Has it been 4 months already? This term flew by, especially when we only meet once a month. Tried to wrap up my thoughts about this course experience in the reflections below. The experience has generally been positive and I’m a little sad that its ended so soon. My attempt at parsing the thoughts in my head:

Short summary:

I had expected the experience to be somewhat like a co-op or internship where I would be researching into virtual reality and learning more about 3D and immersive technology. Instead, I think I’ve gained more of a mentor, and applied other theories and concepts of visual cognition than I thought. Less on Virtual Reality, but still along the lines of immersive technology and how it plays a part in an artwork. Our meetings were full of tea, flowy conversations, martial art movies, and the atmosphere at the The Drive (the studio) . My understanding of art-making process hopefully has developed further, the idea of the artist’s studio, the role of the artists, and generally getting one step further into understanding and bridging what my intentions are in art practice and where I am in the art community.

What I’ve accomplished

In terms of what can be ‘seen’:

• Video-cuts of parallax tracking shots from 4 full length movies
• Research on the availability of 3D scanning in Vancouver
• Research on the pricing and availability of Lenticular printing

As for those ‘unseen’:

• participated in more events and activities
• Developed more video editing skills, file conversions, knowledge about cross-editing in different platforms
• Getting back into the flow of art-making, since it’s been somewhat on pause since I’ve started working co-op in January.
• Speaking up a little more in discussions, both in-class and in the partnership

What I’ve reflected on

A lot of thoughts went through my mind throughout the course, some I didn’t quite manage to catch in my head space, but the most prominent reflections for me are on the process of art making. To me this includes making within the unknown and uncertainty, and having a planned vs organic process,. I think that generally I am more of a logical-driven person, I often feel the need to plan and find certainty before I start on a project or decision. When I first started drawing I suppose, it was always a space of relief because I didn’t feel the need for certainty. But when I started pursuing art making from a more critical perspective, both these habits clashed. I’ve learnt more ‘ways’ to deal with this, both from the in-class discussions, readings, and watching how Howie work. Having seen it in actual practice I think, really validated how I felt. Although on the other hand, having to validate my thoughts through someone else’s practice seemed like a ‘wrong’ way of affirming to me. I won’t say that I’ve reconciled them completely now, but I’ve find a space where I could negotiate them rather than feeling overwhelmed.

What I think I need to work on

I am stubborn, when it comes to facing uncertainty, I realize. I usually consider myself an open-minded person in that I am open to understanding new ideas, even if I don’t agree with them. But, I am really stubborn when it comes to facing uncertainty, even though I know that uncertainty will always be present, even though I’ve tried to normalize uncertainty. This shows in my habits, I tend to over-think and brainstorm in the beginning stages, but the project ‘dies’ off because it never really took conception. I need to slowly, consistently, move the conception from my thoughts into something more tangible, and then carry out the project there.

What will happen next?

Still going digital, I think that I’m still going towards this direction. Seeing as how digitization is likely not going away anytime soon, it will still be relevant, and hence will need more thinking and consideration, about its use, the normalization of technology, what it would mean for the future. I will continue working with Howie still after this course ends, not sure for how long, but at least for another term.