Artist interviews: Twy Miller and Peter Stephenson

Can you reflect how working on the Glocal project changed your photo practice?

Artist response: Twy Miller, May 2008

In creating the series Cat’s Eye View - it is critical to remember images never tell the truth. Despite the camera’s ability, be it film or digital, to capture more than minds can record, it is still only from the perspective of the camera, or the individual wielding the camera. Images carry the intellectual and cultural load of the photographer, whose responsibility is to step outside of boundaries and prejudices, to seek out those things of difference that convey to the viewer not only one’s personal perspective, but throw new seeds of inquiry onto fresh palates.

Differing perspectives requires a shift in thought; a useful tool in most disciplines where it is necessary to take another’s paws and appreciate a new intellectual process. In this instance a house cat is followed for a day and a night (vis a vis a hand controlled radio car and sometimes myself on my hands and knee.)

The angle from which the cat views the world is shown to be markedly different from our human view. Areas which are normally off limits to large limbed bodies become no more than roadways and tunnels, vantage points are examined from which the outside territory is kept under scrutiny, and there is the supremely important moment of mealtime. As cats do not experience colour vision, this sequence was photographed in black and white; adding another level of interpretation.

Choosing a new perspective leads to new initiatives, which in turn informs the photographer of further paths to walk and tunnels to scrutinize. While we have the choice of black and white or colour, we also have the path of what do we depict and how. Glocal has changed my mind's eye.


Artist Response: Peter Stephenson, May 2008
Northern Ireland

In creating this series of photographs, my aim was to challenge perspective and notions of movement. The premise for this series of images was to depicting a walk along the beach. To record these images from an alternate perspective, my mobile phone was taped to the my ankle and images were recorded as I walked along a beach at Hazelbank Park towards the sea.

For me this was purely experimental photography, which took inspiration from Maya Deren’s alternate perspectives in ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ (1943). This project is open to future development and using more advance mobile telephone equipment would allow for a better quality of images.

GLOCAL IN SECOND LIFE! Phase One Point Five - More Speculation...

Our tiny little GLOCAL sign has now evolved to the size of a billboard (the little sign is still in the park) and has now been formally placed on top of the retail facade looking over the plaza of Canada in SL. In about a week, this will evolve further into a video-billboard but for now, it just has our newest logo. The billboard was not placed where we had originally intended but is good enough for our promotional and marketing purposes.

Hey there GLOCAL blog-readers!

We have some more progress to report on GLOCAL's presence in the popular virtual world known as Second Life:

1) We have received some price quotes on having the Surrey Techlab in SL. This includes both the architectural estimate and the land rental costs.

2) We have a billboard now in Canada in SL. In a few days, we should have our flash animation promo video embedded into the billboard for all to see.

3) The Surrey Art Gallery's Curator and Coordinator have been speculating some other islands such as the possibility of setting roots on the popular artists' community known as Odyssey Island (curated by Sugar Seville) as a place to host the entire Surrey Art Gallery.

Here are some more photos of our current situation for you:

This was where the GLOCAL billboard was initially placed.

Here is the GLOCAL Coordinator Newton Dinzeo inside someone else's retail space in the Canada in SL Plaza (trespassing allowed, right?)..Newton took this pic to get a better ambient view of the billboard outside. This space has some nice hardwood floors!

Here is a pic of Newton zooming out via flying in order to get a better sense of Canada in SL's overall island-shape... From this perspective, it looks like just one big box and not the conventional image of what an island should appear to be.

Here is the office space in the basement of Canada in SL that has been temporarily reserved for the (or perhaps just "one of many) Techlab(s).

Here is a pic showing Newton and Canada in SL's Manager Raine Renard inside of this reserved space...He thinks it would be good enough for a temporary Techlab, wouldn't you agree?

Here is a pic of Newton sitting in what might be one of the Techlab's immediate neighbors in the conference space below the plaza.

Here is Newton posing with Canada in SL's Decorator Pielady Smalls (who is also a member of Dancoyote Antonelli's Skydancers) and the architect, Sam Portocarrero from a subcontracted company called Dominion Custom Homes. They are figuring out how to embed our Flash promo animation into the new billboard...as you can see, Sam is scratching his head trying to come up with a solution. We finally figured out that the GLOCAL Artist Jer Thorp will need to convert the flash anim into a Quicktime Movie (MOV). Hopefully that will be ready later this week :-)

With regards to the company (Raine and Ramada), we got some price quotes for the space rentals and the building of the Techlab so we are moving forward.

Balloon Cam at Trout Lake Park in Vancouver!

GLOCAL's 60 Balloon Cam at Trout Lake, Vancouver from GLOCAL on Vimeo.

This video shows a 60-balloon cam created by the GLOCAL participant, Byron Peters.

This was launched from Trout Lake in Vancouver.

This is one of the many hardware solutions that GLOCAL is working on for their prototype exhibition in September.

GLOCAL IN SECOND LIFE! Phase One - Promotion and Speculation

Here is a portrait of GLOCAL's Coordinator Newton Dinzeo (Jeremy Owen Turner). Dinzeo is sitting on a tiny GLOCAL ad in the Edmonton-based Second Life property, Canada in SL. This sign may appear relatively insignificant in the grander scheme of things but in the weeks to come, GLOCAL will have a more solid presence in this increasingly mainstream metaverse. The faces on Newton's pants actually belong to the Coordinator himself in RL...His image was filtered via the first version of the Motion Sequencing Application (a free download on this blog) and then was texture-mapped as clothing. Newton Dinzeo has his own blog which you can check out here.

Hello GLOCAL Blog readers!

GLOCAL is finally getting down to entering Second Life and setting down virtually local and global roots there.

We have started with the placement of a tiny ad in the Canada in SL property and will be adding a larger and flashier billboard very shortly. In the long-term, we will also likely have the Surrey Art Gallery's Techlab reproduced in Second Life :-) At the moment, we are beginning the first phase of promotion and property/architectural speculation...Here are some more photos of our first official ventures into this Brave Not-So-New virtual world...

Here is a portrait of Newton sitting on one the GLOCAL signs. You will notice that this particular sign is close enough to the hot dog stand. This placement is intentional since we need to ensure that people will happen to notice our ad while eating their hot dogs! The best ad-placement is always near the refreshments :-)

This picture is not too much different from the last one except that the Coordinator is standing instead of sitting down...

Did we mention that Surrey is also in Canada? Some of you more worldly avatar travelers may have thought we were based somewhere near London but I think this picnic table will be a blatant reminder for you once you come over to visit us in-world and take a few pixel-bites off one of the available hot dogs (while quantities last, of course). One of the reasons we had picked Canada in SL was because they offer free advertising for Canadian non-profits and fortunately for GLOCAL, the project is hosted by the Surrey Art Gallery.

Here is a side view of the Coordinator sitting on the sign... In this picture, you can also get a sneak preview of our future billboard area...Do you see that turret at the top of the mall's plaza located in the middle of this screenshot? We plan to install our first billboard right on top of there...If you still cannot find it, not to worry...We have some more photos for you.

So, here is a close-up of this new billboard location. In this photo, the Coordinator is speculating the billboard area with his palm pilot (which very likely also includes its own GPS). Speaking of close-ups, this photo is a good excuse to show another close up of the Coordinator's official GLOCAL self-portrait-pants. ;-)


This photo is really just an excuse to show the...er... "back end" of the GLOCAL Coordinator's own personal...er...buttressing strategy ;-)

Another reason why we are considering a move to Canada in SL is because this property appears to be virtually quite close to "Vancouver" - well, at least a photo of Vancouver anyway ;-) Photo of Vancouver courtesy of the Graham Guru Photography Gallery.

The photo-shoot took all day because before we knew it, it was night-time...Wow, time accelerates quickly in virtual worlds, eh?

Please stay tuned for more developments on the GLOCAL Project in Second Life!

The Corbis website now offers the opportunity to download, print and assemble various funky paper pinhole cameras.


The Readymech pinhole are available in five designs which are downloadable as colour PDFs, complete with assembly directions - rather than inserting film -> trying placing a digital or cellphone camera on timer into the pinhole box to shoot some low tech looking images.

Toolkit Preview: Motion Sequencer

Throughout the course of the Glocal project, we will be developing and distributing toolkits which will allow artists of all levels to contribute to our content base. Software, hardware, and conceptual toolkits will be available on our website for download as they are completed.

The first software toolkit facilitates creation of the motion sequence grids that we have been posting here and in our Flickr and Facebook groups. Built in Processing, the Motion Sequence Toolkit creates grids from either live webcam input, or from pre-recorded video. In both cases, the application offers a different perspective on motion by separating it into still frames. Here is screenshot of the interface, in standard grid mode:

Here, we are seeing a motion history of the last 6 seconds of motion, displayed on screen as a grid (I'm holding a drinking glass in front of the webcam). You'll notice along the top of the screen that there are some controls (in blue). Using this control bar, we can change frame rate, frame size, and frame arrangement. We can make the frames very large:

Or, very small:



We can achieve a slit-scan effect by reducing the rows to 1:



Or by reducing the columns to 1:



This toolkit gives us a variety of ways to look at motion from new perspectives. Of particular interest is the ability to take pre-recorded video and render it in different forms.

The Motion Sequence Toolkit will be available for public download shortly. In the meantime, if you are an artist or an educator who would like to get ahold of a beta version, please contact our project coordinator and we'll help you out as best as we can.

Time Lapse Imaging

What Do I look like....when I'd really rather be sleeping?

Project work by David Timlin

[Click on the work to see David's portraits from midnight to 9am]

In responding to the Glocal project, David elected to employ time lapse photography. While time lapse photography is traditionally used to track and monitor environmental changes, David decided to use himself as the subject in this work.

In What Do I look like....when I'd really rather be sleeping? - the title alludes to the events that have been documented. In this artwork David mounted his camera off his bedpost and then set his alarm clock throughout the night to wake him hour on the hour. The documents reveal the juxtaposition of the subject being barely awake and responsive to the camera. Much like Vito Acconci's works of the 1970s where his performances reflected on the representation and the act of being psychologically observed, David extends these concepts to how the body can become a material object, gazed and out of context in both time and place.