I just got out of the screening of Nathaniel Dorsky's three most recent pieces Songs and Solitude, Winter, and Sarabande. They were all silent, and I would say that this greatly effects the cinematic experience. I would consider his imagery to be some of the most compelling that I have seen. I love the way that he plays with the sun within the frame. Regarding the lack of sound within his work, I would have to say that for me, it takes away from the piece. I enjoy the medium of sound, and the ways in which sound can enhance the viewing experience. While the screening of Songs and Solitude were going on, a man in the row behind me was eating something and smacking his lips until about half-way through winter, than he began scraping the container with whatever the utensil was that he had been using. He didn't stop until someone standing in the aisle finally tapped him on the shoulder. I would go as far as to say it was worse than nails on a chalkboard, and it definitely had a negative impact on the screening for me.
Without any sound, I find that I was easily distracted by the noises surrounding me while viewing. I began to hear the different noises the building was making, and I would start thinking about them and I would forget that I was staring at the screen.
Other than the ambient noise going on around me as a distractor, I have my brain to blame as well. When I am sitting in silence, I have a tendency to wander off in thought, as I am sure most others do as well. I have been working on writing new songs today, so a lot of these melodies kept playing in my head during the three pieces as well, which I didn't mind at all. I thought that this was actually enhancing Dorsky's work for me when they seemed to make a connection for me. I did enjoy the ability to create my own soundtrack within my head because it allows for you to further personalize the viewing experience.
All in all, I did really enjoy seeing Dorsky's newest works, and I feel that a lot of his imagery selections are similar to the ones that I find myself naturally intrigued in capturing. His editing techniques do leave me perplexed because I struggled to find the connections between most of the adjacent images. On one occassion, I noticed a graphics match, and other than that I feel it was more of a display of all of the fascinating angles and landscapes that he captures. I did enjoy the silence, but for me it does tend to distract me from taking in more of the imagery, especially when I struggled to make connections. Since I tend to always be wandering around thoughts in my head, at times it was like reading a book when you are distracted, going through the pages but thinking about something else; therefore, not taking in what is directly infront of my face.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
More from Afterall
I just finished reading the article,
A Politics of Tears: The Museum of Useless Efforts, Marfa, TX
Mary Walling Blackburn
5th November 2008
This one goes beyond a review for an exhibition, or a screening of a film. It goes into the geopolitical development of southwestern Texas, notably, the city of Marfa. It is located about 70 miles east of the Rio Grande River, which serves as a natural divide between the United States and Mexico. It seems that Blackburn found interest in this area after visiting The Museum of Useless Efforts and the Blackwell Museum and Community Center in Marfa. It seems that The Museum of Useless Efforts is a fictional place, but she uses this as a reference to the teachers and our societies attempt to wash away the Spanish language and spread English into newly found settlements. She uses powerful analogies with water as a way to better understand the development that created segragation, and has now tried to right these wrongs. A divided region is even evident in the cemetary of Marfa, where a fence litterally divides the cemetary into halves, one where the headstones are made my hand and of cheaper quality, and the other where the headstones are store bought and the area has trees and is well-maintained. It is hard to say that we have come a long way from the past frontiers and expansion years, especially since Marfa now has a rapidly expanding border patrol. The issues they face in Marfa, as well as the collective south that borders Mexico, are real, and seem to be diluted within our mass media, with the exception of Lou Dobbs promoting more security along our borders and stereotyping people coming to America for prosperity as drug dealers and job thiefs. What everyone could afford to know more about is the accepting assimilation that people and cultures of the world have done to try and function within our expanding society, in hopes of bettering themselves as well. It seems that we try and deface the validity of their rights, to justify our actions. The tone of this article was not of anger, but rather of observation of a region divided by politics, it seemed to illicit a reaction within me that wonders what I don't know about my own country's history and its development. What I have been enjoying within the articles I have been reading from Afterall thus far, it seems to be educating me on the interpersonal relationships that exist within different regions of our world, and how we interact within these mediums, whether with tension or complacent coexistence.
A Politics of Tears: The Museum of Useless Efforts, Marfa, TX
Mary Walling Blackburn
5th November 2008
This one goes beyond a review for an exhibition, or a screening of a film. It goes into the geopolitical development of southwestern Texas, notably, the city of Marfa. It is located about 70 miles east of the Rio Grande River, which serves as a natural divide between the United States and Mexico. It seems that Blackburn found interest in this area after visiting The Museum of Useless Efforts and the Blackwell Museum and Community Center in Marfa. It seems that The Museum of Useless Efforts is a fictional place, but she uses this as a reference to the teachers and our societies attempt to wash away the Spanish language and spread English into newly found settlements. She uses powerful analogies with water as a way to better understand the development that created segragation, and has now tried to right these wrongs. A divided region is even evident in the cemetary of Marfa, where a fence litterally divides the cemetary into halves, one where the headstones are made my hand and of cheaper quality, and the other where the headstones are store bought and the area has trees and is well-maintained. It is hard to say that we have come a long way from the past frontiers and expansion years, especially since Marfa now has a rapidly expanding border patrol. The issues they face in Marfa, as well as the collective south that borders Mexico, are real, and seem to be diluted within our mass media, with the exception of Lou Dobbs promoting more security along our borders and stereotyping people coming to America for prosperity as drug dealers and job thiefs. What everyone could afford to know more about is the accepting assimilation that people and cultures of the world have done to try and function within our expanding society, in hopes of bettering themselves as well. It seems that we try and deface the validity of their rights, to justify our actions. The tone of this article was not of anger, but rather of observation of a region divided by politics, it seemed to illicit a reaction within me that wonders what I don't know about my own country's history and its development. What I have been enjoying within the articles I have been reading from Afterall thus far, it seems to be educating me on the interpersonal relationships that exist within different regions of our world, and how we interact within these mediums, whether with tension or complacent coexistence.
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