Quarter 1 Narritive
I work really well in this independent learning system. I spent all of last year getting better at it. I will spend all of this year getting better at it. Hopefully I will spend my whole life learning to learn.
Because this is my second year I was able to really hit the ground running. I did work over the summer as well. This makes this exhibition harder for me because I have more work to think about, more ideas to write/think about, and more materiel to document and process.
There are many of my takeaways from this year so far:
Interest makes work easy
Everything is connected to everything else
Format is important
Art is bigger than I thought
I can do anything, so long as I want badly enough
But my big learning to learn idea is that if I keep going with the flow of my studies and interests I will develop as a learner. And that I am a motivated and powerful individual, supported by a passionate and strong base both in school and out, so as long as I keep doing good work and applying myself I will continue to grow.
WRITING
Is a skill that I decided I was going to get better at this year.
I believe that the best way to do this is to write a lot. This has been challenging for me so far because I want to be producing meaningful material, and I have this idea that if I just write indiscriminately it won’t be meaningful. This is much like the some of the art I produced last year, in the end it had some form of meaning, but it wasn’t created to be meaningful. The solution to this is to force myself to do more writing, and to break out of this mindset that meaningful work is the only productive work.
I have been reading The Brief Bedford reader, so even if I haven’t been writing, I have been educating myself in the theory of it. I find myself noticing the writing styles and structures that I read about everywhere (just as I notice other themes in my life), and that’s how I know I’ve been learning.
QUESTIONS
Are more important to learning than I have ever realized.
At GIA this summer my RA, Matt, was incredible at asking questions.
I do not consider myself very good at asking questions.
(I am good at pursuing topics, finding and completing projects, and learning, but questioning is not something I do very often.)
Since I noticed that questions were important to learning I saw questions everywhere. Teachers use questions, students ask questions, people use questions to get to know each other.
I then realized that I ask lots of questions. I ask questions when I am working with actors on shows. I ask for clarification in math. I ask for rides. I ask for help.
What I don’t do often is ask hard questions, or ask myself questions.
Because of this I have been trying to ask more questions of myself and my art. Often I find that this brings me into an internal dialogue that I wish was easier to record.
DOCUMENTATION
Is a skill that I have been developing.
I find it hard to document a theatrical process, while I am directing and putting together a show I am intensely involved in rehearsals, and cannot record everything I would like. Example: During The People and Poet’s Heart I was too busy managing the necessary aspects of the production to get a camera and tripod to record the final performances. I was able to document--or acquire documentation of--other parts of the process: I have photos of the shows and talkbacks, scripts, and an audio recording of my favorite rehearsal.
Because of this I have begun to make a more conscious effort to document all my work. All of my test performances for my original show are taped, and works such as Portrait are recorded and said recording is the primary vehicle for an audience to view them.
A Final Thought:
I’ve noticed that, even more than last year, I am making connections between my projects. Almost to the point where the edges are so blurred that they are all one thing. What exactly that is hasn’t shown itself yet, and when it does I think my original performance piece will finally have a title