Showing posts with label walter benjamin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walter benjamin. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Methods 27/28

 One of the measurements given to students in my Methods course. I am blown away by the brilliance of students always.      

     Videos of any nature may be analyzed in the lens of the following measurements.
1/  Identify theories involved. They may not be expressed, so think about the ideas being presented. Journalism, making documentary, is not science as it does not have the organizing principles of paradigms, so identify appropriate theories of a paradigm. Remember, -“In the absence of a paradigm ….all of the facts that could possibly pertain to the development of a given science are likely to seem equally relevant. As a result, early fact-gathering is a far more nearly random activity than the one that subsequent scientific development makes familiar”. –Kuhn, p.15.
2/ Discuss the effectiveness of the work in meeting its purpose (think “variables:). Please refer to my wheel schema.  From Walter Benjamin “fragments of messianic time scattered in the profane” in thinking of the epistemological and methodological questions in doing research. Now that is creative critical thinking!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Wxn1L9Er0&feature=relmfu

You can use videos from my bibliography:
video on my Mom:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQppEXGoSOk

This was submitted November 2013. 

Qualitative research attempts to explain the reasons for certain behaviors, attitudes, and motivations, Qualitative research uses unsystematic data collection methods such as, observations or documents that give meaning to our understanding of things. This ethnographic study gave insight into the life of Rita Ann Bernadette Harding Wright. Through visual sociology the use of photos told a story without words. It fulfills needs of the participants to express to others their gratitude and profound affections for their mother.   Pictures from her early childhood until her demise delivered a good description to the eyes of a person who might not have known her. With the exception of one (the funeral photos) all other images portrayed happy times which included celebration of her participation as an advocacy on mental health issues. The texture of the black and white photos captured and symbolized her important roles and lifestyle. For the researcher visual information is a very natural and reliable source of evidence, because the event(s) are moments which are frozen. Furthermore these photographs can be repeatedly reviewed. The letter she wrote to her Aunt Agnes and Uncle Ed sparked me to look up typewriters in the era of 1932. I managed to find this Vintage 1932 Remington Portable Standard Manual Typewriter:  [Inline image 1]
Death of a loved one is never a happy occasion. However through the amazing art of film the Wright family will always be able to keep Mrs. Wright’s memory alive with images to recall forever.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Goodbye Dad.. RIP as I pray and will always love ya

RIP for my/our Dad this morning. He died at 4am, at age 86. A brother and I visited on Friday at the hospice. He had a strong will and it was a long goodbye with his Alzheimer's. My sympathy and love for us siblings, family, caregivers and friends

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyrecord/obituary.aspx?n=robert-f-wright&pid=167699426&fhid=8694

Our Dad died on 21 October which is the feast day for the relatively obscure Saint Viator. My Mom's paternal family literally built that parish.. donated stained glass, parish councils, an Aunt and an Uncle worked at the church. My parents were married at Saint Viator's in August, 1953.. 60 years ago. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=246 — at Saint Viator Roman Catholic Church

Good morning 22 October. Thanks for the sympathies.. it means a lot. I didnt sleep well; a brother phoned as he is fighting with everyone where he lives; I know it must be devastatingly final for some of my sisters. We will always love our Dad and thank him for doing the best he could. A tough time. My neighbors are kind.. chats, especially with one of the fathers whose 2 boys were born in Park Ridge, IL. We have had so many chats about Park Ridge in the basement cafe in Newark, NJ. Watched Palm Springs videos and got bored, so... dunno.. back to carpe diem! thanks and hugs to all

In the last year of our Dad, we went from 9 chldren to 8 after the death of our sister Mary. Mary pretty much became the center of the family and outreached to all of us siblings. After her death in August, 2012, our Dad began a pronounced decline. My sister died after a long illness but David Sedaris has a poignant story of his family. So many similiarities! Love the story!http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/10/28/131028fa_fact_sedaris?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weeklyemail&mbid=nl_Weekly+%2860%29

Judith Butler is brilliant on the nuances of Benjamin.. the messianic qua revolutionary spark crystallized when oppressed history breaks out of the banal normal of history. Thunderclap Newman 1969.. the revolution is here and we/i believed it was.. we knew it was right to blast out and get it together now, jetzt! Thanksgiving 2011 at Occupy Newark.. another zeitgeist when what we were doing was right in a moment of pregnant messianic possibility! In a small way, being with my brother and Dad in the hospice, an awareness of DAD's lifespan, crystallization of death, and the reality of jetzt in life. I was there in the messianic but....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtRwOkGV-B4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK_6TU1T7V8

A beautiful sympathy card from some of my neighbors, given to me. Over the past year I had frequently talked about having my Dad visit with me here.. the elevator, store, transit, ease of being here. He would have enjoyed the attention here. I am touched by the kindness and remembering, Thanks so much.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

beautiful evening! thought of my shadow as I took the elevator down to watch network news and to email in the store. Very chatting night!  introduced 2 of my cute, maybe 30yrold, energetic Jamaican neighbors and a date is on! a buddy on the verge of selling almost all got a new gig going on in DUMBO, $$$ ahead! that sadsack 17yr old runaway was here, i told him to go to therapy, then told him to make friends with the teen sons of my philosophe Dad buddy. l'philosophe was there reading Kabbalah, au'jourdi. (I told him to read Gershom Scholem, the master of Judaism mysticism). TY Walter Benjamin and all of my angels for a fun amazing night of listening to dreams and hopes, in the basement cafe of my building in Newark, NJ.

Friday, July 15, 2011

happy Birthday Walter Benjamin

Happy Birthday Walter Benjamin! one of the major intellectual influences to my being! the epistemology, montage, paradigms.. his writings with Gershom Scholem, Georges Bataille, Bertolt Brecht. I so love the Passagenwerk.. Paris Arcades! I am forever obsessed with his visions, and probably just the romance of his life.. Paris, Berlin.. to the never forgetting of his dreadful death fleeing the Gestapo.



2011, 15 juli, Newark NJ; summer girls, pastel #29; Boyz sit, pastel #30.
Da young ladies & gents sitting at separate picnik tables today... we older people all commented.. maybe the Full Buck Moon this gorgeous Newark summer afternoon!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Sparks of the divine


2011, 13 Juli; Newark NJ; sparks of the divine; pastel; #28.

Turned out lights and put colours to paper to capture the gorgeous forms/colours/spirit in the vista from my apartment window. Newark is sometimes just so damn gorgeous.. tonight made me think of divine beauty. Also thoughts of Walter Benjamin as almost his birthday!

Trees of Life


"Trees of Life": 2011, 12 Juli; Newark NJ; pastel; #27 in my 2011 ete drawing series.
Sat to draw next to a Christian cult missionary who was opinionated and bossy as usual, an oft evil nature, at first. Decided to really focus on creativity and positives... the result a "Trees of Life".
Later thinking of Walter Benjamin and "sparks of life". I searched in my Scholem Kabbalah text and found text on the inherent goodness in the tree of life! A juxtaposition as well as synchronicity? Dunno. Not that I am trying to draw good but I am focused on the creative in all work that I do.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

maart altar

photographed my current art altar. I have had such altars since 1977 and my cross-country hitchhiking journey to SF/Oregon and back to Brooklyn. In SF, encountered the Mexican and Native American altar concepts. What with all of the religious artifacts, photos of people, objects, make some sort of montage to capture the essence. Two major posters.. collage of angels, prayer cards, medallions, religious symbols, Walter Benjamin's Klee angel, photo of Tede's window in SF, Scholem's kabbalah sefiroth; the other of men important to me.. evolving.. only Obama, Einstein and Tagore on today. In the far right lower is a poster of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Under the large poster are my collection of Buddhas.. those $1 to $5 objects sold on the subway, streets, etal in NYC. My crystal ball from Gumps department store in SF. A Zurich panorama of Saint Regula holding her head (after being martyred).

peace, hugs, compassion