I'm not sure what it is, but this semester seems to be draining me in every way. I haven't posted in awhile because, like I said in class, its hard to find the motivation for this course since everyone seems to be so passive about everything.
The assignment last week was completely and utterly stupid. Simplify myself onto one piece of paper? No writing on it?
AND USE AN 'X'???? WHAT THE HELL?
This is exactly the kind of thing that is frustrating me. Beth, I love the idea of the course, but I'm not sure these kinds of assignments are going to change whatever creative or expressive block we have. That being said, I have no idea what would be a good assignment, so I'm going to shut up about that now.
Dustin Hayes.
I have to give Dustin a B on the assignment. He took the piece of paper and did whatever he wanted to with it. I liked how he just smeared a bunch of stuff on there and then made up a logic behind it later. Bullshit seems to be a new media student's greatest skill. He provided a stupid answer for a stupid project (No offense, Beth). In that aspect he succeeded.
Although, he didn't really show anything about himself as per the instructions (Are we still allowed to call them instructions if we're not allowed to consider you the instructor?) Hence, the 'B'.
For the record...I didn't think mine was any more creative than his. :-)
CONNECTIONS
I had a few ideas for this assignment but I have no idea how I'm going to express them.
A buddy of mine gave me the first when he was telling me about making up nicknames for people in one of his classes. He used extreme stream-of-consciousness thought to connect people with their nicknames. I thought it was a cool idea, but its not mine, so I can't very well use that. (I wouldn't want to be unoriginal, would I, Freak?)
So I was in Bloomington for the past 3 days. I met tons of people and saw lots of friends I haven't seen in years. Somehow though, I had my project fall into my lap. While visiting a friend's house, I spotted this gigantic green wall. (Sorry, I didn't have a camera with me) I triggered a memory I had of another friend posing with green wall in a picture. Turns out, these two people (who dont know each other at all) lived in the same room in the same house at different times. How odd is that?
I just had another thought...
What if our visual associations were as clear as our olfactory associations. I've spoken about it in class before...the smell of hospitals reminds me of my grandmother passing and still makes me nauseous 4 years later. What if you could create a visual association that is that strong?
Maybe some people already have that, though.
I have no idea what I'm doing. Someone help me out of this rut.
Please?
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I think you don't need any help out of this - you are working through stuff the best you know how, and there is nothing wrong with that. The fact that you are struggling with these exercises and concepts yet you still come to every class meeting says a lot. I intend for these assignments and exercises to challenge you and to not present an easy answer. They are meant to be frustrating, yet intriguing. Maybe I am missing the mark... Sometimes they might make sense to you and other times they won't. But the idea is that they make you see differently. It would be easy to give assignments where you can use the same skills you already use all the time, but how would that stretch you? If that is what you want, then a Flash class is in order (or substitute your favorite software.) The idea is that you get thrown into situations that are unique, and yes, absurd. You can learn a lot about yourself, your limitations, your values, your resourcefulness, etc. from these challenges. For example, with the identity assignment, a good starting point might be to look at the limitations. Why can't you use any writing utensils? Is that a rule you accept? If so, then what constitutes a writing utensil? What, for that matter, constitutes identity? How in the hell can a person's identity be imparted to anything let alone a piece of paper!?!? How can you identify something as yours? What about your clothes? What do they say about your identity? How do you identify them as yours? What about your ideas and thoughts? Are they yours? Do they say something about who you are? Of course they do. So what is the difference between a piece of paper and an idea? Wood pulp? Function? Your idea of what paper is supposed to be used for? Why an X? Why not an X? Is there a relationship between a signature and an X? What if you were illiterate? How would you identify yourself in writing? Would you ever need to? Is there any parallel between the limitations of illiteracy and not using any writing utensils to impart your identity to a piece of paper? Have you ever thought about putting your name on a damn piece of paper this much? Are you even still reading this? Does it matter? ????????
I hope some of that might have been helpful...
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