Here is info from the Annenberg Foundation website about the Annenberg Space for Photography, set to open in late March. I just came on as the Audio Visual Specialist. I'm still learning my way around the particulars of the gig but suffice it to say that there is some high-end machinery involved.

The Annenberg Space for Photography to Open in Century City, California in 2009
Free Community Center will Feature Both Digital and Print Photography

Los Angeles, CA: The Annenberg Foundation, one of the nation’s largest private family foundations, announced today plans to open a new community space dedicated to both digital images and print photography in Los Angeles, California.

The Annenberg Space for Photography will open in spring 2009 at 2000 Avenue of the Stars. Located on the former site of the Shubert Theater, the Photography Space will be a 10,000 square foot facility which will feature a state-of-the-art digital projection gallery along with a traditional print exhibit area. The combination of these galleries will enable the Annenberg Space for Photography to show an unprecedented number of images to the general public in a dynamic environment. General admission to the Annenberg Space for Photography will be free.

In addition to being a cultural experience that celebrates photography as an art form, the Photography Space will present images focused on the human condition as an expression of the philanthropic work of the Foundation and its Trustees. The Annenberg Space for Photography will be under the stewardship of the Foundation’s Los Angeles-based Trustees -- Wallis Annenberg, Lauren Bon, Charles Annenberg Weingarten and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten.

The Trustees will work directly with guest curators throughout the year on all exhibits and programming.

Work by photographers at all levels of expertise from around the world will be featured. The galleries will also exhibit often unseen photographic collections held by museums, galleries and media organizations.

“Photography is one of the most accessible and personal forms of art. We are thrilled about creating a space completely dedicated to it which will compliment the landscape of existing cultural institutions nationally and in Los Angeles. Our Foundation will continue its multi-million dollar grant support of the existing arts and civic life. We see the creation of the Annenberg Space for Photography as a service to the community where visitors can see the world through a different lens and leave feeling motivated to make positive change,” says Wallis Annenberg, Vice President and Trustee of the Annenberg Foundation.

Background
The Annenberg Space for Photography was conceived by the collective Board of Trustees of the Foundation. The original inspiration was sparked by Wallis Annenberg’s personal devotion to photography. A passion for the artform led Wallis to examine the challenges most traditional museums experience exhibiting photographic work. These museums have remarkable photography collections, and in many cases their archives are more comprehensive than exhibit space is available. This motivated Wallis and the Foundation Trustees to create a new paradigm for experiencing photography. A state-of-the-art digital presentation system will allow thousands of photographs to be readily accessible to the public in large and high resolution format.

When the Foundation announced its plan to move its administrative offices from Westwood to its current location at 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles Councilmember Jack Weiss and real estate developers at Trammel Crow approached the Foundation with the opportunity to operate a community space on the property, providing the perfect location for the realization of the Foundation’s plans for the Photography Space.

Councilmember Weiss comments, “I am grateful that the Annenberg Foundation, with their vision and standards of excellence, is helping enrich the city by bringing world class digital art and photography to Los Angeles. This space will add cultural vitality and excitement to Century City.”

The creation of the Photography Space builds upon the Foundation’s long history of supporting visual arts. Most recently the Foundation demonstrated it’s commitment to the arts by giving a grant to help LACMA acquire the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, an important group of 19th and 20th century photographs, featuring more than 3,500 prints which include the work of Ansel Adams, Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Steichen, W.H. Fox Talbot and Edward Weston. In recognition of this support, LACMA's Department of Photography is being renamed the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department.

Opening Exhibit
The Annenberg Space for Photography’s opening exhibit will be a group show of eight Los Angeles-based photographers in the genres of fine art, architecture, documentary, fashion, photojournalism and celebrity portraits. The show, soon-to-be-titled, will feature the work of John Baldessari, Catherine Opie, Greg Gorman, Douglas Kirkland, Tim Street-Porter, Julius Shulman, Lauren Greenfield and Carolyn Cole. All based in Los Angeles, these artists work in the city in which the Foundation has expanded its philanthropy in recent years. The exhibit will also include work from staff photographers at the Los Angeles Times. Anne Wilkes Tucker, renowned photography curator from the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, will serve as a Special Advisor for this inaugural exhibit.

Ms. Tucker comments, “The opening exhibit inaugurates an exciting new space with work by eight internationally recognized photographers. Their work represents richly diverse aspects of contemporary photography and of Los Angeles itself, from film and television celebrities to the Los Angeles Times coverage of international and local news, to city’s rich cultural scene. The multifaceted displays of prints and digital projection, along with interviews with the artists speaking about their projects and careers, are uniquely innovative. This exhibit should appeal to the public and to many artists who might participate in future programs in this new space.”

In addition to featured exhibits which will change several times a year, shorter weekly shows will enable visitors to have different daily experiences with multiple visits. Simultaneously, videos of photographers discussing their work will give guests the often rare opportunity to hear directly from the artists.

Workshops, lectures and discussions featuring artists will be a prominent part of the ongoing programming. Educational opportunities will be created for adults, children and teens. Guests of the Photography Space will have access to Century Park and its restaurants within steps from the Photography Space doors. The Photography Space is adjacent to 2000 Avenue of the Stars, the location of the Foundation’s Los Angeles headquarters.

The interior design by architects DMJM Design was influenced and inspired by the ergonomics of cameras and lenses. The building also includes a residential-style workshop area that will be used for intimate discussions with photographers. The technology of the Photography Space enables extreme digital clarity, sound and multiple image presentation --giving artists a wide range of creative possibilities for showing their work.

Photographer Greg Gorman comments, “I worked with film for decades before converting to digital. As the artform has evolved, I’m excited to see a space celebrate both. I expect that this will change the way we all think of a traditional photography gallery.”

Fulfilling a Mission
The Annenberg Space for Photography aligns perfectly with the mission of the Foundation -- to improve the well-being of the community through the exchange of ideas and new ways of thinking. The Trustees believe that the experience of this art form and images exhibited there will further their vision as philanthropists for a better world.

About the Annenberg Foundation
Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally through its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania, and offices in Los Angeles, California and Washington, D.C. Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic and community life; health and human services; and animal services and the environment. In addition, the Foundation operates a number of initiatives which expand and complement these program areas. The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving this goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.

THE WATER MILL

Introducing the best home appliance since the microwave:

The system draws in moist, outside air through an air filter. The moist air passes over a cooling element, condensing the moist air into water droplets. This water is then collected, passed through a specialized carbon filter and is then exposed to an ultraviolet sterilizer, eliminating bacteria.

It makes you wonder why it took so long to invent such an obvious device. Every day, we see pure H2O dripping from air conditioning units installed in cars. Why not grab some air, drop its temp to the dew point and drink that sweet nectar that results?

The WaterMill can be connected directly to your sink, an existing bottled water system, your refrigerator, or a custom dispenser.

Water is a precious resource and the earth is not making any more of it. Although it is being constantly recycled, there is a percentage of persons on earth, mostly in Africa, who do not have adequate access to potable water. Those of us without such concerns expect the water to always be there but in reality, there are so many people on earth that we are consuming fresh water at a rate higher than it can be recycled. Most of the water in fact goes towards agricultural needs, irrigating the fields that grow the world's food. A lot of what is left is utilized in industry and what is left comes out of our taps. People worry about peak oil but peak water is also on the horizon.

Our air contains 4,000 cubic miles of water. If it were a lake it would be roughly the size of the Great Lakes combined - which is the world's largest body of fresh water - and would be constantly refilled.

Water vapor is constantly replenished by Earth's natural cycle, so extracting water from the air can continue indefinitely without impacting local ecosystems.

It sounds like somebody found a new source of water. Why wait for nature to fill the aquifer if we can snatch it from the atmosphere whenever we get thirsty? Of course, the thingy won't work if the atmospheric humidity is below 40%, so it's no panacea for subsaharan Africa, but once it becomes affordable (currently $1500), I can imagine these devices becoming common suburban must-haves.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

1. Thanks to the "Juntoboys" for inspiring me to continue my research on Prisoner Re-Entry. I am now writing a proposal with a collaborator I found at the University. We are putting together a research project to study some of the ideas I developed and test them for effectiveness. This is very exciting as this will likely turn into funded and publishable research.

2. I've been reading a lot lately about Neuropsychology (a new and growing field). Particularly I am currently reading research on The Neuropsychology behind Paranormal Experiences. This field was evidently pioneered by Michael A. Persinger, Ph.D. who also invented a crazy contraption called the "God Helmet." The God-Helmet introduces ultra low frequency pulses of Electro-Magnetic energy into the temporal lobes of the brain. This device is devised so that it will induce religious/paranormal experiences in those who wear it. Among reported experiences are the feeling that someone is watching you, feelings of oneness, feelings of being pulled from the inside, fear, anger, joy, and a variety of other emotions. Persinger believes that stimulation of the temporal lobes is what causes mystical experiences as well as Alien abduction reports. I've got the plans for this helmet and am currently building one for my own experiments.

3. I've been tasked with teaching more diversity courses now. Apparently my students love my "refreshing right wing approach" (as one student evaluation put it) to diversity areas such as Cross cultural psychology, Psych of Women, and Psych of Racism.

4. What if McCain asks Barak Obama to be his Vice-President, which was earlier suggested in this blog by "E" I believe. Would that collapse the ends of the Bell Curve (ultra right conservatives and ultra liberals) creating a new coalition of moderates, independents, and the like? Are we in for a major political transformation of the cultural landscape? All pundits seem aghast.

5. If social intelligence or emotional intelligence is a valid construct, then evidently there must be Emotional Genius'. If so, what would they look like? What would an Emotional Einstein be like? Would they be master manipulators able to inspire or corrupt or whisper and control at will? Sounds like a cool power. Perhaps that is what the great leaders and politicians were.

6. The recent book "Love and Sex with Robots" is quite fascinating. I've been waiting for the Robot Women and Flying cars all my life. This books central thesis is that as robots become more and more human like, we will eventually begin using them for intimate practices as well. It makes sense since the average Joe/Jane uses a computer and a variety of mechanical aids currently to enhance carnal pleasure. It would be nice in some ways because the Robot Woman would not nag, nor divorce, nor spend you into bankruptcy. It's all very interesting. I suppose the sophisticated enough Robot woman could be intellectually stimulating (since she would have a internet enabled brain and therefore access to the sum total of human knowledge) plus physically arousing since presumably some basic psychology tests could discern the exact physical type you would be interested in. Human women may be jealous at first or not allow this at all (just as many now rally against Porn and such) while others would view the Robot Woman as simply an appliance and would likely welcome this addition which could help "fill the void" between love making sessions and thus help curb her Human Husbands desire to cheat. Since the Robot Woman would be learning enabled and adaptive, she would continue to get better with each session and could create both variety as well as become a teacher to the human couple or even live-aid for the ultimate "threesomes."

THE DVD WAR AND A CRIME STORY

A few weeks ago I ordered an Up-converter DVD player from Amazon.com.

While Blue Ray and HD DVD compete to win the format war, Samsung and some others are producing Up-Converter DVD players that take the normal DVD resolution and boost them to HD quality. A few weeks ago I purchased the Samsung DVD-HD-960 that boosts the signal to 1080p, a standard that my television supports, but broadcast hasn’t reached. Due to some circumstances that I will get to in a minute, I had to settle for the 860 model they sell at Best Buy instead. That version raises the picture to 1080i or 720p.

The first movies I tried were old favorites Rio Bravo and The Maltese Falcon. They both looked great, especially Rio Bravo shot in widescreen. You could really tell a difference. I would highly recommend Samsung’s up converter to anyone with a HD ready TV. It looks so good that I don’t really know if buying the new formats is really worth it.

The 960 that I originally wanted wasn’t easy to get at any of the local stores. Best Buy carries the item on their website but even there it is listed as sold out. I was lucky to find it at Amazon.com $30 less than Best Buy with free shipping, but I had to wait ten days for delivery, which I decided was reasonable.

The item was delivered to my door at 4:32pm on Thursday November 30, and although I was home by 5:30 it was nowhere to be seen. My neighbors on either side were gone, but the suspicious construction workers across the street had a clear view to my house. Only a few weeks ago, workers from that very site were "suspected" of breaking into a house whose alley faces the pool they were working on. My neighbor on the Architectural committee for the Association said that there has been a rash of thefts, especially appliances after installation.

I emailed the warranty lady at Transeastern (The builder) asking who I should contact. She said she would get back to me with the answer. A phone call to the main office and then to the builder gave me the name of the construction manager. And I left a message asking what contractors were working across the street at 4:32pm that day. I’m still waiting for an answer. The other lady didn’t get back to me either.

The property manager for the Homeowner’s Association suggested I write a letter that he would pass on to the board. I wrote one on Monday and when I received no answer I followed up by writing a second one on Thursday. The gist of the two letters was that Transeastern isn’t policing the people who work here. The second letter brought on a call by Gale from the builder’s office transcribed here paraphrased a little but the essence in tact.

GALE: Mr. Stamper, there have been an awful lot of emails going back and forth and I thought I should call so we could clear this up.

TOM: Back and forth? I still haven’t had an answer to any of them.

GALE: I’m here to answer. Unfortunately, thefts are common during this time of year. I live in a real nice section of Metro West and I have had packages stolen from my front door. You need to let the police handle this.

TOM: There was a break in here recently attributed back to the same construction site. And my neighbor on the Arc committee tells me that numerous things have been stolen from houses during the construction process. And that the chandelier in that very house was stolen last week.

GALE: Sir, thefts at construction sites are common occurrence.

TOM: I’d like to have copies of all the police reports you filed for thefts here.

TOM: I’m not going to gather those up for you, sir.

TOM: How many there have been then?

GALE: This is not our responsibility. We can’t just go accusing our contractors without evidence. You need to file a police report and they can do an investigation.

TOM: Let’s say that the contractors are perfectly innocent. Why not ask them if they saw anything? Tell me who they are and I will ask them.

GALE: Listen, sir, that’s entirely inappropriate. You can’t just call the contractor. You need to file a report with the police.

TOM: How many convictions have you had for the all reports you’ve filed?

GALE: It’s very difficult to get convictions for theft because you have to catch them in the act.

TOM: So you people consider theft just a part of doing business. It may be for you, but for me it’s a matter of personal safety.

GALE: Call the police, sir.

TOM: What do you know about the people working here? If I went across the street and shot photos of them, could you identify them?

GALE: We hire contractors and they hire their own people.

TOM: So how do you know if the people working here have criminal records and are in this country legally.

GALE: House construction is the last handmade product in America and we build houses the same way every builder in town, the same way yours was built. ( I can tell that I’ve been put on speaker phone)

TOM: So you are not interested if the people working here have criminal records or are in the country legally?

GALE: We do not hire anyone that we know to be illegal.

TOM: (using the wise knowing voice) But you don’t ask because you don’t want to know.

GALE: Don’t put words in my mouth. I’m going to have to hang up on you if you continue talking to me this way.

TOM: Put words in your own mouth then. How would you describe the process in which people are screened to work here?

GALE: Be careful, you’re on speakerphone and I have a whole group of people here listening to this.

TOM: Fantasic. Any one you sitting there tell me whether you ask the contractors if their people have clean records and are in this country legally.

(CLICK—She hangs up)

She began in a very condescending tone referring to me as “sir” in that way that people do when they’re trying to gloss their superiority. She would have loved me to use one curse word so that she could hang up on me. I just clung to the Socratic method and she was so flustered in her voice that she hung up not wanting to directly admit what the accidentally admitted indirectly.

I wrote another letter yesterday summarizing the phone call and pointing out that making contractors sign affidavits saying that their people have clean records and are in the country legally would be of minimal cost, pass the liability to contractors, and ensure that far fewer criminals would have the legal right to stand around in this neighborhood gawking at the residents and their property.

I hit two political issues in the letter pointing out that John Lindsay, Ed Koch and David Dinkins all said that crime in NYC was a way of life and nothing could be done and then Rudy Guliuani proved them all to be fools. As citizens we have the obligation of preventing crime before the fact.

I also said that business is always complaining about over-regulation and taxation and yet here you are punting your problems to the overworked police when your own policies are causing the problem.

Then I did the Rush Limbaugh being absurd to demonstrate absurdity. I asked the board if they would be comfortable with the current policy if the people working here knew when their houses were vacant during the day. If so, then please send the names and addresses of all the board members and Transeastern Employees with their work hours and I will gladly deliver it every morning to the construction site.

STAY TUNED. . .