Had a lot of technical problems with this. The most distressing was that when I saved the powerpoint as a pdf the colour went all muted browns. I discovered that I had saved the jpeg direct from lightroom, but when I exported it instead from photoshop the choice to embed colour was given and that fixed it. I also found that powerpoint compresses things to shit and the pdf was absolutely tiny and a bit pixelated. So lessons are that if I use powerpoint I make sure that do not compress images is ticked in advanced preferences somewhere, and that I save the jpeg I’m going to use through photoshop export and embed colour. This time I just sent in the powerpoint without converting to pdf, which is another option.
I was pretty happy with this image as my first one. I took 160 photos to get this and have tried to make the words resonate with the photo. I’m choosing grey because I don’t like any pure white (including text). I have thought about having the oud as me turned away from the outside world which you can see in the reflection. Complementary colours as colour contrast is the aesthetic theme of this photoessay to fit in with the simultaneous contrast of Turrell’s Skyspace. Red is for pain, sound is meant to refer to in my head and then reference with the strings. Shallow Depth of field to highlight hole and also give blurry sense of movement in the strings. Diagonal leading lines to the hole and also rule of thirds with the hole in the bottom third. Looking down because I’m literally down. 12 X 12 inch square with the photos in the 3:2 format of my Finepix camera. 3 sentence text to tell the story of a visit to the skyspace as a break from the hopeless situation.
Colours described as being analogous colours are next to one another on a colour wheel, and many theorists believe that using these or monochromatic colour schemes (different shades of the same hue) can have the most harmonious effect especially if textural variation is also employed (O’Connor, 2014).Â
So if I’m going for harmony I need to group colours and then gradually transition to the others. How could I add textural variation – ? through different quilting? Think I need to buy more colours. Maybe go in and buy the whole range in one go. Or the whole range of one colour in one go so that I can keep track. Will have to start again as I already have some colours but won’t know which ones they are. Going to make lots of squares without the final design fully organised this year. Then maybe at the end of the year I can use for quilts for the guild show and smaller quilts for the IOT show if I am included. Or maybe even try and get a show of my own going.
Bought the book Conscious creativity so don’t forget to read it.
Need documentation about in a journal in order to talk about the creative process in the final reflection.
refine, convey ideas, pare back, rework, multiple versions, check with others, can’t get others to make the changes for you though. Really had to stop Nik doing that for me in Honours.
Contextual statement is one of intent, inspiration, APA references, experiments, creative artistic outcome. Scholarly writing. First person and third person. Avoid passive. ? mixing first and third person. I guess just keep the “I” to only where necessary.
Strictly follow project brief
Readings I have access to:
5 scholarly or semi scholarly articles – printed out and saved to folder.
Kindle books – How to Haiku, Bruce Ross (2002)
-The Japanese Haiku, Kenneth Yasuda,(1957 but ed 2001)
-An introduction to Haiku, Harold Henderson,(1958) this one has the Taigi loneliness Haiku in it I think. Location 2007.
The idea behind this is that you start to call out something interesting but you are alone so you don’t and I guess it highlights your aloneness. Direct Japanese translation – Flying firefly there thus although would-say alone kana –
Google translate comes up with
Flying fireflies That and Ivan are also alone
I think the original words are an old form of Japanese. Tobu hotaru are to iwan-mo hitori kana – 15 syllables if I say it phonetically. I read somewhere that the symbols in Japanese say more is a shorter space than the symbols in English but if spelt out phonetically then should be similar amount of information. So in English we have decided on 17. I wonder what it is in Japanese. Hopefully I’ll read more in the books.
Photographed book from the Haiku foundation – Haiku, RH Blyth (1952)
I think this book might also have the Taigi haiku in it but can’t find it yet. Might be a slightly different one but I will use this book for reading a bunch of traditional Haiku because the yellow old paper looks appealing to me. 🙂 Even electronically. And it has some pictures.
Physical books -Writing and enjoying Haiku, Jane Reichhold (2002, Japanese, 2013, US). I have referenced this book in my honours exegesis. Feel a bit guilty using a creative material I’m not completely unfamiliar with but I didn’t really research the generation of Haiku previously and didn’t produce any Haiku in my honours work. Just took the idea of brief words generating an idea. And I want this course to be useful so I want to learn more about Haiku in case I really do want to use strict Haiku in my work in the future. Thought about putting it in my photoessay but I won’t. But I will practice writing a haiku about Turrell’s skyspace and may incorporate that into my skyspace quilt work. Which I am now making a large work and not for Australia Wide Eight after all. Just a body of work how I want it to be with no constraints for this year and I’ll work out what I do with it later. Maybe just the old guild show as usual. Fun to be involved in something local and grass roots – more related to my idea of creative arts for well being.
New book I shouldn’t forget about – Resilient stitch : Wellbeing and connection in Textile art. Fits more into the arts and community unit.
Two practice Haikus then:
Rework Taigi’s one to fit the constraint of 5/7/5 and a skyspace experience one.
blue-green butterfly
look at that I start to say
but I am alone
Is start one syllable or two? will need to research the definition of a syllable. Is it to do with the number of vowel sounds? what about using I and linking words like to and but? Need to research what is best. I guess no firm rules but we are working within a convention for this task. Might rework this again in third person at another time. In the meantime I quite like it.
a. A vocal sound or set of sounds uttered with a single effort of articulation and forming a word or an element of a word; each of the elements of spoken language comprising a sound of greater sonority (vowel or vowel-equivalent) with or without one or more sounds of less sonority (consonants or consonant-equivalents); also, a character or set of characters forming a corresponding element of written language.
From the Oxford English Dictionary online available through utas library ( under databases)
So I think start is one syllable because although sta could be considered one syllable on its own, rt is not a syllable because it has no vowel or vowel equivalent. Fun.
light reflect absorb
simultaneous contrast
crimson pain bleeds teal
Is eased one or two syllables? and should I include linking words like has? or with?
According to this site eased has one syllable which is my inclination but does have two separate vowels. Great site for clarifying as long as it is considered a scholarly source. Offered me APA citation off its own bat which is a plus.
I have to say I am loving this writing. Didn’t use eased after all.
Crimson pain bleeds teal doesn’t really make sense but sounds better that teal bleeds crimson pain. There are ways it could make sense. I’m trying to say that crimson has changed to teal at least a bit. I’d like to use complements but too many syllables.
For me haiku is about incorporating words for their pleasurable sound as much as meaning. ie crimson rather than red. Sounds more vivid. Evocative words that sound beautiful. What is it that makes a sound more beautiful than another. More research needed around the sound of words and why they are attractive or not. I know which are attractive but not always why.
Want to write a haiku about world of warcraft using the word I’ve always liked – allele- and which I used as a name in the game purely because it was a beautiful word.
Brainstorm words associated with world of warcraft – child sadness allele doogle path barrens music real unreal explore connect adventure gone past fight excite
allele and doogle
on a stone path together
will never return
This was fun but sad of course. I think this works because it’s a bit ambiguous – will allele and doogle go down a path and not come back? or what I really mean which is allele and doogle will never be on a stone path playing together again (in game). Hopefully the sadness which I feel is implied rather than having to say the word sadness.
the barren’s music
sings adventure to the child
allele briefly shared
Again I think this works well because it’s ambiguous as to whether allele is sharing the child or the adventure or the music. It comes from a place of nostalgia for the time spent playing with Jess that is now gone, but also means to me that jess is also largely gone. For a while I did get a share of him but very little now. So I think that ambiguity creates mood and widens the possible audience. I am talking about a moment in time in both cases, which haiku seems to suit.
Have changed these above without noting the changes. Changes have basically been to meet syllable count and to get rid of linking words and words that don’t offer description, just functional grammar words. Action and description words add content. Trying to leave out any words that don’t add content.
Need to move on to doing the actual work.
Haiku a day would be a good idea for health, like photo a day. I tried to find an active site like that but couldn’t .
Geocoded words for home using address:
First result in centre of home: sailors.trains.dressing
In the middle of the top garden: immunity.audit.cutback
This is a haiga – imagery that goes with a haiku. I’m definitely interested in this. Wonder if I’m allowed submit haigas for this project. Definitely plan to do haiga quilts with the short text and imagery.
This is interesting but old. I find the use of disturbed a bit disturbing. No haikus in this that engage me much.
Still need three more Haiku – I’ll look in books I have.
Autumn twilight: the wreath on the door lifts in the wind —Nick Virgilio
Ross, Bruce. How to Haiku (p. 15). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
This is an interesting one. As the book says it’s moody and it sets a scene that suggests abandonment and sadness. What is a wreath doing in autumn? It’s not a christmas wreath. I can see the door , the wind and a background of autumn trees just from these three lines.
“I try to make my life count for something. We all have these tragic experiences, and life basically is tragic, nobody lives happily ever after. So what I hope to do is to uplift it and bring it into the realm of beauty.” This is a quote from Nick Virgilio from the above file. I feel like I get this. Turning pain into beauty. This is what art can do for me.
Easter morning… the sermon is taking the shape of her neighbour’s hat
This is another interesting one of his. Mixing up metaphor of sermon taking shape with reality – the real shape of a hat. Very nice. Makes me think of boredom where she is contemplating the hat rather than listening to the sermon. Again appeals because I identify with that and brings back memories of boring sermons as a child and how I entertained myself by fixing my eyes on the minister without moving, so long that I started to lose peripheral vision and get a tunnel effect.
Stuff taken out of How to Haiku book:
Sabi = moody loneliness
Karumi = lightness, a warm homey treatment of familiar things
Wabi = the quiet beauty of ordinary things
a stick goes over the falls at sunset —Cor van den Heuvel
Ross, Bruce. How to Haiku (p. 16). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
This is a short poem, single line that doesn’t follow the pattern we have to use, but says a lot in a very short number of words. A bit like what I was trying to do when I did my quilts for Honours.
Haiku are short, imagistic poems about the things that make people feel connected to nature. In Japanese, haiku traditionally have seventeen short sounds divided into three lines of a 5-7-5 syllable pattern with the middle line longer than the first and third lines. . . . Most though not all haiku reflect nature or one of the four seasons. The words of haiku should evoke in the reader the emotion felt by the poet, and should not describe merely the emotion. Effective power of poetic device in language comes from simplicity,
Ross, Bruce. How to Haiku (p. 21). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
elegance and concentration in mind. You are suggested not to repeat words or ideas which convey the same meaning or feeling. That is, you should avoid redundancy.
Ross, Bruce. How to Haiku (p. 21). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Tanka expresses feelings and are more emotive than descriptive. They have a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern.
watching the pear tree blossom a new sorrow— this year it is my turn to leave —Cherie Hunter Day
Ross, Bruce. How to Haiku (p. 82). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
This is a tanka rather than Haiku but I’m not sure whether I need to be too strict in my use of words for my general art work. Not this project of course. This one is only just borderline above 5/7/5 but it is emotive rather than descriptive. Haiku aren’t meant to outline the feeling, just evoke it. Both Tanka and Haiku often refer to nature but it’s more of a rule for Haiku. Still all rules can go out the window in contemporary practice.
Haiga is a quick drawing that complements a haiku. Like a haiku, it doesn’t include all detail but just a suggestion.
The needlepoint haiga by Pamela Miller Ness evokes
Ross, Bruce. How to Haiku (p. 109). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
another kind of stillness. By chance one morning a rainbow had fallen across her blank journal page. She was probably about to put down her thoughts. Perhaps she was in a contemplative mood. The brilliantly colored rainbow of the original needlepoint represents the wonderful things that the artist will put down in the journal. If you have seen sunlight colored by a stained-glass window or turned into a rainbow by a glass prism you will have an idea of the quiet delight of this haiga.
Ross, Bruce. How to Haiku (p. 109). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I’ve include this because I was wondering about adding text with embroidery today for my quilt work. The other thing I thought about was free hand cutting out fabric letters to applique on to a quilt. Maybe on it’s own quilt block that fits into the quilt somewhere.
Red clouds glowing at sunrise—reflected in the pigsty mud
—Bruce Leming, original and translation
Ross, Bruce. How to Haiku (p. 144). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition.
This one comes from an Australian haiku site. Seems to be a bit active with journals coming out regularly. I like this because it speaks to me of the difficulty of communicating with the kids through text. Doesn’t include any nature references.
overcast sky the light from a single dandelion
https://breathhaiku.wordpress.com/tag/lyn-reeves-haiku/ viewed 18 April 2022 This is one from Lyn Reeves who is Tasmanian. I’ll pick up the book tomorrow from Hobart Book Shop. The clincher was that there is some illustrations by Meg Walch who I also know.
old photo you, me, and the children all young
Judith E.P. Johnson – https://echidnatracks.com/books/ viewed 18 April 2022. You can source all the echidna tracks ( Australian Haiku site) journals here for download.
I only have to use at least two but I’ll try and use all of them. But the suggestion is not to use too many ing words so maybe I’ll leave them out or reduce them to evolve and drain as long as I have two other words from the geocoding list.
immunity draining
stray terminal
boomer evolving
This is 15 syllables. I’ll pick another two syllable word and try and use all geocoding words. Relax. Now there will only be a certain way of arranging these because of the necessary syllable count.
This fits the pattern and uses the words but it is not great for evoking much about home.
boomer do not stray
far from the terminal
while immunity evolving.
This at least talks about staying home in covid times. And it drops one ing word and relax. Doesn’t evoke much imagery though. In fact looks like an instruction rather than a reflection or observation.
Gone back now and reduced my list to ten word sets as instructed: Not sure if the second set really needed to be around home but I have done that and I think I will try and say something about home even in this experimental haiku. Actually this was meant to be a range of addresses but I just moved around my house with both geocoding exercises. I think this is fine and in the spirit of randomness. Obviously I have cheated a bit by editing my list down to the ten based on preference. I could redo and maybe I will but do this way first.
immunity.audit.cutback
reason.explain.stray
terminal.spoken.carbon
leave.dude.expert
blossom.darting.trade
groups.emphasis.hello
gazed.garage.cobble
mission.nitrate.speeds
boomer.diner.keep
relax.blossom.sits
going to make another selection from this lot now. Take out all ing words, all past tense and include all verbs that are not in the imperative like leave, relax. Include all nature words – speeds, sits, immunity, terminal, carbon, stray, blossom, groups, mission.
terminal blossom
turns to carbon as spring leaves
immunity wanes
Ok this sort of works – comparing the death of flowers to the death of immunity. Also referencing carbon being released when flowers die and our immunity to covid not being complete, so a couple of sad situations compared – climate change and pandemic. Given the ‘winter booster’, immunity really will be waning by the end of spring. I’m going to try again and do the exercise exactly as requested and only end up with a random 30 words to choose from. Maybe I’ll get some prettier words, but if all else fails I now have this.
I have the break after leaves but it could flow on to immunity wanes. Leaves is also good because it also evokes leaf. I could try and get it another way around with the break after immunity wanes.
immunity wanes
terminal blossom turns to
carbon as spring leaves
Possibly a bit less ambiguous this way – loose the potential for as spring leaves immunity wanes. Not as good I think.
Now to do the geocoding again and following it to the letter:
sailors.trains.dressing
pothole.obstruction.fork
sharp.jump.topic
boost.harmless.deck
hardly.punk.aspect
redid.objections.specifying
defensive.spinal.width
perceiving.galloped.dishy
transitions.dentists.compounds
gerbils.lumbering.unpaid
Ok, now I have to use at least two words for my haiku from this. Ing words don’t work well so I’ll leave them out, I will include verbs in the present tense if there are any. And I will choose what I consider evocative simple words. I picked the second set from 5 points along the road from Jamieson to Matlock – the site of my most memorable childhood adventure. The first set are my home and the homes of Dan, Jesse, Mum and Dad. Think I’ll try and evoke that adventurous drive as a child so pick words that might suit that. No verbs there without ing
gerbils – a burrowing mouse-like rodent that is specially adapted to living in arid conditions, found in Africa and Asia. from google dictionary – oxford languages
I only need to use a minimum of two so I can think of my own words for that adventure to include – flood, bog, excite, adventure,
hardly objections
to flooded fork and pothole
the best adventure
I’ve used four of the words here. I tried to use more but couldn’t get the cut right. This is cutting after pothole in my mind. Doesn’t have a good juxtaposition of two disparate things but does I guess juxtapose adventure with hardship. Needs another syllable in the middle.
Ok now I’ve made the first two lines definitely link by adding to to get the extra syllable. I think this will be it but there is obviously lots of potential to keep going. Or for randomly sourcing words.
Used Brian’s room, the bedroom and the kitchen as my three spots to observe sensory experiences:
absence, gentle fan hum like rain, deodorant smell in cushions, foot cramp, guitars waiting, shine, silver birch, wind, piano singing, cold on the front of my thighs, soft underneath, fly in the atrium, sparkles in my eyes, cough.
forty year old quilt, damp pillow, smell his perfume, silence presses my ears, cobwebs cling, taste of acid, candle heat on my face, warm under the carpet, bird high soaring out window, arm encircling.
alcohol burning my throat, far off car noise, meticulous quilting, cool still air, flower silhouetted against grey metal wall, dinners impregnate the tablecloth, roughness of the ceramic cup under my thumb, cold, slippery cards, garbage smell, chopping next door, no it’s the kiln going on and off, taste of chocolate and feel of easter eggs collapsing, sound of laughter, smell of pizza.
brief is to create an image of your experience in the various places.
Need to organise research and rules of haiku that I will use before I go too much further but will do a couple to get started.
gin burn, laughter and
the smell of pizza lingers
in slippery cards
deodorant smell
guitars wait still and silent
cold thighs will not warm
emerge through cobwebs
acid scours back of my throat
outside bird soars high
I’m not unhappy with these but I will now move into more research and then try again.
This morning in the kitchen I was thinking about haiku and I noted a couple of other things. noise of boiling kettle and scratchy trophy handles. I could make the theme more about Brian. The first one is that. I might write one with the above. I notice I am setting a time of day here -maybe in lieu of the traditional season but also to create the juxtaposition. I’m not really creating the juxtaposition using a doing word, as was suggested because it doesn’t feel right to me. I’m going to trust my own reading and instinct.
morning – place or time
roiling boil – sound
turns out I choose your scratchy trophy handles -emotion and touch
morning roiling – the ing does create problem with rhythm
Shouldn’t use personal pronouns too much but seen more in contemporary – ? reference lyn reeves book here
while morning kettle boils turns out I choose your scratchy trophy handles – 17
morning kettle boils
turns out I choose your scratchy
beige trophy handles
beige does not need to be in there but I’m one syllable short
roiling boil in the
translucent kettle turns out I choose
rough trophy handles
morning kettle boils
turns out in sun I choose your
rough trophy handles
Happy with that – it has place, season, time of day, sound, emotion and touch. Also has ambiguity around a bigger choice than cup. Bit of a theme of Brian when he’s not there.
maybe rewrite the bed one to reference brian too and get a ‘your’ into all of them to reference Brian. And interestingly I have made the cut where the action word is in the above one.
Sue Lacey 