Summer. Walks around the town. Noon sun staring down at all of us.
And gnomes watching our every move.
For the past few summers, I’ve made it a point to take long walks around Albion’s neighborhoods. The challenge is to find the photo-worthy in everyday life: yards, signs, porches, etc.
It just goes to show that no matter how “boring” you think your area is, there’s always something to find.
Fill ‘Er Up, Green Stuff – Kimball, Michigan
An abandoned gas station along I-94, just south of Port Huron, Michigan. It didn’t look like it had been left all that long ago, but already the grass is taking over.
I am happy we are all taking so many photographs. It’s wonderful we are getting more creative as a connected society. Just don’t forget to make the prints.
I first became aware of glitch art thanks to Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero album. There was something about the VCR-looking graphics that helped highlight the mystery and DIY philosophy of the album.
The way you go about glitch art is pretty cool: you open up a graphics file in a text editor, and hack away at the code. The image that comes out the other end is super random. Hence, glitch.
But now you can automate this stuff using apps. One that I find is really fun and creative is MOSH, a web app that lets you upload image files and glitch them. It’s not over the top and obnoxious, and has a kind of aesthetic to it.
I took a bunch of image files (above) and ran them through MOSH, keeping the aesthetic semi similar with each image. It’s easy to create a whole series of images that have the same look, but still get the glitch look. I really dig the Scanlines filter (giving you that old TV/VCR look), and the Bleach and InstaColor settings.
MOSH is a fun way to make some truly creepy and horror movie-style effects. I do wish the app spit out bigger image files, but the website says an iOS app is coming, so maybe that will help.
Summer nights around the house – when the angle of sunlight turns the mundane into dramatic.
It’s enough to get lost in. Evenings like this, there’s entertainment in simply watching the light move, and shape, and shift.
Like some mythic, benevolent dictator, the sun shows its preferences in direct ways. A set of headphones here, the neighbors yard over there. You can’t question it. You just record it.
And hope the light shines on you.
Where you could sit on the edge of your bed
And you could stare into your own shoes
And in the pools of light there
Go wherever you choose
The Tragically Hip, “Vapour Trails”
