Mind-blowing show, on top of an amazing afternoon family performance. It’s an honour to see the band that got me through my teenage years live.

Video from Yuppyslayer.

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These two images continue on from my end-of-university project, Do You Dream, at the end of which I unearthed a series of dream-journal entries about space. They were filled with a kind of cosmic depression, as I was placed into experimental space missions with friends and loved ones. It was both beautiful and cruel, at once.

There’s one story (as posted previously) which made reference to Space Shuttle Columbia, and in particular its destruction in 2003. It seemed strange that I would remember such a detail.

It was only a few weeks ago that I discovered why. As a child in the late 90s, I had visited Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, and like any excited child I had bought a souvenir. I found it last month, at the back of my closet, and it gave me quite a surprise: it was a flag of Space Shuttle Columbia, from a time when its fateful disaster lay years ahead.

It’s a haunting connection, and one which explains the strange resonance the space-dreams have with me.

Related: Apollo 11 & Modern Aesthetics of ‘Cosmic Pessimism’

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I love using Aperture. As someone who has a lot of darkroom experience, I’m still amazed at the finessed control RAW processors like Aperture give photographers over their images. But, there’s still a few kinks to be worked out that may not be obvious.

Here’s the story.

I had spent around an hour working in the studio, using the (fantastic) DSLR Remote iPhone app to remotely shoot onto my laptop. Towards the end I got a few winners, and called it a day.

I packed up the studio, carried the laptop back to my office, and set up to start working. After firing up Aperture, I used the Import dialog to bring in the images from a folder on my desktop. Thumbnails stream into the project, followed by the camera’s preview images being replaced with Aperture’s own preview images.

After a minute, all the images seem to be imported and processed, so I send the original folder to the Trash. Back to Aperture: All but the final dozen images have been imported.

Even though Aperture had processed the images, the master RAW files were only mid-copy when I did my housekeeping. The final images were gone for good.

At this point, I was not a happy bunny.

I know this is a new feature in Aperture 3, and I appreciate the added speed to the overall workflow. My issue is that, for the images to appear in the library before any of the master images are copied, is confusing and misleading. The master files aren’t even locked to prevent their deletion during the import.

This is more of an observation than a complaint, but it has caused a day’s work to be lost. Let this be a warning to other Aperture users, while I wait for a response from inside of Apple.

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I’ve heard Brian Eno’s name a few times lately, most notably for the simple yet mesmerising iPhone apps he has collaborated on. But it wasn’t until this month I had a chance to listen to his album Apollo, soundtrack to the eerie 1989 documentary For All Mankind.

The highs and lows of the US space program are particularly resonant for me: In 2005 I was treated to a series of dark, sublime dreams where I partook in space projects with dear friends, and was faced first-hand with the prospect of never coming home.

While some of these feelings were explored as part of my end-of-year project, it was Eno’s suspenseful soundtrack that sent my imagination soaring. There is a wonderful modern aesthetic to be explored on the theme of ‘cosmic pessimism’, a term often associated with the epic work of H. P. Lovecraft.

Some of the best examples I have seen (so far) of this are the post-space-race documentaries of the Apollo 11 mission. The aforementioned 1989 production For All Mankind forms a narrative through simple choice excerpts of NASA stock video and imagery, with a sublime soundtrack composed by Brian Eno. There was even a special edition, released by the National Geographic Society, which featured no narration at all.

Another stellar example is MoonFire (recently re-published at a more reasonable price), a large hardcover book which recounts the strangeness of man’s first flight to the moon, as documented by Norman Mailer. The book features gorgeous photographs aggregated from NASA and various media outlets of the time. The images from NASA, most notably, beautifully portray the surreal nature of the training and preparation that went into such a daring mission. Astronauts and scientists alike are bound and caged by strange machines, simulating out-of-control spacecraft and other unlikely scenarios. It really is an amazing collection.

This modern aesthetic of space exploration seems to be an interesting theme to explore, and I’m sure there are many artists that feel the same way. Read past the break for an entry from my 2005 journal, which I think pinpoints some of my own thoughts and ideas.

Continue reading Under Stars: Apollo 11 & Modern Aesthetics of “Cosmic Pessimism” »

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acamar on Vimeo (via Cinema5D)

Stunning cinematography by Kanamé Onoyama. Beautiful use of lighting in this fantastic video. Totally captures the feeling of the music.

At first I thought the way Uitti’s cello is lit up was a neat lighting trick on polished wood – but no, her cello is really made out of aluminium.

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