marta matray on sun 15 jan 12
oh, i am sooo last century! i had to ask my son to make me
a powerpoint presentation, which i am going to present tomorrow at
the carleton college ceramics department, before i do the handbuilding
demonstration.
i gave my son all my images, he put them together, now i
feel like i am THIS century...! but i still love my slide projector :((=3D=
20=3D
=3D20
does that mean i am getting way too old?=3D20
marta=3D20
http://www.mnartists.org/Marta_Matray=3D20
Vince Pitelka on sun 15 jan 12
Marta wrote:
"oh, i am sooo last century! i had to ask my son to make me a powerpoint
presentation, which i am going to present tomorrow at the carleton college
ceramics department, before i do the handbuilding demonstration. i gave my
son all my images, he put them together, now I feel like i am THIS
century...! but i still love my slide projector :(( does that mean i am
getting way too old?"
Hi Marta -
Well, only if it holds you back, and it sounds like it doesn't. This is a
subject that comes up frequently among people who teach, because we had suc=
h
a close relationship with our slide projectors, especially in higher
education. I still have several perfectly good carousel projectors,
including one that has E.F. Hutton inscribed on the side. I bought it
practically brand new at a used office furniture place in Greenfield, MA fo=
r
$75 after all the Hutton offices shut down in 1988 It's still in great
shape and I haven't yet been able to convince myself to get rid of it, even
though I have not used a slide projector in five years. At this point they
aren't really worth anything, but it just goes against the grain to throw
away such an expensive item that still works perfectly. I still have my
Nikon film cameras as well and have not used them at all since purchasing m=
y
first digital camera in 2002.
I was very fortunate to have a lot of help from our office staff in scannin=
g
and digitizing my slide collection, and today there is such an extraordinar=
y
wealth of art/craft imagery available online. Now all of my slides are
packed away in storage. In my teaching I have always showed a lot of image=
s
in slide shows. When I used slides, I spent a huge amount of time at schoo=
l
pulling slides and assembling a slide show and then refiling the slides as
soon as I done. I used the same slides in different presentations in
multiple classes, and could not afford all the multiples that would be
required to leave the slide shows set up in carousels, so there was no
choice but to put them together every time. Also, I don't tend to show the
same slide show again, but rather change it every time. So it ate up a
great deal of my time that could have been spent in more worthy endeavors.
And then of course there was the time and expense of shooting images in
museums or from magazines and getting the film processed to expand my
collection. Etc., etc. etc.
Now, I am so thankful for the digital revolution, in this case digital
photography, digital storage, and digital projectors. It has had such a hug=
e
positive impact on teaching. Of course by now I have all of the PowerPoint
presentations assembled for all the classes and workshops I teach, with
images duplicated wherever necessary, and it is so easy to modify the
presentations as needed every time I show them. If I am not using my own
laptop I have the entire collection of presentations backed up on one thumb
drive to plug into anyone's computer. If a student misses a slide show, I
can easily put it on their thumb drive and they can watch it on their own
computer. And perhaps most remarkably, I have my entire library of some
30,000 digital images backed up on a 1TB hard drive the size of a deck of a
cards that travels with me in the summer. I can modify my PowerPoint
presentations while on the road, and I can show images from the library to
students at any time. In the days of slide libraries, private or
institutional, the idea of having that kind of resource available while
traveling was beyond our wildest dreams.
Thanks Marta. Your message inspired me to count my blessings.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
John Post on sun 15 jan 12
I got a new ipod for Christmas. They sell an adapter for it that lets =3D
you connect it a tv or project. The same adapter works on the iphone. =3D2=
0=3D
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC552ZM/B
You can purchase an app called Keynote that lets you create slideshow =3D
presentations right on your ipod or your phone. Keynote is the Mac =3D
version of Powerpoint. I prefer it. =3D20
I think is easier to align images on screen with Keynote. Keynote also =3D
reads and shows Powerpoint presentations and can save its presentations =3D
as Powerpoint presentations.
I always wanted a handheld device I could take from school to school and =
=3D
show presentations on the television. Now I can do that all on my ipod.
John Post
Sterling Heights, Michigan
http://www.johnpost.us
Follow me on Twitter
https://twitter.com/UCSArtTeacher =3D20
Steve Mills on mon 16 jan 12
Absolutely NOT!!!
Love
Steve M
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
Sent from my iPod
On 15 Jan 2012, at 19:33, marta matray wrote:
> oh, i am sooo last century! i had to ask my son to make me
> a powerpoint presentation, which i am going to present tomorrow at
> the carleton college ceramics department, before i do the handbuilding
> demonstration.
> i gave my son all my images, he put them together, now i
> feel like i am THIS century...! but i still love my slide projector :((
> does that mean i am getting way too old?
>
> marta
>
> http://www.mnartists.org/Marta_Matray
Snail Scott on mon 16 jan 12
On Jan 15, 2012, at 1:33 PM, marta matray wrote:
> ...i had to ask my son to make me
> a powerpoint presentation...but i still love my slide projector :((
> does that mean i am getting way too old?
Slide projectors still work fine, but the bulbs are getting
hard to replace, so I suspect obsolescence is inevitable.
Personally, though, I do the 'happy dance' every time I
think of digital images, and twirl around singing "Ding,
dong, the slides are dead!"
Slides suck. Unless you are making work that is very
consistent from one object to the next, or are an expert
photographer, each photo session is a exposure-setting
guessing game. Bracket each angle with at least three
exposures, shoot at least three angles of each piece
if it's not symmetrical (two sides plus detail), and you've
pretty well used up a whole roll of film on two objects.
Thirty bucks in film, plus taking it for developing, then
waiting, then going back to see what you got. Only a
few cities have same-day slide service. If you screwed
it all up, you won't know it until after, then you have to
go back and re-do your whole photo setup if it's in your
studio. If it's an on-site photo of an installation at a private
house or an out-of-town gallery, you may not get a
second chance.
If you do get enough good shots, you have to get
duplicates made, at 1-3 bucks apiece, and the color
and sharpness are seldom equal to the original or even
close to accurate. Then you've gotta label the little
bastards, and store the originals safely in a fireproof,
waterproof box. When you send slides out to shows,
you have to include an SASE or you've thrown away
(depending on the number of slides) $10-50 bucks.
(I remember applying to grad school - 5 schools x 20
slides each...even at quantity discount, $100 right there,
and no likelihood that I'd ever need more than one or
two of those dupes ever again.) Then when you get
the slides back, the next show will have different labeling
requirements, and there you are, printing up a whole
'nother set of labels, and trying to remove or cover up
the last set.
Slides suck.
As soon as I had access to a scanner, I digitized every
image that was worth saving, then I went through and
color-corrected them, improved the crop proportions
(no more black masking tape, hurrah!), removed errant
cat hairs from black backdrops, and eliminated mystery
specks left from the film itself. What an improvement!
With a digital camera, I can shoot dozens of images for
free, in a range of exposures, angles, and different
lighting setups against different backdrops, and look
at the 2-D images in real time. I can purge the losers,
save the winners, and tweak the winners to be even
better. I can make infinite numbers of duplicates
for free, with perfect fidelity to the original. I can label
them with a file name, re-label them at will, and even
include complete info directly on the image itself. I
can store the images on inexpensive flash drives in
multiple locations for safekeeping, and still access
them from my desk (or in an airport, or in the studio)
at the click of a mouse. I can send them to shows on
a fifty-cent disk (no need to return), or send them
electronically to anywhere, no postage or padded
mailers needed. Hurrah!
Projection, though...that is the downside.
Even I could afford a secondhand slide projector,
but a digital projector is quite out of reach.
Fortunately, most places and people that want a
projected show will provide the needed equipment.
I don't need to lug a set of carousels, either - I can
carry a flashdrive in my pocket, and be ready to
present a lecture in an instant. I can re-arrange
the order of my slides instantly with a mouse-click -
no light table layouts, no pulling slides for last-
minute order changes and having to 'hop' each
slide one slot further along to make room, then
having to repeat it for subsequent revisions. I can
freely add duplicates of earlier slides when
revisiting an image later in the lecture is useful.
I can even include images of other people's work
or places or things to show connections, inspirations,
or for comparison or discussion, as easily as I can
include my own work.
I remember slides all right, but not fondly. No
nostalgia here! The simplicity and versatility of
digital images makes me happy every single day.
Film photography still has value and merit. It is a
versatile art medium with tons of potential, but it is
NOT a sensible means of documentation.
As for 'too old': who deserves this sort of ease more
than old folks? Do you really want to deal, physically,
with heavy carousels, and repeated drives to the photo
store for developing, duplicating, and film buying,
arguing with clueless clerks, and sticking stupid paper
labels onto fiddly little slide mounts? (And leftovers will
never mysteriously end up atop your film stored in the
fridge!) You have dealt with a lifetime of hideous, clunky
slide technology; you deserve digital! You've earned it.
-Snail
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