{"id":2768,"date":"2021-03-11T12:45:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T17:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/?p=2768"},"modified":"2021-03-11T15:34:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T20:34:16","slug":"pressure-project-3-sara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/?p=2768","title":{"rendered":"Pressure Project 3 (Sara)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"668\" height=\"599\" src=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GLSL-Shader-Practice.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2769\" data-link=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/?attachment_id=2769\" class=\"wp-image-2769\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GLSL-Shader-Practice.png 668w, https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GLSL-Shader-Practice-300x269.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 668px) 100vw, 668px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" src=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Godot-Practice-1024x575.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2770\" data-link=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/?attachment_id=2770\" class=\"wp-image-2770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Godot-Practice-1024x575.png 1024w, https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Godot-Practice-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Godot-Practice-768x431.png 768w, https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Godot-Practice.png 1526w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homestay-Entryway-Screenshot-512x1024.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2771\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homestay-Entryway-Screenshot.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/?attachment_id=2771\" class=\"wp-image-2771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homestay-Entryway-Screenshot-512x1024.png 512w, https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homestay-Entryway-Screenshot-150x300.png 150w, https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homestay-Entryway-Screenshot-768x1536.png 768w, https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homestay-Entryway-Screenshot-1024x2048.png 1024w, https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Homestay-Entryway-Screenshot.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I plucked out the story I wanted to tell and the accompanying audio I wanted to use within half an hour of beginning.&nbsp; If only the remaining eight and a half hours spent on Pressure Project 3 had progressed as fluidly.&nbsp; Oh, well, Lawrence Halprin tells us \u201cone of the gravest dangers we experience is the danger of becoming goal-oriented;\u201d I don\u2019t think anyone would accuse me of forgoing the process in favor of a goal over the course of this meandering rumination on how I\u2019ve grappled with 3\/11 in the ten years since the disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, the parts of the assignment that flowed easily:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alex told us the deadline was Thursday, March 11.&nbsp; 3\/11 marks the tenth anniversary of the T\u014dhoku earthquake and tsunami that in turn led to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear disaster.&nbsp; I was completing an undergraduate study abroad program in Shiga Prefecture at the time.&nbsp; As the earthquake struck and the tsunami was thundering towards the shore, I was shopping for a pencil case at a mall near Minami-Hikone Station.&nbsp; I was utterly oblivious to the devastation until I walked into my host family\u2019s living room and saw a wave sweeping across airport runways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, yes, when Alex told us the deadline for this project was March 11, I knew there was only one \u201cstory of significant cultural relevance\u201d I could tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After my study abroad program was summarily canceled, and we were forced to scramble for airfare back to the States, I spent a good deal of time adrift.&nbsp; Somewhere along the way, I decided I wanted to get in my car and head west.&nbsp; So I did.&nbsp; I drove west for a week, making it as far as the Badlands of South Dakota before turning around.&nbsp; Sometime later, I took a creative nonfiction course and wrote a piece about grappling with memories, grief, and coming unmoored.&nbsp; The writing was selected for my university\u2019s literary journal, and so the audio you hear is my voice from all those years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, onto process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The piece was more than five minutes long, so I dumped the file into Audition and pruned it to meet Alex\u2019s 3.5-minute requirement.&nbsp; Ensuring that the work still told a cohesive story after excising large swaths of it took half an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After that is where things became tricky.&nbsp; We were told we didn\u2019t have to use Isadora.&nbsp; I\u2019ve been interested in dabbling with Godot for our upcoming Cycles project, so I was tempted to get a headstart and move directly into using the software.&nbsp; I jotted down the following notes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cUser plays with water while listening to audio?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201c3D water?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alex graciously explored GLSL shader options in Isadora with me.&nbsp; Unfortunately, I was 1.) stubborn and interested in Godot, and 2.) felt personally removed and emotionally remote from the visual experience.&nbsp; The waves were lovely, but I didn\u2019t mold them myself.&nbsp; I wanted to dig my hands in the electronic clay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started watching Intro to Godot videos and quieted any voices in my head wondering if I was falling too far into the weeds.&nbsp; Four hours and fifteen minutes later, I had an amorphous blob of nothing.&nbsp; I wrote the following note:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cDo I press forward with Godot?&nbsp; Do I return to Isadora?&nbsp; Do I crawl back to my roots and make an animatic?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few months ago, I had dabbled in 3D panoramas in Photoshop using equirectangular projections.&nbsp; I thought that perhaps that might be a way to bring the audience closer to the story without the kitsch of \u201csplash around in fake water with your Leap Motion while listening to young, lost Sara.\u201d&nbsp; I didn\u2019t want to Google \u201c3\/11 Triple Disaster\u201d and sift through the wreckage like a disaster tourist, so I instead looked up photos of Lake Biwa.&nbsp; The school where I studied squatted right on its shore.&nbsp; The Google results felt inert, so I then cracked open my defunct Facebook and went back to the albums I haven\u2019t looked at in years.&nbsp; I found a photo of the entryway at my homestay strewn with boxes, luggage, and shoes.&nbsp; The caption read: \u201cThe morning I moved out of my homestay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even after all this time, it hit me like a punch to the gut.&nbsp; I immediately started sketching it.&nbsp; I didn\u2019t know what I was actually going to do with it, but drawing was a visceral, physical relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After making a messy sketch, I played with palettes.\u00a0 Eventually, I settled on the Japanese national red as the mid-tone and bumped the lights and darks around from there.\u00a0 I got even messier.\u00a0 I wanted the colors to sort of hurt the eyes; I wanted the whole thing to feel smudgy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had an audio clip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had an illustration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I found more old photos.&nbsp; I sketched more.&nbsp; I emailed my host family.&nbsp; I cried.&nbsp; Eventually, I found myself with half an hour to go and disparate, disconnected images and sounds.&nbsp; Finally, I listened to the wind outside the trees, thought about how it sounded like waves along the shore, and jumped into Premiere to make an audio-visual composition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t really feel like I created this work so much as wrenched it loose.&nbsp; Truthfully, I\u2019m grateful for the opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"10 Years West of the Sun\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/522430892?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"590\" height=\"365\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I plucked out the story I wanted to tell and the accompanying audio I wanted to use within half an hour of beginning.&nbsp; If only the remaining eight and a half hours spent on Pressure Project 3 had progressed as fluidly.&nbsp; Oh, well, Lawrence Halprin tells us \u201cone of the gravest dangers we experience is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,19,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assignments","category-pressure-project-3","category-sara-c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2768"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2988,"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2768\/revisions\/2988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dems.asc.ohio-state.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}