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entry 002

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entry 001

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Having infinite choices is the same as having none

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meta-exposition 3

Giving myself restrictions really worked!  Having only a limited amount of cards made me play them well. It also placed a limit to the amount of time I would spend focusing on small and not so important details. VHS 95 is almost finished and Chicco is getting there; again giving myself 3 rules speeded up the process incredibly. I also like how both videos are a mixture of digital and analog work. I am feeling the pressure of the deadline. With a month to go there’s a lot to be phisically done and that means time. I now need to start my final sprint so that I can start finalising all these ideas. My first part of the videos are done but I struggled to find an animator. This means that if no one takes the job I have to do it and that I’ll have to learn very quickly. I now have the domain, some pictures for the cover and an email but need to set up all the social media in time.  I started first hand researching ideas for the packaging of the CD and am getting very excited about the possibilities and the fact that I’ll be leaving the laptop behind for a bit. I shouldn't loose focus though and I need to keep in mind that there’s only one month to go. This demands that the choices are quick and are as right as possible.  I decided that the question I am asking myself is: In which way a designer can create work that carries the innocence with which children design their imaginary world? Both Eike König and Peter Saville helped a lot in both understanding the question and trying to find an answer to it. In randomness and ignorance sometimes there is beauty, and in limitedness there will be intelligence. I really need to stick to a timetable and get all that is worldly organised first. Sort out dimensions of packaging, logistics and costs of the print of the physical cd and its booklet. I also need to find someone to help me set up the website and someone else for the animation. So now is time to stop questioning and actually make make and make and hopefully I’ll manage to deliver everything on time. 

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Analog methods are more relevant because more similar to toys and more obviously linked to time

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What’s the right visual language to represent naiveness and to evoke nostalgia?

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meta-exposition 2

The concept is there but is all up in the air. Where is my time?

I continued working on the VHS 95 video. I want it to be fragmented in loads of different sub-screens, as if the viewer experienced what’s happening in the video through different points of views, the ones of the characters. I feel though that working in Premiere on the DVs footage work and at the same time doesn’t. I need more tactility and more space to play with it. These programs are so vast that you get lost in it. I need restrictions. Only then you will play with what you have. If when we were kids we had 10’000 toys, we would’ve never really played with any of them. I need restrictions and a timetable. Discipline means not to postpone and kids are very disciplined about their playtime. By making the video I also realised that I am too focused on the outcome. I already know now, how it will look after. This is the death of creativity and of experimentation. I need to focus on the process, not on the outcome.

 So therefore I am now stepping back, needing to do more research and really understand what I’m doing and why. I wish I had time to focus just on this. We are overwhelmed with other tasks and this is distracting and making me loose focus and motivation. This could also just be an excuse though. The only answer is to really just do it! Then I’ll be able to see what happens but I need to stop thinking about the outcome and about what has already been done in the field. Thinking about the Italian Rap scene is really limiting me, as it is a limited scene in itself. I should look at different disciplines and look at what happens in the world outside of the tight niche that Italy is.

 Also need more hands on work. I recently purchased a Polaroid Spirit 600 Camera and that allows me to first of all take picture instantly, secondly take pictures with an unsure outcome and lastly to manipulate the photos, as soon as they are shot, physically. No Photoshop here. So get back to the sketchbook, print research materials, sketch and really get into a meditative way of working. Never think about the next step, just live the moment as it is. Only then I will be playing and focusing like a child.

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PLAY PLA Y P LAY PL A Y PL AY PLAY

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Polaroid

8 photos = 18£ Crazy thinking I can take 50 pictures a second with my phone. Does this make the subject of the picture more valuable somehow? The same picture of the same subject shot on Polaroid or on an iPhone is going to have a different value although the subject is the same. THE AURA IS NOT IN THE SUBJECT BUT IN THE MEDIUM.

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Rome

Sto caring about Rome and the scene. Don't think Italy and don't think Europe. Think worldwide, not time related. True experimentation will happen only if there is true freedom. So free yourself from pre concepts and explore, like a child.

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meta-exposition 1

I started and finalised the work for the Kinder Garden brand because I thought that visualising the tone of voice i was going to use was fundamental. I wanted the logo to be typographical and bold but it had to have a children vibe to it as well and so came up with the idea of giving it a weird shape that makes it almost like a lego brick. You can construct shapes by playing with many ‘logobricks’. I think the idea is good but needs more work. I should aim on having different sets of the logobrick, so that it becomes like real lego bricks, different in shape so that the construction possibilities are multiple.

I’ve been reading a lot about Eike König online and on his posterzine. First of all because he has a big influence on my work and way of thinking; secondly because he started as a designer for a techno label when he was 19, his dream job at the time and lastly because the name of his studio in Berlin is HORT, kinder garden in ancient German. He said the most important thing that he learned in 20 year at HORT is that it’s ok to fail, to not be perfect, to be able to do stuff without worrying about its outcome. I should try more and fail more and only then I will learn more. I relay to much on ‘visions’ of my final pieces that actually only block me from trying random things that will eventually work. I need to stop visualising an outcome at the start of a project. Leave space to play. I bought ‘Syro’ by Aphex Twin because apparently its packaging and promotion were outstanding. Keep track of expenses and costs.

I started working on the video for VHS 95. It started by digitalising the DVs to digital and before that learning how to it. It turned out it is mega time consuming but in my opinion it adds a sense of value to the act of doing it. I want to have six stories on the screen since the song is about six characters but I’m finding this also very time consuming and slow. The first 30 seconds work but it’s a 4 minutes song so I need to put more time and energy into it. Don’t get drained. Take a brake if you need but then get back to it. I am currently only using footage from the ‘Budapest’ tape which i think was shot better but will use the ‘Prague’ tape as well if I find myself in shortage of footage.

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$/<3

A free download is less economically valuable because there is no cost in production but does this mean that the sentimental value we give to an object is linked to its price? 

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Every industry in which quality is valued more than quantity is an industry that promotes culture.

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stay foolish stay hungry stay childish

keep it simple. so that a child can understand it and RESPECT it

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check my aura

Humans have what Walter Benjamin described as ‘aura’. There’s a hic and nunc (here and now) of our existence that is going to be experienced only by the people that meet us now that we are alive. But then why do I feel the way I feel about Dostoyevsky, Rothko and Sergio Leone? Because there must be multiple auras and they are constantly dying and coming to life, at every first experience. 

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FISICAL>DOWNLOAD

Why do we value more the objects that deteriorate instead of objects that remain unchanged? Maybe because they are like us, time dependent and finished. This would mean that we use ourselves as a basis for comparison and that we consider ourselves as the most valuable thing there is. CD > MP3  POSTCARD > FACEBOOK POST