ThinkingAboutTheThinkable

This is perhaps of some interest. I should note that I find a project by doing some work on something that comes up, and then I realize that if I work much more in that direction, I have systematic project. MK My October 2017 photographs            31 October 17 I have been photographing on the streets of Los Angeles and New York City: in part, around NYC Subway stations (as a class project, I have students photograph around LA Metro stations) to learn about what is called “transit oriented development;” in part to invert the New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham’s (     - 2016) project of photographing fashion on the streets of Manhattan, that is, to photograph non- or un-fashion on the streets; and, in part, to document fairly systematically what there is for me to see. I have not been seeking iconic photographs. Rather, I want an archive of some of the life on the streets and on public transit, that is ...

I have been reading a detective novel by Michael Connelly, The Crossing . The detective here is Harry Bosch, named after Hieronymous B, played  by Titus Welliver on TV (Welliver's father is a very well known painter, Neil Welliver). Bosch is using his skills to solve a case with limited help from the criminal justice system, so he is working more explicitly. Some lessons: 1. Pay attention to your hunches. Hunches arise subliminally from one's examination of evidence and records. It's what you noticed but were not aware of, or what was missing. Hunches are very different from prejudices, the latter derived not from the actual material and evidence and records. 2. Look for the ghosts. What's missing, what is the world telling you that you barely notice or hear? 3. Attend to lacunae and, conversely,  connections . If something is missing it is perhaps not by accident, so find out why and perhaps what it is. If two situations would appear to be only randomly relate...

About ten years ago, I wrote down the following list, a propos of my work on aural recording of urban life. I recently came upon the list, and thought it might be of interest to some others. Accuracy and calibration Archaeology, Documentation [Marville},aerial, industrial Archive, Phenomena, Catalog Aural Landscape Bottom, There's plenty of room at the bottom Ambience vs. Roomtone Cellphonium, Cellphony Cinematic arts, Storytelling [Viola, Greenaway], Screen Language Description, analytic Detail, the tissue of negligible [Jeff Wall, Atget], Allover microphoning Display, Streets n Trips + file Episodes: long samples, surprises happen, stories [as narratives] occur Everyday life, impure and overlapping Fieldwork, systematic reflective [Diderot]; Discoveries, making Hum and flow; Stream Imaging; DSP/AI; Environment; Dimensionality Media throughout the curriculum MPEG4, Headers Pandemonium, cocktail party effect Quiet Sensorium, Embedded and Networked Sensors Sw...

I have been walking in New York City, photographing people walking around. Also taking the Subway and the regular busses. None of what I say here will be revelatory, but I thought it might be of some interest. 1. I see more people in walking three blocks in my busy neighborhood (14th St, Union Square), at almost any time between 6am and 1am, than I see in Los Angeles in a week. 2. Namely, we in LA have rather restricted encounters, at least if we drive a car. If you take the bus and even the train, then the experience may well have many more encounters, especially of folks who are poorer or working class or elderly or school children. 3. The traditional line about cities being the place of encountering "the other" is instantiated in New York City, including in the outer boroughs. But in LA you have to go to certain shopping centers or certain streets or intersections dense with street vendors. It's not only a matter of driving in LA, it is also a matte...

https://livestream.com/nypl/events/7222359/videos/158540414 is a link to an interview with the photographer Lee Friedlander. Much of his attitude and way of working says something to me about how I work. I indicated that in the previous post, about where I find topics for my work: I do stuff or encounter stuff, see that there may be something there, and then dive in. In other words, topics are a consequence of what I encounter or happen to notice. I make such topics part of my work, in part because what I notice is in fact part of my work, in part because I see connections.

Most of the time, the topics for our research follow naturally from what we have been doing earlier or just before. Sometimes, as for historians or literary scholars, they have a number of problems in mind, perhaps sourced in their doctoral training, and they go from one book to another based on the topics they have had in mind for a very long time. People discover new problems not because they are great explorers, in general. They find something in the archives, they are asked a question when they give talks, they respond to the interests of funders and publishers. Again, they may have problems in mind, and over the decades they  get the chance to pursue one path after another. For myself, there might be an insight, out of the blue, than then fuels my curiosity. To understand one of my books I need to write another. In photographing, I may discover what someone is doing that allows me to follow in their footsteps but employing my own shoes and my own purposes. I want to unders...

April 2017 Rereading Some of My Earlier Books I have no idea if this will be of wider interest, but I am recording what I have just experienced. I have been thinking about  What next?  in my work. Usually, I do not reread my books once they come out, unless for another edition or some such reason. In any case, I just reread four of my books, from 1982, 1989, 2000, and 2011. (I had a much clearer sense of the contents of the 1992, 1996 (2), 2003, and 2013 books.) Each chapter of each book is a distinct essay or a study of a particular example, linked together by the Introduction and other materials.             1. I realized that most of the themes that have concerned me over the years were there, developed in some detail and elaboration, even though I did not now recall what I wrote then. Much of what I might have written about in future work was already worked out in these earlier boo...

The City: Brief Essays       Martin Krieger    6/1/17 6:56 PM These brief essays were written either for a podcast or as epitomes of lectures in my courses on cities. There is repetition and changes of emphasis, but I have not tried to edit much. And the first and second pieces were deliberately written as previews of what is to come. I have posted some of this before, but I thought to put it all out again. MK What we know about cities When we talk about urban life, there are some scholarly findings—many obvious—that suggest how policies and plans actually work. It’s remarkable how often these facts are ignored. Cities take up space, and one’s location in a city (often with respect to a central or other significant district) determines house prices and rents and commutes, as well as job opportunities and safety and schools. Within that space, there are public spaces and parks and cemeteries, private spaces such as homes and businesses, and ...