Hi everyone,

Hope you had a good turkey!

I couldn't post anything except for the comments for the last few days. Looks like my internet browsers at home just freeze up when I click the post button.

Anyway, I started to read "The Reenchantment of Art" by Suzi Gablik. Finished chapter 1. Looks interesting so far, very much what I've been thinking. The major comment that I have at this point is that she seems to focus (at least in the first chapter) on the ecological and social aspects of art, which have a great value to me. I wish my art develops into this direction in the future. However, I'm also very interested in the therapeutic aspects of art. Here, I would like to differentiate between art as a therapy for the artist and art as a therapy for the viewer. Although I have been mostly focusing of the first category, the second one is of an equal or greater importance for me, as it is actually related the tradition of iconography.

Ron, I keep thinking about my project #1. So far the only thing that I really want to change is the thickness of the letters. I kind of like the mechanical, san-serif look of them, and the idea of putting them together like the pieces of the puzzle. That is something I envisioned from the beginning. But I think your suggestion in terms of using unusual props is really valid, and I will certainly try it for my future projects.

Also, I started the mental draft of the narrative-I hope I will be able to show it to you on Tuesday.

Reading/Project thoughts

Hi everyone,

Hope you had a good turkey!

I couldn't post anything except for the comments for the last few days. Looks like my internet browsers at home just freeze up when I click the post button.

Anyway, I started to read "The Reenchantment of Art" by Suzi Gablik. Finished chapter 1. Looks interesting so far, very much what I've been thinking. The major comment that I have at this point is that she seems to focus (at least in the first chapter) on the ecological and social aspects of art, which have a great value to me. I wish my art develops into this direction in the future. However, I'm also very interested in the therapeutic aspects of art. Here, I would like to differentiate between art as a therapy for the artist and art as a therapy for the viewer. Although I have been mostly focused of the first category, the second one is of an equal or greater importance for me, as it is actually related the tradition of iconography.

Ron, I keep thinking about my project #1. So far the only thing that I really want to change is the thickness of the letters. I kind of like the mechanical, san-serif look of them, and the idea of putting them together like the pieces of the puzzle. That is something I envisioned from the beginning. But I think your suggestion in terms of using unusual props is really valid, and I will certainly try it for my future projects.

Also, I started the mental draft of the narrative-I hope I will be able to show it to you on Tuesday.

some thoughts

I think I identified for myself that for the first edit I want to create something I would call "surreal abstraction". Now I'm in the process of editing, and I'm trying to define how much "surreal" I want it to be...

Work Progress

I ordered the book that you recommended-"The enchantment of art". Should get it on Tuesday.

Also, I shoot some footage-the diary and the fire. Continued editing my first approach.

discussion feedback

I thought it over, and I think I finally got the concept of what you were saying.

I still wanna try two different edits, but with the current one I will not try to tell the story I was talking about, but rather keep it more abstract, or maybe add the other meanings to it. I like the footage, I don't want to just through it out, but I agree that it would be too theatrical for the "immigration" topic. So I have some ideas how to make it work differently.

For the other edit, I will shoot the footage with the diary and will start some narrative. I'm a little nervous that is may look too much like my other projects in terms of style, but at the same time it's hard to say what it will look like before I actually try it.

Project Description

OK, I consider my project as a preparation for the ten minute documentary I'm going to create later. The main theme is immigration and how changing cultures affects people. In my first project, I'm going to approach it from poetical/metaphorical point of view. For me, moving to the new country coincided with the process of growing up, that was quite painful. Thus, I may also reflect on the aspect of moving from childhood into adult life. The process of becoming adult was very dramatic for me because it happened very rapidly and was accompanied by the culture shock. Right now I'm trying to come up with some interesting visual images that will reflect on that, and also some narrative.

On my list to watch:
"Nostalgia" by Andrey Tarkovsky-a film about Russian immigrant who lives in Italy.