Anna Hillman's Amazingness

Although her images are taken primarily in England, Anna Hillman's Amazingness Project seems like a great visual accompaniment to William Cronon's edited volume Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature.

Immerse

A filmic exploration of the place and space that focuses on the relationship between three distinct locations: the abandoned railroad worker town of Amboy, California; a cabin in the Angeles National Forest; and a metal-smithing shop (now gone) located in front of the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Co-directed, co-produced, and co-edited with Christy Snyder.

Habitus

An experiment using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of Habitus as a way to de-construct the relationship between narration and imagery. Filmed in Super-8 at the Thousand Palms Oasis in the Coachella Valley Preserve, the objective is to gradually reveal the discrepancies between the site described in the narration and the oasis seen in the film, thereby asking the viewer to consider their experience of the film in light of Bourdieu's habitus: "The habitus allows us to both think that we have chosen what is necessary to us, and to think that what we have learned is actually natural to us. When this transformation determines our modes of living in the general area of taste, as well as the specific area of aesthetic taste, it allows us to misinterpret acquired taste as primary experiential preferences." My goal is to disturb the process of 'consuming' visual media, and to expose our assumptions about this medium as 'primary' and 'experiential' by making its reception a struggle.

Palo Alto Urban Petroglyph Project

Ghost Trajectories Project @USC

Are All Places Nostalgic?

Walking through the USC campus yesterday, I began to walk by landmarks that were especially nostalgic for me. A scaffolding tower on the football practice tower where Christy and I climbed to gaze at the downtown skyline, the swimming pool where I swam, the track outside of GFS hall, the Doheny library, etc. But in between these landmarks, I noticed other spots with which I had no personal connection, and I began to think about the nostalgia these places might hold for others. A window in a dorm, a table in the student union, etc. This led me to wonder whether or not ALL places have nostalgic potential, and how many places we all pass by daily without a thought, that might be laiden with nostalgia for others.

What makes a place nostalgic? For whom? What experiences are most salient for nostalgiac recall? How are these experiences conditioned by culture?

Graceland

Well, I went kicking and screaming, but came out a convert. Thanks to Sue Faulkner my March trip to Memphis included a visit to the King's humble abode. Frozen in time, it's pure 70's kitsch. Not pictured here: the lounge in the raquetball house, my personal favorite.