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The shape of the urban landscape

Posted in from the dark room, photography on September 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I was surprised the other day as I walked over a bridge in Tokyo to see a little boat cruising the canal. I’ve often wondered why there were canals under the roads and between the buildings, and I’d never actually seen anyone sailing on one of them.

Apparently, in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, the city wanted to construct urban expressways, and the land they managed to buy was the network of old canals.
That's why you see this strange web of hidden, and partially revealed canals in the city, and why the high level roads take the routes they do.

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What are you looking at?

Posted in from the dark room, photography on September 18, 2010| 2 Comments »

Changing your perspective. Sometimes when we look at the world from a different angle, it looks strange but very interesting. One of my cameras is a Nikon S10 which has a lens which can swivel around 180 degrees. Turning the direction of the lens shows me some new angles on the world.
What do you think you see here?

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how the world is changing

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, life, photography on September 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

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Sensing Nature.

Posted in art, creativity, from the dark room, from the viewing room, photography, video on September 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Today I went to the Mori Arts Centre, on the 53rd floor of this building in Roppongi Hills….

…where there is an exhibition, entitled “Sensing Nature”. Apparently there are two words for “nature” in Japanese. The original meant “as is”, and the newer one is like the Western idea of “nature” being like “wilderness”, or “countryside”. There are installations from Yoshioka Tokujin, Shinoda Taro and Kuribayashi Takashi.

Here’s one entitled “Forest from Forest”

This is made from washi paper, and you have to stoop or crawl underneath it, and pop your head up through a hole torn in the paper forest floor.

Two of the other installations are better captured on video. Here they are

Recommended. I haven’t seen anything quite like this before.

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The path

Posted in from the dark room, life, photography on September 15, 2010| 1 Comment »

The other day I went down to the car park and here’s what I saw on the roof of the car. I tiny little creature had spent a LONG time leaving this trail……got me wondering what OUR trails would look like if we could see them…..

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Caper flower

Posted in from the dark room, photography on September 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

You’ve probably eaten capers, but have you ever seen the caper flower? Nope, neither had I, till now…..

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never ceases to please me

Posted in from the dark room, photography on September 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

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Memory scents

Posted in from the dark room, from the living room, perception, photography on September 3, 2010| 2 Comments »

This large trailer of lavender was parked on the Cours in Aix, and the scent was strong well down the street. Scents embed memories deeply into our minds. What scents stimulate the strongest memories for you?

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Where’s the edge?

Posted in from the dark room, photography on September 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I love these scenes where you can see the fingers of a cloud reaching down to touch the face of the Earth, to be able to see the rain making its way along the foothills.

Clouds are great examples of how artificial it is to reduce Nature to entities. Where IS the edge of a cloud? What size, EXACTLY, is a cloud? And even if you could answer those questions, the answer would’ve changed by the time you made your measurement.

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