Traveling Kevin J. Miyazaki's "Perimeter"

My Japanese "sisters" came to visit me in my hometown of Milwaukee one summer years ago. Every time we would drive by Lake Michigan, they would remark, "Ahh, it looks just like the ocean!" It really does. People actually call it the "Michigan Ocean." Unless it's an very unusually clear summer day, it's impossible to see across to the other side.

Having grown up no less that five miles away from such a large body of water, I think that I have been unconsciously programmed to automatically feel uncomfortable if I am too far from any kind of water mass. I actually get anxious if I'm landlocked for too long! There's something calming and cleansing about staring off across the water. Some of my greatest realizations have come to me just by sitting next to Lake Michigan, the Pacific Ocean or the Mississippi River.

Gallery installation of "Perimeter: Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki"

I know that I'm far from alone in my own appreciation for the reflective powers of water, and I was thrilled to share a fascinating photography project at TCD by Milwaukee-based photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki. Commissioned by and on display at Marquette University's Haggerty Museum of Art, "Perimeter" is the result of Miyazaki's exploration of the themes of fresh water and the Great Lakes. He spent two weeks traveling as close to Lake Michigan's perimeter as possible, photographing and interviewing over 200 people along the way. What emerges is a portrait of Lake Michigan through literal (lake views) and metaphorical (portraits) personas. A part of this multifaceted project is on view in a site-specific installation at the museum, but the artist's website features it in its entirety.

Can you design desire?

Photograph by J. Sattell

 Hello hello!

I wrote a little something over at Third Coast Digest earlier this week about an exhibit at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) that is closing soon: "Designing Desire: The Cultural Effects of Marketing"

"Designing Desire" encourages us to take a closer look at who is exactly calling the shots in our day-to-day lives... which are, for better or worse, inextricably tied to our identities as consumers. What are we buying, and why? How does design shape our desires for products? And, what (or who) is it that drives the messages behind the thousands of commercial messages that bombard us daily?

This show doesn't exactly set out to make "bad guys" out of advertisers and marketing executives, but it does cast a critical eye on the industry as a whole. You'll leave, perhaps ironically, a smarter consumer in the process.