Low Residency overview

 

The first day of the low residency was nerve wrecking, extremely exciting and at the end, very tiring. I think part of why I was tired, had to do with the fact that I had just travelled. Anyway, it started with meeting Steph for breakfast because we were in the same hotel. And we behaved like two excited kids. Then I left Ayla with the nanny and we walked together to the college. I loved how close Best Western Hotel was to the college. Those walks, that atmosphere, London in general — memories I’ll cherish forever.

Meeting Jonathan was kind of awe inspiring. I mean I look up to this person a lot and I’ve only ever seen their Skype icon! Haha. Other than the time I gave my pre-admission interview of course. I received my ID which made me feel very official hehe.

Then I sat in my very first ever actual class! YES! and I realized how lucky us Skype students are that we can chit chat with each other and Jonathan while our class proceeds. Skype classes– much more conducive to creative thinking than real classes I tell you. Anyway it was really nice to finally sit in class with the others. I met JANET!!! I mean, that was incredible! As sweet and beautiful a person as I had imagined. I met Justin with the incredible hair. And adorable Ben.

Then Jonathan showed us some really cool old projectors, and asked us to spend the day working collaboratively to play around with the slides. At the end of the day we’d have to present a quick overview of our work in any way we wanted. Day of collaborative experimentation. Here are some pictures from it.

The second day was our group tutorial. This was perhaps the most interesting day I had at the low residency. Our group was led by Andrew and consisted of Alexis, myself, Pav, Eugenia and Ziyan. Ziyan and I became good friends that day and I genuinely miss her now. I also loved how she presented her work. Simple, clear and defined. Alexis seemed to be the most knowledgeable out of all of us, he was so experienced and his work really spoke about his in depth knowledge. But the best was Andrew; it takes a truly encouraging person to listen so carefully to emerging artists and offer careful critique and guidance. Eugenia confused me a bit, but I’m sure that was because I know so little about her. After my presentation was completed, she refused to present hers, saying she was extremely tired now. That made me feel slightly bad, as if I was the cause. But I’m sure it was something personal that I didn’t understand.

After the group tutorial (video embedded in a separate post), we went to visit a couple of galleries in the area.

The above pictures are all mixed up from the different places we visited on that day and the next. The third day was a pretty intensive trip through London, in which people were forced to carry Ayla’s stroller down the subway steps (MORTIFYING!). But, I am kind of glad I could be there… so not mortified?

And after that long day we returned home, ready for the last day which also happened to be a VR/AR workshop I had been DYING to attend.

The last day was extremely informative. I have no pictures because I was trying so hard to absorb every single thing Alejandro said! Alejandro was an extremely interesting and inspiring person, who had been a student of this very course before. His entire work revolved around experimenting with reality, and he taught us in a way that made everything he did seem easy. The part I found most interesting in the entire workshop was the photogrammetry (would love to experiment with that sometime) and his final show set up which consisted of a painted sculpture that took the viewer on an abstract virtual reality ride.

And then that was it. I cried in the taxi on the way to the airport because I didn’t want to leave, and I really really fell in love with every single person I met. I tried calling Jonathan, but it didn’t go through and I’m kind of glad it didn’t now because he’s a busy person and I’m sure he doesn’t have time for someone’s blubbering xD anyway. All in all, an experience of a lifetime.

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