Monday, June 1, 2009

What to do with old slides?

Hey all - I love this! Good job for starting the conversation, Mimi. When Rebecca Pavlenko and I went to China, she used slides holders as frames for small photos. She attached a pin back and made pins to give as gifts to those we met there. They were very well received!

I also love the book/quilt ideas and am now cooking on some others.

I think we might want to think about a monthly conversation (or perhaps more often) where we ask each other these kinds of questions (and others) to see what we might end up with (sorry about dangling my participles...)

Hey, what about a miniature art show of pieces created from old slides and/or slide holders? Perhaps a mail art show? Just a thought...

Jill

12 comments:

  1. I have a better idea Jill -- Why don't you start an Art-Post blog so we all don't have a random pile of email to sift through. And a ton of open cc'd fwd-fwd-fwd.

    I like this idea sooo much I just started it for you -- and everyone is invited...

    If you all would like a private, invitation only, forum set-up for us few, I can do that too. Just let me know. But in the meantime, I felt Artpost needed and Outpost...

    oxoxoxox

    W-

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  2. All right, Wendy! Here's what has already been said:

    Vera Wong:I'm a packrat, so still have a huge shelf full of slides (from travel as well as artwork). Every once in a while, I scan a few slides for a particular project.

    Those slides I winnow out, I remove the film and put the frame into my teaching toolbox. I give them to students to use as viewfinders to help with composition and perspective. I used to give them to students to keep. Now I collect them again after class, as I don't know how long they'll be available.

    I also see a lot of slides show up at ArtScraps.

    I will take inspiration from your sorting and cleaning out, and maybe will thin out my over-abundant store of supplies.

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  3. Roz Stendahl: I've seen people make artists books with them (slides they found at garage sales, so why not your own?) and I saw someone attach them like a quilt once (like quilt squares). So I think anything you can think you want to do with them is great.

    In response to Mimi's question about how many sets to keep, I have kept 3 sets of each of my slides (some are original 4 x 5 negs and some only have an original 35mm slide, so I keep the original and 2 copies) and when I get slides now (which is rare) I get 3 each. I keep several digital archives of everything and the person who shoots my photographs keeps a set digitally as well.

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  4. Barbara Harman: my intention is to keep only one original set, dividing according to series or year-span, depending. In the past, I've thrown old slides away, but I'd love to hear if anyone has found an interesting use for them.

    Julia Babb: Hmmm. Christmas tree ornaments?

    Marcie Soderman-Olson:I'm still saving mine, Mimi, but have not digitized all the older paintings. However, there are times when I think it's worth saving one or two copies of each, as for my work, often the color in the slides is better, richer and could provide a good reference for the future.

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  5. Rebecca Pavlenko: I think it is wise to hang onto one set. EVen thought we are in a digital
    age, the technology is constantly changing. At first people put images on
    zycan discs, then floppys, then CDs, then DVDs. Some of the earlier forms
    can't be accessed any more. IT may happen with CDs some day too. With the
    original slides there is always a way to get them into your computer and
    into whatever is the digital form of the day. I would do this especially
    for art work that you made but no longer own. And computers can crash.

    And with the extras.....
    some new Mimi portraits that are back lit..........yumm.

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  6. Alexandra Rozenman: Hey! Many years ago I was collaborating with a filmmaker who used his own and other people's slides as an art material: working on a slide itself, using wholes, scratches, chemicals, markers.. so later when you put this slide in the projector the result will be a very interesting abstract image... this was a wonderful project. Today, when computers exist it will be different, but can take a very interesting conceptually if you put two images next to each other.

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  7. I saw this artist in Brooklyn that did india ink on those little glowing nightlight slides. What about gluing a chrome (photo slide) onto the nightlight?

    Sylvania Lighting Nightlight Glow Plug

    http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-Lighting-Nightlight-120Vt-16843/dp/B000UX64QG/ref=sr_1_187?ie=UTF8&s=furniture&qid=1243899741&sr=1-187

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  9. Hey -- anyone want a TON (literally) of slides? A photographer friend has a couple of huuuuge boxes of out-takes. He just doesn't have the energy to recycle. (You have to take the film out for them to take the mount for recycling. It would take him like weeks to do that.)

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  10. Sounds like donating them to Art Scraps in St. Paul is a good idea.... he could also see if the Walker wants some for their educational classes to use in making new art....

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  11. Great idea Mimi! Thanks! W-

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