Singing after-party in public transportation

After Singing Festival people are singing everywhere even in public transportation. People are so full of joy and energy of singing that they just cannot stop. It is an amazing feeling of unity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuWU7UABT1U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou0us1xtdAE

A supplementary project--introduction

Hello. My name is Mike and I am doing a project on your project. I will keep this brief, as I know everyone is buys with midterms, but I wanted to give you all a heads-up on what I am doing.

I am in a photo journalism course, and we are doing multi-media projects for our final. I am doing a video presentation on the project being done, and I want you all to know that I think it is absolutely fascinating what you are doing. I attended a get-together on Saturday and took a few snapshots I thought you might all be interested in.

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You can find a slideshow of the pictures HERE.

Let me know if the link doesn't work.. I'm still new to flickr!!

Idea of logo

Hello!

I am the author of logo for this project. By coincidence I also happen to be a student of Culture College of LatviaJ

First, I am really happy to be a part of this all, the idea is great!! And I wanted to wish all best for photography students and the most important – lots of creativity and original ideas!

So, what about the logo. It took some time to generate the idea – I wanted it to be meaningful enough. Also it had to include something about media used mainly – photography. I was thinking a lot about the name of project – what does mean „perception”? Even more – many different perceptions?

And I ended up with idea, that it is something individual. Point of view, way of seeing things. And to be more specific, in this case – point of view that is based on cultural differences.

So how do you reflect such vast and abstract thing? The visualisation/logo had to be abstract too, so each of viewers can think upon their own meaning of it. By drawing such THING I can suggest just few meanings, sharing and showing my own cultural perception. Well, to give insight in my perspective – i would say it looks either like a cartoon eye (which is one of means, how we can perceive the world around us. In this project, I would say, the most important of them all. Why cartoon? Because it describes modern popular culture a lot...). And another, even more important symbol hidden in this logo, could be simple egg. Beginning of everything, birth of ideas and culture itself. Does it make any sense?

So have a nice day, people!

P.S.What do YOU see in this logo?

LV students - 2nd meeting

Here You can see some pictures from our meetings, discusing about this project and deciding what we are going to do.

photo: štrāle (Ieva Strale)

Press release about the project

Exchange project to produce international photography exhibit

RELEASED: March 11, 2010

EAU CLAIRE — The Latvian exchange project "Cultural Perceptions 2010" will involve students from Latvia and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire collaborating to design an international photography exhibit. The goal is to share and interpret visual culture between the United States and Latvia.

Eva Ikstena, Dace Jaundaldere and Liene Indrane, Latvian exchange students at UW-Eau Claire, presented information on the history and peoples of Latvia and selected music they feel represents Latvian culture. UW-Eau Claire advanced photography students will interpret the music through a series of photographs. Likewise, Latvian Culture College instructor Gunta Anderson will direct her art students in their interpretation of an innovative mix of music provided by UW-Eau Claire students.

According to Jyl Kelley, assistant professor of photography, the project combines scholarly research with faculty-student collaboration in a global setting and will require an extraordinary amount of teamwork to produce the exhibit.

In culmination of the project, a series of photographs will be displayed at the Latvian Culture College and the Museum of Foreign Art in Riga, Latvia, and in Haas Fine Arts Center at UW-Eau Claire this spring. Specific dates will be determined later.

The three Latvian exchange students, along with Kelley, will facilitate translation for students from both countries and make collaborative decisions with UW-Eau Claire students regarding the installation of the final exhibits.

Advanced photography students participating in the project are senior Megan Ekenstedt, Chippewa Falls; senior Lydia Gantert, Wausau; junior Andrew Immerman, Eau Claire; senior Rachel Konsella, Eau Claire; junior Milana Lazic, Serbia; senior Kailey Mezera, Anoka, Minn.; senior Kimberly Roffers, Ashland; and senior Glenn Terpstra, Bloomington, Minn. Students participating from the Latvia Culture College in Riga, Latvia, are Aivars Ivbulis, Ieva Štrāle, Madara Eglīte, Dāvis Valbaks, Sandra Āriņa, Sandra Kaņepe, Jānis Vīksna and Rūdolfs Rancāns.

The project was organized by the Baltic Student Organization and supported through a faculty-student collaborative grant from UW-Eau Claire. For more information about the project, contact Ikstena at 715-797-2144 or Kelley atkelleyja@uwec.edu

Abstraction

Hello, I am Eva (Latvian girl, philosophy student in UWEC 2009/2010)

I had a small conversation yesterday with one of the photo students from UWEC involved in this project. She was concerned that she is not able to take a picture from Latvia (how can I show Latvia if I am not there?) That made me think that this project is a great abstraction.

How easy it is to perceive the music and display it in a photography? Both songs have a lot of cultural elements which makes it even harder.

I have always thought that artists have very sensitive souls and they can feel different levels in music, sculptures, paintings, air... I am excited to see what are you going to catch in these songs!

Our class discussing the song created by Andy