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01/03/2010 – My refridgerator.
Image by The Lazy Canadian
I was walking around the house, admittedly trying to think of ideas for my photo for the day, and as I walked by the fridge, something caught my eye. The photo of my dog Tango that I took years and years ago. While he might not be with us anymore, at least I see him every day as I walk by the fridge. That lead to me thinking about how this project could lead to me stirring up many old memories from different parts of the year, and got me kind of excited. Here’s hoping I get more interesting shots than my fridge, some books, and a Blu-ray movie though. 
Meet the MIA: Carl Atiya Swanson
Image by Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Carl Atiya Swanson
Sales & Service Representative
Almost 2 years at the MIA
Describe something interesting or unusual about your work here:
Working in Visitor & Member Services, you wind up being everything to everyone; tour guide, concierge, ticket broker, art dealer, message taker, errand runner, schedule manager and confidante to strangers. You really have to know things about every curatorial and administrative department to get people to the right place. You also get to use your lateral thinking skills when visitors try and describe the item they want to see; “You know, that janitor thing,” is actually “Christus Consolator” and when people ask you for the “Tetris”, they mean the Tatra.
What was your first job?
First job was in high school, working at a call center doing marketing surveys (fortunately no sales calls!) for companies like Wal-Mart and Veggie Tales. The company broke million in profits that year and took us all out to Valley Fair to celebrate. Straight out of college, I directed a canvass office in San Diego for non-profit groups, Environment California and the Human Right Campaign, busting out 80 hour weeks on a solar homes campaign and hate crimes legislation.
What’s hanging on your walls?
Posters and drawings from local artists like Nick Howard, Adam Turman and Aesthetic Apparatus, papyri from Egypt, batik from Tanzania.
Where are you originally from?
I was born in Hartford, Connecticut and when I was four months old, moved to Cairo, Egypt, where my father was teaching. We lived in Rome from when I was 5 years old to 8 years old as my father worked on his doctorate in Islamic Studies at the Vatican and then back to Cairo for six years. Then to St. Paul for three years of high school, college out at the University of Southern California’s School of Fine Arts and various parts of California for a while after that then back to Minneapolis for the last four years. So, “from”? I came from Pillsbury Avenue today.
What is your favorite work of art at the MIA?
That is a question that we get asked as VMS staff a lot, so I’ll tell you what I tell visitors- That is a hard question, there is so much to like! I am partial to a lot of different pieces; the Nok “Seated Dignitary” for his delicate power, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Gemsbok” for their ethereal and artificial presence, and the guardian figures in Gallery 205 always cheer me up.
What do you do for fun?
I freelance write on music, art and theatre issues for City Pages and The Onion’s A/V Club, as well as my own website, which is as much fun as it is work. I also act, both with a theatre company that I helped found called Lamb Lays with Lion and also with other companies around town. Basically, I try to get paid for doing the things I find fun.
What would be your super hero power?
Oh, I don’t know, probably manipulation of the time-space continuum.
Photo: Amanda Hankerson
Hmm
Image by emilybean
I am part of one of those get-paid-to-do-surveys sites. Only, they always have the WEIRDEST pre-screening questions that make absolutely no sense. This is coming from a person with the equivalent of a minor in social research methods.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I swear if shit like this doesn’t stop happening, I’ll be pleased.
its reality and more its due to golabal warmin
Let me expand on this. Why on God’s green earth do we WANT a consensus among scientists? Let me tell two stories from my own experience. When I first studied physics at Cavendish Labs, my mentor went on to be Prof. Sir Gordon Sutherland, head of NPL. He gave me an assingment, and I went to the library, and made a summary of what I could find. I handed it in to him, very proud of myself. The next time me met, he said WTTE, “This is absolutely useless, and not at all what I wanted. I want to know what YOU think on the subject, not a summary of what others think”. In my first job, just after WWII, my boss, I will never forget his name, Nancarrow, told me that my job was to have ideas. He said “I dont mind how many bad ideas you have, just so long as occasionally you have a good one”.That is what science is about so far as I am concerned; people thinking for themselves. It is a lot of bright people looking at the same set of hard data and making up their own minds what the data means. The last thing we want, and it is a complete anathema to science, is to insist that scientists are not allowed to think for themselves, but must agree to some idea that their “superiors” have agreed upon.That is not science. It is certainly not physics. The whole notion that somehow all scientists must think the same way is absolutely preposterous. To repeat, a scientific consensus is an oxymoron. A complete contradiction in terms.
OMG Shakers! I’m FREAKING OUT.
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