Technology

Observation

Caterpilla: Walk Don't Run 2015

May 24, 2015

Short video of a caterpiller crawling along to the transistorized Ventures I love how Instagram forces me to be in the present, if only for a few seconds. You can plan for an Instagram moment, but the freshest ones are those off-the-cuff. Observation takes the place of preparation.

As projects go, an Instagram account can maintained entirely in those spare minutes around the day when you're not doing anything else--waiting alone for lunch to arrive, or in line at the grocery store. Prepping a photo should take no longer than a minute or two, even with copious hashtagging and excessive fiddling with the filters.

Likewise, the taking of the photo itself is best done on the spur of the moment. Like, you're looking at something and thinking 'Is that a thing?' and go ahead and snap the photo anyway, because it's digital and the cost for digitally storing another one is pretty minimal.

Later, when waiting for the doctor, you may peruse the recent photos and, occasionally, marvel at how one came together particularly well, with all its disperse elements joining somehow in a visually pleasing manner. Serendipity!

For instance, this happened about a month ago: In the waning evening light out in the backyard after work, I caught a caterpillar hauling ass across the backyard picnic table. He was loping along to early 60s pop sounds of The Ventures that emitted from my iPad and for all the world sounded like an AM transistor radio popular in the early 60s:

#caterpillar #haulinass before the big #springstorm to #TheVentures #WalkDontRun #RVA #Backyard

A video posted by Joab Jackson (@joabjack) on

The 14-second Instagram clip was entirely pointless, but, for me anyway, the stupid synchronicity between the surf rock beat and the Mr. Pilla's stride was kind of hypnotic. Yeah, it was a good day.

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