First post of the new year 2021, and it's safe to say this year will be a interesting one in itself, hopefully not for foreshadowing for the many months to come.
I'd like to say welcome to 2021, hope you are all reinvigorated and optimistic for the year to come.
Personal
I have finished my temp job just before the introduction of Tier 4 into my county, and now in for the long haul like many other people, sharing the same situation as me wondering what and where this year will leads us and how many opportunities we have at our disposal. This is one of the current fears I have for this year, as my experience in industries I work and enjoy are currently under a lot of stress. It is good to look into what other avenues to look at whilst the industries I want to go into sleeps through the pandemic.
This new year has bred new opportunities for me, and connecting with new people and reconnecting with those who I didn't keep in contact as much. I am also looking into learning photoshop, and to continue working on Logic Pro x and Final Cut Pro for further experience using the software. Through talking and connecting with people, I had a great discussion with someone close about storytelling. I find it interesting back from our early walks of man with cave paintings, to the now of stories of a political barbarian rampaging far away lands congresses on Facebook posts. We as humans tell stories, and enjoy doing so, both in the fantastical and folk, to the real and cautionary. I've taken a interest in stories, creating stories, and seeing how storytelling has changed throughout the course of mankind. Through seeing how fact and fiction in particular has blurred exponentially through the past few decades, we see true and made up stories under the same lens of doubt, whilst the bizarre appears more in our day to day lives.
Storytelling
The language of storytelling is incredible. Take for example Chopins' Raindrop Prelude. No words are spoken, just notes and melodies. Yet we can perceive a story in our heads and explore the story through our own vision. It is not only music. Dance, art, acting, plays, even walking to the shops tells a story to others and yourself. Although mundane as a story of someone walking to the shops is, it tells them participant about you, you need something. Through this, storytelling is easy to do, but hard to master. How do you convey something subtly, how do you tell a story where everyone has different perspectives? Music and Lyrics are other forms of storytelling. Heartbreak, Romance, Hard times and Enlightenment. Gaelic Folk music in itself is incredibly rich in storytelling, from the rebel songs to dreams and reminiscence of the rolling hills of Ireland.
Earlier in history visual storytelling was more popular than written due to not as many people were literate. These were the formats of Stained Glass and Tapestry and even to the earliest as cave paintings all tell a story. Looking more at how they presented the story is incredible. European and Mongolian Folk tales with morals from oral tradition that have spread and collected by the Grimm brothers are crucial to understanding the society at the time from the morals they produced. An excellent video on this (Of course related to Magic the Gathering, because I'm a dork) is Verhungern which discusses how folk tales and how art speaks stories.
I've taken a interest into this as a few upcoming projects seem to all have instances of storytelling in its nature. This also leads to how universal storytelling can be, and how it is something I want to look into.
Upcoming projects
As it is a new year, I took the time to reflect on myself and where I am currently both personally and career wise. I have 2 projects I'm looking into with separate people with different mediums, one of which is very very new to me. Hopefully by the end of this year I will have finished a few songs I've left to gather dust for the time being. I am also looking into painting, I have before and I'm not good at it, but there is a great therapeutic benefit for me so to see what comes of it is interesting. I am also looking for chances to start editing free for people for further practice in the industry of video editing. This as well as when summer rolls around and the world is (hopefully) more accessible, I will be performing some of the live performances pieces I have been postponing till after the lockdown.
I also want to get back into D&D and hopefully look into how to run sessions digitally for people, this way I can use it both an enjoyable experience for people around me whilst also looking into communal storytelling. In the next few days whilst the snow is here I will also be (When able) filming the second installation of Case Study: Forests, which I am greatly excited for to get out there in the cold and capture the audio and visual beauty in which winter brings.
The new mediums i am looking into I am super excited to work and discover what I enjoy about it, and displaying new tasks and issues which I have not crossed before, with the focus of creating in both minimal and utility based design.
Heavy 80's synths, obscure lyrics, bangin drum loop. This song is incredibly, catchy and has been stuck in my head for at least 5 days. It's a unique genre I haven't seen in quite some time. A tragic tale of a person who transfers his body into a arcade cabinet, which when typing it its more sinister than the song lets on.
Sometimes the art speaks for itself, a statement highlighting the times of art online and how quick it becomes meaningless for the hours spent on it. Using the Instagram interface plastered on top of a milk carton, blends the short lifespan of milk in relation to the artwork people created and uploaded on social media.
Its a very brief one for this week, as my family currently have been tested positive for COVID-19 so I have to be a little on hold for the time being, hopefully I'll have more to show from my end. Stay safe and I'll catch you soon.
- SC (10/01/21)