makeathon - 2 Lens

projectI- Gretl

projectII - the sort

biopic data

how to fold a peace crane

Notes from the Class

2MinMax or MakeAThon Impressions:

  • Vertical sound movement - adding the z dimension to the audio mix opens all kinds of opportunities for sensation and motion. Must make use of this idea - especially in live dance and/or installations with sound. Something Dan said that never occurred to me much.
  • From metaphor to artifact - something anita said about Tatiana's fire balls that you hold in your hand. lovely.
  • Nicole said she read that dreams create new ideas through random thought mutations. I think I do this too much even when I'm awake, but I love the phrasing and clarity of this idea. I wonder if it is true. Are there any new ideas?
  • Sandy mentioned something lightly, almost under her breath that I find fascinating: our gaze is not fixed to any object, it hovers around it. This describes how it feels to see and I never thought to do that before. I knew exactly what she meant when she said it. Loving this.
  • Also: mentioned moving beyond cartesian space in order to capture the fabric of dream or of an idea. I think i understand that to mean it's fractal geometry rather than 2D...but maybe I missed the point. Need to ask.
  • Something about remembering the language of women - remembering when women's language was distinctly different. ???? I think it was a project Sandy worked on many years ago, but I'm not clear. The phrase sticks in my mind. Might interest K, need to learn what this refers to. Either way it is a new idea to me that we might have a unique language...unless it is a language of the repressed .. like slave slang, or street, etc.
  • Andreas use of a song with Russian lyrics (band: biosphere) reminded me how eerie it is to hear other languages...particularly ones that are exotic to your ears. It opens your mind in very different ways.

freud readings - thoughts, impressions, ideas to ponder, associations, etc

  • Phylogenetic Inheritance = an Oedipal knot of childhood desires and ambitions. The core-complex of humanity itself.
  • Manifest content = pictures
    Latent content = dream thoughts or feelings
  • "if we can untangle the distortions, we shall overhear preconscious thought" - paraphrased
  • Dreams are a compromise structure, created out of a situation of psychic conflict --- dramatic tension, voila!
  • "unconscious wishes are a constant psychical stimulus - whether from childhood or yesterday. They are constantly looking to express themselves. "The churn" as I call it.
  • More than 1 wish is always represented & there are always more than 1 way to interpret the multiple meanings & associations attached to each element.

La Jette - is it the jet or the jump (as in ballet?)

  • famous film from the 1970s by Chris Marker, filmmaker.
  • Series of still bw photos tell a post-apocalypse story of time jumping with love on the other side and torture on this one.
  • loved it

 

projectI - Impressions

  • incantations while adrienne walks a hallway were effective vo. using her rhythm to lull viewer into a stupor state. don't forget the power of the drone!
  • viviana's two stone monoliths with laser light in between the two faces - they face away from each other and only the light connects them. Cool that the connection between her face to the world and her faceless inner voice/self has no substance only light wave and color. a light/thought/ that binds 2 phases of her soul together - from the borderland within herself she brings back this image to share. vv nice.
  • andrew was contorted and chained in obsolete technology that is breaking him down. funny, fun ideas, video on the monitor of himself contrasting with him in the silly costume of toxic, techno waste.
  • Sandy says: " Reception Theory" You can't control how other people view you, or your work when you put it out into the world. xxo
  • Reference during discussion: Doors of perception (I'd totally forgotten that book)!! Cognition and learning are about pathways and patterns -- modern research shows. So does that mean the digital drone of this modern life inhabits the temporal universe as well?

Sandy paraphrased someone:
The mantra of the digital universe is "Hummmm"
or the 60kHz buzz we know so well.

  • Tatiana did a great stop motion with her jewelry. Wonderful, rich! All things that glitter - and one necklace reached out a hand to bring another necklace into the pattern...so human for an inanimate object.
  • Dan's scratch board white on black animation of a car crash had surprising emotion in the texture of the pencil media and irregular lines he got. The lines and anger created a powerful rhythm beyond the media.
  • Joey mentioned Frame Thief - to control your digital camera for stop motion. ?

Next/Final Project Looms - Here's some notes on that...

  • found this some where: a young painter in an interview said his teacher used to tell him: "Artists need to think not only with their heads, but also with their hands." sounds like something sandy might say.
  • JR - photographer/artist puts images onto building using the Photoshop filter Displacement. Does beautiful images from Brazil, NY, lots of place he travels. Lots of people, faces and emotions. But I think his home is Brazil. sTrangely, he seems to talk in 3rd person...not a new idea but good to remind myself,over and over.
    Also similar to the producer for Playing for Change - the STand by Me music producer's message on his interview with Bill Moyers.
    " WE were sometimes called naive. We hope this naievete is contagious. We don't want to be cynical or blase"
  • From Rome: paraphrase:
    "The critical mass of elite controlled surplus makes life in cities (civilization) possible. It is the ability to support artists, priests, and warriors ... aka non-essential personnel." ha.
  • Also from Playing for Change - this fellow's convinced that music is the art form that can unite us all above and beyond any other politics. The politics of rock and roll and r&b...I think I can dig it. BUT the other arts can do it too!!!! just not as easily and magically as music can.

Chainsaws today.

21st C Spirit Trumpets
Bluetooth for the Gregarious Homeless
(Communications Technology for the Homeless)

The other class was talking about some homeless guys who are constantly talking to themselves using BlueTooth ear phones so they don't appear so crazy in this world. he's not delusional, he's talking to the spirit world. Or is that his/her other selves?

Either way, what would a devide look like for talking to other dimensions? brings up the Metaphase Typewriter. Or that sound device that is played by passing ... protons? can't recall the particle that made the sound...ask Sandy.

Edison thought he had created a device where the dead could communicate using the Victrola. Wired Ouiji in the 19th C. Alas, it only leaps music across time.

A woman had cataract surgery and started seeing spots and stripes on flower petals - they removed her UV filters during the surgery, so she was seeing the world as some insects do.

April 6 - Visiting Speakers

@Architecture Dept - current exhibit of kinetic wire sculpture by Arthur Ganson. Check it out onthe web, too.

Eric Beggs - Photographer! Brought the slo mo Casio video cam 600-1000fps for $600 to showNtell.

Psychics Lori Walker (796-4325) & Deb Defraydis (spelling is a guess) also visited to tell us about their experiences of lucid dreaming and their use of dreams in therapy. Deb's website is sagedolphin.com (humm...mine is sagebrush. synchronicity?). Laurie does something that is very new to me: esoteric acupuncture on your spirit body. She says this knocks you right out.

*** Deb told a wonderful story: When she was a child she dreamed of playing in a field of wildflowers. Braiding daisy chains, etc. When she woke up she held a blossom in her hand.

Quantum experiences can leave poetic evidence.

Tatiana summed it up very nicely in her notes that she shared with us. Please, publish them on your website, Tat.

FINAL PRESENTATIONS - Saturday May 18th:

Class went nowhere for a few sessions then BAM! Final Projects rocked out. Guess all the others were in my same boat; busy focusing on our own projects. So many great ones to mention:

  • Joel's Lake piece stayed with me more than almost any other. Surprise. It has come up in several dreams I have had since the presentations. His expressive writing and dramatic delivery surprised the hell out of me, and I learned and listened in a new way. That doesn't happen to me too often any more. Thank you vv much. Now go chase grizzlies.
  • Andreas, as usual, blows me away with his processed film projects. Such a sensitive and finely tuned eye and sense of time. His palletts are always sophisticated and his subjects warm - physically warm in cold climates. Not sure how he accomplishes this - perhaps there's something to learn from the fuzzy, soft focus in much of his work which implies a warmth and sensuality often missing in commonly processed media. Also the sense of time and times past lends itself to memory senses too, I think. So he simply stirs it up inside me - remarkable.
  • Shayna's untitled play and animation combined brought dimension and daring to the day! The animated wet hair was gross and became charming. When she mentioned, The Yellow Wallpaper, I thought, of course. It's been so many years since I read that story, but it persists across my lifetime. This strong collaborative work was very impressive in it's reach - if not complete in its grasp of a large complicated topic: insanity. Marcella was brave and charming especially in the beginning scenes. I believe the live action needed dramatic action - more arc. Much of her final 3 episodes didn't seem to build to a climactic moment the way I think they should - they were much the same in rhythm, action, reaction, etc. I might have missed something. However, for a first directing effort, I think it was great and certainly one of the strongest things I saw all day.
  • Anita seems to me to have taken the greatest chance (though I also applaud Marcella and Shayna in this department). Her stark honesty is such a rare and precious commodity in this world - I was moved, uncomfortable, confused, afraid, and in love with the uncertainty in the thoughts - all at the same time. Her use of language is one of my favorite finds in the entire class.
  • I loved Blake's droning. I did visit the cosmos when I allowed myself to forget the time; I confess I also wondered when it would end. His point about the sound between the tones is well taken and something I consider a lot in my own work. When I let myself float, this one actually felt best. Turning my busy mind off will do that. Thanks B!
  • Stephanie's Poetic Comic is perhaps the most original object and idea I encountered this time. I'm also interested in using comic formats for other things than their traditional use, so I've actually thought about this type of thing alot. But I never thought to use it for poetry! Her execution was lovely. I love new ideas!!!!
  • I missed a few so if I don't mention you, it's because I missed it.
  • As for Elijah's Keanu mash up - I knew you'd take some grief. Keanu does that to people. Ha. However, I thought the editing and scene choices were excellent. It showed good chops and I know it represented a lot of work. It showed.
  • Whew. What a long day.

Thanks to everyone for a generally enjoyable semester, some intelligible, interesting dialog, and much great inspiration. Ciao, beauties *

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