DJ Spooky Lecture

I was impressed by the DJ Spooky Lecture. He was not spooky at all. He seemed fun and down to earth and I could picture myself hanging out with him and talking philosophy. I listened to him talk a little about history, the developments of media, the traffic light, the antarctic melting, his schooling, his philosophy knowledge, His film rebirth of America, and his latest film called the Terra Nova Project.

At the end of the lecture he passed out Cd's. He instructed everyone to take one. Each CD was different and choose the one with Muslim writing on it (really good tunes by the way!). He then encouraged us to trade Cd's with our friends. He called it a "something economy" basically it was about who has the writes to what. things these days are created by bits and pieces of other creations. D.J Spooky has not been sued yet. But he has made lots of music using other peoples beats and songs which he twists to create his own. I thing this is o.k.

When you think about this one can ponder "what really is original" and why look down on someone if they are creating. Shepard Fairy certainly doesn't do original things. However we like what he does and it is his work. Andre the giant may not be his drawing but the way he fits him into the composition with the OBEY text his his work. I say everything is up for grabs.. take what you like and create what you want. Who am I to judge. The great thing about art is that is opens up dialogs like this. It is important to know that the dialog is part of the process.

D.J. spooky told us about a African American man who invented the traffic light. It was nice to hear about something a black man invented as all my schooling had only been about white men. I do think D.J. spooky could enlighten us all in the future with something A WOMAN has invented. Anyhow the traffic light is like the city rhythm's of stopping and going and similar to turn table music and the loop which began in the late 80's with chuck d and others.

D.J. Spooking ended his lecture with a trailer for his film the TERRA NOVA project. He the music put against the shots of the antarctic was just sublime. I hope we can stop it from melting. He told us ice is in between a solid and a liquid. And he also gave us insight about how the black man was referred to as cool or ice. and the white man that is cool was vanilla ice. and other ice people like ice tee. It was great to hear his perspective and knowledge. He had a fun upbeat attitude and I will be following what he is up too in the future. As a student currently studying how to teach kids I am sure d.j. spooky will have to come into my lesson plan at one point or another.

Terranova

I enjoyed filming my portrait of my good friend Terranova. The film was mainly about her artwork as a photographer and her social anxiety. In the film we did some social anxiety experiements where i filmed her interacting with various strangers she took photos of. It was lots of fun and I am thinking of doing another terranova portrait in a month of two. This way it will b a sequence that follows terra through time. Maybe in a month or two she will have different thougts, look different, have more photos to share with me. It is exciting to think of what the future may bring.

Below are a few photos taken by the one and only terranova callymine:

What inspires you to create?

idenfity your "source". Is there a piece of writing, music, a person, an artist, a time in history, a current event. What inspires you to create?

My source comes from the unseeable energy in nature. You could say I have a source that is part native american and part buddist. I believe in the "turn it around" philosophy. I meditate when I wake up in the morning and try to focus my energy in a good way. I also feel that while I am making art I am also doing a form of meditation. I love when i am painting and i have many different people and voices in my head. after an hour painting half the people are in my head. Later its just me. Much later than that if I am still painting I leave too. That moment is great. However when you realize it happend it then usually stops happening. Another part of my source is being of service. Whenever I can, I take opportunity to help others, think of others, do anything which helps them.