Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category:
Silent Noise
I was out and for in the city when I happened to be standing in a queue for a movie and group of people where talking rather vigorously to each other and from what I would tell it was very exciting and possibly loud. You see I don’t know if it was actually loud because they were all signing to each other in what I assume was auslan
I couldn’t possibly imagine what they were saying but I’m sure that it sounded exciting so much so that as the ‘ticket checker’ came along to make sure that they were in the right place, she noticed what they were doing and started signing along with them. What are the chances, pretty good apparently. For some odd reason this inspired me to learn another language, well it should have inspired me to learn auslan but I think to be honest unless I had a real need for it it might be useless.
Another language though, now that would be useful, I’ve always been a practical person and the fact that I have had an interest in Japan for some time means that Japanese is an obvious choice.
Now just to get started.
This post has been brought to you buy Stereo - The Watchman
Geoffrey Bartlett
I was at Federation Square checking out the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia.
I find it harder to understand sculptors than I do painting, well let me clarify that, I can make sense of most art that is not abstract. You see I’m not really an art fan but I do enjoy it and I will go along to anything that I get a chance to.
Geoffrey Bartlett exhibition was one that I was interesting because while I have seen sculptures I have never heard that artist talk about his own work.
A lot of it I couldn’t hear due to the nature of the room that we were standing in, but there was one thing that he said that struck a cord.
I’m paraphrasing here but it went something along the lines of:
As a sculptor you have to be mindful of space around your work and how it affects it, where a painter can have a frame and canvas to direct his audience to a focal point the sculptor as to know who to use space to convey their message
Once I heard this and I looked at his works again they made so much more sense, not much more than the average person but more that I could begin to appreciate it.
It’s one of the many things that I like about pushing myself to experience new things, I always come away learning something.
Social Identity Theory
I am currently studying a new subject at school that gets us to examine how we work in groups.
It is meant to help us when we get jobs and work in organisational groups, I have just recently completed an essay and due to the nature of the essay I learned 3 things which I now find very useful - Social Identity, Social Dominance Theory and Knowledge Transfer. They all relate to organisational groups, but the first two I found interesting to learn about form a social standpoint.
It is interesting how things from Uni seem to meld into life, somewhere in the back of my mind the stuff that I had learnt about SI (Social Identity) and SD (Social Dominance) started to make sense when I could see how it manifested in our friends, which is a bad way to think about it but I couldn’t help it. I started to wonder why certain people acted they way they did or said what they said and all of a sudden it popped into my head.
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Plastic Photo Show
I have a few friends who are rather good photographers and as a result, combined with the photos that I took on the overseas trip, I have become rather interested in the field as well.
While I was at Uni doing my thing I noticed that there was a photo show going on at the Hawthorn town hall, only problem that it was on while there was a class on, which in the end turn out not be a problem because I just skipped it.
The whole premise of the exhibition was to showcase photographs that were taken using low-tech photographic methods such as: plastic lens, vintage, Polaroid cameras, pinhole, alternative processes and antiquarian methods.
Although many of the subjects or objects that were photographed were ordinary the way and perpective that they were taken were different because of the methods used, I probably didn’t get to enjoy as much as I would have liked to mainly because I was on my own and was pretty tired from the week, but still enjoyable.
I did like the fact that I didn’t have to travel far from my normal destinations to get there, I will have to keep my eye out for similar sort of stuff.
Best MIFF Shorts
I had hoped to see more of the http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au as I had oulined in MIFF List I had got to see one of the list: Between the Lines: India’s Third Gender and on sunday I got to see one more being MIFF shorts.
My memory is a bit sketchy but this is what I remember seeing:
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Between the Lines: India’s Third Gender
BETWEEN THE LINES - INDIA’S THIRD GENDER
Is about the self proclaimed third gender in India, the documentary follows three such hijras: Asha, Rambha and Laxmi. What I did like about the film is the fact that the photographer/narrator Anita Khemka was able to engage with the three individuals on a more personal level through language and familarity to bring out conversations and topics that I don’t believe would have been possible otherwise.
Most documentaries that I tend to see take sides or put out a point of view, but this one didn’t and I’m rather grateful for that fact because not only was the film interestingly informative about a topic I never knew existed but also sad at the same time. After about 30 minutes I could sort of empathise with the three people (they don’t refer to themselves as men or women) in a way and their strange predicament in society. I enjoyed how the movie was factual in the way that it showed both sides of the coin, their place on the social ladder and what they do to keep themselves there. During the movie I started to make comparisons towards homosexuals and trans gender society but as the movie progressed and I realised that the link couldn’t be reliably established mainly because of the way that they thought of themselves and dressed, also the history in their own country (and surrounding counties), culture and religion added more depth to their state of being, I suppose.
All in all I really enjoyed seeing this, I almost didn’t go because I thought about it and it was something that was unfamiliar to me and I wasn’t sure if a trip into the city would be worth it on what turned out to be a very busy Saturday…but it was.
MIFF List
I had seen a few ads for the Melbourne International Film Festival but being the uncultured guy that I am, I didn’t know what to see, so I started looking around the Melbourne blogs to see if anyone else was going and I found out on one of the blogs that I visit that Naridu Wondering was planning to go along, so ever so politely I asked if I could get a recommendation and being an excellent Melbournean I got my reply here : MIFF
Armed with this list I have decided (dependent on availability of free time and money) to see the following:
Between the Lines: India’s Third Gender
I had already known about A Scanner Darkly because I frequent the Apple trailer park often and A Scanner Darkly Trailer had shown up a while ago, but the session at the film festival had sold out before I got a chance to buy the tickets. I will just have to wait until it comes out at the movies.
I will try to report back when and what I have seen.