this posting was saved as a draft back in early november, 2006. i revive it here as i sit with too many thoughts to sort out for a new post...
cheers to a productive and thoughtful '07.
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last thursday a participant was waiting in the hallway while we wrapped our digital media class made a comment that i've had on my mind ever since. he was standing in the doorway, with headphones half in his ear and half not, wearing a baseball cap and bouncing and moving to the beat of whatever music he was listening to. addressing one of the young men working on a laptop in our class, he asked whether he (the laptop user) was "on camera," then laughed. i looked up, smiled, and he continued by saying that no one was going to get him on camera. then, looking in my direction, he asked me the name of the class. i told him. then he, with his hand occasionally tapping the top of the door frame said that he wouldn't ever have his picture taken. he didn't have any pictures of anybody, and no one has any of him. he concluded by saying that the only time he had ever gotten his picture taken was in jail.
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i have started sleeping with an assortment of documentary technologies around me, including a digital voice recorder ready to record the odd 2 a.m. fieldnote, and, of course, my computer. recently, it occured to me that the constant fading in, fading out of the light on the screen release latch on my mac was almost like its heartbeat. as it faded/breathed in and out, it reminded me that it was merely sleeping. and that i shouldn't worry, b/c it wasn't shut down or (gasp!) dead as i had feared several weeks earlier when the beating of the light ceased to exist.
so, as i have come to seek comfort in the lightbeat of my laptop, i start to wonder about other vital signs. what are the indications we look for as we look for signs of life... progress... movement... decay...
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