Hello Bindu & Didier
Desire, Action, Will, Choices, Options, Time, Patience, Ideas, Creative energy and so on – we have all these. Let’s just do it
Bindu just posted this today 10th:
“Time is short we need to communicate more often, everyday, or alternate- applicable to all of us.”
I agree with this, and I am sorry that today is 10th February and the last time I posted a message was on February 8th. On this point, I had written quite a lot, and responded to Bindu’s suggestions, while sharing details about how I saw “the way forward” her suggestion. I believe that we had spent a long time having positive discussions about our theme of NEW PLACE.
I strongly believe that through our many communications, we have had many Actions and Reactions that have generated positive discussions around and about our theme of NEW PLACE. Some how, some of our recent communications felt like we were almost starting again from scratch to begin ‘discussing’ – I felt we had at least agreed on how to approach NEW PLACE.
With regards to our ‘General’ theme of New Place, I am very delighted that Bindu had suggested (sometime ago) that 3 of us could develop something around this theme. When I look back at some of our discussions/communications, I can see clearly that we had spent a lot of ‘Productive’ time discussing, defining and sharing our ideas about NEW PLACE. We also spent some time talking about the MASKS we choose to wear at various times and so on. For me, these discussions helped me a lot with how I wanted to approach or formulate a way of exploring our chosen theme of New Place.
It was very wonderful again when Bindu asked, “Can our work not be about our 3 different perceptions of a New Place?” - for me, this was a solution to how we could work on this theme and I agreed and said so quickly – Again, I was very pleased about this and I did write about some of my ideas and brief indications of how I would like to approach the theme of New Place. And I think that we have variously shared our views and definitions of NEW PLACE in some of our dialogues.
Actually, I am comfortable with the idea of 3 of us individually finding ways to interpret or define how we perceive NEW PLACE. So I was surprised when Didier said (direct quote) “In the unavalailability of an operation definition of New Place, I thus in order to work had to conceive my own defintion.” I was not expecting that a definition will come from someone - the idea/theme was open for interpretation, as we wanted…
Maybe I got the wrong impression, but I genuinely felt that we had agreed on approaching the theme of NEW PLACE in the way Bindu had suggested (great idea!). This is why I shared my ideas on the 7th of February as repeated here: “About our NEW PLACE project – my take on this would be issues around Identity & Belonging for a person in the Diaspora. How one constructs ‘identities’, (even though these could be unstable or changing from time to time), and how one feels & negotiates a sense of ‘belonging’. How does one locate the ‘self’ between two worlds? Is there a sense of being in a state of constant flux when a person tries to navigate between the worlds of origin and the adoptive country? Are we (people in the Diaspora) constantly reproducing ourselves anew when we move between the two very separate cultural spaces? Do we find that we are always in a New Place because of shifting and changing our positions – both mentally and physically? These are some of the questions and issues I would like to explore with this project; and I am interested to see how these would manifest in visual representations. I had indicated in my previous communication that, I would attempt to explore these ideas/issues through other people.”
On the 8th of February, I said, “I have to work out quickly if the people I look for should be first or second Diaspora generation, or a mixture (that is one of each?)…” – I was trying to share with you both an aspect of my research strategy; it was not a sign that I was in a hurry – I am sorry if it came across like this. I am just very conscious of the fact that this is the period of researching and developing our ideas – I was merely being realistic, and acting according to the Time we have. We have a period dedicated our research & development of ideas before we submit our proposals – these processes take time. My time, (like all/most of us), is not solely devoted to IAA project. My research will require a certain amount of traveling to search/look for the appropriate participant (s) out there in the real world.
On the 3rd of February, I wrote “When we started this discussion about a collaborative project, I said that I am curious to explore the idea of NEW PLACE by looking at how others deal with the challenges or questions of ‘belonging’ and a state of being in-between two worlds that are in essence ‘New Places’ of sorts.
On the question of form, I would like to express my desire to use both still and moving images to explore the notion of NEW PLACE. I am thinking about a very short visual piece that would use Montage, Split screen and other filmic elements to communicate ideas, feelings and the meaning of a New Place for particular persons (x 2) at a particular locale in time.”
I assumed that because I had expressed all the above, I had communicated how I wanted to approach the theme of New Place.
Again, I had assumed that we were going to individually produce separate pieces of work, using our various art forms to express and communicate our ideas of NEW PLACE – especially because of our 3 very different locations. Also, we have budgetary issues to consider in relation to the realization of our projects.
On the 8th, Bindu posted this:
“Lets try to suggest to each other some works that we could see, refer to or watch some films on youtube? Any takers?”
Sorry Bindu, I have no examples of works to suggest – My resource and exploration of my sub theme of ‘Identity & Belonging’, based around our general theme of NEW PLACE would come directly from the ‘Person (s) or Participant that I choose for the piece, and again, here are the questions that I wish to explore using the theme of NEW PLACE – “How one constructs ‘identities’, (even though these could be unstable or changing from time to time), and how one feels & negotiates a sense of ‘belonging’. How does one locate the ‘self’ between two worlds? Is there a sense of being in a state of constant flux when a person tries to navigate between the worlds of origin and the adoptive country? Are we (people in the Diaspora) constantly reproducing ourselves anew when as we move between the two very separate cultural spaces? Do we find that we are always in a New Place because of shifting and changing of positions – both mentally and physically?”
My desire is to explore these questions through one or two persons, and I would like to make a 3-5 minute creative/experimental documentary film.
Let me say again that I am happy for us to explore NEW PLACE from our very 3 different perspectives.
I don’t feel that any of us should feel we ‘have to make this project as a collaborative piece’ – we have been give a choice – work individually or present a joint project. It’s up to us. However, for me personally, the idea of us (3) interpreting the theme of NEW PLACE in whatever way we choose is seductive, appealing & challenging…
I have been very excited about just getting on with it and finding my own way to explore, interpret and express the concept of NEW PLACE. Oh, and I did warn you both that I am plain and boring in how I want to approach the theme. I can only do what I know, and what I am comfortable with. There are times when I refuse to wear a MASK.
I hope all is clear so far as I am concerned. Time is limited; I do not have endless time to spend thinking and discussing or saying the same thing over and over again.
The Budget is not unlimited. And also, our 3 different locations will impose a limitation to the possibility of working together in the same Space.
We all have our own ideas of NEW PLACE – why don’t we just get on and develop something, from our different perspectives, using our different art forms, and we see if the IAA team is keen or interested.
Warm greetings Beautiful minds.
Florence
xxx
