Material Choreographies

For brief four, Wenping, Chris and I initially struggled quite a lot. We brainstormed several ideas, but none of them really excited us or felt like uncharted territory (we didn't want to just create something that has already been done). We then were reminded of Slow cinema, and its alternative name: Contemporary Contemplative Cinema. With this in mind, we wanted to make the viewer have to think in an abstract way for our piece. We also discussed how during a class, Smilijana showed us a film that put two totally unrelated images next to each other, and how people will automatically try to find a connection between these images. We wanted to use this idea but with image and sound. Basically, we used a video of something, and then put a sound over it that didn't quite fit. We also then put the correlating images and sounds within our piece, so it was almost like a visual/audio puzzle, that only 'made sense' at the end of the film. As a group, we worked really well t

For Brief Four, I have been put into a group with Chris and Wenping. I haven't working with either of them yet, so I am interested and excited with how we will work together and what we will create. Brief Three is about using sound and image only, and steering away from the human body. As a group, we divided the readings up evenly. I read the introduction of Slow Cinema, by Tiago de Luca and I wrote dot-points about my findings and what I stood out to me as I read it. Slow Cinema: Based on the employment of (often extremely) long takes, de-centred and understated modes of storytelling, and a pronounced emphasis on quietude and the everyday. From 2010 there was much critical debate surrounding it. Boring, waste of time.  A large socio-cultural movement whose aim is to rescue extended temporal structures from the accelerated tempo of late capitalism Contemporary contemplative cinema An unstructured film movement made up of disparate films and practices that are conceptuali

Brief 3

We were asked by Smilijana to find two poems that we found interesting and that could be possible inspiration for brief 3. The Shadow Gallery Brett Dionysius for Nathan Shepherdson It starts with a sun. A cutlass of light slashes at your head & runs your shadow up your body’s length; a pirate’s black flag. When embracing your lover, your shadows fall in love again & meld into each other like droplets of dark water pooling. Shadows are where the old gods took refuge hiding in plain sight. They are immortal so long as there is a body of faith. You are not. Your shadow sticks to you like a pilot fish or a lamprey. You sustain it & take it for a ride. Your shadow cannot carry you. Gravity does not affect your shadow. It is not a thing as we know it. It does not have molecules, only the shadows of molecules. The fundamental laws that govern the universe, do not govern it. You are t

I was with Thai Anh for our group presentation about our blogs. We first found it difficult to find a topic to focus on, as the blogs are quite diverse and many people have decided to focus on different things. In the end, we decided to focus on the collaboration, in particular how people felt about collaboration at the beginning of the course, juxtaposed to how they felt about it after brief 2. In the beginning, many people shared their excitement and nervousness about the idea of collaboration on their blogs. Some people said that they struggled with collaboration in the past, and feared that as we are working with people from different courses (media and creative writing), perhaps we will have different ideas that will clash. When reading everyones reflections on brief 2, it was clear that most people's ideas on collaboration has changed. Many people shared their enjoyment and pleasant experiences from collaborating in multidisciplinary groups, and said that this allowed for

Working in Groups This week during our Thursday workshop class, Smilijana posed a question to us: "Do you prefer working in groups of two or three?" During this course, I have worked in a group of two and a group of three, and I think I preferred working in the group of three. There were more ideas flowing, and coming up with ideas felt more like a group brainstorm session, whereas sometimes in groups of two it feels like each person's idea is going against the other (like it's a bit of a competition). Also, in a practical sense, working in a group of three is better because if one person is sick or away at least you still have another group member you can still work with. I think it's also more beneficial because in the group of three, there were two creative writing students so it felt like it wasn't just my responsibility to be in charge of the creative side of things. In saying this, I also enjoyed working in the group of two. I really got along wit