Anthropologist
Some writing, some working, some Babylon Berlin, season 2. Was stood up by A for our Friday dinner. Talked to R regarding a position that I decided to apply for “blindly”. Saturday ouzo with O, who is back from Sweden, and the rest of the gang.
A pretty inefficient week, but I did finish the methodology section and started diving into the findings, which of course are the real meat of the thesis.
I participated in a film screening with S on Thursday.
And we enjoyed another sunny day at Sommerbad Kreuzberg on Tuesday, which was also the day for another Editing Forum, the class that I like so much – since I learn so much.
All the Manben videos that I watched over the last few weeks have been deleted, so I’m happy that I watched them so fervently! I found the original Tezuka Osamu documentary that the Manben series was based on. We also started watching the fourth season of Boku no Hero Academia.
But what really gripped me this week was Anders Wahlgren’s film Staden i mitt hjärta from 1992, about the destruction of the Klara quarters in central Stockholm in the 1950s through 1970s. I’ve known about this project as long as I can remember, I think every Swede has, but I always thought it was slum that was torn down. Not huge stone palaces and the like! It’s quite unfathomable how such a project could be realised so swiftly and without much protest, and also without proper documentation and museal preservation of what was being destroyed. But it also somehow fits, a bit too well, into the story of a country that always wants to be special or, let’s spell it out, superior.
Got the reply from my supervisor on Monday. The film is now finished and we move on to finish the written thesis, which I might rework for a different purpose as well when it’s finished – very exciting. I also communicated a bit with participants in my film.
But mostly I read up on the philosophical roots of phenomenology. This methodology is so hard to grasp, which is sort of the point, I guess. I reread some papers from Qualitative Methods, most notably Moustaka and Desjarlais & Throop, as well as the introduction to Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology (as recommended by S), but it wasn’t until I started reading David Cerbone’s Understanding Phenomenology that things really started to make sense to me. I’m now halfway through reworking the methodology part of my thesis. It’s messy, so messy, and I like it very much.
We took a break from anime and watched the whole first season of Babylon Berlin – what a fantastic series, in so many ways!
Last week with the film? I hope so. I spent it adjusting audio levels and grading the colours, although I ended up reverting all the grading. Learning … But the film is there now and I sent it to my supervisor today. Let’s hope he likes it. Yesterday I signed up on Filmfreeway.
My main protagonist got back to me with a long and positive response about the film. I also got a very good response from a couple of Japanese creators whose work is shown in the film. I will continue next week to correspond with other people who are involved.
On Tuesday I participated in Curating ethnographic exhibitions, unit 3, although I was ill prepared after having read only about half of one of the two mandatory texts.
Next I’ll start focusing on the written essay.
We finished Boku no Hero Academia season 3!
S watched the film on Tuesday and gave his approval. We went on to finetune the edit on Wednesday, starting at 15 sharp (after Anki, that is) and continuing past midnight. Last edits on Friday, as planned. We finished late, but there it was – the fine cut! Only audio adjustments and colour grading now remain. I’m really happy with the results! On Saturday I sent off the film to my participants and one of them already replied quite formally that he approved of his participation.
I watched a live webinar on animation in Clip Studio Paint on Thursday. I always get these emails about webinars from CSP and finally there was a good fit! Filed under inspiration.
Today we biked 45 kilometers through the city in 36-38 degrees heat to soak ourselves in Krumme Lanke, which was packed with people, but had a very nice atmosphere. Haven’t been there before.
Another week that passed so quickly that I feel I didn’t really do anything.
Except finishing the final cut! As in the cut, not the colour grading or sound level adjustments. I didn’t like how the editing started to linger, which can happen when there is no deadline. So S said today that Friday next week was my deadline. Good! Last fixes coming up!
I also seem to remember being immersed in various animations. Creating them, that is. Actually I started watching Evangelion 1.0 twice but ended up returning to Clip Studio Paint.
We discussed another rough cut in the Editing Forum on Tuesday, the only class I’m taking.