Print Station: Printer

Amazingly, the print station printer is working great. The postcards all have the photographer's name on them, the location the photograph has come from, the assignment number, and the Shared Urban Space url. As I have mentioned earlier, the hope is that the user will mail the postcard somewhere else in the world and the receiver will in turn, join the SUS community. I am building the user interface for this part of the project using Flash, and I've had to format each picture individually with its relevant information in Photoshop.

Removable Self Adhesive Paper

For the long, narrow strips of photographs that will go around my exhibition space, removable self adhesive paper seems like a viable solution for mounting the photos cleanly to the wall. Earlier in the year I did research on this paper for something else I had planned to do. The only problems with the self-adhesive: Will there be bubbles? Will the strips come out straight? Only time will tell... Below is a mock up of the adhesive line of photographs. I made this model about a month ago. The final version will have no space in between the photographs, and the images will be smaller.



HP Self-adhesive Indoor Paper

Print Station: Mounting/Displaying Monitor

Part of the SUS Project will be a print station, where participants are able to print off any photo in the assignment as a postcard. The idea being that whoever receives the postcard next will join the project. The print station utilizes a touch screen monitor and a printer, which prints on 4" x 6" paper. This monitor did not come with any type of structure for presentational purposes, so I have to build one. I am also looking into ways to mount the touchscreen monitor onto a wall.

An old podium someone built for this particular touchscreen monitor awhile ago:





The touch screen monitor:




Me messing around with some things in my studio:



A TV wall mount I found at Ikea (Possibly one of the better solutions).

Archiving Photos: One By One

A look at the tedious process of archiving one photo for the Shared Urban Space Project. This process includes labeling a submitted photo with the photographers full name, and the location the photograph was taken in (city, country).

Current Look at Studio and New Projection Screen

Here is a recent snapshot of my studio space in the Millrace Studio complex. I have accumulated quite a few toys over the year, including TV's, old 35mm slide projectors, touch screen monitors and more. Not to mention a small army of models from all the different ideas I've had for this project over the year. Note the large mural that was at one point, the primary focus of my work.



Perhaps the most exciting recent development is this large data projector screen. It will be used for displaying the Shared Urban Space Project Photos in a slide show. The screen has a contemporary, slightly industrial look that will fit perfectly with the look and feel of the White Stag building.



Another look at the data projector screen. The small metal rectangular prism in front of the screen is actually a frame for a laundry basket I bought from Ikea. Originally, I was planning on using these for podiums for ten different slide projectors. Each slide projector was to be dedicated to one of the ten photo assignments. Now, I'm using the laundry basket frames as podiums for other parts of my project.

SUS Stories and My Latest Thoughts

Currently, the Shared Urban Space project is nearing 800 photos and 200 participants. I am still happy with my decision to abandon the slide projectors. They are not fitting to a project that utilizes so many newer technologies. This project needs to grow, not be permanently archived with expensive slides. I really see the exhibition of this project as an opportunity to inspire more people to get involved with SUS, and perhaps it will grow in unexpected ways as these new people join.

I have decided that there needs to be audio for my exhibit. To make this part of the project successful, I have begun asking for audio files sent in as email attachments from SUS participants. In these audio files, the photographers are asked to talk about an image they have submitted to SUS, or there thoughts on urban photography in general. To see this latest development in the project please visit: http://joelmertz.net/projects/sus/susStories.htm

Getting these audio files has been a very trying task. Using flickr, I have individually emailed every participant of the project asking them personally to send in an audio file. It's been a bit comical, because after every 10 emails sent the program forces you to quit sending letters as a precaution against spamming. So I have to wait ten minutes before sending out another 10 emails or so. I have received about 5 audio files so far, and they are truly amazing. I had no idea how dramatic it would be to have these stories from around the world played in succession. I am very grateful to the handful of people that have sent in their audio files. Thank you!