ideal seeing

Astronomers sometimes use this phrase to describe skies that are most clear for their work. The atmosphere doesn't obscure the view and accurate observations may be made.

One can explore pages of a book that draws their attention, in this instance using the same tools as those employed in previous examples. Subjectivity influences how they are used, what adjustments are made. The data is really in the page though, and in that fact, a certain objectivity exists.

unheimlich

This term refers to the uncanny, that widely known but hard to describe feeling of strangeness and alienation. Heidegger characterized it as though feeling Not at Home, also the name of my project of photographs made at night. A selection of them are part of the 62nd Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition, open until October 4, 2009 and on display at the Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Ave., Rochester, NY. They and others from the project may be seen at davidmount.org.

discovery

Enhancing the visual sense with specialized tools is not new. Telescopes and microscopes have long been employed for this task. Part of the physical realm, they extend the range of what's visible to reveal what had been hidden, and perhaps novel truths. Newer means to this end include modeling and image processing, reasonable constructs of the digital realm. As with the earlier equipment, their use is an opportunity to view what can be seen in no other way, and to imagine oneself as an explorer witnessing a scene for the first time ever.

The active recipient surveys the digital realm using tools natural to that sphere. Found in this case is text that illuminates itself: a prose recast in a way not dreamt of by the original author.

memories that never formed

Photography is often made as an example of memory: all those
experiences of life, tucked away in the archive of mind. My motion
media installation 17523 Pictures contradicts that perspective.
It may be seen at Tower Fine Arts Gallery, 180 Holley Street,
Brockport NY, September 2 - October 7, 2008.

Here's the statement:

We privilege the visual sense, yet only those things most
important to us make the hop from short-lived, sensory
memory to permanent, long term memory. The vast
majority of our visual perceptions are never retained.
Among these experiences are the uncountable nameless
faces we've passed but will never remember. Less than
lost memories, they are memories that never formed.

Life is comprised of individuals. There have been so many
of us, so many lives, yet we scarcely notice this in our daily
routine. With this piece, my wish is to draw attention to how

selective our memories are and to suggest the enormous

scope and complexity of humanity.

the active recipient

One could perform an experiment of lifting favorite text from the
grid, copying it out onto an old sketch pad. A technique used in
'specters' might be employed, anticipating an image that's similar
to 'specters' , but different. Instead, unexpected secondary
features will be observed, a consequence of image processing
that provides ideal seeing. On this modern variant of palimpsest,
patterning as though from writings on a sheet above, now long
gone, is the prize received.

omne ignotum pro magnifico

how to make a lead book, a short film of mine, will be screened at The Little Theatre, 240 East Avenue, Rochester NY, on Monday July 28 at 9:15 pm.

from the antipodes

The previous entry offers a page of text as imaginary landscape. What might be on the verso of such a page?