Exam Anxiety

Nearing the end of my time at Carleton College, I sought to find and document those events – in a confluence of very special conditions – that only occur in such a college environment. The removed, rural setting of the college and intensely academic though thoroughly eccentric student populous produces many of these events and one very special one occurs the Friday before the first exam at the end of the term.

Winter term especially, with its pent up academic frustration and incubated angst, requires a unique outlet through performance and song. This slideshow piece attempts to follow the happenings in the Carleton College Gould Library through the night, from improvisation performances deriding the school across the river, St. Olaf, to the acapella groups the school is famous for.

Presented in Flash. Link.

The Record Librarian’s Domain

Nick Ver Steegh, manager of the KRLX record library in Northfield, Minnesota, gives an audio tour of his favorite place on Earth. Musk, weird growths, and the dusty haze of a half century of vinyl provide the backdrop for this interview.

Produced in conjunction with Emily Schwing of KRLX’s Periscope production staff. Photo by Cameron Nordholm.

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La Nouvelle Interface

In the summer of 2005 I left for Nice, France to participate in NYU’s Nice: A City in Motion program. Steeped in 3D animation, theory, and design, it explored the word of digital video and its manipulation.

The course covers conceptual design and production using animation and video processing software. We look at ways to shoot and manipulate visual media in 2-D and 3-D, playing with motions, colors, lighting, textures, camera movements, gestures, sounds, and human expressions. Students are asked to create their own story combining video and 3-D animation. Topics addressed include designing digital storyboards, motion capture, creating animated digital characters, camera tracking, lighting, and compositing. Course taught by NYU ITP Program Professor Jean-Marc Gauthier. [above]

My final project in this course involved using Maya3D to construct an extractable layer over a still photograph of the city of Nice, France, animating the buildings to represent the political vibrancy of it’s old section. Undergoing rapid development, Nice could be seen as standing to lose much in the coming years and this project can be taken both in a political and artistic sense within this context. All audio, photography, and rendering is completely original.

New Interface (QT H.264, 21MB) Link.
Program Website Link.
Exhibition Press Release (PDF) (French) Link.

Social Reform Photography Analysis

Photography in Graz, Prague, and Udine

These photos were taken in the summer of 2002 with a 35 mm Nikon EM. All selections are original scans from the negatives with no cropping or color correction. Please see license information in the asides.