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The Chronilogicality Of It All

My no-self self portrait combines literal and symbolic representations of the things that people tend to associate with me.

The picture itself is a vertical panorama with a digitally extended ceiling.

  • The main subject is my corner of my room in Penobscot hall. It features my desk with my computer on it, which fits nicely with the fact that I'm known for my affinity. On the wall to the right are:
  • a nautical chart of Casco Bay, including my home town Peaks Island
  • an award for Best Special Effects from a high school film festival
  • an Apple Think Different poster featuring James D. Watson
  • an iPod poster
  • a Mac OS X version 10.2 Jaguar poster from Macworld NY 2002
  • A rose made of toilet paper adorns the bulletin board.

So far, these elements are all real. The rest of the major elements are composited.

  • Hanging from the ceiling is a construction not unlike a baby's hanging mobile. It illustrates the major influences on my personality in chronological order:
  • Comedy and Tragedy masks: my parents both work in theater, and I grew up both experiencing and participating in theater of all sorts. I have many fond memories of drama and Shakespeare club in high school.
  • A diabolo (often erroneously called a Chinese Yo-Yo)—I've been juggling it since third grade, and I always feel like a beginner because there are always new tricks to learn. It's taught me a lot about persistence.
  • A cello: I've been playing since 4th grade.
  • Rubik's Cubes, both scrambled and solved: I learned to solve it when I was 14, and it became my life for about two years. In high school I was known as "that cube kid."
  • A photo of a UFO revealed as a fake: I've recently become interested in skepticism, debunking dubious claims, and spotting logical fallacies. Anyone who knows me well has probably argued about religion or conspiracy theories with me at least once.
  • On the computer is a detail from my Vector Self Portrait, which absorbed my life for a few weeks, and about which I still get comments from friends and family. The detail I've chosen to highlight is the flash from my camera, which emphasizes my recent fascination with photography and images.

Many thanks to Jim and Jeremy Swist for the chart of Casco Bay.