Things to say
Full disclosure: I never really finished doing the daily practice. I only really wrote three stories about the Black Flood world and that was it... After the third one that I wrote I think I just began to not like how the whole thing was shaping up. It all seemed too forced and on the nose. The way that the characters were speaking about things just began to feel so very unnatural. I feel like this might be a result of me not having done enough research before getting into the daily practice... I know it would have been useful either way, but I did not feel like I had enough material to play with at the time.
So I will finish transcribing the 3 that I did do in a bit, but I'm not going to spend more time trying to make it to 7 for the sake of the assignment. I think my time and energy would be much better invested in just trying to move forward with the project doing what I feel is necessary.
That being said, there are ways in which I have managed to make some progress.
I've reached out to Harshini, a Theater senior (one of my interviews is with her) who made puppets for a student's capstone last year. She said she could help me out with puppets, but her capstone is this weekend so she will help me next week. I also reached out to Judi Olsen of the costume shop who got back to me saying that she doesn't have much experience with puppets but that she could help me figure things out. Hopefully will be meeting with next week.
Research has been tough. There's not much written that I can find in the library. Newspapers have things, but they don't go into much detail. It is also especially hard because my project focuses on local (as in Abu Dhabi-based, not necessarily Emirati) artists, who sometimes don't have the resources to reach out as far into the media. Because of this, most of the research that ends up feeling helpful is by speaking directly with people. The conversation with Bill opened up so many thoughts and revealed a lot of what he sees in the community, which was super helpful.
I also just decided to narrow down my research scope (that's good, no?). Instead of a big broad "arts scene in Abu Dhabi" I will instead focus on "performing arts in Abu Dhabi." I'm really going to try to reach out into the poetry community and see who I can talk to. A friend also just recommended me someone to talk to who hosts and promotes local musicians in Abu Dhabi, so I'm gonna go for that as well. Go for that as in I'll try to reach out there as well.
From now on maybe I'll start taking some liberties with my process for this thing. I realize that I will not find my process by just trying to accomplish assignments for the sake of a class. I need to accomplish assignments for the sake of myself, of my self-improvement. I'll get there, it's just going to take a while of being lost not knowing what to do. But that's what it's all about, isn't it?
Things to do moving forward:
So I will finish transcribing the 3 that I did do in a bit, but I'm not going to spend more time trying to make it to 7 for the sake of the assignment. I think my time and energy would be much better invested in just trying to move forward with the project doing what I feel is necessary.
That being said, there are ways in which I have managed to make some progress.
I've reached out to Harshini, a Theater senior (one of my interviews is with her) who made puppets for a student's capstone last year. She said she could help me out with puppets, but her capstone is this weekend so she will help me next week. I also reached out to Judi Olsen of the costume shop who got back to me saying that she doesn't have much experience with puppets but that she could help me figure things out. Hopefully will be meeting with next week.
Research has been tough. There's not much written that I can find in the library. Newspapers have things, but they don't go into much detail. It is also especially hard because my project focuses on local (as in Abu Dhabi-based, not necessarily Emirati) artists, who sometimes don't have the resources to reach out as far into the media. Because of this, most of the research that ends up feeling helpful is by speaking directly with people. The conversation with Bill opened up so many thoughts and revealed a lot of what he sees in the community, which was super helpful.
I also just decided to narrow down my research scope (that's good, no?). Instead of a big broad "arts scene in Abu Dhabi" I will instead focus on "performing arts in Abu Dhabi." I'm really going to try to reach out into the poetry community and see who I can talk to. A friend also just recommended me someone to talk to who hosts and promotes local musicians in Abu Dhabi, so I'm gonna go for that as well. Go for that as in I'll try to reach out there as well.
From now on maybe I'll start taking some liberties with my process for this thing. I realize that I will not find my process by just trying to accomplish assignments for the sake of a class. I need to accomplish assignments for the sake of myself, of my self-improvement. I'll get there, it's just going to take a while of being lost not knowing what to do. But that's what it's all about, isn't it?
Things to do moving forward:
- Figure out the whole puppet thing:
- Try out making and using different types of puppets and then plan the show around what I find I want to use from there.
- Get a collaborator:
- I realized literally yesterday that big part of the reason why I've been struggling so much this semester is because these classes ask me to produce a lot of individual creative work. I'm not used to that. I do theater, which is pretty much always collaborative. There's a joy in that that I feel I need. So I'm going to start reaching out to people whom I may collaborate with.
- For now, I for sure want to try to reach out to someone who can write poetry in Arabic. I don't know who, I'll have to ask around.
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