Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Digital mandalas and a trapper from Hay River

In a nutshell..nothing lasts 

(image credit keri smith)

An elaborate and beautiful time consuming artistic construction is created only to be scattered to the wind...
I witnessed this ceremony once in northern India durning an event that lasted days. Slowly a massive artwork was created, by a goup of Tibetan Monks, only to be swept away once done!

Robert Frost the Famous American poet wrote...

“Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”
― Robert Frost

-

Yesterday I was not thinking about impermanence.
Mostly I was thinking about draining Coleman Lanterns for winter storage.
Later in the day I thought I would check in on a YouTube channel I follow...


The site is a collection of video logs created by a young trapper who lives off the land on his own near Hay River in the Canadian Yukon.
I have been meaning to share this site with my readers. 
The videos are honest, sometimes graphic depictions of life on the trapline and living in the woods.
I can speak for its truth because I have lived it myself.
Not only do I find the content interesting because of the unscripted reality but the way these videos are put together is fascinating to me in that nobody ever sent this fellow to journalism or film school...its apparent that he just figured it out on his own...
I don't know much about the sites creator Andrew so I thought I would do some research and see what I could find...
After a little looking around I found an interesting article that CBC radio did on him

The YouTube Trapper and The Idea of Digital Impermanence
Aside from learning a bit more about Andrews background from listening to this podcast
it was interesting to hear that his intention behind making his videos is to pass on knowledge about what he does...about living off the land and some of his traditions...
Jason Scott, archivist, technology historian and filmmaker comments in the 
interview about Andrews intentions but also about the medium being used to archive it.
What came out surprised me! 
Worth a listen I encourage you to enjoy Andrews posts now in the present (as well as mine) because the future of our visual and verbal accounts remains uncertain...
Very much like a sand mandala.... Impermanent...

-Martin

3 comments:

Astrid said...

your such a lovely writer

Astrid said...

your such a lovely writer

MADOLIN said...

Martin, I am enjoying your blog very much. This young trapper is an interesting individual. I want to watch all his videos when I have the time. Thanks for keeping me anxiously waiting for your next blog. Madolin