Harvard, Godheads, Visual Culture, and Library Loans
Besides introduction to sound and a new challenge as part of the Introduction to Filmmaking module (which I will discuss in another blog post in the upcoming days), my schedule for the past three days consisted of a range of diverse lessons and activities.
On Tuesday morning, we had our lecture on visual culture and faith and investigated, how Hinduism and Buddhism shaped their respective arts and vice versa. I really loved Graham's lecture that did not start off with either Western faiths or the usual euro-centristic view on Eastern belief systems and arts, but attempted to be as neutral as possible, delineating the respective artistic principles against their own cultural blueprint. And I sure learned a great deal about the respective deities, currents, and their arts. Though I am not yet sure on how to position my own artwork in respect to this cultural frame (which is one of the tasks we are supposed to tackle during the course of this module). If I had to pick one from the top of my head, I would pick the minimalist and sublime visuality of Zen Buddhism.
Later in the afternoon, sandwiched in between sound introduction, we filmmakers-to-be met with Su Em Sans who is the academic support at CCAD and gave us a short but nonetheless handy introduction into the Harvard Referencing System (which is now the third referencing system I came into contact with in my academic career so far).
It would certainly be a lie if I said I internalised it already, but from what I have seen, it seemed pretty straightforward and even more convenient than the German referencing system we used in the Film Science (if we ever properly had one to begin with). I will need to come to grips with it rather sooner than later, so I will try to read through the guide during the upcoming weekend.
As a librophile, I am now coming to my personal highlight of the day: We finally had our introduction into the library and the library system at CCAD! Since my arrival and despite the library moving into the Old Art Café on campus, whenever I had the chance, I browsed through the available literature on site. And what shall l say? I fell in love with it.
This is also why I, during independent study on Wednesday, went to the library again to pick up a couple of books. Remember that I wanted to analyse, explore and recreate my most favourite cinematic styles? Well, folks, I managed to get hold of the relevant literature on Babel and Downton Abbey and will be working through them over the weekend as well. Or, what Dowager Countess Grantham would say: "What is a weekend?"