Thursday, April 30, 2009

INTENDED CONSEQUENCES lecture.









I attended the Jonathan Torgonik photojournalist INTENDED CONSEQUENCES lecture that was based on the photography of children born of rape in the Rwanda genocide 15 years ago. The experience was moving, not for the photographic art, per se, but for the included testimonies of actual victims of rape from that place in history (3 women now residing under different names in the U.S.). I learned that I have little to complain about in life in comparison to others who have watched their mothers and children raped, butchered and killed in front of them. Now, those who have survived are left with HIV and children due to the war weapon used against them, infection and rape. Under different names to protect them and their children, they live in the U.S. and have joined together with Amnesty International to educate others about the ongoing genocides that take place around the world. The women of Rwanda who came to the lecture to speak offered their testimonies, and were honest, and confided that some mothers can love the enemies seeded children born into this world this violent way, and other mothers cannot love their children at all.



Here is the LINK to the short documentary film about this organized effort !!!

http://mediastorm.org/0024.htm

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Infamous Pants.

As you well know, my favorite pants ripped at the crotch area this past weekend. I used a safety pin, but it kept popping off, and kinda a dangerous place to have a "popping off" safety pin (don't you think?) . I know, I know, "joey, just go buy a new pair". Well, he just can't let go that easily. I loved these pants. So here is what he (meaning i) did,

1) went to my car and got them out of the passenger seat. wrinkled.
2) walked around the Bronx looking for a Dry Cleaners place.
3) find a Dry Cleaners place and urge them to please fix my pants again.
4) the Korean owner finally understands that I DON'T CARE THAT THEY WILL NEVER LOOK PERFECT AGAIN, AND A PATCH IS FINE.
5) I get a receipt and pick them up on Friday.

Monday, April 27, 2009

DECONSTRUCTION ballet practice.


After my screening of NICE PEOPLE at the EVERSON MUSEUM in Syracuse New York yesterday afternoon, I was approached by someone who worked at the museum and caught the last 5 minutes of my new film. He had the most interesting feedback that i have gotten thus far on this work. He told me first that my film made him feel immediately "JOYOUS" rather than depressed at the aftermath of the prinicipal character's finality. He then said to me that he felt this film was in the vein of true "deconstructionism'. He explained that the subliminal messages in the film served, for him, a complete opposite meaning than the text being delivered to the audience onscreen as truth's "perception". He told me to look up the writings of Jacques Derrida to learn more about what my film unconciously delivered. I did. And after a mere GOOGLE, here you go:


Deconstruction is the name given by French philosopher Jacques Derrida to an approach (whether in philosophy, literary analysis, or in other fields) which rigorously pursues the meaning of a text to the point of undoing the oppositions on which it is apparently founded, and to the point of showing that those foundations are irreducibly complex, unstable or, indeed, impossible.
Deconstruction generally operates by conducting close textual readings with a view to demonstrating that the text is not a discrete whole, and that it on the contrary contains several irreconcilable, contradictory meanings. What is shown through this process, therefore, is that there is more than one interpretation of a text, that these interpretations are inextricably linked in and by the text itself, that the incompatibility of these interpretations is irreducible, and thus that there is a point beyond which the particular line of interpretative reading cannot go: Derrida refers to this point as an aporia in the text, and hence he refers to deconstructive reading as "aporetic." J. Hillis Miller has described deconstruction in the following terms: “Deconstruction is not a dismantling of the structure of a text, but a demonstration that it has already dismantled itself. Its apparently-solid ground is no rock, but thin air."

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Terribly affected.


I have worked for over a decade with very disturbed people.
I have worked with every type of illness known in the DSM IV.
I have heard of the story of the young German girl Anneliese.
I just heard the actual tape recordings released by the pastor in her hometown.
I just saw the released still images taken by her family.
I am 100% convinced that this young girl was truly possessed by an entity.
This IS NOT Schizophrenia. This IS NOT an EPISODE.
This is OTHER. This is Possession.
I will never understand how this girls parents moved beyond this chapter in their life.
I would NOT be able to.
I hope that others learn from this horror, and stay close to a higher power of love, not hate.

click on these links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZfg57LZ34g&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8hXLl_8XHM

http://www.fotofetch.com/

Counting Pennies.


You know things are "rough" when you have to dig into your penny collection to make ends meet. Times are tough and I won't be able to afford too much at any fancy restaurants this month. No steak, looks like McDonalds 'biggie-sizing" for kicks. Anyways, I managed to save money and mass print information pamphlets to pass out at my film screening for NICE PEOPLE (based on a ballet dancer with BDD).
Last weekend was so great at SMITH college. I am hoping this weekend will be good, even though I do wish I had a little bit of money to burn. oh well. That's the price of single parenthood.
I am blessed in many more ways than t-bone steak (at least that's what i must continue to tell myself).


Monday, April 20, 2009

BREAKFAST AT BRONX-iffanys


listen, this blog is meant to be short and sweet.

look at what the hell a "bronx breakfast" looks like in a diner under a subway.

before I ate any part of it, i said to myself, "joey, this looks like a very bad Monet". If he left painting impressionist lillypads and sunk his teeth into "realism' greasy food, it'd probably look sumthin'-like-this...

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Strong presentation. THIN





The THIN photographic show at the SMITH COLLEGE MUSEUM was remarkable. I am still debating the issues of intrusion and exploitation, but somewhere inside i feel that this type of personality disorder illness seeks the kind of attention this artist delivered. Polly is now dead. Her death marks the great importance of the material explored. For any parent with a daughter, this subject matter is a must.


Friday, April 17, 2009

Powerful interview. An honest person.


click here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy-yl5GRtq4

Building my Installation Movie Screen :)




Friday nite. Most people are excited about going to Burger King and "King Size-ing" the fries. I am locked up in my apt. designing, building, glueing, and spray-painting my film installation piece that will premiere at BWAC (Brooklyn, NY) in May. Jane (akame) got the cute lil' tv on EBAY before they booted me off cause I didn't pay some guy $2.99 for a magazine I changed my mind on getting. Oh well. I got my TV. And now, thanks to the wonderful Courtney Love, I have been taught that ETSY.COM is a far betta site to shop from. um, she is WAY right!

enjoy,
luv,
akame
xoxoxo

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Sick Contemporary Love Affairs. vroom vroom.


click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvuY1nO27Go


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Coco Sumner IS music !


For all those who may not be aware, there is a new talent that is about to be unleashed.
Her name is Coco Sumner.
I highly recommend that anyone with a true interest in the future of music, and voice, check out this raw and young talent !

Scary Article about TWITTER stalkers/hacking.

CLICK HERE:

http://soshable.com/tequila-gibson-twitter/

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Awesome Lecture.








It was a great and intimate lecture to go to. Jacqueline Hassink is a true artist. I learned from this talk, and I learned from her "process". What are you talkin about? Be specific please (me talking in my head to myself)...

1) her creative/obsessive use of organizing thoughts into journal pads.
2) her ability to present very cold, clinical and intimidating corporate offices for us inept idiots (myself) to observe carefully and pretend to hang out in (at least that's what I pretended to do).
3) her choice of placing "black" pages on the companies that refused to let her photograph their office spaces.
4) her need to keep taking photographs (analog not digital) and publish books whether she has a broad audience or not. Simply "because".

It's important to go to these type of things (um, yeah you joey). to get out. to expose ourselves to others thought processes and methods. Indirectly something is taken home with us. Something that may be fortunate, or unfortunate. Either way, it becomes our creative company.

akame.
xo

halarious ! YOU GO LINDSAY !!!! i love you more now !


CLICK ON THIS LINK ! :
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/0d646e2edb/lindsay-lohan-s-eharmony-profile

Lecture talk tonite.


I have so much to do. And am always looking for excuses to not "do them".
Here's my latest excuse, there's a still photography lecture tonite and I wanna go. As I have been delving more into still photography in my work, and trying to understand the prejudice against the digital form of image capture, I wanna learn as much as possible and expose myself to these dialogues. i'm gonna go to this Hassink artist talk thingy tonite. Hopefully I will get myself a strong coffee after she blabs and shows her slideshow, so that I will have the energy and enthusiasm, to get my own personal artistic stuff done when i get home. i mean, it won't be too too late (i.e. this is me trying to bullcrap myself into an excuse to go).

Car Girls, Jacqueline Hassink
Artist's Talk and Book Signing


WHERE: Aperture Gallery

Dutch artist Jacqueline Hassink discusses her latest book, Car Girls, in the context of her other critically acclaimed books and exhibitions that deal conceptually with issues of power and social relations. Car Girls is a body of photographic work that Hassink created over five years, photographing "car girls" during major car shows in seven different cities on three continents. As she describes it, Hassink uses these sites to reflect on "differing cultural values with regard to their ideal images of beauty and women. The series captures the moments during the women's performances when they become more like dolls or tools than individuals."

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Embarrased to admit.



The teeny-bop vampire love story in-a-parking-lot movie, "TWILIGHT" has about million items for sale. I usually glance, disregard and keep struttin', but today a collaged book cover caught my eye. Probably because it looked like my refrigerator, a packed colorful collage. It was a new book on THE MAKING OF TWILIGHT DIRECTORS SKETCHES AND NOTES.

I highly recommend this book for any person interested in film as art, and any artist interested in enjoying the documented "process" of creativity. The book is full of sketches, notes, location scoutings, just such a joy to read and browse through.Wanna know how much I liked it :

1) I paid $20 bucks for it.
2) I am downloading the dumb movie to watch and compare to the books comments and drawing sketches.


What a Life this guy Jane has huh. Yeah, I know. I Know. Whateva. THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE THIS VERY SECOND. YOU ARE ON JANE'S BLOG !!!!!

A big sloppy kiss to you, my greatest fan (which really means ME).



xoxoxo

Friday, April 10, 2009

Inspiring security guarded "moment" .


Yesterday I woulda stayed in my apartment. Quiet. Hidden. Thinking. Trying not to be thinking. A film school friend, and experimental professor, convinced me to get out and catch a ride with him. He wanted company. He had to ride and meet a teacher of his at the NEW SCHOOL OF ART in Manhattan. I had to wait in the lobby due to security reasons (I ain't enrolled in the school). Long story short, wow. I was just so blown away. The elevator I was not allowed to get into was covered in a gigantic color photograph of a beautiful girl typing pensively. Two giant flat monitors flashing upcoming Guest Speakers and Artist Installations. Students swishing in and out of the street glass doors. Thank God I am a member of that race of people. Thank God I am a proud member the the creative community.

Whether they let me ride on the damn elevator or not. Screw it. The security guard was a whole other race anyways. No biggie.

later.
akame.xo

Monday, April 6, 2009

thats enough of a teaser!





How was this done? These were images that I collected and transferred to transparency paper. Projected onto an old white foam core. Took digital stills of. Then "Photoshopped". The result ends up being this Vintage looking collection of people. Fact - the images are all collected and 2008 photographs of contemporary people. These are all teaser images for my new film, "Homewrecka".

more...





Friday, April 3, 2009

SCIENTIFIC STUDY ON CREATIVITY.

Psychologists from the University of Toronto and Harvard University have identified one of the biological bases of creativity.
________________________________________
The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other people's brains might shut out this same information through a process called "latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs. Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition.
"This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment," says co-author and U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson. "The normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even though that object is much more complex and interesting than he or she thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new possibilities."
Previously, scientists have associated failure to screen out stimuli with psychosis. However, Peterson and his co-researchers - lead author and psychology lecturer Shelley Carson of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard PhD candidate Daniel Higgins - hypothesized that it might also contribute to original thinking, especially when combined with high IQ. They administered tests of latent inhibition to Harvard undergraduates. Those classified as eminent creative achievers - participants under age 21 who reported unusually high scores in a single area of creative achievement - were seven times more likely to have low latent inhibition scores.
The authors hypothesize that latent inhibition may be positive when combined with high intelligence and good working memory - the capacity to think about many things at once - but negative otherwise. Peterson states: "If you are open to new information, new ideas, you better be able to intelligently and carefully edit and choose. If you have 50 ideas, only two or three are likely to be good. You have to be able to discriminate or you'll get swamped."
"Scientists have wondered for a long time why madness and creativity seem linked," says Carson. "It appears likely that low levels of latent inhibition and exceptional flexibility in thought might predispose to mental illness under some conditions and to creative accomplishment under others."
For example, during the early stages of diseases such as schizophrenia, which are often accompanied by feelings of deep insight, mystical knowledge and religious experience, chemical changes take place in which latent inhibition disappears.
"We are very excited by the results of these studies," says Peterson. "It appears that we have not only identified one of the biological bases of creativity but have moved towards cracking an age-old mystery: the relationship between genius, madness and the doors of perception."
This research was funded by the Stimson Fund and the Clark Fund at Harvard University and by the Connaught Fund at U of T.