Twilight in the desert

One of my goals is to photograph the transition from twilight to darkness. I like seeing the glow on the horizon at the bottom of the frame and the edge of darkness at the top. It looks like an easy shot but it is actually quite difficult to capture this gradual transition from mid-night blue to black. I think it’s called a “color wedge”. This gentle gradation also induces an optical illusion know as “Mach bands” which can appear as horizontal lines or smudges which are not really there. It is contrast added by the retina. So, I have been experimenting with my secret sauce and this is a recent shot.

Peter at work

Sixties-era psychologist-teacher-video-artist-producer-sky-photographer planning new professional activities.

My friend John and I  jam each week on Friday or Saturday afternoon, plugged in. He brings the beer — really good ales and micro-brews. Yesterday I fired up ‘Audacity’ on my MacBook Pro and let it record. ‘Ground Hog Blues” is what I named these excerpts.  The name was inspired by the recent celebration of Ground Hog’s day, my favorite, and the day on which the ‘holidays’ are officially over in my book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5vXNSLr6OA&feature=share

The first occurred on May Day of 1971. There was a demonstration with crowds of people running up Blvd. St. Michelle. I knew the best move was to get out of there so I headed for the nearest metro, guitar case in one hand, girfriend on the other. There were two CRS (riot police) in the station and they beat the crap out of me, landing me in the hospital.

At the time I was staying with Steve Waring on rue Ramey near Montmartre.

Courtesy of Ashley Dinges

We had recently played guitar at the American Embassy so he spoke with his friend there, who was the cultural attaché or something,  who explained that French law was written so that if you are near a demonstration (la manifestasion) you are presumed guilty of being a participant. I left Paris and went to Spain the day after I was released from the hospital.

A seven flight walk-up kept one's legs in great shape.

Cliff Notes

Let’s face it. Not everyone has the time or inclination to read an entire mini-bio, so here in brief:   A Ph.D. in psychology from the U. of Arizona opened many doors to fascinating opportunities and experiences. Most have been at the leading, cutting, and sometimes bleeding edge of art-technology-science and business. Chronologically that would include doing research on Cannabis for NIH, directing research at the TV Lab at WNET/PBS, and being an Artist in Residence and documentary producer at the Lab. I worked with and met many wonderful people — Nam June Paik and all the great video artists, Bucky Fuller, Ken Burns, Eric Kroll and other photographers, computer animators, discoverers of drugs at big pharma companies,  …  I have been fortunate to have lived in wonderful places – New York City’s Soho and Greenwich Village, Amherst, Tucson, Paris, and Rotterdam (in a windmill. Yes, really). And the work…  teaching at the college level, running a film, video and multimedia production company, and travelling all over the place for work and pleasure, from the Tuamotu Atolls to Europe to icy meetings in Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen.  Were I to summarize my path so far I’d say my motivation has been curiosity, love of good people and good ideas, and the application of cutting edge technology and art to multimedia production, both commercially and non-commercially, and blending all this in to education both formally and impromptu.

My rewards have been satisfaction from work and recognition for a few noteworthy achievements, seeing students succeed, devising the narration track on movie DVDs, and at long last having a “life” – with a wonderful wife, Karen McIntyre — actress now therapist – and  an amazing daughter (technically my step-daughter), Julia DeConcini, and two funny, smart, loving dogs, a garden, sunsets, an OK digital camera and a fast internet connection….  who could ask for anything more?

These Days

I live in Tucson, AZ, in the heart of the beautiful Sonoran Desert. I love the Southwest, though am deeply troubled by the political climate here. I continue to work at the intersection of science, art, technology and education. Currently I help run a federally-funded science education program for disadvantaged HS students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. The program focuses on asking questions in biomedical and other research — that without questions and a questioning attitude there would be none. We assign students to an ongoing research project with a physician mentor for each. Many of our kids became co-authors of papers during the Summer, and many have become MDs and MD/PhD researchers some years later. Daniel (Danny) Hernandez, who was credited with saving Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s life at the scene of the shooting here on January 8th, 2011,  was a student in our Summer program for disadvantaged high school students in 2006. His picture is on my office wall, along with all the other graduates of our program. http://blog.petercrown.com.  Part of my work is to convert the program’s curriculum to an online environment, www.miexplor.org , and I produce structured video interviews with leaders in biomedical and clinical research for our web site.

I am both passionate and contemplative about the beautiful skies here, and I photograph them often. www.skyart.com . Often these photo shoots are times for meditation — watching the sun set, seeing the world turn, and then shooting the  most interesting skies which appear about 15-minutes after the sun has dipped below the horizon.

Life Path

My interests and work have intertwining, recurring interests – art, technology, science, education and media production, seasoned with a lot of curiosity – which have all come into play over the years. My path has embraced both the counter culture and the corporate world, occasionally at the same time! I’ve been fascinated by new ideas of all kinds, biomedical and general science research, by cutting edge technology and it’s application in media production. But I really have not had a plan, just interests, and by pursuing them opportunities unfolded. I am kind of a Jungian and believe there is synchronicity in our lives.
Some things I have done

My first job after doing a post doc in Rotterdam was on an NIH-funded research project at New York Medical College exploring the psychophysiological effects of various drugs including Cannabis, methadone, and experimental narcotic antagonists. Shortly after that work I changed direction and became research director for the TV Lab at WNET/TV in NYC, and later was a video artist in residence and occasionally broadcast producer there. My experimental video work was shown in major museums and galleries for a decade. I worked with Dan Anderson at U. Mass who did some excellent research on children’s attention to Sesame Street, from which I produced videos for CTW producers so they could incorporate these findings to improve the productions.

I was an Adjunct Instructor in the Psychology Department at Columbia University for a few years, and later taught at Hampshire College in Amherst. I connected with Ken Burns there, and later hired him to produce my first commercial (industrial) film. Around then I founded a multimedia production company, Romulus Productions, Inc., in New York City, with a wide and varied client base. Some were pharmaceutical companies for whom we produced computer animations depicting the mechanism of action of new drugs. Other clients such as IBM and Xerox who were experimenting with Laser videodisc had interesting projects.

One of the most interesting gigs we had was to produce laser videodiscs of the original, 1933 King Kong using original negative from the Library of Congress, and another of Citizen Kane. These were the first movies on laserdisc which contained extra material such as story boards, location shots, test footage, and narratives by film historians. I developed the concept and produced the first audio narration track to accompany a feature film. The first was by Ron Haver, a film historian and personal friend of Faye Ray who described in great detail how King Kong was produced. The audio narration track has become a standard feature for movies on DVDs.
I spent many years living and working in Soho, NYC – I think “Everyone should live in New York City once…but leave before it makes you hard”. I left New York in the mid ‘90’s – my 14-year relationship/partnership and the company dissolved, so I returned “home” to Tucson and got married for the FIRST TIME in 1997, and things, thankfully, are quite wonderful here.

Some notes and stories

I got fired from a research job  at a medical school because I would not falsify data. I could not believe it at the time! I’m so glad I stuck to my guns.

I met my wife, Karen, on the radio.  I was driving around the foothills and heard this wonderful voice on the radio. Later that week I heard the voice at a party, and that was the beginning.

Someone once told me that a scorpion sting feels like getting hit by a hammer. I found this to be true.

Shrine for Gabrielle Giffords at UMC, Tucson

We all are terribly saddened and shaken by the shooting which took place here in Tucson last Saturday. Two friends were in the Safeway when it happened. I work in the College of Medicine  here, attached to the University Medical Center where Congresswoman Giffords is in intensive care. I worked on one of her campaigns, and her young political intern, Daniel (Danny) Hernandez, who was credited with saving her life at the scene, was a student in our Summer program for disadvantaged high school students in 2006. His picture is on my office wall, along with all the other graduates of our program. At that time he was a sweet, self assured, and very bright young man, which of course he still is. I am telling you this because I am so disturbed about the events in Arizona, not just this unspeakable shooting, but because of the political climate, the continuing loosening of gun laws, and the anger and discrimination which are almost palpable. I can imagine that people wonder how I could live here, and I want them to know that my friends and I are doing what we can to influence things in a more positive direction, though it is damn hard. Were it not for our friends, family and the beautiful Sonoran Desert, we would be out of here. For now we are under lock down at work, the bomb sniffing dogs are everywhere, and the shiny black Suburbans with antennae are arriving in great numbers in preparation for Obama’s visit tomorrow evening. I hope that he, with the help of everyone, can start to calm things down and begin the return to civility.

Danny Hernandez

http://www.georgeschool.org/

What are you doing these days?
I live in Tucson, AZ, in the heart of the beautiful Sonoran Desert. I love the Southwest, though am deeply troubled by the political climate here. I continue to work at the intersection of science, art, technology and education. Currently I help run a federally-funded science education program for disadvantaged HS students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

What are some things which are important to you?
My wife, step-daughter, work, friends, our country, education, playing guitar, my two dogs, my garden, southwest photography, Southwest skies.

How would you characterize your “life path”?
(hard to be more specific – will try to indicate by my answer).
My interests and work have intertwining, recurring facets – art, technology, science, education and media production – which have all come into play over the years. My path has embraced both the counter culture and the corporate world, occasionally at the same time! I’ve been fascinated by new ideas, biomedical and general science research, by cutting edge technology and it’s application in media production.

What are some things you have done?
My first job after doing a post doc in Rotterdam was an NIH research project at New York Medical College exploring the psychophysiological effects of various drugs. I was research director for the TV Lab at WNET/TV in NYC and later was a video artist and producer there. My video work was presented at museums and galleries for a decade. I worked with Dan Anderson at U. Mass who did some excellent research on children’s attention to Sesame Street, from which I produced videos for the producers so they learned to incorporate these findings to improve the productions.

I worked as an Adjunct in the Psychology Department at Columbia University for a few years, and later taught at Hampshire College in Amherst. I connected with Ken Burns there later hired him to produce my first commercial (industrial) film. I founded a multimedia production company, Romulus Productions, Inc., in New York City with a wide client base. Some were pharmaceutical companies for whom we produced computer animations depicting the mechanism of action of new drugs. Most of this work was straight forward documentary based on decent research, but some of it was pretty marketing-driven so I tried to avoid  those projects.

One of the most interesting gigs we had was to produce laser videodiscs of the original, 1933 King Kong using original negative from the Library of Congress, and another of Citizen Kane. These were the first movies on laserdisc which contained extra material such as story boards, location shots and test footage. I developed the concept and produced the first audio narration track to axccompany a feature film. The first was by Ron Haver, a film historian, who described in great detail how King Kong was produced. The audio narration track has become a standard feature for movies on DVDs.
I spent many years living and working in Soho, NYC – I think “Everyone should live in New York City once…but leave before it makes you hard”. I left New York in the mid ‘90’s – my 14-year relationship/partnership and the company dissolved, so I returned “home” to Tucson and got married for the FIRST TIME, and things, thankfully, are quite wonderful here.

What stories, anecdotes, humor, amazing things can you tell?

I got fired from a research job  at a medical school because I would not falsify data. I could not believe it at the time! I’m so glad I stuck to my guns.

I met my wife, Karen, on the radio.  I was driving around the foothills and heard this wonderful voice on the radio. Later that week I heard the voice at a party, and that was the beginning.

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