Autor: Sonia

Quotes

I am back on work on the kambojan buddha again.

I just read this little fragment of text and could not help but laugh:
„Women are considered innately powerful beings who, if not placed within limits, can bring disaster for people associated with them. To some extent, puberty rites regulate the female’s potentially destructive energy, but the most effective form of channeling a woman’s generative power is marriage.“
(Bolon, Carol R.; Sarin Amita Vohra: ‚Metaphors in Gold: The Jewelry of India‘, in: Asian Art, vol.6, no.4, Fall 1993, p.16)

Of course, it refers to indian tradition and customs… One of my friends, nevertheless, is a very vivid little creature and sure she can freak people out. She has his- for myself- totally inexplainable strive of getting married soon, maybe it is her inner instincts of protection? Now I read this article, the protection she wants might not be for herself, but for the others around her. I have never considered it that way and could not help but laugh out loud! Haha… Oh, dear.

Satisfaction

What I love about research is the satisfaction it gives me. I wondered where this satisfaction comes from, and I found out that I find great pleasure in exploring new things. As a child, Indiana Jones was my idol, and I guess he still is.

Although I am not afriad of snakes, I seldomly find pleasure in physical adventure. Instead, my pleasure is delivered by the moment I realize something I did not read by anyone else before, ie. is new to me. Of course, shortly after that I will feel afraid that I might not be the only/first one having this idea. So the next step of my „excercise“ is putting all my energy in finding out how new my idea is. This is often successful, since I trained myself to create very messy ideas with a lot of intertwined thoughts. Thus, research often proves I really am the first having precisely this bundle of  woozy thoughts. This of course, leaves me in my dim hut in a shining glory.

Now, if someone comes,  I might tell him or her about my newly discovered treasure. Of course, I am willed to prove I am the only person who found all this out: so, I gladly tell about other people’s views and what their ideas lack and what makes my idea so unique etc pp.

If this person whom I told this now begins to criticize my thoughts, I am usually silently listening. After having heard what my idea is missing, I am often discouraged to re-check and re-think again. I feel miserable and very likely, I will bury my treasure somewhere in my mind to forget it.

I wondered why, and now I know: conversation about research is not giving me the satisfaction I need. I am happy on my treasure island, and people from outside my internal war cannot interfere. If I was the one critcizing myself, it would be more bearable.

This annoys me, since I know it is crucial to let others be part of one’s research, to learn how to fight and also to learn that the idea I came up with might be new and unique, but useless and/or too hard to understand for the public.

I like teamwork, though. Think tanks are just not my area, nor are publications with more than one author. I definately need to find another way for satisfaction. Is wakeboarding a true alternative?

better the bester

I held my presentation about Mr Bester. I was very attracted to his „Dogs of War“ and tried comparing them to actual canine robots. some of them even connected to war.

with one teardrop in my sad eye, I left out the laugh of inserting k-9 of dr. who. Instead, I included:

i still need to ask mr bester if he read about those, especially about the boston dynamics big dog before he created his „dogs of war“. could’ve been possible!

Neues aus Dahlem

Um meine geneigten Leser auf dem Stand der Dinge zu halten, zähle ich kurz auf, was aktuell so passiert.

  • Ich bin seit dem 10.06.2010 um 10a.m. studentische Hilfskraft an meinem Institut! 😀 Knapp 18 Stunden habe ich schon gearbeitet, und Mitte Juli regnet es Geldscheine vom Senat direkt auf mein Konto! 😀 😀
  • …deshalb muss meine Mitgliedschaft der FSI OAKG neu überdacht werden. Es muss zB. noch eine „Nachfolge“ gesichert werden sowie zB. der Erstitag langsam geplant werden.
  • Derzeit belege ich im ABV-Rahmen eine ZEDAT-Fortbildung zu MS Access, Project und SPSS.
  • Ich musste eine Prüfungberatung absolvieren und hochheilig versprechen im SS2011 meinen B.A. abzugeben… 加油加油！
  • …im Rahmen dessen sollte ich überlegen, wie ich meinen Post-B.A.-Studienplatz sichere, am Besten mit einem Stipendium o.ä. gesichert…
  • Am 01.07. werde ich meine Präsentation zu Willie Bester halten. Ohje! Und ich hab noch nichts getan…

Ife & Connaisseurship

I held my first presentation about african art. I thought long about scanning the pictures I got but eventually settled on photographing them with my grandfather’s canon ixus for best resolution. Also, I took some screenshots of a video. It turned out quite good, the prof even asked me for my presentation. So I guess the extra work was fine.
For some reason I can only be satisfied with my work if I get positive feedback. During research, I often talk with my partner about it. I guess it annoys him from time to time since he is from natural sciences, but he gives me precious new thoughts and opinions on my often very specific subjects. Sometimes, he seems to be proud of me, but I cannot quite trust his pride of my work. What I miss is positive feedback from someone I assume has some connaisseurship. I found it strange. I attended a lecture of one of my most adored professors this week. he talked about connaisseurship as well, and the significance of argueing within your field of study with people from your cultural area. He even went further narrowing it on the same linguistic area.
On my research on Ife, I recongnized even now there are VERY FEW africans writing about their own art.
One of the names I recognized was Ekpo EYO.
„Ekpo Eyo was the second Nigerian archaeologist and became Director of Antiquities in the mid-1960s…“ [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1160622] but then, he got his grade from Maryland, USA.
I think I should look up several other names that crossed my way and also check the Nigerian Univeristies website. I hope theres a department for Art History. I really hope so…

PS: I was at the doctor’s today. I had to fill out a form about fear and social interactions. I answered honestly. I guess I can be officially described as a panicy misanthrope now. But guess what, I feel okay with that. Sometimes, staying away from everyone does me better than forcing myself to be merrily around people, and I consider myself „too imaginative“ instead of panicy… Well. Whatever. Hello Mrs Salander.

back from the UK

I finished my censorship paper. I’m thinking about uploading it, hence there’s quite few information on this particular topic. Highly recommendable nevertheless is an exhibition catalogue on Ukiyo-e and censorship by Sarah E. Thompson and H. D. Harootunian, „Undercurrents in the floating world“ (1991).

I spent three weeks in the UK, mainly to drink tea and play with the dog of my parent’s friends living there. My last days were in London, where I literally lived at the V&A/ National Art Library. It’s great and if you have the chance going to London, don’t miss the V&A. Notes for the next visit:
*For observing objects closely, you can actually preorder several objects from the British Museum. (at least one month in advance)
*DO NOT fly Ryanair.

This semester, I’ll spent some time with African Art. I’ll have to prepare papers and PPP for
*Ife Art and
*a selection of works by Willie Bester.

Still pending:
*Last makeup on Shino and Raku
*wait for reply on kambodian buddha

—

UPDATE 14.09.2010

I signed on Scripd and uploaded my paper. You can find it here:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/37425115/Zensurstempel-auf-yakusha-e-von-den-Kansei-Reformen-bis-zur-Meiji-Zeit-1791-1868

UPDATE 17.04.2012

I quit my Scripd Account but uploaded it on my blog here:  2010: Zensurstempel auf yakusha-e von den Kansei-Reformen bis zur Meiji-Zeit (1791-1868) (.pdf)

Toothpaste from Taiwan

I am overly happy about having recieved a new packet of the best toothpaste. 🙂

I am currently working on my paper about censorship. What I am wondering about, is that there is no such bok on „censorship on ukiyo-e“. Maybe I should write one, haha. There’s just too less information available here… a pity. I found some information in japanese history books, and… in books about japanese erotic prints (shunga) because they had to deal a lot with censorship, of course.
Whatever works, is I thinking. I’m still feeling arkward quoting scientific books on pornography. Hope to find better sources…

…oh noes!

The kambodian buddha leaves me not only speechless, but also sleepless. Which is a horror. I have a lot of nightmares those days, and hallucinations because I am too overly tired. Enough for my personal whining, there is yet another terrible news:

I went to the library yesterday to fetch the catalogue I ordered. It was a catalogue I already knew, but I needed to re-check some details from pages which I didn’t copy. Actually, I wanted to check how WL described the crown-like ornament on the buddha’s head.

This morning, sleepy, armed with my favorite yoghurt and an engery drink…. I randomly opened the book, it flapped open on pages 147/148.

I think if there had been another person in the room, she or he would have laughed on my shocked face…
There, cat no. 63, sat a bronze buddha… just like mine, with a tiny cone sitting on tha dhyana-mudra, jewellery… the face and detail, all came pretty close to mine. Which would not have been this shocking, since there’s a lot of this kind. But the gold cover was in good condition… and I have always wanted a similar piece in gold because I saw tinytiny pieces of it on mine and was unsure if there would be a similar one.

Urnghhh…