The weather today leaves a lot to be desired – cold, windy, pouring rain – as a result, attendance this morning was a lighter than the SRO+ that has been the rule at recent HMM meet-ups. No matter – lots of cool projects…
Dan Freund had a rig for his phone that he used to record his pitch which was then uploaded to/streamed from his site:
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I was not the only person taking pictures of someone videostreaming themselves (you can see Roger Goun’s lens on the right side of the shot), but I think I was the only one snapping away with my cell phone, thus completing the cell phone media takeover.
Our meeting spot – Crackskull’s in Newmarket – is both a coffee shop and a bookstore. I went browsing and found this bit of awesomeness – a wunderkammer cookbook!
I’ve been going to the NH Media Makers meetups for a while now (almost a year!) and wanted to give the Media Makers meetup idea and especially the New Hampshire instantiation of same a big appreciative shout out. Interesting, personable, creative people doing wicked awesome pissah stuff – what’s not to love? I’ve made great connections and been inspired; it’s a great way to spend a Sunday morning.
Naming things, categorizing them and distinguishing them from each other is an essential human activity. It’s not an exclusively human thing, but I’m betting we’re the only ones that can categorize the same object in abstract, multiple ways and then discuss it. Categories/distinctions are a double-edged sword; they can illuminate and they can obscure. One of my least favorite distinctions is between ‘the human world’ and ‘the natural world’ – as if people can stand outside the systems that run the planet. We are just another variety of critter – an unusual and very successful one – but critters nonetheless.
Amy Stein’sDomesticated series looks at our efforts to enforce the human/natural split. I chose Watering Hole for this post because there are so many mutually reinforcing messages. There’s the vulnerable girl on the diving board. There’s the chain link fence that the girl’s folks put up to keep things out. And there’s the bear. In the Domesticated dioramas, Ms. Stein uses mounts from a taxidermist in Matamoras, Pennsylvania – the town where all the Domesticated scenes are set. Hunter’s (as opposed to museum) taxidermy mounts are often an attempt to freeze a moment and are also opportunity to manipulate that moment. The percentages are that the black bear was not standing when the hunter shot it but a standing mount is impressive and the taxidermist can make the bear appear to be curious, quiet or fierce. We can’t see the bear’s expression; we’re left to assign to the bear whatever expression we need, just as the taxidermist was free to to fit the bear to the hunter’s wishes. When we look across the categorical fence we’ve created at the ‘natural world’ on the other side we see what we want to see.
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The talk that Ms. Stein and Stephen DeStefano gave at the Harvard Museum of Natural History was excellent (video above). Dr. DeStefano works with suburban and urban ecosystems: “You might be living in the biggest city in the world and you’re part of an ecosystem. You’re not separate from that, no matter how big the city.” At 23:30 or so Dr. DeStefano puts up a population slide that looks something like:
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“A biologist that looks at this growth curve says, well that population is imminently going to crash.” It’s all connected and the rules apply to everything. The sooner we knock down that chain link fence and see ourselves as a part of the landscape, a part of the ecosystem, the better.
Friday, January 22, 4:00 pm Artist’s Exhibition Opening Talk by Amy Stein. Visual artist Amy Stein will talk about her unique process of creating and photographing modern dioramas based upon actual news accounts of encounters between humans and wildlife in rural Pennsylvania. Free with museum admission.
Saturday, January 23, 2:00 pm Coyote at the Kitchen Door: A conversation with Stephen DeStefano & Amy Stein. Wildlife biologist Stephen DeStefano’s newest book, Coyote at the Kitchen Door, and the work of photographer Amy Stein both address the blurred boundary between human life and wildlife in modern society. Bears, deer, fox, coyote and birds are increasingly encroaching upon areas considered to be ‘ours’. They’ll discuss how they approach this intersection, each from their own perspective. Booksigning to follow. 2 pm. Free with museum admission. *
I’m not sure which of the two events I’m going to go to – I really can’t do both. Hmmmmm…
This looks like a date to mark on the calendar – Domesticated: Modern Dioramas of Our New Natural History – Photographs by Amy Stein opens at the Harvard Museum of Natural History on January 22. Bonus – a talk by the artist at 4 PM. The questions around human/wild categorization continue to fascinate me; I’m pretty firmly in the ‘there is no us and them’ camp, but exploring what happens when what most think of as two worlds confront each other looks to be good stuff. Then there’s the whole diorama thing (Akeley lives!). See you there.
