Last year I began working through as many ideas as possible while adopting a structure that could perpetuate change and development. This occurred within the context of an advanced projects class taught by Beverly Semmes in the fall of 2006. The premise of the structure I adopted, revolved around an idea from a Lars Van Trier film, “The Five Obstructions” where the director requests that his mentor remake his masterpiece five times according to five creative obstructions which may allow the master to either fail or succeed in each attempt but ultimately would push his creative process in a new and different direction by forcing the artist out of his comfort zone.
For me, this approach produced a number of experimental works that fostered a fresh look at how and why I make the work I do. The year ended with a final project that was a result of conversations I had regarding the obstructions I was working with. The discussions revolved around the weaker areas of my creative process. For example: it came to light, that my ability to plan and execute my ideas, although proficient, many times dulled the sharpness of a project I was developing. By forcing my will onto the finished result and not allowing the work to take on a life of it’s own the results felt heavy-handed or even pretentious. So the obstructions that were given to me involved tasks that would let the project exist as it was and retain a sense of spontaneity that older projects lacked.
The REFFERREE |
SPEEED training |
the cat video |
