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Helloooooo

Marissa — Sun, 15 May 2011 20:00:52 +0000

Hi there! It’s been a while. Such a while that I can barely remember how to use this trusty WordPress theme. I realize that my last several posts are a) years old and b) announcing other sites, but here I am again doing the same thing.

As some of you surely know, I’ve been living in Montreal doing my Master’s in Art History at Concordia University. Although it’s been an interesting transition, approaching art history from a criticism and curatorial practice background, I have been happy to pursue my widening interest in cultural policy and its relationship to urban life (and perhaps more specifically, urban citizens and artists). I have chosen, for my thesis, to use Toronto’s 2003 Culture Plan as a case study for exploring a growing range of ideas (which will inevitably be shrunken) concerning the planning of culture and the spatial conflicts that emerge from such projects.

So, as is the norm around here, I invite you to check out cultureandpolicy.ca — an ongoing dossier of my research and findings, thoughts, analyses, and so on. To be honest, I mostly do this as a way to keep motivated about my own work. As such I am happy to note that my motivation is bolstered by your feedback should you have any.

RSS WTF

Marissa Neave — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:44:43 +0000

*UPDATE* – It appears to be fixed!

As many of you probably know, I am an ardent supporter of full text RSS feeds. For some reason (as of yet, unexplained) my RSS feed is no longer displaying full article text and is only showing a small excerpt or, even worse, the post title. I am trying to fix this. Bear with me. (Additionally, should you have some sort of magical expertise in this department, perhaps you could be of some assistance? Get in touch.)

Pause

Marissa — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:36:41 +0000

Hello everyone. My apologies for not posting this notice sooner, but I am in the final stretch of my third year at OCAD so posting will be spare to non-existant (most likely the latter) in the next three weeks.

I’m working on two projects in particular that I will be sharing soon. The first deals with trends of contemporary practice and its move toward interventionist/activist/community-based performativity. I will be paralelling the broader trajectory of contemporary practice with the career of Vito Acconci, who moved from poetry to performance to video to architecture-based interventions.

The second is a visual project that addresses the subjectivity of beauty and the authority of published critique. I will be creating workbooks that bridge these ideas and encourage meaningful engagement by referencing an ol’ gem of pop culture that I’m sure you will all remember. I’m still working out many of the details, so I don’t want to say too much.

Actually, there are three things I want to share. The third is that I’ve acquired a teeny little negative scanner in the hopes of revisiting my film fragments series, whose production was both enabled and halted very quickly and surprisingly. I never had a chance to explore my ideas fully and I am looking forward to resurrecting this project in the next few weeks.

Bonus tidbit: If you’re in Toronto, The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, directed by Pietra Brettkelly, is playing at the Cumberland until at least next week I believe. There are four showings daily.

Bonus tidbit 2: I was very excited to see today’s Google logo honouring the first day of spring! It was designed by illustrator Eric Carle (The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, The Mixed-Up Chameleon,) one of my favourite favourite favourite artists that has had a spot in my heart, without missing a beat, since I was at least five years-old.

Thanks for reading! If you use an RSS reader it will be easy to see when I update next! Add my feed by clicking here.

Introducing: Posterous

Marissa — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:15:06 +0000

Maybe it’s sad, but I spend hours every day scouring the Internet, coming across random things that I find interesting and feel compelled to share. Ten times out of ten, though, I don’t have much commentary to add, so I let them be.

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Do you know what RSS stands for?

Marissa — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:55:47 +0000

If you know me at all, you know I’m big on access. I don’t believe necessarily in fighting habit or changing people’s preferences. Instead I like to work with them. Trends are important to follow–when you know what kind of trends exist, you can modify the way you distribute your information in order to reach the most people possible. While I don’t support the tendency of big-business to exploit demographic groups to get rich, I do understand the value of marketing. I have always strongly encouraged those in fields generally diametrically opposed to marketing to embrace it and learn to use it to their advantage. It doesn’t have to be a big, nasty practice. There are simple things that all writers and artists can do to help distribute their work in more effective ways.

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Arpilleras Post Updated

Marissa — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:28:33 +0000

Since many people arrive at this page searching for “arpilleras”, I wanted to make it known that I’ve updated my essay, “The Representation of Arpilleras: How an Image Reveals the Politics to Come” to include proper citations in the HTML version.

Sherri Wood, 1979-2008

Marissa — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:10:18 +0000

My greatest shopping ambassador, confidante, style aficionado, encourager extraordinaire, link to all that is worth paying attention to, my most willing-to-try-whatever, wellington-wearing, pants-swimming friend, Sherri Wood was a torrent of awesome who will forever be loved and missed.

Damn, girl. What is there to say.

I know that nothing I write will do justice to the impossibly-immense spirit and energy of Ms. Sherri Wood, who passed away last night after an 11-month battle with brain cancer, but I also know that writing nothing is not a path she’d chose. And so I write.

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