The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

Localized Self-Portrait #2
|| 10/11/2005 || 10:22 pm || Comments Off on Localized Self-Portrait #2 || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

One good rendering deserves another, right? I figured what the hell, why not make another Janus Series Self-Portrait! I’ll try not to make too many more :)

This one is slightly different than the first, in fact its quite a bit different. I started with a picture of myself that I took in my room last summer. I chose this picture of myself because 1) I like the way I look it (aka I think its a cute photo) 2) I love the blue fabric I have on my wall in my room, and this picture captures it’s the deep blue color with subtle touches of polyester luster.

Surrounding the picture of myself, lets call this the inner frame, is a delayed exposure photograph I took of a campfire in Colorado two summers ago. (You can view the original photograph here). I chose this photograph because the orange would contrast the blue in the fabric. I also chose it because of the contrast with the outer frame, a tessellated USGS aerial photograph of my house (which can be seen in the second detail below the fold). The idea, as cheesy as it sounds, is that I’m burnin up the neighborhood :-) Or as a historical corollary, my neighborhood, or at least the area around my neighborhood, was burned in the 1968 riots (which took place after Martin Luther King was assassinated) and the flames are also a fitting reminder of the history.

This rendering is also different because I chose to rotate the tessellation 45 degrees, which created an interesting checkerboard effect. I also chose to only reflect the source imagery 4 times instead of the roughly 16 reflections the last self-portrait received.

Up next- an abstract for the paper presentation I am going to give at the Association of American Geographer’s Annual Meeting in March. I’ve got a bad case of writers block tho…

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Janus Series
|| 10/10/2005 || 12:08 pm || Comments Off on Janus Series || ||

So after looking at my last two renderings, I realized they looked like the two-faced Roman God Janus. I went over to Wikipedia and looked up Janus…

this is the current entry:

In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings. His most apparant remnant in modern culture is his namesake, the month of January. Though he was usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions (Janus Geminus (twin Janus) or Bifrons), in some places he was Janus Quadrifrons (the four-faced). The Romans associated Janus with the Etruscan deity Ani.

Janus was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, and of one universe to another. Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as marriages, births and other beginnings. He was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and civilization, rural country and urban cities, and youth and adulthood.

Janus was supposed to have come from Thessaly in Greece and shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium. They had many children, including Tiberinus. Janus and his later wife, Juturna, were the parents of Fontus. Another wife was named Jana. Historically, however, he was one of the few Roman gods who had no ready made Greek counterpart, or analogous mythology.

As the sole ruler of Latium, Janus heralded the Golden Age, introducing money, laws and agriculture (making him a culture hero).

When Romulus and his men kidnapped the women of the Sabines, Janus caused a hot spring to erupt, causing the would-be attackers to flee. In honor of this, the doors to his temples were kept open during war so that he could easily intervene. The doors and gates were closed during peace.

Now what is weird, is my desire to name these recent renderings, the “Janus Series,” like the Star Series, Memory Series, Mother Earth Series, etc.

I googled “Janus Series” to see who else has used that two word phrase, and the first result (I’m feeling lucky) came with a result of…. Johannes Kepler’s The Secret of the Universe (Janus Series)

After doing a search for The Secret of the Universe Johannes Kepler scrolling down the page I find a mention of the book on, of all places, the Schiller Institute website. I didn’t even know this “institute” existed…..and it’s based here in Washington, DC!

Today is Columbus Day and it’s also my birthday– I live in a district named after him and today we are sharing the celebration of the day together. I am worried that his karma might get out of hand tho- 513 years is a long time. We’ll see!

Self-Portrait
|| 10/9/2005 || 6:31 pm || Comments Off on Self-Portrait || ||

: rendered at 18,000 X 12,000 :

Using a picture I took of myself in the Iao Valley in Maui, Hawaii on January 6th, 2005, I tessellated the picture (1200X1200) around the edges of a 4800 X 4800 pixel canvas. This allowed for a 2400X2400 square in the center to be filled with an image of my choosing.

In the spirit of my Jefferson Mandala print being at the MOCA DC/A&M Gallery, I chose to use the same source imagery, the first derivative of the Mall Quilt.

I added one extra touch in Photoshop, which I’ve never done before, I added some black glow to the picture of myself. This caused the aerial photograph to appear just below the frame. Almost as if there is a layer of the earth just below the blue sky, the aerial photography seems to float perfectly in the center of the tessellated mosaic.

I chose the quirky picture of myself because:
I liked the angle at which I took it (mountains!),
I liked the “what you lookin’ at,” half-smile, grin
I liked the color of sky (and even the two lens blemishes)
I like the contrast of the green to blue to white tones

The result, is definitely one of my favor works yet. The process of setting up the source imagery in photoshop is probably the most exciting part of it all. I can now do large mosaics with multiple aerial & satellite images. What will come next? We shall see…

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seeds of change
|| 10/8/2005 || 2:38 am || Comments Off on seeds of change || ||

Today I started to make the conscious decision to save the seeds from the vegetables I’m harvesting from garden. I have a small pile already of my favorite green pepper :) I am drying out an eggplant as well. Saving seeds cuts out next year’s middle man, and I’ve never tried this before.

Next year I am going to politely ask my neighbor if I can plant his fallow backyard. I doubt he’d mind free vegetables! As it is now, he mows it like two times a year. Usually when the grass gets about 2ft high .I figure that all I’d need to do is go in the back yard two times a week to inspect the plants, and I can water the backyard from our second story balcony. If I buy a second hose I can keep it up there and water his backyard in the afternoons. I think I’d grow corn & sunflowers if I get the chance to.

After raining the last few days, the cold front made this evening feel like the first day of fall. Its time to harvest and plan for next year.

It’s Up – Check it Out!
|| 10/7/2005 || 6:37 pm || Comments Off on It’s Up – Check it Out! || ||

Check the print out using the interactive Zoomify flash application.

This print was displayed at MOCA DC/A&M Gallery
Located at 1054 31st St., NW, Canal Square
Hours: Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat – 1-6pm Until October 28th, 2005

Jefferson Mandala – signed 30X20 Framed Kodak PerfectTouch Print

Sensors Spatial Analysis of Tularemia on the National Mall
|| 10/6/2005 || 4:47 am || Comments Off on Sensors Spatial Analysis of Tularemia on the National Mall || ||

An attempt at being funny (cartographic humor) using a cute red-eyed rabbit as an icon of the locations of the sensors that found “rabbit fever.”

The other (below) is a quick & dirty spatial analysis of the area around the protests made using NASA’s World Wind (free), Google Earth (free), and Photoshop. I used the measure tool in Google Earth to measure a mile from the Lincoln Memorial, I used World Wind to acquire the USGS imagery, and Photoshop to draw the circles. The Lincoln Memorial’s circle served as the template for the other two sites.

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My first gallery submission
|| 10/4/2005 || 7:51 am || Comments Off on My first gallery submission || ||

Tomorrow I am going to be dropping off a signed & framed print of the Jefferson Mandala at the MOCADC/A&M Gallery in Georgetown. There is currently an open call for submissions for a non-juried, “Architectural, Landscape, and Figure Exhibit.” So for $42 dollars ($35 hanging & $7 donation), I am going to hang a print for the first time at a gallery, and I must say I am excited! I personally don’t care if someone buys it or not, its just the fact that over a hundred people will look at it is what I care about…. well it would be nice to sell another print. If it does get sold it will be number…ummm… number 10 I believe. Which would be the perfect present because my birthday is in less than a week.

updates
|| 10/3/2005 || 7:26 am || Comments Off on updates || ||

I added to the Render Radio a 6 minute clip of DJ Bailey’s set at the Rudebwoy Shuffle recorded earlier this summer. Click PLAY to listen to the clip! It’s two songs mixed together. HOTT! This mp3 was played quite a few times this weekend. Sometimes music can be therapeutic ya know? If the Render Radio flash animation doesn’t show up, click here to listen :)

I also finally got around to adding my entry about the 911 “Freedom Walk” where Angela & I muckraked Donald Rumseld. Read it here.

Knot the National Mall
|| 10/2/2005 || 3:17 am || Comments Off on Knot the National Mall || ||

: rendered at 15,000 X 10,000 :

Knot the National Mall

more later…

grrr….

{no tyme to type}

lets just say last weekend’s festivities caused a knot in the National Mall.

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Adams Morgan – White House Quilt
|| 10/1/2005 || 9:48 am || Comments Off on Adams Morgan – White House Quilt || ||

Adams Morgan – White House – two fabric Quilt

rendered at 18,000 X 12,000

Sucks… I like the template, but I don’t like the way this came out. The Adams Morgan aerial photography looks a bit bleached out compared to the White House imagery. Yet what is important about this rendering is that I used two different types of spatial resolutions and I used two different types of objects. The White House imagery is mapped on to 4 rotated infinite planes (object one) and on the Adams Morgan imagery is mapped on about 40 pyramids grouped and rotated in a circle (object 2). The first time I used the White House pattern like that was with DC Lenz #4, and this is only the second rendering I’ve used the Adams Morganimagery in. I don’t think I’ll be using them together again.

View the Google Map of the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, DC.

: zoom to center :

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Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: