Laptopogram, Clickblog intervista Aditya Mandayam
mercoledì, 28 aprile 2010
Aditya Mandayam abita a Fabrica, programmatore, matematico e prima ha lavorato anche come lucidatore di bare.
Sta diventando molto famoso in rete grazie ali suoi Laptopogram. In pratica realizza delle stampe fotografiche partendo da foto mostrate sullo schermo del proprio computer. Abbiamo avuto l’opportunità di fargli un’intervista che vi proponiamo in esclusiva (nel seguito del post un aggiornamento esteso, in inglese).
Come ti è venuto in mente l’idea del laptopogram?
Sono molto pigro ed ero sdraiato al sole quando mi è venuta quest’idea.
Puoi spiegarci come funziona il sistema?
La carta fotografica è sensibile ad ogni tipo di luce. Il tempo ed il tipo di luce che colpisce la carta determina il tipo di immagine.
Un laptopogram si realizza tenendo la carta fotografica contro il monitor ed accendendo lo schermo per qualche secondo. Dopo si sviluppa la stampa nella maniera classica.
Ovviamente non è necessario un portatile. Potete usare una televisione o, per esempio, un iPhone. Qualsiasi tipo di schermo.
Quali sono i vantaggi di un laptopogram?
Questa tecnica permette di fare velocemente delle stampe a partire da qualsiasi immagine digitale: foto, grafica o persino filmati.
Inoltre il tempo per realizzare una stampa è poco.
E viene bene.
Come provare a realizzare un laptopogram in casa (regolazioni monitor, tempi di esposizione, ecc..)?
Il minimo che vi serve sono i reagenti chimici, la carta fotografica ed una stanza buia.
Tutto il resto è variabile.
Ha usato una padella del mio forno per lo sviluppo, una lampadina rossa della mia bicicletta per vedere al buio ed a volte utilizzo il caffè per fare stampe.
Quali consigli daresti per chi ha voglia di provare a realizzare un laptopogram?
Arachide + coriandolo = good.
Come prevedi di migliorare la tecnica del laptogram?
Con la pratica.
Risposte in inglese.
How did the idea came to you?
I’m terribly lazy and was lying down in the sun and the idea just came into my head.
Can you explain how the system works?
Photopaper is sensitive to any kind of light. The amount and quality of light, and the time for which you shine light on the paper determine the image.
Laptograms are made by taking a sheet of photo paper, pressing it against the monitor of a computer, and turning on the screen for a little while. After exposing you develop the print in a standard manner.
You dont need a laptop, of course. You can use a television, or an iPhone for example. You can use any kind of screen.
What are the advantages of a laptopogram?
This technique allows me to quickly make prints from any digital image: either photo, or graphics, even movies.
Plus the time period to make a print is smaller.
And it looks good.
How can somebody do a laptopogram at home (screen, calibration, exposure time, etc)?
The minimum you will need is chemicals (for developing and fixing) and photopaper and a dark space.
Everything else is variable.
I used a tray from my forno for developer, red light from my bicicletta for seeing in the dark, sometimes I use coffee to make prints.
What advice would you give to those who want to try out a laptopogram?
Arachide + coriandolo = good.
How do you plan to improve the technique of laptogram?
By practice.
UPDATE: EXTENDED INTERVIEW FOLLOWS
1. What is your history as a photographer?
I remember taking one photo when I was eight or nine. I was in the lounge of our home and my mother sat in front of the fireplace. This photo is perhaps from the same period as well. I found the scratched up negative two years ago when I went home.
A few years ago I stopped making darkroom prints. I scanned all my negatives on drumbeds and emailed myself the files. Laptopograms are the exact inverse; I take photos digitally and print them analogue. Its good to start again.
I started digital photography fairly recently. I now use my camera as a notebook of sorts, taking photos of everything. I put CHDK on it. Now my thoughts are distorted by this camera. Its like having memory you can grep.
2 – Can you tell you more about your previous experiments?
I like thinking of certain kinds of photography-as-performances.
Once I made casein prints and put them on little pieces of bread. The negatives had been developed with mint. Someone told me horse urine was the best toner but I didn’t find any horses in Helsinki so I used my own. I then walked around offering these foto-biscotti to people. Some people ate them. Some saw them for a little while, and then ate
them. Potassium bichromate is not good for you. Please don’t eat it.
At the PKBB in Jakarta I found an old Xerox machine. Now Bahasa Indonesia is quite fun; ‘foto’ means ‘photo’ ‘kopi’ is ‘coffee’, and ’susu’ is ‘milk’. ‘fotokopi’ is ‘photocopy’ and ‘kopisusu’ is ‘coffee with milk’.
My performance was called ‘fotokopisusu’. I developed some negatives in caffenol (which is coffee with washing soda) and made casein prints (casein extracted from milk). The audience was given the use of the Xerox machine. Some people made photocopies of the kopisusu prints. Some took my prints and left xeroxes behind.
In school I did a piece called ‘Aha! Oho!’ by asking people to imagine photographs. I would do this by placing an imaginary camera at a certain spot and asking people what they thought of the results. Sometimes I’d place the camera right atop our heads or in my shoe. Sometimes behind imaginary walls or in my mouth. I remember talking to Valentino Braitenberg about imaginary cameras and it was most jolly. He gave me those glasses you see in the picture. They have polarised lenses.
I would like to repeat these performances someday.
Here are two other pieces i did: here on Vimeo. The latter involves a rather lovely pianola roll given to me by Andy Cameron.
3. What are the techniques you enjoyed the most and appreciated in master’s works.
The Ungaro-Serbian photographer Andrea Palasti showed me Moholy-Nagy’s device. I liked it. The interwar period was good.
I make prints in my bathroom. And since my laptop is my lightsource I had internet in my darkroom. It was new.
4. What is the philosophy behind Laptograms, is ther anything behind it or is it just an impromptu discovery? Similarities and genealogic links with the history of photo printing?
Memory is funny. I usually have a backlog of film to be developed in a bag. Its all mixed. I developed some photos last week that I took two years ago. Its funny seeing old film that you shot. It triggers all these memories and sensations. Sometimes you do not remember taking this photo and this alters your memory of the past. Sometimes you go ‘Ah! so.’ Its like dental floss.
Early photography is interesting. You see it being used as an anthropometric tool, as an instrument. It becomes artistic later on.
A laptopogram is a mnemonic, as some photos are. It is a sign to remember the quotidian.
5. Where do you see Laptograms evolving in a year? Is there any specific subject where they might find anatural habitat and offer unique experience to the enthusiast?
Hmm. Laptopograms with Polaroid film is top on my list. You dont need any chemicals. You simply need a dark space.
Laptopograms of websites, of computer interfaces, of email inboxes, of internet porn – of these spaces we inhabit for eight hours a day.
Perhaps prints from movies; by playing cinema instead of displaying a static image.
I got hold of an iPhone yesterday. Its fun to use it like a stamp. Its a perverted scanner.
There are some websites which describe the shell script I used as a ‘virtual shutter’ or a ’shutter’. This is a flawed analogy. The script simply turns on the monitor. It is a timer. The nature of this technique is to ‘fold down’ the negative and the light source into a single object.
6. What were your feelings while watching this phenomenon grow like wildfire on the web in 36 hours?
Bemusement. Fabrizio Urettini and Alexandre Saumier-Demers were with me while this happened and we laughed.
7. What are you doing now?
I’m doing a series of prints for Fabrica. They are prints of the desktop screenshots of resident Fabricanti. I wrote to some of them and asked them to email me screenshots. Some responded immediately; some were shy; some rearranged things on their desktop; some said it was unfair because their desktops were not cool. It’s
been fun.
I might do something with Fabrizio’s gallery XYZ. A public darkroom perhaps,a circus sideshow.
8. Anything else?
Some people thought arachide+coriandolo=good was a chemical formula for developer. I meant to say that I like peanuts with coriander, its tasty.
Tags: Abb, abita, Adi, agenti, Ala, Alex, alexan, andrea, Aps, arci, Art, arte, Arti, artisti, aste, BATHROOM, bici, bicicletta, Buia, Buio, carta fotografica, Casa, cine, cinema, classi, coffee, consigli, copie, Dare, desk, Desktop, digital photo, Digitale Foto, Dolo, dones, E Case, e digital, ebs, Emi, Ery, esposizione, expo, Extra, Face, file, Flo, Forno, foto, Foto Grafica, Fotografi, Fotografiche, funziona, genti, Gina, Gola, grafica, Habitat, hd, il tempo, ILO, imagine, immagine, immagine digitale, Indonesia, inglese, intervista, iphone, izzo, la stampa, Lari, latte, lazio, levi, luce, luci, Lucida, Mai, maniera, memorie, Memories, memory, meo, metri, Mia, Mila, mostra, Moun, muse, natura, Nes, nome, ots, padella, padi, pd, pda, persi, Philosophy, photo, photographe, photographer, photographs, photography, photos, pian, Piano, Pio, polaroid, pratica, programma, prova, prove, puo, Quot, regola, Resto, Rete, Scotti, Sei, sensi, siti, spiega, sponde, stampa, stampe, Stampe Fotografiche, stanza, stati, sub, sun, sviluppo, tass, tecnica, tele, televisione, Tempi Di Esposizione, uia, valentino, Vanta, Veder, velo, Vimeo, visione, Vista, xy
