Green Dream » Art

Street Love

maia — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:22:05 +0000

A friend called Maks, sent me the site for an artist who creates love interactions, love injections and love related art. It is inspiring.

Streetlove: “Creating an interaction between people and love represented by objects, words or paintings on the streets, in order to make people thing and rethink their relationships, their own situation and love itself.”

In cooperation with photographer Hanse Cora.

I’d love to see it.

Learning to Love you More

maia — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:14:48 +0000

“The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response. Suddenly it is clear what you have to do. For a brief moment it seems wonderfully easy to live and love and create breathtaking things. In this section we have archived some of the work that has commanded us in this way. In a sense, these are assignments — in the same way that the ocean gives the assignment of breathing deeply, and kissing instructs us to stop thinking.”

http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/love/index.php

L’Amoureuse

maia — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:23:52 +0000

The “flow” moment, TED Talk

maia — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:58:26 +0000

“When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.” He is the architect of the notion of “flow” — the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.

posed at http://www.greendreammedia.com/2009/09/24/2260/

Interveiw for CKUT Monday Morning After Show

maia — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:44:49 +0000

An interview with Maia Iotzova on the Monday Morning After Show
hosted by Liz Pieries.

The Artist as a Creative Steward

maia — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:00:29 +0000

My understanding is constantly evolving. Below are some general thoughts on what I have come to learn about my role as an artist.

I think in recent years, Western society has managed ecosystems and media in a similar way. The general trend has been to manage nature/media so it will deliver results that are beneficial for the managers. In TV, success is measured by viewership. In nature management decisions are taken based on what they will yield for humans in terms of natural resources for industry or recreation. It is a management model.

As can be seen in the media world the management model is crumbling and the pendulum is swinging in the other direction. The web has allowed everyone to become a maker and a publisher. Social media has allowed ordinary people to become celebrities.
Recent technological developments have put to question the ‘special’ role of a creator, but have also opened new and exciting possibilities to creating art through community collaboration.

How do I create collaborative art that is not just adding to the digital media noise that is overwhelming all of us? I do feel that an artist has a similar place within a democratized, easily accessible landscape of media as a human has within an ecosystem. She is a steward, but not in a controlling way or a way that makes her more important. Her responsibilities and functions are simply different. The question that a steward asks is not: how can I manage something so it will yield results for me, bring me more viewers, make me more popular, give me commercial success. Not because those questions are not important but because they are not the motivation and the core responsibility of what a steward does. To me they are the byproduct of a good stewardship.

To me the core of good stewardship is listening to the inherent intelligence that already exists within each entity. My actions are not aimed at telling something what to be, but to listening to what it already is, and entering a collaboration, in which my function is to help its essence to blossom.

As a community collaborator, the artist plays a vital role in the society of makers. This collaboration to me has to be a symbiotic relationship that is a conversation between the artist and the community, inspires both of them to grow, and in a way is fluid and ever changing like a dance.

I have been searching for the best ways to apply this approach to my art practice.
The structure I am experimenting with right now is to create an art piece (film or new media) where I have creative freedom to experiment with new perspective and to look at an issue in depth from my point of view. (ie. the documentary Green Dream) I use this art piece to set the tone, spark a discussion and inspire community collaboration. The next stage is where I use my creativity to make a framework that allows for the community to engage in the dialog and carry it further (ie. The Community Mapping Project) In this stage I work in the capacity of a media facilitator of the community dialog.

Happy Earth Day! Thanks to All You Wonderful People

maia — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:27:59 +0000

Green Dream Thank You Card from Maia Iotzova on Vimeo.

I continue on my Green Dream journey and you have been important part of that. Nothing gets done in a vacuum and while at points I have felt like I am alone, in those times something usually happens to remind me that there have been so many people who have helped in direct and not so direct but very important ways. Who when my energy started depleting, have taken the time to encourage and show me they believed in this journey. I would like to Thank You and to remind you that you are part of this and your wonderful energy and enthusiasm, feedback and financial or services support has been intrinsic to this process.

Almost Perfect

maia — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:29:07 +0000

The residency at Banff is almost over.

It was an amazing, inspiring and recharging experience, which I shared with 10 others. We often joked that we are an almost perfect family. It has been an intense month and I am sad to leave.

Almost Perfect Residency at the Banff New Media Institute

I would encourage you to look at the work these people are doing.

From top left to bottom right

Florian Hollerweger – www.flo.mur.at

Maia Iotzova – www.greendreammedia.com

Laura Silver – www.laurasilver.com

Robert Damphousse – www.robertjd.com

Jesse Scott – www.memelab.ca

Amos Latteier – www.latteier.com

Sarah Shamash

Nikki Pugh – www.npugh.co.uk

Andrew Roth - www.aranarproductions.com/main.html

Austin Angelozzi – www.nanochild.ca

Christopher Quine – www.sneakerbike.com

As I was writing this, I had a beautiful view to the sunset behind the mountains.

My Process and Community Mapping

maia — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:03:08 +0000

A peak into my process.
The way I work is by creating diagrams that help me conceptualize what is important to me and the ideas that are central to the project. I usually tape them to my wall and start working out my process from them. I though it might be interesting for some of you to follow that paper trail. Here are snippets of the thoughts and ideas behind the Community Media project called I know a place..., which is still in development.
The first stage of it will be released soon at the open studios in the Banff Centre, JPL 212 this Thursday, November 27, 3-7pm.

And let’s not forget my two major inspirations in the last month.

: the view from my studio

: my watercolours

Bike Cam Tests

maia — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:21:37 +0000

Have you ever biked down the street during the autumn months, feeling immersed in the beautiful colours of the overarching trees. You look up and your eyes bathe in the warm pallet of the passing leafs, which contrast the cool blue sky. If you have, you will understand why I wanted to capture this feeling on camera.

But as I have discussed in previous posts, experiencing nature in real life is very different than filming it and translating that feeling to the viewer.

I needed a bike cam, an improv one, that I can put on my higher quality beater bike and roll through the streets capturing the serenity of the passing trees in the city landscape.

I went down to my local video rental store ProVision, who have always been great and very responsive to my impulsive experimental urges. I was just looking for advice on the gear I might need.

But, Steven one of the owners of ProVision, was intrigued by the idea of finding the best way to mount the camera on my bike. So he offered to help me during the weekend, do some practical tests with me, and take pictures for future reference.

Sorry folks Geek Out Alert

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. We spent more then 3 hrs. rigging the camera on different spots of the bike and testing to see how much shake we got.

The camera mounted on the back of the bike. This option made it hard for me to sit. Not so ideal, because it takes away from your comfort and stability and stresses you out about trashing your expensive camera.

Mounting the camera on the back rack. The rack is not very stable and the footage was quite shaky.

This one, probably worked the best. Though the contraption got in the way of the handle bars a bit, and steering was tricky. The shake was minimal and the image was pretty good.

This was another version that worked well. It had an arm to support the camara. I ended up using this rig and pushing the bike instead of riding it for some of the shots. It gave me almost a dolly cart stability.