« 2010-07-25 » indefinite

there used to be occasional posts here. now, there are more regular and less personal post here kaleigh.tumblr.
- zurich

« 2009-02-01 » real world, real work

a month of real work has passed. real work meaning not phd, or masters, or internships. and as in full time. but then, working at google is hardly work as we imagine it. the hours are long, because we want them to be. because people are genuinely excited; it's infectious. because each day there is something that motivates me to think new, to contribute.

this new life has been made possible by the completion of my phd thesis, which was much more difficult to start than to finish. The title is Contours and Contrast and it essentially became a study of Unsharp Masking and its applications to tone mapping, image and video greyscale conversion, and 3D rendering. See my thesis webpage for proof.

logo from logoogle, by Judy Cash

- zürich

« 2008-12-07 » moving; not to return

this is the last grey saabruecken sunday to be spent in the office. after three and a half years of phd (6 months in grenoble, 5 months in zurich) things are wrapping up. the thesis is written, the defense almost prepared, friends appreciated and personal items packed. my life is getting shipped to zurich, and i will meet it there in january after three canadian weeks. as with any change, i am mixed; missing the people here, excited and mainly scared about what is to come.
- saabruecken

« 2008-10-06 » reading instead of writing

Listen! There now exist in society two ways of regarding women. Some men measure the female skull and prove in that way that woman is the inferior of man; they seek out her defects in order to deride her, in order to appear original in her eyes, in order to justify their own bestiality. Others try with all their might to raise woman to their own level; they oblige her to count the three thousand five hundred species and to speak and write the same folly that they speak and write themselves. [..] But I tell you that woman always has been and always will be the slave of man. She is a soft and tender wax out of which man has always been able to fashion whatever he had a mind to. Good God! For a man's penny passion she will cut off her hair, desert her family, and die in exile. There is not one feminine principle among all those for which she has sacrificed herself. She is a defenceless, devoted slave. I have measured no skulls, but I say this from grievous, bitter experience. The proudest, the most independent of women, if I can but succeed in communicating my passion to her, will follow me unreasoningly, unquestioningly, doing all I desire. [..] It is a noble, an exalted bondage! In that bondage lies the loftiest significance of woman's existence. [..] This - this magnanimous toleration, this faithfulness unto death, their poetry of heart - The meaning of life lies in the uncomplaining martyrdom, in this all-pardoning love that brings light and warmth into the chaos of life -

-- Likariev speaking to Ilovaiskaya in 'On the Way', Anton Chekhov, 1886
- rainy forest

« 2008-07-11 » back to write

now is my time to write this thesis. to finish it off and walk away. unlike the drunken postcard scripting pictured here, i expect a sobering few months of revisiting research, remaking images and rephrasing results.

photo by jay taylor
- saarbrücken

« 2008-05-13 » summer city

tomorrow marks the zürich three month mark. this small city has been quiet and easy with a bright summer after weeks of rain. each weekend exposes something new - a cafe, lakeside hideout, locals, views. everything seems here, and the people soak it up on their boats, bikes and lawn strewn towels.

photo by meder kydyraliev
- zürich

« 2008-01-27 » moving again; to return

this january has been a daze of paper writing and research, little sleep and stereotypically too much caffeine. i opened my shutters for the first time this weekend - they'd been shut nearly two months. this town is gray and the people are noisy, so what's the point in windows? but my mood has changed and the wind has warmed. the windows are opened (and people are still noisy).

i have another paper to finish in the next few weeks, before packing up a huge bag and moving to zurich for 3 months. perhaps it has become easier to move than to stay still.
- saarbrücken

« 2007-12-11 » countdown to cairo and crete

in one week, i will be on my way to cairo; first time in egypt . luckily i have two perfect friends and guides to help ease navigation and touring. we'll see the pyramids, the old city, the nile, alexandria and the red sea too. the countdown is on.

and then another c, to crete in april. but talking about crete is really just an excuse to post that my paper on greyscale conversion has been accepted to eurographics.
- saarficken

« 2007-10-29 » in the autumn, i think of manitoba

the autumn in this area of germany, where i live, makes me think of manitoba. of days when the wind is cool and the sky is sharp and bright, without the softening of summer's warmth. of weekends driving through its vast prairie. of winter and snow's tangible approach. this picture almost feels that way.
- saarbrücken

« 2007-10-08 » yoga site

here is a link to the little yoga website i have started. it is only in its infancy, and has very little content. for people in the yoga class, you will find information about Arjuna (Ron) the yogi with whom we'd like to have a weekend workshop. you will also find my contact information, so please let me know if you are interested in attending a workshop, and which weekend is best!
- saarbrücken

« 2007-07-31 » colour men

the research i am (not) doing involves the use of colour models. these are ways of defining and measuring humans' perception of colour. not easy at all... what is blue to you, what is blue to me? who knows? these guys have been trying for a long time, and sometimes they don't agree and often they each make their own model for the same perceptual phenomenon.

i wonder if they are friendly collegues, or if they fight, or struggle against each other? i wonder if the world of colour modelling has grown out of competition? so i look at their citations (who {in/ex}cludes whom) and imagine high colour drama and deceits.

you decide: friends? foes? Hunt and Nayatani together, looking collegial (from Fairchild's webpage).

and no, these types of inquiries probably won't make it into my thesis.
- stuhlsatzenhausweg

« 2007-05-24 » ashtanga

"When you practice yoga, life is easier. When you don’t, life is harder. It comes down to the most basic things like that. Enjoy the practice, keep it fun." -david swenson

this saturday is a yoga festival in köln; i will spend my time at the yoga loft.

also, i've started teaching ashtanga yoga in saarbrücken. if you would like to try a class just come to rapid studio on deutschherrenpfad any monday evening at 19h45.
- Saarbrücken

« 2007-03-21 » correspondence

writing, reading, sending and receiving. the popular migrant state of myself (and most friends) makes us joy at and socially depend on letters, parcels and emails. these daily to monthly communications let us remind people far away we think of them, lets us send little things they may like, and maintains connections between people who are far away.

nothing new. the father of carthusian monks, st. bruno, knew a thing or two about maintaining friendships through letters. He was a hermit sworn to silence, so his writing with friends took on even greater weight, and in this case, beauty:

This letter is not as succinct as it ordinarily ought to be, but that is because I do not have the joy of your presence. As a result, I desired to prolong our conversation at least in writing, and thus have the pleasure of your company.

- St. Bruno to Raoul Le Verd
- grenoble, france

« 2007-03-08 » from noise to silence

my neighbours are carthusain monks. my neighbours somewhere up and over the chartreuse mountains. but their existence is evidenced down here by bottles of green chartreuse alcohol. and now, a nearly three hour long, and even more nearly silent film has introduced us. the monks live just up the hill, yet have the opposite life. here, noise and commodities; there, pure silence and nothing material.

die grosse stille (into great silence) captures the monks' self-same days, and exposes each man's personalized piety. i was struck by how i thrilled at sound, particularly the moving of thick fabric being cut. then, in a film of greys, red window frames become neon signs, a bowl of fruit is more like a rainbow. and in a stone cold edifice, inhabited by ageless ascetic men, my heart warmed and throat lumped to see candles lit on each step of a stairwell and bright flowers welcoming a newcomer. if you can see it, do die grosse stille.
- grenoble

« 2007-02-12 » sunday afternoon in grenoble sounds and view

this is a view of the jumble of buildings and cables outside my grenoble apartment (and i guess the jumble it belongs to as well). usually you would see a few pigeons, but they are more underfoot, scaring me and making me look foolish as i creep past them in the mornings.

an unknown neighbour was playing tom waits today. perhaps in response to my playing of ritchie valens' sleep walk cover. the sound bounces around off these crankey buildings, so that it seems orchestrated from each person's window. i wonder who played the beautiful piece, with bass clarinet and strings? and most of all, i wonder which words that growlvoice was singing so that i could try to find the song and listen again and again.
- inria, montbonnot, france

« 2006-11-07 » grenoble duality

top: near my apartment; bottom: in front of my work.

each day i commute from a french village-life atmosphere with outdoor markets, dirty cobblestones, lots of chimneys and maybe as many bakeries, to a love-boat-from-the-future inspired building in a technopole called inovalle. the differences are massive, yet i'd never really noticed until putting these pictures together.
- inria: montbonnot, france

« 2006-10-05 » villeneuve (but not jacques)

grenoble is a small city tucked into a valley of mountains in france. seven hours (by car or train) from saarbrücken, i live here now with amy (from winnipeg, longtime) in our tiny apartment. we are both dusting off our french immersion francais and learning to stop over-saying excusé and alors.

Aside from enjoying this little town and version originale (VO) films, i am working with the artis group at inria.

the beauty is unimaginable (à la canadian rockies), the city so cute and the food tremendous.
- grenoble, france

« 2006-09-17 » aufwiedersehen saarland

the saar river winds through this state, at one point nearly twisting itself to go back the way it came. i'm making like that river, and am twisting back. not all the way to canada, but to france, where i'll wind my way through grenoble's little streets, up its mountains and along its isère river.
- saarbrücken

« 2006-08-21 » comic (without humour)

i've been playing around with fun software - here is something made for a eurographics presentation next month. the drawing is made with illustrator and the comic is made with comic life.

also, here is another fun-game-be-creative tool - making movies from old clips. in the form of a gre statement: it is to film as collage is to print. try making one of your own at www.grapheine.com.
- saarbrücken (still)

« 2006-06-12 » schiele

a few months ago, vienna had an exhibit on egon schiele. and while sadly i didn't visit, the beauty and salaciousness of his work has stayed with me. these images have me thinking about different artistic techniques and how i can relate them to research in computer graphics...

the leftmost piece appears as a near collage, and i wonder what could be achieved, not by painting, but by finding and using meaningful textures according to seach-words in the mass of photos stored in places like getty and flickr.

schiele's work also has violently expressive countershading or false shadowing. these stark white strokes help me to see the figures and to understand something more about the subject. shadows and outlines can stray far from physical realism - i wonder how this affects our perception, and our feelings for the image?

- saarbrücken

« 2006-05-11 » paper accept

work/studying/researching is a big part of my daily life, so i'd like to make a work-related post. my paper on enhancing images has officially been accepted to the eurographics conference. i'm happy and proud of the work.

the idea is very simple: introduce colour contrasts to create an enhanced image. we do this to emphasize details and as shown here, to increase the overall image contrast - the visual difference between objects in the scene.
- saarsaarsaar

« 2006-03-13 » swedish cups

stockholm is a city that oozes design and form. i was particularly drawn to cups by the swedish designer stig lindberg produced by the gustavsberg company. A collective of artisans and designers along with a historical venue are established separate from the corporate workings in gustavsbergs hamn (thanks nils). i saw these cups in antique shops and in modern design stores. like so many swedish designs, they can't be placed in a particular time frame - fitting equally in the 50s, now, anytime between, and probably most times to come.

i made a few photos of stockholm.
- saarbrücken

« 2006-01-27 » johannes itten

Color is life; for a world without color appears to us as dead. -Johannes Itten

This Bauhaus designer and educator lists seven types of colour contrasts in his seminal book The art of colour. These contrasts are created by opposing purity of hue; light and darks; cools and warms; complements; saturation; and proportion.

Colour continues to be an elusive theme in my current research. I'm looking to artistic colour techniques to create automatic contrast enhancements in photographs.

- saarbrücken

« 2006-01-07 » flying into another year

this set of photos was taken in an unusual passenger tunnel at the Detroit airport. this tunnel is a music and light installation with passengers being ferried between terminals on moving sidewalks or getting through on their own. i thought it was not only gorgeous and enlightening after too much too similar travel-decor, but also slightly ridiculous that no one seemed to notice how *crazy* the whole thing was. you can see the extreme changes in lighting.

my sister and i have posted a new years letter.

and there are new pictures.

- saarbrücken

« 2005-11-23 » Albers on colour, and people

"As it is with people in our daily life, so it is with color.
We change, correct, or reverse our opinions about colors, and this change
of opinion may shift forth and back."

Josef Albers on colour intensity -- brightness, from his book "The Interaction of Color", 1963. At left, a photo of his 'Red and White" stained-glass window, 1923.

- Saarbrücken

« 2005-11-14 » spoons from paris

these are serrated spoons for eating grapefruit. during a weekend in paris, i wandered into E. Dehillerin, an otherworldly kitchen supply shop. it is the cook's equivalent to a reader's favorite book store, with all types of utensils and forms stacked 10 feet high on open wooden shelves.

i made a few photos, but not many.

- saarbrücken

« 2005-08-29 » translations

in geneva, there are paving stones with a variety of inscriptions translated into many languages. marina and i wandered around and took photos. my favorite translations were 'appointment' and 'rendez-vous', and 'à bientôt' and 'see you soon'.

i'm not sure if this is a good idea, but my favorite thing about strangers' (or near strangers) websites are photos. this is my european summer collection.

- saarbrücken, germany

« 2005-06-13 » this is not montreal

the red dot on the map is saarbrücken. against most odds, i'm living there now. here is proof: mpi homepage. this small city has sprouted out of a forest without displacing any trees. the city seems to cohabitate with its surroundings, instead of destroying them.

i wonder a bit if coming here was a mistake. i wonder what i've lost by going on my own to a place essentially for a job. the only sure thing i know is that i've already gained experiences and states of mind that i'd never have had otherwise.

- saarbrücken, germany

« 2005-05-13 » not for long

i'm leaving to (re)start my phd at the max planck institut fur informatik in saarbrucken. no, i don't speak german. no, i don't know what to expect. yes, i'm scared and nervous. and finally, i must be a fool to leave montreal just when it is turning green and when the patios are finally ready for sitting.



- home (mile end, montreal)

« 2005-04-04 » time for a new index page

this image is made by a guy who draws from people's email subjects. i chose this one mainly bacause of its use of yellow, my newest and oldest most favorite thing. its corresponding email subject is 'i do feel better'. his site is [exploding dog].



also, i should say that i'll be moving soon from montreal... i'm heading for more grad school, this time in germany.


- montreal

« 2005-02-24 » ipod shuffle belt

my parents gave me a 1G ipod shuffle. it is perfect for everyday use and especially for walking or gymming. beside are photos of the belt i made to hold my shuffle.

at first, i thought i'd only use it at the gym, but i wear it to school and at school and all around. i hardly notice it... and now music is always with me.

dominique is a tailor on du parc. he is making copies of my shuffle belt prototype. email me if you would like to buy one.

*NEW*

. publications and presentations is a new section of this website with my two papers and a few talks i've prepared.
.montreal and mile end is another new page where i'll be putting different neighbourhood material.

- mile end apartment

« 2005-02-01 » tiles

this is a photo of a tile i bought in mexico this january. as with india, mexico is much more decorated than north america. these types of tiles make normal surfaces, like tables and floors, vibrant, patterned and beautiful.

i've put photos of all the tiles i bought online at creative/tiles.html.

- schulich library, mcgill, montreal

« 2004-10-29 » tea mug for navraj

the perfect mug for tea and biscuits.

'Dunk Mug', by Dominic Skinner, from Mocha, www.mochahome.com.
- montreal

« 2004-08-22 » mother hug [hammock]

chirs sent the hammock,
nature sent the breeze.
i'm here to do the swinging,
now who's going to move the trees.

- modification of shel silverstein's poem

since there are no trees on our balcony, alex bought a hammock stand. now we can swing and relax outside in one of the most comforting inventions.

- mile end

« 2004-05-03 » canadian films - genie awards 2004

a saturday afternppn cbc interview on definately not the opera with genie nominated winnipeg film 'auteur' guy maddin prompted us to watch the genie awards. understandably, denys arcandreceived the award for his work on the acclaimed quebec film les invansions barbares.

i'm glad to have seen the genies. it showcased a variety of films and actors that i am glad to have been introduced to or reminded of. at the awards show
sarah polley was recognized for her performance in the film my life without me. in her acceptance speech she appealed to canadian filmmakers and filmgoers to address the fact that canadians rarely have the chance to see canadian films in the theatre. she said that our theatres' screens are overrun by heavily promoted american films and that this leaves no space for the films the genies celebrated that evening. she is absolutely right. why have i managed to see kill bill II and not la grande seduction?

the clips shown on the genie awards show excited me. the films that were featured look fantastic and appealing. so in an effort to experience these excellent films i am listing them here.

Les invasions barbares showing at the parisien

La Face cachée de la lune

The Saddest Music in the World showtimes at cinema du parc

La Grande séduction showing at variety of theatres

The Snow Walker

Marion Bridge

My Life Without Me

Owning Mahowny

The Sweet Hereafter (2002-3)

- montreal

« 2004-04-19 » louigi found (on the web) glass mug

Modiolus

A mug found from the first century after christ.

Vitrum art and science in roman glass exhibit at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science
Florence, Italy web beautiful pics.



- montreal

« 2004-04-01 » Danielle it's your birthday.

here is a happy birthday card to danielle because she's in costa rica and i didn't send anything there. see the bigger card.
- montreal

« 2004-01-21 » winter update

today is gorgeous. montreal is the greatest place to live. aside from being a deep-freeze lately, it is filled with locally run little shops, great venues and a little mountain covered in white snow. i love walking in this city each day.

NEW! checkout the unicorns site at theunicorns.net. i can't stop listening to them.
- graphics lab, montreal

« 2003-10-01 » new school

now i'm back at school - mcgill - but i've changed supervisors and am enbarking on a phd in computer graphics. we lucked into a great apartment in outremont surrounded by shops and cafes and parks and trees. i'm biking around town on a borrowed cruiser so my stolen bike is not missed too much. please keep an eye on this page, because i'm going to be making changes and adding the graphics work that i do.
- montreal

« 2003-08-18 » 2003-08-18

i'm back from a few weeks in winnipeg followed by three weeks travel in poland. tonight i did a bit of updating of this site namely the film section. i'm trying to set up the site to use style sheets instead of tables and eventually the site will be entirely php with the content coming from a database (like this page and now the film page). in a few days a group of us are heading to p.e.i for a friend's wedding so i'll get back to montreal by the beginning of september. hopefully i'll also find a job, a bike (mine was just stolen) and an apartment.
- montreal west

« 2003-05-31 » 2003-05-31

alex and i moved in to his family's in montreal west. it is lovely and green here. We'll be living here for the summer when we are not travelling. This summer i will visit winnipeg and poland for a month. also, i've stopped doing my phd and will spend the next few months reading, resting and enjoying summer in montreal.
- montreal west

« 2003-01-23 » 2003-01-23

india is absolutely wonderful and my trip was fantastic. india is a mixed concoction of beauty, flith, gore and humanity wrapped in a colourful sari and streams of incense smoke. cows sit on sidewalks, dogs sleep on streets. people work all the time.

in india life is thrown in your face. not like here, where we only see the nice, clean parts. shit and piss drain into the street. families sleep on sidewalks sharing a blanket. healthcare is costly. religion is rampant. food is spicy, greesy and smelly. in terms of autos: a horn is more important than headlights, inflated tires, turnsignals and
mirrors. men hold hands and walk arm in arm, but a husband does not touch his wife in public.

i plan to scan parts of my journal, collect my thoughts and add a travel section to this site.
- montreal

« 2002-12-10 » 2002-12-10

i am spending the holidays in india. i will be back in freezing (but favoured) montreal january 12, 2003.
- montreal

« 2002-11-27 » 2002-11-27

currently in barbados for a bioinfo workshop. i'll be back in montreal on the 8th of december, 2002. then i go to india from december 11th to january 12th. yes, life is pretty good. i will set up a little travel journal online for the india trip.
- montreal