Presentations

Week ones presentations went great! I’ll start with Matt.

Matt’s presentation on Jonas Mekas was fantastic. I know I have learned about Mekas in the past but now I understand. He is the “Godfather of Avant Gard.” Meaning, he started the movement! I think… But Mekas seems like he did a lot of really awesome stuff and its amazing he is still doing work today being as old as he is.  It was also neat learning Mekas did the Anthology Film Archives involving Harry Smith.  I also appreciate his love for filming as I wish I filmed my life as much as he filmed his own.

Melody Faith’s presentation on Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter was great as well. She did a good job of explaining how they got into art and film.  German Art, Music, and Film has always intrigued me.  It is unfortunate Viking died so young. It also made me think about looking more into war film considering the cameras were military issued. I have always wanted to get more into political art and film so Hans was very inspiring to me.

Madison’s presentation of Len Lye was wonderful. Len Lye was from New Zealand and went to a technical art school.  He was into “doodling.” Sometimes I write what I learned because it helps me remember.  Len Lye was an inspiration to me as well. I remember watching a clip from one of his films in my 200 classes and I was sad because we weren’t going to learn more about him.  But now I know who he is and I can watch more of his stuff! Len was an inspiration because I want to do music videos and his animations seemed like music videos, and that is what I want to pursue. 

Last but not least was me, and I did a presentation on Harry Smith. I think my presentation went well, but there was room for improvement.  The goal of my presentation was to make it interesting and not mundane and boring for the rest of the class. Although I feel like I did a good job of representing Harry and got a few laughs out of the class, I couldn’t read my flashcards very well and lost my place a few times because of nervousness.

Overall I enjoyed the class presentations.