The first image

How to identify a Boeing 757.

Shibboleth

From the Tate Modern website:
Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth is the first work to intervene directly in the fabric of the Turbine Hall. Rather than fill this iconic space with a conventional sculpture or installation, Salcedo has created a subterranean chasm that stretches the length of the Turbine Hall. The concrete walls of the crevice are ruptured by a steel mesh fence, creating a tension between these elements that resist yet depend on one another. By making the floor the principal focus of her project, Salcedo dramatically shifts our perception of the Turbine Hall’s architecture, subtly subverting its claims to monumentality and grandeur. Shibboleth asks questions about the interaction of sculpture and space, about architecture and the values it enshrines, and about the shaky ideological foundations on which Western notions of modernity are built.

In particular, Salcedo is addressing a long legacy of racism and colonialism that underlies the modern world. A ‘shibboleth’ is a custom, phrase or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to a particular social group or class. By definition, it is used to exclude those deemed unsuitable to join this group.

‘The history of racism’, Salcedo writes, ‘runs parallel to the history of modernity, and is its untold dark side’. For hundreds of years, Western ideas of progress and prosperity have been underpinned by colonial exploitation and the withdrawal of basic rights from others. Our own time, Salcedo is keen to remind us, remains defined by the existence of a huge socially excluded underclass, in Western as well as post-colonial societies.

In breaking open the floor of the museum, Salcedo is exposing a fracture in modernity itself. Her work encourages us to confront uncomfortable truths about our history and about ourselves with absolute candidness, and without self-deception.

London last weekend... Essex right now

These photos below (sorry about the repeat of the Parliament photo) are from an outing in London last weekend... Lyndsea and I flew together and set out to the big city planning to go to the Tate Modern. of course we managed to get kinda lost but that's my preferred method of exploring places. We ended up discovering St. James Park which is so beautiful. From there we could see Buckingham palace- I think there's a photo on here of that building... walked down to Westminster abbey, houses of Parliament, Big Ben, etc. then alongside the Thames to the Tate Britain. Ran through there, looked at some favorite paintings (Whistler, Rossetti, Waterhouse, Sargent) and then took this water taxi across the river and down to the Tate Modern, saw the great crack there (shibboleth) and some work by Magritte, de Chirico, Louise Bourgeois, and on and on...then we walked across the pedestrian bridge which leads right up to St. Pauls cathedral. caught a train to liverpool street and back here....it was an exhausting day altogether but beautiful, sunny, and pleasant. watched the rugby match until i fell asleep.
so anyway, that explains these photos below except for the couple on the plane, we just got bored after service and i broke out the not-broken camera that ken loaned me to use. great fun!
right now im in the hotel room and about to get ready for the flight home. i slept most of yesterday after we got here cause i was tired and the weather was dismal. next time, i'd like to go to cambridge... we'll see... but this trip was sleep, read, go to pub, go back to sleep....
hoping for a chill flight tonight and then back out on Sunday afternoon....

London this weekend

This Weekend in London

EOS 2nd Anniversary!

Wall Street Journal - Trans-Atlantic Rivals Pose Challenge to Big Airlines
Upstart Eos Airlines Inc. said it plans to add two routes between the East Coast and Europe, as competition intensifies for the major carriers' best passengers.The move is the latest sign that a small band of all-business-class trans-Atlantic airlines are winning passengers with roomier seating, more on-board amenities and moderate ticket prices. But as the major airlines wake up to this competition, the upstarts may be tested. Two-year-old Eos now serves London's Stansted Airport from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport with two to four round trips a day. While the closely held carrier still is losing money, it recently raised $50 million in new capital, expanded its fleet and won passenger plaudits. Next year, Eos plans to add flights to Paris from JFK and service to Stansted from Newark, N.J. Jack Williams, chief executive officer of Eos, acknowledges that the market across the Atlantic is "very competitive," but said the carrier has managed to ramp up daily flights while also filling more seats on each plane. Luke Mauro, a senior vice president of Instinet LLC, says he has taken about 25 business trips to London on Eos, and no longer uses Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. Eos "is reasonable, convenient, a great experience," he says. Eos has four leased 757s outfitted with 48 seats, instead of 220. They all recline into lay-flat beds. A fifth aircraft is being renovated to the Eos configuration and Mr. Williams, the CEO, says he hopes to have a dozen planes by the end of 2008

of Montreal at the Roseland

Flickr is Fabulous!

Hello! I am writing this post to let you know... if anyone actually looks at this blog... that the accidental photographer is alive and well and living in Brooklyn... and on Flickr. My name there is EosFA618 and I have boocoos of photos up there for your perusal. Please let me know what you think of them! The camera is still broken and for the moment I like it that way.

Greenpoint today

More Gpoint photos 10-11

These are in the City

This is where i live

I just have been wandering along West St. and neighboring areas to take accidents with my camera. so there are alot of photos on here!

More Accidental Photos

Color saturation

is my new friend! i feel giddy with color excitement, like the kittens in that book that pour paint all over everything. y'all are going to get sick with colors. cause i've now stumbled across a fun thing about technology! here's the roof view, saturated!

Radisson view

This is what i saw out the window of my hotel room last time i was at stansted. that was the plane I came in on!

Bishop Stortford canal

the boat was gone when we walked past a second time. neighboring village to stansted where the pubs are.

gpoint 2

accidental greenpoint wednesday morning

Accidental Photography

SO.... now my camera is broke. i need to get it fixed. but for the moment i am taking pictures blindly (the viewer/display screen has some sort of abstract design on it that is kinda cool actually but NOT the image i'm trying to shoot.) so i point in the general direction, take the picture, wait and see what uploads when i attach to the computer. some interesting photos have happened as a result. this isn't helping me hone my photography skills as i actually have very little to do with the outcome, can't frame anything, etcetera so i take no credit for what you see here.
HOWEVER i have learned how to use the little tricks on the computer to play with color saturation, contrast and so forth which may be cheating in some way but it's pretty fun to see the results. here some are, anyway. I'm the accidental photographer. the pictures take themselves!

The City by Day

Pentecost

Insanity

So, I didn't actually get to stay at the Gershwin. I was called out to fly just as I was checking in, so I left my suitcases in their storage and went straight to the airport. It was a good trip, all in all, but I am glad to have time now to settle into the new place.