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Spaceship Earth

Review of Neuromancer by William Gibson

I finished the book in 4 days, reading it page by page, glued to it when I wasn’t taking care of the rest of my life. I did something that I have done a few times prior, which entailed listening to the audiobook when not reading the book after getting about 100 pages in. So, I was reading ahead while listening to the same pages I had just read in the time when I was unable to have the book in hand. Essentially, the effect of hearing it from a narrator’s perspective allows for more intake of the concepts as well as a nice backtracking on the plot and pick up of the details that were missed while was absorbed in reading.

This book’s major accomplishment is its understanding of a future that felt prescient in a way I haven’t experienced. I still can’t comprehend how Gibson was able to imagine what AI’s impact would become while at the same time create a world in which nothing felt out of the realm of possible. Truly a work of a mind that can postulate on ideas that had not yet been poured over so much in the 40 years between my reading and its creation. AI is not a new concept, but in 1983 during the book’s creation, AI was essentially philosophical in a way that required filling in the blanks around its implications that are more fleshed out today.

The duelling concept of two types of AI and what AI could come to represent will frame my understanding further as we enter the AI-age. I need to dig more into it, but so many things Gibson proposes are totally inspiring.

The plot itself pulls you along with it at a great speed that many novels fail to achieve. There’s never a point where you feel you’ve skipped details that are necessary to understand where you are. I loved this aspect of it. I could see the scenes without much effort and his ability to jump into cyberspace and out without giving the reader a hint of where you are before the scene begins felt fresh and special as I was reading it.

Highly recommend everyone to read it. And read it again if you already have, it resonates today as if he were predicting the future instead of entertaining with a a story. 

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22:40:27JAN:2021-19:40:29JAN:2021

The following photographs were taken over a series of walks around the grounds of a fishing lodge in Iceland. The lodge is situated in the countryside to the north of Reykjavík, about three hours drive away. Taken about a month after the winter solstice with a full moon, the light is all twisted around from what would be a normal winter landscape in any other location not so near the arctic circle.

Study 1.0

Is it boring to see the same photograph (more or less) over and over again? I once read about a school in Germany where the students are required to photograph the same subject for an entire year. Whether this method is similar to Bernard and Hilla Becher’s studies, or if it came from The German School of Photographers, I’m not sure, but this always fascinated me as a concept. I felt that the purpose of this was to slow your work down and make sure that you are considering all versions of the same subject before deciding what to present to the world. But what happens when all versions of the subject become as interesting as the a single version? Is there a holy concept that forces the artist to present one single photograph? What if the light is as much the subject as the landscape?

Terminator

A terminator or twilight zone is a moving line that divides the daylit side and the dark night side of a planetary body. The terminator is defined as the locus of points on a planet or moon where the line through the center of its parent star is tangent. An observer on the terminator of such an orbiting body with an atmosphere would experience twilight due to light scattering by particles in the gaseous layer.

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Salzburg in the Fall.

Right after my last post here, things got considerably busy in my life.

There was:

• A Listaháskóli portrait project

• an art festival

• a wedding

• a month in Berlin

• another wedding

• a French movie

• a dance festival

• a trip to Salzburg

• a month in the US

• working on an HBO drama.

It’s been as hectic as can be. I’ve gained so much over the last year, I don’t even know where to start. The above photograph comes from our trip to Salzburg, which was a pivotal moment in my life as of late. I bought a new camera and took some amazing photographs. This one was taken with my old camera and proves that I am now spoilt for choice when it comes to getting the correct moment. The compact, concealed nature of the Q makes a night shot like this super easy to pull off. You never feel exposed with that camera and its capabilities are beyond reproach. Not bad for a camera that is round about a decade old.

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When you realise the grass never stops growing.

Sat at dinner after a long day on set, still needing to get my truck into the security of a garage, what with all the merchandise in need of a secure space in a town of less than 1000 people, I looked at my health app and saw that I hadn’t yet reached 10k steps for the day. So, I got up from dinner, went to the garage and then walked to the beach with my camera. The resulting sight is what I present here, a black sand and blue cloud moment around 22:15. Ended my day with about 6 new snaps and 13k steps.

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Now that I’ve completed sharing a roll of portraits, I’ll follow it up with…another portrait. But this one is special to me, it’s easily one of the most amazing photos that I’ve taken in a while. Sometimes things just come together like so and make it special. The lighting here is really crazy as it looks as though Maggie is on a stage with the background added in later in post. I’m super proud of this one (and the photograph ;) too).