Wonder or Wander

I saw her for the first time in the film Dancer in the Dark in 2000. Although I haven't seen her anywhere except some photos since then, her image imprinted in the movie was strong enough for me to remember her until today. This musical drama, which is gloomy unlike other musical movies, deals with a poor immigrant who is half blind and keeps her love for music until the last second of her life in prison. There is a story--sad one--but it is relatively forgetful in comparison to the emotional tension that she drives even to the last second of her death row. The moment when she cried out in her isolated room is extremely intense. She couldn't bear it not because she was afraid of her doomed death but because it was too quite, so came to finally find some rhythm from water pipes in the building. After watching her music video of All is Full of Love in class, I looked through some of her photos and am currently listening to her music. She, I think, doesn't have certain quali...

Norwegian expressionist painter. I loved his painting, Madonna, which was depicted in my classmate's B/W film, then paid much attention to his work mainly through art books. On the way to Spain in 2001(?), I had a stop over in Zurich and visited an art museum, which possesses the largest number of Munch's art works outside of Norway. Most of his pieces were big, I think. My visit to Chicago last month was so refreshing and a moment to catch up with things. Among others, visiting Art Institute for the special exhibition of Munch was blissful. He, who lost his sister and mother early on, lived in depression and his emotional condition, influenced by the turbulent period of time in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, was greatly reflected in his work. In his early career, even until the early 1890, he seemed to employ techniques of impressionists and his selection of color was rather bright. But, from the mid-1890, his brush took very strong printing power and the co...

While preparing the presentation next week, I stopped for a moment, defining a link between alternative media (AM) and participatory action research (PAR). The division erodes as both are based on participation for production. Alternative media, of course, is broader in definition, but AM and PAR seem to share the same paradigm—toward participatory democracy. It sounds very rosy. But in any case, people create something, which is quite exciting, and it is great that researchers begin to be aware of this dazzling experience everyone deserves enjoying. Skimming through an entry of PAR in Wikipedia, my eyes sojourn over a paragraph about Gramsci’s notion of organic intellectuals. The author mentions the ethos of PAR is connected to Gramsci because of his emphasis on the use of knowledge gained through lived experience. But this doesn’t seem correct, because he meant by “organic” that intellectuals are formed within a social group with possession of political directiveness as well as scie...

Thanks to Tony, who had a fancy telephone, this video was created. See you in summer! --Kay