1) I started my journey in WFTDA skills testing so that I could skate in bouts with the Ohio Roller Girls. WFTDA stands for Women's Flat Track Derby Association for those who are new to derby. I'm a baby in this sport. It's frightening, humbling and exciting all at the same time. And it's engrossing.
2) As for my course work, this quarter was completely tech heavy. I went to Gaga technique once or twice a week as an independent study, but other than that my physical practice really involved skating, hitting, and falling during derby practice. If it weren't for derby, I really wouldn't have had much time away from the computer. BUT a lot of great things came out of this quarter. Here goes:
Since the video file is too large, these are some snapshots from an animation I created in Maya. This was my first class in modeling, animating and lighting objects using software - yet another new world I visited this quarter. More humiliation perhaps, but a lot of little discoveries. I'm not sure what the future holds for me and Maya, but I do know that I would like to take the concept from this project and apply it to a redesign of my website.
And then there's "Women of the Flat Track." For my Dance for Camera/Video Editing class, I decided to focus on derby. Hey - it's movement! Kind of hard to deny that. What I discovered was that I wanted to make a feature-length documentary about the Ohio Roller Girls. My final project became a trailer (since obviously I wasn't going to make a documentary in less than 10 weeks). I'm super psyched to make the documentary now. Some of the footage will actually tie into my MFA project as well, which is tentative called "Portraiture and Perception." (That's another thing, I handed in my first draft of my final project to my committee. Things are moving along with this grad degree business!) You can find the trailer at my vimeo account, however, you'll need a password to see the video. Let me know if you have any questions....
As a continued independent study project, I am collaborating with Maree ReMalia and Michael Morris to develop merrygogo, Maree's website that examines her choreographic process. The attached image is a screenshot of "my" process. The mind map was started by Michael and at this point, I was just testing how the embedding of the map was going to work. I have more formating and transparency issues, but development is coming along.
It's already the week of Christmas. Now that I've wrapped up the 2010 Fall Quarter, I think I can move on (well except for the fact that all of these projects are continuing in one way or another). For now though - Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
