stumbles – Page 2 – Kim Koelling

Welcome blog peekers :)

I helped with a presentation for the sophomores and junior designers interested in following our footsteps to Germany for the spring. It was SCARY and all my stories and details and facts only boil down to it was the best five months of my life and that’s all anyone really needs to know anyway..

design finds:

http://www.orbasquara.com/

Here is a really wonderful band site i found. It makes me want to get together all my travel pics and type skills and doodles and deep thoughts and make them into a snazy flash website. I love the integration of the handwritten type with photography, pen illustrations and computer type and graphics. It’s a lot of ideas, but somehow came together in the end. It’s a little lengthy, but lots of experimenting and it makes desert roads and deep country look quite sexy–or at least that’s how Jeremy would describe it.

Movie Making

“..here on the brink of a future in which human existence may find itself as tightly enveloped in digital environments as it is today in the architectural kind..” Julian Dibbell in a Rape in Cyberspace

Jenn and I are going to make a movie. My first stop-motion movie. It’s going to be a horror movie based off of this article by Julian Dibbell. Its written in response to an even that happened in the MUD (multiple users dimension) Lambdamoo, ” a very large and very busy rustic mansion built entirely of words.” Lambdamoo is an internet game where a player can move through the rooms in this mansion by using computer commands and being greeted by a meticulous description of each new setting. Players can also talk amongst each other, and create objects that can be left in the room for the next virtual explorer to find.

The Intro to the article: “They say he raped them that night. They say he did it with a cunning little doll, fashioned in their image and imbued with the power to make them do whatever he desired. They say that by manipulating the doll he forced them to have sex with him, and with each other, and to do horrible, brutal things to their own bodies. And though I wasn’t there that night, I think I can assure you that what they say is true, because it all happened right in the living room — right there amid the well-stocked bookcases and the sofas and the fireplace — of a house I came later to think of as my second home.”

So we’re going to make a horror stop-motion film in response to this article and the effect it had on the virtual world. How their laws and thoughts on how to govern this virtual community were questioned by one person, a character known as Mr. Bungle, and his surprising and horrifying actions. It spurred conversations between all kinds of online political groups of MOO anarchists, technolibertarians and parliamentarian legalist users began debating over the need for written rules, and perhaps even a governing body-since 4 months prior the head “wizards” decided to stop playing God and become only technicians, where the MOOers would need to solve their own problems (a movement know as the “New Direction”). These wizards are the only ones with the power to terminate an account, and with so many people asking for a virtual death penalty, questions of morals are brought into this new reality.

I think its fascinating technologically, politically and phsychologically. I hope we do our vision for the movie justice. And I’m excited to finally work with stop-motion. Here’s just some stop-motion movies I’ve been watching for research:

Bruce Bickford (clay stop animations):
Dupree’s Paradise

Stop Motion en Plastilina

Jan Balej (czech horror film animator):

One Night in a City movie

Jan Svankmajer (czech surrealist- stop animations with people and food)

Food Part 1

Food Part 2

Meat Love

United Way Campaign Celebration

So I have to be at work tomorrow at 7 in the morning. It’s a really big day for UW, and been talked about and planned for since before I came in January. Each year, the United Way puts on a big fancy luncheon to celebrate and award its donors, and the people who helped reach all the amounts needed for different campaigns. Last year, we fell short, though, and I love what the ’08 celebration has morphed into. Its a non-luncheon, now, which is funny sounding, but also much more appropriate for the present economic climate. The people coming have paid the same amount for a plate of food they will not be receiving. The money will be going towards basic needs and the guests will be helping sort these basic needs to deliver to UW agencies. They’re saving tons of money by not having the normal luncheon, which also helps, but I’m still amazed by how much politics goes into everything in such a large non-profit like United Way. Everyone is very careful to thank people who have donated anything towards the luncheon, not just because we really are grateful, but also because it seems to be very important that people know we didn’t pay extra for these gifts. A bank had even offered to cover finger sandwiches, but the idea was respectfully declined because it would give the wrong idea once again.

Anyway, I’m excited to go to my first big United Way event, one week before I leave. This is also the even that will be showcasing all the videos I’ve been working on since I first started. Three of the seven that I made will be on loop at the event. Pretty excitinggg. But I’ll be video taping the whole event and calling individuals out for more little interviews. I don’t know how I became the United Way videographer, and I don’t know If I’ll ever continue in this field again, but It really has been awesome doing something outside my comfort bubble.

I watched a TED video towards the beginning of my nashville stint with Paula Scher looking at her portfolio in retrospect. “The best way to accomplish serious design, which I think we all have the opportunity to do, is to be totally and completely unqualified for the job.” What Scher illustrated this theory with was the job that came to her in 2000, where a group of architects asked her to design inside of theaters with them. She talked a lot about how she had no idea what she was doing. Somehow this is inspiring, haha. Maybe, just because it’s a relief to know that I don’t always have to know everything. So even though these movies are a little rough, they were nothing what I’m used to, but a whole new outlet for creativity as well as a chance to hear wonderful stories about how people are changing their lives, and United Way is helping.

Here’s just one of my videos for an example. I tried to keep them all consistent, for more of a “series” feel. So they are all set to the same music that i got from www.mobygratis.com

Also, here’s a link to the rest of the videos on the United Way of Nashville’s website! Click here.

I’m not Homeless!

With the help of Anja, I found an apartment in Germany today! Here’s her secret email to me (she’s so awesome! ha)

Yeeeeeeeah.

Kim. Kim. Kim.

I have a room for you!!! It’s the “1rm/250E” one.

I write this via Email only to you cause I don’t want the others to get jealous.

It’s 4 min from Anja’s house, she told me, and ONE minute from school! Apparently they have a cat, which I’m very much a dog person, but my roommate back in lawrence just got one, so I guess this will be a good learning experience.. Anja Also sent me some pictures of the place. It looks so bright! I’m excited! Though, please note the washing machine sandwiched in between the stove and fridge.. haha. I will be living with 2 other girls, who are excited to be able to practice their english. Their names are Tanja and Claudi. Hopefully everything works out since no contracts have been signed, but I’m still excited!