Tangibility
So I met with my professor today, to embark officially on my research project this term. Phase one? Determine my exact focus, and find my specific audience. We are aiming for publication with this, so that means determining many factors: what is the current 'dialogue' associated with this subject? Which terms are people using to discuss it? What are the arguments or debates being put out there?
The subject is the appropriation of found footage. Still very vague indeed.
My professor is a very smart woman who reads people well. She knows my fascination with 'old things;' last semester, Chris and I gave a fun presentation on the use of the archive as a present-day voice, and even though we created our video digitally, I had talked to her about the cameraless filmmaking we had done in another class. There's something satisfying about film, because you can hold it, and smell it, and feel its shape. When you begin to scratch it up, dye it, add collages and manipulate it, you grow attached to what becomes presented in flicker on the screen.
So naturally, she suggested I put down the internet searches, and camp out in the journal stacks at a library. "Walk through the aisle, look them all over, grab the ones that may be relevent, or even ones that just look interesting. Immerse yourself in the actual journals themselves. Think about their tangibility and you may be able to absorb them in a very different way than you are online."
She's right! Anyone that knows me knows how I love things like old books and magazines. Because of how they feel, and smell, and the wear and tear they show from the explorations of others on their pages. So, this is my first mission--a pretty basic one, but perhaps the most important.
I seem to be an analogue junky. That's certainly one way of putting it.
On a sidenote, I saw my other professor that I had some sort of intellectual crush on. "I know that girl!" he exclaimed with a smile as he walked into the office where we were meeting. "Well, woman, actually." This admittedly made me laugh.
The subject is the appropriation of found footage. Still very vague indeed.
My professor is a very smart woman who reads people well. She knows my fascination with 'old things;' last semester, Chris and I gave a fun presentation on the use of the archive as a present-day voice, and even though we created our video digitally, I had talked to her about the cameraless filmmaking we had done in another class. There's something satisfying about film, because you can hold it, and smell it, and feel its shape. When you begin to scratch it up, dye it, add collages and manipulate it, you grow attached to what becomes presented in flicker on the screen.
So naturally, she suggested I put down the internet searches, and camp out in the journal stacks at a library. "Walk through the aisle, look them all over, grab the ones that may be relevent, or even ones that just look interesting. Immerse yourself in the actual journals themselves. Think about their tangibility and you may be able to absorb them in a very different way than you are online."
She's right! Anyone that knows me knows how I love things like old books and magazines. Because of how they feel, and smell, and the wear and tear they show from the explorations of others on their pages. So, this is my first mission--a pretty basic one, but perhaps the most important.
I seem to be an analogue junky. That's certainly one way of putting it.
On a sidenote, I saw my other professor that I had some sort of intellectual crush on. "I know that girl!" he exclaimed with a smile as he walked into the office where we were meeting. "Well, woman, actually." This admittedly made me laugh.