i can't make this work.
I'll try again later...
sorry guys...
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Thursday, 22 November 2007
CURRENT FOCUS POINT (ONE)
CURRENT FOCUS POINT
or
How my practice will define itself without me confusing it any more.
Since the difficulty of defining my practice became an integral part of my every day concerns and after reaching a lot of dead ends (well, crashing on them would be a more accurate description since it did hurt) I finally realized that I may not know how this works but I know how it doesn't. It doesn't work by walking towards any pathway that sounds interesting because they turn out to be uncountable and equally tempting. The possibilities of what you can do to make this course work for you and your creative fulfilment (or whatever) are actually too many to describe and that can be quite disorientating - at least for some people.
Disconnecting myself from all the potential input on subjects and objects and focus definitions, I touched basis with what I know and trust (my interests, the always there - never changing - almost haunting me - interests) and this is the basis I am building upon. No more agonizing around subjects that may in fact be way out of my reach, no matter how enchanting they may have sounded at first.
I have been working with the subject of urban isolation some time now (not practically, just some research and a lot of attempts for creative thinking) only to discover that it is not it. More than that, I feel like I was out of my mind to think I could deal with that. No need for explanations on how and why I was excited about it at first, the point is that it helped me realise many things on how you pick a starting point that can actually lead you to the right one even if that is away from it, as well as how not all things work for everyone (common knowledge, I know, but I always surprise myself with the things I think I can do).
Let's get to the point now.
Keeping the "isolation" part somehow present since many subjects that interest me include aspects of it, I am going forward and I 'm humbly (wow) adding small elements from the fields of psychology and psychopathology and the unconscious that have always fascinated me performance-wise. Talking about that in details is impossible in this stage. However, I feel that working with one specific object that I have in mind these days will actually provide me with a lot of significant questions (the right ones) and the quest for their answers will supply me with the appropriate "vocabulary" I need to support my work.
The object is the mask I am creating. This mask will be covered with mirror and I will use it as the core for my experimenting with the creation of short performance pieces. Starting off with really basic stuff of one-on-one performances and performer/viewer role blurring, I am preparing something to try with you VLPeople in the next few days (I was thinking of doing the first try out on Tuesday if any of you is around). I expect it to give me some first info on how this mask affects the person reflecting on it and collect subjective feedback on what this makes the performer to be. Is he invisible until someone looks directly at him (already seeing metaphors in that), is it mixing the identities, is it significant in any personal way or is it read as whatever comes with it as narrative? As I'm interested in personal subjective projections feeding or filling or fitting in the performance, doesn't this object sound to be the literal representation of those projections? I can go on with questions forever but I prefer the experience in the short performance to highlight the important ones so that I'm not lost again! This way I can proceed by adding layers to that as steps towards the next short performance and so on and so on, hopefully getting enough to think about the needs, the gaps, the weaknesses, the errors, the errors, the errors. Trial and Error. And Practice makes Perfect.
This is a non titled piece. Titles and fancy terminology confuse me and keep me from going deeper. This piece will eventually provide itself with a title when it feels ready to do so and it might feed itself towards it's growth to something more complexed for me to stress on and audience to experience.
Practical work for now (finalising details for the first level of my experiment) and we'll see where that takes me.
My only fear is time and I don't mean my ageing. Can I have this ready for Tuesday while working on the group project too and reading my amazing new books that will provide info for the research proposal and attending lectures and sneaking on forums and preparing for tutorials and having 3 meals a day every day???
Yeah, I can handle this...
Cool.
Oh, as for my group project ideas or the couple of other bonus projects I am brainstorming on...well, I suppose I should blog some other night. It's almost tomorrow already.
or
How my practice will define itself without me confusing it any more.
Since the difficulty of defining my practice became an integral part of my every day concerns and after reaching a lot of dead ends (well, crashing on them would be a more accurate description since it did hurt) I finally realized that I may not know how this works but I know how it doesn't. It doesn't work by walking towards any pathway that sounds interesting because they turn out to be uncountable and equally tempting. The possibilities of what you can do to make this course work for you and your creative fulfilment (or whatever) are actually too many to describe and that can be quite disorientating - at least for some people.
Disconnecting myself from all the potential input on subjects and objects and focus definitions, I touched basis with what I know and trust (my interests, the always there - never changing - almost haunting me - interests) and this is the basis I am building upon. No more agonizing around subjects that may in fact be way out of my reach, no matter how enchanting they may have sounded at first.
I have been working with the subject of urban isolation some time now (not practically, just some research and a lot of attempts for creative thinking) only to discover that it is not it. More than that, I feel like I was out of my mind to think I could deal with that. No need for explanations on how and why I was excited about it at first, the point is that it helped me realise many things on how you pick a starting point that can actually lead you to the right one even if that is away from it, as well as how not all things work for everyone (common knowledge, I know, but I always surprise myself with the things I think I can do).
Let's get to the point now.
Keeping the "isolation" part somehow present since many subjects that interest me include aspects of it, I am going forward and I 'm humbly (wow) adding small elements from the fields of psychology and psychopathology and the unconscious that have always fascinated me performance-wise. Talking about that in details is impossible in this stage. However, I feel that working with one specific object that I have in mind these days will actually provide me with a lot of significant questions (the right ones) and the quest for their answers will supply me with the appropriate "vocabulary" I need to support my work.
The object is the mask I am creating. This mask will be covered with mirror and I will use it as the core for my experimenting with the creation of short performance pieces. Starting off with really basic stuff of one-on-one performances and performer/viewer role blurring, I am preparing something to try with you VLPeople in the next few days (I was thinking of doing the first try out on Tuesday if any of you is around). I expect it to give me some first info on how this mask affects the person reflecting on it and collect subjective feedback on what this makes the performer to be. Is he invisible until someone looks directly at him (already seeing metaphors in that), is it mixing the identities, is it significant in any personal way or is it read as whatever comes with it as narrative? As I'm interested in personal subjective projections feeding or filling or fitting in the performance, doesn't this object sound to be the literal representation of those projections? I can go on with questions forever but I prefer the experience in the short performance to highlight the important ones so that I'm not lost again! This way I can proceed by adding layers to that as steps towards the next short performance and so on and so on, hopefully getting enough to think about the needs, the gaps, the weaknesses, the errors, the errors, the errors. Trial and Error. And Practice makes Perfect.
This is a non titled piece. Titles and fancy terminology confuse me and keep me from going deeper. This piece will eventually provide itself with a title when it feels ready to do so and it might feed itself towards it's growth to something more complexed for me to stress on and audience to experience.
Practical work for now (finalising details for the first level of my experiment) and we'll see where that takes me.
My only fear is time and I don't mean my ageing. Can I have this ready for Tuesday while working on the group project too and reading my amazing new books that will provide info for the research proposal and attending lectures and sneaking on forums and preparing for tutorials and having 3 meals a day every day???
Yeah, I can handle this...
Cool.
Oh, as for my group project ideas or the couple of other bonus projects I am brainstorming on...well, I suppose I should blog some other night. It's almost tomorrow already.
Sunday, 18 November 2007
The start.
Mentally exhausted. Seriously frustrated. Unbelievably unproductive. Constantly accompanied by dangerous thoughts. Excessively stressed and ineffectively busy.
Not acceptable. Stop.
That went well...(This was my latest attempt to prevent myself from using this blog as my diary or a cyber space to explode in without staining real floor)...
So, psychological details pushed aside, here is the story:
The story.
The more she brainstormed the more she discovered new reasons to brainstorm and realising this could continue to infinity -without ever producing any kind of result in the real world outside her head- made her freak out and push the emergency button: "pause"
.
.
.
The first -after long time- moments of silence arrived.
.
.
.
Having frozen the picture of all creative procedures running and expanding simultaneously in her mind, she looked closely and realised that it was absolutely and without a doubt a complete mess. No wonder she couldn't find the way out (whatever that meant). So, she decided to clean up a bit.
First, she got rid of all dead brain cells (she hadn't realised there were so many of them!!!). Then, she uncluttered all the brain cupboards and closets that insisted on exposing their contents contributing to the info build up -and of course the madness. Happy to finish that, she went on and organized all ideas that seemed challenging and inviting but not quite relevant to her primal interests. She filed them and put them in storage boxes for future use. Finally, she locked the memory drawers that kept on poping open and projecting old images every time something sounded familiar. As if the new input was not enough! She locked all 5 millions of them. To complete the ritual properly, she vacuumed and mopped the floor.
And there she was. Tired but content, she was now standing alone in the middle of her clear brain (well, the stressfull thoughts were still jumping around but you can't kill them! so she let them be.). Everything looked so much better now. All neurons in order, fresh air coming through the ears, floor shiny and polished...In fact, she suddenly realised that the floor was so sparkly clean that she could actually see her reflection on it...
.
.
nice
.
.
really nice
.
.
.
And then it struck her! MIRROR! That would be the new focus point!Why not???
She run to the console, pressed "play" and everything started again.
Easy.
(at least till next time)
THE END
THE START
Not acceptable. Stop.
That went well...(This was my latest attempt to prevent myself from using this blog as my diary or a cyber space to explode in without staining real floor)...
So, psychological details pushed aside, here is the story:
The story.
The more she brainstormed the more she discovered new reasons to brainstorm and realising this could continue to infinity -without ever producing any kind of result in the real world outside her head- made her freak out and push the emergency button: "pause"
.
.
.
The first -after long time- moments of silence arrived.
.
.
.
Having frozen the picture of all creative procedures running and expanding simultaneously in her mind, she looked closely and realised that it was absolutely and without a doubt a complete mess. No wonder she couldn't find the way out (whatever that meant). So, she decided to clean up a bit.
First, she got rid of all dead brain cells (she hadn't realised there were so many of them!!!). Then, she uncluttered all the brain cupboards and closets that insisted on exposing their contents contributing to the info build up -and of course the madness. Happy to finish that, she went on and organized all ideas that seemed challenging and inviting but not quite relevant to her primal interests. She filed them and put them in storage boxes for future use. Finally, she locked the memory drawers that kept on poping open and projecting old images every time something sounded familiar. As if the new input was not enough! She locked all 5 millions of them. To complete the ritual properly, she vacuumed and mopped the floor.
And there she was. Tired but content, she was now standing alone in the middle of her clear brain (well, the stressfull thoughts were still jumping around but you can't kill them! so she let them be.). Everything looked so much better now. All neurons in order, fresh air coming through the ears, floor shiny and polished...In fact, she suddenly realised that the floor was so sparkly clean that she could actually see her reflection on it...
.
.
nice
.
.
really nice
.
.
.
And then it struck her! MIRROR! That would be the new focus point!Why not???
She run to the console, pressed "play" and everything started again.
Easy.
(at least till next time)
THE END
THE START
Sunday, 28 October 2007
The Chance-thing.
So many things...
So many things to blog about, to comment on, to show, to do, to visit, to explore, to schedule, to experience, to accept, to reject...!
So little time. You all know how time is never enough and how we all wish that there were more than 24 hours in each day and more days in the weekend and how this is one of those few gifts Santa will never bring you, etc., etc. Well, I have that need so intensely right now, I almost feel I can actually make it happen! You know how this morning the time-changed and gave us 1 extra hour in the day? I think that was me!!!
(the "if-you-want-it-really-bad-the-whole-universe-becomes-your-ally" theory)
If I'm wrong, don't let me know.
Anyway, speaking of time brings me to my focus point of the day: 1 min. video (old news, but I had to rewind a bit - the things I want to blog about are so many I had better start off somewhere)
Let's see:
The Chance-thing.
I suppose you could always leave everything to chance or you could actually spend your whole life trying to predict, prepare and control.
Chances are the former will - sooner or later - lead you to some seriously unpleasant results, while the latter will definately deprive you of most magical surprises life has to offer.
The answer is somewhere in the middle (isn't it always?) and this is how I dealt with the whole subject when trying to prepare my 1 min. video.
My skills in video making/editing are kindergarden level, the software in my computer didn't help one bit, BUT....I had so much fun throwing my digital camera in the air!!!
The chances of it crashing on the ground were giving me minor brain-strokes (honest) but it only made it more exciting so I couldn't help myself...I am only glad there was a deadline for the project, otherwise I may still be out there performing Sony-acrobatics!
I think I'll try it again in the future if and when I improve my camera techniques!
So, I'll just see this as a "chance to warm up"...
So many things to blog about, to comment on, to show, to do, to visit, to explore, to schedule, to experience, to accept, to reject...!
So little time. You all know how time is never enough and how we all wish that there were more than 24 hours in each day and more days in the weekend and how this is one of those few gifts Santa will never bring you, etc., etc. Well, I have that need so intensely right now, I almost feel I can actually make it happen! You know how this morning the time-changed and gave us 1 extra hour in the day? I think that was me!!!
(the "if-you-want-it-really-bad-the-whole-universe-becomes-your-ally" theory)
If I'm wrong, don't let me know.
Anyway, speaking of time brings me to my focus point of the day: 1 min. video (old news, but I had to rewind a bit - the things I want to blog about are so many I had better start off somewhere)
Let's see:
The Chance-thing.
I suppose you could always leave everything to chance or you could actually spend your whole life trying to predict, prepare and control.
Chances are the former will - sooner or later - lead you to some seriously unpleasant results, while the latter will definately deprive you of most magical surprises life has to offer.
The answer is somewhere in the middle (isn't it always?) and this is how I dealt with the whole subject when trying to prepare my 1 min. video.
My skills in video making/editing are kindergarden level, the software in my computer didn't help one bit, BUT....I had so much fun throwing my digital camera in the air!!!
The chances of it crashing on the ground were giving me minor brain-strokes (honest) but it only made it more exciting so I couldn't help myself...I am only glad there was a deadline for the project, otherwise I may still be out there performing Sony-acrobatics!
I think I'll try it again in the future if and when I improve my camera techniques!
So, I'll just see this as a "chance to warm up"...
Monday, 8 October 2007
Well, here I am…
New to this blogging thing, actually. But then again…new to this country, this flat, this course, this journey…
No time for yacking right now, but I’ll get back here really soon to explore and (b)log my hours of flight.
Until then, take a moment to watch this short not-that-successful attempt of a video.
For old times sake.
:-)
New to this blogging thing, actually. But then again…new to this country, this flat, this course, this journey…
No time for yacking right now, but I’ll get back here really soon to explore and (b)log my hours of flight.
Until then, take a moment to watch this short not-that-successful attempt of a video.
For old times sake.
:-)
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