HEY MAN CHECK ME OUT

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.