More Mind Maps, More Culture
I have been continuing work on the mind maps I started last week. Organizing interview information into different maps: Things That Jump Out at Me, Main Themes, Textures/Sounds, Quote List, and recent additions including a list of arising questions as well as a list of things I have been thinking. It seems that the more information I am exposed to, the more questions I have, which send me deeper down the rabbit hole of this vast project. I will continue rewatching the interviews to gather more information and to connect my thoughts in order to fulfill my goal of identifying seven themes as the basis for the compositions. While organizing information, I noticed that I was gathering many locations, which I have decided to plot on a world map and connect, to create a visual representation of the reach of this war and the connections now present between different locations.
Last week, documentary film-maker Sam Karney and I, visited a Ukrainian embroidery workshop, where I had the chance to learn about this important cultural activity and what it signifies in Ukrainian culture. I was able to start on a small embroidery project of my own, an Oberih (An Amulet or Talisman), an embroidered patch given to Ukrainian soldiers to keep in their pockets as they go off to war. I chose a military green colour of thread for my embroidery to reflect this.
Next week I plan to funnel the fuel of these experiences and information into the music writing vessel in order to begin work on the musical sketches. My goal is to have 3-4 sketches finished by the end of the week. Which means the rest of this week will be spent listening to Ukrainian folk music, researching it, reading poetry by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko and immersing myself even further into my Ukrainian culture.
Thank you for joining me in this project.
This project is made possible with the support of Canada Council for the Arts.