LIZZY IS DOIN' THIS

I’ve found this assignment a really interesting one to complete. To grab material I found myself rolling around on my floor; trying to catch the way the light was bouncing off of my ceiling in a new way, I was inside the cupboard under the stairs at one point; trying to see if from under there, my full house might sound a bit calmer, I sat at the top of the stairs looking down at the front door – seeing this part of my house for the first time from that position. When I first begun the assignment, I thought I had a pretty clear idea of what I would be able to capture, and what I’d be handing in. And look at that, I was able to see my place from a few new angles.

In the class discussion, as we went around and discussed on what elements we’d be focussing through this assignment, I noted how we had recently moved in to a freshly painted and renovated old Melbourne townhouse, it was during this discussion that Robbie reminded me how even a freshly painted and empty house holds the ghosts and stories of the past. And he was so right. I guess this is what I wanted to look at through this project – that although we, the housemates, are new to this place, this place is not new. I was drawn to the corners of the house we can’t reach, to put our own marks, stories and personalities on; the corners up high where the house still holds its own as the primary story teller. I was drawn to the areas where polished floorboards and 100 year old floorboards, who’d been hidden under carpet for the last 60 years, met and allowed their beaten surface to tell a story of time and wear and durability. A story whose origins I’ll never know.

I wanted to explore the concept of used and unused space, and the way we ‘use’ space by turning lights on, or leaving windows open. Isn’t it an interesting thing we do when we want to use a space, we cram it with things – chairs, rugs, televisions; I wonder whether spaces can’t be perfect as they are, just to have the afternoon sun moving through, as it bids farewell for another day. In this assessment I have discovered new parts of my room to sit in the afternoon where I can have the perfect front row seat to the sun and the dancing of its shadow.

In the sound element of this project, I just spent the day around the house and moved from room to room. Some recordings are from the empty room in a full house, while other recordings were from times the house was empty. I wanted to emphasise feelings of isolation and saturation, feelings oft discovered in busy share houses. What a weird concept to pull 5 (somewhat) completely different people, from all over the place, under one roof and attempt to make it a functioning unit.

I removed the colour from the videos to highlight shadows and insignificant movement.

 

Visiting the museum today, I was drawn most to the design of the building. I was intruigued by the shapes and layout, and found it really interesting that Grainger had designed the building to be without power, although electricity was available at the time. The idea that the design of the building would draw viewers closer and more intimately to the pieces, with the museum being a rabbit warren of long, narrow hallways, on display is a true testament to Grainger’s brain and love for breaking boundaries and trying something new. One of the things I loved the most about the experience was seeing the way Grainger had painstakingly taken note of everything, every diagram, every new invention, every new toy, new music, new clothing designs. He was truly a creative spirit, in every sense, always trying to find a new way of doing things. Was Percy Grainger perhaps the original hipster? It really made me wonder about why people note things down. What is it in us that drives us to tell and re-tell? An all-round interesting experience. Shout out to Percy Grainger’s sex life and his confidence in sharing it with the museum (albeit 10 years after his death)

What gives a space meaning? And what takes it away? This is an interesting train of thought, and one I find myself on often. Is a space ever a blank canvas? Do you ever truly create your own space? The class discussion today centered around our spaces, the ones we’d be focussing on in our first project brief. I’ll be trying to portray the place I live now, and although it is the place I’ve lived in for the least amount of time in my life, it is the only home I have at the moment~ and it is the one I plan on staying for a while. It’s interesting how what was an empty, freshly painted white house, with polished floorboards and high ceilings can be filled by 5 young adults; our personalities and the few possessions we’ve ‘borrowed’ from our parents homes or finally bought for ourselves can make a place feel full.

Over the holidays I travelled around Japan for 17 days, travel, another weird concept. Leaving our spaces, and compressing our lives into a backpack for however long and making temporary homes along the way. During class today my mind wandered to some of the places and spaces I visited while in Japan, one being the Benesse House Art Site on the small island of Naoshima, off the coast somewhere between Osaka and Hiroshima. During this art project, various abandoned residential spaces, some houses over 200 years old, have been given a new purpose beyond decay. Artists and architects have been brought to the island to install art into these houses, and bring life and meaning back to them. The whole project is scattered throughout the residential district of Honmura on the island, so as tourists and visitors traverse the sites they are also walking among the day to day lives of the island locals.

It isn’t only through traditional art or installation that these places are given life, it’s also in the way nature, light, wind and sound are woven together with the man made aspects of the area to create a truly beautiful and surreal experience. For me, nature, art and architecture were married together perfectly at the Tadao Ando designed Chichu Art Museum, home to only three artists works; James Turrell, Claude Monet and Walter De Maria, and situated on the dream-like, picturesque postcard quality island of Naoshima. The way concrete, wood and light – seemingly simple objects, could be used alongside art to create a perfect space, perfect for so many people, was truly beautiful. But again, I wonder, if the space was created just to portray those three artists work, what happens when the art moves or changes? Will it ever? Will the space change to accommodate new art?

Back to Project Brief One, I’m really looking forward to trying to portray the different aspects of my space, and what makes it that. I want to ‘peel away’ some of the layers, because although it was a ‘blank canvas’ when we moved in a few months ago, there are still the ghosts of the past lurking in corners and etched into the flood boards that remain unpolished under the stairs.

Over the course of this semester, my ideas of what I was getting out of this degree and what I wanted to get out of it were constantly moving on a sliding scale from not much to lots, and nowhere to many things.

A few years ago I wanted to get into radio production and broadcasting. I had this huge plan that I was going to be the female voice in a world of Hip Hop (haha). I wanted to know the most, and be the best, while being a girl at the same time. Time has passed and things have changed and although I don’t know that that is exactly what I want to do forever, radio is still there, somewhere, on my ever-growing and evolving to do list. I guess that’s why I applied for this course. It took me a few weeks to really get back into the swing of things, and although I was feeling a little unmotivated, I stuck to it. Midway through the semester I scared myself when a lack of time management paired with some unavoidable real-life circumstances left me handing up subpar work. At the beginning of the semester I had the attitude that I didn’t want to make movies, purely because I didn’t know how to. I turned that negative attitude into motivation to learn, and I really noticed a change in the amount of time I put into uni, my confidence in what I was learning and better results on the work I was creating.

One of the first classes in this course that has stuck with me as truly inspiring and one that got me thinking was the Lectorial in week 2, in which we did an activity on noticing. I found that John Cage’s 4’33” really asked some questions that we hadn’t been asked yet, ones that recurred throughout the semester. Questions like, what is media? Who decides what defines media? What is the difference between art and nothing? Or art and a world of options?

The second blog post I want to include here comes from week 2 also, it was my connection entry in which I recalled some projects by Adelaide-based street artist Peter Drew. His work has been a constant in the background of my life and I actually noticed some of his ‘pixel face’ stickers when getting my daily caffeine over the weekend. Drew’s art, especially those focussed on reminding people that they are in the real world, and just how much the online world has permeated our lives and blurred the lines. The self-reflexivity of the media world has been a constant this semester.

My third post is the one on Narratives, regarding the lecture that Dan gave us in week 8. This lecture came straight after completing work on the infamous PB3 which was my least favourite activity we did this semester. Not because of the actual requirements but of what I ended up creating. Dan’s lecture about the importance of narrative structure in the telling of any story was engaging and useful.

In week 8 my lit class, Textual Crossings, we covered Brian De Palma’s 2006 The Black Dahlia. What a crappy movie. My lit tutorials often got quite heated as the film nerds, feminists and straight up brains fight it out over that weeks screening and whose ideals it opposed the most (I’m in no way saying that I wasn’t a part of one of these three groups at any given time ~ because I was). The Black Dahlia caused quite a stir, mainly centring on the complete muck around that was the attempt to recreate the original story and then cutting that extremely long movie into a 2 hour movie ~ without patching up any of the gaps. Anyway, get lit.

Finally, in week 11 I was lucky enough to obtain a double pass to the opening night of the St Kilda Film Festival. (thnx RMIT) Not only was this a great opportunity to see some really amazing short films, and to get our creative juices flowing (ew) but I really enjoyed writing this blog post. It’s nothing amazing, but I found it easy to write an short, interesting blog that night, and that’s a nice thing.

All of these blog posts highlight a time for me in the course where I was engaging with the material we were learning on a level above just writing notes. By no means are these blog posts in any way profound but these are the times that I was completely inspired, these ideas came to me on the tram, they had me writing notes down in my phone and subsequently on the blog. These are the times I learnt something more than textbook media studies.

1 WEEK 2 LECTORIAL || NOTICING

2 WEEK 2 CONNECTION || SHUT OFF AND SOCIALISE

3 WEEK 8 LECTORIAL || NARRATIVES

4 WEEK 8 CONNECTION || GET LIT

5 WEEK 11 CONNECTION || ST KILDA FILM FESTIVAL

Over the course of completing this Project Brief my attitudes towards it have traversed the space between negative and positive, excited, engaged, bored, anxious and worried. At the beginning of the Brief I was having doubts about where I was going with this degree and what I should be striving to get out of it, it was during the early stages of this brief that I had finally, weeks into the semester, found the perfect uni/work/home life balance and I welcomed this with open arms. Somewhere between Project Brief 3 and 4 I decided to turn my apprehension towards the world of things I’m yet to know into motivation for learning, an opportunity to find out things and tune skills I wouldn’t get anywhere else.

I was really happy with the group I had been given for the assignment, and within our first discussion together; Alex, Jules and I had a clear focus of through which medium we wanted to tackle the assessment~film. Julia and Alex had both produced previous work throughout the course that I had looked at with admiration, so I was looking forward to seeing what we could do when combining our skills. In the first group discussion I had said something along the lines of me not enjoying filming, to which Alex and Jules had been accommodating. Although that was an immature attitude that I quickly changed, when I decided to face any opportunity I was given, head on with a focus on personally getting something out of it ~ whether that be as simple as learning how to level a tripod or something much more complex like conducting an interview. Our focus on using film to present our investigation led us directly to the idea of tackling the project in a report or documentary style, as we were endeavouring to answer a question above all.

As with any large project or collaboration effort there will always be snags; we are humans after all. Some of the problems we faced as a group was the initial take-off speed. Because our final product was so reliant on other people – outside of the degree through our interviews, a lot of time was spent arranging times that worked for all parties. This was not a problem in the end but it did result in us seeming a little underprepared in some of the initial W.I.P. presentations to the class.

Another element that was hard to overcome was the attempt at making our content textured and playful which became apparent as one of the most important elements of the project to the people who would eventually mark it. Somewhere within the second draft phase, Alex had the idea to illustrate some of our ideas through the use of a prequel comic book. This was a great idea and really tied in well with some of the information we were presenting because it was about the comic book industry. The way in which we would make this comic was a troubling subject at first because none of us had any skills in illustration or zine-making. In the end we constructed a 6 page simple zine, combining some elements of the comic book model. In the end it was hard to compile much information in this prequel comic but because our final film piece is so information heavy we decided that a simple comic, purely for the sake of experimenting with comic making was ample. In the end, the simple comic has been laid out flat and scanned into the computer, although it is truly at its most appealing as a tangible comic. Our simple comic I guess embodies the way institutions and their power really determine the reach of any artistic endeavour, and our first attempt at comic/zine making will only ever be held by a small amount of people.

One of the great things about our collaboration effort and our group was that each member really shone in various different parts of the making process. It is in these areas we let each other work at a pace and to an idea that they saw fit. Our group worked really well on building on each others ideas, never dismissing any idea (because no idea was truly a bad one), but building upon ideas and morphing them into our eventual project.

Another thing that really worked well was the fact that we were able to interview some really inspiring and successful people in their certain fields. A highlight for me was being able to go to the ABC studios in Southbank with Julia and meeting Patricia Kervalas, it was really great to see the place that some of the people completing this degree will probably end up. Being able to talk to Mark O’Toole was really eye-opening and it was great to hear his ideas on the media institutions he’s been involved with over the years.

Overall the experience was a truly good exercise in me learning again how to cooperate with people to work towards a brief and an end result we could all be proud of. My team members and I encouraged each other and helped each other out when there were difficulties. Honestly Julia was the rock in our group and her determination to produce a high quality piece as well as her overall drive and passion inspired me and helped me to work harder.

I’ve never considered dust as poetic, of holding more weight than the passing of time.

But isn’t that enough? Dust is the signifier, the smallest indicator. A clue, a teller of time and place. It’s companionship is relentless. Dust is natural, and man-made.

Dust is the exposed and the exposer. We find dust, but dust also finds it’s way to us. Dust breaks boundaries and trespasses.

“Dust shares a lot of qualities with air as well as breath — they each force us to rethink boundaries of individuality as well as space. You cannot confine air and breath in a manner that our more stable contours, like skin suggests.” Parikka, J (2013)

Parikka’s essay on dust exposes some of the hard truths about media consumption and materialism. There are unending effects, spanning further and further than our media allows us to see. The essay took me a week to read, returning repeatedly to it’s poetic verse and unforgiving truths. I felt guilty sending a text message. Sometimes I wonder what writing like this is aiming to do. But it reminds you that your actions are bigger than you can see. There are consequences for what we do, and what we’re able to do is only due to the consequence of others actions. This reading has brought me back to our first Lectorial, and what I want to get out of this degree; of which so much soon-to-be obsolete media material exists for and within. This essay really reminded me that I need to make everything I do, every action, every purchase worth it. Worth it for the landfill it will almost certainly become.

Media materialism is not only an approach to thinking about media (duh), but it can also be incorporated in a persons way of thinking about history, the economy, politics and the world as a whole. Vague, yeah. Some of the main ideas or elements of media materialism relate to technology (as in computer code or microwave rays), technique (such as the uniquely human traits and skills that are needed to use tools, like turning a screw) and culture (the subgroups within the population and how they use technology).

Media materialism is also concerned with the fear that technology is going too far, and haven’t we all seen the results of these fears. I know I have. When I was younger and myspace was gaining in popularity among my peers, I wasn’t allowed to have one ~ my Dad had heard about a woman who had met someone online, via the site, and been murdered. My Dad didn’t quite understand the few steps in between those two events (having a myspace account, and being killed) were the cause and effect factors that meant that poor girl was killed. No, my Dad was absolutely certain that if his daughter even looked at the myspace homepage I would be immediately dead. It was a telltale sign of the fear the generation before mine held because of the speed of technology’s advancement within the last 50 years.

It got me thinking, what would a world be like where technology was allowed to develop itself in response to the world it exists in? I thought of the movie Her by Spike Jonze, which took me two sessions to watch because it opened up a world of ideas and possibilities that I hadn’t previously considered and it was a little too real. It’s not unlikely that we will see the invention of a technology with the power to act, respond and learn the way ‘Samantha’ did in the film. Here’s the trailer, definitely watch it if you haven’t already.

I was unable to make it in to the workshop this week, but I have received the learning graph Jasmine handed out and plotted the semesters learning on it.

1. How much have I learnt about making media objects/stories?

During the semester I’ve found that the focus on narratives was really helpful in me garnering more of an idea about the ways to approach media making, in a way that will allow me to tell stories. A lot of the techniques and theories about editing we learnt have been really helpful in the way I now look at making media.

2. What is my ability to work independently in unfamiliar ways or with new systems and tools?

This semester I have learnt everything I now know about filming and editing. The previous experience I have had in these fields, was at a much lower level of expertise than I’ve been shown this year. I have shown, through my experience in making during the course that I can successfully set up and film, relatively good quality footage, on my own.

3. How much do I understand and think critically and creatively about what I make?

Obviously, my ability to understand and think creatively and analytically will always be growing, improving and changing the more I learn, create and engage with the world around me, especially in regards to becoming and being a media practitioner. Although I can see, already, an improvement from the beginning of the semester to now in my ability to think about creating in a creative, individual and interesting manner, although that is only the beginning and I still believe I need to work on my ability to make from that thinking.

4. What is my understanding of the role/value of the blog to me?

My understanding of the role of the blog, and it’s value to my learning experience was lacking at the beginning of the degree, but from PB3 onwards I felt more motivated to create something I could be proud of at the end of the semester, so from about week 8 onwards I do feel as though my posts have

Our PB4 is coming along really well! Looking forward to our final meetings over the next week to really pull it all together.

I love emails.

I love receiving them. I love sending them. How professional! There’s nothing quite like typing a well spaced email with actual (or attempted) sentence structures and lots of words – or abbreviations. Whatever! The world of emailing is a world of possibilities. Few activities surmount reaching someone through a platform in which you greet people with your first and last name, separated by a full-stop! It is a very adult thing to do.

Having and maintaining control over two email addresses can be a little overwhelming at times, but I can’t complain. I am the one who does adult things that require adult email addresses. Uni is one of those things, and although s3541897 doesn’t have the same ring to it as eliza.mcevoy, I love all of my email addresses the same. Last week sometime I received a few emails in my uni folder that were quickly filed into the bin folder to keep my inbox looking so fresh and so clean. Immediately after doing this though, Justin exclaimed that he had been granted a double pass to the opening of the 2015 St Kilda Film Festival just by replying to the very email I had just binned. I had betrayed the thing I love so much! Quickly I scrambled to the bin and retrieved this email, hastily flattening the creases and replied.

Success! A double pass to the opening night was heading my way too.

I love emails.

The opening night arrived and Justin, Sally, my friend Alex (a budding filmmaker at VCA) and myself were there, among all of the beautiful and artsy people that go to opening nights of film festivals. I guess we’re those people now too. We were shown an array of short films ranging from horror to quirky or just plain eerie.

It was really cool to see what people can do with a (really good) camera and a vision. All of the films were shot brilliantly, and I found myself really noticing the establishing shots, framing and the transition from scene to scene as well as the character development. I started the course this year with little to know knowledge about films or even the beginnings of making a film. But 11 weeks later and I find myself able to enjoy watching films on a deeper level, noticing things I never would have before and coming away from the opening night really excited about creating more over the course.

LECTORIAL AKA HOW TO CARRY AROUND EXPENSIVE EQUIPMENT AND FEEL LUSH AND PROFESH

Unfortunately Julia and I didn’t make it to this weeks Lectorial as we were very busy feeling super professional and caring a lot about the camera and tripod we had borrowed from RMIT.

^Here is a picture of me being ~professional~ during PB3, just to give you an idea^

Yesterday we had our first interview with Jess Junor from RMITV. We filmed in the one of the lower ground edit suites at Building 9 and things went really well. Julia had contacted Jess throughout last week and sent her through a copy of our questions and organised the location and time of filming. Jess was lovely and had some really great answers to our questions. The interview went by swimmingly and she even commented on how well we did with the use of the cameras, saying that she was never that confident in her first few weeks at uni using the equipment ~ and look at her now! What can I say Jess, Jasmine taught us!

Earlier today we trekked in the relentless rain, brandishing crap umbrellas all the way to Classic Comics, hidden away somewhere near Pellegrini’s (and trust me, my stomach was rumbling). Alex had organised with the guys from CC to come in for the interview via emails last week. The questions Alex had crafted for the guys were slightly different from the ones Jess had been asked, and although they were tailored to the comic book industry, they still endeavoured to answer the overarching question of our research which is,

What external and internal restrictions influence media institutions, and how does this affect the media they create and the audience they engage?

Both Guiseppe and Jarrod of Classic Comics answered Alex’s questions and I found their input to be pretty interesting, especially for someone who knows absolutely nothing about comic books.

And as if our day hadn’t been ACTION PACKED enough, Julia, Alex and I then loaded up our gear and trekked across to the Standard Hotel in Fitzroy to carry out our next interview with Mark O’Toole, regular flat white drinker at my work and screen writer and producer for the ABC (we’re more concerned with the latter). After arriving and having a celebratory drink for making it unscathed through 3 interviews, Mark met us and we headed up to his office, above the bar. The office was full of memorabilia and the kinds of things a writer would collect in a room, above a ramshackle pub, that he’d been writing in for 15 years.. you could imagine.

This interview went particularly well and Mark had some really interesting things to say about his involvement writing within and for huge media institutions like the ABC. I guess you’ll just have to watch this space to see what he said….