Items: Observed / camera and radios (various), at a café in Okayama, Japan, Aug 2020
Items, observed: Camera and Radios (various), Okayama
Category Archives: Collections of Artifacts
essays and collections of photos with a theme or intent behind the assortment –more a dossier or exhibit – not to be confused with snaps and notes
Items: Library (dudes, artifacts, environments, etc), vols. 1~5
Items: Library, assorted vols. 1~5, ergo:
- Dudes
- Technologies
- Dispensers
- Environments
- Rooms
For the record: Okayama City Central Library (map)
56 Futsukaichimachi, Kita Ward, Okayama, 700-0843, Japan
Redux:
Annotations
Hat: cheap Thamel, Kathmandu
Mask: hemp, also from Nepal via Japan
Glasses: broken, from Bali
Shirt: (my design) Ambassador, Chiang Mai
Belt: brown, Fossil
Trousers: uniqlo (also boxers & v-neck)
Socks: (not seem but stripey), Buffalo, cheap at Ross in Montréal
Shoes: (not exactly Team Zissou) Adidas
Baby carrier: made in Japan (name escapes, update later)
#daveo50 (spectacles, various, vol. 2 / modern collection)
Spectacles (modern collection) / with accessories
I’ve bought boats for optometrists
Trying to see more clear
Paid for orthodontists
for kids of ophthalmologists
Sent the work of opticians
to unknown recipients
Examined construction of lens
from a bifocals dented nose
Understood refraction more than options
conglomerates of industrial design
Still evidence glinty abounds
enough to make a mobile
##
Personal Archeology – #daveo50 (spectacles, various, vol. 1 / classical collection)
Daily Ephemera, Oddities, Artifacts, Mementos, etc
2020 6.26 ~ 8.16
Artifact: in Kura various (clock, axe, name plate) #daveo50
Various artifacts in situ, as seen in “Kura Grain Barn Art Studio / Music Lounge” (which needs a proper name).
Note: Inside the kura grainbarn studio/music lounge. It’s a magnificent 150+-year-old wooden structure but dang, gets hot and humid in the Japan summer and with so many books, records, papers, artifacts, etc, im working to keep the temperature and humidity under control.
~
Under 70% humidity now which is a big step as a few days ago it was over 80%! Still too high to be comfortable and ideal for sure. Have two fans and a dehumidifier going on timers, a whole bunch of those little packets of salty kind of stuff, and some other “boxes“ of dehumidifying agents.
~
Most of these items were stored in climate control storage for years so want to keep them in good condition and avoid any kind of unnecessary deterioration. Not a professional archivist but I’m doing what I can.
#daveo50 (spectacles, various, vol. 1 / classical collection)
I’ve bought boats for optometrists
Trying to see more clear
Paid for orthodontists
for kids of ophthalmologists
Sent the work of opticians
to unknown recipients
Examined construction of lens
from a bifocals dented nose
Understood refraction more than options
conglomerates of industrial design
Still evidence glinty abounds
enough to make a mobile
##
Personal Archeology – #daveo50 (spectacles, various, vol. 1 / classical collection)
Daily Ephemera, Oddities, Artifacts, Mementos, etc
2020 6.26 ~ 8.16
Collection: Typewriters – Olympia SM9 (at Alas Manis, Nusa Ceningan), 2019
Continuing the story of the Olympia SM9 typewriter (from 2018 at Wonder Hotel) simply to show the difference a year of diligence and intrepidness can bring.
Yup, it truly was the most difficult of times, pulled in directions i didn’t want to go but then… states and provinces crossed, affairs sorted, planes and memories faced, trains and ferries joined / turmoil, bureaucracy, paperwork, disrespect and frustration, all well, just sort of sorted itself out. I mean, I know how but the point is: the time came when i was reunited with this typewriter and all was different from when i left it.
Still the keys get jammed, the ribbon inexplicably requires flipping/rewinding after barely a page of typing but, now smudged with thumbprints from changing said ribbon and supplied with aerogrammes from often lost countries, used envelopes with franked stamps (and sometimes intimate thoughts), and the usual hotel stationery, I made things.
Mostly poems and erstwhile letters, quite literally banged out without regard for perfection, just passion! Rapid transcriptions from scribbled journals, imagined lives of a doppelgänger, and notes from undergrounds.
Then joyfully accessorized with inky stamps and collages of postage stamps which may or may not have anything to do with the poem at hand (actually, they were all very intentionally consciously chosen but hey… that’s for the art to say). Oh, you can find evidence of these sessions in Items: Forgotten cycle vol. 7 Espionage and bits in vol. 6 Circumnavigation.
Now, the burly beast sits in a teakwood closet awaiting another opportunity to resist my indelicate fingers. Reminding me to touch gently with nuance and care.
All this is to say, art saves lives (in some cases anyhow).
#daveo50 “Personal Archeology Project” (pocket knives, various)
Personal Archeology – #daveo50 (pocket knives, various)
Daily Ephemera, Oddities, Artifacts, Mementos, etc
2020 6.26 ~ 8.16
Collection: Typewriters – Olympia SM9 (at Wonder Hotel, Sanur), 2018
Somewhere along the line, the wheels fell off completely, everything gone: life (rather death), love (so much), parents (both), career (ugh), health, confidence, desire, happiness, trust… all completely vanished.
Strung out, hospitals of a kind I won’t even mention, wrung out, battered and so very bruised… but, I pulled it together (thanks to kind pal) and found a safe place to hide.
A tiny room in a guest house ran by a kindly family who brought me coffee in the morning and otherwise gave me space to just be alone with, one small window, a fridge, a wet bathroom, a desk and bar, hard bed and two power outlets.
I purchased a typewriter and a printer and used in both extensively, enjoyably and liberally. The walls became covered with photos which caught my fancy, art which sparked something else, mementos of joys and fears to face.
The typewriter, and Olympia SM-9 from the 1970s (note: Owner’s manual (pdf): SM9-1970s) seems to be a knock off of some kind as I can’t find a serial number and, it just doesn’t have that solid precise action that the machine “should have”. There are a few foibles but it’s made of heavy solid metal, came “new in box” – shiny and pristine, just something is not quite right, kind of like me.
Anyhow, me and this machine typed poems on pads of hotel stationery, occasional repurposed telegram, letters which i’ll never send, and punk rock lyrics of angst and despair.
The neighbour was from Slovenia with a local mistress and a cigarette hobby and a little enough communication to be just the right amount.
I called this room “the Wonder Hotel” inspired by a SRO flophouse in my broken heart at home city of Vancouver. When i left, the daughters took down all my art bits and i made a massive scrapbook of rejuvenations, inspirations + amusements
I (mostly) hid, I (mostly) became calm, I pulled it together and then the future started. And started with this typewriter. Sloppiness and all. Maybe it is me after all.
#daveo50 “Personal Archeology Project” (lighter + matchbook / with cryptic message)
Personal Archeology – #daveo50 (lighters, various)
Daily Ephemera, Oddities, Artifacts, Mementos, etc
2020 6.26 ~ 8.16
Any guesses on what the string of letters mean? #spygames
Have you hit up the Riverwood Inn in Phillipsville, CA? Its haunted (i stayed the night there).
Artifacts: Sri Lanka / ink address and postal stamps + tea shack
I stayed in Sri Lanka (near Galle) for a while doing some Ayurvedic treatments, drinking tea and wondering wtf i was doing etc. As such, i made an address stamp for ease in my copious correspondence, usually performed at a tea shack down the road.
#daveo50 “Personal Archeology Project” (lighters, various)
Personal Archeology – #daveo50 (lighters, various)
Daily Ephemera, Oddities, Artifacts, Mementos, etc
2020 6.26 ~ 8.16
#daveo50 “Personal Archeology Project” (Fuji panorama camera)
Personal Archeology Exhibit – #daveo50
Pre-scheduled Daily Ephemera
2020 6.26 ~ 8.16
Fuji panorama camera
Purchased 1993, TOPOS discount department store (approx ¥3000), Tottori, Japan.
Used extensively (was first panorama camera i’d ever seen and i was fascinated and amused by function and design).
Still have instruction manual and receipt somewhere (note to self: add for the permanent record).
Note: when loading (35mm) film, had to choose “panorama” or “futsu/regular” for the whole roll. Developing in full-size panorama was expensive and not readily available so often shot panorama and developed “normal” resulting in a letter box style print (as you may have noticed in the personal archeology project).
When possible, chose to develop the full size panorama images which i find so interesting (and take a deliberate mindset to shoot).
Indeed, many snaps from 1993-6 (until the winder crank broke likely from salt water immersion though the camera was ostensibly waterproof) appear as rotating header images in this creative life archive – especially from Japan, Guam, Hawaii etc.