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Shot by Randy Sargent.
This image was a preliminary study for the creation of a detailed, 360-degree panorama of the Pittsburgh area from the top of the US Steel Tower and produced in conjunction with an investigation being conducted by David Bear at Carnegie Mellon University's Studio for Creative Inquiry. For information: highpointpark@cmu.edu. View to the south: http://gigapan.org/gigapans/34121/ |
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The tall structure with ramp, closest to the camera is Blast Furnace No. 6, and the one at left, beyond the tanks is No. 7.
The red gantry crane at right was used to manage the huge piles of coke, iron ore, and limestone between the furnaces and the river (at far left & far right in this 360 degree view), and feed them into the blast furnaces. For background on blast furnaces, see http://www.theweebsite.com/trains/blast-furnace.html If you're viewing this at gigapan.org, I suggest you click the 'view in Google Earth' link. |
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Greer Lankton's It's all about ME, Not You was first shown in 1996. Unfortunately, Greer passed away after the exhibit opening and when the show closed, we put the piece in storage. Now, thanks to the generosity of the Lankton family, it has been donated to the Mattress Factory for permanent display. Open a tall door and pass through a narrow alley beside a "white trash" house. It is clad in white siding with old windows and an astroturf patio littered with fall leaves. Inside, Greer Lankton recreated the Chicago apartment where she lived and worked. The walls are painted in deep colors. Stars cover the ceiling. The room is inhabited by the dolls and figures Lankton made during the course of her life – Raggedy Anns, one of whom is anorexic, a morphine addict on a cot surrounded by pill bottles. Throughout the room are very personal shrines Lankton has created, to Patti Smith, Candy Darling, to Jesus, and many others to the artist herself. Several of Lankton's figures were included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and the 1995 Venice Biennale, but she never before had the opportunity to create a large-scale installation. Much of her work is clearly autobiographical, revealing her obsession with her own body. Born male, she became female at the age of 21. Her work has been described by critic Holland Cotter as "art of superbly disciplined and unusually distressing beauty." Lankton wanted to recreate her apartment in an ideal form, designing an environment of "artificial nature/total indulgence," filled with "dolls engrossed in glamour and self-abuse." Like the artist herself, Lankton's dolls and environments possess a disarming mix of innocence and decadence, hope and pathos. She said her work was "all about me," reflecting her life as an artist, a transsexual and a drug addict. But beyond this, from her position as an outsider, Lankton eloquently explored and questioned accepted norms of gender and sexuality, as well as the powerful imagery of popular culture and consumerism. It is tempting to think that Lankton knew her installation at the Mattress Factory was her last, filling the space with a retrospective selection of her beloved dolls and everything that was most meaningful to her. |
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A sweeping panorama of the parts of Pittsburgh, PA USA visible from a lesser-known viewpoint in the Hill District of the city. The view is to the north and includes the Allegheny River, which flows from right to left. There are many landmarks visible, including about a dozen bridges and the two stadia. One can see people doing their Saturday morning Strip District shopping, three trains, many warehouses, many distant churches and thousands of individual houses lining the hillsides. Downtown is just out of sight to the left. (Made with the Gigapan beta imager robot) |
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Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab demonstrated robots to passersby on Craig Street in Pittsburgh on Park(ing) Day, September 18, 2009.
For more info: http://my.parkingday.org/group/parkingdaypittsburgh http://createlab.ri.cmu.edu/ Photographic notes: Stitched at 50% resolution. This gigapan has problems: The memory card filled up about 90% of the way through shooting, and when I set up for the final 10%, the camera's zoom had changed. The memory card that I used for the first 90% must have been slow, because occasionally it would fail to write the image file, so some pictures in the grid got dropped. I wrote a Python program that looked at the time between pictures to help me locate the gaps, and filled them with a blocky gray photo. Without that I never would have been able to stitch this at all. |
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GigaPan by Mary Hart (setup assistance by Sara Masters- saram). This is a meeting of Pittsburgh's Digital Imagers group (www.digitalimagers.org- come to a meeting if you are in the Pgh area!) I think the ghost in the background is Illah Nourbakhsh, who has come to talk to us about the CREATE Lab, GigaPans, and educational efforts. (Thanks, Illah- wonderful talk!) |
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This was one of the first 'suburbs' of Pittsburgh... This photo is one side of a street that was once a gated community. It was home to 'middle management' and their families of a Pittsburgh steel mill. |
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The ceiling of a room in a "Caribbean-style bed & breakfast" in an old Victorian house. See http://www.theparadorinn.com/ for info about the B&B. I thought the ceiling was interesting.
gigapan shot by Paul Heckbert |
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Taken at the intersection of Barlett and Hobart Streets. This was a fairly challenging gigapan because of the hills, trees, spectators and very limited locations to set up without a media pass or getting in the way. I ended up standing on a small grassy hill wedged between hot staging areas, fences and crosswalks. |
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While waiting for the Super Shuttle to pick me up after the last week's Gigapan Fine Outreach for Science workshop in Pittsburgh, I noticed a Peregrine falcon circling the Cathedral of Learning and just couldn't resist. |