Ok, it’s really not that hard to grock.

It’s almost always a zillion degrees in Bangkok, but for some reason it was rather mild when I finished work at 5pm today. Usually I take the skytrain 2 stops, but decided to walk the 30 min or so today instead. Lucked out and saw this sunset, I’m guessing it’s the pollution that makes it look so pretty … but ahh well.

This one I shot a while ago over my university as a storm was coming in.

I’ve been meaning to post some information about my university for a while as it is a very unique place, in that it draws people from all over the country together to learn in one place. More so than other universities, Ramkamheang, creates a broad cross-section of the country, drawing people from very different socioeconomic backgrounds and age-groups. The cost per credit hour is 25 Bhat, which means that a normal 3-credit full semester course, runs 75 Bhat (a little over $2USD). I don’t know the details of how things are funded, but I am guessing that there is significant government funding going into the place. Out of approximately 600,000 students, there are around 10 of us foreigners … I’m the only white person, there rest are Japanese, Chinese, Lao, Cambodian and Burmese. (There is an international college that is part of the university which has more people from the Occident due to its instruction being in English, but that is a separate entity).

The grade is made of of a single final exam and attendance to classes is not required. Many students go part time while working, sometimes coming to classes but other times trying to read the text books at home. Students who graduate are thought to be very hard-working and self-motivated, as the lack of an attendance requirement or mid-term exams allows for lazy students to slip through the cracks.

The majority of the classes happen at two campuses in Bangkok, and there are also close to 30 satellite locations around the country which are setup for distance learning. One thing I find so visually interesting is that there is often different technologies all layered on top of each other. There are many large lecture halls used for exams and freshman lecture classes, each one seats about 500+ students and is outfitted with giant ceiling fans (no air-conditioning) and large TVs that hang from the ceiling. The professor stands up at the front to teach, his face and lecture notes are displayed on the TVs and then there is a full editing room in the corner where the lecture is edited and broadcast out on the internet and via satellite for students who can’t make it in.

One you get into your major courses, the class size drops down considerably. My Spanish class is in a room like this with 15 students and my Sanskrit class is in an even smaller room with 4 students.

There is a lot of construction going on and many buildings are slated to be torn down and rebuild over the next few years.

There school was built 37 years ago and there are some really strange things that remain, including this Austin Powers-esque conference-room.

There is a full TV and radio production facility, where the university produces content for its own television station,

and where lectures are broadcast live to satellite campuses. I haven’t been down to any of the satellite campuses yet, but plan to eventually. From what I understand, they have rooms full of TV monitors where students watch a lecture and also microphones which the students can use to ask the professor questions.

The full photo survey that I’ve been doing can be seen here.

thai newspapers will print just about anything to get people’s attention. they particularly love photos of dead bodies, or when the police force a shoplifter to reenact his crime for the camera (causes the criminal and his family to loose face and let’s the store clerk who caught him gain face).

this particulartly strange photo ran a week or so ago … the caption reads “Mr. Sskri Anunnrawad, a well-known professor, had this show repair needle shoved into his head by the cobbler Mr. Jerun. Ohh what good luck that it didn’t enter his brain! The cobbler apparently wasn’t happy with some situation caused.”

In an organized society we have the hospital, school, police station, the law courts. But after all these things are dealt with there is still a gap inside of everyone which can only be filled by reading, listening to music, writing poetry, making art, looking at art.

When you get up in the morning, sit on the edge of the bed, keep your eyes clothes and then only stand up when you’ve thought “what do i want to say to the world today”.

more on wikipedia

i spent the week before last down in phuket with larry and ray from san francisco (well monterey for now, sf soon). it was the first time i had left bangkok since the new year, and it was super nice to be able to chill and not let my day be run by a clock. every time i leave the city, it does a good job of reminding me how much i love being back here. the countryside or beach is nice and all, but i feed off the energy of the city much more. it’s much more inspiring to be surrounded by traffic, concrete, malls and millions of people than it is to be in the middle of nowhere.

that being said, i shot some great photographs with my medium-format pinhole camera and with my panoramic camera. i’m still sorting through most of the negatives, these two are my favorites so far.

i’ve been invited to show two collages from the my series “how to know god (homage to christopher isherwood)” as a part of a group show this friday in bangkok. the focus of the show is for four senior photography students from chulalongkorn university to show their work along with their professor, and they wanted to ask a guest to show work along with them.

i will be showing the following two pieces, the first as a 1m x 1m lightbox and the second as a 30”x12” lambda print. click on any of the images (including the flyer image at the top) for a full size version. if you are in town and free on friday, please come. it should be a lot of fun.

click any of the images to view a full size version of the article.

opening party coverage in volume magazine.

event coverage in thai rat (ไทยรัฐ), thailand’s biggest newspaper

daily xpress highlighted the event as a hot activity of the day many times

bk magazine listed the event as a “pick of the week” two weeks in a row

we took down the show today …. 13 of the 47 works are done, look for an online catalog of the remaining ones after my exams are done. in the meantime, here are some photos from the opening party. photos in slide show by volume magazine and kongsak poonponwattanaporn. top photo by suebsang sangwachirapib (click the photo to enlarge it).

the nation newspaper interviewed sherry and i at the opening, and then published the following article on friday may 16th. the article ran 3/4 of the page, which is much bigger than my scanner and is why the scan looks a bit wonky.

anyone who has spent much time listening to me, may notice that the quotes sound a bit off. they interviewed us both in thai and then wrote the article in english …. wherever i am quoted, they are translating something i said into english. anyway, they captured the essence of what i wanted to say, they just phrased it a little differently than i would have.

i’ll be updating the site and adding photos from the opening soon …. i’ve got final exams next weekend tho, so it may be a little delayed. i’ll get back to posting in thai and english once finals are over too, for now i’m too busy … or maybe too lazy.

(click the image to download the full version)

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