Portfolio

No. 35: IMITATE.

Don't be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. 

Being inspired by the works of emerging Australian writer/director Gracie Otto is almost enough to have me following in her footsteps and enrolling in Sydney Film School.





No. 37: BREAK IT, STRETCH IT, BEND IT, CRUSH IT, CRACK IT, FOLD IT.

No. 16: COLLABORATE.

The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

Charles and Ray Eames: one of the most inspirational examples of the power of collaboration I've come across. Their work has inspired and changed the world (which I didn't even realise until I watched their documentary last night). Their office seemed to be the creative hub of the entire world in its four decade heyday. One can only hope to emulate their success and the effect they've had on the creative world.



[image courtesy of lexestrex.tumblr.com]

No. 43: POWER TO THE PEOPLE.

Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we're not free.

This is easier said than done, Bruce. I feel like one of the few of my generation that feels tied down to commitments (but maybe I'm just not talking to enough people). I feel like the more I want control, the less I get it. The more I want to be free, the more commitments come bounding around the corner waiting to bind themselves to me. Relationships, jobs, university, friendships... Are these commitments impeding the progress of growth? Or is this what life is? I ask myself this question nearly everyday, and I still don't know the answer. Maybe one day when I'm older and wiser, I'll figure it out. But perhaps by then it will be too late...





No. 9: BEGIN ANYWHERE.

John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

I choose to begin here. Welcome to Swansea, Tasmania. Aka, Australia's answer to Scotland, or in my case, Twin Peaks. I promised myself that as soon as I acquired a good quality camera that shoots video, I'd get my butt back down there and make a film. Any film. The aforementioned camera will be in my possession as of the fourth of June. I guess I'd better make good on my promise.





No. 33: TAKE FIELD TRIPS.

The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic-simulated environment.

Could it be considered irony that we can record this world and our field trips within in it and continue to enjoy it through the use of technology and the Internet?





Bruce Mau's Manifesto no. 18: STAY UP LATE.

Strange things happen when you've gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.

Sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, with a camera and an earth-projecting device, something wonderful happens...

MIRANDA JULY EXERCISES.

I began the first exercise going through my DVD collection to find a film that had made me cry. While I cry a lot whilst engaged in film and television, I couldn't find anything that I owned that had had that affect on me. Until I came to Terminator 2: Judgement Day. This may seem like an odd choice, but I really believe that this film is so awesome and so well made that the cyborg did actually make me cry. I don't want to spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it, but suffice to say the scene is towards the end when something unfortunate, but inevitable must happen. I feel that it is not one of my best drawings by any stretch, but then I am not actually a very good illustrator at the best of times. The purpose was to capture that moment in my mind and put it to paper, which I did, however crudely. 

"I'll be back." But he won't! Oh, the emotion!

After completing this first exercise, I asked a classmate which scene from which movie made them cry and the answer I got back was 'Llorando' from David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. Luckily this is one of my all time favourites and in my collection. As I cannot speak Spanish and wanted to make the reenactment as interesting as I could, I decided to film myself and my boyfriend imitating the two female characters in the scene reacting to the Spanish singer, rather than imitate the singer herself.

Mulholland Drive, as it always should have been.

I feel the result is quite entertaining. Whilst it was probably supposed to be sad, and despite trying our best, it does just come across as kind of funny. This could partly be because we've got a bearded man playing the part of Naomi Watts. But perhaps this was also the point. Natascha Stellmach gave us preparatory reading which included a short video interview with English comedienne Dawn French (Thoughts on writing French and Saunders, 2012). In it she stressed the importance of play and fun during the creation of art. 'If it felt like doing homework and having to be serious', she says, if the creative team hadn't 'had some fun in the day', well then there was just 'no joy in it'. I drew on this a lot whilst undertaking these exercises, in particular with the filming of the reenactment and the casting of my bearded boyfriend as the young, blonde Hollywood ingenue 'Betty', and hopefully that fun echoes through to the viewer/consumer. Natascha Stellmach also guided our class in some exercises to unlock our inner creativity that we had perhaps lost the ability to access ourselves, and I believe Miranda July is trying to do the same thing. This is not an exercise that a creative person may think to undertake of their own volition, and so this has been a guide to unlock any hidden creativity that may have been just out of reach otherwise.