This week, we met again on Thursday morning/at noon. Our discussion followed a structure similar to last week’s, mainly focusing on our experiences with traveling and how we think about the concept of belonging. We discussed where we are from, what memories do these places hold and how they compare to where we study. We touched on the idea that both Brno and Chicago are cities with strong identities.
We all shared stories about the places where we felt like home even though it was only for a short period of time. Especially memorable was Stevie’s short stay in New Zealand, Auckland. Although we focused mainly on the good sides, both Stevie and Peter mentioned a few places that made them partially disappointed, mainly by not being able to connect with people. We all eventually agreed that the feeling of “belonging somewhere” is very closely tied to the people you talk with and the community you create or are part of and that it's important to have a home base to return to.
Then we briefly touched on the topic of geography. We compared the sizes of European countries and American states. Some information like the fact that you can fit Germany, Italy, France and UK all in the state of Texas, was for me and I believe for the rest as well quite eye opening.
In the last part of our conversation we finally focused on the actual project. What would be our individual roles, what each of us wants to focus on and we also discussed the overall look of the film.
Outside of our group discussion, we also researched inspiration as we began working on our shot-list. While the audio in our film will be guided by our spoken dialogue, the visuals will be more subjective in their message. Recalling a film from Professor Yin’s Experimental Filmmaking I class, Jeshi ‘3210’ is an example of how we can shoot still photographs in real world settings. Other inspiration has come from an Artforum article (linked below), showcasing how photographers have documented photographs within photographs as a means of contrast and calling attention to the very idea of documentation. As we continue researching visual inspiration for the film, we will also keep in mind Blunt and Dowling’s chapter on representing home. Their discussion of the various ways in which home can be archived points to additional items we can film, beyond just photographs, that capture the same sense of belonging for us.
Artforum Article: https://www.artforum.com/features/photos-within-photographs-209544/
This week, the five of us nailed down our concept for our project. We want to explore the ways that architecture and urban planning/design imply who is and is not welcome in a space – even if that space is a completely public one. Benches that you can’t comfortably stay on, indoor bus stops that are only open certain hours, ramps that are too steep, all of these details contribute to messaging about who belongs where. Inaccessibility and anti-homeless ideology are global problems in urban planning, and we want to explore that in our project. We met up to talk about how we want the project to look and sound, and since this is an experimental project, we want to delve into smaller visual details. We can use archival sound to highlight the dissonance between an object or building’s intended purpose vs. the new purpose it is given by being made inaccessible to certain groups of people. Since footage will need to be captured in both Chicago and Brno, we want to play with how we can mix thos...
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