My meditation experience opposite a blank TV screen
Key words: feeling foolish, new sensations, suspension of time, mockery, skepticism,
boredom, freedom.
Research methods: auto-ethnography
The first thought, has flashed in my mind, as soon as I set in front of a black TV set, was «Black square». Further a link of associations catch Malevich, suprematism… I was concerned about Malevich, who have been sitting in front of the cold black kitchen range, meditated, may be, before he paint his black square.
The next thought was that television is a great fraud, but this thought passed on underdeveloped.
I wanted to sleep. I’ve turned my head to look at the clock; three minutes have passed. A mechanical movement of my eyes at the watch called a chain of usual actions: it is necessary to plan my urgent deal, the next deal… Why should I waste my time on all this nonsense – my eyes got a job to look through the black screen, that is why my brain can do something useful. I became to work out my schedule of work at the nearest days. Kaleidoscope of images from a long passed TV series, breaking news and commercials flown at the black screen. I understand that I have adapted to the task and my head started working the full power. Although I stared at the empty screen, my brain started analyzing the recent documents and situations, plan urgent and average deals. The blank TV screen continued to show mirages: Afghanistan, Iraq, world economy crisis, fashion show, “Friends”, “So, You say You want to Dance?” Passed some frames from a fish show, about fishing at Ontario Lake. I caught myself with the thought, where to go at the week-end, no fishing today, salmons season has already passed... My hand grabbed the phone just by itself, and, and without taking my eyes off the black screen, with joy I started discussing with my friend the plan of our next fishing trip: what gear should I take, bait, I began remembering the previous trips… In conclusion, when my wife went and turned on the TV set to see her lovely kitchen show, I have already forgot that I had such task, look through a blank TV screen.
Zyklon Portrait
A documentary film “Zyklon Portrait” by film director Elida Schogt tells us about using technology achievement for destroying the humanity.
The author uses various research methods and composition approaches to get necessary impact at the audience. There are auto-ethnography, achieve research, interview.
Schogt uses the approach of collision topics which do not have any common points. The author collides a dry and boring description of technological characteristics of the gas Ziklon, and real, natural life author’s mother, which get to concentrate camp and hardly escape from a death from this gas.
Schogt gets a necessary effect rhythmically editing scenes her mother’s life which we see from family photographs, and home movies , documentary shooting of testing the gas Zyklon and figurative images of a swimming woman.
Using this approach, author lets us know the historical context, personal life of her mother and try to call necessary mood and emotion, inserting figurative images and composing all materials with impressionistic imagery.
The author achieved her goal, she remained that the name of the gas became another name of the death. The innocent chemical reaction of the crystal irritant resulting a new formula product – gas became one of the ways distanced liquidation of the human kind.
The author managed to recreate the feel of an invisible danger – invisible gas, which you can’t feel, see, the only way to see the presence of the gas is after imitate choking and counting the last moments of life.
What did I disclosed while I was looking for this film? I disclosed that I was not thinking about the movie. I’ve looked through a lot of films about World War 2, including documentary ones. I know a lot about WW2, I was born in Belarus, where each 4th citizen died, burned, handed, shoot. I disclosed with surprising that I start to recall my father.
My father became the war solder right when he became 18. After a few days from the beginning of the war he became a German war prisoner and taken to Germany concentration camp. My father has spent all 4 years of war there, and every single year he tried to escape the camp. He has escaped 4 times, every time he got caught and every time the God stayed with him, he was never neither shot not killed. My father was rescued by the Americans. They have suggested to all the Russian hostages to go to America, as if it would be most likely that the Russian KGB will shot them, if they would return. He refused to go to America and has returned to his motherland, to Russia where again he got imprisoned in the Stalin’s, concentration camp, but on his motherland. This was the fate of the returning and rescued solders. Stalin has declared them as the enemies of the nation. But even my father didn’t want to tell me his fate. I found out about it during his funeral from his friends.
The author probably didn’t consider that someone from the audience will such things whil watching the movie. But my memories – are also the memories of the fearful truth, the truth of war, there are millions of such truths. There will be millions of people who will start seeing their own memories after hearing the word – war.
No one knows the God’s ways. My father refused to move to America and returned to his homeland, and I couldn’t live back on my homeland and no I’m in America, in Canada.
How is it related to the story of the movie? If the movie has forced the viewers to think– then the movie is made by a professional. This move has forced me to think.
The author uses various research methods and composition approaches to get necessary impact at the audience. There are auto-ethnography, achieve research, interview.
Schogt uses the approach of collision topics which do not have any common points. The author collides a dry and boring description of technological characteristics of the gas Ziklon, and real, natural life author’s mother, which get to concentrate camp and hardly escape from a death from this gas.
Schogt gets a necessary effect rhythmically editing scenes her mother’s life which we see from family photographs, and home movies , documentary shooting of testing the gas Zyklon and figurative images of a swimming woman.
Using this approach, author lets us know the historical context, personal life of her mother and try to call necessary mood and emotion, inserting figurative images and composing all materials with impressionistic imagery.
The author achieved her goal, she remained that the name of the gas became another name of the death. The innocent chemical reaction of the crystal irritant resulting a new formula product – gas became one of the ways distanced liquidation of the human kind.
The author managed to recreate the feel of an invisible danger – invisible gas, which you can’t feel, see, the only way to see the presence of the gas is after imitate choking and counting the last moments of life.
What did I disclosed while I was looking for this film? I disclosed that I was not thinking about the movie. I’ve looked through a lot of films about World War 2, including documentary ones. I know a lot about WW2, I was born in Belarus, where each 4th citizen died, burned, handed, shoot. I disclosed with surprising that I start to recall my father.
My father became the war solder right when he became 18. After a few days from the beginning of the war he became a German war prisoner and taken to Germany concentration camp. My father has spent all 4 years of war there, and every single year he tried to escape the camp. He has escaped 4 times, every time he got caught and every time the God stayed with him, he was never neither shot not killed. My father was rescued by the Americans. They have suggested to all the Russian hostages to go to America, as if it would be most likely that the Russian KGB will shot them, if they would return. He refused to go to America and has returned to his motherland, to Russia where again he got imprisoned in the Stalin’s, concentration camp, but on his motherland. This was the fate of the returning and rescued solders. Stalin has declared them as the enemies of the nation. But even my father didn’t want to tell me his fate. I found out about it during his funeral from his friends.
The author probably didn’t consider that someone from the audience will such things whil watching the movie. But my memories – are also the memories of the fearful truth, the truth of war, there are millions of such truths. There will be millions of people who will start seeing their own memories after hearing the word – war.
No one knows the God’s ways. My father refused to move to America and returned to his homeland, and I couldn’t live back on my homeland and no I’m in America, in Canada.
How is it related to the story of the movie? If the movie has forced the viewers to think– then the movie is made by a professional. This move has forced me to think.
Greek Canadian Hour: Radio as Cultural Preservative
Sept 27
We got a research topic, it is necessary to research a Greek radio station at Dunforth.
There is absolutely nothing in my mind, I could wish at least for flies inside of my head. Where do I to get information, what should I investigate, what should I get? Brief surfing in the Internet gives to me some thoughts. After short investigation a few links pertaining to the Danforth were found: http://www.greektowntoronto.com/ http://thedanforth.ca/ http://www.onthedanforth.ca/about/the-danforth/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danforth_Avenue There are also some interesting demographical statistics. It looks like the area north of Danforth Avenue is still predominantly Greek, but the largest ethnic group on the southside is now Chinese: http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns67.htm http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns68.htm http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns66.htm http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/2006/pdf2/cpa69.pdf I think that it is necessary to find some expert on Greek community.
When I worked at Ethnic Television, a Greek TV channel was there and also was a journalist who could help us. I made a call. The first failure – he was fired a few days after me.
Carly brought a good news. She was introduced to a woman named Caterina Papadopoulos. She is a Greek-language radio broadcaster here in Toronto who also lives on the Danforth. She agreed to speak to us about the area and how it is changing. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Fine. We immediately went to the site of this radio station. http://www.am1690.ca/Hosts.html
We have to look around this community. May be, we will find there some questions and tips what can be a topic of our research.
We got a research topic, it is necessary to research a Greek radio station at Dunforth.
There is absolutely nothing in my mind, I could wish at least for flies inside of my head. Where do I to get information, what should I investigate, what should I get? Brief surfing in the Internet gives to me some thoughts. After short investigation a few links pertaining to the Danforth were found: http://www.greektowntoronto.com/ http://thedanforth.ca/ http://www.onthedanforth.ca/about/the-danforth/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danforth_Avenue There are also some interesting demographical statistics. It looks like the area north of Danforth Avenue is still predominantly Greek, but the largest ethnic group on the southside is now Chinese: http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns67.htm http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns68.htm http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns66.htm http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/2006/pdf2/cpa69.pdf I think that it is necessary to find some expert on Greek community.
When I worked at Ethnic Television, a Greek TV channel was there and also was a journalist who could help us. I made a call. The first failure – he was fired a few days after me.
Carly brought a good news. She was introduced to a woman named Caterina Papadopoulos. She is a Greek-language radio broadcaster here in Toronto who also lives on the Danforth. She agreed to speak to us about the area and how it is changing. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Fine. We immediately went to the site of this radio station. http://www.am1690.ca/Hosts.html
We have to look around this community. May be, we will find there some questions and tips what can be a topic of our research.
Sept 29
We walked around the Greek community. It is a very interesting place. Some discussions with the shops owners and sellers gave to us some brief info on the real life of the community. People go to the contact pretty easily and gave a lot of tips. Now, where to go and what to see? There are a lot of information and it became understandable that it is necessary to define research questions, what can be interesting for us, what we want to research? Kevin offered that we could each come at our meeting with 1 (one) research question about the Danforth. We can combine and refine our single individual questions into one question eventually. He thinks this will guide our project in a very direct way. This is assuming everyone has read "How to Form Your Research Question" by Stokes. We can take our individual questions and determine from our past research and our visit, whether there is enough "stuff" (sound, video and so on) to produce something. Wouldn't it be a huge disappointment if we were to find that our question cannot be answered in media using the tactics described in the syllabus? Would it also be okay if we’d kept our options open at this point regarding the type of piece we produce? We may decide that radio or sound can answer our question and tell a story in a way far more effective than video.
We walked around the Greek community. It is a very interesting place. Some discussions with the shops owners and sellers gave to us some brief info on the real life of the community. People go to the contact pretty easily and gave a lot of tips. Now, where to go and what to see? There are a lot of information and it became understandable that it is necessary to define research questions, what can be interesting for us, what we want to research? Kevin offered that we could each come at our meeting with 1 (one) research question about the Danforth. We can combine and refine our single individual questions into one question eventually. He thinks this will guide our project in a very direct way. This is assuming everyone has read "How to Form Your Research Question" by Stokes. We can take our individual questions and determine from our past research and our visit, whether there is enough "stuff" (sound, video and so on) to produce something. Wouldn't it be a huge disappointment if we were to find that our question cannot be answered in media using the tactics described in the syllabus? Would it also be okay if we’d kept our options open at this point regarding the type of piece we produce? We may decide that radio or sound can answer our question and tell a story in a way far more effective than video.
Sept 30
Carly offered some very interesting thoughts: "The single most important event in the Danforth's history came in 1919 with the completion of the Bloor Viaduct bridge over the Don Valley, finally connecting the Danforth to the City via Bloor Street." (thedanforth.ca) Does the Greek Community use new media to connect with the rest of Toronto today? can it be a topic of the research? Another angle I kind of like, although I'm not quite sure how to formulate the question, has to do with food. There are certainly lots of Greek restaurants along the Danforth, but other cultures are represented as well - Spanish, Italian, East Indian, etc. Furthermore, The Big Carrot (well-known for natural/organic/holistic food) draws to the neighborhood Torontonians who are health conscious. All these different flavors come together in August at the annual celebration called The Taste of the Danforth As for the audio/video component, I could see our research being presented as a radio newscast or magazine show. I don't mean that we pitch a radio program; I simply mean that we showcase our research in a fun, creative way. For example, we have an "anchor", reading the "headlines" (our top 4 or 5 findings) off the top, then we could go to "reporters" for more detail, come back to the "anchor" for an interview, etc. We could also have a "traffic report", e.g. how the information highway to Greektown is looking these days.
We have the first draft Research Methods Project with the first questions. “Look at the Bloor Viaduct. How is the community connected within itself through media?Who’s advertising on radio? Who was creating the Greek festivals? Who’s broadcasting them outside of local/cultural media?”Greek Independence Day is an internal event to the community. Most likely carried on cultural media, like CHIN, CHCR and Greek TV station. Major media covers Taste of the Danforth. How do we link these? Can we get archival sound/footage of parade over the years?We find some extra interesting information. The single most important event in the Danforth’s history was the completion of the Bloor Viaduct in 1919. This connected the Danforth to the rest of Toronto. How do communities in the Danforth build bridges, both in their communities and between themselves and other communities through using (cultural) media?We have to look at radio station CHCR and its coverage of community events and coverage of other communities. Get access to the archive. What does this question mean to us? We have to develop a methodology to the next meeting:
Carly offered some very interesting thoughts: "The single most important event in the Danforth's history came in 1919 with the completion of the Bloor Viaduct bridge over the Don Valley, finally connecting the Danforth to the City via Bloor Street." (thedanforth.ca) Does the Greek Community use new media to connect with the rest of Toronto today? can it be a topic of the research? Another angle I kind of like, although I'm not quite sure how to formulate the question, has to do with food. There are certainly lots of Greek restaurants along the Danforth, but other cultures are represented as well - Spanish, Italian, East Indian, etc. Furthermore, The Big Carrot (well-known for natural/organic/holistic food) draws to the neighborhood Torontonians who are health conscious. All these different flavors come together in August at the annual celebration called The Taste of the Danforth As for the audio/video component, I could see our research being presented as a radio newscast or magazine show. I don't mean that we pitch a radio program; I simply mean that we showcase our research in a fun, creative way. For example, we have an "anchor", reading the "headlines" (our top 4 or 5 findings) off the top, then we could go to "reporters" for more detail, come back to the "anchor" for an interview, etc. We could also have a "traffic report", e.g. how the information highway to Greektown is looking these days.
We have the first draft Research Methods Project with the first questions. “Look at the Bloor Viaduct. How is the community connected within itself through media?Who’s advertising on radio? Who was creating the Greek festivals? Who’s broadcasting them outside of local/cultural media?”Greek Independence Day is an internal event to the community. Most likely carried on cultural media, like CHIN, CHCR and Greek TV station. Major media covers Taste of the Danforth. How do we link these? Can we get archival sound/footage of parade over the years?We find some extra interesting information. The single most important event in the Danforth’s history was the completion of the Bloor Viaduct in 1919. This connected the Danforth to the rest of Toronto. How do communities in the Danforth build bridges, both in their communities and between themselves and other communities through using (cultural) media?We have to look at radio station CHCR and its coverage of community events and coverage of other communities. Get access to the archive. What does this question mean to us? We have to develop a methodology to the next meeting:
Oct 19
We have already had the plan.
Kevin:
intro with new research question (1 page)
archival/textual analysis research methodology (1 page)
tweak "We Are French Too" (Echchaibi) article annotation to fit new question
find a textual analysis article and write annotation for bibliography
Andrei:
politics of location research methodology (1 page)
tweak "Community Broadcasting" (van Vuuren) article annotation to fit new question
choose a politics of location article and write annotation for bibliography
Carly:
write a summary/conclusion (1 page)
interview research methodology (1 page)
tweak Deuze and both Jeffres article annotations to fit new question
find an interview article and write annotation for bibliography
We have already had the plan.
Kevin:
intro with new research question (1 page)
archival/textual analysis research methodology (1 page)
tweak "We Are French Too" (Echchaibi) article annotation to fit new question
find a textual analysis article and write annotation for bibliography
Andrei:
politics of location research methodology (1 page)
tweak "Community Broadcasting" (van Vuuren) article annotation to fit new question
choose a politics of location article and write annotation for bibliography
Carly:
write a summary/conclusion (1 page)
interview research methodology (1 page)
tweak Deuze and both Jeffres article annotations to fit new question
find an interview article and write annotation for bibliography
Oct 27
Good news! Good job, team! It appears that we are on the right track.
We’ve got a feedback according to the Proposal for our project. We were informed that the new version of the Proposal was much improved. Although textual analysis was not a methodology used in our course, our application of it was interesting. We were recommended to look up Matheson’s work on discourse analysis. Also we will need to choose a fourth methodology from the list in the assignment outline, as when it says, “You must make use of at least 3of the following methodologies: archival research; participant-observation; ethnographic; social marketing; politics of location/auto-ethnography; interview.” Also, while the section on politics of location was elegantly expressed, our professor asked us how we will approach this practically. It may be that this approach will lead to a more self-reflexive script, but we do have to make that visible (or in this case audible) somehow.The scholarly research and the annotated bibliography were excellent. But it was unclear how will we integrate this information into the final piece? We were recommended to wish to interview some others besides our primary research subject – perhaps we can locate some academic experts on community, ethnic, or alternative radio – or, more generally, people who have been thinking or writing about media democracy. Is there a way to fit ethnic radio into this larger debate?
Good news! Good job, team! It appears that we are on the right track.
We’ve got a feedback according to the Proposal for our project. We were informed that the new version of the Proposal was much improved. Although textual analysis was not a methodology used in our course, our application of it was interesting. We were recommended to look up Matheson’s work on discourse analysis. Also we will need to choose a fourth methodology from the list in the assignment outline, as when it says, “You must make use of at least 3of the following methodologies: archival research; participant-observation; ethnographic; social marketing; politics of location/auto-ethnography; interview.” Also, while the section on politics of location was elegantly expressed, our professor asked us how we will approach this practically. It may be that this approach will lead to a more self-reflexive script, but we do have to make that visible (or in this case audible) somehow.The scholarly research and the annotated bibliography were excellent. But it was unclear how will we integrate this information into the final piece? We were recommended to wish to interview some others besides our primary research subject – perhaps we can locate some academic experts on community, ethnic, or alternative radio – or, more generally, people who have been thinking or writing about media democracy. Is there a way to fit ethnic radio into this larger debate?
October 28
Our group wants to meet with our professor. We have to get some guidance for our research project. After meeting we will discuss what we should do.
Our group wants to meet with our professor. We have to get some guidance for our research project. After meeting we will discuss what we should do.
Nov 2
The conference is on Friday, December 4th. Our group is discussing when we will record and edit our project. We all have a crazy week with our homework and presentations. We are awaiting a response from Caterina, when she can invite us to observe her show. In the meantime, here are some things we could work on:
Finding quotes we want to use from our respective bibliography articles
Picking out the best clips from Caterina's interview
Contemplating our thoughts about ethnic radio and radio in general
Happy studying…
Today I have got my mark for the presentation about Politics of Location. Honestly speaking, I thought that I would get the worst mark for my 15 minutes of disgrace. My English is monstrously aweful. OK, it is difficult the first 100 years; afterwards you get used to…
What about the politics of locations… It is correctly speaking, while you will explain something to others, you can understand this topic yourself. Finally I understand which philosophical theories lead to modern cultural and social condition of the Western World. One article “Postmodern and poststructuralist approaches” by Judy Lumby and Debra Jackson (Writing Research, pp.149-170, 2003) gave to me a lot of understanding.
“…Martin Heidegger argues that the most basic mode of human existence is not that of a disembodied subject reflecting on an external world but rather that human subjects exist most immediately as embodied agents who are 'always, already' in the world and fundamentally engaged with it.
For Heidegger, a central weakness of the modernist account is that it imposes a metaphysical schema on the world (i.e. the subject/ object dualism) that converts the world into a place of facts which has no room for us. Heidegger argues that there is no God's-eye view from which to 'know' the world, rather, the relation between subject and world is an irreducible one. It is not possible for human beings to transcend the concrete historical situation they find themselves in. Truth, therefore, is never value-neutral and absolute but rather necessanly interpretive and perspectival. Heidegger's critique of traditional and modernist philosophy, as well as the earlier anti-humanist insights of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), have been particularly influential on later 20th century thinking in the west, particularly Europe. This shift in philosophy away from foundationalism - that is, the view that there is an essential subject and a universal standpoint for truth and therefore knowledge - is what we now commonly recognise as a move toward the 'postmodern' in thought.” Each brik into the wall… Perfect done explanation!
The conference is on Friday, December 4th. Our group is discussing when we will record and edit our project. We all have a crazy week with our homework and presentations. We are awaiting a response from Caterina, when she can invite us to observe her show. In the meantime, here are some things we could work on:
Finding quotes we want to use from our respective bibliography articles
Picking out the best clips from Caterina's interview
Contemplating our thoughts about ethnic radio and radio in general
Happy studying…
Today I have got my mark for the presentation about Politics of Location. Honestly speaking, I thought that I would get the worst mark for my 15 minutes of disgrace. My English is monstrously aweful. OK, it is difficult the first 100 years; afterwards you get used to…
What about the politics of locations… It is correctly speaking, while you will explain something to others, you can understand this topic yourself. Finally I understand which philosophical theories lead to modern cultural and social condition of the Western World. One article “Postmodern and poststructuralist approaches” by Judy Lumby and Debra Jackson (Writing Research, pp.149-170, 2003) gave to me a lot of understanding.
“…Martin Heidegger argues that the most basic mode of human existence is not that of a disembodied subject reflecting on an external world but rather that human subjects exist most immediately as embodied agents who are 'always, already' in the world and fundamentally engaged with it.
For Heidegger, a central weakness of the modernist account is that it imposes a metaphysical schema on the world (i.e. the subject/ object dualism) that converts the world into a place of facts which has no room for us. Heidegger argues that there is no God's-eye view from which to 'know' the world, rather, the relation between subject and world is an irreducible one. It is not possible for human beings to transcend the concrete historical situation they find themselves in. Truth, therefore, is never value-neutral and absolute but rather necessanly interpretive and perspectival. Heidegger's critique of traditional and modernist philosophy, as well as the earlier anti-humanist insights of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), have been particularly influential on later 20th century thinking in the west, particularly Europe. This shift in philosophy away from foundationalism - that is, the view that there is an essential subject and a universal standpoint for truth and therefore knowledge - is what we now commonly recognise as a move toward the 'postmodern' in thought.” Each brik into the wall… Perfect done explanation!
Nov 6
Our research is going…
Hi team, I suggest that we get together on Monday, November 16 at 11 a.m. to discuss which clips from the first interview we want to use, as well as the quotes from our respective articles. Hopefully we'll have another meeting with Caterina that week, as well as the shows we requested. We can plot out the rest of our project and how we want to compile it at that point.
We start to discuss how to name our topic…
Variants, how to call our research:
Greek Canadian Hour: Radio as Ingredient for Cultural PreservationGreek Canadian Hour: A Cultural PreservativeGreek Canadian Radio: The Ingredient for a Cultural PreservativeGreek Canadian Hour: Radio as Cultural Preservative
Our research is going…
Hi team, I suggest that we get together on Monday, November 16 at 11 a.m. to discuss which clips from the first interview we want to use, as well as the quotes from our respective articles. Hopefully we'll have another meeting with Caterina that week, as well as the shows we requested. We can plot out the rest of our project and how we want to compile it at that point.
We start to discuss how to name our topic…
Variants, how to call our research:
Greek Canadian Hour: Radio as Ingredient for Cultural PreservationGreek Canadian Hour: A Cultural PreservativeGreek Canadian Radio: The Ingredient for a Cultural PreservativeGreek Canadian Hour: Radio as Cultural Preservative
November 10
We had an agreement to meet Caterina closer to the 20th. We will continue to do our research on Monday. The name of our research paper is “Greek Canadian Hour: Radio as Cultural Preservative”.
Deadline is getting closer and closer. We have to record our last interview…
We had an agreement to meet Caterina closer to the 20th. We will continue to do our research on Monday. The name of our research paper is “Greek Canadian Hour: Radio as Cultural Preservative”.
Deadline is getting closer and closer. We have to record our last interview…
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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