The End of September
Written on Oct. 2, 2022
My Projects
For my photo story project, I have decided I want to do a documentary about stagehands and their importance to the arts. People generally only pay attention to the famous person on stage or the final product that is produced, but they tend not to recognize the hard work done by the team behind the scenes. Since I’ve been involved in performing arts for most of my life, I’ve seen how crucial these individuals are firsthand. I would like to visualize how they are ignored but also the critical role they play. The arts typically get disregarded by the public in general even though they are incredibly important to culture and society. By uncovering the important work done backstage during a performance, I hope to also shed light on how important the arts are as a whole.
Photo project mood boards, inspiration, and rough ideas.
So far for class, I’ve had to create mood boards, mind maps, and explain my idea to find an exact theme and approach for the project. I also needed to take a portrait of someone that connected to a mood I want to be included in the documentary.
I decided to take a self-portrait to express my own passion for music and the nostalgia I feel when I listen to certain pieces. I think anyone who works at a theater or concert venue is passionate about art and the role that they play in it. I turned on my playlist of orchestral music and movie soundtracks to remind myself of the many years I spent playing the flute in band. The song that was playing during this photo was Test Drive from the How To Train Your Dragon soundtrack, which has a special place in my heart.
The project that took up most of my time this week was my Brand Identity project. Two weeks ago, we all went to the supermarket and chose an item that we thought needed better packaging. I chose a SPA Cactus-Lemon Fruit drink because the bottle looks boring and the drink itself doesn’t look appealing. This is a very popular brand in Western Europe that is mainly known as a water brand. We had to write up a very detailed Creative Brief that covered the background and values of the company, the shop segment, strategy, target groups, market position, and sustainability efforts. We also had to explain our reasons for a redesign, goals, and any changes we want to be made to the brand. This also linked to my graphic design class where we did sketches for the brief.
If you would like to see my brief, click here.
Bike Problems
Time for me to go on a little rant. For context, the bike that I rented from Swapfiets for the semester was a cruiser bike that they only had in one size. Unfortunately, I’m short, so I couldn’t really touch the ground even with the seat at its lowest height. I made an appointment to upgrade to the deluxe bike that has 7 gears and a smaller frame. I also really wanted to add a basket to make grocery shopping a bit easier. When I got to my appointment, they told me they didn’t have any deluxe bikes or baskets, and that I should set up the bike swap online. I went online to do so but there was no setup option, just a “contact us” button. I emailed them and they just set up another appointment for me to do what I already did. So, I biked back to the Swapfiets location for the new appointment for me in the pouring rain, and two hours before the appointment they canceled my appointment and told me I needed to reschedule it. Come on. I rescheduled yet again and, again, had to bike there in the pouring rain. This time they finally gave me a new bike and basket, but at that point I was wearing wet jeans and a soaked-through jacket.
Legos and Sweaters
The bike story leads into my next story because I was freezing from my wet jacket. I decided to go shopping for something warm to wear near Kalverstraat — a street near Dam Square lined with stores. I bought a sweater from UNIQLO because I had heard many positive things about it from the people I’ve met from Europe. Since I had plans to meet some friends later in the evening, I explored some of the other stores along the street. Then I spotted the place I was hoping to find off in the distance: the LEGO store. I spent a good 45 minutes in this place by myself happily looking at the elaborate lego sets they had. There were iconic Dutch items built out of legos like the canal houses, windmills, a Van Gogh self portrait, the Girl With a Pearl Earring, tulips, metro stations, and so on. I bought a small set of lego tulips because they are an icon in the Netherlands and I could keep these. I loved every minute of my time in this store.
New Places This Week
Poolbar
I met up with my friends, Silje and Viola, to go to a Drag Bingo event, but the venue said they were full. We ended up going to The Poolbar where we played board games, had drinks, and of course, played pool. I had heard from multiple people that this place was a fun and casual hangout spot that I should check out and they were absolutely right.
Rijksmuseum
On Wednesday, Silje and I went to one of the most popular museums in Amsterdam: the Rijksmuseum. This is the national museum of the Netherlands, so we saw a ton of Dutch art and history within a few hours. Afterward, we got food and hot chocolate from the food trucks outside of the museum in the museum square (Museumplein), which was really nice on a rainy afternoon. Going to museums is genuinely one of my favorite activities and I cannot wait to go to more.
Hip Hop
A few weeks ago, I decided to sign up for beginner hip hop classes at CREA, the cultural center connected to my university. On Saturday, I went to my first class! I did ballet for 13 years, but it’s been a long time since I stopped and ballet is very different from hip hop. I love dancing and there aren’t too many opportunities to do anything like this back in Flagstaff, so I am incredibly excited for this 10 week class. My friend Açelya from Vienna signed up with me, so we went together and had a blast. It was a great atmosphere because everyone in the class was there to be active, feel comfortable in their body, and have fun. The instructor is an amazing teacher who is obviously very passionate about dancing. I can’t wait to learn more about hip hop and just groove every Saturday!
