Oh hey there future me. How’s it going? First of all I would like to congratulate you for reading this, that means you’re not dead or in jail, good for you. Hopefully you’re living the good life in a city where wearing sweatpants in public is still socially acceptable. If you aren’t currently in sweatpants, you should go put them on because they are great, I’m actually writing this reflection in them and it is amazing. But you’re probably not here for talk on glorious sweatpants, because this is information you are already aware of. Rather, you’re in search of some important and interesting stuff we covered in this class because your concussion-ravaged brain can’t remember shit anymore. That’s cool, I got you covered.
First things first, remember that this class really helped you branch out creatively and really think about how to compose things that don’t suck. CBA killed your soul and made you really boring for a while. This was a class that enabled you to start thinking on a creative scale again, and not just about metrics and strategy. Although DJ Spooky’s writing was arguably some of the most frustrating work ever, it really helped you examine the underlying concepts of creativity and how everything is a derivative of something. This whole notion of the archive and everything coming from an archive made you pay closer attention to your life and figure out where your major influences come from. Also tangentially, don’t forget that thing by Judith “Jack” Halbertsam, that article was really good. You should reread it.
Probably the best way to help you get things from this post is to go over the work we did, and then give a little gloss about influences or something, I dunno, I have like four days left of college and I’m kind of zoning out writing this.
Photo Recovery Story:
You did a photo essay on your good friend Josh. It was called Home and it was pretty OK. Could have been better, but I mean, it wasn’t bad I think if you put more effort into it, it could have ended up something similar to this http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/01/08/nyregion/2010-hardware-ss_index.html or this http://jamesmollison.com/books/where-children-sleep/. These photo essays were amazing and at the time, gave you the inspiration for the project. The point of this recovery project was “to bring to life something that has been forgotten, undocumented, untold, or un-archived.” Keep that goal in mind for pretty much any fun projects you do going forward because it makes you decide what is important, and deserves to be archived.
The second photo essay you did was hella better, or at least had better images. It wasn’t for class, but the stuff we talked about for the course really helped out in taking the photos around Oakland. Also remember Oakland with the sort of photo essay you did on it.
Hopefully you’re still doing photography, if not, why did you stop. That’s stupid. Go find your camera and document some shit. You’re failing as a Citizen Archivist; moron.
Sound Project:
Forget this project ever happened.
Citizen Portrait:
So what the project didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to. It got a few chuckles, and really in the end that’s all that matters. Right? Sure, whatever. This project was actually awesome, and hopefully you’ve gotten off your lazy ass and are making movies again because it makes you happy. This was by far the best section of the class, and always go to http://www.shortoftheweek.com/. This is pretty much the greatest site you’ve ever been exposed to, and it helped rekindle your love of movies and documentaries. You should probably watch a Brief History of John Baldessari if you want to laugh at a great documentary, or re-watch Amar if you want all of the feels.
Website:
Remember how you couldn’t do anything for you website, and then by the end you had a relatively well function page? That was pretty great. Hopefully you’ve gotten better and can actually add fonts and center things without losing your mind every time it doesn’t work. Check out http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp because it’s free and probably the most helpful thing out there for learning (or relearning) website stuff.
Just in case you forgot our webpage is http://edwardperenyi.x10.mx/ hopefully it’s still there. Also hopefully you don’t have to be reminded that god awful sound project, because it’s getting taken down right after this class is over.
Remixing and creativity:
The biggest takeaway from this class is exploring creativity as a result of the archive. Without the archive there is no creativity or progress. Everything is built off of something, so remember where your influences come from, and always be on the lookout for new ones, even if at first they are confusing and don’t make sense. So, in conclusion, get off your lazy sweatpants-wearing ass and go contribute to the ever expanding archive. Go be the citizen archivist this class prepared you to be. Be a part of the future by documenting the present before it becomes the past. Do all of this NOW. Unless you’re currently on Ambien, which is a distinct possibility. In that case, go to bed, I don’t need you running around on Ambien, that’s how you end up dead or in jail.