Gapnotes

Notes from the gap

Study diary

Week 34: 19-25 August 2019

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Tonight I finished a first draft of the visual project for Space and Place, after having done a Zoom interview this morning with an informant. I wonder if it’s ok with just one informant in the visual piece. If he’s good, why not? I don’t think it necessarily gets better if two or three people are saying variations of the same things. And it’s only a seven minute piece. (The rules were 5–10 minutes.)

S and I attended the opening and closing of the experimental film festival Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin at HKW. I met our programme director S there, and former student K. As for the films, let’s just say they were all over the spectrum. I loved Lukács’s and Broersen’s Forest on Location.

On Monday I finally did the failed bike ride that I had planned for last Sunday. And yesterday I biked to Liepnitzsee with S, our first long ride together. But 60 kilometers on the fixie was painful in the end.

Two visits to the Apple Store: I got back my Macbook Pro with a new topcase, and I got my Ipad Pro exchanged for a new one (of the older model) after I noticed a lighter spot on the screen. For once Apple Care pays off!

I had lunch with my German friend M, who has moved to Berlin.

I had coffee with a Japanese photo journalist who had contacted me and wanted advice about my programme, which he had been accepted to.

I wrote to four more Japanese shops to ask permission to film there.

Oh, and I read lots of comments and reviews slashing Enter the Anime.

Japanese

Apps

  • Memrise: 24,600 (jōyō kanji 小1–6, reviews)
  • Nextbook 漢字:
    • 小3 writing level 41–50 (including repeats)

Other

Articles

Videos

HKW: Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin – New cinema and contemporary art

Opening screening, 20 August 2019
  • Persijn Broersen, Margit Lukacs: Forest on Location (11:42, Netherlands, 2018)
  • Laura Henno: Djo (13:00, France, 2018)
  • Soufiane Adel: La lumière tombe (9:23, France, 2018)
  • Sebastian Diaz Morales: Multiverse (10:00, Netherlands, 2018)
Performances, 20 August 2019
  • Untitled performance by Shahram Yazdani in collaboration with Broersen & Lukács (Iran, Netherlands, 10:00)
  • The Screening (2019), outdoor screening performance by Ariane Michel (France, 28:00)
Closing day, 25 August 2019
  • Sandro Aguilar: Mariphasa (Portugal, 2017, 87 min)

Film

Week 33: 12-18 August 2019

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On Monday I finalised a flyer I want to give Japanese doujinshi creators at various events in Tokyo next month. I sent it to the printers on Monday afternoon and got it delivered on Thursday morning. Very happy with the results!

I emailed the new respondents about my Veloviewer study. Unfortunately I’m not able to talk with them now since Apple has my computer since Thursday, so I’ll have to arrange the meetings next week instead.

Even so, I finished the “shitty first draft” on Friday, and it’s not that bad. My dilemma now is that I’m not sure what of these options I’ll go for:

  • 1,500 words essay and visual project
  • 3,500–4,500 words essay

My text is now 3,000 words, which means either cutting it in half and adding a visual project, or add a bit of text and submit. In a way it would feel good to be done with it and be able to focus on my final project, but on the other hand, why pass up an opportunity to create something visual?

I realised that DJI has released an action cam, so I watched a couple of reviews and ordered it. My main purpose is that I will use it for discreet shots in doujinshi shops in Tokyo, since my request to film properly at one of them was denied. The wide angle, the impressive “Rocksteady” electronic stabilisation, and more frame rate options (like the one I shoot in: 25) than what Gopro offers will make it perfect for those situations.

But I also took it for a spin on an actual Explorer trip with my road bike yesterday, just a short one, 36 km to fill a hard tile. Because of course I want to do the visual project! And it was wonderful to pump up the tires, oil the chain and wipe away the cobwebs (!) between the spokes of my Cannondale Caad 10 and be out with it again, for the first time in more than a year. What took you so long?

I wanted to do a longer trip today – a real Sunday ride – and I did start out despite heavy rain, but turned around after five minutes since it was actually terrible. Nothing is worse than having prepared fully and eaten a lot of food to go on a long ride and then staying at home.

I finished the elementary school kanji in Memrise! But still in grade 3 in Nextbook’s app – remembering how to write a kanji is much, much harder than just recognising them. In total I should now know 1,006 jouyou kanji according to Memrise – with 1,030 to go. I might know a few more than that since I’ve studied kanji from other books before, but it felt good to learn kanji the way Japanese elementary schoolers do it. I should now start practicing my reading for real.

Japanese

Apps

  • Memrise: 54,400 (jōyō kanji, finished 小6)
  • Nextbook 漢字:
    • 小3 writing level 27–40, including many repetitions

Other

Articles

Videos

Film & TV

  • Netflix commercial: Enter the Anime (2019, 58 min: Such complete rubbish, I felt so cheated, should have taken the cue from the first cringey interview and stopped watching. Not only me: 2.7/10 on IMDb!)
  • Baki S1 E1–4 (2018. Too violent, just a lot of blood and gore but without real impact in the fighting scenes.)
  • Kengan Ashura S1 E1 (2019. I had never understood what CGI is – beyond special effects – but maybe I just hadn’t watched any? This series seems to be CGI only and I really hate it. It’s like watching a screencast from Second Life.)
  • Futurama S2

Radio

Week 32: 5-11 August 2019

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I rewrote the findings part of my essay for Media Activism after valuable feedback from S, and submitted it on Wednesday, two days before deadline. Again, the wonderful feeling of submitting! S submitted his own article, carefully proofread by me, to his publisher on the same day.

I changed the subject for my Space and Place project again. I will now research how Veloviewer Explorer is used. It’s highly relevant for the course – especially unit 8 on “GIS and multimedia mapping” – and I have found several readings that fit very well. I started out by posting a survey pretty randomly, just to see if I could get some informants. Well, thanks to the retweets by Veloviewer and Martijn Hendriks (35k followers combined) I got 55 (!) respondents within the first 24 hours, 51 of whom had checked the box to let me contact them with further questions. I was overwhelmed by the response and touched by the stories that emerged from this disparate group of solo explorers. I now have 68 respondents in total. This is what success looks like in my website statistics:

Statistics graph

I spent the day today going over printouts of the answers with highlighters, and I must say that it’s amazing how consistently the themes emerge. This is probably as close to grounded theory as I will ever come. Not close enough to buy Atlas.ti though. It also made me very inspired to go out again and fill tiles.

I’m now trying to figure out which theory that we discussed in class that my research can be connected to, as per the instructions.

On a side note, my glory hole informant got back to me today.

The final project was lingering, I did not get back to any of my Japanese informants. But I kept studying grade six kanji – my Memrise streak has grown to 48 straight days.

Two visitors from Sweden: Lunch with J at Literaturhaus on Thursday, dinner with A at Vietbowl tonight.

I had an appointment at the Apple Store on Thursday and they finally promised to change the top case of my crappy (there I said it) Macbook Pro.

I got a polite no from Mandarake in Tokyo to film there. So I will continue contacting other stores. I basically just want to shoot some sexy b-roll, the kind of which people shoot from these stores on their phones all the time – Youtube is full of it. But I don’t want to film on the sly with my gimbal setup. I want to be able to focus on the shot and not on trying to hide.

I should book a hotel for my Tokyo stay, which is now less than a month away!

Had a final visit to the dentist on Thursday. It was all good.

We completed the last season of Black Mirror, which was not as good as previous ones. But even so, what an amazing series!

Japanese

Apps

  • Memrise: 40,900 (jōyō kanji, 小6)
  • Nextbook 漢字:
    • Scattered repeat of 小3 writing level 1–26

Other

Articles

Videos

Film & TV

  • Catch Me If You Can (2002, 141 min)
  • Black Mirror S5 (2019)
  • Futurama S1 (1999)

Radio

Week 31: 29 July – 4 August 2019

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As I mentioned I was not that inspired for my essay idea for Space and Place, which I presented on Monday. The lecturer liked my idea of “the anthropology of lines”, as represented by bike lanes, parking spaces, etc, but said that it was “huge” – I needed to narrow it down to something doable.

So I decided to switch subject completely and started reading up on glory holes and contacting people who have experience from either side of the hole. I got hold of two informants right away, but it seems I lost one of them already, and the subject is delicate. So we’ll see. There’s so much to do on that divider though, and the hole through it. I really love the concept and how it lets its practitioners completely compartmentalise the experience and maybe their identity. Well, those are the sort of things I hoped to be able to talk to them about. And I’m not in a situation where I can actually visit a hole myself to gather informants …

I’ve finished my essay for Media Activism, which is due on Friday next week. I just want to let S read it, but he’s busy rewriting his own thesis for a journal right now.

A slightly older otaku contacted me (for the Final Project) and we started a conversation on 1970s loli doujinshi.

My Japanese phone number arrived in the mail. I’ve used rental pocket wifi from E-ca on my last Japan trips, but thought I should try out this seemingly smooth service by Mobal this time, although it doesn’t support hotspots which is strange.

Oh, and the “n” key on my Macbook Pro has gone crazy. It writes double n’s or nothing. Sometimes triple. So I’m scheduled for an appointment at the Kudamm Apple Store on Thursday. Maybe this time I can succeed in having the top case replaced.

Another visit to the dentist, and the last one, hopefully, will be next week.

Today we watched the German national championship in track cycling in the Berlin Velodrom!

And I’m falling in love with Second Life, despite it’s so deserted. It is utterly fascinating, both its success and its demise, and the fact that there is no successor. I don’t believe in the VR project that the owners are working on now. I see Second Life as a hit by accident, a one-hit wonder that can’t be replicated. It will remain there like the old hit songs from the eighties. I tried to create an avatar in IMVU but didn’t like its appearance at all, whereas I can spend hours with the one I’m using in SL. Also checked out There.com which has featured in our readings. It’s also still there, despite the website looks like it’s 2003 and demands Flash. Totally surreal. But it didn’t speak to me at all. It felt too American and … normal. The most touching moment tonight was a visit to a dog island where dead pets get a second life. I petted a dog.

Readings

Space and Place

My essay

Japanese

Apps

  • Memrise: 53,300 (jōyō kanji, 小6)
  • Nextbook 漢字:
    • Repeat of 小3 writing level 1–24

Other

Articles

Videos

Film & TV

  • Maximilien van Aertryck & Axel Danielson: Ten Meter Tower (2016, 17 min – rewatched, such a brilliant short!)
  • Futurama S1, E1–6

Radio

Week 30: 22-28 July 2019

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A very active week – despite no classes! I spent almost two full days with my highschool friend A, who came to Berlin with his wife and kids. This included going to Sommerbad Neukölln and playing Mariokart at our place. The six year old was not very good at it though (despite loving it) and the three year old lost interest almost immediately.

After much research I bought Sony’s 16-35 f4 Zeiss lens – it was expensive but Sony offered 100 euro cashback until last of July, so it was a good opportunity. I considered the Zeiss Batis 18 mm f2.8 prime lens, which is supposed to be super crisp, but the fact that it doesn’t have optical stabilisation put me off, and the 16-35 lens is supposed to be very similar image quality, but with stabilisation and the two extra mm wide angle. I want the wide angle for certain shots in Tokyo that I have in mind. But still no reply from the shop I asked for permission to film in. I should contact more shops.

I’m now trying out my camera + lens setup on the Ronin-SC gimbal. At first I couldn’t even mount it without taking off the eyecup, but in the end I could put it on again. I’m watching lots of Youtube tutorials now on how to actually use a gimbal, or use it in the best way.

The weekend was very exhausting: Together with S I did a full critical mass on Friday, a full CSD plus aborted alternative CSD on Saturday, and the three hour city walk In Search of the Miraculous with Mark Curran today – a part of the “collective happening” Interiors to Being organised by Picture Berlin.

Despite all the social activity I managed to pin down a “shitty first draft” of my essay for Media Activism, but I plan to rewrite and restructure quite violently. I’m afraid I’m not very inspired for tomorrow’s presentation in the Space and Place colloquium though. I wonder if I should switch subject. I always find it hard to be passionate about different things.

I went to the dentist and will go back next week.

Readings

Space and Place

My essay

Japanese

Apps

  • Memrise: 48,000 (jōyō kanji, 小6)
  • Nextbook 漢字:
    • 小3 writing level 12–24 (so hard – I miss about half of them!)

Other

Articles

Videos

Week 29: 15-21 July 2019

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A bit of a chaotic week. I had to attend an emergency board meeting for my house, so I missed the last unit of Media Activism on Tuesday, but sent my impressions of the readings to the lecturer beforehand.

I also started working more thoroughly on my essay for Media Activism, which I hereby decide to finish a first draft of by the end of next week! I’ve done a bit of footwork for it this week, and I also discovered how relevant Foucault’s Discipline and Punish is for it. I love his take on lepers and plague victims!

There was also the last unit of Qualitative Methods, a course that I see as extremely important and that has walked along us ever since the first in-house classes in October last year. The lecturer will not join us in the next year, so it was a bit of a sad goodbye. I’ve really appreciated these last units on interviewing.

And the last unit of Space and Place was on Monday, but there will also be a colloquium in a week’s time – I’ll be presenting then.

As for my final project I felt I needed some advice about how to handle anonymous informants. I wanted tips and inspiration from the final projects of previous generations, since I can’t imagine I will do a traditional “talking heads” film. So I emailed the programme directors, and one of them suggested I come out to FU campus to talk to him about it. We met on Thursday and he had lots of tips for me. He lent me a handful of films and theses, and pointed me to some other sources. The meeting made me feel really relieved, because I realised just how free I am to create my final project – the film. Afterwards I got an email from him saying that he had now watched my machinima and that he “loved it”. He included some more tips and reflections. This all got me in a very good mood and led me to the following:

I’ve decided that my “preparatory fieldtrip” to Japan in September will not (only) be preparatory, but rather when I start filming! I’ll need a lot of B-roll if I’m only going to have anonymous informants. Since S will be away filming too, our little team needs a new gimbal, and DJI very conveniently released Ronin-SC this week, so I placed an order immediately. I’m also looking into some nice lenses – what a jungle it is! I’m having one in mind …

This week I’ve also started an email conversation with the Japanese person I emailed last week. His answers are really interesting.

Filming preparations: I just sent off the first email to a Japanese shop to ask if I can come there and film a bit. I’m sure I can get many shots without permission, but having it would take away the stress. Before sending off the email I spent some time updating my userpage at FU, which is my more static homepage, like a business card. (And I suppose it will vanish after I have graduated.)

I attended the Stadtfest with A on Saturday and continued to a private party with S.

Lastly, it turns out the book I ordered from a seller on Japanese Amazon to use for the subtitles of my machinima only took three days to reach Germany. But since then it’s been stuck in customs in Frankfurt for three weeks. It’s one book sold to me for 45 yen = 0.37 euro. So if they want me to pay German VAT for it, that would be 3 cent.

Package in customs

Readings

Space and Place

Media Activism

Unit 10: Digital Cultural Activism

  • Budka, P. 2019. “Indigenous media technologies in ‘the digital age’: Cultural articulation, digital practices, and sociopolitical concepts.” In S. S. Yu & M. D. Matsaganis (Eds.), Ethnic media in the digital age. Pp. 162–172. New York: Routledge.
    2) Nakamura, L, & P. A. Chow-White. 2012. “Introduction – race and digital technology: Code, the color line, and the information society.” In L. Nakamura & P. A. Chow-White (Eds.), Race after the Internet. Pp. 1–18. New York: Routledge.

My essay

  • Milan, Stefania, and Lonneke van der Velden. 2016. “The Alternative Epistemologies of Data Activism.” In Digital Culture & Society, special issue “The Politics of Big Data” (October 2016). Pp. 57–74.
  • Foucault, Michel. 1975. Discipline and Punish. Excerpts and the beginning of Part 3: “Panopticism.” Pp. 195–201. Amazing!

Qualitative Methods

Phenomenological interviews

  • Englander, M. 2012. “The Interview: Data Collection in Descriptive Phenomenological Human Scientific Research.” In Journal of Phenomenological Psychology (43): 13–35.

Final Project

Films borrowed from and/or recommended by the institute:

  • Laurent Van Lancker:
    • Eth(n)ics Vietnam (2001, 26 min)
    • Disorient (2010, 36 min)
  • D.E. Moore: Dansumae (2014, ca 40 min)
  • David Ferrando Giraut: The Accursed Stare (2017, 35 min)

Japanese

Apps

  • Memrise: 77,100 (jōyō kanji, start of 小6)
  • Nextbook 漢字:
    • Repeat of 小2 level 11–74 (finish)

Manga

  • 武井宏之: ユンボル 1 (2010): Chapter 1 (第1工程), pp. 1–64

Other

Articles

Videos