Assorted Projects
The Lovely Road Project
(2024) Scott Hammond
I’ve created a Google Map entitled The Lovely Road Project pinning many points of interest that are referenced across this site. And not just roadside attractions. The map includes recommendations from across the spectrum including museums; diners; ice cream stands; mom & pop motels; cemeteries; parks; and bike trails.
All pinned locations have been physically visited by me. The map will be updated as I visit new locations, but I don’t keep track of what’s currently open and/or accessible. Some pinned sites may no longer exist so keep that in mind before visiting. Note: I am not affiliated with any pinned site included on the map.
Have a site tip for me? Contact: scooterhammond [AT] gmail [DOT] com
Happy and safe travelling!
DinoNite!
(2023) Scott Hammond
Late night double feature of dinosaur themed b-movies in honor of the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park. Reminiscent of Bad Movie Nite!, I put together a prehistoric clip package followed by condensed versions of shlocky 90s horror flicks Carnosaur and Dinosaur Island.
I Doo!
(2019) Officiant: Scott Hammond, Bride: Morgan Figley, Groom,: Jamie Figley, Photographer: Elizabeth Nihiser Sound: Jeff Scofield, Press: Mitch Hooper Wedding Party: Krista Faist, Jodi Frisby, Bob Hite, Dave Kellough, Leeta King, Jamie Morse, Scott Smith, and Christopher Volpe
In 2018, after becoming ordained online to officiate a friend’s wedding, I began exploring ways to use my new certification in a creative, unconventional way. Having participated in Columbus’s Doo Dah Parade the year before, I thought it could be the perfect setting—something public, open-minded, and fun. Each February, the local magazine 614 Now publishes a wedding issue, featuring vendors and trends in the city. I contacted a writer offering my officiant services for free if couples would marry during the July 4th Doo Dah Parade. After checking with parade officials, I discovered no weddings had ever taken place within the parade itself. That sparked the idea for a "Mobile Wedding."
The article, titled I Doo!, ran in the February wedding issue of 614 and generated interest from couples like Morgan Miller and Jamie Figley. After meeting, they excitedly agreed to the idea of a mobile wedding, just five months away. With help from my dedicated friends, we began planning. I walked the parade route while practicing my officiant speech and figured out we could marry them from the start to the midpoint of the route. My friends made signs, set up AV equipment, and wore a mix of patriotic and formal attire. Some wedding party members walked with us, while others stationed themselves with bubble wands at the endpoint. As we walked, I announced Morgan and Jamie as the first Doo Dah Mobile Wedding couple, while parade-goers cheered. Several people ran into the street handing out shots, and when the couple exchanged vows, the crowd erupted in applause and bubbles. A traffic cop even stopped to offer congratulations, and the wedding made the local evening news.
Clintonville Kangaroo
(2018) Scott Hammond, Jeremy Felder, Jared Laughbaum, Shannon Winnubst
Clintonville, with its quirky charm and a community that thrives on individuality, is home to the famous Kangaroo Crossing sign. Shannon Winnubt had been contacting the city for 18 months to remove a road construction sign left in front of her house after work was completed, prompting her neighbor, Jared Laughman, to replace it with a kangaroo crossing sign he had on hand. The sign remained for nearly four years until a curious neighbor contacted the local news about its history. A reporter reached out to the city, and days later, a crew removed the sign citing safety concerns, sparking neighborhood outrage. As one of the vocal critics, I joined in the effort to reinstate the sign by launching the Save The Roo campaign. Local graphic designer Jeremy Felder created hundreds of yard signs, spreading the movement throughout Clintonville, and the story even made national news. While we didn’t necessarily embarrass the city, we did get the sign back and installed it at the entrance of a local school’s playground. We also raised money for actual kangaroos at the local zoo. Five years later, Save The Roo signs are still a common sight in Clintonville.
A Night of Unsolved Mysteries
(2015)
Since childhood, I have been a fan of the popular TV series Unsolved Mysteries. I spent many evenings sitting on the floor in front of our console television as host Robert Stack presented segments ranging from true crime to the paranormal. After the show left the air, the only way watch old episodes was via clips online or by bootleg VHS tapes traded online. I began collecting segments, adding them to my existing collection of taped episodes, and over several years had amassed a large piece of the show.
I hosted watch parties with friends who were fellow fans. Much like with Bad Movie Nite!, these showings became so popular I began to think that think that they might have wider appeal. The local independent theater that showed Bad Movie Nite! agreed and we hosted two sold out showings entitled A Night of Unsolved Mysteries. The show, sourced from VHS taped segments was comprised of over a dozen segments, updates, and commercials, replicating a night of broadcasting from the 80s and 90s. The show was a huge success. Coincidentally, original (edited) episodes of Unsolved Mysteries were officially released for the first time the following year. [MORE]
Nic Cage-A-Thon
(2015)
I was asked to develop an event focused around a specific actor in the same style of my midnight movie show Bad Movie Nite! whereas I heavily edit a low budget 80s movie to include clips from other movies, shorts, ephemeral films that all comment upon one another.
I couldn’t think of a better actor than Nicolas Cage. A genre upon himself his acting style is somehow ludicrous and awards-worthy at the same time. A true artist. The show centered around 1989’s is-he-a-vampire-or-is-he-losing-his-mind horror-comedy Vampire’s Kiss. I inserted clips from dozens of Cage’s other performances and appearances; the end result being a Nicolas Cage film being commented on by other Nicolas Cage films.
Walt Flick
(2006-2009)
Inspired by the great Ray Johnson and his mail art / NOTHINGS, I delved into my collection of paper ephemera with some scissors, tape, and cardboard to make my own nothings under the moniker Walt Flick. Leeta and I dreamed up the pseudonyms Ruby and Walt Flick while on a road trip to Meramec Caverns in Missouri on Route 66. In the gift shop we bought a souvenir coin and had it stamped Ruby & Walt Flickerstick. I shortened the name to Flick and used it as my collaging alter ego.
Have some empty wall space?
Print your own Walt Flick’s [HERE]
Common Objects
(2005)
Inspired by a Walker Evans photoessay from a 1955 issue of Fortune Magazine entitled Beauties of the Common Tool, I sought out to make my own photographs of everyday items, but as portraiture.
Removing any context and enlarged to poster size, the images in this series are intended to pause the viewer long enough to allow an observation of the detail and form found within. The subjects of Common Objects are relatable to most of a modern consumerist society with all having varying degrees of value and usefulness. bread has the shortest lifespan of the set and photograph the longest, although the specificity may fade over time. [MORE]
Broadcast
(2005)
Like many I was raised by television, spending innumerable hours bathed in analog and digital light. I have always enjoyed watching late night television by myself, in darkness. Yes it’s in part the type of programming one sees at night (for me b-movies and late night horror hosts), but also the tethered solitude watching television alone provides. I’m by myself in a pitch black room. Everything else is outside this space except for this box that transmits the world to me; and that connection only goes one way.
Postcards
(2003)
An early collision of my collecting (in this case vintage chrome postcards) and increasing need to document myself, Postcards is a series of scans of myself inserted into a collection of postcards inherited from my grandparents to which I was very close. None of these postcards were used and I’m unclear on how my grandparents came to possess them. To my knowledge there were no trips on World Airways to Topeka or Niagara Falls. Were these destinations on their wish list? Did I insert myself in these images in an effort to travel on their behalf?
As a child my grandparents would take me on weekend day trips to small towns around Ohio. With a cooler of sandwiches, chips, and soda, we would drive down the road with no destination in particular.
These trips heavily inspired my project The Lovely Road.
Photography
(200)
My early photography is heavily influenced by the documentary work of Walker Evans. Like Evans, I am an obsessive collector of paper ephemera (notes, flyers, business cards, etc). This involves a lot of scanning the ground below me. This project recreates the feeling of me, looking down, scanning for interesting tidbits, while documenting myself through portraits of my red Converse All-Stars which I exclusively wore for many years. [MORE]
D.B. Cooper:
Where Are You?
(2000) Scott Hammond, Todd LaPlace
For our high school senior thesis my friend, Todd LaPlace, and I wrote a 40 page screenplay on Dan “D.B.” Cooper, perpetrator of the only unsolved skyjacking in U.S. history. We read in a Time Life book on unsolved crimes about the hijacker who escaped with $200,000 in ransom money by parachuting out of a plane midflight over the Pacific Northwest over Thanksgiving 1971, never to be seen again. Presumably Cooper died during the jump, but what our screenplay presupposes is…
maybe he didn’t?
Partly inspired by the narrative and visual structure of the 1968 thriller The Boston Strangler. DBCWAY? is essentially two separate stories; that of D.B'.’s escape and that of real life detective Ralph Himmelsbach’s dogged pursuit. Our script never has the two share a screen, having D.B. getting away, or so Himmelsbach thinks. We got an A if you’re curious. [MORE]
Early Work
(1980s-1990s)
Like most kids I was a prolific drawer. I filled up many notebooks with doodles, a vast majority of which were of Spider-Man and his many exploits. I learned to read from Spider-Man comics. I related to him in many ways; such as our shared feeling of being an outsider, having older caregivers (his aunt and my grandparents), and using humor to combat awkwardness.
Other subjects included He-Man, Jason Vorhees, the Titanic, and the Kennedy Assassination. I was oddly transfixed by my grandparent’s ample material on the subject. I turned in a “report” on J.F.K. in first grade (pictured). It contained drawings of Kennedy giving speeches, frames from the Zapruder film, Lee Harvey Oswald being shot, and John John saluting during his father’s funeral. [MORE]