Berger, Beale, and Neuroscience

This week: Berger, Beale, Neuroscience and more...

Hi there,

Here are the top five interesting things that came into the studio this week:

1. With Oscar season fast approaching, I’m making a point this week of seeing a couple more nominated films and/or performances. If Beale Street Could Talk was breathtaking, largely due to the cinematography. I also saw The Wife with some reluctance expecting a tedious “woman behind the man” tale. The story though was far from typical; its richness and complexity of characters made this film and Close’s performance noteworthy.

2. Afghan filmmakers Hassan Fazili and his wife Fatima made a film of their two year experience with their two daughters, as migrants from Afghanistan seeking refuge in other countries. Midnight Traveler just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It was shot entirely on cell phone which makes an interesting connection with much of the visual media we consume on a daily basis.

3. A new biography of writer John Berger is out and with it a good piece from Hyperallergic about Berger’s major contribution: to reframe a viewer’s relationship to art, trusting what the individual sees in the art, in their own terms, rather than insisting on dry art history or theoretical terms.

4. Canadian Art published a piece on some new theories of how the fields of art and neuroscience both help us think, philosophically, about how we interact with the world.

5. Some archivists have found the footage of David Bowie’s debut TV performance as Ziggy Stardust.

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share this note with a friend.

Best wishes,

Elaine

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Yes, a studio is a place of creativity, but even more so, it's a place of open mindedness, learning, and taking initiative. Initiative to make rather than just consume, to consider, to make something new, something positive, something that contributes to our culture.

Studio Notes is a weekly snapshot of the activities and materials flowing through one studio, Elaine Sakiris's Studio.

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