While I have been focusing recently on the sheer volume of activity on UMW Blogs, that really is a fleeting fascination with the possibility of creating a dynamic network for teaching and learning. Nonetheless, the magic of such a collaboration is ultimately realized on a more atomic level, through individual professors and students putting in the extra work to share their thoughts about the numerous topics they are discussing both inside and outside of class.
So, I wanted to start sharing some of the amazing posts that have been giving me an unbelievable education in everything from Cell Biology to Beowulf. I’ll start with one group of students (Carole Garmon’s group from her Video Art seminar) all of whom have been been consistently blowing my mind over the past three weeks. I can only begin to suggest how much I have learned from them over such a short period of time.
There are a number of examples that I will be linking to below from my del.icio.us bookmarks, but I’ll give you just one example before I leave you all with a trail of riches to explore.
On the Blarg blog, one student talks at length about one particular work of art by the video artist Jenny Holzer’s “For the Capitol” (2007). It is an amazing work that this student contextualizes beautifully in a post that explores the relationship between the Dada experiments with video and the experiments with text and context that Holzer is pushing in other ways. An absolute gem of a post.
Paranthetical Update: Interestingly enough, I only now realized that Art History professor Marjorie Och had embedded this video on her own blog last week, suggesting this space is feeding between professors and students in far richer ways than I could ever represent here.
But that’s not it by a long shot here are ten eleven more posts from the various students in this class that are wonderful examples of thinking through their ideas while at the same time sharing them beyond the confines of their minds. Thanks to each and every one of you.
Posts from the student blogs of Carole Garmon’s Video Art Seminar
Delicious/jgroom/videoart
- U B U W E B - Film & Video: Ant Farm
Ant Farm, a trio of rad architects (Chip Lord, Doug Michels, and Curtis Schreier, later to be joined by Hudson Marquez), found themselves veering toward video. Researching innovative ways to structure space had led this iconoclastic design collective to t - artnet.com Magazine Features - Vito de Milo
"Vito Acconci: Diary of a Body 1969-1973," Apr. 3-May 1, 2004, at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011. - The Love For Oranges
Video Art Collaboration Project at the University of Mary Washington - Werewolf Women of the S.S.
Via "Check out my Funmachu" on UMW Blogs. A fake trailer for a film that really should be made! - La Planète Sauvage : blarg
I thought it might be appropriate to share a René Laloux film from 1973 (the result between a collaborate effort between Laloux, his French counterparts, and film makers from the now defunct Czechoslovakia). The film, which was adapted from a… - they don’t allow bees in here
This film seems to me to be an early version of what we might think of as a National Geographic' documentary. But unlike most educational films of the following decades though, this one is full of lush imagery and imagination. These creatures are bei - Let’s play ·Islamic? Militaristic Music Video
This video on YouTube titled Mahmud Ahmed 2 was linked to by Snafu, and it is pretty crazy to watch, the idea of featuring the military within a music video, one that I imagine is an African Islamic military sect, is both disturbing and fascinating. - Da’s Blog: The inner-life of a cell
Fascinating science video that may very well be understood as videoart. is it all about the music? - they hit me with a truck ” brock samson
A student in Carole Garmon's based their blog title on the character Brock Samson. Chuck Norris eat your heart out! A must see video. - Check out my fumanchu ” Blog Archive ” Holy Diver!!!
This student in Prof Garmon's class ponders the more cerebral side of Ronny James Dio's music video "Holy Diver." Sublime! - Check out my fumanchu ” Blog Archive ” A Modern Trailer for Metropolis (1927)
Trailer from Kino Video for Metropolis, framed as the the beginning of it all for modern Science Fiction. Can't argue with this. - Jumping On Someone Else’s Train - The Cure : (-_-;;)
Featuring the music video for The Cure's "Jumping On Someone Else's Train." Make for an interesting comaprison with the Chemical Brothers' Star Guitar music video. - Star Guitar - Chemical Brothers : (-_-;;)
A beautiful video, framing the built environment in a truly poetic fashion. The conflation of music and architecture is realized in some amazing ways. - Maya Deren : blarg
A nice framing of Maya Deren's work in avant-garde film along with a link to a spoof of Un Chien Andalou made by Salvador Dali himself in 1972. - they don’t allow bees in here: Video Portfolio
This student is using his blog as a portfolio for his own animated film "Sharks and not sharks," which rules! And guess what, they are already on YouTube making the porfolio a seamless process.
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Now what we need is a few undergraduate research projects analyzing this rich externalization of our university’s mind. I’d imagine a wide variety of disciplines could be involved….
And I know I’m repeating myself, but man oh man are you people kicking serious ass…