The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

“Welcome to my room” – A YouTube video showing my outdoor photo installation for Fotoweek DC
|| 11/5/2009 || 3:23 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

This short video documents my temporary photo installation called “Welcome to my room.” for FotoweekDC 2009. The installation consists of about 24 random photographs that I had doubles of in my archives. They were stapled to the temporary wooden walkway on the west side of 14th Street near the intersection of T Street, NW, Washington, DC. The building for which the temporary walkway was constructed will become the chain department store called Room & Board. So welcome to my Room, I hope you are not Bored. Please add your own photos to the walkway and make the room ours. Send me photos of your additions.

UPDATE – I’m pleased to say that in the week since I installed the photographs, they’ve all been removed. Every other day I walked by the exhibit to see how many were remaining, which were mixing with the leaves on the sidewalk, and by yesterday they were all in the urban ether. The installation was never meant to be permanent nor really even a serious photographic exhibit, just an experiment, and since the photographs were all duplicate photos from 1992-2002, their sacrifice totally was worth it!

The Mural Non-Controversy: From Edgewood to the Edge of the World Vs. ANC Commissioner Marshall Phillips
|| 8/28/2009 || 6:04 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

watch video on YouTube

Last Sunday there was a great article in the Washington Post about the just-completed mural in DC called From Edgewood to the Edge of the World. My good friend DECOY participated in the construction of the mural (and is shown in the video above), so when I originally saw the video clip on TV, I laughed out loud and decided to save the video. I originally attempted to embed the video about the story here on this blog, but was unable to do so properly, so I uploaded the video to YouTube. After I posted the video on Facebook, I decided to e-mail the popular street art blog Wooster Collective, who had posted a call to artists a couple weeks ago. The following day they posted the video under the headline “Stupidity in Washington, DC.”

The joke of this story is that there really is no controversy. Rather its one ANC commissioner, who doesn’t have much appreciation for art, trying to make a fuss about a unique cultural attraction in his neighborhood. I think it was the Redskins reference that really got me laughing. The team isn’t even located in Washington, DC! I sincerely hope someone makes a stencil of the Redskins logo and adds it to the mural. Not to comply with his request, per se, but to just make a point about the transient nature of street art. Since the artists approached him before the mural was even started, he had the opportunity to participate in the painting of the mural. So for him to complain about it lacking local relevance is in poor taste. But then again, he’s wearing a neon green jumpsuit, and from the looks of it(?), has his beard dyed grey. I’m curious about what he hangs on the walls of home.

As a side note— I really really really dislike the blatant racism exhibited by some YouTube users. The video has been viewed about 2,000 times since I uploaded it and I’ve already had to delete some racially charged comments. This is not the first time I’ve had to deal with this type of digital bigotry. The YouTube video of George Bush getting booed at Obama’s inauguration had quite a bit of hate speech. So what gives? I am debating if I should just turn off comments on all the videos I upload so I don’t have to be the intolerance nanny.

A message to MTV’s Real World DC cast members: IN THE REAL WORLD ALL AMERICANS DESERVE FULL REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS
|| 7/14/2009 || 11:58 pm || 2 Comments Rendered || ||

MTV’s show “The Real World” is currently filming their next season here in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC. There has been a lot of hoopla regarding the cast & crew being in DC; from a pop culture blogger hoping to actually get inside of the house to neighbors who started an Anti-Real World DC blog which describes in detail the comings and goings of the cast to even a Twitter user that only tweets gossip, errr, Newz about the cast. I haven’t watched the show in years, so I’m mildly amused by this type of hype.

For the last few weeks I had been brainstorming about a way that would hopefully spark a discussion about DC’s lack of congressional representation on the show. I came up with phrase: “IN THE REAL WORLD ALL AMERICANS DESERVE FULL REPRESENTATION CONGRESS.” Earlier today I went to Kinkos, printed up 10 copies, and this evening I put them all up around a one block radius of the house. I am curious how long they’ll stay up! I am even more curious if they’ll even discuss this civil rights issue on the show.

Update: below is a TwitPic photo by Mehan Jayasuriya that taken the following day. It’s been viewed over 1,500 times!

The message made its way to the Washington Post on Sunday, August 16th, 2009:

Screen grab from the Washington Post article about the Real World in DC where the text of my sign is transcribed

One Third Representation Flyer Posted Outside of Busboys & Poets
|| 10/21/2008 || 11:25 am || Comments Off on One Third Representation Flyer Posted Outside of Busboys & Poets || ||

Photograph of the One-Third Representation Flyer outside of Busboys and Poets

In August of this year, I posted the newest 1/3 representation graphic that had been sent my way. Last night I was at Busboys & Poets, a restaurant off U Street in Washington, DC, and I saw that someone had posted the flyer up on the electric box. Curiously, I am told that the owner of Busboys & Poets is on the board of directors of DC Vote, which is the DC-based non-profit that is behind 1/3 representation in Congress. Maybe this flyer was directed at him? I hope so. I also wonder if the flyer has been placed anywhere else in the city? Anyways, the photograph is taken in such a way that its difficult to read the flyer, so click here in case you are interested in reading the text of the flyer.

Related D.C. Colonist Entries:

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Stickering Shepard Fairey’s “The Duality of Humanity” in Washington, DC
|| 10/17/2008 || 2:51 pm || Comments Off on Stickering Shepard Fairey’s “The Duality of Humanity” in Washington, DC || ||

Stickering Shepard Fairey's The Duality of Humanity in Washington, DC with I LOVE VANDALISM

Early Friday morning I left my house with a sticker with the one intention of placing a sticker on the poster of street artist Shepard Fairey‘s “The Duality of Humanity” which has been stuck up all around this country, from Denver to San Francisco and now, not far from my house in Washington, DC.

It was literally a tongue in cheek action because the sticker was temporary and message was humorous: I <3 Vandalism. I had obtained the sticker from a random street art book a friend gave me for my birthday. The reason behind doing this was two-fold. First is that some forms of street art is vandalism. The other, more important issue, is that Fairey’s street art is merely stylish propaganda, which deserves to be defaced over time, like all street art.

It’s really the Barack Obama poster that gets to me. In my opinion, there is nothing revolutionary about Barack Obama’s character. Nothing. He stands for the status quo. It might be progress that he might becomes president. But when placed in the context of revolutionary ideals and presidential aspirations, this street art becomes explicit Democratic party propaganda and thereby subverts his entire message.

Moreover, its gimmicky— have an acclaimed street artist come to town, put up some large prints that depict ironic pseudo-revolutionary memes on derelict property, have a gallery opening to sell it to rich folk who keep the duality alive, and put up Barack Obama posters on the side. I get it and it sells well. Yet political art should have a larger message that is defiant of the status quo. To embrace the partisan, lesser of the two evilism, might be a Duality of Humanity, but its politically feeble-minded and artistically weak, but it sure is nice propaganda.

Detail of Shepard Fairey's The Duality of Humanity in Washington, DC

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SloMo the Statehood Snail visits Swampoodle
|| 5/9/2008 || 1:13 pm || Comments Off on SloMo the Statehood Snail visits Swampoodle || ||

SloMo the Statehood Snail hanging out at the corner of 1st & M Street NE in Washington, DC

On Tuesday evening after I had finished putting the last coat of wheat paste on to my base map installation at Artomatic, I decided to venture outdoors and place one of my favorite cartopomorphic creatures on to a couple lampposts outside of the venue.

The idea was to see if anyone would recognize the SloMo the Statehood Snail when they visited my exhibit space. He’s placed about six times on the base map and on three lampposts outside of the venue.

Artomatic opens tonight and I look forward to seeing if anyone recognizes him when they visit my exhibit space. My null hypothesis is that visitors will not notice the lil bugger.

SloMo the Statehood Snail outside of the Metro exit on M Street

SloMo the Statehood Snail in a Swampuddle!

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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: