Beginning Doctoral Study

Somehow in my life, nothing ever quite happens exactly as I expect or plan it. My admission to a doctoral degree program is no different. I was originally anticipating enrolling in a doctoral program in Fall 2019 after spending a full year evaluating my options. Now I am admitted to the PhD in Educational Research, […]

What the F

Last January I bought a Nikon F6, the most advanced film SLR camera ever created. Over the past few weeks I have been tracking down a Nikon F, Nikon’s original film SLR, camera on eBay. The F6 has fully electronic control and a self-diagnosing shutter. The F is fully mechanical and is not at all […]

Experimenting with Rollei IR 400

I have been fascinated by IR photography since I first figured out what it was. I started off as a digital camera brat, so most of my experiences were with really slow shutter speeds on a sensor mostly protected from IR light. Since returning to film I have gotten back into IR and find that […]

ExIf 35 – Re-evaluating an Abandoned Project

I started the ExIf 35 project (http://exif35.pcfire.net) in 2010 when I returned to shooting film. Perhaps I’m metadata obsessed, or just crazy, but I decided I wanted good ExIf data on my scans of film photos. In the six years since I started the project I allowed myself to reach a point where I felt […]

Response to Ken Rockwell’s ‘Why We Love Film’

I have read Ken Rockwell’s reviews of lenses for years before buying them, and aside from his necessary self-promotion at the end of each review, I’ve found his site quite informative and helpful. Last evening I ran across his post entitled ‘Why We Love Film’ (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/why-we-love-film.htm) and found myself approaching the post as a dual-medium […]

Thesis: Outline for a Literature Review

My central question for my thesis still eludes me, but I have at least assembled an outline of the technical part of the literature review: An Introduction to the Domain Naming System Reference to initial RFCs Classic gTLDs 2003 Additional TLDs The new gTLD Process Price Differences Between new gTLDs and classic gTLDs Price Differences […]

Identity-based Ethics in Culture/Subculture Boundaries

Ethics, no mater how grounded in some mythical “virtue”, are culturally agreed upon. Call it a social contract if you like or just “common sense”, but either way, ethics are at their root an agreement. Some ethical agreements exist in a culture and all derivative sub-cultures. In Western culture this may be represented through norms […]

PHIL 6320: 220-507-1-PB

To summarize succinctly Shaviro’s argument in this week’s reading: Modern digital video is different from historical analog cinematography. This analysis might be an over-simplification of the argument, but at a basic level it holds. The issue is what that difference means for the ability of video (general term to catch “film”, cinema and related time-spanning […]

PHIL 6320: Interactions Between Paraphilic Sexual Identity and The Gender Binary

Potential Paper Topic: Interactions Between Paraphilic Sexual Identity and The Gender Binary   The social construction of gender is filled with symbols. Some symbols are performative and some symbols are material. Paraphilic sexuality emphasizes the use of gendered symbols and makes them central to sexuality. Normative repetitions of sexuality utilize the biological manifestations of sex […]

PHIL 6320: Identity Augmentation and Deviation in Performance of Gender

Potential Paper Topic: Identity Augmentation and Deviation in Performance of Gender   Gender performance is dictated through social norms and expectations. Judith Butler calls this enacting of a specified gender role “performativity”. Various social science perspectives on deviations from the gender binary predict that non-conforming identities will be disciplined and either corrected or rendered as […]