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.