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   nathangibbs Flying tomorrow. Can’t decide whether I want them looking at or touching the #junk. 18 Nov 2010 from TweetDeck

Leaving San Diego was uneventful. There was no scanner at my checkpoint. They did do a quick pat-down of my upper body, but didn’t go below the belt. Leaving Dulles International Airport, I was diverted to a line that had the new scanners.

I decided to try both options. First, the scanner. Hands raised and feed spaced apart, I stood for my X-ray glamor shot. It was quick and silent. The agent directed me to step out and stand in line for pat-down. “Belt,” she said to the other agent. He asked me to remove it and to send it through the standard conveyor. He then told me he needed to check my waistline by running his fingers inside the belt line.

As I put my shoes on, I watched an older, pot-bellied gentleman get the more rigorous physical search. Standing behind the man, the agent spoke in his ear, “We can arrange a private room for screening if you would like.” He didn’t respond, so the agent knelt down to begin. The gentleman’s pants were falling down in absence of his belt, so the agent struggled to hoist them up. He checked up and down one leg, then hitched up the man’s sagging pants again. “Can you pull up your pants, sir?” The man obliged as well as he could with his curvature. It was sad to see this gray-haired traveler with his pants half off in a crowded airport. “He can’t hear out of one ear,” said the man’s wife.

After arriving in San Diego, Rosario and I headed to baggage claim. Yaoska Machado, a reporter for Univision San Diego, heard us speaking Spanish and asked Rosario where she was coming from. Rosario indicated I was the traveler so Yaoska directed her questions at me. She extended the mic and the videographer aimed his camera. I stumbled to answer her questions, suddenly nervous speaking Spanish on camera. But after the interview, I knew which clip she would use. It was the only usable sound byte I gave her.

As someone who crosses the border between San Diego and Tijuana regularly, it’s a geeky delight to win back the mayorship of the U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing at San Ysidro Port of Entry on Foursquare. Of course, there will be no discounts or special rewards offered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But it’s still useful to share with friends, and if anything, it’s a fun novelty. (Update: A day after posting this, @dr_chuy regained the mayorship.)

When I started using Foursquare, there were no border crossing venues. I added locations at both the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry. But soon after, I was ousted by more frequent crossers who joined Foursquare.

The border is a complicated place in terms of politics, culture, economics, language and cell signals. It should be no surprise that Foursquare check-ins are also messy. There’s no address at the international line between the U.S. and Mexico. There is an address for the customs office, but that location doesn’t jive with GPS data when people wait in line to cross. In this confusion, people have added a number of redundant venues. There are currently two with nearly identical check-in totals (at the moment).

Foursquare Check-in Totals at the U.S.-Mexico Border

• US/Mexican Border: 285 people, 437 check-ins
• U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing at San Ysidro Port of Entry: 143 people, 429 check-ins
• International Border San Diego, CA ( USA and Mexico ): 115 people, 140 check-ins
• US-Mexico Border: 38 people, 42 check-ins
• US-Mexico border fence: 30people, 31 check-ins
• US/Mexico border: 8 people, 10 check-ins

The venue containing “San Ysidro Port of Entry” in the title has twice as many check-ins per person as does the generic “US/Mexican Border.” I suspect it’s a case of locals vs tourists. I guess we’ll have to wait and see which venue becomes the dominant choice for border check-ins.

(And yes, that Border Crossing badge is fake. I mocked up a few different versions like Coyote and Illegal Alien, but decided to keep it a bit more subtle. If you know anyone at Foursquare, let them know I’m happy to provide additional feedback about improving border check-ins.)

“Arizona Border Patrol” by Kenny Harrelson

Kenny Harrelson collects and customizes Hot Wheels diecast cars and shoots with vintage film cameras. He’s an author and musician. Harrelson is also colorblind.

“This Arizona Border Patrol car was customized from a Hot Wheels Sheriff Patrol car. It was drilled, paint stripped, 2 coats of gloss white and the custom decals I created and applied,” Harrelson says in the photo caption on Flickr. He based the custom decals on border patrol cars he’d seen while living in Arizona. “I support the Border Patrol as they fight the tough fight.”

What’s even more impressive about the photo is the technique he uses to shoot diecast cars in scenes like this. Harrelson explains that the photo is indeed one single photograph without the use of Photoshop. The background is a printed photograph formatted to 1:64 Hot Wheels scale. The photo wraps under the car and up behind to form the scene. He then lights and shoots the final image. The effect is seamless and stunning.

You can see more of his work in the Flickr photoset Diecast Scenics:

The 2010 U.S. Census shipped this week to residents across the country. For those who consider themselves Latino or Hispanic, question #9 may cause some confusion. Question #8 asks whether or not a person is of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. No confusion there.

Question 8: Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?

Asked in 1970. The data collected in this question are needed by federal agencies to monitor compliance with anti-discrimination provisions, such as under the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. State and local governments may use the data to help plan and administer bilingual programs of people of Hispanic origin. (census.gov)

Question #9 separates ethnicity from race, considering Latinos can be of various races; Spanish-speakers in Latin Americans do come in all colors. Using the crude color analogy, the available choices include “white,” “black,” “red” and “yellow.” But nothing explicitly for “brown.”

Question 9: What is Person 1′s race?

Asked since 1790. Race is key to implementing many federal laws and is needed to monitor compliance with the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act. State governments use the data to determine congressional, state and local voting districts. Race data are also used to assess fairness of employment practices, to monitor racial disparities in characteristics such as health and education and to plan and obtain funds for public services. (census.gov)

Most Latinos have mixed ancestral heritage from indigenous Americans (Amerindian, Native American) and whites (or one of the other choices). But the “American Indian” category asks people to specify a tribe. In past census counts, the government ignored what Latinos wrote in here and counted them as white. But this year is different, according to Nicholas Jones, chief of the racial statistics branch of the U.S. Census Bureau. From an article written by Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez, assistant professor at the University of Arizona, the “fill in the blank” box will be calculated and not re-assigned:

If they are de-Indigenized or far-removed from their Indigenous culture, that is not of interest to the bureau. For those who have a direct connection, they can check American Indian and write in their affiliation, such as: Aymara, Quechua, Mixtec, Maya, Huichol or Yaqui, etc. If they don’t know their affiliation – which is perhaps the case for most Mexicans/Chicanos and Hispanics/Latinos, the bureau will accept “unknown,” “detribalized, “de-Indigenized” or “mestizo” or any other term that indicates or connotes Indigenous or American Indian ancestry. (politicalarticles.net)

For me, I will be marking both “White” and “American Indian” categories, writing in “mestizo” as the tribal affiliation.

Three of my pieces (Self-Portrait, Race Cube, Crayola Monologues) were included in the group exhibit "Embracing Ambiguity: Faces of the Future" at the Cal State Fullerton Main Art Gallery from January 30 to March 3.

Artists include Nzuji De Magalhaes, Kip Fulbeck, Nathan Gibbs, Loren Holland, Bryce Hudson, Delilah Montoya, Toni Scott, Laura Kina, Bradley McCallum, and Jacqueline Tarry. The exhibit was curated by Jillian Nakornthap and Lynn Stromick:

Embracing Ambiguity: Faces of the Future

It is estimated that there are 6.8 million multi-racial individuals living in America. It was not until the year 2000 that Americans were allowed to choose more than one ethnic category on the United States census. Embracing Ambiguity: Faces of the Future features painting, sculpture, video and mixed-media works by ten multicultural artists living and working in the U.S. In a world where labels are often forced upon us, these artists are searching for new, more layered ways to respond to the question: "What are you?"

For centuries, the majority group in power has felt the need to label what they deemed to be the "exotic other" or any person that was foreign to them. During the 18th century, in the Spanish colonies, artists used casta paintings to depict the results of the Spanish conquerors intermixing with the native people. Casta paintings were formulaic studies that illustrated couples of different races with their mixed offspring. Reflecting the trend of the Enlightenment to scientifically categorize the world, these paintings contained inscriptions like mulatto, wolf, and coyote. The paintings reinforced the superiority of the pureblooded Spaniards and attempted to quantify the percent of pure (Spanish) blood in the mixed-race individuals.

Going forward in American history, the One Drop Rule stated that any individual with a trace of African ancestry was considered black. In the 1960s, Jim Crow laws kept races segregated in public places. Anti-miscegenation laws forbidding interracial marriage were also still in effect. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, set a precedent. Mildred Loving, an African and Native American woman, and Richard Perry, a white man, were sentenced to a year in prison because the state of Virginia would not recognize their marriage; the couple would not have to serve a prison term if they left Virginia. The couple left, but took their case to the Supreme Court, who ruled that Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statue was unconstitutional. Ironically, Barack Obama or 44th president and a child of mixed race parents, was born in 1961 before the ruling took place.

This exhibition opens a year after the election of Obama, our first multiracial president. It was his image on a Time magazine cover that sparked our curiosity about the American identity. The photo of Obama was similar to that of a computer-generated face that appeared on a cover thirteen years earlier. Dubbed "The New Face of America," the image was a composite of many different races. It visually reinforced the idea that Americans were not so easily defined. The artists in this exhibition have an advantage in the search for answers as they represent with images what words may not be fully able to express. Their artistic expressions allow these artists to question the past, and look forward to the future with new visions and voices. We hope this will be a future without boxes, where no one will be limited to "check only one."

-Lynn Stromick and Jillian Nakornthap, January 2010

(The curators wish to thank Mike McGee, Marilyn Moore, Martin Lorigan, Joanna Roche, the exhibition design students, the artists and lenders, the Art Department, the Art Alliance, the AICC, the Multicultural Leadership Center, our families and friends. This exhibition would not have been possible without all of your support and guidance.)

La Orquesta de Baja California joined forces with Nortec Collective artists Bostich and Fussible on Sunday for a free concert in the plaza outside Tijuana’s cultural center. It was the final day of Entijuanarte, a three-day contemporary art festival featuring work ranging from painting and photography to digital and performance arts.

I’ve seen Nortec Collective artists perform before and it usually involves a lot of sitting behind laptops. But Sunday was a much improved live performance. Nortec’s signature sound comes from layering samples of banda brass over electronic beats. And for a city increasingly recognized for cultural hybridity, it’s only more fitting to have a high-brow orchestra perform pop culture riffs alongside electronic music for free in the public space.

The concert started with “Tijuana Makes Me Happy,” which garnered cheers despite a bad audio mix early on. “Tijuana Sound Machine,” the title track from the latest release by Bostich and Fussible, was well received; the song’s music video recycles the city’s campy heritage in a fun, sequin-covered spectacle.

In its early stages, the Nortec Collective seemed to be more widely received internationally than on its home turf. But that seems to be changing as the youth embrace the city as their own, taking pride in Tijuana’s cultural identity.

YouTube videos from Sunday, October 4, 2009:

Justine Bursoni is a graduate student in art education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an editor for the online magazine Smile Politely. She came across my Self-Portrait art piece online and wanted to include it in a lesson plan for a group of fifth and sixth grade students. She asked how I created my piece, and after giving her some tips, she had her students create their own paint swatch portraits.

“During the lesson,” Justine wrote in email, “the students were quick to note how identity comes in different forms, parts of identity can be shared… but mostly, one’s identity is unique and multi-faceted and how all should be recognized and tolerated.” It’s humbling to have my work aid that learning process, and even more humbling to be included in the list of self-portraits she used in her lesson plan:

• Charis Tsevis, “Barack Obama” (2008)
• Chuck Close, “Self-Portrait” (2007)
• Michael Mapes, “Poor Boy Michael Strange” (2006)
• Nathan Gibbs, “Self-Portrait” (2002)
• Grammy Posters (2009)
• David Hockney, “Mother I, Yorkshire Moors” (1985)
• Paul Klee “Senecio” (1922)

I also want to thank Justine for allowing me to post her PowerPoint presentation and lesson plan. The PowerPoint notes include her comments on the students’ reactions:

• Download PowerPoint Presentation
• Download Paint Swatch Lesson Plan

In the vein of open collaboration and online sharing, I put together some notes from our email conversation to provide a list of steps to help others create their own pixelated portraits.

How to Build a Portrait Out of Square Blocks of Color

In my case, I used Photoshop to create a reference image first. For best results, choose an image where the face has a solid color background. You’ll want to follow these steps in Photoshop to get the right result. These steps assume you’re printing the reference image on a standard 8.5×11 inch sheet of paper.

Photoshop Instructions

• Open and Crop: Open your image in Photoshop. Using the Crop Tool, crop it down to just the face. For this exercise, hold the Shift key while using the Crop Tool to make the crop a perfect square.
• Reduce to Pixels: Go to Image Size (on the top menu, Image > Image Size). Under Pixel Dimensions, change the units to “pixels” and adjust the width and height to 8 for both. This will end up giving you an 8×8 grid of one-inch squares. Important: Make sure the check boxes for both Resample Image and Constrain Proportions are checked. Select OK.
• Set Document Size: Your image is now 8×8 pixels. But you still need to make a second adjustment to the image settings before it can be printed correctly. Go to Image Size once more. Important: Uncheck the Resample Image check box. Under Document Size, set the units to “inches,” type in 8 for width and 8 for height. Select OK.
• Print: Everything is done and you’re ready to print. From the File menu, select Print :)

The final step in creating your pixelated portrait depends on your eye to match the colors. One tip I can offer is that the “value” or black and white levels of each color are more important to recognizing the final image than the “hue” of the color itself. For people to recognize the original image, it’s more important that it have the right amount of contrast than perfectly matching the nuances of each color.

If you do use this process to make your own, I’d love to see your project. If you have a place to upload images, post a link and describe your project here in the comments. Otherwise, send me a note and I can help you post it online.

Special thanks again to Justine for allowing me to publish her class materials and for sending the photo. Seeing that image of them working on their self-portraits puts a huge smile on my face. It’s truly rewarding to see an idea I had almost seven years ago come back to life in the hands of these young minds.

No, this moment won’t solve racial inequality or erase a history of injustice. But it is a blossom of hope, a testament for future generations not to give up. The final chapters in the rulebook of race and power are undone with the image of a brown-skinned president.

Here’s the problem. The legality of cameras inside polling places isn’t black and white; the laws vary state by state. Plus, some poll workers have only received basic training and will apply their own judgement. The Citizen Media Law Project suggests four things to avoid getting yourself into trouble: follow the rules, be discreet, don’t interfere with voters or the process, respect the buffer zone.

In California, election codes aren’t particularly clear. They prohibit recording within 100 feet of anyone entering or exiting the polling place with the intent to dissuade others from voting. This is where the above guidelines come in; stay low-key and they’ll likely leave you alone. I spoke with the San Diego County Registrar of Voters and they said photography and video will be allowed up to 25 feet away.

While inside the polling area, California Elections Code says you must be in the process of voting (i.e. not using a camera), are limited to 10 minutes, and can’t show your vote to others (i.e. not documenting your vote). While it doesn’t specifically state “no cameras allowed,” legal precedent hasn’t cleared up the specifics. Government officials err on the side of caution. The California Secretary of State’s office says it has “historically taken the position that use of cameras or video equipment at polling places is prohibited, though there may be circumstances where election officials could permit such use.” When I spoke to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, they said they won’t allow cameras inside the polling place except for credentialed journalists.

From a certain angle, this all seems very oppressive. This is a free country and I should have the right to video my vote, right? Yes, but other voters should also have the right not to be surveilled while voting. Poll workers are commissioned to protect the vote and can kick you out, even calling the police if you cause enough of a disturbance. This can all be avoided by sticking to the suggestions mentioned above. Pay attention and be careful not to record other people unwillingly.

Publish Your Photos and Videos on Election Day

• YouTube and PBS have partnered with Video Your Vote to gather first-hand accounts on election day. They’ve arranged the videos on a map to note voter intimidation and other problems at the polls.
• The New York Times’ Polling Place Photo Project collects images to create “an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.”
• Video The Vote is a watchdog group organizing people to document voter suppression and other problems.

In July, I was fortunate enough to get the photo assignment to shoot presumptive presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama. They visited San Diego for the National Council of La Raza conference.

Barack Obama at the National Center of La Raza Conference

Obama delivered a speech punctuated by applause. But it was still a bit lukewarm compared to what I expected. I’d heard stories of his charismatic delivery and rockstar-like receptions. That was all there, I guess, but there was a lingering stress in the air. Obama needed to get defeated Hillary Clinton supporters excited about voting for him. He got loud cheers in reference to oppressive immigration raids, but applause was absent from his discussion of details: securing the border first, path to citizenship starts at the back of the line, fines for non-legal status, etc. When the speech was over, he shook hands with the students seated behind him and made his way slowly through the front edge of the crowd.

The press were given a sideline area at about half-court in the convention center’s large ballroom. My 70-200mm zoom lens only got me close enough for a decent medium-wide shot. I had to crop the shot above by 50 percent to get something usable. At this distance, my lens looked pretty weak compared to the pros bumping shoulders next to me — the ones you see at sports games with what look like space-age sniper rifles. I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to get closer and, more specifically, that we weren’t allowed to get any closer. The only concession was being taken two-by-two into the center aisle for about 60 seconds, once.

John McCain at the National Council of La Raza Conference

McCain’s appearance had a dramatically different tone. For starters, his wife Cindy McCain accompanied him on stage. It felt warmer than Obama’s solo performance, somehow less formal and more classy at the same time. I couldn’t help thinking McCain scored a few extra “family values” points with the Latino crowd. He spoke not as if he were trying to impress, but as if he were having a conversation with friends. He took questions from the audience after his speech. And after conference organizers said the Q&A session was over, McCain threw the microphone into the crowd to take another question.

Before the speech began, there were rumors that we’d be escorted in small groups to the front lines. Apparently the McCain people caught wind of photographer’s complaints and agreed to allow us better access than during Obama’s speech. The conference staff members I spoke with said the campaign staff set the rules in terms of press access, not the conference itself.

Conclusions

McCain’s performance was definitely the most interesting of the two candidates, not only in terms of his interaction with the crowd but in his campaign’s interaction with the press. But I’m not sure how much of a difference it makes in the end. Of the photos I uploaded to Flickr, Obama’s mediocre shots have been viewed more than twice as much as McCain’s more dynamic photos. And of McCain’s, two-thirds of his views come from the photos of his wife Cindy.

We don’t learn anything terribly valuable from these numbers. Yeah, Obama has more buzz than McCain. And on average, Cindy McCain has more than either of them. Perhaps it’s really only an indicator of the superficial nature of the statistical mob. We can only hope the people vote based on their version of who will be the best president, not merely on who will be a best looking one.