Da Best!

so wait, what?

empee — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:44:46 +0000

So now we should decide specifics right?

I would like to do some video feedback for the screening, as well as help with Fluxus scores/perform them.

I would also like to do a video with a few people. It wouldn’t work all by myself. I need some interested people to perform the same chance experiment with me. Anybody?

You can email me at theeundead@gmail.com if you want.

Matt

Interview between two of the authors we read

ljhopes — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:50:52 +0000

The transcript of a conversation between Kurtz of Critical Art Ensemble and Bordowitz.

http://www.fnewsmagazine.com/2004-dec/current/pages/2.shtml

CAE readings are posted in “Pages”

ljhopes — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:11:16 +0000

You have two readings from this week. Both are form Critical Art Ensemble. Most of you got both of them, but if you didn’t, they are both posted over in pages.

Come to class with 2 points you want to discuss from each of these articles.

final project ideas

kbartels — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:40:57 +0000

I like the idea of a final screening, because it directly involves video experimentation and we can show our work! To get this going (if everyone agrees with the idea) I think we must come up with a concept/theme for it in order to make a statement. Some vague ideas: there was the idea of “things we hate”, last class and in some of the readings we discussed the idea of cultural identity (which I think could be pretty fruitful), some early readings and discussions involved technology and media. And there are plenty more I’m sure…

Does everyone agree on a screening? Let’s discuss and pick a concept!

Well, here’s a somewhat proposal-thing

empee — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:30:59 +0000

We aren’t getting anywhere with the ambiguity of “final project”. I don’t have a clear concept in mind, but maybe we should focus our efforts on a show. A show of primarily video, but also any other work that goes toward a point, theme, or concept that we can all somehow agree upon. In the spring semester, Sheelah’s History of Video class hosted a screening during Manifest as well as at the Nightingale theater called the New Newness. The class did their best to collect as much work from people as they could in regards to video. Then they acted as a jury and picked what would be and what wouldn’t be shown.

We could find a way around that of narrowing the scope of the show, or we could just accept everybody.

Either way, this project needs to be focused into something so we can take the next step. I know we said in class that we’d all be open to the idea of a screening or a show, but not everyone was there. Once we all agree on what we’re doing, we should pinch off a concept.

Reading Response for “Why A Fish Pond?”

sawyerj — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:47:57 +0000

The question about the staged interviews first struck me most. This was the roughly the fifth question in the article and Trinh explains her usage of “staged’ and “real” interviews through her film. Ethics is a huge part in documentary film making and some of the viewers of Trinh’s film did not understand this concept of respect. Trinh explains how the woman, despite their class, would dress up in beautiful clothing due to the amount of people that were going to be seeing them (this being the film crew, and later the audiences that will see the film) and wanted to look respectful. Even though Trinh would have rather had them not be dressed up, it was an ethical choice as a film maker to make her subjects comfortable with the film she was making about them. Another ethical choice Trinh had to encounter with the interviews was location of the interviews and how the women wanted to represented. One woman, Trinh explains, wanted to only be filmed next to a fish pond, which there were none near by. Trinh respected the woman’s wishes and found a pond to film by, but later found out that a fishpond is a place of meditation, a place of rest and wanted to be represented in this manor. Trinh stood by their wishes because that is how they wanted to be presented. If only all doc directors could be this way, in some cases it is hard to let your subjects have all the choice, in some cases, a director has to tell their subject no, and that they have to do it their way but that leads to problems on an ethical level. Once a filmmakers subject is uncomfortable, it is very hard to get an accurate representation of what the filmmaker is trying to get on film. Trinh knew that if she told the women no, and that they had to do it her way the woman would most likely not have participated so openly. It is about making even ground, where everyone respects the other to get a great end product and a message conveyed on film.

-John

new proposal

ljhopes — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:35:00 +0000

Let’s do a screening, and discuss the parameters here.

“Why A Fish Pond?” – Reading Response

caseyb37 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:47:21 +0000

Jayamane asks Trinh how she creates a film structure that facilitates the independent “reading” of her films by an audience. She responds by explaining that you can start with an intent for you film, but you must allow space for the “natural” or “accidental.” You can try to have as much control as possible, but sometimes you must let go of control. A documentary film maker can start out with an intended path. They can plan to have the film “read” by an audience in a certain way, but good documentary allows for viewing of the unplanned and the unobstructed.

Hirshorn asks Trinh, “What does this exploration of truth and fact mean to you?” Trinh sees truth as something that is not simply the sum of facts. She believes that objectivity should always be questioned. George Orwell believed that all art was propaganda. Not bold faced, cut throat propaganda, but simply with political intent. I think that is kind of what Trinh is saying. That “objectivity” is never really unbiased. That the truth must be sought relatively and with hindsight.

-Casey

You must join WordPress

ljhopes — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:26:53 +0000

Once you do, email LJR, and i will add you as an administrator. Only then can you post.

Reading question for Oct 27th-Fish Pond

ljhopes — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:24:10 +0000

What questions about the ethics and techniques of representing others struck you most in this article? Explore two such issues, drawing from your position as a mediamaker.