Vancouver and the Island

To help me organize my thoughts I will make this post in small sections each pertaining to a small part of the trip.

Boat Cleaning

In Vancouver I helped my uncle with the cleaning of his boat. This is a rather large undertaking as it requires a massive boat life to lift his rather large boat. Then it required some elbow grease and a pressure washer to clean off the barnecles. Coincidentally I started reading Moby Dick while I was on the boat with him.







Art Show

My aunt had an art show opening while I was in town. Her paintings are still lifes painted in a realistic manner from photographs. It is an extremely interesting technique that looks fantastic and causes the images to become more abstract as you approach them.

I worked as the events photographer. That seems to be something I am starting to do alot on this trip.





My Erin's Rats

My cousin Erin got some rats as pets. They seem like really great pets. Always very active and seem really robust. They are also pretty cute little animals.





Ping-pong

As a kid I was always trying to be good at things. One of those things was ping pong, and I knew I was good at ping pong when I started to beat my dad sometimes. It seems it is time to pass the torch already as my cousin Halley can now beat me in Ping pong. It is very impressive.

High School Friends

I also had the opportunity to meet up with friends from highschool. I saw Kim, Lauren and Mike. I really like how well I can still get along with my friends from highschool. I can tell now that those friendships are actually going to exist for a long time.




Vancouver in Brief

There was all sorts of stuff happening in Vancouver, but most of all it was nice just to sort of be part of the family living there. I got to know what it was like to live in their house with them and see the world in a slightly different way than I do at home. Vancouver is a nice place to be.

Ferry

The bus is the best way to take the ferry to Vancouver Island. Your first on and first off and don't have to wait in any lines. I refused to buy a 10$ burger on the ferry trip and thus was very hungry. My supply of raisins and nuts had run out. I have since refilled it.

Meeting the family

It is most intersting to be on the Island because it is the first time I have seen my cousins in about 12 years. It has been a very long time.

The Island

The simplest way I could describe being on the island is that it is like being at the lake indefinitly. It is sort of like being on vacation all of the time, except you need to work. Everyone here is so friendly, and everyone seems to know everybody. I've met alot of people while I have been here. What is really surprising is my ability with names here. I think I have actually met about 30 people whose names I actually remember in only 5 days. That doesn't happen often.

The Avalanche

I have spent a few nights here at the bar that my cousin Leegion works at. Most nights I have been bringing my camera to photograph whatever show is playing to help with some advertising later.






Leegion's Birthday

I happen to have great timing and arrived in time to go to my cousin's Birthday. We had a great time at he Avalanche bar listening to some a Blue Grass Band. They let some of the guys from our party play their bass. At the end of the night, my cousin David, his friend, and my Aunt Gail also went up and sang some songs. It unexpected, but a blast. Too bad I hadn't brought my audio recorder to that.








Nymph Falls

I went with my cousin David and his girlfriend to Nymph Falls. Just beautiful.






More stuff has happened here, but there is just too much to tell. I shall probably be departing on Tuesday. I'm thinking I might just make a huge bus run all the way down to San Francisco. It's only 42 hours away by bus.

Summer 2009

Kyler

From Edmonton, Onto Kelowna, Through To Vancouver

So the trip has continued unhindered. I stayed in Edmonton till thursday night with my grandma Norma. We had a nice simple visit together. We went on a walk to see my grand fathers memorial tree, and we made fudge, and we watched a movie.



I also took some time at her house to take pictures of the stuff around her house. She has traveled the world and has a great sense of taste and thus has an amazingly well decorated house. Most peoples nicknaks are just junk, but her's are definitly treasures.





Grandma then dropped me off at the Greyhound Station and my real bus adventure started.



I took the bus all the way to Kelowna overnight. The only unfortunate part of taking the bus is that it stops everywhere. Roughly every hour the bus will make a stop at some small town to pick up one or two people, or to drop off a package. This made sleep very difficult. But I think I will get the hang of it.

I have to say that taking the bus is exceptionally relaxing to any other type of transportation I have taken. You have lots of space to sit in. Great big windows to look out of. It is probably the closest thing you could find to taking the train, except more convenient because it actually goes where I want to go.

So in Kelowna I stayed in a hostel for 3 days. I pretty much realized that hostels are really equivalent to living in residence. They just seem to share alot in common with each other. I can't say that I really jumped into the whole hostel experience, that just doesn't feel like the point of the trip. I did however meet some people, and was able to have a barbecue with a whole Australian Rules Football team. Though I can't say that I fit in well with that crowd.

I spent most of my time in Kelowna finding a nice spot to sit and read. I finished off two books while I was there.

And as always I took lots of pictures while in Kelowna.




I think there will be alot of this type of handheld self portrait on this trip or else there we be barely any photos of me. Or I could go all Survivor Man and set up my camera to take pictures of myself doing stuff in action.



And now I am in Vancouver, I seem to have gotten here at a great time as there was a frenzy of activity tonight, with a whole bunch of people showing up for dinner.

I'm happy to be on this trip and I am slowly honing in on the actual purpose of the trip. It doesn't feel like most other trips that I have been on. It is a peculiar experience to show up in a city by yourself and see what happens. I can really tell that I am doing exactly what I would do.

Take for instance my arrival in Kelowna. I had just arrived after an overnight bus ride, having slept badly and not eaten much. Yet I decided to walk 5 Km with my full bags weighing roughly 55 lbs to the hostel I was staying at. Why? To make sure I could cary my bags that far and to see the city. With a group I would have never done that, but alone, why not.

As I observe how my trip is going I will continue to keep you informed.

And as always, more photos in the full Album
Kyler

Rooms Designed for being Social

I have to say there is something very important in how you set up a room that will determine how social a place it will be.

If you want people to visit your room, you must provide them with a way to visit.

I think as always, the perfect example was Stuarts room in residence. At least between him and I.

I could come to his room at practically any time and sit down in the chair next to him and see what he was doing. He didn't have to stop working or doing what he was doing, yet I could still interact with him and talk with him. And there was space for me to work also, even another computer I could use if I really wanted to. What was really important was that I had a place in his room, and for that his room was a very good spot for us.

So if you are designing a room, and want it to be a social spot, it needs to be designed as such. If it is where you work, it needs to be set up so that whenever a visitor comes, they have a spot that will not hamper you, yet still provides them with some insentive to coming (Stuart often had food or a Rubix cube out).

I think the space I would change first after having figured this out is my desk at home. It is facing the wall and there is no good way to sit at it and converse with anyone else. Somehow it needs to be changed so that if I am working in the room, if someone comes up they are welcome, yet I am not completely thrown off what I am doing. It will probably only take some minor rearrangement to figure out.

Kyler

Edmonton

My first few days of the trip have been quite successful. I stayed a Nick and Robyn's for one night and then got transferred over to my Granny Deanna's house.

We have been quite busy doing things. We went to the Science Center and most notably saw an Imax movie about Van Gogh. Imax is really a remarkable format to see. I don't think it is a good format choice for most movies, but when it is used wisely it is really effective. It really allows the audience to see things better than they could in reality. It is really quite a strenuous activity to see so thoroughly, and probably wouldn't be great for a feature length film. It should also be noted that in Imax, only a rather small portion of the screen ever holds the real important stuff, the outside edge of the screen is only ever used to enhance the experience, it never holds important content.

Also, from watching the film about Van Gogh I realize that you can't be a great artist now by being a great painter like he was. Painting was the forefront of art at the time, it no longer is at the moment. It is never the medium that makes the art, it is the artist.

And today I did some digitization of old photographs. It is quite remarkable to see the similarity that me and my brother have with my fathers childhood photos.










Last but not least, I went with my Grandma to a wake boarding festival at the waterpark. It proved to be quite a good place for photography. I finally realize why sport photographers depend on SLRs for their photos. I have to say that the photographer pictured below is quite daring to bring all of that equipment into the pool. Thousands of dollars worth of eqipment ruined with one slipup.









As always, there are more photographs in the album linked through the photos.

Kyler

Departure

Well my backpack is packed and I am just about ready to leave. I have about 40 lbs of stuff to take with me on my adventure. I think for 60 days that is pretty good.

First stop is Edmonton.

Kyler

Trip Preparations

Time to officially announce on my blog that I have an adventure planned for the summer. I'm going to be going a sixty day bus adventure around Canada and the US to visit family and go to a bunch of other places. I haven't really figured out exactly when I will be leaving, but probably in roughly a week.

I have however started to prepare. Part of that preparation was getting a new camera lens. Here are some pictures from said lens.





As always there are a few more pictures in the web album you can access by clicking through the images.

It is an 18-200mm lens and I have come to realize how to think about using this lens: if I can see it well with my eyes, I can see it well through this lens. It doesn't really extend my vision like a telescope, it match's, which is something I've never really experience with a camera before.

My travels will take me to Edmonton, Vancouver, Vancouver Island and Colorado for sure, and I am going to surely venture further than that. If you are interested in having a visit from me, I would surely be up for it and will see if it can be figured out.

Kyler

Back in Calgary

Well I am back in Calgary. Here of some photos from the last few days in Montreal and of the airplane approaching Calgary.









If you click through the images, there are more in the Web Album.

Kyler

Original Description

Before I made the Crescendo Step, I had to go through a development process. The following is from an email I sent to my teacher to describe my film":



Synopsis: The experience of ascending, and then descending stairs.


This simple action will act as a metaphor to demonstrate how most of life follows the same path. We struggle upwards. Slowly and surely building up a store of energy. The journey becomes more and more precarious as we continue to invest our effort into it. And then we reach the top. It is an ethereal, other worldly place, we have a moment to pause.

To our great satisfaction we can begin our descent. At first leisurely, but always accelerating, recuperating the energy we stored away earlier. Like an avalanche, it soon becomes unstopable. Our speed is not a matter of strength, it is derived from sure footedness and fearlessness. Flying near the brink of disaster. It is exhilarating


In all of the life's endeavors there is always joy in releasing hard work.

Why spend weeks setting up fireworks just to have them explode.?

Why pratice piano for hundreds of hours to have a moment of glory?

Why spend mountains of times on an animation that will be a fleeting moment of joy?



The film will have a very simple form.

Ascent. Anticipation at the Top. Descent.

The Ascent will present the struggle of climbing stairs. By presenting stair ascents of ever increasing difficulty. More and more struggle, more and more stored work.

The Top is about silence, beauty, observation, quiet, anticipation, ethereal. Think Wanderer above the Mist by Casper David Friedrich.

The Descent is a release. All of the stored energy gets blasted into motion. The speed begins controlled, but in an ever increase crescendo it breaks out. The control becomes more relaxed, going down stairs, becomes running, becomes falling, becomes flying.

And that is the film.




So that was what I had in mind before I made the film, and I am pretty sure it is what I made.



Kyler

Cleaning House

I sometimes start draft blog posts when I think I have a good idea to write about, but don't have the time or the energy to actually write the posts. Except I lose interest in them. So right now I am going to clear a few out.

The Ship of Theseus

This is quite an interesting concept to think about. If over a long period of time, ever piece of ship is replaced, is it still the same ship.

Suppose you have a knife which you like, and then replace the blade when it wears out. But later the handle wears out and you replace that as well. Is it still the same knife?

I think there are two distinctly different approaches to this question. From a very physical perspective, the answer is obvious. No, the materials have been replaced, so it is not the same object.

Yet over my lifetime, the materials of my body will be replaced many times, yet I still am myself.

The question can be seen from the perspective of concepts and ideas, and forms. A ship can include the idea of its own repair. The idea and design of the ship is what will live on. And I think this idea is much more powerful if you understand it. It reflects a truth about life, that there is more to stuff than the matter that makes it up. There is the form behind the matter that is really important.

I guess without knowing it this little discussing links nicely into my next nearly lost topic.

Formalism and Memetic Transfer

Formalism is a way of interpreting art for only its formal qualities, not its content. Thus you look carefully at the fact that paintings are flat, and not what they represent. You look at the techniques of film without ever knowing what is going on in the story.

Sometimes this leads to really shallow evaluations of work, if you only consider the formal aspects.

However, if you think about it in terms of memetics, formalism is an attempt to understand what are the underlying means through which memes and be transferred. I almost find formalism as a search for the bare minimum amount of communication which will still allow for the full transfer and effect of a meme.

Suppose we look at the example of film. There is a big different when you look at the difference between watching a 35mm projection of a film in a nice theater, and watching it on your computer through Youtube. The 35mm projection will allow for a much greater impact, and allow the audience to pay greater attention, thus allowing more powerful memes to spread. Youtube on the other hand is easily accessible to a large audience quickly, yet the memes will lack any long standing power, other than the number of memes.

I'm not sure if I have actually been making a good reference to formalism with what I have just said, but I suspect I am on the right track.

Dubai Sad Story

Here an interesting article to read about the state of Dubai.

After reading the article, you really feel bad about all the stuff that is happening there, and you really feel like something needs to be done to stop it. But the sad fact is that is what is pretty much happening everywhere on earth, the only reason that we don't feel so bad about it is because there is so much seperation from the pollution, slavery and poverty, and those of us who have the advantages gained from such conditions.

I don't have much else to say, other than that it is wrong to think these problems only exist in Dubai.

Organized Blood Donation

Last and least, I gave blood a few weeks ago. It is quite interesting how well designed the blood donation system is. Whether it is how they ask you about your history, or they give you a chance to with completely anonymity get rid of your blood if you suspect it might be bad. They know that a volunteer talking to you is important if you are giving for the first time. It was nice to see a process that was so particularly well thought.



Ok, those topics are all cleared up.

I've been thinking the blog needs to be revitalized with some new life soon, so maybe this summer expect some changes.

Kyler

The Crescendo Step

Here is my final from first year at Concordia's Film Animation Program. We were supposed to do something simple, and I think that is what I achieved. Yet only the concept is really simple. On a technical front I was able to mix pencil 2d animation, with 2d cutout animation and put in camera moves, and a new dissolve effect.

Now the really thought provoking thing was when I realized that all of my animations have actually been stick figures. Enrikey, The Crit, and now this animation are all stick figures. But further than that they all act as the same character. What I'm starting to realize is that I have actually been making self portraits. The stick figures have always acted as I would act, or at least how I act when I am alone.

There is something unforced when I animate like this. I'm pretty sure that I don't need to fight this tendency of self portrait, I'm pretty sure if I embrace it I should be able to shoot it off into new directions.

Anyways, enjoy the animation.

I have also posted it on Vimeo. Check it out there if you don't mind just to generate some traffic. Vimeo is a really nice video site that has higher production quality stuff.

Kyler