SML Pro Blog = See-ming Lee 李思明 + Professional Blog 專業博客; See-ming Lee 李思明 SML is a designer, photographer, technologist and a Linux-loving gay geek in NYC; <a href="http://seeminglee.com">http://seeminglee.com</a>
How to use Gmail filters to maintain sanity with social media (11/1/09) [View | Hide]
One of the unfortunate side-effects when you belong to many social networks and subscribe to many listserv is the insane amount of emails you get on a daily basis. In this tutorial, I will illustrate how you can track these activities at your own pace and keeping your inbox tidy and maintaining an overall sanity in your very active technologically sound life.
Gmail Filters, in conjunction with Gmail Labels is all you need to achieve this. And is very simple to use as illustrated below:
This example illustrate how to take out those Twitter follow invites from your Inbox while allowing you to review them at your own pace.
1. Start by selecting Create a filter next to the search box.
2. In the Subject: field, enter "is now following you on Twitter!" and press Next Step > to continue.
3. Now choose the action you want to apply. You can do anything you want to it, but this is the common things that I do:
3A. Check Skip the Inbox (Archive it). This ensures that it will not show up in your inbox when it arrives.
3B. Create a new label in the Apply the label dropdown, or select an existing label that you would like to apply.
3C. If you are creating a new label, you might want to Also apply filter to conversations below. I guess I had 5000 follows on Twitter since I started using Gmail. Now *that* would be insane if I didn't use Gmail filters!
Don't be alarm if you think that you will never see them again since you have skip the inbox, they still show up in your filter list, and unread items still show up as bold.
I use Gmail filters for pretty much everything, and auto-archive most of the stuff that goes into my inbox, leaving it clutter-free only with important stuff that I need to get to. Here's a list of examples of where you would want to auto-filter:
1. Social network activites. I label all of these with a prefix soc: so they are grouped together nicely in the filter list. Aardvark, Facebook, FriendFeed, Flickr, Picasa, Twitter, or whatever. All gone. Best of all and especially for Facebook activities, I usually can just take a quick glance at the list titles to note the things that require actions, then select all and Mark as Read.
2. Listserv. Do you subscribe to a lot of listserv? Anyone of those IxDA list will turn your inbox into a nightmare!
When I first saw her paintings I had originally thought that she had a graphic design background because of their calligraphic and typographic nature, but it turns out that she was educated in the UK at Loughborough College in 3D Design with a concentration in Jewelry and Silversmithing. Here's a short video interview where she talks about herself and her work:
http://www.choichun.com/artist.html Choichun Leung left Wales when she was seventeen to pursue a degree in metal-smithing at Loughborough college of Art and Design in the UK, afterwhich she studied Buddhist iconography in both Beijing and the Yangkung caves in China's Shanxi province. In 1988 she moved to London where she studied under the Ray Man Chinese Orchestra as a percussionist and a student of the Gu-qin - a traditional Chinese bass zither. Leung worked in Hong Kong as a background artist for animation film before returning to London in 1992 where she received a grant and Gold Award from the Prince of Wales' Youth Business Trust for the most innovative new business of the year: a line of symbolic art products using the traditional technique of Chinese paper cutting. With music and the arts always hand in hand, Leung came to New York in 1994 where she began painting seriously, worked as an assistant to artist Peter Max, and studied music composition. From that point forward, Choichun's artwork has been inextricably entwined with her interest in music and have continued to influence each other. As the single mother of a young daughter, Choichun moved to Germany in 2002 to write music, perform and collaborate on an audio/visual project based in Koln. Upon the invitation of a gallery in 2006 she returned to New York. Most recently Choichun has been featured in two solo exhibitions at JLA Baxter House in Manhattan and will take part in a group showing in Hamburg in November 2008. Choichun currently lives in Brooklyn, NYC.
Artist Statement
http://www.choichun.com/artiststatement.html Our lives are as long as we remember. Our memories are imbedded in us like DNA. But what of lives that through trauma or age have lost memory? What of the interplay of conscious thought and the sub-conscious? Which one really drives the show? My paintings are like rorschach tests in reverse, a psychological diary of that moment in time, an investigation of the relationship between past and present, reality and illusion and in effect a blue print to the past self. Through the symbolisms revealed, and the stories or objects we project into the abstract, we expose another layer of ourselves and in turn provide clues to what may not be fully aware. My paintings are simple traces of that activity, void of any meaning, but imbedded with the years of experience that shapes us, yet also holds us hostage.
Choichun never paints from sketches but instead allows the process and medium dictate. Each application is an expressive gesture evoking the emotion and inner psychology of that moment, a conflicted excavation of what may be hidden or imagined. The script like lines emerge as a non-cognitive language or what she has come to identify as 'glyphs' - a pictographic personal alphabet; where 'glyphs' document the days, weeks and months spent on a piece. The one actual reference that Choichun can identify in her work after the fact springs from her background in music and her fascination with its chaotic notes and interpretive patterns. These can be seen in the work's fine, rhythmic and frenetic lines as well as in the heavier, poured-on, black & white 'mono-glyphs' which overtake the paintings like visual representations of a sound. Choichun paints on both wood panels and canvas, using liquid acrylic, aerosol, oil bars and thread . With sticks, brushes, trowels and vessels: applying the paint and then scratching through the layers to reveal what is underneath, scripting with ‘glyphs’ throughout, painting over, sanding down and repeating this process until an image is revealed or another is hidden.
1. Process + Methodology. Dean Russo chats with See-ming Lee (SML) and Mac Farr (MMF) about the process and methodology in creating his mixed media paintings. The artist also mentioned interesting aspects of how the economy fundamentally changes the way he works.
4. Artist Toolbox. Touring Dean Russo's artist studio was an interesting experience, as I haven't really met any pop artists in person before. Here we find many interesting tools not commonly found in an artist toolbox: stencils, spray paints, etc. It's quite a wonder to see, but there are also the familiar tools like color pencils and pastels.
5. Process. Most people like to see the end result, but I prefer seeing the process. I believe that process is an important part, without it you cannot have the result. During our interview, Dean told me about his entire process in creating his mixed media paintings, as long as I don't record it nor write it down. As such, I cannot really write about it either but all I can say is that I find it very interesting — that an artist workflow is not far from that from designers (my primary profession).
6. Dean Russo's mixed media paintings include many iconic public figures, but interestingly also many cats and dogs — many of which are commissioned work. You can purchase his paintings at his Etsy site. Most items are priced around $69 depending on their sizes, which is quite a bargain for original artwork — it's not uncommon to find fine art prints asking for more than that these days so 1/1 editions at that price is a great deal!
Olek was born Agata Oleksiak in Poland and graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland with a degree in cultural studies. In New York, she rediscovered her ability to crochet and since then she has started her crocheted journey/madness.
Here's my video interview with her the day we first met:
"I think crochet, the way I create it, is a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology. The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart.
Relationships are complex and greatly vary situation to situation. They are developmental journeys of growth, and transformation. Time passes, great distances are surpassed and the fabric which individuals are composed of compiles and unravels simultaneously."
Olek's work has been presented in galleries from Brooklyn to Istanbul to Venice and Brazil, featured in "The New York Times", "Fiberarts Magazine", "The Village Voice", and "Washington Post" and drags a tail of dance performance sets and costumes too numerous to mention.
Olek received the Ruth Mellon Award for Sculpture, was selected for 2005 residency program at Sculpture Space, 2009 residency in Instituto Sacatar in Brazil, and is a winner of apex art gallery commercial competition. Olek was an artist in an independent collective exhibition, "Waterways," during the 49th Venice Biennale. She was also a featured artist in "Two Continents Beyond," at the 9th International Istanbul Biennale.
Olek herself however can be found in her Greenpoint studio with a bottle of spiced Polish vodka and a hand rolled cigarette aggressively re-weaving the world as she sees.
The End of the Trail by Fernando Souto at Smack Mellon / 13th Annual DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival NYC 2009: Part 7 of 10 / Art + Artists (10/16/09) [View | Hide]
Also showing at Smack Mellon right now is the series titled The End of the Trail by Fernando Souto. I thought taht it would be odd to photograph someone else's photographs so I decided to do a video of the opening reception instead — you can call this the art + art lovers remix!
“My parents emigrated from Uruguay to Australia when I was eighteen months old. With my extended family still in Uruguay, I never had the opportunity to really know my relatives, particularly my grandmother, who always seemed to be really old to me. The brief, scrambled, international phone calls throughout my childhood did little for me to understand who I was and where I had come from.
In 2002, my grandmother turned one hundred years old and I got a brief opportunity to spend some time with her. Looking at family photographs and listening to the stories of her childhood inspired me to start this photographic project titled, The End of the Trail. During my stay in Uruguay, I set out to photograph the essence of her stories and to gain a greater understanding of my heritage. My thoughts of ranch life were mostly filled with romantic ideals of freedom and independence. I had no concept of the harsh environment that the ranchers lived and worked in, and how the intense solitude defines them. At that moment, I decided to immerse myself in their day-to-day lives, pulling from these experiences to create a unique perspective of their fading culture.
From my initial trip to Uruguay in 2002, my interest in this project evolved, and I decided to expand into other countries where ranching had a significant presence in the culture and traditional working techniques still existed. Through extensive research I decided upon seven countries that had adapted the original working techniques of the Spanish Conquistadors and established a ranching heritage that spanned centuries. Those countries include Spain, Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Australia.
To date, I have covered cattle ranches in central Australia, Uruguay, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. My plan is to complete this photographic series, which would include south Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and two additional regions in the United States. I had never intended for this documentary to be a weightless visual record, but an enduring photographic series that is told on the faces of the people that live and work in this unique global culture.”
Fernando Souto currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay in1972, Souto immigrated with his family to Sydney, Australia in 1974. Before studying photography at The Fashion Institute of Technology in 1994, he apprenticed with a Sydney-based photographer specializing in black & white printing. Originally planning on becoming a commercial photographer, he pursued assisting work with location-based portrait photographers throughout the late nineties. In 2002 Souto began his long-term project titled The End of the Trail, a humanistic story of the contemporary cowboy that spans seven countries. This series is shot on film and printed using traditional black and white gelatin papers. In 2008 Souto was chosen to attend the Review Santa Fe and exhibited his work at the Michael Mazzeo Gallery (NYC). Recently Souto was granted an emerging artists award from Photo District News for his work on The End of the Trail.
FASTFORWARDFOSSIL: Part 2 by Ellen Driscoll at Smack Mellon / 13th Annual DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival NYC 2009: Part 6 of 10 / Art + Artists (10/15/09) [View | Hide]
Next we went to Smack Mellon for the artists' reception for two solo exhibitions. The first is Ellen Driscoll's installation FASTFORWARDFOSSIL: Part 2.
1. Installation
Composed of thousands of discarded plastic bottles collected by Ellen Driscoll, FASTFORWARDFOSSIL: Part 2 takes a critical look at the environmental and human damage inflicted by the oil and water industries in the last two centuries on regions as diverse as Nigeria and the United States.
Artist Statement. “This installation is a continuation of a multi-year series which explores the dynamics of resource harvesting and consumption. This part of the series focuses on oil and water. Rising at 5:30 AM, I harvest #2 plastic bottles from the recycling bags put out for collection on the streets of Brooklyn. For one hour, one day at a time, I immerse myself in the tidal wave of plastic that engulfs us by collecting as many bottles as I can carry. The sculptural installation for Smack Mellon comprises 2600 bottles transformed into a 28 foot landscape. Constructed solely of harvested #2 plastic, the sculpture collapses three centuries into a ghostly translucent visual fugue in which a nineteenth century trestle bridge plays host to an eighteenth century water-powered mill which spills a twenty-first century flood from its structure. The flow contains North American, Middle Eastern, and African landmasses (sites of oil harvesting and their consumer destination) buoyed by a sea of plastic water molecules. The piece looks back to eighteenth century American industry powered by water, and forward to the oil refineries of the Niger Delta, site of prolonged guerilla warfare against oil corporations and the source of over fifty percent of crude oil for the United States—the oil that produces the plastic within which our privatized water is currently bought and sold.”
This installation is so gigantic that it was hard to photograph and examine the detail at the same time, so I created a video fly-through so you can experience the piece to approximate my own experience with the piece:
Artist Statement. “The wall drawings in the exhibition are based on a close study of the inner workings of an oil refinery. By using huge shifts of scale between the macro and the micro, they depict a dystopic future based on rampant oil consumption. An oil rig shares the horizon with ocean fires and garbage scows, mega shopping malls are abandoned to spontaneous communities of slums, and a refugee camp is inundated by the waters of a melting glacier. The worlds in the drawings are drained of color, but filled with the flux and spillage of a potentially chaotic future.”
Ellen Driscoll is a sculptor whose work includes FASTFORWARDFOSSIL: Part 1 at Frederieke Taylor Gallery, Revenant and Phantom Limb for Nippon Ginko, Hiroshima, Japan, The Loophole of Retreat at the Whitney Museum, Phillip Morris, As Above, So Below for Grand Central Terminal (a suite of 20 mosaic and glass images for the tunnels at 45th, 47th, and 48th Streets), Catching the Drift, a restroom for the Smith College Museum of Art, and Wingspun for the International Arrivals Terminal at Raleigh-Durham airport. Ms. Driscoll has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bunting Institute at Harvard University, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, the LEF Foundation, and Anonymous Was a Woman. Her work is included in major public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of Art. She is a Professor of Sculpture at Rhode Island School of Design.
J. F. Bautista / 13th Annual Art Under the Bridge Festival NYC 2009: Part 5 of 10 / Art + Artists (10/15/09) [View | Hide]
I met J. F. Bautista (BAP) towards the end of my tour of the Brooklyn Art Project headquarter.
Three of his paintings from the series Mutant Organic Architecture were seen at the office (the three black and white paintings on the left):
So what are they?
Artist description: this project is about the absolute mutation of our metropolis, reversing the process of evolution and turning things inside out. The end result is the unfolding of fantastic new architecture, and it draws whomever into the depths of a gigantic, dark, strange and absurd morphed grimy variegated skeletal, organic living reptilian defined as Organic Mutant Architecture or New York Modern in reverse.
Or if you prefer plain English like I do, here's a video of the artist talking about his own work:
J. F. Baustista is an architect by profession and he works with his paintings in his free time. His art and architecture portfolio can be seen at his web site at jfbart.com.
1. James carries a Moleskine with him and does quick ink drawings on the notebooks as he rides the subway. He applies watercolors to them afterwards. This mixed media painting titled si ves algo II, was created based on his Moleskine sketches.
2. Subway Moleskine Sketches
3. More Moleskine sketches
4. Tools matter. James' weapon of choice for his Moleskine sketches: the Rotring rapidograph, for its ability to draw very fine lines as well as its archival quality.
5. Moleskine lovers rejoice!
6. Mixed Media Painting: ContinentalDivide lr by James Cospito. 3,500 USD. Available for purchase at artist's website.
7. Artist Toolbox: lots and lots of clamps!
8. Artist Toolbox: wild array of paintbrushes.
9. Still Life Drawing (Detail).
10. Still Life Drawing (Detail). I thought that the blue marks are interesting bit. I didn't know that it was James' work when I photographed these originally so I did not inquire as to their function, but they add an interesting accent to the piece:
Brooklyn Art Project is a free social network for artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts. Since its launch in 2007, it has had 5500+ members from over 44 countries featuring over 44,000 artworks and 800+ short films and videos. James Cospito, founder of BAP, talks about the site and the art seen at their office in this mini video interview:
1. River City Ransom Street Fight 18" x 24" (457mm x 610mm) by Adam Shub (Facebook / SML Flickr). Adam is an artist in New York. He is currently working on a series of paintings on arcade video games. This painting is available for sale at $350 USD. To purchase it, visit the artist's portfolio site at artbreak.com/squarepainter.
2. More paintings by Adam Shub
From left to right: Adam ShubMike Tyson Gets Pwned 18" x 24" 350 USD; Mega Man 2 Intro 18" x 24" 350 USD; Contra Opening 36" x 28" 600 USD. Bottom painting origin unknown. Leave a comment so I can give them proper credits!
3. Digital Painting by (unknown artist: if you know who the painter is, let me know so I can give them proper credits)
4. Still Life Drawing (Detail) by James Cospito (Brooklyn Art Project / Facebook / Flickr / LinkedIn / SML Flickr / Twitter). James is an artist, painter, photographer, illustrator, designer in New York City. He is also the co-founder of Brooklyn Art Project.
5. Paintings by Mey Veral, Soule and Collaborative Drawings from BAP Member Meetups.
6. From top left, clock-wise: Organic Mutant Architecture paintings by J. F. Bautista (jfbart.com); drawings + paintings (data unavailable. Leave a comment below if you have additional info. Thanks!)
7. LiAnne Cospito (Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter). So what do the administrative staff at Brooklyn Art Project HQ do all day? Facebook, it appears.
Ruza was born in Croatia. Ruza Bagaric obtained her MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art in 1996, and currently works and lives as a painter in New York City. As you can see from her portfolio site at www.ruzabagaric.com, she is interested in painting cityscapes, landscapes and still life. But her passion of late is human figures. She thinks that human beings are "spooky entities" and she aspires to explore the "strangeness of human beings."
During our conversations with, she mentioned a fascinating opinion regarding the relationship between art + music, artists vs musicians:
I have lived in Dumbo for the past 6 years, and it is only until very recently that I don't get a confused look from New Yorkers when I told them where I live. DUMBO (Wikipedia), an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, is a neighborhood in the New York City, New York borough of Brooklyn. It encompasses two sections; one located between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, which connect Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, and another which continues east from the Manhattan Bridge to the Vinegar Hill area.
Until the 1890s, it was primarily a manufacturing district, housing warehouses and factories that made machinery, paper boxes and Brillo soap pads. With deindustrialization it began becoming primarily residential, when artists and other young homesteaders seeking relatively large and inexpensive loft apartment spaces for studios and homes began moving there in the late 1970s.
When the luxury condos started to go up due to the outrageous rent in Manhattan, the neighborhood in Dumbo became a really fun place to live in. When I go out for dinner, usually sitting at the bar at Superfine, next to me are people who belong to either one of these categories: artists, construction workers or the filthy rich. The clash of profession and social status makes for *really* interesting conversations, and this is also perhaps why the art coming from this neighborhood has a unique personality of its own.
Every year, Dumbo Arts Center organizes a three-day multi-site neighborhood-wide event called the Art Under the Bridge Festival. This is an event where artists open their studios so you can look at their work and chat with the them in a fun and casual setting. This year I went with Mac Farr (MMF) and found many inspirational work.
I took so many photos and videos during the festival that it took me 2 full weeks to process them. They are finally all done. All 109 photos and 12 videos in their own Flickr set.
Because of the amount of content, I will break the artist interviews into their own posts, but here are some highlights as well as non-artist specific shots during the day:
2. 100% Acrylic Art Guards (crochet / textile / wearable sculpture / public installation) by Agata Olek (Facebook / Flickr / SML Flickr). Check out her portfolio at http://agataolek.com
8. Painting: River City Random Street Fight by Adam Shub (Facebook / SML Flickr). Adam is currently working on a series of paintings on arcade video games. You can check out his portfolio at http://www.artbreak.com/Squarepainter
12. Collaborative Installation: I left this here for you to read by Tim Devin (SML Flickr).
13. Full-block long graffiti in Dumbo. Since it's graffiti, the artist is unknown. But if you know who did this, let me know so I can give them proper credits!!! Panoramic photography stitched together using three RAW files.
14. Untitled Forms. Not entirely sure if this is a deliberate installation of sorts, but it's interesting to me. Filed under my Abstracts and Forms series.
15. Unitled Forms. Yet another 'mystery' find at the Rabbit Hole Studio where I cannot tell if it is part of the show or not. But it's interesting to me. Filed under my Forms series.
16. The always cheery Mac Farr (Facebook / Flickr / SML Flickr) aka MMF in the SML Universe is the best guy to go art-hunting with. MMF also participated in many artist interviews, which was great because the ADHD-afflicted SML speech is barely comprehensible in many instances!
17. Interestingly there were many weddings taken place on the same day during the festival.
18. The bride and groom was so excited when they saw me snapping them. But I know that with the reflection on the window it is simply impossible to get a good shot. That said, the reflection of the bridge and pedestrians on the road create a really interesting shot so I photographed it anyway. I call this a one-frame collage!
19. Walking around we found a sculpture made with cardboards and other paper waste materials. Particularly interesting is their forms which resemble tree logs, the same materials which create them to begin of. It's an interesting before/after dialog within itself about paper, trees and the effect of modern industry with regard to the environment.
20. How fitting it is to find the perfect frame of lines under the Brooklyn Bridge at a festival called Art Under the Bridge!
And that sums up my experience with the festival. I had a great time! As stated above, interviews with the artists will be posted in their own blog posts as otherwise this blog post, which is already *very* long would be unbearably long to read!
Meta Search xxx="http://wiki.seeminglee.com">SML Wiki so I can track people and things more easily.
This is great until I started writing very long description of photos on Flickr after realising that photos are often referenced as a singular entity — that while you would prefer that people check out the entire set to see the description of the info, most simply don't have the time and patience to do look at them.
For the sake of human browsing, including long description (for example, full bio about an artist that I photographed) in everyone of my photographs about them is useful when items are referenced singularly, but then if you know what you are looking for and wish to cluster them in a single place, the content become repetitive and tired after a very brief instant.
This is why I created a baby version called Meta Search xxx="http://wiki.seeminglee.com/people:agata-olek">http://wiki.seeminglee.com/people:agata-olek
And you can compare the difference between its grand daddy and itself here:
2. Filters the results and ensures that the links are unique.
3. Sorts the results by date such that the latest addition onto the pool will appear at the top of the list.
In other words, it acts as an RSS feed xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=advertising&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=art&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=design&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=design+technology&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=design+technology+marketing&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=gay+men&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=lgbt&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=marketing&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=metasearchxxx=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=see-ming-lee&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=sml-universe&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=technology&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=typography&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?searchInput=yale&_cmd=Run+Pipe&_id=nHNB8TJm3BGumlGA9YS63A&_run=1">Meta Search xxx="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/sets/72157622454112074/">SML Flickr Sets: SML Pipes + SML Pipes
New York City Subway LED Signage (9/27/09) [View | Hide]
I was riding the M train last week and I spotted this new LED signage system. I am not sure how new they are as I have not seen them before, but then since I mostly travel on F train (or actually mostly cabs...), I don't know if these are really spanking new or just that I have not been riding on the line.
The photograph alone does not show how it is a superior improvement to the previous system, so I did a video of it to show you how it works:
The signage is split into two halves. On the left side of the panel shows where the train is at while the train is stopped (with a flashing bounding box), and when it's in motion, it displays the next stop. The name of the next 10 stops, in yellow, are displayed to the right of 'you are here sign post'. Each station name is accompanied with designation in green which shows the additional lines you can do an interchange. A red handicapped icon designate whether there it is a station equipped with accessibility access.
At the end of the right half of the panel shows the last stop of the train, and the LED displays loops through the rest of the stop in multiple of 10s, so you can get a glance of all the stops while keeping the display small enough so as not requiring an extra large panel for the longer lines.
This design is smart, efficient and very usable. I am very glad that MTA enlisted a clearly great design team for this project. When MTA upgraded the signage on the 4/5/6 a few years back, I thought that those signage is a nice upgrade but cannot imagine how flexible it can be when the map was essentially a static print-out. This new system not only is more efficient, but it makes it portable to any line without the need to upgrade the hardware. When new lines are introduced, it can quickly adapt to the new environment, so kudos to the design team, whoever you are!
Newmindspace NYC: People Photographing People Photographing People (9/26/09) [View | Hide]
It's a commonly known fact: photographers hate being photographed - but I love photographing photographers. So when Newmindspace announced the People Photographing People Photographing People event, I obviously went and as expected had lots of fun!
Newmindspace was founded by Lori Kufner and Kevin Bracken (Facebook). Their mission is to reclaiming public space, inventing new ways of having fun, and creating community. Since 2005, they have been hosting free events in cities around North America, and creating free, fun, all-ages events like parties on subway cars, public pillow fights, giant games of capture the flag on city streets, massive bubble battles, public art installations and much more.
Photography alone probably doesn't do the event justice, so I used my P+S and recorded the insanity for your pleasure. The quality is not too great, but you get the idea.
Here are some highlights of what I shot. Be sure to check out full set on Flickr as well.
Keith Dorsch is a filmmaker in New York. He graduated from C.W. Post at the Long Island University in 2008. He is currently working as a filmmaker and editor for ad agencies.
Human Hasselblad popped in out of nowhere and surely got much deserving attention.
Shirley Yu (Facebook / Flickr / Twitter), seen here with Keith Dorsch, is a young aspiring photographer. You can check out her photography portfolio at photobyshirley.carbonmade.com. Shirley is now using this photo as her Facebook profile photo. SML Thank You!!!
You don't need expensive equipments to do good photography. Nick Roach happilly snapped away with his camera phone. He learned about the event from Timeout Magazine.
Francisco Javier Andaur (Facebook / Flickr) aka Fran Juan DeMarco with friend jointly created this two-eye robot.
Francisco Javier Andaur (Facebook / Flickr). Francisco is now using this photo as his Facebook profile photo. SML Thank You!!!
Friend of Francisco Javier Andaur. These two share the same Flickr account. Not sure how they are related though!
Yepo Kayeebo (Flickr) was traveling from London. At the beginning of the event, I was disappointed at how little poeple showed up. It was she who pointed me to the right direction where the crowd is. For this, SML Thank You!
I met Novaid Kahn (Facebook / Flickr) originally on Flickr. I told him about the event when he generously drove me to photograph the Eastern State Penitentiary a couple of weeks ago.
Donald Hanson (Flickr) showed up with Novaid Kahn. He noted that we both liked the same lens: Canon EF 24-70 f2.8L for everyday shooting.
Lloyd Leary is a personal trainer in New York who also plays the classical violin.
Michelle Humphries (Facebook / Flickr) and Alan Gordon (Facebook) are both students at NYU, class of 2011. I was interested in how Michelle came up with her FlickrID:carvinkeeper12 meant. She explained: carvin = skiing, keeper = soccer, 12 = her favorite number.
Alan Gordon (Facebook) is originally from New Orleans. His t-shirt says "reNew Orleans". Alan explained to me that his t-shirt was made after Katrina, and is designed to be a simple combination of the word renew and his hometown of New Orleans. he wears it to remind people that the work isn't done yet and said it's the "right way"!
Alan Gordon (Facebook) is now using this photo as his Facebook profile photo! SML Thank You!!! Love to SML Love to him!
At first I thought that John Carbone was shooting a Canon 1D when I spotted him holding onto a huge Canon body with a big gun but was wondering why someone would be shooting with a 1D with a non-L glass. Then I learned that it was a Canon Rebel with battery-grip. Imposters!!!
The whole thing was a geek porn galore. People shoot with films, digital with makes of cameras from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sony and all kinds of strobes.
SML Me: Last but not least, I got to see what I look like when I was doing my thing!
See-ming Lee (SML ME!) interviewed Keith Dorsch. Photo by Novaid Kahn (Facebook / Flickr)
Possibly the best photo of me doing photojournalism! Photo by Novaid Kahn (Facebook / Flickr)
The truly evil SML in action. This photo was originally titled "guy with watch" by Shirley! Photo by Shirley Yu (Facebook / Flickr / Twitter)
This is the first time I have participated in a massive public art installation, and I will definitely look forward to future events!
Today is my birthday so naturally I am getting greetings all over the globe. This is my thank you card to all of you!
I am a believer in thanking people. As an ADHD-afflicted geek, I have often forgotten the kindness and generosity from others, and I make a point of recording them so I can search through them.
I started a blog called SML Thank You (http://thankyou.seeminglee.com) a while back but it was getting a bit challenging to maintain. It also become a bit insane to keep too many blogs so I have since imported them onto SML Pro Blog and labeled those items as SML Thank You.
But what about all those people I've thanked which did not appear on Twitter. I need to find those thanks, and perhaps in comments area on other places. So I built a Yahoo Pipe to do it:
Update 01: 2009-09-25 Since posted the design on Flickr, I noted that the 500x500 version does not really work as a comment to thank you, so I created a mini version for 'thumbnail' comment use. Thanks for visiting the blog! Here's my thankyou card just for you!
Synergy: an unfocused approach to learning about oneself (9/24/09) [View | Hide]
A lot of people prefer web destinations to have a very specific focus, but it appears that I am inherently an unfocused person, and therefore my web destinations also are rather unfocused.
In the beginning, SML Pro Blog was just the SML Blog, and it contains pretty much everything that my life contains, until I am getting some negative feedbacks from professional colleagues who wish not have their photos appear next to blog posts relating to my gay activities, which is when SML Gay Blog was born. Then some folks who got really annoyed with my massive photography output, and so SML Photo Blog was born. Then after a while I started to have so many blogs that I cannot keep track on, so I have now reconsolidated the SML Thank You and SML Notebook back into this blog, because it soon became *very* challenging to manage them all.
Conversely, I take a very-me approach when it comes to content on Flickr. I post pretty much everything onto it: my designs, my photography, my hacks, my screenshots, and source of inspiration all bundled up together. It's me, after all. By not separating these data, I gain a much better insight into which of my stuff is good and 'interesting' to folks.
I know far too many people who keep a separate Flickr profile for their "professional" life vs their "play" life but when I view the content, I can't tell the difference and reason as to why they are separate. Consolidation is good. Just filter, and tag. I think that via my very unfocused postings, I have successfully cross-marketed my designs to people who came to my stream because of my abstract photography; or that they discovered that I am much much more than a photojournalist who run around events.
Because of this content cross-pollination, I also learned based on my data that what people find to be interesting is also very all-across the board, and that is interesting to me. I made screenshots of the top 5 pages from the 500 Most Interesting Flickr (set) and bundled them together, and it provides a great sign-post as to where I should be headed next.
Actually these are photography disguised as paintings. I have always wanted to paint but I lack the drawing skills so I try my best to create what I wish to do through the lens of my camera.
Slow Photography at Sunday LES NYC (9/24/09) [View | Hide]
Thanks to the wonderful and fabulous Julien Aleksandres (Flickr:DitMartian), I went to Sunday LES' opening reception for a group show titled Slow Photography:
The phrase, "slow photography," might conjure images of large format cameras or glass plate techniques; even the idea of loading film may seem slow considering the efficient speed in which photographic images are created today. However, another connotation may not allude to a technology so much as it does a sensibility — an approach to understanding particular roles that photographs can play, a methodical and drawn out way to produce paintings. The three artists in Slow Photography use photography as a starting point, taking exorbitant amounts of time to produce ostensible "photos": paintings that appear to translate a photographic record, yet are something else entirely. — Horton & Liu press release
Becker's painting can best be described in geek-speak as a mashup:
...in that they appear to depict an actual space, however, they are in fact a seamless combination of photographs from disparate landscapes. These photos, along with impressions from the artist's memory, create his measured, deliberate and lonely paintings. Becker has an acute disquiet that portrays the landscape as eerily strong and resilient, but never heroic. The photographic vantage point often acts as a subtle overseer, a reminder that the camera has forever distorted how anyone sees nature.
More information about the show
Slow Photography Sep 17 - Oct 11, 2009
Sunday LES, 237 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002
Google Page Rank, Domain Names, Technology Platforms and Platform Owners / SML Analytics (9/24/09) [View | Hide]
Recently I did a tally of Google PageRank in the SML Universe: Analyzing a single person's Web presence on different domains, the technology platform, the platform owner, and the corresponding Google PageRank data.
What I found especially interesting is that the highest PRs concentrated on properties owned by Yahoo, namely: SML Flickr (5) and SML Pipes (5), followed immediately by Google properties (4): SML Pro Blog (4), SML Photo Blog (4), SML YouTube (4) and perhaps Google's friends: SML Twitter (4), SML Vimeo (4).
SML Amazon (5) perhaps should be expected as Amazon is a hub, but I do find it interesting that its PR is so high since it really receives no publicity nor direct URL.
SML Facebook (0) does not get anything likely because Facebook is a close-walled garden. SML Wiki (0) failed to a zero recently which I contribute to my recent Flickr Censorship saga as I pump most of the content on the wiki via the Flickr API, and failing that means failing all my content. (ouch!) which is why I'm brewing SML Data (1) right now. As historic data has shown, generally speaking, registering a domain name will pump Google PR to at least 1. If you don't even get that, you are doing something wrong and it usually means that Google has placed you on a blacklist and you should definitely watch out.
Here's my 2009-09-18 data on Google Docs for those who prefer raw text:
Another reason I'm doing this is because, oh, my friends on Twitter was complaining that I tweet too much. So now I can be tweeting without getting massive unfollows: I think that interesting things deserve to be seen and heard. There are more than enough talented people scattered around the Net that are super-talented and waiting to be discovered. So for those who don't mind the extra infos, follow @smlbw (black and white photography), @smlfineart (art), and @smlgfxdesign (graphic design) which is an accumulation of stuff I blogged as well as the super talented folks who post to the Flickr pool. Since Twitter is not inherently visual, it might be easier to follow their Friendfeeds (links above).
TwitterFeed lets you connect separate Twitter Feed with different accounts, which is uber useful because that means that I don't have to create multiple accounts to do that. Additionally it allows you to use a myriad of URL-shortener services. I use bit.ly because it reports analytics data, but you can use pretty much anything available in the market.
If you are feeding with a FeedBurner feed, it gives you additional insights into the feed clicks as well, but it does not work with Feedburner's default settings:
In order to get TwitterFeed to report traffic data, go to Publicize > Awareness API and activate it.
After activating the FeedBurner Awareness API, TwitterFeed successfully captures click data via Feedburner vs bit.ly — which is useful if you are an uber data freak like me!
Web Trend Map 4 by iA (Information Architects Japan) (9/24/09) [View | Hide]
iA's Web Trend Map 4 arrived in the doorsteps of SML Studio on September 14th, 2009.
WHAT IT IS: iA's Web Trend Map plots the leading Internet names onto the Tokyo Metro system. The domains and personalities are carefully selected through dialogue with map enthusiasts. Each domain is evaluated based on traffic, revenue, age, owner and character.
Paying attention to the intersections, we grouped associated websites and ensured every domain is on a line that suits it. As a result, the map produces a web of associations: some provocative, some curious, others ironically accurate.
As a few examples: Twitter is located in Shibuya, the train station with the biggest buzz. Google and its network are placed around Shinjuku, the most highly trafficked station in the world. The New York Times is located in Sugamo, the shopping paradise for Tokyo's grandmothers.
Why Tokyo Metro? Because it works.
The map is HUGE. It's printed on A0 (841 mm × 1189 mm / 33.25 in × 46.75 in) to be exact.
Compared to the 2007 version which was printed on A2 (also see my blog post in 2007), the map has grown more than four times in size.
Here's a shot of the map inside the studio for comparison to see how gigantic it is:
Kudos to iA's excellent packaging designs:
...with exceptional attention to detail
...which also inspired some fun strobist action:
Map in detail:
Online Web Trend Map
In collaboration with Craig Mod, iA also produced an online version of the map at webtrendmap.com where you can curate your own maps by choosing sources you trust:
Bug in Flickr Stats Server? (9/23/09) [View | Hide]
I have noticed some oddity on my Flickr Stats recently. This problem was particularly noticeable since Flickr's recent server outages happening in August. I created a related forum post about this: Flickr: The Help Forum: Bug in Flickr Stats Server?
Unknown Source Referrals
I have noticed that when I posted my photos past a certain hour (usually after 2am local time EST), my photos would pick up an abnormal amount of views all within minutes after uploads. According to the Flickr Stats Referral detail, they all come from Unknown Sources, and I can't quite get a grasp at what's going on.
If those were actual views, I have no problem with it, but just how some photo of a back alley accumulate 98 views over a minute on Flickr is close to impossible knowing my own stats history.
This is definitely a problem. I haven't tweeted about this photo, nor have I shared this anywhere with any social media sites, you can't blame bit.ly for this. Bad data makes it impossible to evaluate actual performance of the photo.
If any of you are having the same problem, please reply to the forum post: Flickr: The Help Forum: Bug in Flickr Stats Server? as Flickr appears to think that it is a localized problem which happens to only a few of the users.
As far as I know it, this does not happen to me personally. I know of a few Flickr contacts who are having the same problem as well.
See-ming Lee by iDLg / 2009 / SML Thank You (9/23/09) [View | Hide]
You never know what would happen when you post photos of yourself on Flickr. An artist named iDLg (Flickr:iDLg / Twitter:iDLg2009) did some ink drawings of me from my self portraits... Lots of SML Love to him!!!
