DrJoolz Snapshotz on Life

Tropical

Originally uploaded by Trois Têtes (TT)

Went to Peace in the Park on Saturday. Some interesting stuff to photograph and saw a wonderful band Just Potatoes. The lead singer had the most beautiful rich Blues voice but could also belt out the Waits’ Chocolate Jesus, giving a momentous performance.

(This is the singer from Just Potatoes.)

I found out about the event in several ways - all of which were to do with my ‘life online’ Firstly I took a photo last week of a a performer advertising the event - but only found out about the event after I took the shot for my Flickr stream (not yet uploaded); secondly I heard about the event on a discussion thread on Flickr; thirdly I heard about it via a contact on Facebook.

While I was there, I was intent on getting good shots to put on Flickr … but most uncanny was when Ian Jones came up to me and said ‘Hi you’r DrJoolz aren’t you? I recognise you from Flickr … Life Online, huh? Blending Identities.

(Thanks to TT for the images.)

Holga trying to enjoy an English bank holiday

Originally uploaded by lizjones112

And the forecast was rain. So we have had two solid days of it.

If I had wanted rain I would have chosen to live in Manchester or Wales.

So this is NOT what I expect or want. It is COLD as well as wet.

Liz Jones, also fed up with the weather and also from Sheffield, has whiled away the hours by uploading photos and the photo on the right is an excellent example. (I love photos of dolls. They are just so ABSURD in my opinion. THIS is one of my favourites ever.)

And in the meantime I have been documenting the further liberation of Sugardudes. See here for latest story.

The story ends horribly:

This is not the first time people have been involved in their rescue. See here.

The whole thing is a story of global bonding through PLAY. Play that happened through the meeting of Flickr people from New York, Sheffield and even Sweden.

Originally uploaded by iz*source.

Oh how lovely on Valentine’s day …

But there is no need for us to forget what we are REALLY here for … the lurve of WEb 2.0

You Tube is NOT just videos of people at weddings . It is a rich resourrce for info of all kinds. Here are two useful bits about web 2.0

I really like this one:

This one is a bit less funky but a bit more controversial.

Sadly it is yet again the time of year when the British Nation is force fed 1970s style crap entertainment in a bid to get them to cough up dough for ‘Children in Need’.

The idea is to induce an overwhelming sense of pity and to foster the idea that children (soon to be adults) can only survive if other people are kind enough.

Hear it from disability nation.

And I am pretty much loving the piss on pity approach on these T shirts. It is definitely worth browsing through this site.

The BBC tv programme Children in Need has been running annually for 24 years. That is a heartsinking number of crap tv programmes the nation has had to endure. Its mascot is a teddy bear, ‘Pudsey’ which has a patch over one eye. (Poor Pudsey has a bad eye.)

Pudsey’s time is definitely up.

Thanks to Zombizi for the links. (He has been making bad situations worse, since 1963).

And finally … doesn’t this woman know that you can get loyalty points if you use your own bags in Tesco now?

I see that i-anya has spotted lonely gurl and she has cited Danah’s blog who writes really interestingly about this phenomenon.

What phenomenon?

The fact that a whole series of videos on youtube and an associated myspace account turn out to be a piece of art. That is to say a new form of narrative which is dispersed across spaces on the Internet.

so exciting.

Fascinating stuff and an exciting form of distributed narrative I would say.

City where there is huge Contestation over spaces (what they should be; who owns them;) … people make their marks on walls and live in spaces which others think do not belong to them.

Not everyone is happy with capitalism or that the wall came down. There is sadness and trauma.

But such things bring out creativity- mark making on the city walls reflects some of the characters who use the space

(Art can be transformative; people in the city interact with Art in different ways)

This is Tacheles which was a department store and is now a squat:

Backside:

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.

Am feeling guilty about not keeping up with the blog … longest pause EVER.
Oh well, I have been so busy liberating dudes, travelling the world, doing this; doing that.

Went to London today to Demos. That was very good. A seminar talking about the links that could be made between hone based informal online learning and the formal learning structures in schools. Was good. Keri Facer was there; I like her a lot. She talks sense. But no details on this today.

Today is the full Sugar Dude story.

I said to C-Monster that I wanted to go to the Sugar Dude Shop.
Moufle said, Yeah great idea.
C-Monster said she would take us.
And we could have Margaritas and a meal after, as the Dude Prison/Bakery was near THE RODEO BAR.

But then TT said …. out of the blue … ‘Let’s plan their escape!’

At this point of course this seemed like a genius plan!!

We plotted and agreed we needed to get the woman in the shop to put a little flag in one of the Dudes and that we would then put together the story.

I knew Jackie would be pleased as we recorded events as if it were an animation …

So this is the full Sugar Dude story here. (Watch as a slide show)

Here is the ‘behind the scenes footage’ of us making the story. (Watch as a slide show)

And here are the out takes … with the surviving Dude drinking himself into oblivion.

The unprecedented success of our mission meant that we were forced to start a Sugar Dude Flickr group here. Which led to massively flattering copycat behaviour. So the Dude thing goes global!!

And we have been blogged here.

I was first acquainted with them here and here.

TT and I have been worrying about them ever since so it was a joy to liberate them with Moufle and C-monster.

We had a mission isnpired by the infamous ‘No Dude Left Behind’ mantra in the US. Did we manage to fulfil our dream? Wait and see.

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.