1. What is it that I am trying to investigate in my practice, i.e. what I am most passionate about?

 

Next in my practice is to figure out whether to stay in grad school or not, to realistically balance living and education, to make some tough decisions about whether or not this path will lead me towards a viable career. There is a large degree of being my own master that grad school demands that I find disorienting and uncomfortable; perhaps it is a thing I should have done years ago, because at this stage in the game the things I thought I was passionate about, I am not so sure I want to pursue any longer. Whether I continue with school or not, answering that question, is my passion now. I will worry about the rest later.

 

2. What are my strengths and weaknesses?

 

My strength is curisosity. My weakness is organization.

 

3. What are the core elements missing from my practice? How will I obtain them?

 

The core elements missing from my practice are first of all balance – the weight of familial and personal obligations tilting the scales so far out of whack that I can not ever get my bearings – and second, discipline. The manner in which I will go about obtaining them is to make some choices about what things I can fit onto a my plate. All things will be easier if I can limit what is that I am trying to tackle in this life. I am interested in doing a little less practical work, and reacquainting myself with some of the basics of being a student, immersing myself in theory and writing, next semester.

 

4. What was my preferred media before the course? After the course?

 

As a carpenter in live theatre, when I would tryt o describe to someone what it was that I did for a living, I would very frequently get the question, “oh, so you design the sets?” I would emphasize, that, no, no, I don’t do design. And I really don’t. I have enough experience as a build carpenter, as a shop foreman and an assistant Technical Director that I can, in a pinch, design functional scenery. I can certain generate some build drawings, although I’m not all that well versed in AutoCAD or VectorWorks, I can put some lines and dimensions down. What has never been anywhere in my head is a creative force of interpretive vision of how the scenery should be, of how I want it to look. I can read the same play and see what should be, how it should be, as a director, certainly as an actor, I have not only the tools and craft, but the instinctual sight of how a character should be portrayed, of the work that needs to doing to get that translation to the audience. But, my sense of visual design, of how a thing should look, well, I am learning more and more that I do not have that in me, and have a hard time excavating for it. Preferred media before this course was film, and after, I can tell you for sure that it is not Web Design. But also even for film, my sense of my ability for visual interpretation has increased my desire to find collaborators, people with whom I can depend upon for the visual storytelling and necessary elements of a project – I don’t enjoy them enough to want to develop them. I really enjoyed the story telling through sound, and would love to continue exploring that – just for kicks, I don’t want to be a sound engineer or anything.

 

5. What is the next topic, theme, or question I would like to investigate in my next project?

 

I’m really interested in the aesthetic interpretation as a thematic element of discourse among carious thinkers of the Frankfurt School. It is something I am interested in exploring, as a simple, boring, plain old paper, with not design elements involved except margins, sections headings and footnotes.

 

6. What is something I learned in this class that I could teach to someone else?

 

I could teach someone how to change levels in FinalCut, and create audio transitions between clips that do not apply to the video, something I had never been able to do before now.

7. What is something I will try to do next semester that I have never done before?

 

Well, this not only a little personal but is still entirely up in the air, but it will go one of two ways: either, I will find a way to remove myself from certain familial obligations that have been tugging at me so that I can focus on my studies, a first for me, a defiance of our family creed of “family first,” that will not go over well with them; or, I’ll do what I have never been able to do, which is fully embrace that creed, and take up the mantle of responsibility that I have never before fully embraced. On a scholastic level, I am interested in research and theory, which I have never done on a more than superficial level anyhow.

 

8. What is something I will try to do every day or every week that I did not do before this course?

 

Check my email.

 

9. What is a creative project that I would do with a budget of $150 million?

I would produce a series of collaborative art projects across some of the major regions of the United States themed around exploring the nature of philosophical difference in this country and how the difference translates in civic life. The money I would use for grants and venues for the participating artists.

 

1. How could I do the same project with a budget of $150?

 

Same project, but I’d write an create a website, facebook page, and all those kinds of things one can do for cost of time, and print some post cards inviting people to produce the event on their own. So the money would be spend on printing and mailing.