PARIS, DAY 1

We (my parents and I) arrived in Paris around 12:30, checked into our hotel, had some lunch as a small café called Lina's, and went to the Louvre for 5 hours. We saw all the main sights (Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, & the Mona Lisa). Also notable are Liberty Leading the People and the Coronation of Napolean the I (which is one of the biggest paintings I have EVER seen). We then moved on to view the French collection, but only made it through 2/3 of the 3 HOUR AUDIOGUIDE TOUR before we had to give up. It was amazing, but tiring.

Outside the Louvre


Entering in through the pyramid designed by Pei.


Venus de Milo (very crowded)


Winged Victory of Samothrace


Red Gallery


Gallery

After a pasta dinner at Les Deux Magots, we went to the Eiffel Tower, which is beautiful but crowded on a Friday night. There were so many Americans (you could tell just by listening). Not too far ahead of us in line I heard an OBNOXIOUSLY loud Southern girl on her cell phone saying that she'd eaten at McDonald's in Paris earlier that day and it was the best meal she'd ever had. Yikes. We got to bed rather late at around 1:00.

Eiffel Tower


Walking under


Nightime view from the 3rd level.
I find taking panoramic pictures to be a waste so enjoy my artful interpretations.

Life

I hope you all are loving life right now. laura needs to give me back my podishuffclip asap and bustdown. thanks for listening

Europe Plans, Updated

Well, I bought my plane tickets just now. I am taking off for Amsterdam via Dublin on Wednesday, June 24 at 6:50pm. I will arrive in Amsterdam at 12:20pm, spend the night with my parents and then do a weekend in Paris! After that I have school interviews and a play date in Barcelona. This is shaping up to potentially be the best summer ever! I have over $60 in my wallet thanks to babysitting, I have my job back at FAST, and I have a huge and amazing tour of Europe ahead of me!

Martin Arnold, Summer, OBTN, Europe Trip

Martin Arnold is an amazing filmmaker...click!

This summer is wasting. I need to get back on track and start making things, but putting everything away is taking too long and all I want to do is sit and eat, which is making me upset and causing more sitting and eating.

Our Brother the Native CD went on sale yesterday! Josh still owes me a copy because I lent him $10. Check them out HERE!

I've started a tentative itinerary for my European travels this summer. I want to visit people and travel around so if you're going to be in Europe in July or August, let me know and we can do something. Below is my tentative schedule thus far:

June 30: Arrive in Amsterdam (spend night @ parent's in Zwolle, Netherlands)
July 1: The Hague, Netherlands...KABK interview? Train to Paris, France
July 2 & 3: Paris, France
July 4-7: Barcelona, Spain
July 8-11: Sevilla, Spain
July 12-14: Madrid, Spain
July 15-18: France somewhere?
July 19-23: Lucerne, Switzerland (Blue Balls Festival!)
July 24-27: Munich, Germany
July 28-30: Krakow, Poland?
July 31-August 2: Prague, Czech Republic
August 3-6: Berlin, Germany
August 7-9: Copenhagen, Denmark
August 10-12: Sweden (visitng Gustav?)
August 13-16: Northern Germany?
August 17-20: Belgium somewhere?
August 21-23: Amsterdam, Netherlands
August 24-?: Zwolle??

Fall 2009.

This is where I want to study abroad.

NOT ICELAND. So stop asking/thinking that everyone!

I'm also applying here.

Back to work on my applications...

Final Recycling

Digital Memories from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

Final Screendance

The Final Push

Well, I'm moving into my last week of classes in the art school. It's crazy to think that I'm pretty much halfway done with college. These two years went by fast! I can't believe it's summer again already...

CFC III: Monday I present my mock sophomore review to Rebekah and the class (Ironically enough, Rebekah is on my review panel so I get some feedback before I do the real thing in front of her. I am so lucky!). My final piece on crying is due Wednesday. I've got 13 interviews done and I'm off to do 14 in a few minutes actually. I apparently know a lot more boys than girls because the guy: girl ratio is 2:1 at this point.

HBA: Working away on my boots. I'm so glad it's the type of project I can do while a movie is playing. I'd be way too stressed out to have another thought heavy, time intensive thing going on. I'll put up pics of the progress on my HBA blog soon enough...

Recycling: I just need to figure out how to install my stuff by Tuesday. I need to find a monitor I suppose. I just want it to be an intimate viewing. Might email Andy T during the week (or talk to him Sat when we go on our field trip to MOCAD & some other Detroit spots...SO EXCITED!).

Screendance: My final project is a bit of a mess. I need to slow down and really film this thing right. My life has been on FF for a few weeks and now that Cadence & Dance Mix are over, I'm so relieved.

The Cadence show went really well. It was a little depressing that more ppl didn't come, but that's what we get for having the show on a Wednesday (specifically Passover). I was really happy with my dance...

This has been one of the hardest semesters of my entire life. I'm still pulling together sophomore review. I'm having trouble knowing what order to arrange things in...I've got a lot of thematic stuff going on, but also some chronological stuff. Need to figure that out.

Cadence Show: What Sound?

Screendance Final Project Storyboard

For the record, I don't sketch.

RECYCLING: Please leave critique comments!

Hello.
Are you wearing headphones?

No?
I recommend you put some on.



Yes, much better.

Digital Memories from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

Crying

Crying: An Exploration of Tears from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

Challenge for Part III:
15 people of varying ages, races, & genders.
Longer interviews (which can be edited, but should allow them to open up).
Build a relationship between the audience and these people.


Amanda sent me a video that reminds me of my first iteration where I simply showed myself crying in two different situations to the class:

"I'm too sad to tell you" by Bas Jan Ader

Henceforth

Video Dance
Figure in a Landscape

Collaboration with
Matthew Bendure
Dave Merian

My Spine UPDATED

My Spine from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

Updates (I've lost track of the weeks)

Well, all of my projects finished up before spring break and then I went to the Netherlands and now I have to generate idea for four new projects. It's a tad overwhelming if you ask me. So here's what's up in each of my classes:

CFC III: I finished my cigarette piece. I ended up making a sound piece, which I'm not entirely sure how to share on here...but I'll get it up when I can. I think it's one of my more successful explorations of sound, but I have a long way to goooo. Now we're doing our final project and I am doing a video piece on crying. Reading all these books. It's really interesting.

HBA: I am doing a piece with multiple bodies melting into each other like wax (oh wait, I'm using wax I think). Check out my other blog for more updates.

Recycling: We're starting up a piece that's about materiality and minimalism. In essence, I need to figure out how/what I'm gathering and what I form out of it will come from the material's intrinsic nature. I will now spew some pretentious rule for how it's meant to be viewed (kidding).

Video Dance: Figure in a Landscape. I don't know what to do! Also, this is AMAZING. We watched in class...

Stage to Screen

Stage to Screen from Laura Thompson on Vimeo.

Outdoor Smoking

People who smoke tend to gather outside in certain spots to enjoy their nicotine and socialize with other smokers. Some people also smoke to gain a sense of solitude or to have a moment to themselves. I want to create a piece that makes smokers more aware of where they are when they're smoking, which I think is often overlooked or secondary to their experience. My plan is to develop a sound piece based on the natural sounds of the environment in which people are smoking and the actual sounds of smoking. I then want to play them in that area, hopefully causing someone to notcie the audio and therefore the space around them.

CFC Inspiration: Cigarettes in the Landscape

Irving Penn

Normally a fashion photographer, this photograph is a portrait of cigarette butts that are decaying and look almost like they're a part of some natural landscape.























Cigarette Art by Tom Deininger

He collects cigarettes off the beach to make his pieces. The shell is composed entirely of cigarette butts. The rabbit's fur is made from old cigarette filters. Both pieces smell very strongly like cigarettes.


































Some very smelly drawing...

Terrarium Update

The feedback I got about my terrarium was that the rope was too clunky the way it was knotted to the corners and it was too close to Vinnie's piece and the light sort of fell out (whoops). So I redid the rope so that it ties into a complex and large knot but the threading is clean-lined. I decided not to go with a smaller rope because I was partially worried about it holding up and because I like the rustic sort of heavy handed feel it gives the piece. I also moved my terrarium to the other side of the room and bought some of those boat ties that you figure 8 rope around and attached them to the wall so that I wouldn't need compost buckets to hold my piece up anymore. I also wired the light back in and left it on for the night. I think it's lookin' good and I see some little green things sprouting in there :)