Spotted on the drive home.
As Jay Maisel writes in Light, Gesture, and Color: “Carry the damn camera.”
Author: cbcrenshaw
C.B. Crenshaw is a musician, artist, writer, coder, gardener, and maker in Alabama.
Research of Note: Data Activism
Gutiérrez, Miren and Stefania Milan. “Playing with Data and its Consequences.” First Monday 24:1 (2019). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i1.9554
Scholars, advocates, and social critics frequently describe data as a structure of power used against citizens and the powerless online. In their article in the most recent First Monday, Miren Gutiérrez and Stefania Milan invert big data, arguing that “Citizens, activists and professionals alike embrace innovative data-related practices at the intersection of the digital and the informational, embedding data and ways of playing with data in their activities.”
Data is undoubtedly used to oppress and exploit, but Gutiérrez and Milan show how it can be used to advocate for the rights of the less powerful, as well. Recent work in critical studies of neoliberalism–I’m thinking about Byung-Chul Han’s ideas, in particular, which are very nicely summarized in the Verso essay collection, Psychopolitics–paints a nearly hopeless picture of privacy in the radically transparent world that social media has wrought. While it does not occupy the same intellectual field, this research introduces a necessary critical counterpoint.
Camera Roll: Lake Talquin Hydroelectric Dam and a Friend at Work
Started off the day with a work visit to the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Station in western Leon County. This dam is the source of Lake Talquin. An enormous volume of water was passing through the dam as a result of the heavy rainfall lately.
Ochlockonee River at the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Ochlockonee River at the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Ochlockonee River at the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Ochlockonee River at the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Ochlockonee River at the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Ochlockonee River at the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Ochlockonee River at the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Generating Equipment, C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Ochlockonee River at the C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Turbine, C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Turbines, C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Turbines, C.H. Corn Hydroelectric Dam
Later in the afternoon I had a visit from a friend in the tree outside of my window at the office.
Inverse Walk of the Fallen Leaf
We passed the time in shade unaware until
Russet skin descending in winter
to carbon upon the pavement, it
Caught the corner of my eye
Red passing to brown, falling
gray black dust in my lungs
Passing again I could not point to the fallen leaf
but it is part of me
Chlorophyll in the oxygen viscera
Sketchbook: Hummingbird
Milo Talon and the Walmart Readers
I saw two ternagers sitting on the floor quietly reading in the Walmart books section earlier today, and something about the sight nourished my soul in a way few things have recently. As I’m wrapped up in a throw on the couch reading a Louis L’Amour paperback, it feels good to join them in spirit tonight.
I’ve mentioned Walmart books here before, I know. I have a real fondness for books from the grocery store, from the dollar store, from Walmart. These were the books that nourished me when I was a kid. I can remember standing in the magazine aisle at Winn-Dixie, choosing a paperback or a copy of Mad magazine to read on long summer car rides. I vividly and fondly remember most of those books, even as I’ve been trained by grad school and the middle brow internet literary culture to scoff at popcorn writers in favor of important literature. These books are not a guilty pleasure, but a wholesome and sincere one.
Tonight I’m standing with the kids from Walmart alongside Milo Talon in the shadow of St. Charles Peak. It feels like a good way to end 2018.
Camera Roll: Moultrie, Etc.
Today we walked around Moultrie, Georgia, which was depressingly empty and clearly going through some bad times. It was Sunday, of course, so the downtown area was mostly shut down, but there were a lot of abandoned buildings and nobody walking around. Moultrie is a beautiful town, though, and I hope it finds a way through the ravages of the post-retail 21st neoliberal apocalypse we’re all living through.
The pizzeria is not in Moultrie. The pizzeria is a great joint right down the street from my house called Milano. You should check it out.
Anyway, here are the photos from today’s wandering.
Signal. Red
Sketch Book: More Florida Abandonia
Today’s sketchbook was inspired by this picture at Florida Memory.
Above the Clouds
I just bought PhotoMirage as part of the Professional Photography Humble Bundle, which you should definitely check out while it lasts, and this is my first attempt at creating an animated photo. The photo was taken over the clouds on my flight to New York last month.
This may not be the best example because of all the little details in the clouds, but I think it’s still pretty cool. I’m looking forward to using this more!
C.B. Crenshaw 