Edward Burtynsky - Manufactured Landscapes

This guy is all about man vs. machine type stuff, and what effect our creations have on our landscapes.

I feel like I can kind of relate to Burtynsky in some small way - I've always felt a similar feeling towards rollercoasters, and how they alter our landscapes in very artificial yet beautiful ways. I'm not really sure if Burtynsky thinks quarries are "beautiful" or not, but he definitely seems to think they are impressive, if for no other reason than their size and dramatic impact on our surroundings and of nature.

Many of his photographs have a colored pencil look to them - reminds me a lot of the images we saw last week using the photomatix software. I really want to get my hands on this program and start messing around with it, because the results are very striking. I'm not sure if Burtynsky used similar techniques or something completely different, but either way it's eye-catching and all in all pretty nifty.

FOOD

Before I left the house, I quickly ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes at 10 am this morning. It was delicious. I then grabbed a pack of strawberry Pop Tarts because I knew I wouldn't be back home until after 7 and I really don't have money for food. I carried those Pop Tarts around with me until around 2:30 when I finally had a chance to eat them. I enjoyed them thoroughly.

I don't really know where these foods came from, besides my pantry (and the grocery store before that.) Assuming Pop Tarts don't come from a bush in Africa, somewhere near the cradle of life, I guess they probably come from some factor - ditto the Frosted Flakes, though the milk is probably a bit easier to figure out. Dairy farm, cow, pasteurization plant, some kind of truck, and what not. Beyond that, I'd imagine there's probably not a whole lot of real food in either one of those... maybe it came from a science lab?

These choices were based on simply my hasty nature and unwillingness to get up earlier to cook breakfast or make a sandwich to pack for lunch. Cereal is easy to prepare. Pop Tarts are a good snack to have between classes when I don't want to have a full meal (and I do try to avoid big meals and run on as little food as I can, where possible.)

I'd say that I'm slightly more conscious of the nutritional value of the food I eat than, let's say, a year ago. I waiver in an out of a diet, so when I'm trying to lose pounds I tend to count the calories in the nutrition facts panel on the foods I eat. Of course, when I'm at my weight I want I completely ignore them. Discipline is something I still need to work on.

Mark Dion

Mark Dion made a garden, but not in the traditional sense. When I see most gardens, I think they look like gardens - a pretty simplistic statement, but I have a very clear image in my head when I think the word "garden".

When they've done here is take an actual tree from a forest and move it into a metropolitan area, with all it's moss and other such plants intact. Rather than a garden, it looks like a little window to a much larger, much more untamed place. It's both real and fake as the same time, with it's wild look contained in its completely artificial greenhouse structure.


Making it all even stranger is the shape of the greenhouse, which isn't symmetrical like most buildings; the walls are all kind of slanted, in a "forced perspective" as they described it.

I wouldn't think that something like this would work, taking something out of it's natural habitat, I mean. Obviously, a lot of work went into the life support systems for the plant life to face this challenge. The piece is definitely a clash of two worlds.

I am curious to know what local residents think of having this near them. I'm sure many think it's a little weird. I did, too, until they really explained it at the end of the video.

FIELDTRIP REPORT - Tree of Life

Saturday morning included ditching work, narrowly avoiding traffic while driving up the coast through Camp Pendleton, breaking my diet (regrettably), and taking a journey though San Juan Capistrano to the Tree of Life nursery.

Admittedly, I didn't do a whole lot of research on the place before going, but the prospect of getting outside on a beautiful Saturday morning was much more appealingly than spending the hours indoors at my job. Also, I was partially swayed by the double field trip credit, I must admit.

The nursery's main focus was on preservation. Somewhere during the proceedings, between random photography and video taking, we listened to Abe Sanchez as he gave a presentation on the goal of such preservation and what their efforts were really about. His lecture seemed focused primarily on basket weaving - it's roots, traditions of practice, methods, techniques, and (most importantly) the materials used. As they're all natural materials, the nursery aims to preserve mainly of the plants needs to form baskets, as well as those used to create dyes and such. It seemed like they were very dedicated in keeping a dying art form alive.

Abe also spoke a little about the cultural and ways of life of the indigenous tribes - an interesting bit came out of his recount of today's native American youth losing interest in basket weaving in favor of things such as internet, yet still using ancient dialects on the internet to communicate. This seemed like kind of a strange clash of culture and time periods.

The outing as a whole was very relaxing. The type of weather I describe as such being the type of whether where "I want to go surfing, even though I don't surf." I managed to get out of work, get some good photos, and also some video for a documentary I'm going to (attempt to) make for another class.

More pictures and video later (if I feel like it.)