Have We No Gatekeepers?

1. Roksana Michal, Playground #3, 2009 This was taken by a 21 year-old photographer from Poland but knows no age.

2. My Own Private Idaho (Dir: Gus Van Sant, 1991) A film about family, friends, self, the past, the future, the present, and dreams lots of dreams.

3. Bat For Lashes, Two Suns (2009) “What’s more heartening, though, is that during Two Suns’ highlights, Khan has few peers. I could probably fill this entire space just writing about “Glass”, the album’s aggressively propulsive opener, and about how its strange mix of elements (chamber pop, prog metal, new age— what?) magically coalesced into some entirely new genre that I wish existed and yet still can’t quite wrap my brain around. Then there’s the booming “Sleep Alone”, which, with its rusty guitar licks, Knife-inspired synths, buzzing basslines and floorboard percussions, feels kind of like a sea shanty circa 2074. Or the aforementioned “Daniel”, the album’s first single, which marries brittle, 80s-influenced electro and an inspired viola arrangement with what has to be, hands down, one of the most insidious choruses of the year.” (Source)

1. Wassily Kandinsky, On White II, 1923 “”Kandinsky calls abstract the content that painting must express, that’s to say this invisible life that we are.” - Michael Henry from Seeing the invisible, on Kandinsky.

2.  Various Artists of Zambia, Zamb!ance, 1989. Via Awesome Tapes From Africa:

Side A
Kambowa—Shalawambe
Mao (2X2)—Amayenge
Itumba—Alfred Chisala Kalusha
Impanga Ya Mambwe—Kalambo Hit Parade

Side B
By Air—Labani Kalunga & Fikshala Band
Nyina Kataila Pts 1&2—Kalambo Hit Parade
Tai Yaka—Ilizya
Icupo Cha Kulala Pa Mpapa—Shalawambe

I’ve been saving this near-perfect compilation of uptempo guitar pop from Zambia for a rainy day. Tracks 3, 4, 6, 7…well, pretty much all are sublime. Note: my copy of the cassette is missing the final track.

3.  Michael Krueger, Jefferson Shopping, 2004 

“You will love Michael Krueger. He is an artist from Lawrence, Kansas whose work pricked my heart like the sharp tip of a coloured pencil. Discovering his drawings was like discovering a forgotten album of photographs - shots from when I was growing up (like I am now). Oh yes, I remember this time. And also this time, banded & prismed. And when this happened. Only then when you go back to the first page to go through these memories again you realize no, they did not happen; these are souvenirs from dream. From when you decided with all your soul to climb that bluff and you packed your pack full of apples and you got up there but there was the woman in the calfskin and the milkmaid looking at that man with eyes full of lust, and the sun was setting, and there was the tree, and earth, and blues.” - Sean Michaels via Said The Gramophone

1. George Washington (Dir: David Gordon Green, 2000) “They used to get around, walkin’ around, lookin’ at stuff. They used to try to find clues to all the mysteries and mistakes God had made. My friend George said that he was gonna live to be 100 years old. He said - He said that he was going to be the president of the United States. I wanted to see him lead a parade and wave a flag on the Fourth of July. He just wanted greatness. The grown-ups in my town, they were never kids like me and my friends. They had worked in wars and build machines. It was hard for them to find their peace. Don’t you know how that feels? I like to go to beautiful places where there’s waterfalls and empty fields. Just places that are nice and calm and quiet.” http://www.criterion.com/films/691

2. Destroyer, Bay of Pigs EP (2009) “Nearly five minutes of ambient bleed makes up the first movement, Bejar’s off-kilter delivery the only object in the fog with definite outlines. When the full band finally kicks in a few minutes later, it’s more of a “band,” with an improbably shimmery guitar and clockwork rhythm section making it all resemble a karaoke-room soundtrack. But it’s an arrangement full enough of Easter eggs to keep up with Bejar’s usual densely-packed lyrics, with only the quiet coda at the end feeling superfluous. Perhaps it’s a necessary soft landing after a long, rewarding expedition that delivers a five-year payoff.” (Source)

3. Claudie De Sepra Soares, Rape Of The Sabine Women, 2005 “The Rape Of The Sabine Women was conceived as allegory based loosely on the ancient myth that follows Romulus’ founding of Rome. Re-envisioning the myth as a 1960’s period piece with the Romans cast as G-men, the Sabines as butchers’ daughters, and the heyday of Rome allegorically implied in an affluent international style summer house, this version is a riff on the original story of abduction and intervention, in which Romulus devises a plan to ensure the future of the empire. While the Roman myth traces the birth of a society, this telling suggests the destruction of a utopia. The intervention of the women is fraught, and the chaos that ensues transforms the designed perfection into nothingness.” (Source)

1.  John Coltrane, A Love Supreme (1964) “A culmination of much of Coltrane’s work up to this point, this four-part suite is an ode to his faith in and love for God (not necessarily God in the Christian sense — in the liner notes of Meditations he says “I believe in all religions”). These spiritual concerns would characterize much of Coltrane’s composing and playing from this point onwards, as can be seen from album titles such as Ascension, Om and Meditations. The fourth movement of A Love Supreme, “Psalm”, is, in fact, a musical setting for an original poem to God written by Coltrane, and printed in the album’s liner notes. Coltrane plays almost exactly one note for each syllable of the poem, and bases his phrasing on the words.” (Source)

2. The Class (Dir: Laurent Cantent) Based on a book by François Bégaudeau about the professional and ethical challenges of an inner-city Parisian teacher during the academic year.  Lauded with a Palme D’or for its riveting documentary realism that dared to reveal the racial tension in Modern France, the film nevertheless manages to escape the local and attempt the universal.  Moral complexity abounds between the walls of the classroom.

3.  The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics By: Adrian Tomine

“Dear Adrian, I’m very sorry that it’s taken so long for me to write back to you.  I’ve been following your work since Optic Nerve No.1 and I think you’re a very talented cartoonist.  Most of the time, you have a good sense of storytelling and artistically you have a strong sense of style.  I think most of your best stories so far have been the ones where you’re not in them as a character (no offense personally!) or where you’re just a minor character.  Perhaps you should consider writing fictional stories.  Pieces like “Train I Ride” or the longer narratives featuring other characters have been far more interesting to read than, say, “My Appearance On The Jane Pratt Show”, which I think is one of your weakest stories to date.  The key is to concentrate on being a writer and not on just being a reporter.  In any case, please keep me updated on all your new work.  I think you’ll continue to improve and I’m hoping at one point, in some form, we’ll be able to publish your work.”

- Chris Oliveros, publisher of Drawn and Quarterly before realizing that work he was critiquing was being done by a 16 year old high school sophomore.

Loris Gréaud’s Nothing is True Everything is Permitted, Stairway Edit (2007)

The Bridge To Next Semester

Self-evaluation

1) What is it that I am trying to investigate in my practice?  What am I most passionate about?

For me the question revolves around the fundamentals to aesthetics.  I’m fascinated with understanding how aesthetics work and how we can use them to interpret and transform the world.  In the changing media landscape the barriers for entry are being removed on a daily basis.  However, the aesthetic questions are timeless.  What makes good art?  What makes good practice?  I think this is what I’m most passionate in regards to production.  How can my aesthetic enquires lead to developing something I can trust is worthwhile and have enough understanding to know when something isn’t.  Specifically, I’d like to develop interactive design skills to compliment my theory-based academic curriculum.  

2)  What are my strengths and weaknesses?

I tend to put my heart into what I do.  I really want to stand by anything I produce because I don’t see the sense in not giving something my undivided attention.  One thing I’m trying to improve upon is to take more risks and not be afraid if something seems really difficult.  Shooting in New York can be extremely arduous and time consuming but it’s important to not be intimidated.  Really following through on a vision is key, but it’s equally important to allow that vision to get sidetracked.  A point well taken from Lars Van Trier’s “The Five Obstructions.”

3) What are the core elements missing from my practice?  How will I obtain them?

I feel generally comfortable at this point with a number of media making practices (very basic video, audio, photoshop).  I’m now at a critical precipice where I need to push forward and gain an unwavering confidence and understanding in what I do.  I think taking the production design course next term will definitely be a step in the right direction.  

4)  What was my preferred medium before the course?  After the course?

I’ve never fancied myself much of a production person but I would say my preferred medium before the course was likely video production.  Now, I’m less sure but I’m much more intrigued by photoshop and perhaps even audio.

5.  What is the next topic, theme, or question I would like to investigate in my next project?

I hope to do a photo production project this summer.  It would be a photo-documentary of Baptist churches.  I’m interested in really looking at how a place so seemingly ambivalent and aesthetically neutral on the outside can be a gathering place for such heated ritual and controversy inside.  I was inspired when I was just observing some of the Baptist churches in Park Slope.  They seem so calm and elegant on the outside but it’s a mask for so many conflicting meanings that go on inside.  Whether you associate the church with fear and prejudices or spiritual truth and meaning, these are places exploding with conflicting negative and positive energies.  I’m not interested in judging the Baptist church or Christianity per se, I’m more interested in using aesthetics to foreground conflicting, ambiguous or completely dissolved interpretations instead of anything dialectical or didactic.  And then going the extra step and really blatantly asking what do these images mean?  How do they make meaning?  Trying to capture the essence of controversy without judgments and letting it breathe.  Letting it be but also antagonizing.  

6.  What is something I learned in this class that I can teach someone else?

Oh man, so much.  Biggest takeaway has been the photoshop stuff.  I feel like I could give a basic primer on using photoshop now, where before I was pretty in the dark.

7.  What is something I will try to do next semester that I have never done before?

Submit some production work to a festival, conference, gallery, something.  It would be awesome to be a part of an art show.  

8.  What is something I will try to do every day or every week that I did not do before this course?

Be meticulously organized when it comes to production.  It helps so much in the long run.  Source, Development and Output folders!

9.  What is a creative project that I would do with a budget of $150 million?

Hire a real production crew, actors, etc. and shoot my fictional TV series “Truckers.”  I’m thinking 10 episodes, cross-country shoot.  Need a couple of years of heavy research before production would begin though.

10.  How could I do the same project with a budget of $150?

Much more intimate and toned down.  Might actually be better even.  Just shoot interiors and make it more  of a close-up character study.  

I did some wireframes and web design for concepts class.  Check out my mock record label site.  I’m actually  thinking about resurrecting Tortoise and Hare Records as an online music distributer and social music site.  Now off to learn some more HTML and Dreamweaver stuff.  

Talia Madani “Spraying Stripes,” 2008.

I’m just starting to dive into some interactive Web design stuff at The New School and I’m really excited.  I’ve decided I want to off-set my theory classes with a fair amount of production this time around, specifically interactive design and software coding classes.  They’re great skills to learn, looks great on a resume and more than anything I think it will really give me a better understanding of how the Internet works and where it will be going.

I’ve included a couple great sites to look at on designing the interactive space:

1) http://www.lab404.com/330/ This is an online syllabus/guide for a class called “Internet-Based Art and Design” at The University of North Carolina at Asheville. The site is a rich despository for all things interactive design.  Hyperlinks show examples of the history of networking, differences between types of interactivity as well as a number of art projects currently being undertaken entirely online.  It’s a holistic attempt to investigate the specific capabilities and possibilities of interactive art.  I really suggest taking a look around the site and checking out some links.  A great way to kill some time and you might just find something you never thought about before.

2)  http://www.lasvegassun.com/history/ It’s a shame the newspaper business is going through such a massive contraction right now.  Some have cited the fact that newspapers have contribuited to their own undoing by giving away so much premium content for free.  And some of the content can be quite impressive, especially when a newspaper has some talented interactive people working on the site.  The Las Vegas Sun did an interactive story on the history of the Las Vegas strip and it was done in a way that truly utilizes online design and thinking.  This is a great example of a traditional media company branching out and using all possible media to tell a compelling story.  The evolution of technology will continue to give birth to new ideas and new ways of understanding, the problem so many media companies face is that they act like they are inherently in a diametric opposition to this concept.  Is it a TV station or a news provider?  Is it a newspaper or a content distribuiter?  I think for the Las Vegas Sun, as well as The New York Times, Washington Post and other innovative newspaper Web sites, it’s about giving the consumer the best possible experience across platforms and living their legacy brand online in new ways.  In the past this story would have been a simple text timeline.  This piece is a great example of using the interactive space for visually compelling, more graphically sophisticated ways of understanding the world around us.  Even if that world is Vegas…

“Sophie’s Song”, a short film I wrote and directed with Sophie Lux at The New School.

Special thanks goes out to Lizi Schoell for assisting on the production and acting!

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/why-newspapers-cant-be-saved-but-the-news-can/

As newspapers continue to bleed, the question on everyone’s mind turns from how do we save the industry to what’s next for news? 

Elizabeth descends into the underground.  The F-train.  Her voyage home, made a thousand times before, begins like any other.  The clattering of the tracks, the emphatic murmur of the crowd.  Surrounded by strangers Elizabeth waits on platform.  The smell, the taste, the sights and sounds.  The crying babies, the destitute elderly, the hungry disabled. The black, the white, the Chinese, the Puerto Rican.   The forgotten beggars, the smug rich, the tragic poor. The people having the best day of their lives and those having the worst. Elizabeth doesn’t notice these things anymore.  She’s been living in Manhattan for years now and the commute had been come to be defined by its repetitive nature not its exciting diversity.   The experience once so visceral has become so banal and dissociative it was almost unreal.  Elizabeth checks her cell phone. 6:40 PM.  Another endless day, not quite over.

Elizabeth is more alert than usual of her surroundings.  The voices in the crowd seem to sweep together like the wind.  Cries and echoes swirl as one.  She senses a stillness that she immediately dismisses as an untimely bout of paranoia.  Leaning against the steel pillar Elizabeth closes her eyes and attempts to decompress.  After a wait that could have been 5 minutes or 5 years, the car plows in from the tunnel.  As she lines up to enter the her paranoia returns.  She can’t pinpoint it but something doesn’t feel quite right.  As she enters the car the intensity of the scene overwhelms her.  Suddenly she becomes  overtaken with what feels like vertigo.  Elizabeth struggles to hold herself up right.  Her center of gravity is completely lost, as she sickly peers into a crowd of unfamiliar faces.

And that sound.  A deafening screeching noise but does anyone else hear it?  It doesn’t appear so.  She realizes she cannot focus.  And the train isn’t stopping.  How long had she been in the car she asks herself?  Where’s 34th St.?  23rd?  No luck.  She checks her cell phone.  It’s dead.  She tries to talk but no sound comes out, either that or the hideous noise is drowning her out even to herself.  She screams into the ether.

Panic comes on quickly in situations like this one and Elizabeth’s heart races faster with each beat.  Just as it seems like full madness is about to come on the train stops.  The windows are completely obscured by the darkness beyond the glass.  The conductor announces the destination: “5 Parks Highway” he says in an unusually calm manner.  What?  “5 Parks Highway,?” she blurts out.  The screeching sound is gone now, replaced by the sound of halogen lights and underwater ambience.  She looks around the train and notices everyone is getting off.  She stumbles forward and tries desperately to ask someone where they are.  She’s regained her balance but not her voice.  The panic returns instantly.  The passengers ignore her politely and walk with heads low out the door and into the darkness.  She scans the car feverishly, hoping to find someone who can help her.  Seeing no other option she walks out the door of the now empty train.