An Alien In the Place We Call Home

Control Theory

2009-05-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

This short film I choose to entitle "Control Theory" is based around all of the objects meant to control and bar us from everyday activities. I got this idea while walking around the Lake Park area near Mc Kinley Marina and Bradford Beach area. While exploring, I kept finding, time and time again, areas with signage saying no trespassing, cameras watching one's every move, locks barring a person from the contents of an area, room or space, fencing and barbed wire to keep trespassers out, signage stating the lake should not be entered, and police officers ticketing individuals. I comprised this movie of multiple pictures I took while walking and put them into Picasa3 and added some various sounds. I hope you enjoy this short film as much as I enjoyed my time making it.

Hawaiian Sunset

2009-04-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Something went wrong with my computer and I lost the data for my silent video so I made due with the few photos I had stored on my computer. These photos were taken while I was on spring break this year in Maui, Hawaii. The photos depict a sunset from beginning to end over the Pacific Ocean. I was awed by the amazing array of colors going from purple to burnt orange all in the course of 10 or so minutes. I hope you will enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed watching them unfold.

TraSh: A short clip of garbage and filth in Milwaukee

2009-04-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

While walking both near my house and down by Lake Park and Bradford Beach, I came across countless areas where there was trash scattered around. While enjoying the area near the beach, it almost took away from the peacefulness fo the area when a plastic bag would wash up or there was a tire on the beach. Near some soccer fields, there was a WE Energies worker working on an electric box, he let me stand nearby and gather audio of the electric current and sounds of shocks. I felt that was a good background noise because our electric consumption is one of the leading causes of pollution and harm to the environment.

Drift 2 Analysis

2009-04-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

While working on drift 2, I enjoyed the peacefulness I found near the water. I've always considered myself a 'beach bum.' The water lapping up against the beach made for a great calming walk along the bridge. In roaming around I often found myself lost in my surroundings. That is when the idea came to me, why, in such a peaceful place, are there warning labels, security measures, and locks on everything. Control theory shows just a small percentage of these measures and attempts to look a bit deeper into the rogue things that go unnoticed around us every day.

In my drift 2, I utilized an Olympus 100S camera with 2.4 Megapixels, 2.8x optical zoom and a really slow reaction time. I also made use of Picasa 3 to make my film and audacity for my sound editing.

I tried to follow a rough path while going on my drift 2 walk. I started at the corner or Lake park near UWM's Alumni house and the water treatment plant. Every 10 minutes I would cross the street and wander around a little bit until 10 minutes was up and I had to cross the street again. This gave me vantage points from both the beach, the road and the upper portion of the park. All and all, I feel that this was the best way to maximaze my exposure to the park and its surroundings.

After you check out my drift 2, you should check out where it all began in drift 1 and where it all culminates at my drift atlas.

Drift 2 Map

2009-04-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

On this drift I explored the area from UWM's Alumni House to the Mc Kinley Marina park located near downtown Milwaukee. My strategy was to more or less roam around and cross the street every 10 minutes.

View Drift 2 in a larger map