chronicles-of-a-student

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[chronicles-of-a-student]

Endings, and new beginnings.

 I haven’t posted in a long time on here but I have the feeling I will soon be back. 

The last months were intense and I needed me to be fully with myself, my family, loved ones, hence my absence.

I am taking part in an Erasmus, moved countries and am finishing my Bachelor in a new city. Also, I moved into a new flat with 4 adorable interesting beautiful other students.

These last months have brought me to my edges. 

As my Exchange in Canada was cancelled due to Covid-19, I have been proposed to study in a little town in Germany instead. With the Summer term starting only this week, I thus had two months of free time.

It was the end of the First term for me, which ended with an exhausted sushi roll of blankets but a satisfied one. I got above the average I wished to attain and felt filled of insights and ideas about Anthropology, Ethnology, Gender Studies and Experiments I would like to bring to existence. 

While I was trying to reset and regenerate from a (too?) intense Term, the health condition of my dad got more and more worrying. He had been diagnosed with Blood Cancer more than one year and a half ago. My dad was also one of my closest friend. On the 3rd of March he passed away after months of giving all his most positive energy to everyone around him. Shortly before leaving us, while still conscious he still made his nurse laugh with jokes, putting a smile on her face like he did with so many others. He still wanted to paint 2m/3m paintings and live life fully and I think the hardest thing is to be powerless in front of my best friend losing his life when he was such an example of generosity, positivity and aliveness, even through the most challenging times. 

I am giving myself time for grieving and becoming familiar with this new state of being. Unless death is encountered I don’t think it’s a place where many of us like to dwell. Simultaneously, this encounter also makes me reflect more intimately on every form of death, grief that can be experienced through life. Death really is tied to life. There is a paradoxical state in Grieving, a feeling of being more alive while in contact with emotions of loss that are inevitable. 

Classes are starting this week and I will soon go back to post more regularly on how everything is going from studying in three languages, settling to a new country/city in these times, self-care and reflections. 

Hope this finds you well, may you be healthy, safe and loved ! xx

[chronicles-of-a-student]

Kirsten Kurtz  -  Three Sisters in Soil,  2018

American, b.?

Soil and gesso

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pdf from here

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Loving this caption. 

So somebody on my Facebook posted this. And I’ve seen sooooo many memes like it. Images of a canvas with nothing but a slash cut into it, or a giant blurry square of color, or a black circle on a white canvas. There are always hundreds of comments about how anyone could do that and it isn’t really art, or stories of the time someone dropped a glove on the floor of a museum and people started discussing the meaning of the piece, assuming it was an abstract found-objects type of sculpture.

The painting on the left is a bay or lake or harbor with mountains in the background and some people going about their day in the foreground. It’s very pretty and it is skillfully painted. It’s a nice piece of art. It’s also just a landscape. I don’t recognize a signature style, the subject matter is far too common to narrow it down. I have no idea who painted that image.

The painting on the right I recognized immediately. When I was studying abstraction and non-representational art, I didn’t study this painter in depth, but I remember the day we learned about him and specifically about this series of paintings. His name was Ad Reinhart, and this is one painting from a series he called the ultimate paintings. (Not ultimate as in the best, but ultimate as in last.)

The day that my art history teacher showed us Ad Reinhart’s paintings, one guy in the class scoffed and made a comment that it was a scam, that Reinhart had slapped some black paint on the canvas and pretentious people who wanted to look smart gave him money for it. My teacher shut him down immediately. She told him that this is not a canvas that someone just painted black. It isn’t easy to tell from this photo, but there are groups of color, usually squares of very very very dark blue or red or green or brown. They are so dark that, if you saw them on their own, you would call each of them black. But when they are side by side their differences are apparent. Initially you stare at the piece thinking that THAT corner of the canvas is TRUE black. Then you begin to wonder if it is a deep green that only appears black because the area next to it is a deep, deep red. Or perhaps the “blue” is the true black and that red is actually brown. Or perhaps the blue is violet and the color next to it is the true black. The piece challenges the viewer’s perception. By the time you move on to the next painting, you’re left to wonder if maybe there have been other instances in which you believe something to be true but your perception is warped by some outside factor. And then you wonder if ANY of the colors were truly black. How can anything be cut and dry, black and white, when even black itself isn’t as absolute as you thought it was?

People need to understand that not all art is about portraying a realistic image, and that technical skills (like the ability to paint a scene that looks as though it may have been photographed) are not the only kind of artistic skills. Some art is meant to be pretty or look like something. Other art is meant to carry a message or an idea, to provoke thought.

Reinhart’s art is utterly genius.

“But anyone could have done that! It doesn’t take any special skill! I could have done that!”

Ok. Maybe you could have. But you didn’t.

Give abstract art some respect. It’s more important than you realize.

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Studying is rarely the pretty, organized thing a lot of blogs make it out to be, so here’s a photo of what my workspace actually looks like during crunch-time...

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MY ESSENCIALS TO STUDY! coffe and my ipad 😂☺️

happy monday guys!

find me on instagram

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Wednesday, 20.01.21. 21/100 days of productivity

- Finished 3 A3 Mindmaps on Mortality indicators and analysis

- Finished on A3 Mindmap on Fecondity indicators and analysis

- Finished a Review on the differences between 2 approaches in demography

- Finished one A3 Mindmap on the Sanitary Tranistion and Epidemiological Transition

Boom ! 

Exam is tomorrow and I still feel a need to clarify the different topics and what they each encompass. It’s the end of the session and my brain feels very very foggy

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Vesa Pihanurmi Bonsai Study II

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Sunday, 10.01.21. 21/100 days of productivity

-Read “Introduction à l’éthique économique des religions universelles” from Max Weber, twice

-Read Chap 5 on “World view, and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols” by Geertz

-Read Chap 9 on “Le sorcier et sa magie” from C. L. Strauss

-Read an article from Vilaça on “Missions et conversions chez les Wari’, entre protestantisme et catholicisme”

-Read “Essay on Cultural Transmission” from M.Bloch

-Read the article “Mourir et renaître. La conversion au christianisme des Inuits de l’Artctique de l’Est canadien” from F. Laugrand

-Read “Contribution à une étude sur la représentation collective de la mort” by R. Hertz

-Watched an Episode of “Anne with an E” ♡

-Did 45′ of upper back love yoga / positive affirmations 

You know it’s a wild day kind of day when you post for yesterday at 4am !!

You are brave and so worth it, x

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hello! hope the new year is treating you well (so far!) i decided i wanted to read more in translation this year, especially poetry, and i was wondering if u had recommendations for works translated into english (or french) from living or 20th century poets. it’s not a strict preference i just really want to expand my horizons ! anyways i love your blog it’s a much appreciated resource ❤️

Hi! Aw, that’s such a lovely idea. Honestly I mostly read English-writing authors (you must have noticed...) but I do have a few things to recommend.

• Rainer Maria Rilke’s works, most notably Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies trans. by Martyn Crucefix, but also The Book of Hours trans. by Babette Deutsch.

• Twenty Poems of Anna Akhmatova, trans. by Jane Kenyon, though I also like Stanley Kunitz’s take, and Marina Tsvetaeva’s Selected Poems, trans. by Elaine Feinstein.

• Odysseus Elytis’ What I Love, trans. by Olga Broumas, and my favourite The Sovereign Sun, trans. by Kimon Friar, who also translated Sodom and Gomorrah by Nikos Kazantzakis. Also, C. P. Cavafy’s The Complete Poems, trans. by David Mendelsohn or Poèmes, trans. by Marguerite Yourcenar (what??) and Constantin Dimaras.

• Federica Garcia Lorca’s A Season in Granada, trans. by Christophe Maurer, and Octavio Paz’s Collected Poems, trans. by Eliot Weinberger, others (including Denise Levertov and Elizabeth Bishop) and Octavio Paz himself. Also, Kelly Martínez-Grandal’s Zugunruhe, trans. by Margaret Randall, and of course Jorge Luis Borges’ Selected Poems, trans. by several translators (among others, W. S. Merwin and John Updike.)

• Speaking of W. S. Merwin, he translated a lot of poems, spanning centuries and languages, and he’s a beautiful translator; I’d recommend his Selected Translations. 

• Edith Södergran’s We Women, trans. by Samuel Charters, and Matilda Olkinaitė’s Matilda, trans. by Laima Vince. 

• Adonis’ Selected Poems (trans. by Khaled Mattawa) and Saadi Youssef’s Without An Alphabet, Without a Face (by Khaled Mattawa too). 

• I’m also thinking of Women of the Fertile Crescent: An anthology of Modern Poetry by Arab Women. You can find a lot of beautiful excerpts on @soracities blog.

• I know it’s not 20th century, but I have a soft spot for modern translations (some more interventionist than others) of classic poetry. My very favourites include Anne Carson’s If Not, Winter (obviously), Mary Barnard’s Fragments of Sappho, Renée Vivien’s Sapho, Marguerite Yourcenar’s La Couronne et La Lyre, Emily Wilson’s The Odyssey, Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf, Kenneth Rexroth’s 100 Poems from the Japanese (some of them you can find in this one—though be careful! Sometimes Rexroth claims he’s translating for shits and giggles when he’s really the writer, like in The Love Poems of Marichiko), A. K. Ramanujan’s The Interior Landscape: Classic Tamil Love Poems and the gorgeous Andal’s Autobiography of A Goddess, trans. by Priya Sarrukai Chabria and Ravi Shankar. 

• In the same vein, though they’re plays rather than poems, I’d recommend Oliver Py’s very cheeky take on Shakespeare’s Roméo et Juliette, and Anne Carson’s Bakkhai (Euripides) and An Oresteia (Aiskhylos, Sophokles, Euripides). 

Aaaaand... that’s that! Sorry, this is severely lacking in contemporary poetry, but I hope this helps—oh and happy new year to you too ♡

[chronicles-of-a-student]

Saturday, 09.01.21. 20/100 days of productivity

-Read Chap 3, Classical figures for Anthropology of Religion

-Read the Chapter on defining Religion from Durkheim

-Read the Chapter about Durkheim’s conclusions (from ‘Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse’)

-Went visiting my favorite tree at the local park... this walk just filled me with happiness, it’s below zero and my eyelashes where filled with frozen droplets of water:).

On to a better working flow today, still hundreds of pages of reading to get done. Studying with calm music and candles lighted tonight

I wish you rest, laughter and peace for the weekend, xx 

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Letters with wax seal stamps, written in cursive, read under candle light

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Friday, 08.01.21. 19/100 days of productivity

-Finished summarizing all my interviews

-Finished writing reflexive commentaries for all my interviews

-Finished completing the research document with our twenty interviews, adding mine to it

-Had a 1h nap due to chronic condition

-Attempted to read more Anthropology of Religion (and failed after two pages)

-Watched Ep6 of S2 from ‘Anne with an e’ while having a bath

I didn’t do nearly as much as I wanted to accomplish today... It’s fine... I guess today is one of those days where my energy levels feels at its bottom... The crispy part of not being a linear being:). Hopefully tomorrow gets better, I still have a huge amount of content to review still until my exam on the 11th to be honest. Stress is rising and my body definitely is feeling it. 

Studying is so solitary sometimes so I had a call with a friend and planned something with my boyfriend on the day I finish my next exam. Writing here everyday keeps me accountable and hopeful I will get through this... Thank you beautiful community, even tough I know none of you.

You will make it through, x

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Thursday, 07.01.21. 18/100 days of productivity

-Woke up late at 10.30am.

-Took a long walk at the local parc, sat on bench feeling blessed, looking at the dogs joyfully gathering and trying to perceive their unique personality traits while soaking in the sun. Fresh air is such a powerful energizing force to me:).

-Naped for 25′ with my cat.

-Started my Chap 3 in Anthropology of Religion + did extended reading on social constructivism.

-Watched a Visual Etnography on the Funeral Practices from the Ibaloy in Philippines.

-Finished the summary and reflexive commentary on 1/3 interviews.

-Finished an additional summary of my second interview.

Sometimes, as a student, your job is to put everything you have got in reading, processing and learning - that goes hand in hand with taking appropriate time off and rest when needed ♡. 

I hope you find ways to recharge, honoring the multi faceted being you are, x

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Wednesday, 06.01.21. 17/100 days of productivity

-Read Chap 4 of Sociology of Labor

-Read an article on the Lean Management Paradox

-Watched a conference challenging the idea of disappearance of Labor

-Read my project of last year on Job Insecurity and new organizational theories of Labor

-Finished the concept mind-maps about organizational theories of Labor, of notions such as Employement/Labor and about the Labor Market’s dynamics since the 80′

-Passed my exam of Sociology of Labor (yey!! Hopefully I didn’t go over the word limit). 

Going to come down of my adrenaline rush slowly now.

Sending you all my support for the challenges you are facing, x