Back at my Meerut base after two months of shuttling between Pune and Mumbai.
Teaching at different places, watching a few movies and a few job interviews- that was my time away at Western India.
Teaching was easy sometimes- like in teaching TV at MIT-ISBJ. I'd worked that out already, so it was not too tough to adapt to the knowledge level of the students.
Then came the tough one- teaching about cinema and the plastic arts. Had a tough times simplifying this to a level where the students would comprehend it all.
Yesterday it all came back to me when I began reading Andre Bazin's What is Cinema after a gap of thirty years or so and found that I had imbibed it in detail. All the theory coming out of my head was straight out of Bazin! My head spun when I realised that. How long do things stay in one's mind? Now I don't know, a few days back I might had a pat answer but not now.
The theory teaching eventually went off well, at least for me. Don't know how it went for the students as they seemed more eager to learn more 'practical' things. Its a classical problem, the students do not yet understand the relevance of theory to their work as artists, they only want to learn practical stuff- technical and craft knowledge.
All this became clear to me even more when I saw the dissertation films of the final year students. The work was interesting, innovative, full of glimpses of talent that could mature beautifully. But clearly without the knowledge of theory they lacked the ability to position themselves in a tradition and hence explore the limits of their work.
OK, all this is difficult stuff when you're younger and still struggling to find your 'voice'. I mean I can state now when I've been through these stages. But I guess its important to explain these contexts to the student-artists- that they work in a context, not in isolation.
That must have been the greatness of the Ajanta or Mahaballipuram artists- knowing and living their traditions, while today we have to struggle to find our traditions.
Teaching at different places, watching a few movies and a few job interviews- that was my time away at Western India.
Teaching was easy sometimes- like in teaching TV at MIT-ISBJ. I'd worked that out already, so it was not too tough to adapt to the knowledge level of the students.
Then came the tough one- teaching about cinema and the plastic arts. Had a tough times simplifying this to a level where the students would comprehend it all.
Yesterday it all came back to me when I began reading Andre Bazin's What is Cinema after a gap of thirty years or so and found that I had imbibed it in detail. All the theory coming out of my head was straight out of Bazin! My head spun when I realised that. How long do things stay in one's mind? Now I don't know, a few days back I might had a pat answer but not now.
The theory teaching eventually went off well, at least for me. Don't know how it went for the students as they seemed more eager to learn more 'practical' things. Its a classical problem, the students do not yet understand the relevance of theory to their work as artists, they only want to learn practical stuff- technical and craft knowledge.
All this became clear to me even more when I saw the dissertation films of the final year students. The work was interesting, innovative, full of glimpses of talent that could mature beautifully. But clearly without the knowledge of theory they lacked the ability to position themselves in a tradition and hence explore the limits of their work.
OK, all this is difficult stuff when you're younger and still struggling to find your 'voice'. I mean I can state now when I've been through these stages. But I guess its important to explain these contexts to the student-artists- that they work in a context, not in isolation.
That must have been the greatness of the Ajanta or Mahaballipuram artists- knowing and living their traditions, while today we have to struggle to find our traditions.
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