Today was the episode of Visual Aid I've been waiting for since the show's inception. I've known Kevin for a long time and his work has always spoken to me very deeply for a number of reasons. If you missed the episode check out shatteredshutter.com to see his photography and learn about urban exploration.

Kevin manages to simultaneously appeal to two different, somewhat incompatible sides of my being. I've always had an insatiable longing to be a part of the past. It's an illogical sentimentality that has plagued me since I was three or four and first realised that someday I would have to die. Things will change and you won't be there to stop it.

These photos help feed that need to rediscover the past so that the ghosts of an era can live again. Those moments that were a part of life for the people who worked in these hospitals, factories, and offices were real. It's comforting in a way to know that just because a fragment of time is over it is no less real.

This exploration is the archeology of the recent past. By ghosts, I don't mean dead people. If you've done some snooping in a forgotten place or been somewhere that used to be useful or meaningful, and it affected you, then you know what I mean by "ghosts." It's just that resonance of life that can't be stilled as fast as you can vacate the premises and lock up. It's the story that doesn't have a narrator yet, but the pictures are there waiting for him.

Kevin Lynch has done a great job of becoming that narrator. The story he tells is one that appeals to my other side. That's the rational side of me that loves discovery and problem solving and might have read a touch too much Ayn Rand in high school.

There are some shots of smokestacks that make me imagine how proud the engineers and architects must have been when their creation let out it's first breath of life in production. These structures were not just beautiful and functional. They were beautiful because they were functional. Though they lie dormant and abandoned now, they were proud marvels of human ingenuity and capability.

I imagine that some environmentalist tendencies might not allow all of you to apreciate the beauty in a smokestack. In that case Kevin's work may bring you hope. Take a look at the Pine Valley (Black Bayou) School. These photos will show you how quickly the Earth will take back what we put here. Be sure to read the story too. It's a good one.

For the time being some of these photos are on display at Quack's bakery at 43rd and Duval.

There's something important here that Kevin isn't the only one to notice: art is all around us. The theme is explored in a number of ways in other exhibits here in Austin right now.

The most obvious of these is at the Austin Museum of Art. Extra-ordinary: the Everyday Object in American Art are selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art that show art imitating life. Also featured there are Everyday Objects: extra ordinary Austin designs. Basically they are apreciating the artistic value of real objects that are for sale in stores across the country that were designed by Austinites.

This is in stark contrast to the snub that art world has previously given to functional art. Painter Carlos Rivera Pineda points this out in his statement for his exhibit Hacia La Vida which is on display at the Mexican American Culture Center.

"During the last century the euro-centric mind set decreed that art could not have a function in order to qualify as 'fine art'. The idea that if art displayed a practical purpose or a spiritual uplifting sank it to the depths of 'folk art'."

You'll have to read the whole thing for yourself before you start thinking that we've really changed in the right direction. Basically, this previous distinction between the two types of art was to elevate european art above that of other people such as the Native Americans and Mexicans. I wouldn't go as far as to say that having a fancy water cooler on display at AMOA changes this devisive attitude.

I will say that there are people out there trying to bring real change where it counts. To celebrate the opening of the MACC, I interviewed fellow KOOP dj Gin Daniel who hosts Native Horizons. She told us alot about the Navajo weaving exhibit there.

The hand woven Navajo rugs are a valuable and important piece of Navajo culture. They have spiritual significance and take alot of time end energy to make. They are valuable to collectors also. The highest appraised item ever on PBS's Antiques Road Show was a Navajo rug. Unfortunately, none of this markup ever makes it to the weavers because they have dealt with trading companies who pay them paltry prices for their work. Gin and some other American Indian advocates are selling these rugs for the weavers and taking nothing for themselves so that the artists themselves can finally get more of what they deserve.

By the way, one rug was stolen from the exhibit. If you have any information regarding this please pass it along to me so we can help recover this very important piece of art.