Present Presentation

Yesterday, I finished my presentation in the colloquium. Although I prepared my script for the presentation, I felt I needed to fix many things for my presentation, maybe for later.

It is interesting to present one’s work, especially when it is not a single experiment but a whole year’s project. I want to write down some reflections here so I can be better next time. First of all, what I did for this colloquium was prepare a straightforward structure that started from a holistic view of the project concept and then moved on to each concept I used for my project. There were two main concepts and my experimental video, which I won’t discuss here but maybe briefly some aspects. As my title shows from the picture, Map, Montage, and Frame are the central core of my project. However, because they are all very complex ideas and are not necessarily interconnected, it was harder to introduce why I picked them for my project and how they are intertwined. In retrospect, I should put one more slide for that.

Maybe it would be better to show examples of the map and montage than just some words to explain. I got one comment that the video was nice in the end, and probably it made more sense than just showing some concepts, but it was harder to grasp what those concepts meant. One of the reasons why it was still very vague was that I am currently developing those concepts in the context of cinematic space, and both authors, Deleuze and Eisenstein, had never clearly explained what exact meaning when they used those terms. The second reason would be those concepts are ongoing projects for them too. Some people said it is so philosophical, and yes, they were philosophers; Eisenstein was, in a sense, an aesthetic philosopher, and those concepts are ongoing and unfinished for their own time.

Then, the problem is, how should I explain something that is still in the process of development, such as experiments, concepts, ideas, or images? How should I present them in a tangible sense? I always thought that showing my work would deliver a better effect, but when it is a concept, how should I show it to others who have never heard about it? One answer would be to show the process. Notwithstanding its complex relations, it would offer a holistic understanding of how the conceptual journey went through. But what if it only touches boundaries or surfaces of it? Probably this is one reason I should practice ‘diagram’ here. Maybe I can draw a diagram to cut twigs and maintain abstract connections. (That’s the spirit of the diagram, isn’t it?!?)

I have one more presentation and hopefully a few more in the future. Before those presentations, I should draw a project diagram and post a reflection here.