Comments on: The Whale Hunt

The Whale Hunt

mkb — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:31:19 -0800

In order to develop an experimental interface for storytelling, photographer Jonathan Harris accompanied a family of Inupiat Eskimos on a subsistence whale hunt. During his week long journey, he took 3,214 photographs, including pictures taken every 5 minutes while he was sleeping. The navigation allows for for very quick navigation through the series, using a heartbeat metaphor and a number of filtering constraints so that you can narrow your search to cast members, locations on the journey, and even something as loose as a photo's "concept". via

By: dhammond

dhammond — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:38:23 -0800

Very clever UI. Thanks for posting.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:55:16 -0800

Very interesting, especially the display UI. Annoying the way the captions were right over the content of the picture and were also crossed out, but other than that I liked it.

By: pineapple

pineapple — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:00:30 -0800

I've only just started browsing the Whale Hunt site, and already it feels like I'm looking at something really incredible -- not just the subsistence whaling/man v. nature aspect visually told up close and personal, but the site's interface itself, and the thought and metadata that went into it. Excellent link, thanks.

By: pineapple

pineapple — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:01:53 -0800

Brockles, apparently the "crossed out" captions are a feature, not a bug. From the bottom of the "interface" page: "The Whale Hunt interface uses a custom typography system, developed for this project, in which each letterform is bisected by a whaling harpoon."

By: gwint

gwint — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:04:06 -0800

From a technical standpoint, the site is impressive. The Flash coding is clearly top notch. From a design perspective, the UI is cool, innovative, and fun to explore. With that said, I don't know how much the site served the photography. There was something in the nature of the sliding left-to-right motion that felt jarring, rather than an analog sense of time passing. Or maybe the project as a whole is somewhat misconceived. Taking 3,000 pictures and then posting all of them, is very... web, but, although I appreciate the idea of trying to convey how time passes in such an unforgiving and foreign environment, I don't know if that's the best way to show it. For some reason what I really wanted was some ambient audio-- I wanted to hear what it was like out there. Anyway, plenty of stunning shots along the way. Well worth the trip.

By: PareidoliaticBoy

PareidoliaticBoy — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:11:36 -0800

Fully agree with gwint. Needs more cowbell.

By: photoslob

photoslob — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:19:37 -0800

This is why there's editors.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:43:44 -0800

"The Whale Hunt interface uses a custom typography system, developed for this project, in which each letterform is bisected by a whaling harpoon." Oh, a feature. One of those. Then allow me to modify my initial statement: Annoying the way the captions were right over the content of the picture and the 'feature' where they were also crossed out. I could cope with the harpoon as long as they didn't block the entire bloody picture. Extremely distracting, especially when the majority of the shots were framed in such a way as to produce significant dead area/white space at the bottom and top of the photo. Someone more cynical than me would perhaps suggest that dead space was a wonderful place for a caption, rather than slap bang across the subject so that you had to play a game of clicky-fucky 'beat the slideshow' to toggle it on and off if you wanted to see both. A triumph of design over clarity. Fuck. Am I getting old? I'm sure this shouldn't be irritating me so much. Maybe I'll start grumbling about indistinct lyrics and not-readily-accessible dance beats, next.

By: msbrauer

msbrauer — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:24:43 -0800

This is why there's editors. Got that right. This is a pretty excruciating exercise in patience. I'm sure there are some good pictures in there, but I can't find them and there's no way for anybody that does find them to tell anyone else how to see them. The flash interface, however, is interesting, not least because the pictures show up so quickly.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:31:18 -0800

Crap. I thought that the REAL Jonathan Harris had somehow managed to escape death.

By: localhuman

localhuman — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:21:38 -0800

This is what websites would be like if we used them to emulate reality. If I had a website for my last fifteen minutes, it would be a series of screenshots of me typing, thinking what I typed was dumb, erasing, typing more, still thinking what I typed was dumb, and then ultimately putting it on the web anyway because i already put fifteen minutes into it.

By: marvin

marvin — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:29:29 -0800

Good find thanks.

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 05:04:26 -0800

I don't like the flash, but the "highlights" section is certainly interesting. Also, I will be extremely disappointed if this picture isn't used for the cover art of any metal bands.

By: rmmcclay

rmmcclay — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:01:52 -0800

Nice one...I lived in Alaska as a boy in the 60's...but never saw a whale hunt. The interface design is quite nice. I took the time to read the explanation and learn how to use it. The only shortcoming I found, and maybe I missed something, but there wasn't a way to simply move one frame forward/backward. Otherwise...the Timeline worked OK and the Constraint icons were very well done...and the photography good too... Someone above mentioned the captions. They can be turned off.

By: mrbill

mrbill — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:41:01 -0800

Site is now 403 (thanks a lot, Digg/Reddit)

By: bassjump

bassjump — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:45:05 -0800

Glad it's not just me, mrbill.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:43:58 -0800

I was just in Alaska and had a chance to participate in the thanksgiving whale distribution in an Inupiat church (ate me some muktuk too, and damn good it was). It was impressive as hell to see how a few whales fed so many families, elderly folks and children especially. A good fifty percent of the protein of most Inupiats on the North Slope still comes from subsistence hunting and whaling. Here are some good sources for context: Alaska: Big Oil and the Inupiat-Americans By Peter Matthiessen (NY Rev. of Books, Nov 22,2007) Tension at the Edge of Alaska Published: December 4, 2007, New York Times Jad Mouwad See the accompanying slide show and audio here. ("A Dilemma in the Arctic")

By: hwestiii

hwestiii — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:59:32 -0800

I just got done reading Moby Dick a few weeks ago, about a third of which is simply a text book on whaling. This should be interesting, though probably a lot more technically sophisticated.

By: mrbill

mrbill — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:36:54 -0800

... and the site is now available again.

By: ericb

ericb — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:47:20 -0800

Jonathan Harris is also the creator of 10x10, Lovelines, Phylotaxis, Universe and Yahoo's Netrospective: 10 years, 100 moments of the Web (among other creative projects). Previously here at MeFi - 1, 2, 3, 4.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:04:17 -0800

My whale-killing vacation. Next up: Real-time vivisection.