Artist of this week: ROBIN RHODE

robin rhode was born 1976 in cape town and grew up in the south african johannesburg – a city with the highest crime rate in the world. already in 1997 rhode began to work artistically – his source of inspiration and the arena for his art was, and still is today, the street. whether a wall in johannesburg or a pavement in berlin – rhode temporarily occupies surfaces found in public spaces, draws objects with chalk on these and then interacts with the drawings: he draws a bicycle on the floor and tries to push it; he draws a car on a wall and tries to break into it with a crowbar. these unique connections between drawing and performance are characteristic for robin rhode’s art: the imaginary drawn space becomes reality because the artist treats it like reality. a central theme in his art is thereby the common human trait of wishful thinking, a desire for something; in his performance ‘the score’ it is a live appearance of a band: rhode draws trumpet, bass and drum kit on a wall and then ‘plays’ – along to appropriate melodies and sounds that run in the background – on these instruments. through his interaction with the merely imagined and drawn, rhode creates a whole new, artistic reality, which is its own fulfilment: ‘sometimes if you have nothing, you actually have everything.’ (robin rhode)

while rhode’s early works only play with the tangibility of objects, this is redeemed in his sculptural works; they have reached the physical condition of an object. however, rhode only allowed for a limited lifespan: in his work ‘soap and water’ (2007), for example, next to a bicycle made from pastel green soap he places a tin bucket full of water – if you clean the bike it will dissolve into soapy water…

Paul Rodriquez's interesting AD

On teaching and life

Magic and Problems when writing as a first-person narrator

First person is the most difficult form because the writer is locked inside the head of the narrator and can't get out. He can't say "meanwhile, back at the ranch" as a transition to another subject because he is imprisoned forever inside the narrator. But so is the reader! And that is the strength of the first-person narrator. The reader does not see that the governess is the villainous because what the governess sees is all the reader ever sees.

The truth knocks on the door and you say "Go away, I'm looking for the truth" and it goes away. Puzzling

The SYSTEM
to speak of certain government ad establishment institution as "the system" is to speak correctly. They are sustained by structural relationships as they have lost all other meanings and purpose. People arrive at a factory and perform a totally meaningless task from eight to five without question because the structure demands that it be that way. There's no villian, no "mean guys" who wants them to live meaningless lives, its just that the structure, the system demands it and no one is willing to take on the formidable task of changing the structure just because it is meaningless. But to tear down a factor or to revolt against a government or to avoid repair of a motorcycle because it is a system is to attack effects rather than the causes; and as long as the attack is upon effects only, no change is possible. The true system, the real system, is our present construction of systematic thought itself, rationality itself, and if a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced is left standing, then the rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government , but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those pattern will repeat themselves in the succeeding government. There's so much talk about the system. And so little understanding.

My Teaching college
At a teaching college you teach and you teach and you teach with no time for research, no time for contemplation, no time for participation in outside affairs. Just teach and teach and teach until your mind grows dull and your creativity vanishes and you become an automation saying the same dull things over and over to endless waves of innocent students who cannot understand why you are so dull, lose respect and fan this disrespect out into the community. The reason you teach and you teach and you teach is that this is a very clever way of running a college on the cheap while giving a false appearance of genuine education.

Why dogmas are in doubt?
You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know its going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.

Schools teach you to imitate If you don't imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade. Here, in college, it was more sophisticated,of course; you were supposed to imitate the teacher in such a way as to convince the teacher you were not imitating, but taking the essence of the instruction and going ahead with it on your own. That got you A's. Originally on the other hand could get you anything - from A to F. The whole grading system cautioned against it.

The student's biggest problem was a slave mentality which had been built into him by years of carrot-and-whip grading, a mule mentality which said, "If you don't whip me, I won't work." He didn't get whipped. He didn't work. And the cart of civilisation, which he supposedly was being trained to pull, was just going to have to creak along a little slower without him.

Self-glorification
Kids at camp get much more enthusiastic and cooperative when they had ego goals to fulfill. I'm sure, but ultimately that kind of motivation is destructive. Any effort that was self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster. Now we're paying the price. when you try to climb a mountain to prove how big you are, you almost never make it. And even if you do its hollow victory. In order to sustain the victory you have to prove yourself again and again in some other way, and again and again, driven forever to fill a false image, hunted by the fear that the image is not true and someone will find out. That's never the way.

[random bites inspired by ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by robert M. pirsig]

{ If you are into design waiting to transit to fashion design or inspired by drawing live sketches etc., try fashion lessons by experts }

Introduction to Film Making

If you are a DIY (Do it yourself) type, this is the place for you. You will not stop at anything, you will shoot when you feel low, you will open up the lens cap when you are high, or when you feel nothing at all.

This is an exciting time to explore digital filmmaking. The same camera that director Danny Boyle used for his 2002 movie, 28 days later, is available for just a few thousand dollars ( he used Canon XL1s for the film, manned by Anthony Don Mantle, who may be the best cinematographer in the business). A single miniDV tape, our cheap “film stock” which requires none of the expensive processing film entails. Editing software and necessary computer for both reasonable priced as well, and the software is intuitive and easy to learn.

EQUIPMENT LIST

- A CAMERA
- A TRIPOD
- A COMPUTER WHICH RUNS AN EDITING APPLICATION
- A DECENT MICROPHONE AND HEADPHONE ARE ALSO HELPFUL

CAMERA
When buying a camera make sure that whatever camera you buy has a FireWire Port. Known as iLINK on Sony Models and IEEE 1394 generically, Firewire allows you to transfer footage from your miniDV tape in the camera directly to the computer’s hard drive.

Digital Camera falls into two primary categories: one and three-chip. One-chip cameras are smaller, consumer-oriented products that use a single CCD (Charge Coupled Device) chip to process all the color information received by the lens. Three-chip cameras dedicate a different CCD chip to each primary color: red, green and blue. Either type of camera is fine, but three chip cameras offer higher quality.

Learning to use your camera manual controls is vital to really getting the most out of your shoot.

Audio levels
Professional cameras offer manual control of the microphone’s audio levels, which are the equivalent of exposure for sound. Essentially, the camera can’t handle the same range of volume as the human ear. So, in conjunction with audio level meters, the camera must be set to pick up quiet sound (in which case loud sounds will distort) or loud sounds (in which case quiet sound will barely be recorded).

MICROPHONES
Having a good mics can really elevate a project. A shotgun mic is the perfect choice; you can use it in almost every shoot. It is a unidirectional mic that can be mounted on the camera or on a boom. Most people have doubts if the built-in camera mic is useful. As a rule, this is your last resort for a couple of reasons. First, built-in mics are generally low quality, omni directional mics, picking up nearly as much sound from behind the camera as in front of it. Moreover, since mics only work well when they’re in close proximity to a subject, you can’t position your camera more than a few feet from your subject when using a built-in mic.

EXTERNAL FIREWIRE DRIVE
Hard Drive prices have dropped considerably over the years, to the point of making them almost disposable. In fact, it is prudent to budget a drive in your every project you take on, and when the project wraps stash the drive on a shelf and hope to never have to use it again. But you know the project is on it and ready to access, should a client call requesting a quick change or update. When shopping for drive, keep in mind the basic formula: 15 gigs per hour of DV footage. You should also look for drives rated to spin at 7200 RPM and have a data transfer rate of about 7 to 8 MB per second.

What follows from here will be primer going into details on the production process and post-production process.{ ideaminefield.blogspot.com } will be replete with video tutorials on working with Video Editing suites and expert interview on Video production process. It will be complete resource for a new media artist. From Designing to Filmmaking, a one stop point for creative exposure through your lens of ideas. I am collaborating with {fashionlessons.net} to bind both the medium together.