Lots o Thoughts

Friday I attended a mini-symposium on the future of New Media at the University of Manitoba. Doubly relevant for me because of my job and because I've been looking at Media and New Media grad programs for myself. The keynote speaker was Prof. Joanna Berzowska from Concordia University. She has one of the coolest research jobs on the planet at the XS Labs/Hexagram Institute researching wearable circuitry. [links, pic] I'm surprised that there hasn't been more interest from the higher-end fashion designers (or geeks like me who want their shirts to double as recording devices), though I totally see the military applications.

I'm quite drawn to Berzowska's depiction of a Chercheur/Createur. A researcher/creator. Not either/or. Can create new media and study it, reflect on it. Don't have to be an academic locked up in an ivory tower. Can seek out new modes of understanding and expression and sharing knowledge. "Innovate via artistic enquiry" as she put it. To do that, I think I'm going to need at the least "Radical Interdiciplinarity" a phrase she cited as Simon Penny's. One theme that came up in the break-out groups as we discussed this crossing of disciplines, was a desire for a "common language" to communicate between the arts and sciences. I would argue that we actually need to become multilingual. Yes, we should be able to understand multiple disciplines, as there is beauty in science and math in art. But there are certain ideas that can only be expressed in their native discipline, therefore we must be willing to learn not just the items that intersect/overlap in the disciplines (interdisciplinary) but delve into the language of another discipline, become Radically Multidisciplinary.


Friday night was the first Poetry Potluck, a monthly event I've conceived for Winnipeg poets to gather to share their own poetry but equally importantly, poetry of others that we're enjoying. Great to be exposed to poets I've never heard of. This time out, Maurice Mierau introduced me to Les Murray, who I'll definitely have to read more of. About 9 of us showed up – not bad for a first time event.

Saturday night I helped out at the Winnipeg Film Group's latest night of shorts. I'd worked on 3 of the 7 films, but this was the first time I'd seen Kevin Nikkel's final version of Juliet at 2:15 (I was slate girl). Daniel Eskin wowed us with the 35-millimeter version of his film Salt Piller – inspiring camera work and story. (already recognized at the Monterey Film Festival) Jonathan Ball's Spoony B was inspired in a very different way – a retro-silent comedy, hand-processed I believe, as was Mike Reisacher's Porcelain Dreams, which was the first film I did continuity for.

Hopefully Coffee Maker will be part of the next night of shorts – probably in February. I took Alek "Spoony R" Rzeszowski's advice and chipped away 2 minutes from my last cut. Painful indeed, but much easier to do after putting it away for a couple of weeks, as I was able to be a little more objective about what was really needed to tell the story. And it's humblingly clear that the story can still easily come through in 2 less minutes! I've always been good at editing my written work down to requested size, but there's a difference between cutting words I wrote and images that took the effort of so many people to make possible.

Meeting with my sound guy, Saul Henteleff, on Wednesday, so gotta finalize picture. I feel ready to let it go, to let it be what it is at this point and move on to the next project. I'lll hear in the next couple of weeks about the two grants I applied for, so that will help determine What Next.