Rock Canyon Bacteria Cultures

One way I decided to capture the true élan of the soul of a location (in this case, Rock Canyon) is by taking bacteria samples and growing cultures from them. I attempted to make the unseen seen, and tried to show even the most minute aspects of this place. If everything in existence--at least everything physical, real and concrete--is made out of atoms, then really all that existence and reality is, and all that places (both inner and outer landscapes) really are is a combination of all of these different atom combining together to create something. This is a part of this idea, I attempted to take the minuscule, unseen aspects of a place (microscopic bacteria) and make it able to be seen by our eyes. It's impossible to actually show atoms, because they are too small and I do not have the access to a scanning tunneling microscope, or any other piece of sophisticated machinery required to properly see the building blocks of all reality.

Unfortunately, this is my first time making bacteria cultures. As a result, I wasn't able to have this project fully communicate my idea. Originally, I was to take samples from the four Classical Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water. I took an air sample by opening the petri dish and waving it around for a bit. I took a sample from a fire pit, and from the dirt and from a small pool of water. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture the fire pit sample (although, it looked a lot like the dirt sample). I also did not take in to account exactly how disgusting bacteria cultures are, and that they would make my apartment smell really bad and that I would end up having to quickly snap photos before throwing them away [I ran into a similar problem with my Spiral Jetty cultures, which became so rank and rancid that I was forced to throw them away before I could take a picture].

So, my final images are lacking and somewhat uninteresting, but are a very nice first attempt. Although I haven't yet taken Polaroids of Rock Canyon, I do appreciate the similarities in the process of "developing" a polaroid of a place and "developing" a bacteria culture of a place.

Earth [Rock Canyon, Utah]

Air [Rock Canyon, Utah]

Water [Rock Canyon, Utah]

Rock Canyon General Information ~~ Jesse L Baird

Rock Canyon Sky Collage ~~ Jesse L Baird

This image is a 4:3 collage of 12 4:3 images of the sky taken at Rock Canyon, over several days, from several angles and locations. Together they give an idea of how dizzying it can be trying to fully capture all the nuances and changing aspects of a place. Although locations are concrete, physical, and (more or less) unchanging, they have a more ethereal nature that can never be fully captured or replicated. The mix of light and shadow, the light playing in the branches and cracks or the canyons, the wind blowing just-so to create a temperature combination unique to that geographical area--all these tiny, ephemeral elements combine together to create that space, at that time, in relation to the person experiencing it.

Each visit to a location is unique, although the physical place remains as a constant, different tiny elements constantly work together to create each moment in a place. And each moment is, like a snowflake, different than every other.

And so, this collage aims to capture 12 different "moments" of the sky within Rock Canyon.

Rock Canyon Textures ~~ Jesse L Baird

Drawing from Stan Breakage's Mothlight and Stellar, I attempted to create a video that simulated the idea of things being directly applied to a medium. Only, I focused on various texture's found in Rock Canyon. Hopefully I can do a similar thing in Monument Valley and Spiral Jetty.

Rock Canyon Hike ~~ Jesse L Baird

Over the weekend, I went hiking up Rock Canyon. It was a nice day, and Rock Canyon is near enough to my house that I can feel like I’m really getting out and getting active. I emptied my backpack of its laptop and books, filled it with some water bottles, put on my hiking boots and got in my car. It was mid-afternoon, so it was an alright temperature and good light, and it wasn’t too busy.

I walked into the canyon. I had been there a few days before, but didn’t hike very far in—I got to the gate that they close in the winter (in order to keep motorized vehicles out) and turned around. But this time, I went past the gate in order to see what the rest of the canyon looked like. The difference between "Just Outside Rock Canyon" and "Inside Rock Canyon" is incredible, it almost seems like another place. Yes, it looks like Utah geography. But, it doesn't look like Provo geography. Even though I was less than 10 minutes from the City of Provo proper, it seemed like I was much further away. 

More interestingly, the wooded canyon reminded me a lot of back home. Rock Canyon, even though it's different in many ways (Different than Central Idaho in many, quantifiable, concrete ways) has a lot of aspects that I found to be similar enough to the Payette National Forest - which surrounds New Meadows, ID and the Meadows Valley on all sides - that I felt like I might just actually be back home, within 20 miles of where I was born.

Of course, when I looked up I saw the distinctive peaks of the Wasatch Front I realized that I was indeed in Utah. Although I found similarities between the small features of the canyon, the grand backdrop that these little things were placed on was very much Utahan, and didn't allow for any sort of imaginative transport to a childhood locale (at least, not a full transportation). 

Provo's Distinct Mountains, Pulling me Back to Reality

About 20 minutes into the canyon, I found a somewhat hidden path that had been formed by the footprints' of people slowly packing down the still present snow. It went from the main path to the left, towards the dry creek bed. I followed it and found a rock in a Hidden Space which I sat on. This area in particular reminded me of back home, as it really did look like any number of secluded spots in the forest I grew up in an around. I snapped three pictures from the vantage point of my stone-chair, trying to roughly capture what my view was while sitting. Those three pictures follow:

Dry Creek Bed from Hidden Space

Mountains Through the Trees from Hidden Space

Ibid.

After finding this Hidden Space, I realized it was getting somewhat late and that I should head back to my car. Only, this time I planned to look for more hidden paths, or at least paths that were off the main one. I crossed the dry river and followed the path of a previous traveler, keeping my eyes open for any opportunities to discover more hidden vistas. I saw footprints that formed a rudimentary ladder that could be used to climb up a somewhat steep slope. I followed them up. They wrapped around, through some trees, and led to-surprisingly-a metal cable that was anchored to the ground. I could hold onto it to maintain my balance and climb up the somewhat loose rocks. When I reached the top, I found a flat area near some impressive, sheer rock faces. There was a burned log, which meant that this was a popular place for people to go. I rested a bit, and took a picture of the Rock Canyon mouth, towards my car and Provo, from this new vista. 

Mouth of the Canyon from High Place

Then, I carefully climbed down and headed to my car. It was somewhat scary coming down, because it was steeper than I had remembered and it was starting to get dark. But, I made it to my car and went home. Concluding my spontaneous adventure in Rock Canyon.