Help! University Darkroom Rules??

I don't see how a buddy system prevents slipping. In fact, nothing can prevent accidents - I mean, if a person knew they were about to have an accident, obviously they would avoid it. You're probably going to have to appeal to the powers that be on a common sense basis - a darkroom is like a kitchen - there are neccesary functions that have to go on for it to be a useful place, like mixing developer. The inherent hazards can be mitigated by the non-slips mats, which is a good idea, but there will just always be a chance of another accident.

One thing that always seemed dangerous to me at my college is that we used to mix the chemistry in big drums that sat above the sink - to do this we had to get up on a 4 foot stool to reach the top of the drum to stir. Maybe consider mixing on the floor, then dolling out chemistry by dipping a graduate in a moving it into the trays in that way. Keeping everyone at floor level should help keep it a safer place.
 
Students don't mix chemistry- beyond diluting developer for use. We have a dedicated person who does that. Chemistry is moved from the sink for recycling (stop and fix) and developer goes down the drain. Safety lectures are given before anyone can work in the lab.

The kitchen metaphor is a good one- I use the same precautions with the liquid chemistry in my darkroom that I use handling uncooked meat. When mixing from powders I'm more careful, but we are using dilute liquid paper developer and tray strength stop/fix in this darkroom.

Mats seem to be the consensus, and mats are on the way. I'm now most curious about rules regarding people working alone in university darkrooms, which is certainly not anything I've heard of before, but then I've not been a student since 1984...
 
Chemicals should be mixed by darkroom assistants, before the lab opens, and Dev./stop/Fix. trays refilled with students out of sight.
 
Most Grad students never work alone - usually, two or three share a small lab. However, they do mix there own chemicals. The undergraduates, from the gang labs, are the problem.

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I'm now most curious about rules regarding people working alone in university darkrooms, which is certainly not anything I've heard of before, but then I've not been a student since 1984...
 
rogue_designer said:
There was a student staffer there at all times (usually outside smoking) to deal with mixing the shared chemistry, and general assistance.
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The current Photographic Center Northwest setup is similar. There's a darkroom monitor outside available for general assistance, and who tests and maintains the film and print chemistry. Hours do vary based on classes and day of the week, but generally run from 9AM to 9PM.
 
At my school there weren't any rules specifically about working alone. But students weren't allowed to work in the darkroom without bringing their towel. (something larger than a washcloth. listed as required equipment for all photography classes) That way they could dry the graduates and tanks before turning them in, and if there were any small spills they could take care of them immediately.

sepiareverb said:
I'm now most curious about rules regarding people working alone in university darkrooms, which is certainly not anything I've heard of before, but then I've not been a student since 1984...
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Our schools darkroom is open from 7am until 12am (midnight) during the summer months. There is always a "cave monitor" which really is just someone who hands out equipment, etc. The monitor usually sits outside in the lobby, which is probably 10 feet away from the darkoom 'maze' entrance.

Im not sure about during the school year. I have a feeling the hours are the same. Possibly a little later. (as late as 2am probably).
 
We didn´t use soap at all, only hot water:eek: , less chances of dropping a beaker. Asking students to bring their own towel is a good idea.
Hair dryers, where provided to blow dry plastic tanks and reels - ever try loading a wet reel?


projectbluebird said:
At my school there weren't any rules specifically about working alone. But students weren't allowed to work in the darkroom without bringing their towel. (something larger than a washcloth. listed as required equipment for all photography classes) That way they could dry the graduates and tanks before turning them in, and if there were any small spills they could take care of them immediately.
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I like the towel idea- but I know that would get us in more trouble, hauling chemistry all over campus in the contaminated towels...
 
rlouzan said:
ever try loading a wet reel?
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Mmm, been there, done that. :bang: I just finished my first quarter of B&W film work, developing and printing... I used the plastic reels once quite successfully. The second session I had to pop out of the film changing room twice to try to get a dry reel. The following session the plastic (which felt quite dry) stuck again; I flipped to steel tanks and reels on the spot and never looked back.
 
At the end of each term, we asked the students to return all the blue towels, that we´ve seen in their kitchens - no joke. Students can bring their own in zip lock bags.
 
Buy one of those "Clapper" on/off plug-in outlets and run a long extension to the nearest common area or busy hallway with a blinking light/alarm so if there is a problem the student can 'call' for aid. Revoke privileges if students set it off on purpose for kicks.


Eli
 
Bob,

Have them sign up for open printing, the same as for the color darkroom/copy stand. Just post a note "New reservation sheets for the following week will be available each Monday morning."

You decide the minimum number of students - less than that "Closed" sign.
 
More here than meets the eye

More here than meets the eye

Seems to me there's really three issues here:

(1)-Our society's implicitly theocratic/fascist fear of "the loner" -- the notion that alone is bad and unsupervised is worse ("the devil's workshop" etc.) -- and the resultant headlong thrust toward 24/7/365 surveillance (the final step toward transformation of the United States into the functional equivalent of the Fourth Reich);

(2)-The educational establishment's allegedly "liberal" effort , increasingly evident since the Reaganoid 1980s at both the public school and collegiate levels, against solitary scholarship, not merely a subset of (1) above, but part of a much broader Big Business effort to make certain that tasks are parceled out so that no one worker can upset the corporate process by absence, and that workers at all levels -- even the highest levels of mass media, research and/or creativity -- are as easily discarded and replaced as parts in a machine;

(3)-The insurance considerations as already noted by many here, with the added stipulation that, in the U.S., these considerations are increasingly used as the rationale and excuse for the imposition of all sorts of oppression literally at every imaginable level, from impossible-to-open packaging to the wholesale closure of public facilities ranging from parks and playgrounds to vast tracts of wilderness. (Struggles with packaging frequently result in minor but often bloody/painful injuries that -- or so I have been told by several nurses -- have become a leading cause of U.S. emergency-room visits.)

At my various alma mater I was either associated with student publications (the darkrooms of which were open 24/7 to those of us who had keys), and/or I had a darkroom at home, and/or I was working professionally for a publication at which I had darkroom access. To my knowledge none of these institutions -- a major university in the South, another in NYC, two colleges and a technical school in the Pacific Northwest -- had general-access student darkrooms: apart from publications, the only darkrooms were part of the departments that housed the photography courses, typically either art or journalism, and limited to students therein. The official hours were those of the campuses themselves, typically 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., but if you had a key (as an art-major girlfriend did to her departmental darkroom), you could use the darkroom anytime you wanted. Beyond the eligibility requirements of obtaining a key, there was no check-in or check-out, and any attempt to impose such a system would have provoked instant (and effective) protest. But that was long ago, back when the term "freedom" meant a bit more than the right to choose the color of your credit card -- so long ago Matthew Brady was my faculty advisor.

Point being, the darkroom "buddy system" requirement is merely another aspect of the new post-Constitutional order, for which think not "1984" but rather "Uncle Tom's Cabin," with surveillance video in place of Simon Legree.

(Re: Brady, I'm joking of course. In truth it took me 18 years to get my BA -- 1958 to 1976 -- and then only thanks to the miserly stipend paid by the Vietnam-Era GI Bill. Grad school was out of the question: in the U.S., not even excellent grades and maximum college-aptitude scores will overcome poverty and political blacklisting.)
 
Handy darkroom items (Please don't laugh too hard):


* GFCI interrupters.

* nonslip covering.

*Spill proof plastic filter funnels.

*Mini flashlight w/ black paper tape.

*Sharpi

*Glow in the dark tape & symbols.

*Photo drying book/mesh drying Racks for FB papers.

*Leatherman tool.

* Rubber Gloves, apron, chemical masks

*Wall clock
 
Yeaph! 1984:mad: - Where where you 67 posts ago, if not watching;).
LOL


lorenbliss said:
Seems to me there's really three issues here:

(1)-Our society's implicitly theocratic/fascist fear of "the loner" -- the notion that alone is bad and unsupervised is worse ("the devil's workshop" etc.) -- and the resultant headlong thrust toward 24/7/365 surveillance (the final step toward transformation of the United States into the functional equivalent of the Fourth Reich);

(2)-The educational establishment's allegedly "liberal" effort , increasingly evident since the Reaganoid 1980s at both the public school and collegiate levels, against solitary scholarship, not merely a subset of (1) above, but part of a much broader Big Business effort to make certain that tasks are parceled out so that no one worker can upset the corporate process by absence, and that workers at all levels -- even the highest levels of mass media, research and/or creativity -- are as easily discarded and replaced as parts in a machine;

(3)-The insurance considerations as already noted by many here, with the added stipulation that, in the U.S., these considerations are increasingly used as the rationale and excuse for the imposition of all sorts of oppression literally at every imaginable level, from impossible-to-open packaging to the wholesale closure of public facilities ranging from parks and playgrounds to vast tracts of wilderness. (Struggles with packaging frequently result in minor but often bloody/painful injuries that -- or so I have been told by several nurses -- have become a leading cause of U.S. emergency-room visits.)

At my various alma mater I was either associated with student publications (the darkrooms of which were open 24/7 to those of us who had keys), and/or I had a darkroom at home, and/or I was working professionally for a publication at which I had darkroom access. To my knowledge none of these institutions -- a major university in the South, another in NYC, two colleges and a technical school in the Pacific Northwest -- had general-access student darkrooms: apart from publications, the only darkrooms were part of the departments that housed the photography courses, typically either art or journalism, and limited to students therein. The official hours were those of the campuses themselves, typically 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., but if you had a key (as an art-major girlfriend did to her departmental darkroom), you could use the darkroom anytime you wanted. Beyond the eligibility requirements of obtaining a key, there was no check-in or check-out, and any attempt to impose such a system would have provoked instant (and effective) protest. But that was long ago, back when the term "freedom" meant a bit more than the right to choose the color of your credit card -- so long ago Matthew Brady was my faculty advisor.

Point being, the darkroom "buddy system" requirement is merely another aspect of the new post-Constitutional order, for which think not "1984" but rather "Uncle Tom's Cabin," with surveillance video in place of Simon Legree.

(Re: Brady, I'm joking of course. In truth it took me 18 years to get my BA -- 1958 to 1976 -- and then only thanks to the miserly stipend paid by the Vietnam-Era GI Bill. Grad school was out of the question: in the U.S., not even excellent grades and maximum college-aptitude scores will overcome poverty and political blacklisting.)
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Quoth Rlouzan: Where where you 67 posts ago?

Sixty-seven posts ago? If you mean earlier today, I was prob'ly still asleep. :) Long night last night: was invited to a "convention party"; (going was against my better judgment, but a friend is a friend); spent the latter part of the night arguing :bang: that even with Hillary's new La Passionaria speaking mode, the November 2008 election will be exactly like its November 2006 prelude: it will change absolutely nothing beyond vocabulary. Hence returned home rather discomzipulated and didn't get up until the crack of noon.
 
Common give us ideas.:angel:


lorenbliss said:
Quoth Rlouzan: Where where you 67 posts ago?

Sixty-seven posts ago? If you mean earlier today, I was prob'ly still asleep. :) Long night last night: was invited to a "convention party"; (going was against my better judgment, but a friend is a friend); spent the latter part of the night arguing :bang: that even with Hillary's new La Passionaria speaking mode, the November 2008 election will be exactly like its November 2006 prelude: it will change absolutely nothing beyond vocabulary. Hence returned home rather discomzipulated and didn't get up until the crack of noon.
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Here in Finland, Tampere and in the Technics Uni, we do have a quite small camera club with a quite small but very nice darkroom. I am currently the lab keeper.

The board members have their own keys and you can borrow 2 keys from the info for a couple days or so. You can get to the darkroom 24/7 except for a couple days a year when theres a big happening in the campus and the doors are locked (so that people wouldnt stay in the school for the night).

For the darkroom rules - our board members make them. So far it has worked that everybody cleans up their mess (or at least most of it). Thats it :). Pretty free but works ok as there is not really that many people using the darkroom. Sounds pretty strict out there...
 
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