developing a wider range of perspectives to look at the world through…. My world is changing so tyhat what was at the back is now at the front …

The first work here is from SWOON, who does really elaborate murals, paste ups with incredible detail. (Look at the skill in the detail, in the art.) This one is on chinese newspaper:

These are details of the girl’s face and hand:

There is so much stuff hidden about in spaces as here:

Look behind the bars: (hatemail)

I saw so omuch unconventional art that when I came across this I did not know if it was an urban street installation, or just a bike(!):

This kind of thing really amused me - Jesus with a cup of tea (or is a mocha?) next to surveillance cameras and a light. I like to think that the three are connected somehow under the title of ‘enlightenment’ or ‘all seeing’.

More photos are here.

I will continue to upload what I have got - but in the meantime life goes on and I accumulate pictures daily of what is happening here.

I belong to so many Flickr groups now, and I like to keep involved with them all. Life online feels so busy and it is all becoming very complex now that even more of it is merging so much with every aother aspect of my world.

Does everyone else feel the same? So many blogs to read; pictures to see. Things to write and respond to.

Then there’s the day job.

I need to be much more selective, that’s for sure. And THAT is a thing we have to teach about all this online stuff. Select and pick a way through.

New York is waiting to be snapped up. (By us with our cameras, and by the property developers with their diggers.)

I am unable to make any sense of all the photos I have been taking and to write about the people is going to take a-a-a-a-ages.

This IS fun though.

I am a Flickr activist trying to free the sugar dudes today. You just wait and see!

A few days ago I was a Flickr activist entering areas on the shores of Manhattan where controversial devlopments are taking place.

Nice slideshow of the day here.

I am being educated about street artists such as Swoon and Celso and I will write properly on all this later.
It all needs to settle into my cerbral cortex before I can arrange a narrative.

But there is so much to say about Flickr and online offline affinities and tiers of association.
How is it that we have managed evrytime to meet people from Flickr who are just like us? Who we love to be with and conect with so well? How did we learn these skills? (So much here on cultural capital and social know-how.) We have met people for the first time who we feel we already know. This is fabulous.

Importantly I have bought handmade Cowboy boots (ha ha ludicrously marvellous to wear when listening to Laura Cantrell etc.) ; jeans and t-shirt from Gap; presents from MoMA; bag for son; so much so much. So much more.
Love it here.

It was quite sunny today so I was able to test out my new tea cup in the garden.

I felt extremely English.

I thought of the Queen and of Wimbledon and of Roses in bloom.

This picture which I put on my blog yesterday elicited 18 comments and 47 views on Flickr, which I think is quite strange.

I put the photo in some groups, including ‘my everyday life’ and T’he new domesticity’. I really like these groups at the moment. I enjoy the way people in some of the Flickr groups make it like a kind of club. For example the group admins (people who set up the group) are careful to welcome new members and they praise their photos. It feels REAL.

It’s GREAT, a real buzz.
I think that is why Flickr is addictive.

There is a whole reciprocity thing going on.

I like the groups where people draw you in and where the boundaries between the offline and online spaces start to blur. This seems to happen in the ‘place’ groups (Sheffield; Bristol; Nottingham etc). But also in some others like The new Domesticity’ and ‘Everyday Life”. There is aslo the Thrift group where this happens.

It seems to happen in groups where people are presenting images as if they are glimpses of a life ‘caught in the moment’; they want to offer their perception of their reality as they see and experience it. People in these kinds of group particularly, seem keen to present online identities that cohere with off line selves (whatever that means).

Danath and Boyd talk here about ‘Public Displays of Connection’. And I really am thinking about this in relation to what Guy found in Benkler’s work about ‘thickening social relations’. I love that phrase.

Danath and Boyd talk about the significance of the way in which our online relationships are on public display - so I think we need to look OK all the time, from all angles really. So we reciprocate favours - such as making each other contacts, or puting each other on blogrolls. We have to always be on polite good behaviour and ensure our reputation remains intact as far as all our ‘contacts’ are concerned. It is quite difficult doing all this ‘people-pleasing’ without sounding totally gushing and cheesey I think.

I think that many online relationships are very temporary whilst others become quite deep.
The reciprocity in the relationships can be quite formulaic; gestural; ritualistic in some. You say something nice about my photo, I say something nice about yours. With others it is more than that and I think when it is more than that you can break out of the ritual routines and the politeness.

I am thinking about how that happens.

I have found out that you have to stick to the rituals until people know you otherwise they get offended and then you have to grovel your way out of the hole you dug. (I did that today.)

PostScript - added Monday 24th April:
This photo hit most interesting yesterday(23rd)!! Look here.

Wow how exciting!!!

Hairy Potter took this photograph and put it on Flickr, asking for help in identifying where it was taken.

Roger B went off hunting and came back with the answer which he posted on Flickr here.

Hairy Potter used to live in Sheffield but now lives on the West Coast of Canada. He is part of the Sheffield group though and I guess it is nice for him to keep in contact with the place through the people who post their Sheffield shots there. After several meetings of some of the Sheffield Flickr Group, we have now set up a blog!! (Yes, I know …) which is here.

So interesting .. it all goes to strengthen the idea that we thicken our social relations through our online activities, and vice versa. (Guy wrote about it.) And he even gave a link where you can dowload the whole of Benkler’s book on networking.

Just one more litle point … when I met a few people from the Bristol Flickl group, one of them talked about how she hated it when people joined the group and ’spammed it’ with photos of all the tourist places in Bristol, and left again without contributing to the group at all. Fascinating really that there is a sense in some of the ‘place based’ Flickr groups of the LOCAL and that people are keen to get a community feel from it. It is not just ‘another group’. Popular groups on Flickr have people who really strongly interact and for them the other groups are not as good. The personal is crucial in all of this.

So Roger B and Hairy Potter - I reckon they are friends from way back in time when HP lived in Sheffield.