the approach

Often the best way to find if an idea is really workable or if it could produce anything of interest, is just to try it out. In a way it's like the whole scientific method, formulation and testing of hypotheses: test, test, test and test once again. That is what I intend with my project here, to try any idea that comes along, explore any interesting angle on things and just produce, produce, produce. The good old trial and error.

On a practical level, working on a new project every week, the schedule would typically be 1-2 days developing and researching an idea, 2 days shooting and 2-3 days postproduction. Perhaps maximum of 20 hours per week. This will likely result in very rough pieces of work, but it should be enough to know whether the idea has anything to it or not. Mostly I will be producing these videos simultaneously with whatever other projects I happen to be working with at the time. I imagine I’ll be also collecting materials for different pieces constantly, as interesting things come along. 

Another practical level is the technology available, which in our day and age is simply amazing and evolving with great speed. I am more interested here in the idea than the technology, and often things will be produced with very light equipment. The camera and microphone of my phone is already sufficiently advanced technology to be considered magic, and enough for me to produce many pieces. This is not a purpose in itself, to do things low-key, but practical considering my time limitations.

I expect many of the videos to come will be inspired by the environments I happen to be in, as I tend to move around when possible. Many of them might be documentary in nature, atypical or experimental in structure and style. Some might be more about image than sound and some might more about sound than image. They might resemble more video art than short films, whatever that means.

However one will categorize them, all of it is beside the point. Which is in exploring an idea and producing combinations of images and sound as a result of that exploration, and only then thinking how the piece fits into the existing frameworks of cinema and art. It will be a surprise for me as well to see what they are, but surely they will be experiments, exercises, essays and sketches, unfinished attempts - fragments of the way I experience and perceive the world. 

A definition of trial and error:

"a method of discovery, solving problems, etc., based on practical experiment and experience rather than on theory"

Collins English Dictionary

introduction - first kill the cop in your head

The world is full of ideas. Each day is filled with new observations and realizations, from small to large, whether we really pay much attention to them or not. The everyday reality we experience offers so much impulses and information that there are practically infinite number of ways to examine and combine our thoughts and experiences to create different synthesis. In other words we live in a vast sea of ideas and possibilities.


Creating in one form or another has always been an important outlet for me. A way to examine the world and rearrange my experiences, first primarily with writing and later with images and sound. Yet I often find myself struggling with the feeling that the ideas and observations I have are just not good enough or don't have the potential to merit a more detailed examination. For years now most of my ideas have stayed just as they are - ideas, slowly decomposing in the Immateria. My internal critic has a very cruel eye and it seems to be doing me a big disfavor.


So I've begun to wonder, where does this critic, this brain police come from and what nourishes it, what kind of mental soil does it thrive in? And more importantly: what could be done to challenge it?


In introspect it may be easier to shoot down ones own ideas than to go about producing them - it allows a back door to slip quietly out of instead of facing the reality of dealing with them. It may also be the cultural climate and ecology that we live in, the fast food culture of consuming images, text and sounds. The amount of audiovisual material that surrounds us every day is also so massive that at times it seems to eradicate any meaning it might have. It's all just noise, and very little signal. Contributing to that often just feels useless.


But in the end, all of the above are really just excuses. The critic has to be dealt with.


This is why I'm starting a project of creating a new work of images and sound each week, over a period of a year. This challenge ought to eradicate the mental blocks and clogs I have accumulated in my system for one reason or the other. Having a constant deadline will not leave time to worry about whether I'm sweating out shit or gold.
As the old saying goes "first kill the cop in your head".


This blog will serve as a platform to show the work I'm producing (along with Vimeo) and as an outlet to write about my experiences and thoughts. A new piece will be uploaded once per week, starting soon.

Who are the brain police?