HEY MAN CHECK ME OUT

Tea for the Tillerman From way back.

This is not a Tom Petty cover.

But, last weekend, whilst on an island in a lake in New Hampshire, we were listening to Satellite radio, specifically, for some reason, to a show on which Tom Petty plays deep cuts.

He played the Rolling Stones’ 1964 version of The Drifters “Under the Boardwalk”, which I hadn’t heard before. I remarked that it sounded like the Stones, to which everyone disagreed that it was them. And I had to listen to “I can see why you would think that”s and so forth. Then Petty came on and confirmed my suspicions. So, here it is. (Petty)

Under the Boardwalk

“James” “Jane” by Camera Obscura.

This tune always reminded me of this scene from Twin Peaks:

Maybe now it’s this?:

The….erm…..second addition to the “Song A Week” series…

Some Things Last A Long Time by Daniel Johnston

DEADBEAT ROUGH CUT:

Do it.

Get it while it’s hot, in .pdf form: here.

And so I’ve decided to record a song once a week, rather than once a day. Once a day was daunting and I found myself behind almost immediately. So I think I’m going to try once a week…hopefully the quality will be higher and the tunes better.

The first entry:

Somethin’ Hot (Afghan Whigs)

This was recorded live in 1 and 1/2 takes…I originally wanted to do all of these live, but I think it might be more interesting to do some minimal overdubbing/plan a little session around each one.

These will be found in the ‘Pages’ section in the sidebar from now on, under the “Song a Week” link.

In thinking about possible projects I realized I didn’t know if the assignment was to think of five possible, say, thesis-related projects, or five projects in general that I might find interesting, worthwhile, worth pursuing IN MY LIFE. So obviously I chose the latter. And they are….

COHEN COMMANDER FIELD
I had the idea of recording an EP of Leonard Cohen covers. An EP meaning about 5 or 6 songs. I could do this on my own with the recording setup I used to record You Get Older You Start to Forget Things, which is basically using my 4-track as a preamp, then sending it into GarageBand to minimally edit. Some possible song choices: “The Letters”, “In My Secret Life”…maybe “Field Commander Cohen” reworked to be the title track.

INFINITE JEST ADAPTATION
The David Foster Wallace neo-classic reworked into a 50-episode cable series, to be broadcast on HBO, Showtime, or AMC. Budget: $50,000,000 (for the initial plans). Obviously the most difficult and absurd entry on this list, but important to keep track of, in that things and ideas, regardless of how improbably they might be realized, should be considered. On a somewhat related note, season 2 of Breaking Bad got into some of the territory that Infinite Jest delves, and the effect that the material had was similar. I don’t think I can view drug content the same way ever again.

TWIN PEAKS INSTALLATION
Another pipe dream, really. But I can’t help thinking that this needs to happen in the MassArt gymnasium. I like the idea of using live actors and projection…basically making it sort of like a haunted house. It would have to be unsettling. And make use of a lot of strobe lights. I still have to finish watching Season Two for the second time…I’m dreading the nadir before the show finishes with a great (if beguiling) flourish. Also: I know that I mention Twin Peaks a lot and should maybe find some new things to mention.

MUSIC VIDEO FOR IAN HUGHES
A friend of mine asked me to shoot another music video for him. We previously worked together on the “Fear the police” video, which was shot in 2001. I continue to be drawn to filming stuff, which might have to do with the fact that I just bought a video camera. Also, for a long time I avoided having enthusiasm about film and video, mainly because people who outwardly express enthusiasm for these things are so often insufferable. But I’m excited to shoot some stuff.

DAILY AFFIRMATION
As for the “do something every day” project, I was thinking that it would be cool to record one song per day. The rules: I would have to record it live, with no overdubs, and it would have to be a different song every day. Covers are certainly allowed. This would force me to play music every day and learn a lot of new songs. And I would build up a database of music very quickly. The songs could be posted here for download daily or batched up weekly or both.

SOME KIND OF COLLABORATION WITH SWEST
As much as grad school has been great to do a ton of work and pursue different projects that I normally wouldn’t pursue, it’s left me with basically no time to work on stuff with my wife, who currently works as an architect but is a very talented designer in her own right. She’s also teaching a class this semester, which makes our time together lessened even more. But I’m looking forward to the summer, so we can collaborate on some mutual interests, which, when approached in a very straightforward/visual way would include graphic design, installation, book design, and film. We’d like to have our own design firm at some point. Eventually my wife will take over and I’ll write novels.

This is taken from the Design for Motion and Sound wiki. But I wrote it so yeah.

Mid-Semester (or so) Reflections

by Christopher Field

And so we find ourselves at the halfway point in the semester, if not a little bit past it. The use of the collective “we” seems appropriate when talking about Design for Motion and Sound, the first half of the semester having been spent working in groups. At the start of the semester I was skeptical of group work. I had what could probably be considered a “poor experience” in undergrad working in a group, in what was in my mind The Worst Class Ever (aka International Studies, which I had to take due to liberal liberal (sic) arts general requirements) the result of this group work being me being called into the Instructor’s office and having to endure something that was halfway between an intervention and a flat-out tattle-tale-ing sesh, only I had done nothing wrong but had no recourse but to sit there and listen to three just not very smart girls inexplicably make stuff up about what I hadn’t done. It remains one of the many low-lights of my college experience.

But so anyway I was hesitant to get back into academic group work after something like a nine year abstention.

The best thing about group work is when you’re on the same page as everyone in your group and thus the group is able to function as something that is greater than the sum of its parts. It makes the frustrating bits of group work (the coordination of meetings, the anxiety over meetings, the meetings) more tolerable. When our group was finally able to get on the same wavelength and function as a collective, it was entirely worthwhile. And the critiques went a lot faster.

Some students (I’m not naming names) in the class have expressed a desire to continue to work on the DIC (I don’t have to explain what those letters stand for) project and to possibly make their conceptual prototypes into, well, functional things. I understand where they’re coming from on some level; having things built would be better than not having things built. It is better to exist than to not exist, thus God exists, etc. But I have next to zero interest in building the NoirScape 4REAL. I’m just ready to work on something new.

This raises an interesting question about the work in our program in general; is it better to have work that actually functions, but is conceptually limited, or to have work that is conceptually advanced but limited in functionality? Obviously one would say they would ideally like something that is conceptually advanced AND functional, but that’s not particularly feasible, for a few reasons. At this point (second semester of four), none of the students in my class have programming skills advanced enough to rapidly prototype projects fast enough to have them done within the time frame of the assignment. So we sort of end up developing them conceptually and then people kind of complain about them not being functional. It’s a hard thing to reconcile. One could continue to work on projects on their own personal non-DMI time, but that cuts into time that could be spent doing things like watching season two of Breaking Bad on DVD.

Here’s something I did for Camera, Light and Motion. Featuring MSSRS TJ Miller and D. Leo White.

The Conversation from Christopher Field on Vimeo.

When I was about done compiling my presentation for mid-semester reviews, I thought it would be a good idea to have a slide that sort of pointed toward “The Future”, IE Thesis, etc. Sort of to say “Here’s where I think this shit’s going…”. So the idea I’ve had is that a lot of my work this semester has been about translation of media. And it’s been interesting, if challenging, to work on this concept. Anyway, I have this idea of creating come kind of “all encompassing” media form in which one experiences different media forms simultaneously…or at least the best bits of each form. In trying to sum this up, I wrote

THE POSSIBILITY OF ADAPTING WORK FROM OTHER MEDIA INTO THE REALM OF DYNAMISM.

Now, I was going to say “The realm of Dynamic Media”, but of course that term is played out, not as bad as “New Media” but getting there, so “Dynamism” popped into my head. Seemed like a word I’d heard before. Checked it in the dictionary:

dynamism |ˈdīnəˌmizəm|

noun

1 the quality of being characterized by vigorous activity and progress : the dynamism and strength of the economy.• the quality of being dynamic and positive in attitude : he was known for his dynamism and strong views.

2 chiefly historical Philosophy the theory that phenomena of matter or mind are due to the action of forces rather than to motion or matter.

Seemed kind of cool and not totally inappropriate. And so of course Jan asks me about it during my critique…”You mentioned Dynamism….of course this word has a history with the Futurists and so forth…what did you mean by that?”

Shit.

Thoughts like maybe I should have taken that Art History class that I dropped out of after one day…but no the hell with it the guy teaching it had a ponytail and was showing slides of Roman arches no way they would have gotten to the Futurists, etc. I stand by the decision.

But anyway I was kind of being a wise-ass by including Dynamism rather than some of the DMI buzzwords and got called on it. But, in researching the term further, I think it might not be totally inappropriate in describing what I’m interested in pursuing.

My wife just finished Infinite Jest and ended up being about as profoundly affected by it as I was. The book has a distinctly all-encompassing-ness to it that I have yet to experience by any other work/form of media. So, why does it have this effect and is it possible to achieve the same effect via other media forms? I mean, a filmed version would invariably suck unless it was directed by me. Or Paul Thomas Anderson. And it would have to span like five seasons of one-hour HBO format. But I still don’t think it would come close to that feeling of experiencing the book. Possibly this is one of the reasons that short stories or novellas make for better filmic adaptations than novels.

1. Why do I enjoy writing?

2. Why do I enjoy playing/creating music?

3. Why do I enjoy going to art museums?

4. Why do I enjoy installations?

5. Why do I enjoy making/watching films?

6. Why am I fascinated by beer/scotch packaging?

7. Why do I enjoy traveling?

8. Do I actually enjoy any of these things?

9. Why is the unknown more interesting?

10. Why do I dislike screen-based design right now?

11. If I could pursue one media form creatively, which would it be?

12. If I had to describe the kind of work I’m interested in pursuing, specifically, how would I describe it?

13. What is the purest example of good design you (I?) can think of?

14. What is it about some group collaboration that I find tedious?

15. What happened to the mid-90s virtual reality craze that culminated in such absurd films as The Lawnmower Man?

16. How important is it to actually create something that works vs. having an idea that is beautiful?

17. What’s up with holograms?

18. How can sound be integrated into a visual work in a non-emcompassing way?

19. Would it really be possible to make a gymnasium-sized Twin Peaks installation?

20. Would that be enough of a research/thesis topic?

Not to get too crazy with hyperbole, but my band played what was probably the best show my band has ever played on Saturday night (video available here). And not that we’ve ever played that well live, or played that many amazing gigs over the years…but we play well live now, and that’s what’s interesting to me. A cozy atmosphere at the Somerville Arts Armory, which is a cool venue and worth checking out if you are in the Highland Ave area. It looks pretty majestic at night, lit up with flood lights and with flags almost patriotically flying in the midwinter air. And they sell cans of Old Chub.

<Reflection>I felt different playing this show than I used to when I played shows, back in the good old bad days before I moved to LA. I now have more confidence in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. Before, when I was confident about my band, it was probably misplaced or unwarranted. I contend that we always had the tunes; it was our execution of them that was lacking. Lately, our presentation and arrangement of our music is finally coming together in the way that we probably always thought it was or would. And it’s nice, because it’s not the only thing going on creatively in my existence. Which is perhaps why I’m so excited about the way it’s going…I don’t feel as much pressure to have it be The Best Thing Ever. But it kind of is now. </Reflection>

How this relates to DMI/Thesis/Anything:

Maybe it’s possible that having another creative outlet besides DMI will conversely make me feel better/more confident/generally happier with my MFA work just as having DMI has positively affected the way I feel about my band/music.

A quick aside: Joe Liberty keeps telling me that I seem to be into contrast or opposites. As in: when presented with an assignment, I immediately decide to do the opposite of what I perceive the assignment to be. When I tried to explain some of my reasoning, he told me I should write about this. So that’s what this is. To be concise: The most important thing for me in my “design” work, as is the case with pretty much everything in my life, is being interested in the content and/or concept. Thus, I spend a lot of time figuring out what concepts can best be applied to the design problem in such a way that I don’t find myself up to my elbows in a project that I hate (not to imply that other people find themselves in such situations). The idea of contrast(s) is also important in considering design obstructions, especially when the work that we do is so conceptual. To see the contradictions in discrete media and to exploit their respective strengths/weaknesses is a vital part of the “Multimedia” process. To me, it’s arguably the most important part.

And again: it’s not the black and white that makes contrast interesting, but the space in between the poles. I mean, *TWIN PEAKS SPOILER* Cooper ends up being overtaken by Bob. How did it happen? What does it mean? Who/what the fuck is Bob?

Etc.

LI’L BASTARD’S WORDS HE’S TIRED OF HEARING:
Mind Map, Mind Mapping, Interface (as a noun), Haptic, Dynamic

Joseph Liberty and I had to interview each other about our initial thesis thoughts, ideas, etc. He sent me a list of questions and I responded in a sort of rapid-fire, unedited way, answering the questions as best I could in a way somewhat similar to meeting in person and speaking. This way has less “um”s.

MONDAY JANUARY 25th

Having my bathroom re-tiled. Not paying for it, as I rent. So I should say that my bathroom is being retiled. A guy named Elio is in there making a minimal racket. Nice guy. I find it impossible to think of his name without thinking of the similarly-spelled rectangular frozen pizzas, a childhood favorite of mine and of what I’d imagine to be a fairly large percentage of people my age. My landlord also mentioned that Elio really likes pizza, which I am pretty sure he meant literally, not as some sort of lame “Hey, meet Art. He likes art.” kind of joke.

It’s actually just the shower that’s being re-tiled. Previously there had been one of those horrid plastic enclosure things that people put in and think they’ve redone their bathroom for $300. The thing was impossible to keep clean…mold oozed from the seams no matter how often you cleaned it and the whole thing just made you feel not 100% clean after taking a shower, which obviously is a problem. Anyway, Elio went out to get more supplies and I went in to take a look at the demo’d room. A staggering amount of layers and different sorts of materials exist below the above-mentioned shitty plastic, all of which seem to have been put in place throughout various remodels since the house was built, sometime in the 1910s. Cedar-looking shingles, two by fours, faux-wood tile. A plethora of bad, bad shower wall ideas. I mean…wood! In a shower!

And so this sort of stark appearance of many discarded and previously pasted-over ideas got me thinking about my thesis in a vague way. Possibly the idea that the shower was made up of all these disparate pieces in various levels of completion and that that was what constituted the shower. Sort of like: It couldn’t have been that shower without all of these pieces. And so as I start to develop my ideas for my thesis, it’s ok if I hit a few wooden-shingle-in-the-shower kinds of bumps along the way. Sort of like: It wouldn’t be my thesis without these ideas. However, it was a shitty shower, so maybe it doesn’t mean anything other than there is a right way and a wrong way to construct a shower enclosure, and the wrong way involves using many different kinds of wood and putting cheap plastic over it.

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TUESDAY January 26th

My studio work thusfar in the DMI program has consisted of interactive video installation work. My first project was an installation that allowed the viewer to explore music videos via the lens of Jungian archetypes and similarities in cinematic language. My second project was a multi-screen, text and video-based installation in which the viewer would wear glasses with a sensor that detected the direction of the viewer’s gaze and altered the visuals accordingly. So, this would be one direction to follow. Both of these projects were sort of rough conceptual prototypes and it would be interesting to pursue an idea to its functioning end.

HOWEVER, this being the only direction that I’ve explored in the program, maybe I should pursue some other thangs (sic) and see what comes of them.

OTHER POSSIBLE BUT VAGUE THANGS THAT I SHOULD MAYBE LOOK INTO BUT DON’T KNOW HOW TO INCORPORATE THEM YET: Music (songwriting, sound collage), Writing (fiction), DFW, Don DeLillo, Twin Peaks, Whiskey.

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THURSDAY January 28th

ADDITIONAL REFLECTIONS ON THE TILING OF A BATHROOM AND THESIS AND WELL MAYBE THAT’S IT

And so the bathroom renovations continue. When I left for school yesterday at 2PM, Elio said he was going to stick around and finish tiling so that he could grout (and finish the whole damn thing) today. I got home after Design Studio 3 (AKA Design for Motion and Sound AKA Design for Motion and Time), one of the walls wasn’t done. Then I saw Elio this morning, and he explained the problem: he didn’t have the right tile. More precisely, he didn’t have enough of the right tile. Here’s why: my landlord bought all of the supplies from either Lowe’s or Home Depot before he went on vacation to Belize. He bought 4″ square tile at Lowe’s and the 2″ x 4″ edging tiles at Home Depot. This is where Elio as Great Tile Guy and Generally Really Nice Guy (for reasons I’ll explain at a later date) came into play: The HD tile and the Lowe’s tile are very slightly different shades of white, and Elio noticed this (my landlord did not) and decided that he needed to wait until today when he could go see his boss, pick up a credit card, go over to Lowe’s and buy more of the right tile. Something like one wall being a very very slightly different shade of white would drive my wife and I crazy, even though it’s just an apartment and we don’t own it, etc., so I’m quite glad that he caught this, even in the dim light of our little bathroom. If I had been Elio, I probably would have just said the hell with it and finished with the tile I had. But he didn’t, and that was the right thing to do. Not in a moral or really ethical way, really, but in more of an aesthetic-choice way. And so the valuable Thesis/Life Lesson to learn from this situation is that creatively/technically/aesthetically, it’s important to do the right thing, even if it’s a pain in the ass and there’s a lot easier way to basically accomplish the same effect. This is a helpful thing for someone like myself to remember in the waning days of January, as I try to muster enthusiasm until the semester gets going in a less…well, until more time has passed in the semester.