100 Images: An example

Here is an example of a mosickr photo with my tagged photos for the 100 Image archive.

It still is not quite what I am looking to do as the photos do not have their own tag cloud

100 Images:Eureka…ish….

It was pretty amazing to see the breadth of the archiving techniques used while watching the presentations yesterday. I really enjoy Marks project, there is an added dimention to it as he has set the stage for potential future interaction. I wish I could see the peoples faces as they come across the envelopes that have been placed in their given book.

Another presentation that stood out was Erin’s. The taggraph application is a great way to organize all of the images according to their given tags. I think my archive project will have to incorporate this program along with the limited mosaic maker.

If they could somehow be blended into one I would be SOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy. This project is making me want to learn some sort of programming just so i can overcome these sort of issues by creating what I need.

100 Images: Categories/Tagging

So the limitation I set on my tagging the other day was fairly good for the most part, particularly with the colour categorization, unfortuntely I have been going over my self imposed limit when it comes to my tagging the subject manner within the photos themselves. I don’t think this is problematic to my project, BUT, i do need to find a way for the tags to display simulatainiously. (ie form a tagcloud as a cursor goes over the images within the mosaic).

Right now I don’t have a way to do this. I have loaded my photos in a flickr account (easy way to archive them and gain access anywhere with an internet connection) but still have not achieved what I want. This worries me a bit as my presentation is fast approaching!!! Also, I have come across some very impressive mosaics online but don’t know how they were composed. I have found one but it is not producing what I had imagined. (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php) This is a VERY limited version of what I had in mind.

I like that I can search through my archive using my given tags, but do not like that I am limited to 36 photos!!! The project is 100 Images, I would like to see what they can do all together.

Well, the Journey continues….

100 Images: A methodology

For my archive I have decided to label each image as:
DM 8305
The predominant colours (I will try to keep  the colours to 3 tags)
The Subject Matter within the photo (Again I think three is a good limit)

I think that giving my categories/tags such constraints this will help keep my project containable. Prior to this method I did not place any constraints which invariably lead to frustration. Also, with this method I will have images that remain unique but will likely have extensive crossover wih other images.
For the final dissemination I have not had much luck with the photoshop method of creating a mosaic. I will check to see what sort of applications exists that could help me along with this process.

100 Images: PROGRESS!!!!

I think I may have stumbled upon a eureka moment with the archive project.

I was walking through the mall and was passing through a music store. While in there I was looking at posters and came across a bob marely mosaic poster that I had not seen in some time.

I looked at the picture for sometime then was hit with an idea for my archival project: what if my final output for my archive was a digital tile mosaic archive?

I figured that instead of categorizing my images by the subject matter perhaps I shift it to their colour composition or the predominate colour in the image. I could use additional tags to further categorize beyond the colour scheme, but use the colour as my key category. The reason for the colour being the main guideline is simple: the colour of the image will determine its placement in a mosaic.

Through the brainstorming of this project I realize that the way I archive something is key to how I will disseminate my archive. By choosing the digital mosaic as my means of presenting an archive perhaps I can create an archive that is intuitive and aesthetically pleasing.

I’m not sure if photoshop is the way to go, but I can experiment with it as my conduit to a finished digital mosaic archive.

100 Images: new thoughts….

So I have officially trashed the idea of putting images into files/categories.
It got even more confusing and was less intuitive then I first thought. I would like to try a method I used for a project last year.

For documentary studies 2 I took a bunch of images (22 to be exact) and posted them on my facebook account. I let people know that the purpose of the project was to have people interact with the pages and make comments. I then took the images and the ensuing dialogue and created a book through blurb (as seen here (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43620&l=5dde0&id=505286042)).
The project was quite interesting in terms of how people reacted to the work (some people publicly discussed on my wall their thoughts of the images, others sent private messages because the images were too intense for them (it was surrounding Art as Trauma Documentary, focused on images from slavery in America).

I am curious to see how people would interact with this project. How would they tag the images. How many different interpretations would each receive?

I think this idea has merit. Unfortunetly I don’t think that I would get a high enough participation rate to make it worthwhile.  On 20 images from my previous project I had a mere 30 comments.
I really don’t envision people making it through all 100 images. I think that the first few images would be heavily laden with tags compared to the latter portion of the images. I think that if this was an ongoing project for a year it would be worthwhile… right now I don’t think I have the time to get the participation I would like…. this could be a jump off point for another archival project.

In the mean time I am going to brainstorm some ideas to myself to find a more useful method of archiving (this is becoming WAY more difficult then I first imagined).

100 Images: In search of a finished product

This post is not as focused on the methodology as my prior post. Instead, this time around I’m going to give some thought as to how I will present my finished product.

I had mentioned prior that my archive project may end up in photos being place in various folders/categories as per the subject matter within the image. This method is somewhat effective but very bland at the same time. This dissemination leaves a lot to be desired, in the sense that it will be fairly easy to get lost within all of my categories and sub-categories.

To overcome this I feel that I need some sort of intuitive program to recall the photos. I came to this realization as I was watching the TV show Friends. The character Monica was archiving all of her old photos and was developing a cross referencing system that would allow her to look up any photo according to its archival cross section. The example in the show was a picture of a dog that could be under the both the category of dog and death (it had passed away). From this there would be a reference number that would refer back to the picture. The issue of this comes back to the subjective nature of the archive and that when a flood of new photos were introduced the archival system collapsed. As an added facet to this, the archive really didn’t look nice.

Here in lies my key issues with deciding my final dissemination: functionality, ease of use, and pleasing aesthetics.

Currently I’m batting 0/3 .

I will check to see if I can come across any useful web-based applications. I think that this would be the best as I am not proficient in any programming language to develop my own intuitive program from scratch.

I will check out digital archives to see whats out there.

100 Images: Wanted… a solid methodology for archiving

Before I begin with my Archive update I would just like to note that I had the distinct pleasure of seeing David Suzuki today as he was giving his Canada wide campus talks. It was dynamic, enlightening, and terrifying all at the same time.  What makes me happy is that I have it archived on miniDV 

Back to the 100 images

I don’t have any profound developments with my archiving.

As it stands I am separating the images into various folders/categories. As I mentioned in a prior posting I have done a meta label of the course code on to each image. This places all 100 images into the same folder. From here I have opted to separate them into simple categories. All of the figure skaters are with the figure skaters, all of the photographers are with the photographers, all of the passport photos are with the passport photos. This method was easy to do with images that had very similar subjects or methodologies.

This extends to the topographic images of the highways, the images of the Prime Minister, the wood piles, the statues, photos within a photo (this category created some intersection), among others.

This methodology has been the most effective thus far, but I don’t feel that I have a concrete methodology. A major issue that I have encountered are the images that fit into multiple categories. I wanted to have a category of party, one that seems fairly clear cut as they is a set of photos that depict a party going on. I have been able to add in the guy BBQ-ing and the group of people that look like they are at a restaurant having a party. BUT when I do this the image of the party at the restaurant also fits into the category of pictures within a picture. I was also debating on putting it with the photographers (at the end of the day its an image which had to have been taken by somebody).

Also, I have given some thought as to how I would show my categorization system. It would essentially look like a messy filing system with folders seemingly everywhere. I won’t worry about dissemination too much as I’m still developing my methodology.

Right now the biggest issue I walk away with is whether I should care if images can be crossed referenced into several categories. If its one and done I will be able to keep things fairly organized… if I don’t… well…. I need a better system!

100 Images: The archiving continues….

Its been a little bit of time since i’ve last tackled the pictures. I have decided that my best approach for now will to go by my instinct. In this case, my instinct dictates that I archive each image according to the subject within the photo. This method will be problematic though with many of the photos as there are several layers of interpretation. For example, one of my favorite sets would be the photographers that are in funny stances. I could do the obvious and put that set in the section labeled “photographers” . From this I could do sub-sections as to the sex of the photographer, the size of the image, or any number of things…..

I guess the instinctual method isn’t much of a methodology.

I do like the idea of examining the photos and really trying to focus on the images contents/subject matter. To get the ball rolling I could place everything in one group labeled DM 8305. This is one one consistency that I can rely on for all of the photographs.

After this one solid category I am unsure as to how I should limit myself in terms of categories per image. I will use the image WED11-SAMBATESFD.jpg as my example. I will list off some of the categories that this could potentially fit into

Figure Skaters
Athletes
Ice
Lycra
Crucifix (thats all I can think of when I see the guy)
Man and Woman
Reflective surface
Sport
Dance
Pose
Frozen

This is a short list after only a few moments. How then do I put this into a cohesive archival category?

= (

I think i’m still at the very early stages of figuring this out.

I tip my hat to people who make a living out of developing archives. Those seem to make sense.

Figure Skaters

100 Images: My favorite image

Woo hoo…. another Bday!

As a gift to myself… my favorite picture from the archive project

This doesn’t add anything to my archive project… I just know that if I decided to do a ranking of favorite images this would rank number 1.