Final Reflection Post

 

This term I have made a lot of really fun art with a lot of fun people. I also have made a fair few discoveries about myself and the way I engage with social media and with others generally.

Most of what I’ve learned about approaching art just comes down to the process of getting it out of my skull, which is certainly easier said than done, given my hard-headed nature. I’ve found a few techniques that really help me cope with my creation paralysis, which I haven’t been able to talk about before in these blog posts, but which have been immeasurably helpful this term.

The first is that I always set a time limit to have a finished product. Generally, 1 hour is enough to have a pretty good outline of a song or a good recording set up. Recently, every time I do laundry I set a timer on my phone and challenge myself to have made something worthwhile by the time my clothes are dry, about an hour and a half.

Through this course, I found a realm that I really like, which really stuck with me from the reading. I’ve tried embracing nostalgia more in my art. I mentioned this in a previous blog post, but I was really struck by the idea of nostalgia as “the jealousy the present has for the past” (Jurgenson, p. 27). I always talk about my childhood in my songs, or at least the ones involving myself, and I hadn’t seen my work like that before.

Going forward, there are a few things I will be doing: first and foremost I will be approaching art through nostalgia a lot more. I already explored the possibility of recording music videos on VHS tape, which I very much want to try out. I also have a few back catalogue songs that I want to rework with nostalgia in mind.  Finally, I’m going to make a point of continuing with the strategies I found to help make art, and I’ll make a point of continuing that art on social media.

Take care and see y'all soon!