https://www.sigpeterson.com/projects daily 0.75 2024-05-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1480791151534-3HK3AQEFEULX7EEDN05D/04_Velkommen.jpg Photography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1480797616136-F0KQGESEG7ODVPPZ0V0H/Games0009.jpg Photography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1644703157410-D7MY6JAH77YPVHRK9VFX/image-asset.jpeg Photography - Lutefisk Dinner, Deforest, Wis. A middling Norwegian American at best, my first encounter with lutefisk was the annual Lutefisk Dinner & Bazaar at Christ Lutheran Church in Deforest, Wis. For the uninitiated, Lutefisk is typically cod or white stockfish transmogrified — first dried to a leathery firmness, reconstituted in water and lye over a period of days, then boiled or broiled and drenched in butter. Lutefisk is an immigrant, like the Scandinavians who brought it here, the food of poor people enduring harsh climates with scarce resources. It’s a food tradition carried forth mostly by Scandinavian Americans — far less common in Norway and Sweden — in lodges and church basements in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. The fish is foul-smelling, gelatinous in texture, suspect in taste even to a significant share of dinner attendees. Yet the community gathering around lutefisk is vibrant. An intergenerational crowd of families pack the basement of Christ Lutheran. The crew working is noticeably aging except for the broad-shouldered, younger men cooking over heavy pots at a furious pace in the church kitchen. For many attendees, this gathering is something they anticipate all year, serving as a meaningful opportunity to leave the house, gather together and celebrate their heritage. More photos from this series are shared with a Wisconsin Public Radio audio piece as part of a series called,“Food Traditions,” by Wisconsin Life. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1480795605988-W7A0Z6Z8BLOVNBCHFQUR/BurningLobster0001.jpg Photography - The Lobster Burns at Midnight The annual Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada is subject to equal parts fascination and derision. Started in 1986 and described by the tagline: A city in the desert. A culture of possibility. A network of dreamers and doers, it gathers tens of thousands each year for an experiment in temporary community-building and artistic practice, informed by a set of 10 principles that lay claim to “radical inclusion,” the gift economy, self-expression, communal ethos, and notions of “immediacy.” While many who participate evangelize over its personal-transformative effects and celebrate its effort to make space for radical difference, a cottage “think-piece” industry has grown up around criticisms of the festival as an unexamined bulwark of cultural, economic, gendered, and raced privilege rife with contradiction. Less reported are regional, local, and hyper-local efforts to reproduce Burning Man-style gatherings. A Madison-based dance music DJ-duo, known together as Surf n’ Turf—inspired by their respective monikers, Dr. Lobster and Bobby Beefcake—lead one of these small efforts with a two-day camping trip and dance party they call, Burning Lobster. A bit tongue-and cheek, having played the Burning Man circuit, they share with participants a glimpse of some of the best parts of Burning Man, if stripped of the scale and infrastructure, of the Silicon Valley “tech bros,” and imbued with more intention and discussion about the limits, possibilities, and contradictions of these endeavors. They invite even their most skeptical and buttoned-up friends to join in camping, performance, music, costumery, conversation and electronic dance music. A nod to the elaborately constructed “Man” set on fire in Nevada, Dr. Lobster builds none other than a large crustacean companion, fabricated, DIY-style, of cardboard and wire, and a generous amount of red tempera paint, all in his basement in Madison. The lobster burns at midnight, and these photographs document the preparation. Note: while Dr. Lobster is prominently featured here, Bobby Beefcake is regrettably out of shot, dancing somewhere in the dark and, appropriately, beefing up. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1480789702956-XH8ELW2O5Z4GWEG484MC/GenderedWork0001.jpg Photography https://www.sigpeterson.com/illustration daily 1.0 2022-03-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1644867271922-KEFIVCM12OM9S44MBJYT/Single+Panel+Featured.jpg Illustration https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1645022341828-L3YTXNH1Y1R9OPUUURUD/Sequential+Featured.jpg Illustration https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1645026112091-JELYX3DEF9CEBX8X95BM/Zine+-+Featured.jpg Illustration https://www.sigpeterson.com/words daily 0.75 2022-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1644870865574-S7A09TX8N95GQCRKO6DT/The+Terms+-+Featured.jpg Words https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1644871360771-H8OHTTHZ0ULWGT20UL6W/Thule+-+Featured+Image.jpg Words https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/1644933328680-J1RKM9Z2TFS0C0HZ7QFT/Pandemic+Journal.jpg Words https://www.sigpeterson.com/about daily 0.75 2022-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5840f45febbd1a8b371cec9e/719c7657-a587-487d-b39b-e3be1a14fa15/Profile+pic.jpeg About