I had every intention of posting this on the final days of August (and again over two weeks ago) but, as usual, my ‘schedule’ did not permit this. Can you believe it’s been exactly a month since I’ve posted anything?
Nevertheless, here is my recap of the month of August.
University was relatively busy. There was one particular week that I recall bursting into tears from anxiety and stress though ultimately I survived. The Creative Industries core unit Making Connections is rather loathsome. Firstly, it’s based entirely on the concept of my arch nemesis Team Work. Our marks rely on the effort and completion of work by each group member so if someone fails to do their (basic weekly) work, everyone loses marks. While the girls I’m teamed up with are lovely, it’s a nightmare. We started the unit with the most horribly tedious and downright boring individual assessment on a CI project where we had to detail its purpose, context, each and every stakeholder and their engagement tools and strategies. It took hours to complete and I had absolutely no interest in any of the projects (I have two disciplines and somehow neither were catered for).
Performance Innovation is alright. I’m not so big on the whole “we must renounce our past forms of theatre and performance because they hold no relevance in today’s society” thing because I love theatre in its traditional form. Some of it is also a little too obscure (read: weird) for my tastes although, in saying that, a lot of it is unbelievably brilliant. I wrote an essay on appropriation and intertextuality (top marks to anyone who actually knows what those terms mean) and managed to make a total of ten references to other works, including: Romeo and Juliet, The Glass Menagerie, Gone With the Wind, A Very Potter Musical, Harry Potter, 10 Things I Hate About You, Prospero’s Books, She’s The Man, and Hamletmaschine. Admittedly I do have a very understanding tutor who doesn’t mind that I’ve managed to turn up half an hour late twice because I can’t manage to make it to the bus stop early. Oh, I also have friends (FRIENDS, guys) because two of the girls I was teamed up with last semester for a performance of Top Girls are in my tutorial and they’re super lovely and we still keep in contact.
Unspeakable Beauty: a History of Fashion and Style is definitely my favourite unit this semester. We’re covering fashion history from the ancient Greeks to the 1930s age of Hollywood Glamour. As I’m sure all of you already know, I adore history and if it were more sensible, I’d make a career out of it (although I may just do so anyway - expect a blog post about this). Our first assessment was a group presentation on a style of dress from a particular period of fashion covered in that week’s lecture. While I would have killed to cover Hollywood Glamour or Marie Antoinette, in the end I chose Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen which meant covering Empire dress. While I was finding books for research (six in total), I discovered that there is a legitimate book called Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen published last year which ended up being hugely helpful. All this research ultimately lead to a unshakeable compulsion to finally read Jane Austen (that’s right, I have somehow avoided - despite my extension English background - ever having to read a Jane Austen novel) which I’ll hopefully get around to before the year’s end.
I’m not actually sure why I chose to take Photomedia and Artistic Practice (a fancy name for introduction to photography) over the film unit. Truth be told, I find film infinitely more interesting than photography. I’ve never had any interest in studying photography, let alone becoming a photographer, and the class definitely has its obligatory hipsters and (surprise surprise) I have not managed to make a single friend or acquaintance. The lectures start at 8 AM so I have not bothered to attend a single one and I have very little faith in the idea of me attending in the final weeks. The projects aren’t so bad and my tutor (who is apparently a professional photographer) seemed quite impressed with my work so I’m hoping that means I’ll pass the unit.
Now that I’ve covered the University side, I’m not sure I can remember anything memorable from this month. It was my mother’s birthday on the 10th although we didn’t do anything major. We did visit Mt Coot-Tha towards the end of the month where we went on an impromptu bush walk that lead to Slaughter Falls which was conveniently dried up and I managed to destroy my favourite pair of flats. The lookout at the restaurant and cafe was lovely though and you could see the entire city.
Since my sister was working that day, we returned the next weekend to visit the Mt Coot-Tha botanical gardens (we were planning on going to the Planetarium as well but it was closed) which was rather lovely. The fern house, bonsai house and Japanese garden were definitely my favourites. We also (for lack of a better term) renovated both our backyard and front yard gardens to look a little more like English garden and we now have the nicest garden in our street (I don’t care how conceited that sounds, everyone else has palm trees and one or two tropical plants). I’ve been growing dwarf snapdragons in a pot as well as purple violas in the garden and both have been flowering brilliantly (I may even take pictures).
I suppose that’s all I have to recount since September is almost over and I’ll need to make another long post in a few day’s (or possibly week’s) time. Until then, I love all of you(r faces).
-Kirsty.XO.
