02 Cranbrook Calling - In from the Outs

This is podcast number two from the Cranbrook Academy of Art Design Department for the week

of November 1st.

This week, we're going to have a conversation with four current graduate students about

the challenges they're facing and the nature of their work in the first two months of this

year.

Okay, so I'm Elliot Earls, and I'm a designer in residence for the graphic design department

at Cranbrook Academy of Art, and this is our first video podcast.

I'd like to basically have a conversation with a few of our students about what their

impressions and their experiences in the first month or two months of school are.

On my right, we have Sasha Toshilovsky, we have Sean Rose.

Sasha's a first-year student, Sean is a second-year student.

We have Jonathan Keller, who's a first-year student, and we have Chris Williams, who is

a second-year student.

So, I guess the big question is, does anybody want to talk a little bit about what we spent

the first two months doing?

Jonathan?

There was our initial get-together period, which was just basically us getting to know

each other for the first couple days, and then we kind of ramped up into our very first

project, which was a video-slash-performance project to be shown in Venice, Italy at IAUV.

And that was about 11 days of super hard work on everyone's part.

Working in small teams, right?

Working in small teams, five different teams, on a project loosely based on Frankenstein

and then we went to Italy, spent, what was it, six days there, basically doing workshops,

seeing Venice, I think we went to Fabrica, other such things, shorter performance, slash

video, and then we kind of came back, and now we're in the midst of a reading group

and critiques.

So, we're working as much as we can.

Working on your own work?

Yep.

And any initial impressions on how that first project went?

For me personally, it was a really good experience to, just to get to know everybody.

We, as a group, like the whole department was split up into five groups, and so working

with three other people was really interesting, because it's sort of like being thrown into

the deep end of the pool, and you kind of have to learn to juggle a few things, and

you sort of like have a very short timeframe, and it forces everybody to kind of be around

each other for long hours, and you quickly learn what the other people are like, what

they're into, and just how they work.

For me it was a really great experience, just to learn about the people, and also there's

a lot of interaction between the groups.

Yeah.

Which was really interesting, too.

And did that come as a shock to you a little bit?

Because you were familiar with the Cranbrook program, so how did that mesh with what your

expectations for the program would have been?

It was, I thought it was a really good experience, because I was kind of expecting

to come and sort of be working on independent stuff, like I mean, working on my own stuff,

and this was an opportunity to collaborate and sort of, you know, kind of get to know

everybody.

Yeah.

my years, or even second year. I was really looking for collaborative work, but it didn't happen right away, which is great.

Sean, do you have any impressions of the project?

I mean, I didn't see my girlfriend for basically a month, which, that's my first impression.

But after that, I think the level of work that we did was incredibly high.

You know, Chris and Sasha and I actually, how we all got together, we were all in the same group,

and I saw them a lot more than anybody else, and they work super hard, and they're very talented.

And Amanda Yu was also in our group.

And it was a very fruitful collaboration, and like Sasha was saying, I'm interested in collaborations,

but, you know, besides for one small project last year, this was my first one,

so I think it was a good opportunity to get the ball rolling.

And then to take it and bring it to Italy, to show it in front of the students of Fabrica

and the students of the design school in Venice, was really special, I think.

And it was a great experience.

It was a good opportunity and a great experience all around.

You know, taking into account technical hiccups and whatnot, I think it was well received

and really a fantastic time.

And also, like, it was framed within the context of the Venice Biennale that was happening at the same time.

So we were there participating in our work, but also could walk around the city,

and the Biennale was all around us.

So for me, that was pretty special, to feel in a way that I was a part of that.

It was a great opportunity just to get to know your fellow students as well.

Yeah. I mean, we had that shared experience of working so hard on this project

that once we had the freedom to kind of move around and be with each other in this super social context,

we kind of all were like, ah!

Had time to relax and really get to know each other a lot better.

I mean, that was what I took away from Venice the most, actually,

was how much more we bonded as an entire group.

And Chris, how was your experience on the first project?

You know, it went pretty well.

The thing I think I enjoyed the most was the deadline and the amount of work that went into it

for the sake of, it wasn't just, here's this thing, let's make it.

It was, because you have this deadline, it was because there were so many different things that we had to do.

It was writing, figuring out what to shoot.

It was not just trying to make a deadline for one component.

It was, like, everything.

The amount of labor that it took to kind of get to see exactly what areas people kind of shined in

in a short amount of time.

His ability to put footage together and Sean's ability to shoot

and Amanda's ability to organize how these things should go together

and the productivity levels of what should be done on certain days.

It was just amazing to see people's natural abilities kind of come through.

So it was super...

Could somebody talk about, for the...

for the audience, what the interactive component, like,

in real simple terms, could you describe what it was that you did possibly?

Yeah, since I was a part of that group.

Basically, the end part of the video was...

a video component that was...

an animation component that was controlled by

what would be the equivalent of a digital marionette.

And so, Justin Baxey, who's one of my partners, and Kelly Miller,

we built this, basically, box where you had four strings that were attached to poles

and based on how you moved the strings, you could move what was

basically like a paper doll version of a monster.

But all animated, all digital.

But all digital, yeah.

And so, you were giving a physical interface to the computer

and so that you could perform what would be a projected image of a monster.

So you built...

You guys built the electronics, wrote the code, did the animation,

and did the scripting for a segment,

a three to five minute live performative segment

that was at the end of a 12 minute or 10 minute...

12 minute?

Between 10 and 15 minutes.

15 minute film that was loosely based on the story of Frankenstein.

And then that was done all...

The performance aspect was done all live in front of a...

That's correct.

And was that something that, obviously, your skill set was...

Yeah, I mean, both Justin and I, prior to coming here,

had worked on physical interface projects with computer projection before.

So it was definitely something that we wanted to bring to the overall project

since it was going to be shown in front of an audience

and we thought it would be, you know, nice for those people

at design school to see something maybe a little bit different

than other just...

Other than just motion graphics.

Thanks for listening.

Our next podcast will be showcasing the piece we were just discussing

titled I Can Smell the Ghost Already,

which was developed by Cranbrook's Studio Department

and shown in Venice, Italy last month.

This is Sasha Tachylowski.

See you next time.