The Five Obstructions- a film by Jorgen Leth and Lars Von trier.

After watching a clip from this documentary, I was surprised to see that these ‘obstructions’ seemed to to be almost welcomed (at least at the very beginning), almost like this was a challenge to push and better  Jorgen Leth as a film maker. I think that to add obstructions to any work is a challenge to see how far you can stretch your ideas before they cross those boundaries. The documentary was visually different to the typical documentaries that I choose to watch but I enjoyed this. The quirky “hand held” nature kept me interested along with the idea of breaking down cinema. It was also intriguing to watch a persons morals get taken to extremes and see just how far they would let them self go for their ‘art’.

Summer

This summer we were asked to look at the three themes Spectacle, Memory and Power. As I tried to work through it, I found asking myself and others the question of whether I was on the ‘right tracks’. After returning to University and seeing the presentations of fellow students’ work, I felt I had limited myself and really I could have looked at almost anything that related back to those three themes, within reason. 

So from then I have tried to look at more of a range of things including books on memory psychology to artists as well as photographers so far. I evaluated how my work as changed over the course of my 3 years and I believe that my best work (including workbooks) came from my first year. I think it had something to do with the fact I had just finished my art foundation year before I started at Coventry. My work was far more “arty” and to be honest I feel thats where I naturally work best. This year I want to include that art feel to my work and start to enjoy the work instead of just working to deadlines.