eronrauch

I don't know, honestly, this has been an artistic issue I can't quite wrap my brain-meats around... These totally overloaded and nigh-chaotic images of MMORPGs in full swing, with the interface left on as well the text, etc. are utterly fascinating to me. The really, in some ways, are astounding documents of the sheer visual data that we, in contemporary society, subject our selves to for pleasure (Philip K. Dick anyone?), but yet, I can't quite figure out what do with them artistically. As a lawyer at the recent "Culture of Virtual Worlds" conference mentioned, the law applies differently in the space of games (think how few or no prosecutions arise from thrown elbows and injuries from tackles that happen on the court or field) but does that mean that the art world may function very differently when it comes to the space of games? After all, Duchamp supposedly gave up making art to play chess, since it was superior to painting... yet continued to make art but not show it as contemporary scholarship has shown again again despite the massive mythology around his work in the dada scene... Part of me just wants to make a large, gorgeous print of the following image and tell the photo/art world to rot! But I'm very confused...



"Suicidal Tendencies Raids Karazhan"
Inkjet Print, 2008

I'm currently attending the the University of California at Irvine's conference "The Culture of Virtual Worlds" and I wanted to share a couple of images from my projects involving World of Warcraft that I've been looking at using in my upcoming show at the Art Mecho museum in Second Life. More information will be coming as it develops.

A few more images from my anime documentary project while I tinker with a couple of new-ish projects in mind I might start posting to get some feedback on. Also, there is a chance that I might be having an online exhibit of my World of Warcraft images in a virtual gallery in Second Life. More info coming as I learn about it.



"Initial D (Fanime 2005)"



"Room Party (Animagic 2005)"



"Check-out (Anime Expo 2007)"



"Main Programing (Animagic 2004)"

I'm about to step into WoW for a bit to meet up with my friends from Illinois (we play for a couple hours on Sunday as a way to keep in touch) but I wanted to add a few more photographs from my anime convention project for everyone to ponder. As I get more of these images posted, I'd love to hear thoughts on how the images are interacting, or if you have thoughts about what additional images might flesh out this portrait of otaku-life more fully.



"Front Entrance (Anime Expo 2007)"



"Capsule Hentai (Fanime 2005)"



"Three (Anizona 2004)"

I'm not really sure how many of these posts I'm planning on making, but hopefully there will be enough new images (since there are about 100+ rolls of images that few people have seen aside from the lecture) that it will continue to be interesting. With around 300 rolls of film, with 36 frames on each, I'm still finding new images with each flip through the proofs...


"Vending Machines (Animagic 2006)"



"Long Beach Moon (Anime Expo 2007)"


"Dealer's hall, Airbrusher (Anime Expo 2007)"


"Legs, Drinking (Anime Central 2003)"

So, my Dad has been visiting from Chicago [both to get away from the record setting snow this season and to see my show up in Los Angeles]. A while back I had given an artist lecture at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design on my photo-documentary of anime conventions. It's a really personal project in so many ways, since it weaves my own autobiographical frenzied relationship, and subsequent alienation, to the American anime scene with an burgeoning interest in pushing the boundaries of photography. It's a project that makes me sad, not in a bad way, but in a good way, because of it's combination of ruthlessness and lyricalness, intimate and crowd.

So anyway, my dad wanted to see the images that I had used for the lecture. After showing them I wasn't really sure what to say. I have been working on other projects primarily since the lecture (owing to getting burned out). But something about being in that liminal space between the foggy, ponderous, chill of winter and the humid lucidity of spring always triggers a bit of chagrined nostalgia for my otaku days. But rather than ramble further, I thought I show a few images over the next week:



"Slap (Anime Central 2003)"



"Executive Wing, 2AM (Anime Central 2005)"



"Autograph Table (Anime Expo 2006)"

So, I have a number of resolutions that mentioned that I'll be passing along as a way to start my blog. Now that we've all sloughed off our hangovers (mostly), one of my main resolutions is too make sure to carry a camera with me as often as possible. Not that I need to be one of those guys who regularly wears a photo-vest and three Leicas to walk two blocks to Vons to get milk [lactose-free please]. You know, one with a wide-angle lens, one with a long lens, and one wide-with-color-film... But I often get very mono-focused on whatever larger project that currently has been consuming my fancy. However, keeping open to the world around, random interesting ideas and new trailheads for projects is as much a part of a healthy art practice as finishing the long slog through the years it takes to build a big body of work.

One corollary to this Resolution, which I'll get much more in-depth with in a future post, is that I'm switching to being primarily digital based. I'll spare you the "I saw the light" speech for now (which would be a lie anyway), and just say that I do have a nice, but older Canon DSLR that was initially purchased for my job. One of the reasons that I've been grumbly about carrying around my camera is that it has about a three second start-up time, has a 1.6 magnification factor on lenses (meaning my wide lenses aren't wide on this camera) and is unusable at any ISO but 100. Fine for a workhorse at my job doing casting photography, but not for the chaos and confusion of being out and trying to interact with the visual poetry of the world. Yeah, I know, I'm being really picky. But I've put over 70,000 shots on that camera none-the-less. So Resolution 1.5 is that I need to save enough money to buy a current Canon digital SLR and a really wide EOS-mount prime lens (like a 24 or so).

Eron Rauch, "Out of Print" 2007, Archival Inkjet Print