Everyday Media

An everyday blog about media by everyday blogger Louise Alice Wilson.

Month: July 2016

Statement of Goals

Having completed a degree before beginning my media degree taught me a few things:
Completing a degree is hard, it takes time, effort, money & hard work, but it does pay off in the end.
Time goes SUPER fast, before I knew it I was in my last year, then before I knew it I was on to my second degree.
If you don’t keep track of your learning and you engage in a lot of ‘cramming’ then it’s likely that you will forget a lot of what you learned.

These three gems of wisdom, combined with my slightly perfectionist nature led me to follow this mantra: If your going to do something, do it right THE FIRST TIME.

That is why, before starting my capturing creativity artist profile I have decided to write a statement of goals. This way I know what I want from this subject, can keep track of my own learning and will end this semester with a number of shiny new skills. I know it’s dorky, but I skateboard on weekends, which I think makes up for it.

The aforementioned ‘Statement of Goals’

By the end of this semester I want to:

  • Learn about the history of Australian art and the current influences shaping our artistic landscape.
  • Develop an understanding of known signs, references and meanings often found within art.
  • Develop an intricate understanding of ‘the art world’ as a financial and social system.
  • Investigate the notion of ‘creativity’ and develop a personal understanding of what ‘creativity’ means to me.
  • Discover novel and interesting ways to express specific notions via documentary film.
  • Understand how art galleries such as Gertrude St Contemporary are funded and function.
  • Develop a close relationship with my allocated artist from Gertrude St Contemporary.
  • Develop a greater range and more in depth understanding of camera techniques, skills and abilities.
  • Learn how to construct a compelling narrative within documentary films.
  • Increase my understanding and skill set regarding Adobe Premiere Pro.
  • Develop an intricate understanding of lighting setups and how optimise current lighting.
  • Become a better collaborator by helping others make the most of their abilities.
  • Learn how to ‘let go’ of projects and let spontaneity break predefined patterns.

This goals will most likely change over the course of the semester, but I think I’m off to a good start.

Catch you later,
Louise Alice Wilson.

Riding around on the 86

I’m not sure how, but it seems that I’m trapped on the 86 tram line. (Which sounds especially bad, post the release of The Bedroom Philosopher’s – Northcote (So Hungover).

Since moving to Thornbury everything I do generally relates to that perpendicular line of tram tracks leading into the city. I work along the 86 (Collingwood), I eat along the 86 (Bang Bang, Moors Head, Seoul Soul, Trippy Taco etc.), I drink along the 86 (Joe’s Shoe Store, The Grace Darling, The Gasometer, 303), I go to house parties along the 86 and I do just about everything else along there, I’m even writing this blog post along there.

Maybe it’s because I’m a poor uni student and I catch public transport everywhere? Maybe I’ve found some great places and feel no need to change? Maybe it’s because all my friends are along the 86 also? Maybe I’m lazy? or maybe the 86 is just great? Who knows. But long story cut short, this is why when I found out that for my capturing creativity studio I would be paired up with an artist from Gertrude St Contemporary I was like ‘oh shit, the 86 wins again’.

Gertrude St Contemporary is one of those places that I’ve seen literally THOUSANDS OF TIMES (that’s how much I catch the 86), but i’m ashamed to say I’ve never been inside. The 86 does that to you, you feel like you know a place because you’ve seen it so much, but you’ve never actually been there. So it’s safe to say that I’m pretty excited for my first visit.

Catch you later,
Louise Alice Wilson

What is creativity?

What is creativity?
How de we define creativity?
Where does creativity come from?
How philosophical is the notion of creativity?
Is everyone’s ‘creativity’ different?
Or is it an ill conceived, simplified term that is used to describe a very specific series of neuronal & bodily reactions to certain stimuli?
These are all the questions I’ve been thinking (and googling, and youtubing) since beginning this Capturing Creativity studio* and I have found some answers or maybe I’ve just found more questions:

Creativity is generally defined as the ability to make new things, or come up with new ideas, it’s an ability to think outside the box, to see unique solutions and employ them in inventive ways. In this sense creativity is not always utilised when being ‘creative’, as to be creative is simply defined as the ability to make or produce something. However I guess that depends on your definition of creative, how different, unique, special, once off, un-influenced does something have to be, to be classified as creative?

This is where creativity get’s tricky.

It’s all well and good to be like oh this is what creativity is, so it’s easy to investigate it, but what if you don’t define that as being creative, maybe that was just following a formula, a somewhat inspired formula, but maybe it is just a formula. Creativity to most people seems to be a random mix of once off genius combined with solid skill and hard work and for us humans these percentages are unique to us.

Maybe creativity to you is 90% unique idea, 5% skill and 5% hard work.
Maybe creativity to you is 40% unique idea, 50% skill and 10% hard work.
Maybe for you creativity doesn’t have to involve any hard work at all.

For me when it comes to creativity I’m most interested in that unique idea portion; where does that unique idea come from?
Is it simply random?
Is it a gift from the gods?
Is our unique idea just a product of a lot of subconscious effort, only made aware to us in the sense of a ‘random’ idea?
Have we been influenced by something, processed it subconsciously, then come up with a creative idea, only to be unaware of the original influence?
Or is creativity a combination of genetic preferences, individual tastes, things you viewed on tumblr that day added together with a little bit of ‘what your friends like’?

I’m not sure what creativity is, but this is a good thing.
That allows me to be open minded and to listen to what my artist is saying, without pushing the narrative in a specific direction. My artist can inform me of what they think creativity is, how they are influenced creatively and what they believe the route cause or process to be. Maybe i’ll agree with their version or maybe I won’t, but by the end of the studio myself, the artist and our class of film students will be a little bit closer to understanding our own definitions of creativity.

Catch you later,

Louise Alice Wilson

 

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