Big news.
The project just was awarded a "GOLD WINNER" in the Horizon Interactive Awards 2007 in the Public Service Category.

HORIZON INTERACTIVE AWARDS

Posted by driveproject at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Media Temple just re-established a new structure called grid-server. In the transition they encountered some hic-ups with things like Urchin Statistics. I have been un-able to track traffic. BUT NOW!!! they fixed it and it was nice to see some links to my project.
GRIDSKIPPER is a really cool site.
GLOWLAB is a cool site that has linked me. They put on an event call CONFLUX: the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the streets.
I have been getting hits from these folks: INTERNEOX South American TV show? Maybe Brazil? dunno. Thanks for the traffic.

Posted by driveproject at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I finally got some images into video format...
and upload them to youtube.
YEAH!!!!

Posted by driveproject at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The project has been up for 9 days now and there is a great flow of interest and response. The two organizations that I plan on sending proceeds from the sale of the posters and books both wrote beautiful messages of praise. It makes me feel really happy. They are Karen Kern and Steve Sweet. I emailed various arts organizations Arts Council of New Orelans before leaving stating my project objectives and asked if I could meet them. Karen quickly responded with invites to meet at a party of artist friends in the French Quarter. Then she introduced me to Steve Sweet of Historic New Orleans Collection. Steve invited me to see a current exhibition on a monday that they were closed. It was a personal tour of an amazing show of artifacts from Katrina "CITY OF HOPE". Very impressive presentation of work.

My conversaton with Steve Sweet covered media and the web. He wanted to create a Wiki for New Orleans but did not have the resourses to start one. He believed it was an important opportunity for the Re-Development of the city. I was able to contact a colleague of mine at RIT, Amit Ray who does research on WIKI's. He emailed Jimbo Wales at Wikipedia and asked if they can create a WikiCommunity for New Orleans. Within the hour, the answer was yes. Soon they will launch the web site. This alone made me feel really well.

I am curious where this project is going to go. It is important to remember, IT IS NOT OVER. It is only out of the news. My hope is that DRIVE PROJECT :: NEW ORLEANS helps its viewers understand this american city needs them.

Posted by driveproject at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 14th was my target date to go live with the new project.

KEN SLATER
I want to let you know that the majority of the programming was completed by a recent graduate of the RIT Graphic Design program, Ken Slater. Ken has given the project %1,000. I a very grateful for his committment to the project. Without him, ya'll would not be seeing this thing until January 2007. Also, Ken was hired last week by Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder, CO. It is a great position. I wish him the best of luck and hope he gets there before next friday.

ROBIN CASS
Robin is my girlfriend. She has taken great care of me in the duration of the project. She has helped me keep focus and dedication in seeing this thing through. Her effort has been in the capacity of engineer of the Roof top photo box conversion, nutritionist, travel planner, dog sitter, spiritual advisor...

NIKON PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
I pitched the project to them and asked if I could "borrow" equiptment. They recognized my committment and the possilbities of the the project. I am grateful for their support and consideration. I hope they are proud of my achievement.

Posted by driveproject at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been working on this book for sometime. All the images are from the 5 days I spent in New Orleans. There are spreads that represent a minute of my drive are round various neighborhoods. Each Neighborhood has 2 spreads, 12 images on left and a detail of one on the right.
There are 48 pages plus the cover. Full color. 7.5 x 7.5 inches.
I am really excited about the final product.

+++BUY DRIVE PROJECT BOOK HERE +++

The book is $18.00
Proceeds from the sales go to:
Arts council of New Orleans
and
Historic New Orleans Collection

I hope you get one.

Posted by driveproject at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been caught up in school starting and blah blah blah. Though I have been extremely productive.
In the past weeks I have designed, programmed (with help from ken) and color corrected over 8,000 images. I am looking forward to launch date. October 14th.

The printed material is going extremely well. I have made a book to promote the project that can be purchased on LULU. It is super cool.
Then there is the poster that will go to press tomorrow:

and


The plan is to sell this two sided poster for $5.00. Proceeds from the sales will go to the Arts Council of New Orleans and Historic New Orleans Collection. Please buy many!!!

Posted by driveproject at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have converted my GPS tracks to a line drawing and overlapped it on a satellite image of the city. It kinda lines up. Just fussing. There are tons of possibilities with this vector line.
I'm the red!

Posted by driveproject at 08:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It was a brilliant morning. The sky was bright and clouds poofy. Lots of people out working in this part of town for a saturday morning. Here are a few images that give some context to the condition the entire area is looking like one year after Katrina.






Tomorrow, I go to the Ninth Ward.

Posted by driveproject at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After three days on the road, I finally made it to NOLA. I am extremely excited and at the same time freaked out. This place has some serious holes in it.
Last night I stayed with a friend, Lori Reed - Reed Design. I set off across the worlds longest bridge, heading south into the city. I started on River Road and worked my way east toward Magazine Street. I just a few blocks you can already see recovery in action. Heading into the city I targeted the French Quarter to locate my hotel. It looks fine. Some work being done but nothing crazy. They did not take on much if any water.
Then I jumped on Esplanade Street north into City Park where the New Orelans Museum of Art is located. Now, it took on some water. The park was over grown and empty. The museum was open and looked great. They have a show of photographs from Katrina. Very beautiful and disturbing. You can not possibly comprehend what happend here. The images are honest representations of a horrific experience.
With the charge of adrenaline, I set off towards the lake on the west side of the park. That is when It all began... the neighborhoods were damaged. The good thing was all the workers. The bad thing was it was only at one or two houses per street. I then made it around the top of the park and headed down the east side. Same thing, some workers but mostly abandoned homes.
Tomorrow I will get up early to photograph... which neighborhood??? Will figure that out tonight.
Here are three images from the 2000+:

Posted by driveproject at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It was a Joy to get an email from David Dye of WXPN's World Cafe.
They picked my top 5 songs about "road trip" to kick of my road trip to New Orleans.
David asked about my project and where I teach (RIT).
It is a nice plug for drive project!

Here they are:
|1| Willin - Steve Earle version from Sidetracks
|2| Next Best Western - Richard Shindell from Live Courier
|3| Ive Been Everywhere - Johnny Cash from Unchained
|4| Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams from Car Wheels...
|5| Drive My Car - The Donnas Version from This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles Rubber Soul


You can listen to the World Cafe on WXPN's at 2:00 p.m. (EST) or on WNCW at 7:00 p.m. (EST)
Friday, August 4th, 2006

Hope you enjoy the set!

Posted by driveproject at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am finishing up the logo for this project.
The plan is to make physical prints using wood cut or glass plates.
It will be 4 colors: Lite Violet, White, Red, Gold/Yellow.
Paper will be chipboard.

It is inspired by tattoos and Hatch Show Prints (thanks, Jim)

Posted by driveproject at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)