Zakary Zide and I have been asking ourselves this question as we prep for a road trip to Oregon this week. So, we devised a fun little game to help us get to know our destination city, Portland, through the perspective of locals (rather than a guidebook).

We’re inviting Portlanders to participate in a behind-the-curtain-scavenger-hunt that will reveal the emotional geography of the city. Here’s how the game works:

(Please share with cool, fun, open people in Portland that you think would enjoy sharing their city with us in this way)

The Time:
Friday, September 3rd, 2010. MEET US at 3pm.

The Place:
Barista cafe (PEARL DISTRICT)
539 NW 13TH AVE, Portland, Oregon

You Get:
We’ll buy you a cup of coffee (not a fancy coffee, just a coffee).

The Materials:
We’ll give you a cute little flag on a toothpick and a small piece of clay.

The Task:
1. You have 20 minutes to place the cute toothpick flag in a spot within a mile of the cafe that holds special significance to you.
  It can either be a spot that you think other people overlook (that you take special pleasure in looking at), or a spot where something special has happened to you (the spot where you first kissed your husband, or the spot where you once found 20 bucks). See below for some examples.

2. After you place the flag, you text message us the location of the flag and a sentence or 2 about why the spot is significant to you.

3. We’ll be waiting for your text at Barista cafe. As soon as we get your text, the game is on and we’ll race to find your flags!  We’ll document what we find and make something creative in response to your special spot (and post via our blogs).

The possibilities, Portland, are endless.
Our experience will be completely determined by what you choose to share with us.
…………………………………

Here are some examples of tiny flag special spots where we’re from:

Location: Howard Street, underneath the overpass between Main Street and Beale Street, San Francisco
Why: I look forward to seeing this graffiti every day when I head home from work.  It reminds me not to take my worries too seriously.

Location: Natoma Street next to the Transbay Terminal, San Francisco
Why: Sometimes when you look up into the sky, you can catch clusters of birds riding a circular current for long periods of time, hovering in that one spot like a weird, undulating amoeba.
(Image source: http://www.networke9.com/archives/author/marc-johnson)

Location: Florida Street, the chairs inside Circolo restaurant, San Francisco
Why: The spot where Zak and I first met!

We look forward to playing with you!
Teresa + Zak

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

– William Carlos Williams

“It’s what whalers used to do to whale carcasses when they got them on board,” I said. “They would strip off the skin and blubber and meat right down to the skeleton. I do that in my head to people – get rid of the meat so I can see nothing but their souls. Then I forgive them.”

From “Bluebeard” by Kurt Vonnegut

Source: http://www.mobypicture.com/user/twittelator/view/7260843

Spiders are weary of being objects of fear. Good girls are tired of being good, and bad ones long to simply rest their heads upon a shoulder without implication. Black cats wonder why you cross the street, and ladders wish to fall on the next poor sap who goes out of his way to avoid walking beneath one. The word “fuck” longs to be held lovingly on the tongue, is tired of the way it is always spat. Birds wish they could swim, and stars are sick of being wished upon. Bottles fear being emptied. Words are buckling under the burden of meaning. Silence is only a theory. Everyone, everything, is tired.

- By Britta Austin from “Artifacts”

.13 comes from a project titled notecards: a living museum, a collection of prose pieces typed on 3″x5″ index cards using a Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter over the course of one and a half years. Austin began the project in 2006, and in June 2008 the entire collection was the basis of an exhibition at San Fancisco’s Intersection of the Arts gallery, where contributing artists collectively transformed the gallery into a life-sized, multimedia diorama in reaction to the work. The notecards inspired both visual and performance artists to create original works based on the wide range of themes, ideas, images, and concepts within. (From the foreword of “Artifacts”)

With an expansive definition of dance and an appreciation for highly experimental and interdisciplinary forms, this unique festival exposes diverse audiences to a variety of film, video, and performance possibilities. The festival will have two evenings of dance cinema shorts, including a live multi-media dance performance, and installations to peruse prior to the screenings. Additionally, on Saturday, there will be a documentary screenings and a scholarly paper panel.

The Festival will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 10 and 11, 2010, in the Black Box Theatre of the Atlas Building at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA

About Puddle Song

Puddle Song was conceived and directed by artist Teresa Brazen as part of an ongoing body of work, The Daydream Series. Each tone poem in this series explores human behavior and emotion within the framework of a single moment or situation.

Puddle Song’s intention is to playfully explore creative expression, judgment, and censorship. Soon after the work’s protagonist innocently loses herself in a moment of wonder and joy, she realizes she is being watched. Her perception of the judgmental gaze of another person imposes on her excitement, and puts an abrupt end to her spontaneous creativity.

Produced in 2009, this project was created in an unusual way: all nine crew members donated their time, equipment, and expertise via an entirely community-driven film cooperative, Scary Cow. As a result, no monies were spent on production. Video was shot with a Sony EX-1 camera using a Letus Extreme 35 mm adapter to give a more film-like aesthetic. The footage was edited in Final Cut Pro and After Effects. Sound Editor Brandon Hopp created the original music score and most of the sound in his home recording studio.

Wood Nymph was conceived and directed by artist Teresa Brazen as part of an ongoing body of work, The Daydream Series. Each tone poem in this series explores human behavior and emotion within the framework of a single moment or situation.

The intention of this specific piece is to explore social contexts in which human beings are made to feel shameful about very natural tendencies toward desire. The woman represents society, norms, and rules about “appropriate” behavior. She lures the viewer to her, and then gives them a figurative slap on the hand for looking. The viewer’s desire, in turn, is never fully satiated; they unable to gaze fully upon the woman’s nude body, nor establish a personal connection through eye contact. Wood Nymph also toys with the perception of power, hinting both that woman’s power may often be underestimated, and that the concept of power may be an illusion all together.

Produced in 2009, this project was created in an unusual way: all nine crew members donated their time, equipment, and expertise via an entirely community-driven film cooperative, Scary Cow. As a result, no monies were spent on production. Video was shot with two Sony EX-1 cameras using Letus Extreme 35 mm adapters to give a more film-like aesthetic. The footage was edited in Final Cut Pro and After Effects. Sound Editor Brandon Hopp created the original music score and most of the sound in his home recording studio.

(An interesting aside about the production: During the shoot, a hive of bees was disrupted, and the entire crew scattered as bees flew everywhere, stinging most of the team. Lead actress, Jenni Bregman, was stung on the face, and that bee is visible on her cheek when the footage is slowed.)

* Photo by Martin Klimek

(I found Africa in the wall…)

“FEED_BACK”
July 8-24, 2010
Reception and Live Performance: July 8, 7-9pm
In conjunction with Downtown Art Walk
Los Angeles Center for Digital Art
107 West Fifth Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
lacda.com

Forty-eight artists from over 18 countries are gathering at LACDA via the Live@808 networked performance space. Live@808 is a custom web application where realtime video, audio, texting and countless other media collide and intermix in a playful and exciting environment facilitated by emergent technology. The live webcams and video feeds projected in the gallery will be accompanied by a multi-screen installation of video shorts looping on monitors throughout the space.

The FEED_BACK exhibit is a zone of participation, input, response, and transformation that beckons us toward openness, spontaneity and improvisation. It is an inter-media experiment in collaborative international connection and communication that engenders an awareness of the cogent ability of internet technologies to galvanize the world culture in a constructive manner.

FEED_BACK MANIFESTO

All views simultaneously in equal amplitudes illuminate the newly mediated grid of the social. A high bandwidth sense of being unfurls where all notions of anything or everything collaborate and communicate instantaneously over a reverberant labyrinth of wide area networks. This is discursive critical mass—no opinion can exist at the expense of another and all identities, genders, skins, species, preferences and desires are transmutable. The didactic dissolves and philosophy is aesthetisized as infinitely malleable and interactive audio-visual spaces. Anteriorly recursive plagiarisms download, mutate, intermix and upload again. Vocabulary becomes a poetics of redefinition, and concepts become the vertigo of a shimmering ideological spectrum moving at light speed.

This is the new music of the technologized psyche: the electronic symphony of every instrument and every note synchronously blended to one monolithic and ecstatic tone. A meditation. An intercultural over-excitation where all colors combine to create a brilliant light. Each computer screen is a glimpse-a partitioned selection-of this luminous digital site, of the total epistemic memory residing in the global database for instant retrieval, update, recombination and re-storage. This vortical workstation of the internet is a tributary, a feeding bottle or breast, and an hermaphroditic genital of the info-communicative circulatory/nervous system where through interaction we sate the antique dictum for being the smarter monkey that better survives a hostile nature, that better survives its own hostile nature.

And then, noise becomes the signal. Find the signal in the noise. Overexposed, overloaded, distorted, meters in the red. Hissing, scratched, discolored, alaised, unintelligble and unreadable. Lens flares. Warped, faded, clipping, bleeding, and humming. Dot screens, moiree patterns. Raster lines. Corrupted data. Feedback. Modem hash. Channel offsets. Degenerated dubs, replications and simulations.

Allow random access thoughts. Art is assembly language. Be a noise-to-signal processor. Processing and filtering all input. Be electronic. Sampling, capturing. Reconfiguring. Inputting, communicating, disseminating. Be a feedback loop. Be an answering machine. Be a disconnected number, out of service. Be a busy signal, unreachable. Be a signal. Be a system error, crash applications. Be an error message. Be an error. Be an assembly language translator. Be machine level code. Be code. Be corrupted streaming data. Be an aliased side effect. Be aliased.

Make feedback. Be noise.

Networked artists:
Roxanne Brousseau-Félio (Canada)
_8_O_8_ (USA)
catgotwasted (UK)
Setenay Ozbek (Turkey)
Katy Hick (Brunei Darussalam)
Nancy Bechtol (USA)
Audri Phillips USA)
Jorge Llaca Serna (Mexico)
Ali El Hadj Tahar (Algeria)
Nahrain Michael (Iraq)
Marco Battaglini (Costa Rica)
Joao Santos (Qatar)
N. Ajayan (India)
Marc Lougee (Manila)
Mir Kian Roshannia (Iran)
Frédéric Boulleaux (France)
Debbi (Sosum) Chan (USA)
D. Lammie-Hanson (USA)
Russel Hulsey (USA)
Dana Tomsa Oberhoffer (Italy)
Lois Siegel (Canada)
Tirthankar Biswas (India)
Louise Dionne Jackson (UK)
David Poulter (Taiwan)
Michelle Wardley (Australia)
Julie Collins (Australia)
Rex Bruce (USA)
Tiffany Trenda (USA)
Victor Solomon (USA)
Takaki Hashimoto (Japan)

Video artists:
Patricia Stone
Lana Citowsky
Sim Sadler
Raissa Contreras
Patricia Wells
Susan Shaw
Sylvia Toy
L. Ashwyn
Teresa Christiansen
Jessica Leza
Teresa Brazen
Jon Shumway
Nelson and SIxta
Kiyomitsu Saito
Julia Morgan-Leamon
Hyla Skopitz
Jesus Jimenez
Michael Lasater

“Best Of” the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema in collaboration with Ob-Art Collective
Barcelona, Spain
July 14, 2010
Punt Multimedia, Casa del Mig, Parc de L’Espanya Insutrial
Calle Muntades, 5 – 08014  Barcelona

On The Wall
Berlin, Germany
July 2, 2010
ada Studios
Schönhauser Allee 73 / QuARTier 73, 2.HH
10437 Berlin
Film list/descriptions
* In this curated series of films, each selected piece addresses one of 5 themes – location, sound, costume, movement, camera angle. ‘Puddle Song’ was selected for sound.

]]> http://www.teawithteresa.com/uncategorized/my-film-puddle-song-showing-in-berlin-barcelona/feed 0 http://www.teawithteresa.com/discoveries/if-you-need-a-boost-if-youre-having-a-bad-day http://www.teawithteresa.com/discoveries/if-you-need-a-boost-if-youre-having-a-bad-day#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 22:19:43 +0000 admin http://www.teawithteresa.com/?p=1014 Go HERE: http://tinyurl.com/1cl9
Type your name in the box, and watch yourself smile.

Director: Benafsheh Modaressi
Length: 7’14
Origin: Iran

A story of an imaginary city under a harsh ruler. Love is forbidden, and freedom a distant memory. Few people have the courage to fall in love, challenging the forbidden symbols….This film has no dialogue because the people are too scared to express themselves….in the end, love shines back in to the city. The courage of those who dared to love has saved it. The last clip shows a child tasting life and freedom by eating the apple (symbol of life) freely.

Tehranian-born Banafsheh Modaressi worked from 1999 as a freelance photojournalist and reporter for magazines such as Paris Match, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, as well as several local newspapers. Government restrictions in Iran hampered her photojournalism career, so Modaressi obtained an M.A. in Graphics and Design in 2005 then began teaching at the University of Applied Science and Technology in Tehran. She has had over 20 photo and mixed-media exhibitions, both inside and outside of Iran, and her love of photography and drawing ultimately led her to animation. Modaressi started film-making in the workshop of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami ın 2008 and followed his workshops from Tehran to Villa Arson.

Read more on the Public Workshop Blog.

Ever since I got Scott’s submission (Scott Is Moved By…His Own Death) (which you MUST MUST read), I’ve been asking myself a question in the morning: If I were to die this evening, what would be my #1 priority for today? And, I mean that in the context of what I was already planning (not shifting gears dramatically and hopping a plane to another country). This question has been helping me get really clear about what is really important to me.

Also, I can’t stop thinking about how disassociated we are to our own death. What a strange illusion we live in — we know we will die, and yet we live as if this life thing lasts forever, taking so very, very much for granted.

A film made by Charles & Ray Eames in 1956. This short film made it’s debut alongside the Eames Lounge Chair on NBC in the same year.

Produced by Herman Miller in the United States and Vitra in Europe. Avoid replicas, always buy an authentic model.

Feedback – case study from onedotzero on Vimeo.

Created by Hellicar & Lewis for Roundhouse CircusFest 2010

Feedback is an interactive installation that aims to encourage performance from members of the public and circus performers alike. Using the familiar form of a mirror, the installation uses cutting-edge computer vision techniques to allow users to remix their bodies in real time, and display them on a large scale over the interior and exterior of the Roundhouse in Camden. – via BenjaminF

Send me something that moves you. Anything goes. Doesn’t have to be clever, brilliant or smart (or if it is, that’s fine, too). Don’t over-think it…send your first thought. And then share the blog with others.

My new unofficial mascot: the 2 year old daughter of some collectors of my artwork. Apparently she has nicknamed the painting they own (behind her) “The Queen” and has her own crown to match.

UNO
Beautiful B-Boyz (by Vivian Giourousis): http://www.vivg.com/dancev3.htm
(I have this recurring daydream that a bunch of B-boyz are break dancing and showing off. I am just hanging out quietly watching for a while. Then I saunter into the middle of the circle and bust out with amazing moves. They are all shocked, standing with mouths agape, and I just walk off smiling to myself. Now if only I could break dance. Ha.)

DOS
Movement in relation to a moving object: http://zigrolling.free.fr/Photos/Zigrolling.mpg

TRES
And one of my all time favs, Weightless (by Swedish artist and designer Erika Janunger).

If you have any others, send them my way. I’m looking for fodder.

Tonight, some horns came out. Drippy horns. It feels like a battle is ensuing. There is a lot of red.

I’m not quite sure where this one is headed. I’m wandering around a bit in paint, trying to find my footing.

As I wander, I keep thinking about this poem I wrote a while back (the horns are the tie-in). I’m not sure yet if this poem is indicative of where the painting will end up, but for tonight at least, there seems to be a connection.

————–

The Battle

two bulls slamming heads, we are

i feign disinterest
backing away while looking over my shoulder
nostrils subtly flaring with your thick scent

you said
it was up to me
to shift the battle
into lovemaking

you would fight
long and hard
if i kept pawing at the dirt

your silent question
between gritted teeth, tensed muscles
and the stare of hard, black eyes

is if i will err on the side of trust,
releasing boundaries
that fit like a tough suit of skin

it seems i may have met my match
in this game
of egos and attraction

You can share in the comments section of this blog post or send me an email at info@brazenart.com.

This little film was made by Stephanie Di Giusto for french fashion designer Vanessa Bruno. If you like this video, you’ll really like some of the other videos made by the Stephanie…

vanessabruno-Le Bel Eté-SS2010 from presse vanessabruno on Vimeo.

See past creations at www.BrazenArt.com

In my last improv class at BATS Theater, we explored how our body language, words, and interactions communicate our status. We played a game where 4 people in a scene each chose a status level (1 through 4, with 1 being the highest status), and the audience had to figure out each person’s status based upon their behavior in the scene. As actors, we had to make purposeful choices about where our power lay.

Sometimes we had to figure out how to change our status mid-way in a scene; this is when it got really interesting. A “boss” might start out as higher status than her “assistant”, and then halfway through, their roles switched. Interestingly, when done right, that transition made sense, and you saw how easily power can be changed with a few gestures and words.

This exercise struck me as incredibly useful in everyday life. First, it made me look at what my “natural” status is in most contexts. Have you ever thought about this? What did your family or community teach you about where you fit in the power hierarchy? What is your default status?

Second, it reminded me that I get to choose my status in every moment. What a powerful thought. There is no reason I can’t choose a status of “1″ in any situation, whether working with a client, speaking in front of a crowd, or walking into a bar alone. I mean, why not? I like this notion of choosing my own status, taking ownership of it, rather than having it chosen for me.

PS: Important to note — a status of “1″ does not = jerk unless you decide it does.

This is the end of this series of blog posts. Read previous posts about my improv class at BATS Theater:
Improv Class #4: Reach Beyond the Obvious
Improv Class #3: Don’t Anticipate
Improv Class #2: An Agile Mind
Improv Class #1: Getting Out Of My Own Way

That said, the stakes got higher, but I still went through with it – and I feel pretty good about that, at least. Plus, it helped me to know that I didn’t take this class specifically to become a good actress (if that happens, cool!); I signed up for lessons in public speaking, thinking faster on my feet, and because the challenge of doing something frightening was just too good to pass up. My real goal is to get to a point where I can willingly make an ass out of myself and feel just fine about it…maybe even do it without a shred of hesitation.

But, this time, I definitely hesitated. My partner would throw out a line, giving me something juicy to work with, and I found myself stalling. Either I had nothing to give them, or the something I gave them was really, well, generic and boring. I was feeling pretty bad about not moving the scene along creatively until our teacher pointed out that it’s natural to reach for the obvious. Apparently I’m not the only newbie to the stage stricken with the boring disease.

To help us with that, Barbara pushed us to think further outside the obvious using a simple, but effective sound: the ding of a little bell. When we heard that sound, whomever just spoke or did something would have to redo what they just did in a completely different way.

So, for example, I just said, “I need to tell you something.” My partner (who is my best friend in this scene) turns to me and says, “Yes?”.

Then I say, “I’ve always been secretly in love with you.”

DING

I change my strategy and now say, “I purposefully ruined my Harvard application because I didn’t want to end up at the same school as you. I just didn’t know how to tell you that we’re too joined at the hip, and I need to live my own life. Community college was my only way out of your shadow.”

I know, the logic is ridiculous, but it’s a heck of a lot more interesting than the overplayed “I’m in love with my best friend” storyline.

Sometimes our teacher would ding the bell 3, 4, 5 times to make someone stretch further and further until they got to something really wild and compelling. And every ding was worth it, because, inevitably, the scene would go in a more interesting direction.

This exercise reminded me not to take the easy route. It showed that I need to watch out for the impulse to grab the obvious (comfort), and instead stretch past it to something just outside its borders (discomfort). And then, reach even further because that’s where the good stuff lives.

——

This series is now complete. Read about the rest of my improv experiences at BATS Theater:
Improv Class #5: Choose Your Status
Improv Class #3: Don’t Anticipate
Improv Class #2: An Agile Mind
Improv Class #1: Getting Out Of My Own Way

Truth be told, I’m naturally more comfortable if I know ahead of time what I’m going to say or do. I mean, planning is good, right? I figure, I’m far less likely to look the fool if I’ve sorted out a clever response in advance. Right? Yeah…or maybe not so much.

The funny thing with improv is that if my mind is full of an idea, it’s not open. That means, when you turn to me and say something I didn’t anticipate (and I NEVER know what you are going to say), it takes me twice as long to come back with a response – because I have to get rid of my idea first, then make mental space for a new one. My “great idea” keeps me from being nimble.

It’s actually stressful to fixate on an idea and strategize how to work it into the scene the few moments before the action turns to me.

Let me illustrate:
The other person is speaking and while they are, my inner monologue is something like, “Oh crap, they are going to turn to me in a sec. What can I do? It would be awesome to work in the ogre who is getting set up with a princess. How does it relate? Searching…Searching….” And while I’m searching, they are talking about something that wouldn’t jive with at all, like, going to the dentist. Then, they turn to me, asking about a cavity, and I’m like:

Blink.
Blink. Blink.
(Ummmm. Whuuut?)
(Oh, uh, dentist? Dentist. Right. A dentist.)
(What were they saying? Crap, I don’t know where to go with this.)

You get the idea.

So, in the last class, I decided that when we played improv games, no matter how much I wanted to obsess about my next good idea, I’d say a silent “Thank you, but no thank you” to it, put it away, keep my mind blank, and go with my instincts.

And here’s the kicker: Thinking less turned out to be quite liberating. Sometimes I came up with something not particularly interesting. But, sometimes, I was really tickled by how easily I could keep the scene going. It was great, and I found myself genuinely enjoying the experience more.

Turns out that planning ahead was a surprising waste of time and energy. Imagine that.

—–

This series is now complete. Read about the rest of my improv experiences at BATS Theater:
Improv Class #1: Getting Out Of My Own Way
Improv Class #2: An Agile Mind
Improv Class #4: Reach Beyond the Obvious
Improv Class #5: Choose Your Status

Destruction Is Beautiful from Teresa Brazen on Vimeo.

Jónsi – Go Do from Jónsi on Vimeo.

Rory Sutherland: Life Lessons from an Ad Man
17 minutes

Rives Controls the Internet
4 minutes

Daniel Kahneman: The Riddle of Experience vs. Memory
20 minutes

Gary Lauder’s New Traffic Sign: Take Turns
5 minutes

Ben Saunders Skis to the North Pole
18 minutes

Arthur Ganson Makes Moving Sculpture
15 minutes

Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain with music (this is not from TED, but worth the addition)
3 minutes

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

I starting exploring this issue about communicating the value of UX a little over a year ago in my podcast, Tea with Teresa. One of the highlights from my show was a conversation with Jesse James Garrett called “What the Heck Is User Experience Design??!! (And Why Should I Care?)“. That podcast laid a great foundation for explaining UX to new audiences. But, I decided I wanted to push the challenge of communication even further and see if I could explain user experience design to a particularly difficult audience: high schoolers. I figured if I could make UX meaningful and relevant to these kids, I could probably explain it to anyone.

So, I approached my friend Ben Chun about doing a presentation to his Introduction to Programming class at Galileo High School in San Francisco, CA. He thought this would be a great start to a project they’d embark upon this year: designing an educational computer game for 5th graders. My goal was to prepare them for that project by communicating two key things:

1. Make things for people.
2. Those people aren’t you.

Before the class, Ben warned me about the attention span of his students, and boy was he right. The thing about high school kids is they won’t pretend to be interested if you’ve lost them. Adults at a conference will gaze forward in your general direction, but high school kids will just put their head on the table and go to sleep. If you ever want to get a real gauge of how interesting a speaker you are (or how well you’re really communicating), I highly recommend it, humbling as it is.

Not everything I tried worked (I got some heads on the table a few times), but a few tactics and explanations seemed to strike a chord with them, and I thought I’d share them here with you:

1. Funny examples of design failing out in the world (from FailBlog.com)

2. Interacting with a product or service should feel like a good conversation.
Who wants to deal with a person or thing that acts like this when you interact with it:

(Ignores you)

(Is self-absorbed)

For an adult audience I would have used a date as an example — an idea I got from Jesse James Garrett – but since high school kids don’t really go on formal dates (or so their teacher told me!), I changed it to a conversation.

3. Before you make something, learn about the people who will use it.
Otherwise, it’ll feel and turn out like:

Trying to buy a present for someone you don’t know (like your uncle’s boss).

Making dinner for someone you don’t know (What if they are vegetarian but you made steak?).

4. People like and need different things.
So it’s important to find out what those wants and needs are. For example, during Rachel Hinman’s project “90 Mobiles in 90 Days”, her niece designed a mobile phone with the features she really wanted, like:

1. Snail button that turns into Barbie when pushed
2. Screen with swimming pool inside
3. Snow White always attached by golden string
4. A red button that when pushed, makes the phone turn into anything
5. Snow White store and candy store attached

Key point: Not everyone wants a snail button that turns into Barbie!

5. The user is not you, so don’t design for yourself.
Activity to show how different we are:
1. Three people are asked to leave the room and are not told why.
2. One at a time they are invited back in, asked to sit and close their eyes, then asked to describe the room in detail.
3. The rest of the class takes note of how each person values/pays attention to very different things.

6. Finding out what the user really wants or needs (user research)
Sticky note activity:
1. Everyone gets a sticky note pad and has 5 minutes to write as many questions as they can for the potential users of a pretend product they are making.
2. Post all questions on a wall together, cluster questions that are about the same topic, discuss, and agree upon a key set of 10 questions.

Turns out the kids loved the race to write as many questions as they could in a time limit. Ben said you almost never have a room of focused, quiet teenagers like we had during that activity. He also wrote about this exercise on his blog, And It Moves: Adventures In Teaching and Technology.

Those are some of the highlights from my attempt to make the complex simple for an audience that had never heard of user experience before. I learned a lot about which of my explanations really make sense to others. And as I continue in this exploration of communicating UX, I’d love to expand my tool kit by hearing about exercises, analogies, and other approaches any of you have had success with! Please share here!

So, you can imagine my surprise when I went to my second improv class at BATS Improv and found my mind moving veeeeeery sloooooowly. We did a bunch of free association exercises, and I just kept drawing blanks. Let’s just say I was a little wierded out.

Some of the issue was my inner critic, which I am now in full fight mode against. But that wasn’t all of it. My brain was, well, a little weak when it came to this stuff.

Imagine this:
A group stands in a circle and one person stands in the middle and sings a song. When that song triggers another song in your mind, you tap the singer on the shoulder and take their place and start singing your song. And the game continues, song after song.

Sounds simple, right? Yeah, except all I could think about was the song the person was singing. It took over my brain.

Our teacher, Barbara Scott, said that it’s important to do free association exercises to keep your mind agile (especially as you age). I guess I thought I already had an agile mind, but you know, when I think about it, most of the things I think about and do during the day are very routine. I don’t think I’m getting as much brain exercise as I think I am — and I bet most of us don’t. Apparently this smart brain of mine needs a little exercise. Good thing I’m taking improv.

——

This series is now complete. Read about the rest of my experience here:

Improv Class #1: Getting Out of My Own Way
Improv Class #3: Don’t Anticipate
Improv Class #4: Reach Beyond the Obvious
Improv Class #5: Choose Your Status

Tonight I began improv class at BATS Theater. I thought taking a class like this would be a good idea because maybe:
a) it’d help me get more comfortable making a fool of myself.
b) I’d learn to trust my instincts more.
c) with any luck, I’d also experience a nice little confidence boost to top it all off.

And, if none of the above happened, well, at least I would have done something really scary and survived. I remember reading a quote by Madonna that went something like, “If it’s scary then I have to do it.” Signing up for improv class felt kind of like my Madonna moment.

And then I had to go to class.

I went braced with a bunch of embarrassing ideas in my head like:
a) I’d have to bark like a dog or some other animal or
b) I’d have to introduce myself by yelling my name as loud as I could while jumping up and down and scratching my armpit.

The list goes on, but the point is the feeling of utter humiliation with a captive audience. Over and over again.

But, you know, I was oddly surprised by this first class. There were forms of humiliation, yes, but here’s the kicker — they were totally self-induced. The exercises themselves were not, in and of themselves, that outrageous. And yet, I sure seemed to spend a lot of effort diminishing myself while I was acting.

My teacher, Barbara Scott, talked about how we feed, nurture and groom the negative voice in our heads – meanwhile hardly taking care of the positive one. I’m sure many of us know this on an intellectual level, but it’s a different thing to experience this dynamic in the form of an exercise designed to show you yourself. For example, in one exercise, I walk around the room pointing at objects and calling them something other than what they actually are:

ME (looking at a door): “Dog!”
NEGATIVE INNER VOICE: “That wasn’t very creative.”
ME (looking at a lock on the door): “Knob!”
NEGATIVE INNER VOICE: “That wasn’t much of a reach.”
ME: “Shut up. I’m trying to come up with ideas here.”

The more exercises we did, the more conscious I became of the negative talk — and how much it blocks me from accessing my own creativity and imagination. When we did exercises that not only made it safe to come up with an outrageous or silly idea, but actually encouraged this behavior (yes! and..!), I started to see the possibilities for imagination. What would it be like to get out of my own way and let my imagination flow, uncensored?!

I don’t have an answer yet, but I do have glimpses.

Stay tuned next week, and I’ll let you know what happens in class #2.

——–

This series is now complete. Read about the rest of my experience here:

Improv Class #2: An Agile Mind
Improv Class #3: Don’t Anticipate
Improv Class #4: Reach Beyond the Obvious
Improv Class #5: Choose Your Status

I’ve been to this bar many times, and I’ve never noticed this lone light bulb hanging over the bar. I’ve sat right in front of it and not seen it. And then, last night, I thought to myself, “Huh. Look at that light bulb. It changes colors.” Now it’s my new favorite thing in the bar…until my next visit, and my next new favorite thing.

I say this because Cafe Van Cleef is jam-packed with stuff. Weird, strange, where-did-they-find-that stuff. It’s an eye-feast inside and will keep you entertained for hours as you sip on their awesome, fresh-squeezed greyhounds.

Okay, so now I sound like a plug for Cafe Van Cleef, so let me get back to my real intention in this blog post: noticing things. I’m a super visual person who really pays attention to the surface of the world. Sight gives me pleasure. I make it a habit to notice little things as I move through my day. To me, that stuff is like candy. I can be in the midst of the most terrible afternoon, and then I notice a beautiful San Francisco sky or an odd combination of objects (like a giant stuffed animal horse left in a shopping cart or a cluster of mannequins through a window), and I’m reminded that there is always wonder around me. Things feel better for a moment. Or, if life was already feeling good that day, it amplifies. In a strange way, this habit of looking is kind of like my form of prayer or meditation. It’s a practice that keeps me sane and loving the world even when it beats me up.

I use my blog, photos, and Twitter to share some of those moments – in hopes that, maybe, hopefully, some of them reach inside a few of you, too.

And if you love Eduard Hill as much as I do, you can always become a fan on facebook.

Afterward, as we wandered through the city back to my car, I snapped some quick shots of little eye candy moments. Cities at night intrigue me: discovering quiet in a place that is typically so full of noise is odd and awesome.

(Note the store sign below; if read without the colon, it’s much more profound than the store owners probably intended.)

Chris Cunningham-Flex. video instalation
Uploaded by enkil_. – Independent web videos.

I cannot get over how rad this is. What a great concept…beautifully executed interaction. Click the link above; Do the whole thing.

STILL IMAGE:

Below is a wish-list of careers. If you know of anyone in the LA area who fits one of these descriptions… please pass the word on! This is an awesome opportunity to reinvigorate the media’s image of a successful women and change the image that little girls will look up to.

Please feel free to forward along to as many people as you would like.

DSC Casting
attn: Juliana Patel
310.776.0678

CASTING WOMEN IN THE FOLLOWING CAREERS FROM WITHIN THE LA AREA:

1. FASHION EDITOR-COULD BE DESIGNER AS WELL

2. TEACHER

3. ASTRONAUT

4. ROCK STAR

5. BALLERINA
-this could be one of our younger girls-like age 6 or so. Or, adult.

6. DOCTOR

7. CHEF

8. ARTIST
-this can be any kind of artist. Let’s find someone with a stunning background. I’m thinking a massive loft with huge paintings/canvas’ as our background type thing. Or, if you find anything else that reads “artist” and will be beautiful to photograph.

9. FIRE FIGHTER

10. VET
-they need to feature an animal. If not a vet, then the equestrian.

11. PILOT
-commercial pilot, not millitary.

12. PHOTOGRAPHER
-could be landscape, studio, whatever.

13. SOCCER COACH

14. SNOW BOARDER/SKIIER
-there’s an Olympic snowboarder we discussed. May be tricky with endorsements, Olympics, etc..But, throwing it out there.

-could be a teenageer as well. Or adult.

15. RACE CAR DRIVER

16. ACTRESS

17. EQUESTRIAN-AN ENGLISH RIDER
-could be a teenager or young girl. Or, adult.

18. CONCERT PIANIST
-could be a a teen or even younger. But, be open to adults too.

19. BOUTIQUE OWNER-
-someone with a very cool looking store.

20. COMPUTER TECH/ENGINEER/SCIENTIST
-she needs to work around computers so we can “read” what she does easily

21. CEO/EXECUTIVE BIZ
-we’d need to film this woman in a high end office, windows all around-very executive, power looking.

This is a collection of pauses in my life shot via my phone during walks, runs, sprints, and frantic circles. I guess it is possible to move and sit still at the same time.

I was a journalism major…and I’m sad to report that this is both a joke and not…it’s exactly how they teach you to put together news stories. I have a reel from my internship at FoxNews to prove it. No, I won’t show it to you – I’d never be able to show my face in public again. Watching it myself is an exercise in humility.

Have a mentioned that I hate American television news?

SFC Double Dutch was founded in 2008 by Death Valley, Switchblade and Venomiss. Trampling on the scruples of good girls and well-mannered men, they created an underground studio where Double Dutch addicts (and soon-to-be addicts) could immerse themselves in the three things their mothers always warned them about: jazz, gin and jump rope.

Today these randy rope fiends teach three different class levels—Level 1, Level 2 and All Stars—kickin’ up trouble with everyone from first-time jumpers to expert tricksters.

WARNING: These girls will stop at nothing to rope you in.

Double Dutch

Website for classes: http://www.sfcdoubledutch.com/

Below is outfit #3 of the week. Check out the rest of her fab-oh Mighty Closet on Maggie Mason’s Mighty Girl blog.

* Photos by Maggie Mason.

Found this animation by Mate Dobray. I love how the pen stays in place, but the drawing spreads…

The song, The Devil is in the Details, is by Boards of Canada. Would really love to use it in a short film I’m mulling over – it’s kindof perfect.

Mate also made this video, called Machine Language:

I love his use of sound as I’ve been thinking a lot about mismatching what a viewer sees and hears in film. In this video, the sounds amplify the sense of movement and strange atmosphere. I had a teaching assistant in art school, Iris Charabi-Berggren, who did something similar, but used actual recordings of human arthritic joints as she projected 3 videos of wrists rotating, heads turning, etc. You can see that piece, Insight, on her website: http://iriscb.com/projects_2006-2007/09.html

All of us in mid-burst…

And here’s my friend Jenni Bregman in all her fabulousness, flinging…

And Jenni free-falling…

If you want to see more pics and posts about this shoot, check:
Modeling in mid-air: part 2
Modeling in mid-air: part 1

Happy holidays to all of you.

They are selling remote controlled tarantulas in Sky Mall magazine – or a black widow; take your pick. My gift-finding quest is over!

That is all.

Make this little guy while messing around with materials.

PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God from Frank Warren on Vimeo.

Watching this, I wondered how the Director, Benjamin Reece, approached these people. How did he get strangers to trust him with their confessions…and keep the camera from being a barrier? What worked? What didn’t? I’m thinking I’ll send him a message to inquire — will let you know the feedback, if I get it.

If you haven’t checked out the book this is based upon, you should: http://postsecret.blogspot.com. It’s a great gift, and something you should own, too.

Here’s some pics I took of Jenni as she was getting pummeled by a puff ball rainstorm:

Gathering the rain

Leaping through the rain storm

Rainfall complete

Gathering the rain for another try

I like to be in front of the camera sometimes because it helps me understand what it’s like for the actors I work with in my films. I am reminded of the importance of clarity of vision and the impact of the director on the mental and emotional space of actors (which, of course, impacts performance). And another tip: being able to see what I look and move like on camera DURING the shoot helps me improve fast. While a good director will use language to help me understand how I fit into a shot, sometimes the best thing they can do is just show me the footage. Then, the light bulb comes on (like it did today): OH! You mean I’m jumping too quickly and am way too far away from everyone! I see it!

I’m really looking forward to seeing the final pics; will post some here later when I get them.

Apparently others were inspired by Longo’s drawings, as well. The “Big Love” commercial below drew from his work – and you can really see the influence. When I watched it the first time, I thought, “Wow. I don’t see many works that make movement feel like something you can touch.”

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine’s version of “America’s Got Talent.” She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

[Watch the whole thing]

Saw this leaf and giant water droplets on the ground on my morning walk. Details. I love having the time to notice the details around me.

One of my all-time favorite music videos ever. Beautifully crafted shadow puppetry.

Love how you not only feel, but see, the the bass in this song. Visual physical.

I love her voice. This video is brilliant in its simplicity.

When I watched this video for the first time, I was fascinated on the surface level of aesthetic. I loved seeing words written from the perspective of a pen. And then it struck me that it is also a great reminder of how far we may have to go to really abandon our own way of seeing things. A useful practice when making something for someone other than you.

This video was created by Mike Strasser for his graduate industrial design program at Stanford. He is currently Founder and Managing Partner at the ID firm Think2Build.

Details:

* Wednesday December 9, 2009
* 6:00pm – 8:00pm
* Adaptive Path: 363 Brannan Street, San Francisco, California 94107
* Beverages and snacks will be provided.

Oh, Michel. How I adore your crazy creative mind.

http://www.5qm.de/neo1-en.html

IRMI : Crystal Ball from Hotbed Media on Vimeo.

Hysterical. I love this commercial! If ONLY there were such a crystal ball. As a project manager for creative teams who inevitably navigates risk…I could not stop laughing. Writing is clever and the piece beautifully put together. Bravo to director, writer and editor of this spot, Patrick Wilkinson from Hotbed.

I love this piece by SpiraliNeurali, just because. Because it’s strange, makes me think about how arbitrary this concept of “time” is, and because I like the music. I just like it. Because.

I’ve got an idea in my head for a new short film (additions to The Daydream Series) that involves birds and animation. So, I’ve been playing around a bit with silhouettes and materials:

And, as often happens with me, one idea bleeds into another and those birds flew right into the painting I’ve been working on:

I haven’t decided yet if they’ll stay. Everything in my work needs to be there for a reason, so I’m pondering if there IS a reason. I’ll let you know the conclusion once I get to it. And, to give you an idea of scale, and the landscape in which I’m making these kinds of decisions, here’s a pic of most of the canvas:

It’s the size of my living room wall, to give you an idea. Lots of little choices to make. Lots of answers revealed along the way. I love that about painting; it truly is an adventure, a journey whose end I do not yet know.

Jointly developed with an acoustics research laboratory and a veterinarian, the Bowlingual works wirelessly (your dog must wear a wireless mic around the neck). Let the device catch noises made by your dog (transmission range: 10m) and it will analyze the “animal language” with a special algorithm before telling you on the LCD screen what was being “said”.

The Bowlingual displays text (in Japanese) and a range of graphics to show what your dog feels, in real-time (there is also speech output). There are around 200 text blocks and icons that illustrate a total of six moods: frustration, joy, sadness etc.

Data can be saved for later analysis. And Takara Tomy even threw in a answering machine function that makes it possible to monitor your dog’s feelings when you’re away.

The Bowlingual will hit Japanese stores on August 23 with a $220 price tag. It’s Japan-only for the time being.

* Article from CrunchGear.com

Had a lovely Thanksgiving at the new home of my friends Jenni and Seth. Beautiful table…almost didn’t want to eat off it. Almost.

And here’s another pic, so you can really relish in the table’s glory. I confess I do have a thing for goblets (they are oh so very feast-y) and these goblets are glorious.

Another treat during the evening was the OLD SKOOL MIXER that Jenni’s mom pulled out of their cupboard. I believe this may be a pre-Julia-Child rendition. And, like all well made articles from the past — it weighs a TON: both hands required for operation, please.

And another pic (yes, I’m into doubles today), because you really have to take a closer look at this thing…(Both hands, Shirley! Both hands!). As you look ask yourself: Is she whipping the potatoes or wrestling the hand-mixer? This is definitely open to interpretation. I’m on team Shirley so my vote is for the former.

Needless to say, in the end, the potatoes were no match for that mixer and they ended up, perfectly mashed, on our plates next to the mmm-mmmm-mmm good turkey Seth prepared. Sidenote: that turkey had some strange contraption on it that looked like fried underwear once out of the oven. Seth assured me there was a practical reason for it…I decided not to ask and just eat, which proved to be in my best interest.

I am a sucker for feasts and friendship. By the end of the eve, my tummy, my eyes and my heart were filled up full and thankful.

“Designed and developed by dutch designer Stijn Ossevoort, Flare is an electronic dress embroidered with wind sensitive dandelions. As the wind gently caresses the dress or if you “blow” on the dandelions themselves, a pattern of lights will twinkle across the dress.” – Syuzi

What I love about this dress: it’s both fashionable and kinda nerdy all at the same time. Also, what’s not to love about the idea of making someone do a complete double-take: ‘Did I imagine that lady was on fire or a fairy or…?’ My mischievous side relishes the idea of that moment.

CLOSEUP OF THE TECHNOLOGY

I turned my living room into an art studio + living room hybrid to make completion a priority. Socializing space and making space have collided…or intertwined, depending on how you look at it. In the evenings, I poke at the painting, making changes, switching colors, standing close, standing back. In the mornings, I sit on my couch eating breakfast, looking long, working the lines over in my mind as I chew. There is something really satisfying about having a project like this to walk away from and come home to. And yet, I’m also anxious to be done with it, to let it go.

Download podcast here

Show Length: 16 minutes

How do you really get to know a place? Through the sounds of cicadas singing by its beaches? By watching its men wave their arms wildly to lure a bull into a ring? Or, maybe even, from a stranger’s couch?

When I made my way to Costa Rica for the first time, I wanted to get under its skin to get a sense of what life is really like there. So, I tapped into an international network of people who open their homes to travelers called Couch Surfing. I figured if I stayed with a local who really knew the culture, I’d have a far richer experience than a tour book could bring.

In this podcast, I share that first couch surfing experience with you through conversations with Dan Hoffer, one of the founders of CouchSurfing.com and Brenda Burnside, my couch surfing host. Along the way, you’ll see how this experience profoundly altered my perspective about how to explore new places…

Resources:
CouchSurfing.com
Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo by Beth Whitman

Thanks for reading and listening!
Teresa Brazen

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of an social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Five brave workers decide to record themselves simultaneously at their office doing something…unthinkable…

…I love this song…
Enjoy.

According to Personas, a project that came out of the Social Media Group at MIT Media Lab, the image above is how the internet sees me. It’s a fascinating process to watch this image in development…as Personas scours the web, you see snippets of text about you from sources throughout the vast internet. I tried it twice, and the question “Who is Teresa Brazen?” was answered differently. Which, of course, leads me to think about perception, in general. Is this depiction accurate? Yes, of course, according to these particular sources. And, no, it’s absolutely off-base and too narrow, if the source you ask is me.

As I watched Personas create a visual summary of my online identity, I kept thinking about something someone once said to me: If you ask 10 of your friend to describe you, you will get different answers, all true. He went on to suggest that maybe it’s the same with God. I don’t claim to know the answer to that one — but as I watched Personas paint a picture of me, I couldn’t help but reflect back on that conversation.

Perception is an interesting thing.

The Daydream Series – 30 Second Trailer from Teresa Brazen on Vimeo.

She fantasized while awake, nudging pictures into motion with her mind.

The Daydream Series is a short film that consists of three visual tone-poems. Visually beautiful, often magical, each daydream takes the viewer on a journey into a particular emotion or moment. The first daydream, “Love Struck” addresses the anticipation, tension, and release in the pursuit of love. “Puddle Song” explores play and its loss in adulthood. In the last segment, “Wood Nymph”, setting, staging, and camerawork come together to portray a creepy, dark tone that turns the audience into an unexpected voyeur. The three pieces together, artfully conceived and executed, create a strange journey through a world of imagination and feeling.

Conceived by artist Teresa Brazen, the film was created through the dedication and support of a talented crew – all members of the film co-op Scary Cow.

And while you’re at it, have a listen to a podcast about parkour I did with parkour enthusiast, Seng Chen. He explains what parkour is, and then I go give it a try for the first time…

Hilarious: at one point I got an error message that read “Server Overload. Too many people making love right now.”

Now THAT’s an error message I like to see. Lol.

See if you can get it…

www.IJustMadeLove.com

To encourage people to take the staircase instead of the escalator, Volkswagen converted a set of steps at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm into working piano keys. The effort is just one stunt that appears on the carmaker’s Rolighetsteorin.se or “Theory of Fun” website, which showcases efforts to get people to change by simply making things more fun.

IN – I at Sydney Opera House
(Content below copied from You Tube)

Sydney Opera House presents the luminous French stage and screen actress, Juliette Binoche, and dancer/choreographer, Akram Khan, in a synthesis of movement and storytelling, IN-I from 18th to 28th February.

These two international stars will showcase their own craft while exploring new creative territory by embracing that of the other. Lending their individual talents, disciplines, ideas and artforms to the production, Binoche and Khan have collaborated to create, produce and co-direct the work. Although IN-I deals with grand universal themes, it remains rooted in a personal exploration of questions about love and relationships.

Binoche, who makes her dance debut in the piece, has been training for two years in preparation. IN-I will also mark a first for Khan, who will act, sing and play guitar on stage in addition to dancing.

IN-I marks Binoches return to the stage for the first time in 10 years. Best known for her films including Chocolat, Damage, Breaking and Entering, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Blue and The English Patient, for which she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Binoche took up the challenge to dance at an age when most dancers have already hung up their pointed shoes.

On working with Khan, Binoche said, Im in the mood now to do something I dont yet know how to do. We all have possibilities within us. With Akram, I felt that we could confront and share new desires, hopes and visions through our respective arts by inventing a common language. I don’t know the result yet, but I know the path that we’re taking is changing me radically. Any artistic expression is a means to an opening which doesn’t belong to anyone but links us to each other in a mysterious and necessary way.

Khan, the Balham-born Bangladeshi will showcase his vitality, passion and creativity for crosscultural expression which has been influenced by his training in Western contemporary dance and Kathak, the Indian classical genre.

Khan commented: “Throughout my career, I have sought out unexpected collaborations with other artists to explore ideas and themes that are important to me. This project with Juliette has pushed me in unexpected directions and has been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. I think we are both moving.”

And below is what I saw. Listen and read together – would love to know what you think of this! (This is a brain dump, responding in the moment, so just go with it!).

Setting:
1920s. Rich, saturated, moody colors like the interior of a night club.
Through the entire piece, you see details about the woman: feet, stocking, hands, purse, waistline – but not her face.

Imagery:
A woman walking on cobblestone streets in a city. We only see her feet in old-timey high heeled shoes and flesh colored stocking with a seam up the back. Now we see her handbag clenched in her hand.

Screen splits in two: her bag in hand walking through city. Other screen: the ocean/beach, no one there. We stay focused on handbag as she walks from city background screen into beach background. Bag swishes as she walks. Ocean/beach screen expands and is the whole scene now. She keeps walking on the beach.

She approaches and opens a free standing doorway on the beach. She goes through and enters a nightclub. We watch her hand clasping the handbag as she moves through a crowd of dancing people. Suddenly (when record skips), the club is empty – we are looking at her waist, facing us, handbag held in front of her with both hands. Now the room is full of people again, and she is still moving through the crowd. She throws down quarters for a drink at the bar. Drink poured. We see her hand lift the drink out of the screen, empty glass replaced. Her hands push her away from the bar. She walks out a door.

Rain. Feet walking in puddles. Stockings wet. Water running down her leg. She walks across the street to another doorway. She goes through to foyer.

Finger on door buzzer. Toe taps as she waits. Flashes of images from earlier moments (city, beach, club, drink) really fast as we hear a radio channel changing.
Car pulls up on the street behind her, and we see her back still facing the door. She turns, hands on hips, then runs and jumps in the back and slides in.

Interior of the car. 4 people in the car, still don’t see faces, just details. Her hands are rested on the seat back in front of her. Her fingers tapping to the music. Her shoulders shake to the music. A man’s hands are on the steering wheel. Everyone is bouncing around. Cop lights flicker outside the car as it whizzes by.

Split to 2 screens: left screen is car interior, right screen is interior of a club. She slides out of car (left screen) and then is walking into club (right screen) – we watch her waistline as she walks. Club screen then expands and is the entire scene now.
We see her hands clutching her purse as she walks to a table. She puts her bag on table and sits. Fidgeting, she sets her bag in her lap. Her hands rest atop her bag, tapping to music. The piano melody ends, and she lifts her hands to clap.

We watch her hands as they rise up in front of her, and we finally see her face. She is smiling and clapping and beautiful.

LEDOH & SALT FARM PRODUCTIONS

Super 8 – 1974 from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

And, they’re amazing. There is something special and humbling about standing next to a giant, over 2,000 year old tree.