nirak.net - Musings of an LIS Student

Dan Cohen was nice enough to send me an invite for the private beta test for Zotero. So far, I’m really excited and really impressed, despite the fact that some stuff didn’t work for me.

What did work:

• Import from Worldcat, Amazon, etc.
• Export to the clipboard
• All the storage/retrieval features- search works fine, and in every field as far as I can tell. I can display and sort by any number of attributes. I can easily file things into categories and tag items for future retrieval. I can add notes.

Wish list / suggestions for improvement:

• I would be oh so happy if I could just get the import to work- I can easily export things from research databases, so it’s not that big a deal to me if Zotero doesn’t fill in that info automatically right away. I’ve got a lot in RefWorks that I would love to import.
• The addition of a “publisher” field to the website category. Others have suggested another category just for blogs, I don’t know if I agree with that. I think, for the most part, “website” covers it. But when I cite something from a blog, if it has a publisher, I include that. For instance, if I reference something from if:book, it looks like this:

  Vershbow, B. (2006, August 24). Librarians, hold Google accountable. Institute for the Future of the Book. Retrieved September 7, 2006, from [truncated because of display problems].

  I include the publisher because it lends more authority to the citation.

• I would love if I could drag and drop notes, as bits of text, into other areas.
• I would like user customizable exporting, just because I’m picky
• Addition of a “expand all” and “collapse all” button.
• Allow user to select text on a website and choose “add link to current page” and have that text show up as a note.
• Right now I can’t find any way to add a link to a page after the fact- you have to add it though the “add link to current page” selection, and then it always creates another entry. This might be useful in case of URL change, mirror sites, another page with the same article, etc.
• Integrated RSS feeds. RefWorks has this, and I really like it.

Now, one of my favorite features is the ability to use other extensions with Zotero. Take a look at this screenshot. Here, I have Zotero and Performancing open, I can easily copy text for quotations, and then export the references to the clipboard to paste in. I can easily add bibliographies to blog entries this way. I can envision writing an entire paper this way and then pasting into word at the end for final formatting. It would be really cool if I could grab a note in Zotero, or a link, and drag it down to Performancing. I don’t even know if that’s possible, but it’d be cool.

My only major gripe is that Firefox 2 beta is crashing my system. I don’t know if I don’t have enough memory (1 gig) or what, but every time I open the Beta during a session, I end up having to cut the power to get my computer to shut off. I’m really liking what I’ve seen of the Beta, though - especially the integrated spell check, so I hope I can work it out. I don’t know how much of the impaired Zotero functionality is because of Firefox’s buggyness on my computer.

The best part about Zotero is that the project is open source, and I know it’s funded for a bit, I can enter information in without having to worry that it’ll be useless to me in 3 months. I spent a lot of time importing things into RefWorks, but it’s slow and buggy and the server is not always up.

I’m really excited about his project, and I’m glad someone is pulling it off!

karin :: Sep.22.2006 :: Sites and Stories :: No Comments »

There’s a definite life cycle to art and writing, and surprisingly, the stages are very similar. I had always thought of these fields as so different, but I realize more and more that they are mostly alike. The phases one goes through, at least the phases I go through, run something like this:

First, there’s the idea phase. In art, this stage includes drawing in a sketchbook, taking photographs, or collecting odds and ends. For some artists, this stage includes writing, for some it does not. In writing, this stage may include journaling, starting blog entries (blog entries are often a great way to flesh out half formed ideas), notes jotted down on slips etc. For me, this stage comes in rushes- I will get a lot of ideas at the same time, and then the well will run dry, so to speak. I used to not listen to my writing impulses; I just pushed them down, saying to myself “I am not a writer.” Now I am more likely to record all of my ideas, whatever form they take. It seems like sometimes, I’m serving as a lighting rod, and ideas just come, and I wonder when I will ever have time to execute them all. The hard part here is figuring out what to act on, what has worth.

It’s all fine and good to have a list of ideas, but then comes the second stage, the execution. This stage is hard because it’s the most time consuming, it’s often not as fun as the idea generating sessions (though it can be), and it’s sometimes expensive. In painting, this stage can often have several false mis-starts - I might start several projects, only to have them peter out, before I stumble upon an idea that will stick. The execution phase sometimes happens when I’m low on ideas, so I dip into my storehouse and create. Sometime the execution phase is concurrent with new ideas. Sometimes the execution phase is dependent on collaboration - each party coming to the table with their unique ideas.

The execution phase is the romantic heart of life as an artist or writer. This is what we imagine most of the time when we think of an artist- spending hours alone in a studio, painting, sculpting, whatever. Or the writer, sitting hunched over their laptop, plugging away. The dread upon nearing completion of the execution stage is that you’ll enter the next stage- often the most annoying of all.

That third stage, for lack of a better name, I’ll call cleanup. However, I am lumping promotion in with cleanup, as they often go hand in hand. In writing, the cleanup portion begins with editing. I don’t know many people that enjoy editing, but it’s gotta be done. Depending on the presentation, the piece may go through several more editing processed by professional editors. If the piece in question is, say, a blog entry, you’re done. yay! In art, the cleanup process involved framing the piece, choosing how it will be displayed (although usually you have an inkling of this from the beginning). Unfortunately, framing something well is expensive. You can, of course, just throw the painting up on the wall, but this only seems to work well for large, modern pieces, so be careful! It’s easy to skimp on the framing, to say “eh, the buyer will buy a better frame anyway” but it really does matter. One way to alleviate this is to paint in a standard size so you can find an open back frame, this will likely be much cheaper than having one made. You can also invest in the tools to make your own frames, but it’s expensive, and it’s much too easy to turn out shoddy work. A good frame doesn稚 have to be expensive, but it will take time.

The promotion part of all this is usually just plain annoying, although some artists and writers excel at it. A writer will attempt to find an agent, or submit his or her book everywhere they can themselves. The artist will enter the artwork in competitions, or attempt to get into a gallery, or find an agent. Both the artist and writer can try to go the do it yourself route- either through a press like Lulu, or through an online store like etsy or a local arts fair. The part of all this that people don’t often think about, especially in the case of the visual artist, is how much self promotional writing one has to do. Besides cover letters that have to be uniquely tailored to each prospect, you have artist statements (usually one for each body of work), C.V.’s and, possible, press releases and other promotional material. Success could very well depend on your ability to do these things well.

Almost any writer or artist agrees that if you can get it, it’s better to have representation to handle the sale of your work, but as they say “nice work if you can get it…”

I had tried to include photography in this, but it really is a life cycle all its own. While it can start with an idea, it usually starts with an impulse. After you have a group of pictures, you cull through them to find the keepers. This revision process can happen more than once, until you have the precious few shots that are “worthy.” After that, you print, alter, print again, alter again, etc, etc. then comes that pesky framing and promotion part.

karin :: Sep.22.2006 :: Art :: 1 Comment »

I read a page recently (sadly, I did not save the link) devoted to convincing people NOT to blog. The reasons given were there’s already too much out there, yadda yadda. The assumption was that no one will want to read your blog. I disagree. I think at the very least everyone has family, friends and parents who would want to read their blog- while a worldwide audience is possible, it’s certainly not necessary and may not even be desirable.

I’ve been trying to think of why more people won’t blog. I will get long email updates from family members or friends, but when I suggest that start a blog, they freak. No way! I think the hardest part is figuring out what you want to put on the blog- how do you write in a way that’s at once familiar and not too revealing? It’s actually not that hard, it just takes some getting used to. The other issue is one of content- you may want to write some things that you wouldn’t mind everything reading, some things you’d only want friends reading, and some stuff that would only be of interest to family.

I think the new service Vox is pretty remarkable in that it gives you a way to control these aspects easily. In most other systems I’ve seen, if you wanted to control who read your blog, you had to make the entire blog private, only accessible to select people. Some have improved this with an option to password protect certain entries- but readers without access are still clued into the fact that they are missing something. Vox’s elegant solution is to simply not indicate at all if content exists that you’re not supposed to see.

Say you start a blog, writing about several topics- you post pictures and stories about your new baby, and being wary of predators, you want only friends and family to see these. You know your mom, for one, would be happy to get frequent updates and photos. Perhaps you have posts about a job search that you don’t mind your friends and family reading, but you don’t want your employer to stumble on. Maybe you have a few posts of a more personal nature, stuff you’re sure would make your mom blush, but you know friends would get a kick out of it, so you allow them to view it. Then you have stuff that’s ok for anyone to see- daily observations, a review of a new restaurant you went to, anything that is not potentially damaging. Vox makes it easy to manage these level of access- logged on friends will see all he posts you’ve given them access too, as will family. The general public will only see posts you’ve deemed acceptable for public consumption, and will have no indication that they are missing out on other content. This is key to me- having a notice that an entry is password protected and you can’t read it could make a person go “hmm. what is he trying to hide?” but if there’s no indication of it, it’s not an issue.

All this sounds like a big advertisement for Vox. Actually, I like publishing on my own server, and although I do have a Vox account, I don’t use it for much besides storing lists of books I want to read. My personal blogging philosophy has turned into “don’t post anything I don’t want mom to read.” However, if I could get more people using Vox, I would use it more. What I’m really hoping is that the dynamism of Vox will be incorporated in other blogging programs.

I’ve been thinking of this because I have a friend with a funny blog that happens to have some posts that are not for public consumption, so the whole blog is set to friends only. However, there’s sometimes stories on there that wouldn’t be bad for the world, or parents to hear. The stratification of content makes it possible to easily maintain separate online persona’s in one place.

As an aside, the other obvious solution to this conundrum is to start a totally anonymous blog, and either telling no one about it, or telling only those really close to you. I think, though, that in doing this you miss the ability to reach a ocal audience, and to reach out to those close to you.

You remember letters, right? These long things people used to write, to help connect to those around them? People used to write letters to people on the next block, even if they would see them the next day. It was not only a way to communicate, but a way to solidify thoughts. Many people would recopy their own letters to keep before sending them out.  As our demands grow, and we don’t have time to send long, in depth, carefully thought out and personalized messages to each person in our life, blogs seem like a great way to keep connected. So put that time and energy into a blog post, and share it with the world, knowing you’ve successfully separated the personal from the public.

All these thoughts keep leading me back to my Monolith paintings- the concept was the same- these different persona’s we show to different people, the fact that there is truly no one person that is “you.” There’s a next step here, and I’m not sure that it will be a canvas and paint type project. I’m still trying to work it out. I am, however, growing weary of all digital projects, mostly because I like working with my hands, I want to create something I can touch as well as see. I kind of hate this part of the creative process… when an idea is almost in my grasp, but it’s being elusive.

karin :: Sep.16.2006 :: Sites and Stories :: 2 Comments »

I have a bunch of blogs I want to read all the way through- but when it’s been going for 2 years, that’s a *lot* of posts. And I’m sitting close to my computer all day at work, I don’t want more of the same at home.

So I wondered if there was a way to read and navigate a blog across the room?

The first step is to get a remote. I got the Keyspan wireless remote, which, at the time of this writing is about $20 at Amazon. In absence of a remote, a mouse with programmable buttons and a long cord would probably work. Oh, and it helps to have a large monitor.

The second step is to make a page visible across a room- there are a few plugins for Firefox that let you zoom in on a page (like the new version of Opera, I suppose) but I used the Web Developer Toolbar, which I already had. This made it easy to add a new user stylesheet:

I then increased the text size so I could see it from 7ish feet away.

Next, I had to figure out the behaviors. The remote is programmable, so I set different buttons to do things like scroll up and down, page up and down, increase and decrease text size, and add a bookmark (so I can mark things for later reference). The only thing I couldn’t figure out is how to get it to advance to the next page? Luckily, some nice programmer wrote a handy  firefox extension called “Next, Please” that will automatically find the “Next” Link in a page and advance. From there is was a simple matter to program the keyboard shortcut into the remote.

Voila! Web surfing from across the room. This will be handy for reading ebooks too, I’m sure. I’m hoping it will be easier on my eyes than reading text close up.

karin :: Sep.09.2006 :: House and Home :: Comments Off

I had posted a while ago about my Overabundance of firefox plugins, but it looks like I’ll get another one soon. Dan Cohen posted about his upcoming tool Zotero on his blog. It’s a reference corralling tool, and I’ve been hoping and praying for something like it for some time, after using several other plugins and services, none of which work that well. My latest attempt has been to start using Movable Type- I was going to change the templates some to display citation information, etc. I believe I will abandon that attempt and just wait for Zotero.

And before you say it, yes, I realize that getting exited about a tool that helps me cite stuff is yet another reason I’m a dork.

karin :: Sep.08.2006 :: Sites and Stories :: 1 Comment »

More info about the exhibition on the Sheldon’s web site (also an MP3 of the artist speaking!)

I have a lot to say about Celaya’s lecture on Tuesday night, but I probably won’t get to that until next Tuesday. In the meantime, here’s my initial thoughts about the exhibition. I need to spend more time in the room, and this may be upaated.

Enrique Martinez Celeya last came to the Sheldon in 2003 to work on “the October Cycle” (see here and here.

(Read Celeya’s Short Bio here)

Celaya’s work often deals with a creative reinterpretation. An installation in a gallery or museum doesn’t mean that a work is done and finished, the work can continue to grow. In the case of “Coming Home” the boy and elk that are the central component to “Coming Home” were originally exhibited in 2001 as part of another installation. Dieter Rosenkranz bought that installation and generously donated the boy and elk to the Sheldon. Since the Sheldon did not have the other pieces (works on paper) that went with the original exhibit, a new installation was created with Celaya.

The effect is quite enveloping. I personally am a big fan of anything that alters the “white box” aesthetic of museums- the new, wrapped room is at once comfortable because if the forest imagery and oddly disconcerting. The pose of the boy is the most telling; he is a little awkward, as if he has not fully realized his place in the world. The confrontation with the elk serves to reinforce this. The elk is massive and dwarfs the boy, making him seem insignificant and fragile. The photographs of the boy in the ocean further illustrate his fragility and isolation.

The pictures of the woman in the room introduce another odd presence, and I am left wondering if this is a mother, a saint, and angel, a sister, a friend, or, perhaps, if there is no connection at all, just a presence that further sets the boy apart. While in a photograph hanging on the wall the woman is fully covered with makeup, the photo of her that is part of the “wallpaper” of the room shows her with no makeup from the neck up. This creates a strange dichotomy- if the woman existed only in the photograph, her presence would remain alien and separate, but having her “mask” removed on the wallpaper humanizes her. This human woman seems at once out of place and at home in this strange environment. As a visitor, I connect with her, and see her as an ally in my experience of the work- she is part of the room, but she stands apart as well.

From the photos I’ve seen of the previous installation of the boy and elk, I much prefer the current installation, which is, as a whole, more encompassing than the previous exhibition. The space at the Sheldon is ideal, in that it is closed, so when one is in this room one can more fully experience it.

As a side note- this is one of those exhibits that greatly benefits from a solo visit. While it’s nice to see the work with other people, it’s also distracting. It’s worth the effort to try and get to the Sheldon at some not too crowded time.

One other note- I’ve been trying to think of an appropriate soundtrack to the exhibition. I’m going to experiment with bringing in different music on my MP3 player. Silence is good, but it seems like there would be some kind of sound that complements the installation as well.

karin :: Sep.01.2006 :: Art :: No Comments »