P3D Re: Whither Stereoscopy?

[Bruce Springsteen <bsspringsteen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nice question, but the real question in my mind is, wherefore ISU?  I just
hope to find the answer in the pages of the magazine eventually.

Meanwhile, I am learning other things every day.  So far I have learned
that editing is difficult and that writing is difficult.   OK, actually I
knew that already.  I also knew already that volunteers do the best they
can most of the time, are hard to replace, and deserve to be cut a large
amount of slack.  Consider it cut.

What I still don't know is why so many established stereographic mavens
seem to have produced so little material for this magazine over the last
three and a half years (Ray Moxom a conspicuous exception).  I understand
that an editor must know how to find and tease out the material from the
membership - people are naturally modest and reluctant to hang their ideas
out for perusal and possible abuse.  But with 900 or so members, I would
think that someone would be stepping in with an axe to grind or tale to
tell more often, so the poor editors don't have to write everything
themselves, slaving over a hot Underwood on the sands of Monaco.  Writers
write and editors edit, right? (BTW, what are the writers and editors from
"3DMagazin" doing these days?)

George is correct that an editor must be a good nudge, especially in an
association like ISU.  However, I disagree that the magazine "belongs" to
the editor - it is the organ of the organization - and the membership has
the responsibility for what appears there (just as in Photo 3D), to
generate the material and to indicate to the editor what the priorities
should be.  This isn't "Time" where subscribers are only passive
dull-witted consumers, it's an arm of the ISU and should have ready-made
life-blood and a mandate.  What mandate?  The first priority, it seems to
me, is to report the activities of the organization and its members; the
second is to educate in stereoscopic matters.   After that has been
thoroughly done, we can all relax and enjoy one another's vacation
snapshots.

Bill Moll mentioned almost apologetically his tendency to reprint material
from the countries' publications.  I see no shame in that, and if ISU is
really more an association of associations then that would seem especially
appropriate.  I would read it gladly, since I can't easily get such
material elsewhere!

Bob Wier has attempted to protect me from being quoted to non-P3D persons
without my permission, at least I think he was thinking of me.  I
appreciate that.  I here give permission to quote me in my entirety to
off-list folks, provided that every word is quoted and my every subsequent
remark on the subject is also conveyed.  This list is an ongoing
commitment, and all remarks by members should be understood in the context
of their unfolding views over time.  We are not carving one-time
statements in stone here, we are having a discussion.

Tony, on my hesitancy to write as an expert on anything for ISU says:

>"A miner is a liar with a hole in the ground."

>I daresay if you can muster up a little more chutzpah, you can buffalo
>the rest of us (well, most of the time, anyway) into thinking you're a
>regular prodigy.

Definitely a California credo there!  I thought I had already revealed
myself as "all hat and no cattle" to this list, but I suppose red-faced
rhetoric retains its power to blind the mind.  My style is a perfect
example of bad cross-cultural communication - full of idiom, slang, irony,
self-made coinages, unfamiliar words and double entendre - exactly wrong
for an international forum.  I must drive non-English speaking P3Ders nuts
- so sorry.  And I obviously need editing, and I get my facts wrong too. 
If "Stereoscopy" institutes a satire column, then maybe I'm your man.

Bob Wier also offered the notion that P3D could use some prestige of an
academic sort, to ensure its continued "underwriting" by his institution,
if I get the drift.  Is it time for us to graduate to the sort of forum
where would-be stereo experts try out their ideas as a prelude to
publishing, perhaps in "Stereoscopy" or some other scholarly periodical? 
(I guess some may have expected T3D to be that, but it looks moribund to
me.)  No reason we couldn't still be the same P3D, exchanging the usual
insults and endearments, repetitive questions and twin-camera recipes. 
We'd just have to add footnotes and a bibliography.

Pop quiz:  In 1976, at the 2nd International Congress of Stereoscopy,
Salvador Dali addressed the assembled crowd, and showed his stereo work. 
He also designed the logo for that Congress, reproduced as a pair in the
March 1998 issue of "Stereoscopy".  Who can tell us the title of his
address? (Hint:  It mentions two topics recently covered on P3D!)  For
extra credit, what was the title of the logo?

Bruce 



    

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