My Alaska, Too combines writing and images to reveal multiple perspectives of people when they wonder, “What is Alaska like?” The result is a portrait made up of samples from people who visited for a short time or lived here long enough to call it home.

Printed on the top row of glass are edited comments by people who live in Alaska addressing why they live here. It seemed to us that whether they moved here or were born here there was an attitude about being or of passage growing up Alaskan is deciding to stay or move.

The ribbon of six monitors display photographs tagged with various unique Alaska subjects. Every twelve hours (7AM to 7 PM) the computers that search for the pictures retrieve more than 50,000 photos. They are made and shared by many individuals who have in common their experiences in Alaska. The collection of images seen over time shape what is commonly and uncommonly a dynamic state of being in Alaska.

On the third row are various forms of poetry written by Alaskan writers. They were selected to reveal the relationship that these artists have with the landscape, nature and people in Alaska. Their work is ironic, humorous and serious. It requires more time and contemplation than the content above it but the poems provide an opportunity to glimpse at the sublime order and perspective of Alaska felt by Alaskans.

Artist/Designers
Conrad Gleber :: conradgleber.com
Gail Rubini :: grubini.com
April 2010

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CREDITS

Artist/Designers: Conrad Gleber and Gail Rubini

There are many others who contributed to this project, we gratefully acknowledge:

Jeff Pasternak; Senior Technical Engineer
Andy Holst; Technical Engineer
Beth Lee; Interface designer and programmer
Brandon Kaufman; typeimageform.com
Ron Spatz, Editor of the Alaska Quarterly Review and Professor at the University of Alaska
Bruce Farmsworth, Director of MTS Gallery, mtsgallery.wordpress.com/
Helen Howarth, Advisor

The glass on top are quotes taken from everyday folks, either from overhearing them, asking folks, or blogs. Thank you for your contributions.

The glass on the bottom includes poetry from Alaskans.

You Haiku selected Poetry Contest winners for the years 2005-2009 published by the Anchorage Press:

A Bush Pilot’s View by Christopher Waalkes
Stuck in Whittier by Beth Johnson
At the Dog Park by Thomas Pease
Erosion by Brooke Edwards
Erosion by Lincoln Garrick
About a Moose in a Yard by Mara Severin
Permanent Fund Dividend by Jason Brandeis
Midnight Sun Baseball by Dell Wilson
About Tourists by Holly Adkins
About Tourists by Susan Saupe
About -30 Degrees by Linda Lockart

Cartography of Water, Mike Burwell, 2007, ISBN: 0-9794365-0-8
Winter Haiku by Mike Burwell

Contributing poems from: 50 Poems for Alaska, ISBN 978-0-615-26390-8, 2008
Caught Cheating by Deb Liggett
Anchorage, Alaska, December 18, 3:30 pm by Sherry Eckrich
At the Cabin in Skagway by Buffy McKay

Contributing poems from Alaska Quarterly Review, www.uaa.alaska.edu/aqr/, Ronald Spatz - Editor
and LiteSite Alaska, litsite.org/

It Begins in Ice by Eva Saulitis originally appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Volume 24, No. 1 & 2, Spring and Summer 2007.

At Fishcamp by Renee Singh originally appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Volume 24, No. 1 & 2, Spring and Summer 2007.

Ice Climbing by Eric Heyne originally appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Volume 24, No. 1 & 2, Spring and Summer 2007.

Winter by Peggy Shumaker is included in Blaze: Poems by Peggy Shumaker and Paintings by Kesler E. Woodward published by Red Hen Press, November 2005. “Winter” originally appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Volume 22, No. 1 & 2, Spring and Summer 2005.

After Ice Fog by Nora Marks Dauenhauer appears in Alaska Native Writers, Storytellers & Orators: The Expanded Edition, a special edition of Alaska Quarterly Review, Volume 17, No. 3 & 4, Spring and Summer 1999.

Images: