While in Paris, Maggie and I will be staying at a hostel (not the one listed in the proposal). During the day, we will visit the museum and Bibliotheque du Film at the Cinematheque Francaise, various screenings at the Forum des Images and the Paris International Film Festival, and of course the Pompidou, the Louvre and general sight-seeing. At these places, I will sketch and take notes about the development of cinema, and each night I will review my notes and write a brief summary of the day's research.
On this blog, I will post my research as well as photos, stories and videos of our adventures in the City of Lights.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Introduction Part I: The Fellowship Process
Hi everyone! I've started this blog to keep you all informed about our trip to Paris this summer!
As you may know, in April, I was awarded the Harriet Sartain Fellowship for International Travel, and because of this I will be spending two weeks in Paris this July accompanied by my sister and translator, Maggie.
Here's how the fellowship process worked:
Annually, Moore hosts its Junior Fellowship Competition in which Junior level students with a gpa of 3.0 or above (and approval from their department chairs) can compete for money to travel and expand their studies.
Each student wishing to compete must submit a formal proposal for travel and research she intends to undergo if awarded the fellowship and must also work with the Galleries at Moore to execute an exhibition of her artwork related to her proposal.
The fellowship committee reviews the exhibitions and the proposals and chooses four students to fund. This year, approximately 20 talented and well-qualified students participated in the competition.
Here are images from my exhibition:
My show was an interactive installation with three videos, movie star head necklaces, a couch and a life-sized dummy of Clint Eastwood called "The What-If Viewing Station."
In order to view the installation, the viewer was required to choose a movie star head necklace from the wall, wear it and sit on the couch next to the dummy and watch the videos.
Here's my proposal:
The cinema has perhaps been the most influential visual medium in the creation of contemporary popular culture. The heroes and myths created by the popular cinema are the focus of my studio work. I take these characters ingrained with their own stories and experiment with the possibilities of changing their context in order to create new, more personal narratives. In order to fully understand these mythologies, I must understand how they have developed. The purpose of this fellowship is to research the development of popular cinematic mythology by traveling to the birthplace of cinema, Paris, France and studying at the Cinematheque Francaise.
An unparalleled collection of posters, costume and set drawings, press reviews, photos of film shoots and directors, books about movies, periodic collections, videos and DVD's are available for public view at the Cinematheque Francaise. During my stay in Paris, the Cinematheque Francaise will feature a special exhibition highlighting the career of Georges Melies, a defining filmmaker in the development of early cinema, whose work is credited as providing a basis for contemporary filmmaking strategies. Being able to research these materials is crucial in furthering my work as I attempt to discuss themes in cinematic popular culture.
In addition to the study of mainstream, popular cinema, it is essential that I investigate rare films in order to fully understand the context from which the mainstream emerges. In order to do this, I will visit the Forum des Images, an archive cinema featuring approximately five daily screenings of rarely screened and little known films. Like the materials at the Cinematheque Francaise, many of the materials shown at the Forum des Images are only available on site, and therefor traveling to Paris is essential in the furtherance of my studio work.
I will stay in the city for two weeks at the Woodstock youth hostel. My daily activities will include regular visits to the Cinematheque Francaise and the Forum des Images, as well as the Paris Cinema International Film Festival, at which I can gain exposure to the cutting edge of contemporary filmmaking. Also during my stay in Paris, I will be able to attend the Cinema en Plein Air, an outdoor cinema event at which the public can view films on Europe's largest inflatable screen. Because Paris is not only the center of world cinema, but also a hub of the visual arts, I intend take advantage of its vast resources by visiting the Louvre, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Musée de l'Orangerie. Though many of the places and events listed in this proposal have some English language offerings, to effectively research and make use of all of the resources available, I will travel with a friend who is fluent in French and will act as my translator.
While in Paris, I will write and sketch from the information at these institutions and events, and when I return to the United States, I will produce a ten-minute video piece based on the research compiled in Paris. The video will focus on key elements of cinematic narrative, especially with regards to American cinema, which developed specifically from the pioneering filmmakers of the French film industry. I hope to use the greater understanding of this aspect of popular culture so that I can more effectively appropriate these ideas into new contexts and narratives in my own drawing and video work.
By engaging directly with the numerous and often one-of-a-kind materials at the Cinematheque Francaise and the Forum des Images, I will gain invaluable insight into the nature and development of the cinematic narrative that can only come from a combination of extensive research and actually experiencing films. Having the world's largest cinema archive at my disposal offers me a particularly crucial opportunity to sample from the entire history of film, both from mainstream works and rare films only available at the Cinematheque Francaise and the Forum des Images. In addition to studying the history of mainstream and avant-garde films, attendance at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival will provide insight into the future of cinema and its relationship to its historic roots. The benefits of being able to work from primary source materials and to travel to the birthplace of cinema will not only benefit my current studio work by expanding the imagery and content of my drawings and videos, but will also serve to benefit future endeavors by establishing a solid basis for expanded research. I anticipate that this research will not only inform my work, but provide an understanding of humanity and how it creates its own image through the cinematographer's lens.
As you may know, in April, I was awarded the Harriet Sartain Fellowship for International Travel, and because of this I will be spending two weeks in Paris this July accompanied by my sister and translator, Maggie.
Here's how the fellowship process worked:
Annually, Moore hosts its Junior Fellowship Competition in which Junior level students with a gpa of 3.0 or above (and approval from their department chairs) can compete for money to travel and expand their studies.
Each student wishing to compete must submit a formal proposal for travel and research she intends to undergo if awarded the fellowship and must also work with the Galleries at Moore to execute an exhibition of her artwork related to her proposal.
The fellowship committee reviews the exhibitions and the proposals and chooses four students to fund. This year, approximately 20 talented and well-qualified students participated in the competition.
Here are images from my exhibition:
My show was an interactive installation with three videos, movie star head necklaces, a couch and a life-sized dummy of Clint Eastwood called "The What-If Viewing Station."
In order to view the installation, the viewer was required to choose a movie star head necklace from the wall, wear it and sit on the couch next to the dummy and watch the videos.
Here's my proposal:
The cinema has perhaps been the most influential visual medium in the creation of contemporary popular culture. The heroes and myths created by the popular cinema are the focus of my studio work. I take these characters ingrained with their own stories and experiment with the possibilities of changing their context in order to create new, more personal narratives. In order to fully understand these mythologies, I must understand how they have developed. The purpose of this fellowship is to research the development of popular cinematic mythology by traveling to the birthplace of cinema, Paris, France and studying at the Cinematheque Francaise.
An unparalleled collection of posters, costume and set drawings, press reviews, photos of film shoots and directors, books about movies, periodic collections, videos and DVD's are available for public view at the Cinematheque Francaise. During my stay in Paris, the Cinematheque Francaise will feature a special exhibition highlighting the career of Georges Melies, a defining filmmaker in the development of early cinema, whose work is credited as providing a basis for contemporary filmmaking strategies. Being able to research these materials is crucial in furthering my work as I attempt to discuss themes in cinematic popular culture.
In addition to the study of mainstream, popular cinema, it is essential that I investigate rare films in order to fully understand the context from which the mainstream emerges. In order to do this, I will visit the Forum des Images, an archive cinema featuring approximately five daily screenings of rarely screened and little known films. Like the materials at the Cinematheque Francaise, many of the materials shown at the Forum des Images are only available on site, and therefor traveling to Paris is essential in the furtherance of my studio work.
I will stay in the city for two weeks at the Woodstock youth hostel. My daily activities will include regular visits to the Cinematheque Francaise and the Forum des Images, as well as the Paris Cinema International Film Festival, at which I can gain exposure to the cutting edge of contemporary filmmaking. Also during my stay in Paris, I will be able to attend the Cinema en Plein Air, an outdoor cinema event at which the public can view films on Europe's largest inflatable screen. Because Paris is not only the center of world cinema, but also a hub of the visual arts, I intend take advantage of its vast resources by visiting the Louvre, the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Musée de l'Orangerie. Though many of the places and events listed in this proposal have some English language offerings, to effectively research and make use of all of the resources available, I will travel with a friend who is fluent in French and will act as my translator.
While in Paris, I will write and sketch from the information at these institutions and events, and when I return to the United States, I will produce a ten-minute video piece based on the research compiled in Paris. The video will focus on key elements of cinematic narrative, especially with regards to American cinema, which developed specifically from the pioneering filmmakers of the French film industry. I hope to use the greater understanding of this aspect of popular culture so that I can more effectively appropriate these ideas into new contexts and narratives in my own drawing and video work.
By engaging directly with the numerous and often one-of-a-kind materials at the Cinematheque Francaise and the Forum des Images, I will gain invaluable insight into the nature and development of the cinematic narrative that can only come from a combination of extensive research and actually experiencing films. Having the world's largest cinema archive at my disposal offers me a particularly crucial opportunity to sample from the entire history of film, both from mainstream works and rare films only available at the Cinematheque Francaise and the Forum des Images. In addition to studying the history of mainstream and avant-garde films, attendance at the Paris Cinema International Film Festival will provide insight into the future of cinema and its relationship to its historic roots. The benefits of being able to work from primary source materials and to travel to the birthplace of cinema will not only benefit my current studio work by expanding the imagery and content of my drawings and videos, but will also serve to benefit future endeavors by establishing a solid basis for expanded research. I anticipate that this research will not only inform my work, but provide an understanding of humanity and how it creates its own image through the cinematographer's lens.
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