Finally, a normal week: I'm all caught up on my history readings, no one I know died (though I'm still a bit sad that I'll never see or hug Stan again--I think it'll take me longer than usual to truly recover from his death and what I felt, which, given the huge mark that he left on my life, isn't surprising). As a result, this post is about half the length of my last post.
Monday: This week's class was one that came with a warning, as it was about the residential schools. Some of what was talked about was stuff that I knew already, but some of it was new to me. It was still heartbreaking, though.
Tuesday: After class, I spent the day writing a response paper for Contemporary Indigenous Arts, which Carla had assigned in response to Monday's class.
Wednesday: I started writing one of the five response papers for Contemporary Indigenous Arts that I have to write throughout the semester (at least two before midterms and at least two after--if we do more than six, our final grade will be determined by the six best papers).
Thursday: In between classes I put up a notice saying that I'm looking for models for my independent project. That afternoon, we met at the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery to view their current show--which Survey of Twentieth-Century Art will be going to see as well.
Friday: A friend who had a show at the Anna Leonowens Gallery this week, Beck, had asked for better installation photos (they'd taken a few with a camera phone). I volunteered and spent some time in Gallery 3 (the Anna is split into three galleries, Gallery 3 being hidden around a corner and down a flight of stairs). The show is awesome. From the gallery's website: "I FEEL GOOD is a collaboration between Beck Gilmer-Osborne and their brother Mat Osborne that investigates the complicated nature of personal narratives and the multiple social constructs of masculinity. In their latest video and sculpture work Beck is interested in exploring non-verbal modes of communication and gender performativity. Their installation will reflect the shortcomings of traditional gender narratives, and the tension that exists between siblings who have been and continue to be socialized in radically different ways." Because there is very little light in the gallery due to all the windows being blocked as part of the show, photographing said show was a challenge. In a situation like that, autofocus is useless. I normally suck at manual focus, but I knew that I could zoom in on the image while in live view using the camera's zoom button, which allowed me to focus much more accurately. Shoot = saved. Most of the images came close to being tack-sharp. Thank you, modern technology!
I spent the rest of the day writing for Contemporary Indigenous Arts.
Saturday: Once again, I spent the day writing.
Sunday: At about 5:00 AM, the smoke alarm went off in my building, waking me up from a deep sleep. I grabbed my shoes, pointed wordlessly to where one of my roommate's cats had gone when said roommate asked, as I was barely awake and couldn't string together a proper sentence, let alone think one, and pounded down way too many flights of stairs (I live in a high-rise building). I only put my shoes on when I got to the lobby. Turns out, the thing that set off the alarm wasn't in the building: some people had set off fireworks outside and that somehow triggered the alarm. I never truly woke up during the whole adventure, and when my roommate and I finally got back to the apartment, I went straight to my room and back to bed. I think I fell asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow. When I think back on it, the whole thing feels like a dream, though I know that yes, it did happen.
When I finally woke up for the second time, I spent the day at school, editing the stuff that's due tomorrow, printing it off and reading the stuff for Twentieth-Century Art.
I found this today, and some of it speaks to what I just went through (see #10). Some of it is just plain awesome--which isn't surprising because it's Mister Rogers quotes. I grew up watching his show, and once a fan always a fan.
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography. Show all posts
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
can we just fast-forward two or three months, please?
I start my final(!!!!!!) semester tomorrow and am currently on the bus, en route to Halifax. I can't believe that there are now only four months left in my university career. Let's hope it's not quite as big a roller-coaster as last semester--I honestly don't know how much more I can take. I sure as heck don't want to sink as low as I did: despair is not an emotion that I want to feel again any time soon. But if I do, I've got a solid support system in place.
I've spent the break trying to unwind from what I went through this past semester, which has proven to be difficult (I always have to unclench my brain from the stresses of the semester, but usually it's just academic stress). But given what I went through between September and December, I'm not surprised. Still, I'd give anything to completely relax mentally for more than a night (Friday night was wonderful: I felt the calmest that I've felt since September).
For Nutcracker Weekend, I read the entire first violin part, which was thrilling, though I had a few moments where I didn't know where I was in the music, and I completely messed up the part where Clara and the prince arrive in the Land of Sweets and went back after finishing the Apotheosis and read it with the music again. This time I knew what I was doing and where I was in the music.
We spent a few days, including Christmas Day, in the dark due to the ice storm that hit the Maritimes and New England, which got to be a bit tedious (especially since my room turned into an icebox), though Christmas Eve was pretty nice, as I listened to MPBN radio's Christmas music programs on my pocket radio by the fire--we kept the dining room fireplace and the basement stove going 'round the clock, and every night I had the evening shift from when Mom went to bed until Tom came down to take over for me and sleep by the fireplace for the rest of the night--during the outage, he went to bed around 5:00 PM). By that point, I was properly warm (I'd been shivering most of that day even though I had on four layers from the waist up and two layers from the waist down plus socks and boot-style slippers--both fleece). I'll admit that I was disappointed that we couldn't have cinnamon buns on Christmas morning, though I made up for it by making them on the eve of my parents' wedding anniversary. Mom baked them for me the next morning, and they were worth the wait. At this point, I'm sick of Winter. Trond, if you happen to stumble across this blog, I want you to know that I'm jealous of you and your wife (visual artist Joan Siem). You two have the right idea, escaping to Galveston, TX (in addition to being the BSO's concertmaster, Trond conducts the Galveston Symphony).
The power came back on Boxing Day evening, and we all celebrated--and then disappeared behind our respective screens.
On Friday, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Saint Croix Courier (the local paper), thanking the line crews, many of whom were away from home over Christmas (NB Power called in reinforcements), and all of whom had to work in less-than-ideal conditions and at all hours of the day and night:
I got a cheap (for a conductor's score, anyway) copy of the score for The Nutcracker and spent the days after Christmas studying it, which kept me occupied during the remainder of the outage, and I've already made a handful of notes in it (because it's sheet music, and a lot of the sheet music that I already have is littered with Lynn's and my notes, I don't feel bad taking a pencil to my favourite ballet). My initial plan was to read the harp part, but along the way I ended up reading the other parts and studying how everything fits together. I read up to Drosselmeyer's entrance, which is the beginning of page ninety. I wanted to finish the galop before I left for Halifax so that I know exactly where I am when I come home for Reading Week. I also got a lot of recorded music (some in CD form and some from iTunes): Charlotte Church's first three EPs, a beautiful recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and one of Trond's albums (Hika), which I want to get autographed the next time I go to a PBSO concert.
On Friday, Lynn emailed me an article from the New York Times about a photography documentary, and when I watched the trailer on YouTube (I couldn't watch it on the NYT site, as it just kept buffering), I had to share it with the rest of my readers: it's too awesome to keep to myself (I emailed the article to Tom as well). Thanks, Lynn!
Just like last year, the trip back to Halifax was an interesting one, as the bus was half-an-hour late leaving (boarding was right on schedule), due to the bus coming from Québec--which was one of the transfer buses at Moncton that would take those of us going to places in Nova Scotia the rest of the way (due to so many university students going back to school today, there were several buses covering that route, and because the bus from QC was filled to capacity there was a second bus following it)--being an hour late. When I transferred at Moncton, there were two or three buses covering the route between Moncton and Halifax, and I ended up on the same bus that I boarded in Fredericton.
Check out this video and article about the Robinson Ballet's production of The Nutcracker, which they perform around Maine every December. In Bangor (the performances that the feature talks about), they perform with the BSO. Look for a closeup of Lynn at the 1:16 mark--the piece the orchestra's playing is the Waltz of the Snowflakes from Act I, and due to Trond being in Galveston, she's in the concertmaster's seat (when he's in Maine, she sits in the chair to the concertmaster's left). Go violins!
I've spent the break trying to unwind from what I went through this past semester, which has proven to be difficult (I always have to unclench my brain from the stresses of the semester, but usually it's just academic stress). But given what I went through between September and December, I'm not surprised. Still, I'd give anything to completely relax mentally for more than a night (Friday night was wonderful: I felt the calmest that I've felt since September).
For Nutcracker Weekend, I read the entire first violin part, which was thrilling, though I had a few moments where I didn't know where I was in the music, and I completely messed up the part where Clara and the prince arrive in the Land of Sweets and went back after finishing the Apotheosis and read it with the music again. This time I knew what I was doing and where I was in the music.
We spent a few days, including Christmas Day, in the dark due to the ice storm that hit the Maritimes and New England, which got to be a bit tedious (especially since my room turned into an icebox), though Christmas Eve was pretty nice, as I listened to MPBN radio's Christmas music programs on my pocket radio by the fire--we kept the dining room fireplace and the basement stove going 'round the clock, and every night I had the evening shift from when Mom went to bed until Tom came down to take over for me and sleep by the fireplace for the rest of the night--during the outage, he went to bed around 5:00 PM). By that point, I was properly warm (I'd been shivering most of that day even though I had on four layers from the waist up and two layers from the waist down plus socks and boot-style slippers--both fleece). I'll admit that I was disappointed that we couldn't have cinnamon buns on Christmas morning, though I made up for it by making them on the eve of my parents' wedding anniversary. Mom baked them for me the next morning, and they were worth the wait. At this point, I'm sick of Winter. Trond, if you happen to stumble across this blog, I want you to know that I'm jealous of you and your wife (visual artist Joan Siem). You two have the right idea, escaping to Galveston, TX (in addition to being the BSO's concertmaster, Trond conducts the Galveston Symphony).
The power came back on Boxing Day evening, and we all celebrated--and then disappeared behind our respective screens.
On Friday, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Saint Croix Courier (the local paper), thanking the line crews, many of whom were away from home over Christmas (NB Power called in reinforcements), and all of whom had to work in less-than-ideal conditions and at all hours of the day and night:
"Editor:I'll let you know if it gets published (if that happens, it should be in this week's paper)--maybe even with a JPEG of the Letters to the Editor section, as my family has a digital subscription in addition to the regular, hardcopy subscriptions to the Courier and Courier Weekend. I believe this is my first time writing a letter to the editor. Either way, it's exciting.
"I, like many of my fellow readers, wish to thank the line crews who worked through the holidays and in less-than-ideal conditions, giving up time with their families to get those of us who were without power back on the grid. THANK YOU!
"I admit to feelings of frustration toward the government, especially Alward's insensitive, out-of-touch 'hunker down' comment, and the realization on Christmas Eve that my family would be without our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of homemade cinnamon buns the next day was more than a bit disappointing (I like my routines). However, those feelings were dwarfed by the relief that Mom and I felt when we saw three power trucks go up the road on Boxing Day evening, and she and I waved and cheered even though we knew no one could see or hear us. When the lights came back on an hour later, the whole family celebrated.
"Again, THANK YOU, LINESMEN!
"Annapurna Moffatt"
I got a cheap (for a conductor's score, anyway) copy of the score for The Nutcracker and spent the days after Christmas studying it, which kept me occupied during the remainder of the outage, and I've already made a handful of notes in it (because it's sheet music, and a lot of the sheet music that I already have is littered with Lynn's and my notes, I don't feel bad taking a pencil to my favourite ballet). My initial plan was to read the harp part, but along the way I ended up reading the other parts and studying how everything fits together. I read up to Drosselmeyer's entrance, which is the beginning of page ninety. I wanted to finish the galop before I left for Halifax so that I know exactly where I am when I come home for Reading Week. I also got a lot of recorded music (some in CD form and some from iTunes): Charlotte Church's first three EPs, a beautiful recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and one of Trond's albums (Hika), which I want to get autographed the next time I go to a PBSO concert.
On Friday, Lynn emailed me an article from the New York Times about a photography documentary, and when I watched the trailer on YouTube (I couldn't watch it on the NYT site, as it just kept buffering), I had to share it with the rest of my readers: it's too awesome to keep to myself (I emailed the article to Tom as well). Thanks, Lynn!
Just like last year, the trip back to Halifax was an interesting one, as the bus was half-an-hour late leaving (boarding was right on schedule), due to the bus coming from Québec--which was one of the transfer buses at Moncton that would take those of us going to places in Nova Scotia the rest of the way (due to so many university students going back to school today, there were several buses covering that route, and because the bus from QC was filled to capacity there was a second bus following it)--being an hour late. When I transferred at Moncton, there were two or three buses covering the route between Moncton and Halifax, and I ended up on the same bus that I boarded in Fredericton.
Check out this video and article about the Robinson Ballet's production of The Nutcracker, which they perform around Maine every December. In Bangor (the performances that the feature talks about), they perform with the BSO. Look for a closeup of Lynn at the 1:16 mark--the piece the orchestra's playing is the Waltz of the Snowflakes from Act I, and due to Trond being in Galveston, she's in the concertmaster's seat (when he's in Maine, she sits in the chair to the concertmaster's left). Go violins!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
for the love of Tchaikovsky--and the Bangor Symphony
Despite the fact that I'm only doing nine credits this semester, I've hit that point where I'm randomly freaking out about how little time is left between now and the end of the semester.
Monday: On the way to school, I got my bus tickets. The bus will be boarding at 7:05 AM, and it seems that every time I get tickets the boarding time is earlier than it was the previous trip. On the plus side, I can snooze on the bus (I never sleep in moving vehicles) and I'll get to see my parents and cats sooner.
I returned Helvetica to the VRC and as usual I discussed the documentary with Rebecca Young (the librarian--and a former NSCAD Photog). While it was well-made, I found the documentary boring. Though I'm amazed that one could do a whole eighty-minute film on a font.
The NSCAD Queer Collective is doing a project on the accessibility of NSCAD's bathrooms (in general, NSCAD is up to its eyeballs in accessibility issues, especially the Granville Campus). That day I finally found the time to fill out the lists for the two bathrooms that I'd been assigned to do.
Tuesday: When I had one of those freak-outs that I mentioned in the intro on Monday night, I was really glad that I'd scheduled some time in the Academy computer lab for Tuesday. A couple hours there and I was back in control (I find that the best stress-reliever is just buckling down and getting 'er done--never underestimate the satisfaction of crossing stuff off of a to-do list).
Wednesday: Class was devoted to work-in-progress (WIP) crits and studio time. We also had meetings with Adrian. He and I discussed editing my contextualizing statement (I'd written two hundred and twenty-seven words more than I needed and this was one of those times where I would look at what I'd written, think, "what's not important? What can I cut?" followed by, "IT'S ALL IMPORTANT!" I needed someone who wasn't as emotionally attached to the statement to go through it and cut out the unimportant parts.). I spent the rest of the afternoon applying Adrian's edits to the statement. Several of us hung out in the computer lab, figuring out the title for the show (we'd gotten confirmation that we had a spot in the Port Loggia gallery in January the day before).
During my WIP crit, one of the things mentioned was that a couple of the pieces needed more photos. One of those pieces meant braving the cold at night with my camera. Because I wanted to get it done with ASAP, I took the photos as soon as I got home that night, downloaded them to my computer and got rid of the worst of the bunch.
Thursday: Another cooking day. And as a result, I didn't get over to NSCAD until late-afternoon. I didn't do much in the way of schoolwork, though I did edit the photos.
Friday: I took more photos for another series that needed different photos (the ones that I had were too similar), edited them and added them to the slideshow. I also bought a 2014 calendar at ViewPoint Gallery and checked out Food, Inc. from the VRC (you never know what you're going to find there). And I added another goal for this year: watch as many movies and documentaries from the VRC catalogue as possible between now and April. Bonus: although the usual limit for DVDs is three at a time for two days (the whole weekend if you check them out on Thursday or Friday), students are allowed to check out more than that and take them home over breaks, which I might do when I go home next month.
On the way home I took some photos of the Waverley Inn's Christmas decorations.
That day, a judge in NB ruled in favour of SWN, "ordering protesters not to interfere with the company’s shale gas exploration [on Elsipogtog First Nation] and giving police power to enforce that order." Reading those words still makes me incredibly sad and angry: the land is Mi'kmaq territory--the Mi'kmaq are the ones in charge of it. Also: whatever happened to freedom of peaceful assembly? Whether settler or aboriginal, we all deserve that right. The way the case was handled was crappy, too: the First Nation "had no time to hire lawyers." I can imagine how it would feel for the people of Elsipogtog: I'd be angry, too, if some company wanted to come drill for some resource or another on my land and wouldn't take no for an answer.
This documentary, which I watched recently, is a really good overview of what aboriginals have had to deal with over the last few hundred years. The things we settlers have inflicted on our fellow human beings--who were here before we were--makes me so angry and sad--and ashamed to be white. This is my own race that has done these things and if I could somehow make it all go away, I would. The fact that I have the tiniest drop of Mi'kmaq ancestry (one person) intensifies those feelings.
Saturday: Once again, I spent a few hours in the Academy computer lab. I also edited the photos that I took Friday night.
Sunday: I've spent the afternoon and evening whittling down my contextualizing statement. The whole thing is supposed to be seven hundred and fifty words. Four years ago (in '09) I would've looked at that number and said something along the lines of, "**gulp** I'm supposed to write how many words?? HELP!!!!" and freaked out. Now, I think nothing of a thousand-word essay. Some of my blog posts have been around two thousand words. And I'm still ridiculously proud of the three-thousand-word monster that I cranked out for my Questions of Obsolescence final this past spring. The thing with the statement that I'm currently editing is that my project combines three things (music, dance and photography) that I could talk about for hours and easily write a thousand to two thousand words on. Art means everything to me, and the way I write about it, including how many words I could devote to writing about it, reflects that passion.
Today the Bangor Symphony did a Totally Tchaikovsky program. They started with his Coronation March, which features a passage also heard in the Marche Slave (which at times sounds like a mashup of other works by Tchaikovsky, which I really like). Brace yourself for awesomeness.
The concert also included one of my favourite concertos for any instrument, by any composer: Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. What I would give to have the BSO knock my socks off with that piece. Bonus: the violin part is pretty awesome.
I finished Saturday night by listening to Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony, which I'd never heard before. It was the last piece on today's program. My verdict: it's awesome. Thanks, BSO! Also: Bernstein. Need I say more?
As you've probably noticed by now, I usually only post one or two pieces when posting works that the BSO's performing. Today is an exception: all three pieces have that "oh, my gosh, wow!" factor. Why must your music be so wonderful, Tchaikovsky? I've been listing to nothing but his music all day. This is your doing, BSO!
I found out yesterday that students at the University of Maine get two free tickets per semester to events at the Collins Center for the Arts. The Collins Center is the BSO's home stage, so if I went to that school I'd save at least one ticket each year for a BSO concert. Dear UMaine students: I'm officially jealous. And for non-UMainers, student tickets to BSO concerts are $13 including the processing fee--and it's the same price no matter where you sit. Talk about an awesome deal!
Monday: On the way to school, I got my bus tickets. The bus will be boarding at 7:05 AM, and it seems that every time I get tickets the boarding time is earlier than it was the previous trip. On the plus side, I can snooze on the bus (I never sleep in moving vehicles) and I'll get to see my parents and cats sooner.
I returned Helvetica to the VRC and as usual I discussed the documentary with Rebecca Young (the librarian--and a former NSCAD Photog). While it was well-made, I found the documentary boring. Though I'm amazed that one could do a whole eighty-minute film on a font.
The NSCAD Queer Collective is doing a project on the accessibility of NSCAD's bathrooms (in general, NSCAD is up to its eyeballs in accessibility issues, especially the Granville Campus). That day I finally found the time to fill out the lists for the two bathrooms that I'd been assigned to do.
Tuesday: When I had one of those freak-outs that I mentioned in the intro on Monday night, I was really glad that I'd scheduled some time in the Academy computer lab for Tuesday. A couple hours there and I was back in control (I find that the best stress-reliever is just buckling down and getting 'er done--never underestimate the satisfaction of crossing stuff off of a to-do list).
Wednesday: Class was devoted to work-in-progress (WIP) crits and studio time. We also had meetings with Adrian. He and I discussed editing my contextualizing statement (I'd written two hundred and twenty-seven words more than I needed and this was one of those times where I would look at what I'd written, think, "what's not important? What can I cut?" followed by, "IT'S ALL IMPORTANT!" I needed someone who wasn't as emotionally attached to the statement to go through it and cut out the unimportant parts.). I spent the rest of the afternoon applying Adrian's edits to the statement. Several of us hung out in the computer lab, figuring out the title for the show (we'd gotten confirmation that we had a spot in the Port Loggia gallery in January the day before).
During my WIP crit, one of the things mentioned was that a couple of the pieces needed more photos. One of those pieces meant braving the cold at night with my camera. Because I wanted to get it done with ASAP, I took the photos as soon as I got home that night, downloaded them to my computer and got rid of the worst of the bunch.
Thursday: Another cooking day. And as a result, I didn't get over to NSCAD until late-afternoon. I didn't do much in the way of schoolwork, though I did edit the photos.
Friday: I took more photos for another series that needed different photos (the ones that I had were too similar), edited them and added them to the slideshow. I also bought a 2014 calendar at ViewPoint Gallery and checked out Food, Inc. from the VRC (you never know what you're going to find there). And I added another goal for this year: watch as many movies and documentaries from the VRC catalogue as possible between now and April. Bonus: although the usual limit for DVDs is three at a time for two days (the whole weekend if you check them out on Thursday or Friday), students are allowed to check out more than that and take them home over breaks, which I might do when I go home next month.
On the way home I took some photos of the Waverley Inn's Christmas decorations.
That day, a judge in NB ruled in favour of SWN, "ordering protesters not to interfere with the company’s shale gas exploration [on Elsipogtog First Nation] and giving police power to enforce that order." Reading those words still makes me incredibly sad and angry: the land is Mi'kmaq territory--the Mi'kmaq are the ones in charge of it. Also: whatever happened to freedom of peaceful assembly? Whether settler or aboriginal, we all deserve that right. The way the case was handled was crappy, too: the First Nation "had no time to hire lawyers." I can imagine how it would feel for the people of Elsipogtog: I'd be angry, too, if some company wanted to come drill for some resource or another on my land and wouldn't take no for an answer.
This documentary, which I watched recently, is a really good overview of what aboriginals have had to deal with over the last few hundred years. The things we settlers have inflicted on our fellow human beings--who were here before we were--makes me so angry and sad--and ashamed to be white. This is my own race that has done these things and if I could somehow make it all go away, I would. The fact that I have the tiniest drop of Mi'kmaq ancestry (one person) intensifies those feelings.
Saturday: Once again, I spent a few hours in the Academy computer lab. I also edited the photos that I took Friday night.
Sunday: I've spent the afternoon and evening whittling down my contextualizing statement. The whole thing is supposed to be seven hundred and fifty words. Four years ago (in '09) I would've looked at that number and said something along the lines of, "**gulp** I'm supposed to write how many words?? HELP!!!!" and freaked out. Now, I think nothing of a thousand-word essay. Some of my blog posts have been around two thousand words. And I'm still ridiculously proud of the three-thousand-word monster that I cranked out for my Questions of Obsolescence final this past spring. The thing with the statement that I'm currently editing is that my project combines three things (music, dance and photography) that I could talk about for hours and easily write a thousand to two thousand words on. Art means everything to me, and the way I write about it, including how many words I could devote to writing about it, reflects that passion.
Today the Bangor Symphony did a Totally Tchaikovsky program. They started with his Coronation March, which features a passage also heard in the Marche Slave (which at times sounds like a mashup of other works by Tchaikovsky, which I really like). Brace yourself for awesomeness.
The concert also included one of my favourite concertos for any instrument, by any composer: Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto. What I would give to have the BSO knock my socks off with that piece. Bonus: the violin part is pretty awesome.
I finished Saturday night by listening to Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony, which I'd never heard before. It was the last piece on today's program. My verdict: it's awesome. Thanks, BSO! Also: Bernstein. Need I say more?
As you've probably noticed by now, I usually only post one or two pieces when posting works that the BSO's performing. Today is an exception: all three pieces have that "oh, my gosh, wow!" factor. Why must your music be so wonderful, Tchaikovsky? I've been listing to nothing but his music all day. This is your doing, BSO!
I found out yesterday that students at the University of Maine get two free tickets per semester to events at the Collins Center for the Arts. The Collins Center is the BSO's home stage, so if I went to that school I'd save at least one ticket each year for a BSO concert. Dear UMaine students: I'm officially jealous. And for non-UMainers, student tickets to BSO concerts are $13 including the processing fee--and it's the same price no matter where you sit. Talk about an awesome deal!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
they are the Class of, the Class of '13*
Home for four months!
Monday: My presentation day for Reconfigured. Initially I pinned my photos up in the classroom, but the pins wouldn't go all the way into the corkboard, which meant that the photos curled up and threatened to fall to the ground. I had a couple of friends helping me to put them up, and after a couple of close calls we decided to move the operation to the finishing room (which used to be NSCAD's colour darkroom, BTW) because that corkboard is thick enough that the pins will go all the way in (when using pushpins or thumbtacks to hold art in place, you position each pin so that the flat part is the only part of the pin that is in contact with the work--the pin itself doesn't go through the piece and make a hole). That crit was possibly my best/most thorough crit ever.
Tuesday: I finally mailed the photos that I shot for my piece for the WftA show. And I got my Graphics final printed (colour, double-sided, legal-size). Mom arrived in Halifax and called me when I made a quick stop at NSCAD to let SUNSCAD know that I wouldn't be at that evening's GA because I needed to pack (the union's resource coordinator, Tara, agreed that the meeting was poorly timed--if students weren't already headed home, they were prepping for the journey and doing their last finals. She told me to not worry about quorum, which the union had said was important for that GA.). Because it was such a nice day out, I took off my jacket for a few blocks--until the wind picked up again. We started packing shortly after I got home.
Wednesday: More packing and loading the car.
My crit for Graphics went well: although there were some mishaps with my project, I knew about them. When I folded my brochure/portfolio, I realized that the sides didn't line up and that I was short a bit of paper due to how the document was printed, which I didn't discover until I folded it Tuesday night (as everything was lined up perfectly in the InDesign file, I wouldn't have had any issues if it was printed properly). Other than that, the crit went extremely well.
Thursday: The Big Crit day. We started at the Port Campus, complete with potluck breakfast, and spent most of the day there. We moved over to Academy mid-afternoon and finished the crits there.
Afterward, I tried to track down Mom, which wasn't easy, as I had no idea where she was parked and thought she'd be able to pick me up around the area of the front door of Academy. After several calls on my cell, which ran out of minutes and a call on a classmate's cell, we eventually found each other--and I launched into a screaming fit. Not my finest moment. **cringe**
And yes, we continued packing.
Friday: We were a bit later leaving than we'd planned (by about a couple hours). Mom drove most of the way, with me taking over for the last hour or so--while discovering Eric Clapton (what rock have I been hiding under all these years?!). And yes, we stopped at a Big Stop along the way.
Saturday: I spent the day trying to be as lazy as possible while listening to Siegfried (not as awesome as Die Walküre).
Sunday: We unpacked the car. I also loaded the camera bag that I got for Christmas for the first time. I now have a camera bag for every camera (I did previously, but when I got the D7000, I was short a bag).
Monday: The beginning of Assessment Week at NBCCD--and the Class of '13's last week at the college. I have to admit that the fact that after this week the only people I'll know at NBCCD will be the faculty and staff makes me a bit sad. All my friends will have graduated and gone on to either careers (and paying off student loans) or more education at a different school (two or three students from the Photo studio are NSCAD-bound this fall).
This is a video of the Photo Studio's year-end, "last time we're going to be together as NBCCD students/thank you, teachers, for putting up with us for two years" party.
Video by James Walsh (Photo Class of '13).
CONGRATULATIONS, CLASS OF '13! And to those graduating from the Photo program, remember: once an NBCCD Photog, always an NBCCD Photog!
*A paraphrased version of a line from the title track from Green Day's album 21st Century Breakdown.
Monday: My presentation day for Reconfigured. Initially I pinned my photos up in the classroom, but the pins wouldn't go all the way into the corkboard, which meant that the photos curled up and threatened to fall to the ground. I had a couple of friends helping me to put them up, and after a couple of close calls we decided to move the operation to the finishing room (which used to be NSCAD's colour darkroom, BTW) because that corkboard is thick enough that the pins will go all the way in (when using pushpins or thumbtacks to hold art in place, you position each pin so that the flat part is the only part of the pin that is in contact with the work--the pin itself doesn't go through the piece and make a hole). That crit was possibly my best/most thorough crit ever.
Tuesday: I finally mailed the photos that I shot for my piece for the WftA show. And I got my Graphics final printed (colour, double-sided, legal-size). Mom arrived in Halifax and called me when I made a quick stop at NSCAD to let SUNSCAD know that I wouldn't be at that evening's GA because I needed to pack (the union's resource coordinator, Tara, agreed that the meeting was poorly timed--if students weren't already headed home, they were prepping for the journey and doing their last finals. She told me to not worry about quorum, which the union had said was important for that GA.). Because it was such a nice day out, I took off my jacket for a few blocks--until the wind picked up again. We started packing shortly after I got home.
Wednesday: More packing and loading the car.
My crit for Graphics went well: although there were some mishaps with my project, I knew about them. When I folded my brochure/portfolio, I realized that the sides didn't line up and that I was short a bit of paper due to how the document was printed, which I didn't discover until I folded it Tuesday night (as everything was lined up perfectly in the InDesign file, I wouldn't have had any issues if it was printed properly). Other than that, the crit went extremely well.
Thursday: The Big Crit day. We started at the Port Campus, complete with potluck breakfast, and spent most of the day there. We moved over to Academy mid-afternoon and finished the crits there.
Afterward, I tried to track down Mom, which wasn't easy, as I had no idea where she was parked and thought she'd be able to pick me up around the area of the front door of Academy. After several calls on my cell, which ran out of minutes and a call on a classmate's cell, we eventually found each other--and I launched into a screaming fit. Not my finest moment. **cringe**
And yes, we continued packing.
Friday: We were a bit later leaving than we'd planned (by about a couple hours). Mom drove most of the way, with me taking over for the last hour or so--while discovering Eric Clapton (what rock have I been hiding under all these years?!). And yes, we stopped at a Big Stop along the way.
Saturday: I spent the day trying to be as lazy as possible while listening to Siegfried (not as awesome as Die Walküre).
Sunday: We unpacked the car. I also loaded the camera bag that I got for Christmas for the first time. I now have a camera bag for every camera (I did previously, but when I got the D7000, I was short a bag).
 |
| The section in the middle closest to the handle is where my camera goes. This bag is a backpack-style bag. |
This is a video of the Photo Studio's year-end, "last time we're going to be together as NBCCD students/thank you, teachers, for putting up with us for two years" party.
Video by James Walsh (Photo Class of '13).
CONGRATULATIONS, CLASS OF '13! And to those graduating from the Photo program, remember: once an NBCCD Photog, always an NBCCD Photog!
*A paraphrased version of a line from the title track from Green Day's album 21st Century Breakdown.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
we won't shut up
After I-don't-know-how-many ridiculously busy weeks, this weekend felt almost too good to be true.
Monday: We started the first round of Electronic Culture presentations.
Tuesday: Once again, the students marched to Province House--this time with red ribbons in hand. We also wrapped the NSCAD lions in red fabric. I was a bit later leaving my place than I'd intended, so I called a cab. When I got to the school (with about twenty minutes to spare), work had already started on the wrapping, so I stopped and watched--and took photos. Slowly a small crowd of students and media gathered to watch and film the wrapping. Some of the SUNSCAD execs were interviewed by CBC. Some students tore red fabric into ribbons and I took a handful. I was asked to carry the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) flag, which I was proud to do. You can see it in this photo from the February sixth manifesto delivery (albeit backwards):
We then marched over to Province House, chanting the whole way. Once there we tied the ribbons to the Province House gate and chanted some more, playing Red Rover with the provincial government: "RED ROVER RED ROVER WE CALL DEXTER OVER,
"YOUR SILENCE IS PUBLIC, OUR CAUSE WON'T BLOW OVER,
"RED ROVER RED ROVER WE CALL MARILYN'S PHONE,
"OUR NEEDS, AS WE'VE OUTLINED, WILL NOT BE POSTPONED!
"RED ROVER RED ROVER WE CALL NDP OUT,
"YOU SAY YOU VALUE ARTISTS BUT NOW WE'RE IN DOUBT!
"RED ROVER RED ROVER WE CALL NSCAD PROUD,
"YOU KEEP BEING SILENT, WE'LL KEEP GETTING LOUD!"
The last chant was my favourite.
We then headed back to the school. That afternoon, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald published an article about the protest.
You can see photos from the protest here.
I spent much of the afternoon walking around the Granville Campus, photographing for my project for the Writing for the Arts show. I ended up getting completely turned around in North Block. I wandered around, went up and down some stairs and eventually found an entrance off of Granville Plaza that I hadn't known about.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my Graphics homework.
That evening was the candidates' forum for next year's SUNSCAD executive. Two of the positions are contested and the president (Sarah Trower) is running for a second term (due to the turmoil at NSCAD, having a veteran SUNSCAD exec as president would be easier for the student union: Sarah knows the issues extremely well and because she's done this before, she doesn't need any training).
Wednesday: I took a photo for the Writing for the Arts show catalogue and spent the afternoon finishing my Graphics project.
That evening we had a work-in-progress critique--turns out, the project wasn't due that week as I'd thought. It's due this week. My crit went fairly well, though I had to redo the logo. Thankfully, version two was a lot simpler to do.
Thursday: I did my presentation for Reconfigured on Monica Lacey (NBCCD Class of '11).
I finally finished my stuff for the next day's Writing for the Arts.
That evening we had a council meeting--the first in several months.
Friday: Friday was, to put it mildly, interesting. It started with me sleeping through my alarm by seven minutes, which has never happened before. I ended up being late for class and calling a cab. I then had a close call with my tripod at Starbucks: I thought I'd lost it or someone had made off with it. I started to panic and searched for it, telling one of the baristas when she asked if there was anything wrong, but ended up admitting defeat and left. I got three-quarters across the street before realizing that I'd left my coffee in the café. I went back, got my coffee--and there was the barista with my tripod! I felt like the happiest woman in Halifax: although my tripod probably isn't the most expensive out there, I was not looking forward to breaking the news to my parents. I thanked her and went on my merry way, coffee in hand. I ended up being ten minutes late to class.
After all that excitement, I was glad that Obsolescence was as uneventful as ever (more research presentations).
As for Writing for the Arts, the next group of students presented, and their presentation was on the appropriation of First Nations and Native American culture. It seems that we settlers can never get it right, particularly in the movies (Dances with Wolves comes close, but even it fails in some ways). Also, I didn't know that until white people arrived, native peoples didn't have chiefs--they had tribe mothers. White folks didn't want to talk with the women, hence the chiefs. Since Idle No More started, I've realized just how little I know about First Nations peoples and what they've suffered at the hands of white people. This summer I'm determined to change that.
After the presentation, one of my classmates who's also in my photo classes (and a fellow NBCCD transfer student), Michael, borrowed my camera and tripod and took photos for the students who hadn't yet documented their work for the show catalogue.
I didn't realize this at the time, but that day marked one year since I received my acceptance package from NSCAD.
Saturday: I spent the afternoon getting work done. Unlike the last few weeks, I don't have much to do, and the work that I do have is stuff that I've already started.
Sunday: I'd planned to photograph at the Port Campus and then head over to Granville to work on my Graphics homework, but I decided to only go as far as Port because they also have a computer lab.
On my way over, I stopped at the Seaport Farmers' Market. I didn't buy anything, but I watched a performance by a local Irish step-dance school.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working on Graphics homework.
On my way home, I decided to check out some pipes (at least I think they're pipes) that I'd noticed since September but never seen up close. Once I saw them, I just had to photograph them. So I went back to my place, grabbed my camera, changed the lens and went back. Here are two of the photos:
I spent the rest of the evening doing some research for Obsolescence and I started my journal entry for Writing for the Arts.
Monday: We started the first round of Electronic Culture presentations.
Tuesday: Once again, the students marched to Province House--this time with red ribbons in hand. We also wrapped the NSCAD lions in red fabric. I was a bit later leaving my place than I'd intended, so I called a cab. When I got to the school (with about twenty minutes to spare), work had already started on the wrapping, so I stopped and watched--and took photos. Slowly a small crowd of students and media gathered to watch and film the wrapping. Some of the SUNSCAD execs were interviewed by CBC. Some students tore red fabric into ribbons and I took a handful. I was asked to carry the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) flag, which I was proud to do. You can see it in this photo from the February sixth manifesto delivery (albeit backwards):
We then marched over to Province House, chanting the whole way. Once there we tied the ribbons to the Province House gate and chanted some more, playing Red Rover with the provincial government: "RED ROVER RED ROVER WE CALL DEXTER OVER,
"YOUR SILENCE IS PUBLIC, OUR CAUSE WON'T BLOW OVER,
"RED ROVER RED ROVER WE CALL MARILYN'S PHONE,
"OUR NEEDS, AS WE'VE OUTLINED, WILL NOT BE POSTPONED!
"RED ROVER RED ROVER WE CALL NDP OUT,
"YOU SAY YOU VALUE ARTISTS BUT NOW WE'RE IN DOUBT!
"RED ROVER RED ROVER WE CALL NSCAD PROUD,
"YOU KEEP BEING SILENT, WE'LL KEEP GETTING LOUD!"
The last chant was my favourite.
We then headed back to the school. That afternoon, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald published an article about the protest.
You can see photos from the protest here.
I spent much of the afternoon walking around the Granville Campus, photographing for my project for the Writing for the Arts show. I ended up getting completely turned around in North Block. I wandered around, went up and down some stairs and eventually found an entrance off of Granville Plaza that I hadn't known about.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my Graphics homework.
That evening was the candidates' forum for next year's SUNSCAD executive. Two of the positions are contested and the president (Sarah Trower) is running for a second term (due to the turmoil at NSCAD, having a veteran SUNSCAD exec as president would be easier for the student union: Sarah knows the issues extremely well and because she's done this before, she doesn't need any training).
Wednesday: I took a photo for the Writing for the Arts show catalogue and spent the afternoon finishing my Graphics project.
That evening we had a work-in-progress critique--turns out, the project wasn't due that week as I'd thought. It's due this week. My crit went fairly well, though I had to redo the logo. Thankfully, version two was a lot simpler to do.
Thursday: I did my presentation for Reconfigured on Monica Lacey (NBCCD Class of '11).
I finally finished my stuff for the next day's Writing for the Arts.
That evening we had a council meeting--the first in several months.
Friday: Friday was, to put it mildly, interesting. It started with me sleeping through my alarm by seven minutes, which has never happened before. I ended up being late for class and calling a cab. I then had a close call with my tripod at Starbucks: I thought I'd lost it or someone had made off with it. I started to panic and searched for it, telling one of the baristas when she asked if there was anything wrong, but ended up admitting defeat and left. I got three-quarters across the street before realizing that I'd left my coffee in the café. I went back, got my coffee--and there was the barista with my tripod! I felt like the happiest woman in Halifax: although my tripod probably isn't the most expensive out there, I was not looking forward to breaking the news to my parents. I thanked her and went on my merry way, coffee in hand. I ended up being ten minutes late to class.
After all that excitement, I was glad that Obsolescence was as uneventful as ever (more research presentations).
As for Writing for the Arts, the next group of students presented, and their presentation was on the appropriation of First Nations and Native American culture. It seems that we settlers can never get it right, particularly in the movies (Dances with Wolves comes close, but even it fails in some ways). Also, I didn't know that until white people arrived, native peoples didn't have chiefs--they had tribe mothers. White folks didn't want to talk with the women, hence the chiefs. Since Idle No More started, I've realized just how little I know about First Nations peoples and what they've suffered at the hands of white people. This summer I'm determined to change that.
After the presentation, one of my classmates who's also in my photo classes (and a fellow NBCCD transfer student), Michael, borrowed my camera and tripod and took photos for the students who hadn't yet documented their work for the show catalogue.
I didn't realize this at the time, but that day marked one year since I received my acceptance package from NSCAD.
Saturday: I spent the afternoon getting work done. Unlike the last few weeks, I don't have much to do, and the work that I do have is stuff that I've already started.
Sunday: I'd planned to photograph at the Port Campus and then head over to Granville to work on my Graphics homework, but I decided to only go as far as Port because they also have a computer lab.
On my way over, I stopped at the Seaport Farmers' Market. I didn't buy anything, but I watched a performance by a local Irish step-dance school.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working on Graphics homework.
On my way home, I decided to check out some pipes (at least I think they're pipes) that I'd noticed since September but never seen up close. Once I saw them, I just had to photograph them. So I went back to my place, grabbed my camera, changed the lens and went back. Here are two of the photos:
I spent the rest of the evening doing some research for Obsolescence and I started my journal entry for Writing for the Arts.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
never a dull momement at NSCAD
Well, hello there, almost-free weekend! Long time, no see! I thought you were going to be MIA for the semester.
Also, as of last Sunday, I'm sick again. But this cold is one of those "why-can't-every-cold-be-like-this" colds: it's an extremely mild one. Mild sore throat, I only started sniffling a few days into it and said sniffles are all but gone now, a handful of coughs every now and then... Even the sneezes are mild.
Monday: A working class. I got most of my project done for Reconfigured Image.
That evening, I watched the NY Times' video of Obama's inauguration. If you haven't read/heard his speech, please do! Sounds like the Obama I (and many people) got excited about in '08, and I'm glad to hear that sort of tone from him again.
Tuesday: I spent the day reading and writing for Writing for the Arts and Obsolescence.
SUNSCAD had called an emergency, extremely important GA for that evening, which I went to. The manifesto had been edited for the final time, and we needed to pass it. FUNSCAD had already stated their approval of the manifesto. And... It passed--to the sound of applause. I then headed off to the movie theatre to see Les Misérables. As I watched the students' fight on the big screen, I couldn't help but think about our own (nonviolent) struggles at NSCAD. You can read my review here--and you can read SUNSCAD's manifesto here.
Wednesday: I spent the day doing homework.
Class was devoted to discussing our ideas for our projects.
Thursday: I went to school early so that I could proofread and print my focus paper for Obsolescence, and the gallery review and the rest of the citations for Writing for the Arts.
The latter half of class was a working class, and I ended up finishing my project and printing it out.
That day, the NSCAD Board of Governors met. When the manifesto came up in the meeting, the students were there to read parts of it aloud and to put some major pressure on the BoG (which is decidedly not in solidarity with the struggles of SUNSCAD or FUNSCAD, and is extremely out-of-touch with our needs and desires) to vote in favour of it. As expected, they didn't, and "half the BoG left almost immediately (including chair and NSCAD interim president) and remaining BoG tried to guilt students for taking direct action" according to Alani Caruso-Fitterer (SUNSCAD's VP Cultural). Because of my class that afternoon, I didn't attend the action--but I supported it. The next day SUNSCAD put out a press release, which you can read here. You can also see photos from the action here and here.
Friday: When writing my blog posts, Obsolescence is always a difficult course to write about. We discuss the week's readings, five of the students present stuff that they've found that's related to the readings and I try to wake up (a 7:30 AM/6:30 EST wake-up call is a bit too early for me, especially on days when the windchill dips to -25˚C/-13˚F). This week was no different, except for the fact that we handed in our focus essays and this week was my turn to present. In one of the readings the author talked about the fact that back in the early days of digital cameras, the cameras didn't look like their SLR cousins--and I couldn't help but think about the fact that my first digital camera was one of them. I pulled up the DPReview page for that camera (a Nikon CoolPix 995) and also showed a couple of photos that I took with the camera within a few months of getting it. I also talked about the QuickTake, which was a digital camera by Apple (as in computers). That camera was, in some ways, similar to a film camera in that you couldn't see the photos until you downloaded them. The camera was mentioned in one of the readings and me being me, I stopped what I was doing and googled it.
Rebecca Young visited and gave us another rundown of the university's resources, and Anna did a workshop on semiotics.
Saturday: Because I had very little homework (nothing for Reconfigured Image, work on the cover for Graphics, nothing but the usual readings for Obsolescence and the weekly journal entry and starting research for a presentation that I have to do in about a month for Writing), I spent much of the day being lazy, though I did get some stuff done. After two weekends of working my butt off to the point that I'm surprised that it's still there, I have to admit that I'm used to the stress, and my brain couldn't quite process the lack of stuff to do. Which meant that I felt a bit guilty about taking most of a day off.
Sunday: A mix of work and fun. And more work.
This weekend the BSO took on Mahler's fourth symphony (as well as Bach's Brandenberg Concerto No. 3 and Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate). I came across an article about the concert yesterday on the orchestra's Facebook page, and it got me really excited for the BSO, and made me fall in love with the orchestra all over again. This is why I'm a fan, and have been for eight years (nine in May). Well, that and the fact that the musicians are so awesome--especially the violinists.
Also, as of last Sunday, I'm sick again. But this cold is one of those "why-can't-every-cold-be-like-this" colds: it's an extremely mild one. Mild sore throat, I only started sniffling a few days into it and said sniffles are all but gone now, a handful of coughs every now and then... Even the sneezes are mild.
Monday: A working class. I got most of my project done for Reconfigured Image.
That evening, I watched the NY Times' video of Obama's inauguration. If you haven't read/heard his speech, please do! Sounds like the Obama I (and many people) got excited about in '08, and I'm glad to hear that sort of tone from him again.
Tuesday: I spent the day reading and writing for Writing for the Arts and Obsolescence.
SUNSCAD had called an emergency, extremely important GA for that evening, which I went to. The manifesto had been edited for the final time, and we needed to pass it. FUNSCAD had already stated their approval of the manifesto. And... It passed--to the sound of applause. I then headed off to the movie theatre to see Les Misérables. As I watched the students' fight on the big screen, I couldn't help but think about our own (nonviolent) struggles at NSCAD. You can read my review here--and you can read SUNSCAD's manifesto here.
Wednesday: I spent the day doing homework.
Class was devoted to discussing our ideas for our projects.
Thursday: I went to school early so that I could proofread and print my focus paper for Obsolescence, and the gallery review and the rest of the citations for Writing for the Arts.
The latter half of class was a working class, and I ended up finishing my project and printing it out.
That day, the NSCAD Board of Governors met. When the manifesto came up in the meeting, the students were there to read parts of it aloud and to put some major pressure on the BoG (which is decidedly not in solidarity with the struggles of SUNSCAD or FUNSCAD, and is extremely out-of-touch with our needs and desires) to vote in favour of it. As expected, they didn't, and "half the BoG left almost immediately (including chair and NSCAD interim president) and remaining BoG tried to guilt students for taking direct action" according to Alani Caruso-Fitterer (SUNSCAD's VP Cultural). Because of my class that afternoon, I didn't attend the action--but I supported it. The next day SUNSCAD put out a press release, which you can read here. You can also see photos from the action here and here.
Friday: When writing my blog posts, Obsolescence is always a difficult course to write about. We discuss the week's readings, five of the students present stuff that they've found that's related to the readings and I try to wake up (a 7:30 AM/6:30 EST wake-up call is a bit too early for me, especially on days when the windchill dips to -25˚C/-13˚F). This week was no different, except for the fact that we handed in our focus essays and this week was my turn to present. In one of the readings the author talked about the fact that back in the early days of digital cameras, the cameras didn't look like their SLR cousins--and I couldn't help but think about the fact that my first digital camera was one of them. I pulled up the DPReview page for that camera (a Nikon CoolPix 995) and also showed a couple of photos that I took with the camera within a few months of getting it. I also talked about the QuickTake, which was a digital camera by Apple (as in computers). That camera was, in some ways, similar to a film camera in that you couldn't see the photos until you downloaded them. The camera was mentioned in one of the readings and me being me, I stopped what I was doing and googled it.
Rebecca Young visited and gave us another rundown of the university's resources, and Anna did a workshop on semiotics.
Saturday: Because I had very little homework (nothing for Reconfigured Image, work on the cover for Graphics, nothing but the usual readings for Obsolescence and the weekly journal entry and starting research for a presentation that I have to do in about a month for Writing), I spent much of the day being lazy, though I did get some stuff done. After two weekends of working my butt off to the point that I'm surprised that it's still there, I have to admit that I'm used to the stress, and my brain couldn't quite process the lack of stuff to do. Which meant that I felt a bit guilty about taking most of a day off.
Sunday: A mix of work and fun. And more work.
This weekend the BSO took on Mahler's fourth symphony (as well as Bach's Brandenberg Concerto No. 3 and Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate). I came across an article about the concert yesterday on the orchestra's Facebook page, and it got me really excited for the BSO, and made me fall in love with the orchestra all over again. This is why I'm a fan, and have been for eight years (nine in May). Well, that and the fact that the musicians are so awesome--especially the violinists.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
can you taste it?
We're down to the last two weeks of the semester. Two weeks from now I'll be cuddling a cat or five, having long conversations with them and my parents, contacting a recently-discovered cousin (also a photog) and sleeping in.
Monday: I spent the entire day working on projects, and finally started to stress about them.
Tuesday: A working class. I spent the afternoon editing photos, and discussed them with Adrian (getting a second opinion more than anything else). One of my classmates, Ken, shot his project during class, and I was one of the volunteers. Let's just say that it's going to be awesome.
Wednesday: We folded, cut and bound the paper for the final project (a large sketchbook).
That afternoon, I shot the third and final roll for my Intro project, developed it and printed a contact sheet.
Thursday: Work-in-progress critique. Mine went pretty well: Bob and my classmates basically said to keep it to info from Canada (I'm doing a 30" x 40" poster about the state of post-secondary education, and I had some stats from the States mixed in with stuff from Canada).
Once again, I spent the evening in the printshop--and I'm now completely caught up on my projects. All I have left are finals.
Friday: I submitted an early-arrival request to the residence office desk at the university where I'm staying.
Another work-in-progress critique, this time for Intro. This one also went well: more than anything, it reaffirmed what I felt about where I was in the project. After the crit (which went a bit longer than Adrian had planned), we flattened our fibre prints and then were free to do whatever we wanted. I scanned part of the roll that I'd shot on Wednesday. That afternoon, I got an email from the university: my request was granted, but my original plan, which involved coming back a few days prior to the start of NSCAD's winter term (January third, '13) was denied. I can move back in on the second.
Saturday: I spent the afternoon in the photo dept., scanning the rest of the negatives from Wednesday's roll, working on my Beyond the Frame project and listening to Christmas music.
Sunday: Once again, I spent the day in the Photo Dept. This time, I edited my photos for Intro. I've decided to focus only on Intro this week: I'm very close to being done my Beyond the Frame project, so I can afford to push it to next weekend. As for Intro, I still have to 1. finish editing photos, 2. print photos, 3. write the artist statement and 4. decide on the order of said photos. I'm so glad we decided to do the Beyond the Frame crit on the thirteenth: my to-do list is full enough as it is.
Monday: I spent the entire day working on projects, and finally started to stress about them.
Tuesday: A working class. I spent the afternoon editing photos, and discussed them with Adrian (getting a second opinion more than anything else). One of my classmates, Ken, shot his project during class, and I was one of the volunteers. Let's just say that it's going to be awesome.
Wednesday: We folded, cut and bound the paper for the final project (a large sketchbook).
That afternoon, I shot the third and final roll for my Intro project, developed it and printed a contact sheet.
Thursday: Work-in-progress critique. Mine went pretty well: Bob and my classmates basically said to keep it to info from Canada (I'm doing a 30" x 40" poster about the state of post-secondary education, and I had some stats from the States mixed in with stuff from Canada).
Once again, I spent the evening in the printshop--and I'm now completely caught up on my projects. All I have left are finals.
Friday: I submitted an early-arrival request to the residence office desk at the university where I'm staying.
Another work-in-progress critique, this time for Intro. This one also went well: more than anything, it reaffirmed what I felt about where I was in the project. After the crit (which went a bit longer than Adrian had planned), we flattened our fibre prints and then were free to do whatever we wanted. I scanned part of the roll that I'd shot on Wednesday. That afternoon, I got an email from the university: my request was granted, but my original plan, which involved coming back a few days prior to the start of NSCAD's winter term (January third, '13) was denied. I can move back in on the second.
Saturday: I spent the afternoon in the photo dept., scanning the rest of the negatives from Wednesday's roll, working on my Beyond the Frame project and listening to Christmas music.
Sunday: Once again, I spent the day in the Photo Dept. This time, I edited my photos for Intro. I've decided to focus only on Intro this week: I'm very close to being done my Beyond the Frame project, so I can afford to push it to next weekend. As for Intro, I still have to 1. finish editing photos, 2. print photos, 3. write the artist statement and 4. decide on the order of said photos. I'm so glad we decided to do the Beyond the Frame crit on the thirteenth: my to-do list is full enough as it is.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
art festivals = best thing ever
Just when I think I can't fall any more deeply in love with Halifax, I do. Also: the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival has some serious competition in terms of awesomeness.
Monday: Tom helped me upgrade to Photoshop CS6, which was complicated by the fact that I hadn't done a proper uninstall when I lost access to the beta version of CS6 (oops). Photoshop = tons of files that are hidden all over your computer. I eventually found the uninstall application for CS6, uninstalled the beta version, and everything went smoothly after that.
Tuesday: We did a critique and then disappeared into the darkroom. I'm proud to say that I'm becoming more comfortable with the NSCAD enlargers with every day that I spend in the darkroom.
Wednesday: We started on another book, a hardcover one this time. We put together the cover in class, and we'll finish our books this coming Wednesday.
I spent the rest of the day printing for Intro Photo and listening to CBC Radio 2 (102.7 FM in Halifax).
I planned to go to that evening's dance club meeting--a belly dance class--but because I'd been coughing a fair amount for a day or two and my lungs were rather dry, I didn't think it'd be a good idea to do the class.
Thursday: I'm interested in teaching a ballet class for the NSCAD dance club, so I Facebook messaged the dance club's founder, Hannah, that morning. Because my first teacher, who taught me for six years, taught according to the Royal Academy of Dance's (RAD) method, and I only have a year of another method (Cecchetti, which is more difficult than RAD), I'll teach according to the RAD method.
That afternoon was a crit for our projects for Bob's class. The theme was documentary and documents, and I did my project on my experience of NSCAD thus far. My critique went well, though Bob wanted me to add to the project and play around with the slide show settings in Lightroom.
After class, I put up election posters.
Friday: Before class, I had a look through one of the binders of scholarships in the OSAS office. I found one that I can apply for and have enough time to do it (the deadline's in December). I'm also applying for NSCAD's two general scholarships, and the deadline for those is in eleven days. However, I don't have to do a portfolio for the NSCAD scholarships: I just have to fill out the form, photocopy a page from my student loan and write a statement about my eligibility for the scholarships. After doing the artsnb scholarship twice, the lack of a portfolio--and therefore stress--feels weird.
We spent most of class critiquing each others' work. Mine went very well, though I had to reprint one of my photos.
Saturday: I spent a large chunk of the day working on my essay for the NSCAD scholarships.
That evening was Nocturne, which was about as much fun as Harvest Jazz and Blues--but compressed into six hours (6:00 PM - 12:00 AM). I started at the Granville Campus, and worked my way down to the Port Campus, where Bob had an installation piece called Sea Wall. Much of what I went to was very avent-guarde, which I loved.
I then worked my way down Barrington, stopping to watch dancers perform in the windows of Serpentine Studios, three circus shows (one was a street-style show with fire-eaters, the other two were more polished shows by Halifax Circus: one featured juggling, balance acts and contortionists, the other was a silks routine), a show that was a combination of music (which was sometimes melodic and sometimes a cacophony), modern dance, writing, spoken word--that was more about the sound than the words themselves--and drawing, and see ViewPoint Gallery's Indivisible show, which is based on prime numbers. I then headed down to the Port Campus and Sea Wall. I walked around the piece--and then discovered that you could walk through it! So I did, and I walked through it no fewer than three times. Bob was there, chatting with festival-goers, and I stopped to say "hi."
By that point, it was almost midnight, so I went home.
Sunday: I spent the afternoon in the senior darkroom (NSCAD has two darkrooms, BTW), reprinting that photo for Intro Photo.
I also took some more photos for my Beyond the Frame project. I plan to put the slide show together tomorrow.
Monday: Tom helped me upgrade to Photoshop CS6, which was complicated by the fact that I hadn't done a proper uninstall when I lost access to the beta version of CS6 (oops). Photoshop = tons of files that are hidden all over your computer. I eventually found the uninstall application for CS6, uninstalled the beta version, and everything went smoothly after that.
Tuesday: We did a critique and then disappeared into the darkroom. I'm proud to say that I'm becoming more comfortable with the NSCAD enlargers with every day that I spend in the darkroom.
Wednesday: We started on another book, a hardcover one this time. We put together the cover in class, and we'll finish our books this coming Wednesday.
I spent the rest of the day printing for Intro Photo and listening to CBC Radio 2 (102.7 FM in Halifax).
I planned to go to that evening's dance club meeting--a belly dance class--but because I'd been coughing a fair amount for a day or two and my lungs were rather dry, I didn't think it'd be a good idea to do the class.
Thursday: I'm interested in teaching a ballet class for the NSCAD dance club, so I Facebook messaged the dance club's founder, Hannah, that morning. Because my first teacher, who taught me for six years, taught according to the Royal Academy of Dance's (RAD) method, and I only have a year of another method (Cecchetti, which is more difficult than RAD), I'll teach according to the RAD method.
That afternoon was a crit for our projects for Bob's class. The theme was documentary and documents, and I did my project on my experience of NSCAD thus far. My critique went well, though Bob wanted me to add to the project and play around with the slide show settings in Lightroom.
After class, I put up election posters.
Friday: Before class, I had a look through one of the binders of scholarships in the OSAS office. I found one that I can apply for and have enough time to do it (the deadline's in December). I'm also applying for NSCAD's two general scholarships, and the deadline for those is in eleven days. However, I don't have to do a portfolio for the NSCAD scholarships: I just have to fill out the form, photocopy a page from my student loan and write a statement about my eligibility for the scholarships. After doing the artsnb scholarship twice, the lack of a portfolio--and therefore stress--feels weird.
We spent most of class critiquing each others' work. Mine went very well, though I had to reprint one of my photos.
Saturday: I spent a large chunk of the day working on my essay for the NSCAD scholarships.
That evening was Nocturne, which was about as much fun as Harvest Jazz and Blues--but compressed into six hours (6:00 PM - 12:00 AM). I started at the Granville Campus, and worked my way down to the Port Campus, where Bob had an installation piece called Sea Wall. Much of what I went to was very avent-guarde, which I loved.
 |
| Chaos and Co., which performed at the Granville Mall. They also had a guy playing a drum kit, and two other drummers playing djembes. |
 |
| Antic Art/Instar Variation. These performers danced all through downtown. |
 |
| Dance at Night at Serpentine Studios |
 |
| Sea Wall |
 |
| Sea Wall with the Port Campus. |
Sunday: I spent the afternoon in the senior darkroom (NSCAD has two darkrooms, BTW), reprinting that photo for Intro Photo.
I also took some more photos for my Beyond the Frame project. I plan to put the slide show together tomorrow.
Monday, October 8, 2012
NSCAD: fun/awesome things happen here
This weekend was my first time celebrating Thanksgiving away from home. But it wasn't too bad.
Monday: I spent most of the day in the darkroom, reprinting yet again for Intro Photo.
That evening, SUNSCAD held a general assembly (GA), which I went to. The main topic was the Framework for Sustainability and voting no confidence on the Framework (which FUNSCAD 1, the teachers' union, has already done. FUNSCAD 2 is the studio technicians' union, by the way.). It involved a lot of debate, several amendments and amendments-to-amendments of the "be it resolved" part of the motion, but the GA and participating in democracy without the unfairness that is prevalent in the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system that Canada uses (it's also used in most American elections) gave me a rush. This is what democracy looks and feels like.
Tuesday: We all reread this week's handout in class, making notes on things that we wanted to talk about, and then discussing them. We then watched a movie about the Nazi concentration camps and discussed that.
Since starting classes at NSCAD, I've been thinking about running for SUNSCAD, as I've been very inspired by what they do. The Student Union of NSCAD isn't afraid to get their hands dirty: they will fight for their school and the rights of their fellow students. Since I got my first taste of SUNSCAD on Orientation Day, I've been thinking about getting involved in the union--of actually running in the election, which is something that I've never done before. Prior to this year, I've never taken much of an interest in school politics (NBCCD's Student Representative Council, while they did an excellent job of representing their fellow students, wasn't exactly interested in challenging the status quo, which I understand because NBCCD is doing very well--they haven't had to deal with people not doing their jobs or a lack of money), so it's been a surprise to me as well.
So that day I told one of the executives that I was interested in running, and she gave me a nomination form. There are a bunch of positions that I could run for, including Media Arts rep (the division that the Photography Dept. is in) and Mature Students rep, so I chose randomly: Students Living in Residence rep.
Wednesday: We finished the perfect binding books. Mine didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, binding-wise, but they could've been worse: getting the width of the spine of the cover just right is a pain. Too loose and the book will fall apart (everything's just held together with PVC glue), too tight and the pages won't fit.
After class, I walked back to my place, as I hadn't packed my SLR and I wanted to shoot a roll of film. I shot the roll on my way back to school.
That evening was the first meeting of the NSCAD Dance and Movement Club where we actually danced. This meeting was more about exploring and experimenting with different ways of movement.
Thursday: Bob had planned to take us to the Dalhousie Arts Centre (home to Symphony Nova Scotia, FYI) last week, but we ran out of time. This week, we were able to make the trip. The show (which is a group show) blew me away, and I felt that if I were to truly appreciate it, I'd have to stay there much longer than I did. It was very avant-garde, modern and cool, and was comprised of many different media: photography, fluorescent bulbs, sound, glass, video...
Friday: That day was a working class, and I'm finally getting the hang of NSCAD's Saunders/LPL enlargers. After three years of working with NBCCD's Durst enlargers, I'm used to working with that brand and know what settings to use in order to get the results that I want, and I've had to transfer those three years of experience with one brand to another brand that works in a completely different way. I've learned that I have to use a higher-contrast filter than I did with the Dursts (I generally used either a 2.5 or a 3; with the Saunders/LPLs it's more along the lines of a 3 or a 4) in order to get the same results.
Due to all that work, I was late to the SUNSCAD election meeting. The meeting was mandatory, but only a handful of people bothered to show up, so the fact that I showed up was good enough. We were given the rundown of what's going to happen over the next few weeks and what we need to do.
Saturday: I spent most of the day migrating all my data from my old, orange-juice-filled computer to my new one with Tom's help.
Late in the afternoon, I started to feel the early signs of a cold. Me being me, I tried to deny that I was getting sick.
Sunday: Okay, yeah, it's a cold. Thankfully, I was still well enough to do homework.
I spent much of the afternoon shooting the final roll for Intro Photo and developing it and roll #2. I plan to print the photos on Wednesday afternoon.
That afternoon was also the Bangor Symphony's first concert of the 117th season. As a result, I had An American in Paris (which was on the program) going through my head for several hours. Here are some (more like three hundred and eighty-nine) photos that were taken during rehearsal and the concert. Most of them are good, especially given the fact that stage lighting is extremely high-contrast, and therefore very difficult to photograph in, but a handful of the photos left me wondering, "why did that photo make it into the final batch?" For some, it was the technical aspect that was missing (metering issues/blowout, motion blur that didn't look deliberate, occasional incorrect-looking white balance), but for others, it was more the artistic side that was lacking. Yes, it's documentary-style photography, but there's still an art to it.
But as a proud New Brunswicker, I love the fact that the BSO uses Sabian cymbals. Sabian is based in Meductic, NB, and they make some of the best cymbals you can get. Unfortunately, since there isn't anything written on the BSO's cymbals aside from the Sabian logo, I can't tell which model they are.
And because it's Thanksgiving here in Canada (happy Columbus Day to my American readers), here's this year's list of what I'm thankful for:
Monday: I spent most of the day in the darkroom, reprinting yet again for Intro Photo.
That evening, SUNSCAD held a general assembly (GA), which I went to. The main topic was the Framework for Sustainability and voting no confidence on the Framework (which FUNSCAD 1, the teachers' union, has already done. FUNSCAD 2 is the studio technicians' union, by the way.). It involved a lot of debate, several amendments and amendments-to-amendments of the "be it resolved" part of the motion, but the GA and participating in democracy without the unfairness that is prevalent in the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system that Canada uses (it's also used in most American elections) gave me a rush. This is what democracy looks and feels like.
Tuesday: We all reread this week's handout in class, making notes on things that we wanted to talk about, and then discussing them. We then watched a movie about the Nazi concentration camps and discussed that.
Since starting classes at NSCAD, I've been thinking about running for SUNSCAD, as I've been very inspired by what they do. The Student Union of NSCAD isn't afraid to get their hands dirty: they will fight for their school and the rights of their fellow students. Since I got my first taste of SUNSCAD on Orientation Day, I've been thinking about getting involved in the union--of actually running in the election, which is something that I've never done before. Prior to this year, I've never taken much of an interest in school politics (NBCCD's Student Representative Council, while they did an excellent job of representing their fellow students, wasn't exactly interested in challenging the status quo, which I understand because NBCCD is doing very well--they haven't had to deal with people not doing their jobs or a lack of money), so it's been a surprise to me as well.
So that day I told one of the executives that I was interested in running, and she gave me a nomination form. There are a bunch of positions that I could run for, including Media Arts rep (the division that the Photography Dept. is in) and Mature Students rep, so I chose randomly: Students Living in Residence rep.
Wednesday: We finished the perfect binding books. Mine didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, binding-wise, but they could've been worse: getting the width of the spine of the cover just right is a pain. Too loose and the book will fall apart (everything's just held together with PVC glue), too tight and the pages won't fit.
After class, I walked back to my place, as I hadn't packed my SLR and I wanted to shoot a roll of film. I shot the roll on my way back to school.
That evening was the first meeting of the NSCAD Dance and Movement Club where we actually danced. This meeting was more about exploring and experimenting with different ways of movement.
Thursday: Bob had planned to take us to the Dalhousie Arts Centre (home to Symphony Nova Scotia, FYI) last week, but we ran out of time. This week, we were able to make the trip. The show (which is a group show) blew me away, and I felt that if I were to truly appreciate it, I'd have to stay there much longer than I did. It was very avant-garde, modern and cool, and was comprised of many different media: photography, fluorescent bulbs, sound, glass, video...
Friday: That day was a working class, and I'm finally getting the hang of NSCAD's Saunders/LPL enlargers. After three years of working with NBCCD's Durst enlargers, I'm used to working with that brand and know what settings to use in order to get the results that I want, and I've had to transfer those three years of experience with one brand to another brand that works in a completely different way. I've learned that I have to use a higher-contrast filter than I did with the Dursts (I generally used either a 2.5 or a 3; with the Saunders/LPLs it's more along the lines of a 3 or a 4) in order to get the same results.
Due to all that work, I was late to the SUNSCAD election meeting. The meeting was mandatory, but only a handful of people bothered to show up, so the fact that I showed up was good enough. We were given the rundown of what's going to happen over the next few weeks and what we need to do.
Saturday: I spent most of the day migrating all my data from my old, orange-juice-filled computer to my new one with Tom's help.
Late in the afternoon, I started to feel the early signs of a cold. Me being me, I tried to deny that I was getting sick.
Sunday: Okay, yeah, it's a cold. Thankfully, I was still well enough to do homework.
I spent much of the afternoon shooting the final roll for Intro Photo and developing it and roll #2. I plan to print the photos on Wednesday afternoon.
That afternoon was also the Bangor Symphony's first concert of the 117th season. As a result, I had An American in Paris (which was on the program) going through my head for several hours. Here are some (more like three hundred and eighty-nine) photos that were taken during rehearsal and the concert. Most of them are good, especially given the fact that stage lighting is extremely high-contrast, and therefore very difficult to photograph in, but a handful of the photos left me wondering, "why did that photo make it into the final batch?" For some, it was the technical aspect that was missing (metering issues/blowout, motion blur that didn't look deliberate, occasional incorrect-looking white balance), but for others, it was more the artistic side that was lacking. Yes, it's documentary-style photography, but there's still an art to it.
But as a proud New Brunswicker, I love the fact that the BSO uses Sabian cymbals. Sabian is based in Meductic, NB, and they make some of the best cymbals you can get. Unfortunately, since there isn't anything written on the BSO's cymbals aside from the Sabian logo, I can't tell which model they are.
And because it's Thanksgiving here in Canada (happy Columbus Day to my American readers), here's this year's list of what I'm thankful for:
- SUNSCAD
- NSCAD
- The fact that SUNSCAD is very political and not afraid to get it's hands dirty
- The cool things that NSCAD students and supporters do (e.g., ANNAmotion LOGOmotion)
- The liberalness of Halifax
- The Bangor Symphony (and their awesome violin section)
- The Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony
- NBCCD
- My three years at NBCCD, what I learned there and the experiences that I had
- The NBCCD faculty, especially the photo faculty
- My knowledge of B&W film photography
- The fact that film photography is still taught (alongside digital) in art colleges and universities even as digital takes over more and more of the world
- My desire to learn
- The high quality of my artistic education
- My interest in Canadian politics
Monday, October 1, 2012
having fun in the photography department
We're officially in the third week of school at NSCAD--but having spent three years at NBCCD (which starts the school year for non-FVA students on the Tuesday after Labour Day), it doesn't feel like three weeks.
Monday: I spent the afternoon walking around NSCAD, exploring and taking photos for my Beyond the Frame project, which is about my experience at NSCAD thus far.
That evening, I went to the Imaginus poster sale at St. Mary's University and bought three posters: Carmen by Mark Spain, Guns and Roses by Shepard Fairey and a Warhol quote poster, "Art is what you can get away with."
Tuesday: Because I'd booked the lighting studio for nine, I was up bright and early that morning. I did the shoot, making a handful of mistakes in the process (I corrected them).
Class that afternoon was a working class, which was great because I needed to process that roll that I'd shot a couple hours prior.
The day before, my new computer arrived--but neither my parents nor I knew where it was (the location given in the tracking info was rather cryptic). I didn't even know that it had arrived until Tom emailed me on Tuesday. A bunch of stressed-out emails ensued, and I planned to call UPS on Wednesday.
Wednesday: This week, we designed and printed book covers on a letterpress. We'll bind the books using perfect binding. My covers (we had to print three) have a treble clef followed by the word "music" with each letter a different font, with a silhouette of a violin from the side and lying on it's back below the word. All this is printed in dark blue ink. Here's a video about letterpress.
Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.
During lunch, the NSCAD Dance and Movement Club had their first meeting, which I attended. We discussed what kinds of dance we wanted to do, and we'll be inviting local dance instructors to teach at NSCAD--which means FREE DANCE CLASSES!!! You can't beat that--especially if you're a student who's living on a shoestring budget.
When I checked my email that afternoon, I found out that the computer had arrived at the residence mail room. I immediately emailed my parents, and then called a cab to NSCAD and went to the mail room. The parcel had already been picked up by my RA, Julia, so I went up to her room, where I opened it. Hello, new computer! It turns out that the computer had been sent to the employee mail room, which explained the mysterious location in the tracking info. I emailed my parents again, telling them the good news. End of stress. I plan to migrate my stuff--almost five years' worth of it--next weekend. I'm going to lose the ability to work with one or two programs, specifically Quark Xpress, but I'm thinking of getting Adobe InDesign (Quark's competitor, which is currently the industry standard) at some point. The fact that Adobe is very helpful when you have a question about one or other of their products doesn't hurt, either (Quark is known for being extremely difficult to deal with).
That evening, I reshot the Intro Photo assignment again. Thankfully, this was the final reshoot.
Thursday: This week, class was moved to the Academy Building, which is a stone's throw from the Granville campus, because NSCAD's board of governors was meeting in the classroom where I usually have Photography Beyond the Frame. We spent much of the class finishing the critique (mine was a good one, in case you're wondering), and also discussed the current project, which we'd started a week prior (the one where I'm taking photos that document my NSCAD experience).
I spent the evening in the darkroom, along with four of my classmates: we all needed to bang out five prints for the critique on Friday afternoon.
Friday: The critique went fairly well for me. I still needed to reprint my five prints because they didn't have as good a range of values as they should have (B&W photos--both film and digital--should have a full range of values: from pure white to pure black).
Saturday: I got my Intro Photo homework done that afternoon. The current assignment is to shoot three rolls of thirty-six-exposure film or the equivalent in another kind of film (e.g., nine rolls of twelve-exposure 120 film). I shot the first roll that afternoon. We were to work briskly, but carefully--and no looking through the viewfinder! I had the first roll done in about fifteen minutes, which is amazing, considering that it can take me forever to finish off a roll.
I spent the rest of the day getting little things around my room done and reading the Framework for Sustainability (the link goes to the PDF download), which is the report that the board of governors submitted to the NS government--and which SUNSCAD opposes (for good reason: there's got to be a better way of saving money and bringing NSCAD back into the black than slowly killing the university).
Sunday: I spent yesterday working on my Beyond the Frame project and slaving over a letter to the Nova Scotia premier and minister of labour and advanced education, telling them what I, as a NSCAD student, think about some of the parts of the Framework. I'm going to tweak the letter a bit more before I send it.
Monday: I spent the afternoon walking around NSCAD, exploring and taking photos for my Beyond the Frame project, which is about my experience at NSCAD thus far.
That evening, I went to the Imaginus poster sale at St. Mary's University and bought three posters: Carmen by Mark Spain, Guns and Roses by Shepard Fairey and a Warhol quote poster, "Art is what you can get away with."
Tuesday: Because I'd booked the lighting studio for nine, I was up bright and early that morning. I did the shoot, making a handful of mistakes in the process (I corrected them).
Class that afternoon was a working class, which was great because I needed to process that roll that I'd shot a couple hours prior.
The day before, my new computer arrived--but neither my parents nor I knew where it was (the location given in the tracking info was rather cryptic). I didn't even know that it had arrived until Tom emailed me on Tuesday. A bunch of stressed-out emails ensued, and I planned to call UPS on Wednesday.
Wednesday: This week, we designed and printed book covers on a letterpress. We'll bind the books using perfect binding. My covers (we had to print three) have a treble clef followed by the word "music" with each letter a different font, with a silhouette of a violin from the side and lying on it's back below the word. All this is printed in dark blue ink. Here's a video about letterpress.
Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.
During lunch, the NSCAD Dance and Movement Club had their first meeting, which I attended. We discussed what kinds of dance we wanted to do, and we'll be inviting local dance instructors to teach at NSCAD--which means FREE DANCE CLASSES!!! You can't beat that--especially if you're a student who's living on a shoestring budget.
When I checked my email that afternoon, I found out that the computer had arrived at the residence mail room. I immediately emailed my parents, and then called a cab to NSCAD and went to the mail room. The parcel had already been picked up by my RA, Julia, so I went up to her room, where I opened it. Hello, new computer! It turns out that the computer had been sent to the employee mail room, which explained the mysterious location in the tracking info. I emailed my parents again, telling them the good news. End of stress. I plan to migrate my stuff--almost five years' worth of it--next weekend. I'm going to lose the ability to work with one or two programs, specifically Quark Xpress, but I'm thinking of getting Adobe InDesign (Quark's competitor, which is currently the industry standard) at some point. The fact that Adobe is very helpful when you have a question about one or other of their products doesn't hurt, either (Quark is known for being extremely difficult to deal with).
That evening, I reshot the Intro Photo assignment again. Thankfully, this was the final reshoot.
Thursday: This week, class was moved to the Academy Building, which is a stone's throw from the Granville campus, because NSCAD's board of governors was meeting in the classroom where I usually have Photography Beyond the Frame. We spent much of the class finishing the critique (mine was a good one, in case you're wondering), and also discussed the current project, which we'd started a week prior (the one where I'm taking photos that document my NSCAD experience).
I spent the evening in the darkroom, along with four of my classmates: we all needed to bang out five prints for the critique on Friday afternoon.
Friday: The critique went fairly well for me. I still needed to reprint my five prints because they didn't have as good a range of values as they should have (B&W photos--both film and digital--should have a full range of values: from pure white to pure black).
Saturday: I got my Intro Photo homework done that afternoon. The current assignment is to shoot three rolls of thirty-six-exposure film or the equivalent in another kind of film (e.g., nine rolls of twelve-exposure 120 film). I shot the first roll that afternoon. We were to work briskly, but carefully--and no looking through the viewfinder! I had the first roll done in about fifteen minutes, which is amazing, considering that it can take me forever to finish off a roll.
I spent the rest of the day getting little things around my room done and reading the Framework for Sustainability (the link goes to the PDF download), which is the report that the board of governors submitted to the NS government--and which SUNSCAD opposes (for good reason: there's got to be a better way of saving money and bringing NSCAD back into the black than slowly killing the university).
Sunday: I spent yesterday working on my Beyond the Frame project and slaving over a letter to the Nova Scotia premier and minister of labour and advanced education, telling them what I, as a NSCAD student, think about some of the parts of the Framework. I'm going to tweak the letter a bit more before I send it.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
...and I thought Fredericton was awesome
Dear NBCCD and Freddy Beach: I'm sorry, but there's another school, and another city. I'm falling head-over-heels in love with them. It's not you, it's me. The city is so beautiful, liberal and open to different ideas. Pride flags aren't uncommon here (**happy dance**). There are lots of people with piercings and/or colourful hair--more than in F'ton. There are all sorts of characters, doing all sorts of awesome, quirky things.
I'm so sorry.
Annapurna
---
Okay, I'm not ditching NBCCD or F'ton, but I am falling in love with Halifax and NSCAD. And I'm not one bit sorry about it.
Saturday: Mom and I drove to Halifax, stopping at numerous Irvings along the way. Once at the residence, I met my roommate (a woman from China), and carted several boxes of stuff up to the third floor. By the end, Mom and I were exhausted.
Sunday: That morning, we walked around the city. Mom showed me where things were, and we walked to the Granville campus, where my classes will be this semester. When I saw the banners with "NSCAD University" written on them, I got really excited: I couldn't believe I was there, on the NSCAD campus. Mom took a photo of me with one of the lions at the entrance to the plaza outside the school and we went into the university as far as the foyer, and I peeked through the library door.
Monday: Mom left early that morning, waking me up to say good-bye before she left. When I woke up again, I had only a dim memory of her farewell.
I spent the day running errands at the university whose res I'm staying at and walking down to the Port campus. At Port, I looked at the scholarship students' show in the foyer, and then headed back to res.
Tuesday: My first time past the entrance at any of the campuses! That day was Orientation Day, which started bright and early with breakfast at eight-thirty at Port. And let's just say that the student union, SUNSCAD, knows how to feed the students: muffins and croissants and cinnamon buns, oh, my!
Breakfast was followed by welcome speeches from the acting president ("acting but not pretending"), Daniel O'Brian, Terry Bailey (admissions and enrolment services director--I emailed back-and-forth with him in April), SUNSCAD (who delivered half of their welcome in the form of a rap), and others. Terry said that this year's portfolios were the best he'd ever seen (which got a loud round of applause from everyone and a proud whoop from me). Daniel reassured the frosh in the audience that it's okay to be nervous, anxious, etc., as well as being excited about this new chapter in their lives. As someone who still bears the bruises and scars of NBCCD's FVA year, I agreed with him completely.
That was followed by lunch, and again the university proved that they know how to feed us students--even the vegetarians. Yay for vegetarian burritos!
And then the part I'd been waiting for all day: tours! Mine was at 11:45, and my group was lead around Port, and then across the boardwalk and up to Granville at what felt like a breakneck speed. I could barely keep track of all the twists and turns we made during the tour of Granville: remind me how we got to this part of campus? Granville truly is a labyrinth, just as SUNSCAD said in the orientation guide. It's the kind of place that I have to go through slowly if I'm to have the slimmest chance of figuring it out. Here's a good example of all the twists and turns one has to make in order to get from Point A to Point B at Granville:
After orientation was over, I had nothing better to do so I decided to explore the city, specifically Lower Water St. Let's just say that I regretted leaving my camera in my room that day... However, I enjoyed checking out all the shops, listening to the buskers--and seeing Theodore Tugboat (the TV show of the same name takes place in a harbour "modelled after" Halifax's harbour).
Wednesday: Table Day! And WHIMIS training. On Tuesday, I'd been getting the feeling that SUNSCAD tends to be rather activist and militant--more like a Quebec student union. So I asked about that--and I was right. Because none of the other provinces has a student population anywhere near as big as Quebec's, the student unions in those provinces don't have as much power when lobbying the government--but they can still kick ass while doing it. I picked up so many pins and info sheets that I wished that I'd brought a bag. I made do with shoving the loot in my purse.
By the time I headed home, it was raining hard. My pants got soaked within a few blocks, and I had an umbrella malfunction (the umbrella is still usable, FYI). I stopped in at a gallery to take a break from the rain and found out that I wasn't too far from a bus stop. So I went to the stop and waited for a bus that would be going by my place. And I waited, and waited, and waited... Finally, the right bus showed up and I went home.
Thursday: The first day of school! And what a first day it was. After a stop at Canada Post to send off my student loan, I got to NSCAD early so that I could find my way to my classroom. I admit that I both love and hate all the twists and turns and the "can't get there from here" layout of Granville: that campus has serious character (way more than Port, which is very modern and industrial-looking), but when you're trying to find your way to your first class, it's really easy to get lost. Eventually, I poked my head in a random door and asked where my classroom was. Turns out, I'd gone in the wrong entrance and I had to go out, around, in the main entrance, and go all the way to the top floor. Done. After that, I managed to get to the classroom with no issues.
My class that day was Photography Beyond the Frame. It's taught by Bob Bean, who's the studio head for the photo studio--and a NSCAD alumnus. He's very different from Peter, but I like the guy. And I like the class. For the first project (due in two weeks), he gave us a list of quotes about photography. We're to choose five that really get a reaction--positive or negative--out of us, and make five photos, each inspired by a quote.
Class was over by 4:30, a full hour before it was supposed to end, and because I had nothing better to do I decided to check out the NSCAD Art Supply store, which, unlike NBCCD's store, is open to the public, and I bought some things with the school's logo on them. After that, I went down to Lower Water St. and photographed all the things that I'd wanted to on Tuesday.
Friday: Back to basics: because I couldn't get credit for Introductory Photography, which is a 2000-level course and is like a combination of Film and Darkroom Techniques and Creativity in Photography (and as a result is a really good example of the differences between NBCCD and NSCAD), I have to take it. But although the first class was a bit boring, I know that sometimes it's good to go back to the basics of your medium, be it the violin, ballet, oil painting, pastels, etc. Plus, they cover things that either NBCCD glossed over, or that I managed to forget in two years.
Saturday: I spent about half the day trying to get myself back into the routine of doing homework, and then doing it. I shot most of the roll that I'm to shoot for Intro Photography, which is due on Tuesday and which I'll develop tomorrow. I also went over the handout of quotes that we were given for Photography Beyond the Frame. And after that, I spent forever trying to get laundry done (oh, the joys of learning how to work card-operated machines).
Sunday: Today, I plan to finish off that roll of film and come up with ideas for the Photography Beyond the frame assignment. And maybe call my parents.
---
What I did or didn't do this summer: about half of my to-do list didn't get done, and about half of that was because I simply wasn't able to do it. The most important thing on the "didn't get done list" was the Banff workshop: internal funding isn't available for the Performance Photography workshop, so that was out because it was too late to hunt around for external scholarships, grants, etc., in NB. And although I applied everywhere I could, I didn't get a summer job. But I did do the Sunbury Shores Guess Who? show again, and I started a photo project based on Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. And I wrote a lot. And I went to my (first-ever) graduation. And, of course, I went to a Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony concert--my last until after I finish at NSCAD.
I'm so sorry.
Annapurna
---
Okay, I'm not ditching NBCCD or F'ton, but I am falling in love with Halifax and NSCAD. And I'm not one bit sorry about it.
Saturday: Mom and I drove to Halifax, stopping at numerous Irvings along the way. Once at the residence, I met my roommate (a woman from China), and carted several boxes of stuff up to the third floor. By the end, Mom and I were exhausted.
Sunday: That morning, we walked around the city. Mom showed me where things were, and we walked to the Granville campus, where my classes will be this semester. When I saw the banners with "NSCAD University" written on them, I got really excited: I couldn't believe I was there, on the NSCAD campus. Mom took a photo of me with one of the lions at the entrance to the plaza outside the school and we went into the university as far as the foyer, and I peeked through the library door.
Monday: Mom left early that morning, waking me up to say good-bye before she left. When I woke up again, I had only a dim memory of her farewell.
I spent the day running errands at the university whose res I'm staying at and walking down to the Port campus. At Port, I looked at the scholarship students' show in the foyer, and then headed back to res.
Tuesday: My first time past the entrance at any of the campuses! That day was Orientation Day, which started bright and early with breakfast at eight-thirty at Port. And let's just say that the student union, SUNSCAD, knows how to feed the students: muffins and croissants and cinnamon buns, oh, my!
Breakfast was followed by welcome speeches from the acting president ("acting but not pretending"), Daniel O'Brian, Terry Bailey (admissions and enrolment services director--I emailed back-and-forth with him in April), SUNSCAD (who delivered half of their welcome in the form of a rap), and others. Terry said that this year's portfolios were the best he'd ever seen (which got a loud round of applause from everyone and a proud whoop from me). Daniel reassured the frosh in the audience that it's okay to be nervous, anxious, etc., as well as being excited about this new chapter in their lives. As someone who still bears the bruises and scars of NBCCD's FVA year, I agreed with him completely.
That was followed by lunch, and again the university proved that they know how to feed us students--even the vegetarians. Yay for vegetarian burritos!
And then the part I'd been waiting for all day: tours! Mine was at 11:45, and my group was lead around Port, and then across the boardwalk and up to Granville at what felt like a breakneck speed. I could barely keep track of all the twists and turns we made during the tour of Granville: remind me how we got to this part of campus? Granville truly is a labyrinth, just as SUNSCAD said in the orientation guide. It's the kind of place that I have to go through slowly if I'm to have the slimmest chance of figuring it out. Here's a good example of all the twists and turns one has to make in order to get from Point A to Point B at Granville:
After orientation was over, I had nothing better to do so I decided to explore the city, specifically Lower Water St. Let's just say that I regretted leaving my camera in my room that day... However, I enjoyed checking out all the shops, listening to the buskers--and seeing Theodore Tugboat (the TV show of the same name takes place in a harbour "modelled after" Halifax's harbour).
Wednesday: Table Day! And WHIMIS training. On Tuesday, I'd been getting the feeling that SUNSCAD tends to be rather activist and militant--more like a Quebec student union. So I asked about that--and I was right. Because none of the other provinces has a student population anywhere near as big as Quebec's, the student unions in those provinces don't have as much power when lobbying the government--but they can still kick ass while doing it. I picked up so many pins and info sheets that I wished that I'd brought a bag. I made do with shoving the loot in my purse.
By the time I headed home, it was raining hard. My pants got soaked within a few blocks, and I had an umbrella malfunction (the umbrella is still usable, FYI). I stopped in at a gallery to take a break from the rain and found out that I wasn't too far from a bus stop. So I went to the stop and waited for a bus that would be going by my place. And I waited, and waited, and waited... Finally, the right bus showed up and I went home.
Thursday: The first day of school! And what a first day it was. After a stop at Canada Post to send off my student loan, I got to NSCAD early so that I could find my way to my classroom. I admit that I both love and hate all the twists and turns and the "can't get there from here" layout of Granville: that campus has serious character (way more than Port, which is very modern and industrial-looking), but when you're trying to find your way to your first class, it's really easy to get lost. Eventually, I poked my head in a random door and asked where my classroom was. Turns out, I'd gone in the wrong entrance and I had to go out, around, in the main entrance, and go all the way to the top floor. Done. After that, I managed to get to the classroom with no issues.
My class that day was Photography Beyond the Frame. It's taught by Bob Bean, who's the studio head for the photo studio--and a NSCAD alumnus. He's very different from Peter, but I like the guy. And I like the class. For the first project (due in two weeks), he gave us a list of quotes about photography. We're to choose five that really get a reaction--positive or negative--out of us, and make five photos, each inspired by a quote.
Class was over by 4:30, a full hour before it was supposed to end, and because I had nothing better to do I decided to check out the NSCAD Art Supply store, which, unlike NBCCD's store, is open to the public, and I bought some things with the school's logo on them. After that, I went down to Lower Water St. and photographed all the things that I'd wanted to on Tuesday.
 |
| In the Granville Mall, where the NSCAD Art Supply store is located. |
 |
| This memorial is just past the wharf. |
 |
| I spotted several pride flags downtown, and I love that businesses fly them. |
 |
| St. Matthew's United Church--I couldn't help but notice the juxtaposition of the Bell building and the church. Two different parts of life side by side. |
 |
| All the mailboxes in Halifax are like this. I like the postal code "graffiti": it adds character. |
Saturday: I spent about half the day trying to get myself back into the routine of doing homework, and then doing it. I shot most of the roll that I'm to shoot for Intro Photography, which is due on Tuesday and which I'll develop tomorrow. I also went over the handout of quotes that we were given for Photography Beyond the Frame. And after that, I spent forever trying to get laundry done (oh, the joys of learning how to work card-operated machines).
Sunday: Today, I plan to finish off that roll of film and come up with ideas for the Photography Beyond the frame assignment. And maybe call my parents.
---
What I did or didn't do this summer: about half of my to-do list didn't get done, and about half of that was because I simply wasn't able to do it. The most important thing on the "didn't get done list" was the Banff workshop: internal funding isn't available for the Performance Photography workshop, so that was out because it was too late to hunt around for external scholarships, grants, etc., in NB. And although I applied everywhere I could, I didn't get a summer job. But I did do the Sunbury Shores Guess Who? show again, and I started a photo project based on Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. And I wrote a lot. And I went to my (first-ever) graduation. And, of course, I went to a Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony concert--my last until after I finish at NSCAD.
Monday, April 30, 2012
once a Photog, always a Photog
I'm home for the summer.
Monday: My final class at NBCCD. That day we all presented our final projects, but we didn't critique so much as we analyzed the finished work.
I put the finishing touches on the first card that I then handed out on Tuesday. I made one for each of the Photo Studio faculty, telling them about some of the things that I've learned over the two years (e.g., video is awesome), and thanking them for what they've taught me. I handed the cards out individually after each assessment.
Tuesday: For several months, I've wanted to take the audio from a video that I shot of the Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony's performance of Beethoven's violin concerto and make it into an mp3. iMovie doesn't allow you to separate audio and video, so I tried Final Cut, which worked after I tried a few different things. After making a few tweaks to the audio, I exported the resulting file as an mp3.
In the afternoon, we presented our finished videos.
Wednesday: A few days before, I had asked Karen about assessments, as she hadn't said whether or not she'd be doing them. She agreed to meet with me around 11 that morning. We talked about my writing, what I need to work on, and my experience of the course and what I learned from it.
That afternoon, I had an assessment with Drew. He gave me my mark sheet, and as I expected, I did well in both his courses. We talked about the marks, and about my plans for the summer and fall, and even had a look at the Banff Centre website.
Thursday: My final day at NBCCD--and Peter's birthday. Because Peter hadn't scheduled assessments, I was at the school around nine. I spent much of the morning just hanging out, but around eleven Karen enlisted my help, along with that of a few of my fellow Photogs, in preparing a surprise celebration for Peter.
While they were decorating the classroom, I had my assessment with the birthday guy. He critiqued my project, and turns out there are a few more kinks I have to work out. Thankfully, the current version of Final Cut Pro X is backwards-compatible (the original FCPX wasn't, and as a result video editors were screaming at Apple), because Tom has FCP 8.
Finally, Peter was allowed in the classroom (we had a close call during my assessment: he didn't know why the door was closed, went to open it, and I panicked and somehow managed to stop him from ruining the surprise). One of the first-years, Loana, took photos of the whole thing, and the smile on Peter's face is absolutely priceless. I'd brought pasta, which was very well received. Karen had hooked her computer up to the TV, and had a YouTube video of Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday (to JFK) on. Peter loved it.
I spent the rest of the afternoon putzing around, emptying my locker, getting most of the rest of my stuff out of my drawer, and saying good bye. I even paid a visit to Michael Maynard's office, as I didn't want to leave without saying good bye to the principal because, let's face it, the guy's pretty darn awesome. He asked me what I'm doing this summer, and I told him about applying to the workshop at Banff (he said I'd love it, and that he had spent some time at the Centre) and doing more photography locally and researching places in NB and Maine where I can get stuff printed. He also asked me a technical question relating to photography: how to scan slides. I told him about the Nikon negative/slide scanner that the photo studio has, and we went over to the studio (which shares a wall with Administration) and I showed him the scanner and told him a bit about using it. He then asked if he could give me a hug. I said yes. And then he went back to his office.
Because A. I didn't want to leave without saying good bye to Peter, and B. Peter had assessments, I waited a bit longer to say good bye to him. Eventually I did, and it was incredibly bittersweet for me. We talked about the differences between NSCAD and NBCCD (the faculty aren't as close to the students, for example, and you won't find them swearing as much as Peter does--to which I replied, "shoot!") and the stuff I have left to do (PACKING) among other things. He, too, gave me a hug--two, in fact--which I needed, and which made leaving a bit more bearable.
And then I was off, carting home the last of my stuff. I went out via the gallery entrance, taking one last look at the current show (Context/Texture). All the way home, I fought back the urge to cry, and when I finally got back to my room, I let loose.
After a massive case of procrastination (thanks, brand-new Pottermore account), I started packing my clothes, and I filled two duffle bags. Because it was Peter's birthday, and Peter likes music by Satie (as well as jazz), I put on my CD of Satie and listened, hummed and occasionally danced while I packed. When Gnossienne No. 1 came on, I had to stop because it made me miss the studio so much that I started crying again. You may remember that Peter played two pieces by Satie at his birthday party last year--and knocked my socks off in the process. Ever since, I have associated that piece, as well as Gymnopédie No. 1, with that party and with Peter.
I started writing this post that evening, as I wanted to write about the experience of my final day at NBCCD while that experience was still extremely fresh in my mind.
I considered myself a Photog until midnight that night (11:00 PM EDT). I didn't realize that I'd gone from Photog to former Photog until about five past. Even though I know that my life is just beginning at this point, changes like that always feel like a death: the old me dies, but a new me is born. In this case, "Annapurna, the NBCCD student" died, and "Annapurna, the NBCCD alumna and soon-to-be NSCAD student" was born.
I couldn't have asked for a better last day. The experience of leaving NBCCD was sad, yes, but in a way, it was incredibly beautiful.
Friday: I spent the hours before Mom arrived packing as much as I could, and when she arrived with more bags and boxes (yay!), I packed some more. Sometimes, I find that packing to go home takes forever and can be a bit stressful, so I was surprised when packing and loading the car went really smoothly.
Because Mom was going to do the farmers' market the next day, we had to unload the car--and then load it with stuff for the market.
Saturday: Market Day. I helped Mom set up, and then went to one of my favourite cafés in search of breakfast. I took my time, eating a blueberry scone and a cheese croissant, drinking a hazelnut latte (homecoming weekend = splurge) and reading a bit of Friday's Telegraph-Journal. I chatted with one of the owners, Angela, about my plans for the summer and fall, and people-watching.
I then did a bit of shopping, before heading back to the market. Once there, I made the rounds and bought a few treats before settling in at Mom's table.
The Met performed Die Walküre that afternoon, so I wanted to record the Ride of the Valkyries. I'd been meaning to since the '08 - '09 season, but somehow I never got around to it. I recorded most of the Ride, only missing a bit at the end, which isn't surprising because Wagner doesn't put any gaps between songs/arias, and each melody flows into the next.
Sunday: The craziness of Friday and Saturday finally caught up with me that day, and although I woke up and had coffee and brunch, I was extremely exhausted. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore, and I went back to bed.
After I got up, I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my parents, reading and cuddling cats.
Monday: Today, I'm finally starting the process of getting info on stuff that I need for NSCAD. I emailed the university about applying for a student loan, and now have that info. I also emailed the university where I hope to stay (I'm going the residence route again), as they asked me to fill out a form that as far as I know I don't need to fill out. I'm going to call NSCAD's registrar either today or tomorrow and talk with her about which courses I'll need to take at NSCAD, as the university takes a slightly different approach to art education (at NBCCD, darkroom stuff and creativity are dealt with in different courses, but at NSCAD they're lumped together), and I will need to pick up a few courses from previous years.
---
In the coming weeks and months, I'm going to:
The next time I write, it'll be from Halifax!
Monday: My final class at NBCCD. That day we all presented our final projects, but we didn't critique so much as we analyzed the finished work.
I put the finishing touches on the first card that I then handed out on Tuesday. I made one for each of the Photo Studio faculty, telling them about some of the things that I've learned over the two years (e.g., video is awesome), and thanking them for what they've taught me. I handed the cards out individually after each assessment.
Tuesday: For several months, I've wanted to take the audio from a video that I shot of the Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony's performance of Beethoven's violin concerto and make it into an mp3. iMovie doesn't allow you to separate audio and video, so I tried Final Cut, which worked after I tried a few different things. After making a few tweaks to the audio, I exported the resulting file as an mp3.
In the afternoon, we presented our finished videos.
Wednesday: A few days before, I had asked Karen about assessments, as she hadn't said whether or not she'd be doing them. She agreed to meet with me around 11 that morning. We talked about my writing, what I need to work on, and my experience of the course and what I learned from it.
That afternoon, I had an assessment with Drew. He gave me my mark sheet, and as I expected, I did well in both his courses. We talked about the marks, and about my plans for the summer and fall, and even had a look at the Banff Centre website.
Thursday: My final day at NBCCD--and Peter's birthday. Because Peter hadn't scheduled assessments, I was at the school around nine. I spent much of the morning just hanging out, but around eleven Karen enlisted my help, along with that of a few of my fellow Photogs, in preparing a surprise celebration for Peter.
While they were decorating the classroom, I had my assessment with the birthday guy. He critiqued my project, and turns out there are a few more kinks I have to work out. Thankfully, the current version of Final Cut Pro X is backwards-compatible (the original FCPX wasn't, and as a result video editors were screaming at Apple), because Tom has FCP 8.
Finally, Peter was allowed in the classroom (we had a close call during my assessment: he didn't know why the door was closed, went to open it, and I panicked and somehow managed to stop him from ruining the surprise). One of the first-years, Loana, took photos of the whole thing, and the smile on Peter's face is absolutely priceless. I'd brought pasta, which was very well received. Karen had hooked her computer up to the TV, and had a YouTube video of Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday (to JFK) on. Peter loved it.
I spent the rest of the afternoon putzing around, emptying my locker, getting most of the rest of my stuff out of my drawer, and saying good bye. I even paid a visit to Michael Maynard's office, as I didn't want to leave without saying good bye to the principal because, let's face it, the guy's pretty darn awesome. He asked me what I'm doing this summer, and I told him about applying to the workshop at Banff (he said I'd love it, and that he had spent some time at the Centre) and doing more photography locally and researching places in NB and Maine where I can get stuff printed. He also asked me a technical question relating to photography: how to scan slides. I told him about the Nikon negative/slide scanner that the photo studio has, and we went over to the studio (which shares a wall with Administration) and I showed him the scanner and told him a bit about using it. He then asked if he could give me a hug. I said yes. And then he went back to his office.
Because A. I didn't want to leave without saying good bye to Peter, and B. Peter had assessments, I waited a bit longer to say good bye to him. Eventually I did, and it was incredibly bittersweet for me. We talked about the differences between NSCAD and NBCCD (the faculty aren't as close to the students, for example, and you won't find them swearing as much as Peter does--to which I replied, "shoot!") and the stuff I have left to do (PACKING) among other things. He, too, gave me a hug--two, in fact--which I needed, and which made leaving a bit more bearable.
And then I was off, carting home the last of my stuff. I went out via the gallery entrance, taking one last look at the current show (Context/Texture). All the way home, I fought back the urge to cry, and when I finally got back to my room, I let loose.
After a massive case of procrastination (thanks, brand-new Pottermore account), I started packing my clothes, and I filled two duffle bags. Because it was Peter's birthday, and Peter likes music by Satie (as well as jazz), I put on my CD of Satie and listened, hummed and occasionally danced while I packed. When Gnossienne No. 1 came on, I had to stop because it made me miss the studio so much that I started crying again. You may remember that Peter played two pieces by Satie at his birthday party last year--and knocked my socks off in the process. Ever since, I have associated that piece, as well as Gymnopédie No. 1, with that party and with Peter.
I started writing this post that evening, as I wanted to write about the experience of my final day at NBCCD while that experience was still extremely fresh in my mind.
I considered myself a Photog until midnight that night (11:00 PM EDT). I didn't realize that I'd gone from Photog to former Photog until about five past. Even though I know that my life is just beginning at this point, changes like that always feel like a death: the old me dies, but a new me is born. In this case, "Annapurna, the NBCCD student" died, and "Annapurna, the NBCCD alumna and soon-to-be NSCAD student" was born.
I couldn't have asked for a better last day. The experience of leaving NBCCD was sad, yes, but in a way, it was incredibly beautiful.
Friday: I spent the hours before Mom arrived packing as much as I could, and when she arrived with more bags and boxes (yay!), I packed some more. Sometimes, I find that packing to go home takes forever and can be a bit stressful, so I was surprised when packing and loading the car went really smoothly.
Because Mom was going to do the farmers' market the next day, we had to unload the car--and then load it with stuff for the market.
Saturday: Market Day. I helped Mom set up, and then went to one of my favourite cafés in search of breakfast. I took my time, eating a blueberry scone and a cheese croissant, drinking a hazelnut latte (homecoming weekend = splurge) and reading a bit of Friday's Telegraph-Journal. I chatted with one of the owners, Angela, about my plans for the summer and fall, and people-watching.
I then did a bit of shopping, before heading back to the market. Once there, I made the rounds and bought a few treats before settling in at Mom's table.
The Met performed Die Walküre that afternoon, so I wanted to record the Ride of the Valkyries. I'd been meaning to since the '08 - '09 season, but somehow I never got around to it. I recorded most of the Ride, only missing a bit at the end, which isn't surprising because Wagner doesn't put any gaps between songs/arias, and each melody flows into the next.
Sunday: The craziness of Friday and Saturday finally caught up with me that day, and although I woke up and had coffee and brunch, I was extremely exhausted. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore, and I went back to bed.
After I got up, I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my parents, reading and cuddling cats.
Monday: Today, I'm finally starting the process of getting info on stuff that I need for NSCAD. I emailed the university about applying for a student loan, and now have that info. I also emailed the university where I hope to stay (I'm going the residence route again), as they asked me to fill out a form that as far as I know I don't need to fill out. I'm going to call NSCAD's registrar either today or tomorrow and talk with her about which courses I'll need to take at NSCAD, as the university takes a slightly different approach to art education (at NBCCD, darkroom stuff and creativity are dealt with in different courses, but at NSCAD they're lumped together), and I will need to pick up a few courses from previous years.
---
In the coming weeks and months, I'm going to:
- contact the dance photographers that Karen told me about
- tour NSCAD
- photograph in St. Stephen and St. Andrews
- make a series of videos that I've wanted to since '06
- get a job (hopefully)
- research places where I can print photos in Maine and New Brunswick
- write
- Hopefully spend a week in Banff
The next time I write, it'll be from Halifax!
Monday, February 6, 2012
happiness is going home
I went home for the weekend, and I couldn't have been happier--unless the Patriots had won the Super Bowl.
Monday: I submitted my ArtsNB scholarship application before class.
This past week, we started another assignment (we collected images last week), and spent most of the class working on it. For me, that meant making transfers. Let's just say that although transfer pens are easy to use, and produce great results, those things stink! **cough-cough**
Tuesday: Yay for 3D! In Photoshop, that is. Just when I start to wonder, "is there anything new and exciting that Drew can throw at us?," it turns out that there is! I've been curious about doing 3D in Photoshop for a few years, and now I got to actually try it out. Mind: blown.
As for Still to Motion, we were given our first "go out and shoot some video" assignment: fifteen to twenty clips, any length, and with good audio. Which means not using the built-in mic on the camera. Those little things are okay, but you really want to have good audio--so external mics it is!
That day, I got an email from NSCAD, saying that "the following items are still required to make your application complete." The "items" in question were transcripts. They didn't specify which ones, but as my post-secondary transcript was sent directly from NBCCD by the registrar about a week-and-a-half before the deadline, I knew that it was my lack of a high school transcript that was driving the university up the wall. So I emailed them, explaining the situation.
Wednesday: Field trip! Karen took us to Gallery Connexion, which is "Fredericton's only artist-run center." They show a lot of work that most other galleries won't show: "From its inception in 1984, Gallery Connexion has supported politically and socially engaged art through a range of programming initiatives such as exhibitions, performances, special projects, and workshops." The current show is Tokyo Hotel Story, which is a photography show that was shot in one of the "S&M 'love hotels'" in that city. The photos were all shot on film, and the photographer, Nathalie Daoust, manipulated them in the darkroom to change the colours.
Although I liked my research class right from the start, I'm really starting to love it. I'm getting to fill in what I see as gaps in my education, like model releases and alternatives to printing out my photos and sticking them in an Itoya portfolio (although those portfolios are gorgeous and a hard-copy portfolio is very professional, sometimes I don't want or need to present a physical version). And Drew's going to show us some of his research techniques this week!
Another thing that I love about that course is because everyone's working on something different, we get to share what we've learned not only with Drew, but with each other. And it's all practical stuff, like figuring out what the best printer for your purposes/budget is, the ins and outs of work for hire, etc.
Thursday: We finally got to see what everyone has been up to in the last few weeks. Although I didn't have anything to present, I still talked a bit about my project. I wanted my classmates to know what I'm up to. And I didn't want to feel left out, as everyone else was talking about their projects and showing some of the photos they shot for said projects.
As I was headed home that day, I asked Peter for an early appointment--he gave me the first one of the afternoon. As soon as I sat down, he nailed me for not backing up my stuff, as even the hardiest hard drive (I have a LaCie Rugged) can fail. I have to admit that I felt a bit like when I get in trouble with my parents (which doesn't happen very often): the height of uncomfortableness. Ouch. Starting this week, I'm going to get into the habit of tossing my RAW files and school assignments on my school computer account, as those are the most important files on my external hard drive. Eventually I'll get a second external and use it for Time Machine.
As usual, Mom met me in the studio, and we stopped at my place to grab my stuff before heading home.
We talked politics most of the way, specifically Bill C-11 (Copyright Act). Neither of us likes Harper, though Mom's views are centrist, and mine are fairly far-left. I also read a lot more politics news--which meant that she got a crash-course in Harper's latest bit of mischief.
Friday: And as usual, I wasn't fully unpacked and ready for the weekend until the day after I arrived home.
I called NSCAD late that morning: turns out, they waived the requirement for a high school transcript for me. **phew!** That makes my life a lot easier, as I don't have to fight NSCAD.
I spent the rest of the day working on homework, and then I skyped with Helen that evening (we talked about writing, as I considered doing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. I decided not to, as I'd have to start all the way back in first year again). Helen always tells me to say "hi" to my parents for her, but as I was home this weekend, Helen got to say "hi" to them for real.
Saturday: Tom and I planned to shoot my Still to Motion assignment that morning, but the wind was picking up, even at 7:30, so we postponed the shoot until Sunday. And I went back to bed.
When I got up again, I worked on my independent-study project for Peter's class, and I spent an hour or two trying to get the plug-ins that I downloaded a few days ago from Adobe's website to work. DRRRREEEEEEWWWWWW!! HELP!
As usual, I listened to the opera--and that opera deserves a paragraph or three of gushing.
This week, the Met performed Anna Bolena, which is the same opera that opened the current season, and that I saw in the movie theatre back in October. Those two other times that I listened to/watched it, I felt that Anna Netrebko was holding back, vocally. Her voice sounded like it kept skidding into a brick wall, and that she could've given her singing more power--that brick wall shouldn't have been there. Though to be fair, the title role of that opera is an extremely difficult one, as it calls for a lot of singing in the chest register, and that singing is very loud.
However, I didn't hear that in her voice on Saturday: she sang it exactly as I wished she had four or five months ago. Her voice sounded very free, like she was giving herself permission to finally go all-out.
During the opera, I had a few moments where I knew I was hearing something special. And I, too, wanted to shout, "brava!" (which some members of the audience did) a couple times. After the performance ended, I kept thinking, "wow!," and I couldn't help sharing my happiness with Mom and Tom. Though, as I listened to the opera on my earbuds, they missed out on a performance that I will probably look back on as one of the best that I've ever heard.
That day, I published a blog-post inspired by Mom's and my conversation on Thursday, which you can read here. Don't mess with me, Harper!
Sunday: I finally shot my Still to Motion assignment! It took all day, but hopefully it was worth it.
I also finished my Imagery homework, and worked on my homework for Peter's class, which I'd been working on all weekend.
As my family hasn't had satellite TV for a couple years, Tom and I caught Super Bowl updates online, using the Guardian's live-blog page. I wasn't thrilled about the Patriots losing (21 - 17). Oh, well--there's always next year...
Monday: I submitted my ArtsNB scholarship application before class.
This past week, we started another assignment (we collected images last week), and spent most of the class working on it. For me, that meant making transfers. Let's just say that although transfer pens are easy to use, and produce great results, those things stink! **cough-cough**
Tuesday: Yay for 3D! In Photoshop, that is. Just when I start to wonder, "is there anything new and exciting that Drew can throw at us?," it turns out that there is! I've been curious about doing 3D in Photoshop for a few years, and now I got to actually try it out. Mind: blown.
As for Still to Motion, we were given our first "go out and shoot some video" assignment: fifteen to twenty clips, any length, and with good audio. Which means not using the built-in mic on the camera. Those little things are okay, but you really want to have good audio--so external mics it is!
That day, I got an email from NSCAD, saying that "the following items are still required to make your application complete." The "items" in question were transcripts. They didn't specify which ones, but as my post-secondary transcript was sent directly from NBCCD by the registrar about a week-and-a-half before the deadline, I knew that it was my lack of a high school transcript that was driving the university up the wall. So I emailed them, explaining the situation.
Wednesday: Field trip! Karen took us to Gallery Connexion, which is "Fredericton's only artist-run center." They show a lot of work that most other galleries won't show: "From its inception in 1984, Gallery Connexion has supported politically and socially engaged art through a range of programming initiatives such as exhibitions, performances, special projects, and workshops." The current show is Tokyo Hotel Story, which is a photography show that was shot in one of the "S&M 'love hotels'" in that city. The photos were all shot on film, and the photographer, Nathalie Daoust, manipulated them in the darkroom to change the colours.
Although I liked my research class right from the start, I'm really starting to love it. I'm getting to fill in what I see as gaps in my education, like model releases and alternatives to printing out my photos and sticking them in an Itoya portfolio (although those portfolios are gorgeous and a hard-copy portfolio is very professional, sometimes I don't want or need to present a physical version). And Drew's going to show us some of his research techniques this week!
Another thing that I love about that course is because everyone's working on something different, we get to share what we've learned not only with Drew, but with each other. And it's all practical stuff, like figuring out what the best printer for your purposes/budget is, the ins and outs of work for hire, etc.
Thursday: We finally got to see what everyone has been up to in the last few weeks. Although I didn't have anything to present, I still talked a bit about my project. I wanted my classmates to know what I'm up to. And I didn't want to feel left out, as everyone else was talking about their projects and showing some of the photos they shot for said projects.
As I was headed home that day, I asked Peter for an early appointment--he gave me the first one of the afternoon. As soon as I sat down, he nailed me for not backing up my stuff, as even the hardiest hard drive (I have a LaCie Rugged) can fail. I have to admit that I felt a bit like when I get in trouble with my parents (which doesn't happen very often): the height of uncomfortableness. Ouch. Starting this week, I'm going to get into the habit of tossing my RAW files and school assignments on my school computer account, as those are the most important files on my external hard drive. Eventually I'll get a second external and use it for Time Machine.
As usual, Mom met me in the studio, and we stopped at my place to grab my stuff before heading home.
We talked politics most of the way, specifically Bill C-11 (Copyright Act). Neither of us likes Harper, though Mom's views are centrist, and mine are fairly far-left. I also read a lot more politics news--which meant that she got a crash-course in Harper's latest bit of mischief.
Friday: And as usual, I wasn't fully unpacked and ready for the weekend until the day after I arrived home.
I called NSCAD late that morning: turns out, they waived the requirement for a high school transcript for me. **phew!** That makes my life a lot easier, as I don't have to fight NSCAD.
I spent the rest of the day working on homework, and then I skyped with Helen that evening (we talked about writing, as I considered doing a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. I decided not to, as I'd have to start all the way back in first year again). Helen always tells me to say "hi" to my parents for her, but as I was home this weekend, Helen got to say "hi" to them for real.
Saturday: Tom and I planned to shoot my Still to Motion assignment that morning, but the wind was picking up, even at 7:30, so we postponed the shoot until Sunday. And I went back to bed.
When I got up again, I worked on my independent-study project for Peter's class, and I spent an hour or two trying to get the plug-ins that I downloaded a few days ago from Adobe's website to work. DRRRREEEEEEWWWWWW!! HELP!
As usual, I listened to the opera--and that opera deserves a paragraph or three of gushing.
This week, the Met performed Anna Bolena, which is the same opera that opened the current season, and that I saw in the movie theatre back in October. Those two other times that I listened to/watched it, I felt that Anna Netrebko was holding back, vocally. Her voice sounded like it kept skidding into a brick wall, and that she could've given her singing more power--that brick wall shouldn't have been there. Though to be fair, the title role of that opera is an extremely difficult one, as it calls for a lot of singing in the chest register, and that singing is very loud.
However, I didn't hear that in her voice on Saturday: she sang it exactly as I wished she had four or five months ago. Her voice sounded very free, like she was giving herself permission to finally go all-out.
During the opera, I had a few moments where I knew I was hearing something special. And I, too, wanted to shout, "brava!" (which some members of the audience did) a couple times. After the performance ended, I kept thinking, "wow!," and I couldn't help sharing my happiness with Mom and Tom. Though, as I listened to the opera on my earbuds, they missed out on a performance that I will probably look back on as one of the best that I've ever heard.
That day, I published a blog-post inspired by Mom's and my conversation on Thursday, which you can read here. Don't mess with me, Harper!
Sunday: I finally shot my Still to Motion assignment! It took all day, but hopefully it was worth it.
I also finished my Imagery homework, and worked on my homework for Peter's class, which I'd been working on all weekend.
As my family hasn't had satellite TV for a couple years, Tom and I caught Super Bowl updates online, using the Guardian's live-blog page. I wasn't thrilled about the Patriots losing (21 - 17). Oh, well--there's always next year...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)