Wednesday 30 July 2014

Zoom In ¦ Zoom Out: A binary quandary


Hi you.

I do enjoy joining Helena [of Helena's Creative Maven] in documenting a particular moment in time by the simple task of zooming in and out on my camera.

I like the way that, while the close-up shot might seem a little puzzling, by zooming out the story suddenly makes itself evident.

In the last few months I've shared a pairs of  'ZIZO' photos where, after zooming out, you might have responded with:
And, while all those moment were fun to capture and play with, I'm pretty sure that they did eventually make sense once you understood the wider [literally!] context.

But with today's photo?  Not so much!

 Here we go ...

Zooming In ...
As someone who's been documenting her life - in numbers - once a month since January 2010 there was no way I could pass by these stencilled numbers without taking a photograph. But what were they?

As I zoomed in on my camera I could see they resembled binary coding. But what did they mean? And why were they there?

Where's there you ask? Well, it's here ...

Zooming Out ...
On the side of a building opposite the Usher gallery in Lincoln.

And, probably like you like you right now, I was still none the wiser even when presented with the full picture!  So ... I did what all people who want to know an answer do ... I Googled it!

And seeking out: 'binary code graffiti building  Lincoln' eventually led me to the quite aptly named 'Binary Graffiti Club' [of course! Now why didn't I think of that sooner?] where I found a very similar photo as my close-up, so I'm pretty sure it's the same place.

As for the whys and wherefores ... I'm still a little in the dark although their site does state that they are 'Inspiring young people to see the city as canvas to create change'. So, make of that what you will.

As for what it says, or means [is it just me or do you feel like you've wandered into an episode of the X-Files?] ... I'll leave that up to any coders amongst you.

Or maybe it doesn't mean anything ... maybe the fact I photographed it and now you and I are talking about it was all they wanted ... who knows ...

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Visit Helena's Creative Maven to see more participating ZIZO bloggers ...
... and for more number themed storytelling drop in on me again tomorrow [July 31 2014) where I'll be sharing my regular community feature 'My Month in Numbers'. You can even join in if you fancy it!

7 comments:

  1. Brilliant - what a puzzle. The stencils look like binary representations of the digit "1" and the gaps may be zeroes ... so that could actually be a representation of 10101101 (173) or 101011010 (346) if there's a zero on the right ...?
    Great fun

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  2. I love stories that go behind the photos, and this is especially appealing as I love maths and numbers.
    Binary is notation of 2's, used in computer programming etc. I'd never hard of it myself until I home educated my children. Here's a quick look at how it works: http://www.wikihow.com/Count-in-Binary

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  3. Binary graffiti club? Cool! If you're into that sort of thing ...

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  4. very cool...I love interesting posts like this one.
    I like the X-files thoughts.....and very cool blue building in the zoom out!

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  5. Interesting! I have a sneaking affection for binary code..mad, did I just write that? But it was one of the few things I liked doing in maths..

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  6. Oh it's so many years since I thought about binary code! You find such interesting things Julie, what a great ZIZO.

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  7. intriguing find - love the idea of a binary graffiti club

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