Photographic art 'n stuff by Stuart Murdoch

Flagstaff Station, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 2026-05-12 13:32:18

Bathed in steep angled winter light, the kind that hints at summers past. A stairwell interior with an illuminated green emergency‑exit sign above a short flight of steps. Yellow tactile strips mark the edge of each step, and a metal handrail runs along the right side. Sunlight casts sharp diagonal shadows across the pale wall and floor. A security camera is mounted near the ceiling, and dark floor mats sit at the base of the stairs. A shadow cast by an unknown person, hints at the utility of it all.

2005 (signs of the millennium drought)

2006 (a rumoured, nefarious character from flickr)

2009 college camping...

2011 inspired by Paul Graham

2013, work spaces...

2014 under a blood red sky...

2016 gone but not forgotten...

2017, a since concluded project...

2018 part of a larger and almost finished project...

2026-04-25 17:41:29

Family Laugh Flavour.

So. I just splurged. At $3.50 AU per shot. I won't be blasting way like I do with my iPhone!

I was at the NGV recently to see the fabulous exhibition, Women Photographers 1900-1975 , a legacy of light. When I visit the NGV, I usually swing by the bookshop to see what's on offer. This day was no exception. One book caught my eye however. So much so I returned a few days later (today) to purchase it. The book is titled, Library of Artistic Print on Demand. (The link takes you to the dedicated website.) I think the subtitle really struck a nerve for me, after its size and colour; at which point I picked it up and flipped through it. The sub-title? Post-Digital Publishing in Times of Platform Capitalism.

You can buy it from Spector Books in Germany

Wow, wow wow!

So much inspiration so many quirky ideas and books. Do yourself a favour go while away some time and check out the books on that website.

2003

2005

2006

2007

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2017

2018

2020

2023

2025

02-03-2007

02-03-2008

02-03-2011

02-03-2012

02-03-2013

Currently listening to this, in preparation for their gig next month

For the last 30 years, today was a day of refocus. I would return to work at the school where I worked and begin planning and preparing for the upcoming academic year. Today, this is not the case. So, in a fit of  'reflecting’, I have decided to 'clean up' my bookmarks. In the process, I'm finding some gems.

The Surrealist Compliment Generator is one such link. I don't recall when I discovered this, but it certainly harks back to the early weird days of the web.

The Surrealist Compliment Generator

"My elbow sockets sharpen pencils when you pass by on divine fumes of industrial combustion."

"Beauty is cataplexed in contemplation of your multidimensional effervescence."

etc etc

180º @ 17:00

Recently we moved, from the western suburbs to the western edge of the CBD. This puts my Tumblr, Saturday @ 17:17 into Hiatus,

We've been in the new place just over a week, it's an apartment on the top/second floor of the building we're in. I can see Flagstaff Gardens from my "study".

During the days we've been here I have been contemplating this new "project". I wanted a time that was going to be repeatable, had some cadence to it, and would change throughout the year and the seasons, so I settled on 180º @ 17:00.

180º, is the compass bearing for South, and 17:00 is often associated with knock off time from work. The location too is at a "hinge" if you will. A small patch of green that separates the CBD from the mixed residential of West Melbourne. The city’s grid is famously skewed, its angles inherited from colonial surveying decisions and the topography of the Yarra, adding some incongruity.  The corner becomes a laboratory for noticing.

Five o’clock on a Friday isn't just a temporal marker; it is a state of mind. It is the time when the sun begins its descent behind the western edge of the CBD, when the city’s glass towers catch fire for a few minutes before dimming; slowly in summer and quickly in winter. The week’s accumulated fatigue meets the weekend’s anticipatory glow.

The project is not just about the corner, the compass, or even the city. It is about the way light touches the world at a specific moment, and how that touch shapes perception, memory, and identity. It is about the fact that time is visible if you know where to look.

Some Weird, World Wide Web?

Are you a sculptor, or just handy with tools, make a chair out of beer can then, if you are a New Zealand Resident

"2026 will be a struggle. The legacy institutions and tech platforms are consolidating, and this gives them more power. It’s reassuring to see how poorly they exercise that power—churning out reboots and retreads. (If they were smarter, the culture would suffer even more.) Their mistakes offer an opportunity for the outsider.

And the next new thing always comes from the outside. The culture stagnates without fresh infusions from the fringe.