Phew… I was hoping that would happen soon!
I awoke the other day with a vision of the installation that I’d like to produce for the thesis project. I knew that I wanted to have a space set up that would depict two learning environments: one, a traditional industrial school set up and the other, an ‘alternative’ setup. But following that, I was trapped. What would be the point of these settings? And, would these settings be designed strictly to be observed for their aesthetic differences and as an accompaniment to all the other media I want to produce on the issue? There were way too many ideas and media to produce!
Now, the installation is the place for all of it.
Within each space there will be media that mirrors the environment. So…in the alternative space:
Some hidden media (ex. a projection buried under the sand in a sandbox. Here, Jonathan Ingham, an RU grad, designed a projection device that would sense touch; once the projected image is touched the image alters…We spoke at the opening of the Digital Media Zone and I was thrilled at how he really understood my motivation and media ambitions with the issue of alternative education and expressed an interest in collaboration. Let’s see where that goes.) Randomly placed headphones with sounds to be identified by the listener and something that the audience can leave behind is another thought… too much to write here!
In the traditional setting, there could be an old NFB film about something a grade 9 class could be learning projected on the black/white board; open the desks and there is a old school book, a test, an old audio cassette player that has a recording of students describing what they wish they were doing in school or instead of school; teachers describing there opinions of the ‘system’ in a recording on the teacher’s desk…
Hm…perhaps as a little homage to NFB I should include something about their modern projects on the alternative side…
The ideas are flooding but what I feel good about is that the media does not have to be overwhelming to produce (I had too many ambitions that were freaking me out!) I can be as creative and as collaborative on this as I want and feel I have the time for…
Now to draw up a more definitive list of the media I will produce for this over the summer.
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