Selfie: Seeking
Art in the Ordinary
While I was on a walk one morning I just happened to fall upon my reflection in this puddle of water and I tried some gestures which made the reflection evocative. The presence of petrol or something present in the environment created this beautiful pink and blue tinge to it which gives it a magical touch. Again I just captured it right no manipulation in Photoshop.
What I love about this image is that as a self portrait this epitomizes me as an ‘artist’ – always seeking, self discovering, its a mirror yet its not. Its a yearning to look within through the means of the world outside.
Filed under: Art Appreciation, Project Creativity | Tags: acting coach, acting technique, actor as artist, art of acting, Michael Chekhov, Michael Chekhov Acting Technique, michael chekhov acting technique in india, Mikhail Chekhov, Mikhail Chekhov Acting Technique, oorvazi irani
MY WORKSHOP INVITE
Art Experiment: In search of little truths
From the Lab of the Artist Oorvazi Irani
A spontaneous live shadow performance captured for camera.
Not planned and self shot
exploring the body… light …emotions…rhythm…life ….
Do you experience a story in this shadow dance ?
Filed under: Art Appreciation, Project Creativity | Tags: art, art experiment, ciema, creativity, experimental short film, film education, film workshop, on the shores of eternity, oorvazi irani, painting, philosophical short film, poem on time, short film, time
My Art Experiment
My dabbling in painting, poetry, acting and cinematography fusing together to create a small film – on the spur of the moment and a one woman effort.
Filed under: Project Creativity | Tags: Anurag Basu, art, artist, Barfi, Bollywood, creativity, film education, film workshop, foreign language film, indian cinema, Indian film Oscar nominee, inspiration, oorvazi, oorvazi irani, originality, Oscar, plagiarism
Plagiarism , Inspiration and Beyond
By Oorvazi Irani
‘Looking Within’
None of us artists are pure or not guilty of this crime in small ways and big but we need to strive to be original.
Creativity and originality are two of the biggest challenges for an artist. And consciously or subconsciously we are all copying from the past from film, literature, paintings etc. Therefore one way to help escape this is being inspired by life – the need to look within and into our own lives. Be inspired by observing life first hand rather than sit back on a chair and soak in the observations of others.
But having said that if a great artist has moved us there is no harm paying homage to the work but we need to be able to take it to another level or make it our own. And if the tribute is very strong the source needs to be acknowledged.
Sometimes our society pushes us to imitate, to plagiarize, eg a local fashion magazine has an international standard it wants to meet and be assured of success, thus is not interested in originality, but imitating a successful photographer, his image that can guarantee success. The new local fashion photographer is told to imitate that international standard image and not urged to be original. The film industry wants a success formula and its industry sometimes pushes the filmmaker to play safe and imitate successful moments rather than create them, but the artist and his conscience will not be spared. The current film “Barfi” (directed by Anurag Basu and produced by UTV) is being sent to the Oscars as an Indian nomination is a case in point.
Each artist needs to try and find means by which he accesses his imagination and creativity to be original. Surrealism as one art movement started in the 1920’s, besides being a revolt also encouraged the artist to a more primal source of inspiration – our subconscious, and a realm beyond logic and rationality. This technique is still used by creative artists today to help them find a voice of their own.
How to be truly original – the search continues for each artist and infact each human being. To make an invention, a breakthrough, atleast strive for excellence and we will be closer to living a more authentic life and create a more authentic world. Those are moments of inspiration which we need to strive for rather than take the easy route.
Filed under: Project Creativity | Tags: cinema, creativity, film appreciation, film course, film education, oorvazi irani, sorab irani
PROJECT CREATIVITY: PART FOUR
SORAB IRANI
filmmaker, media project consultant,literary agent
August 24th 2010
Creativity was at first considered only the prerogative of God as only God could create because it was perceived that ‘to create’ meant to create from nothing some thing entirely new, the notion of something miraculous, something in the divine realm. With time this perception changed radically man was also accepted to have the divine power to create, to bring into being something absolutely new from nothing. The proof of this in true if we just look around us, today modern living is indeed miraculous.
How can one be creative. How to create not how to be innovative. No doubt one can be creatively innovative and hence innovation is also creative, but can we be God-like and create something absolutely new from nothing – yes we can.
Therefore essentially creativity is that process that is a quantum leap from the known into the unknown – the reclaiming of the unmanifest or the ability of being able to bring about a result where the unmanifest transforms itself into the manifest.
All great breakthroughs in all fields of human endeavor have this miraculous process at work. The real point of creativity is a sudden leap into the unknown from where something revolutionary and absolutely new is born. This is possible because the source of all creation is pure consciousness and each one of us in our essential state are pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is also pure potentiality; it is the field of all possibility and infinite creativity.
So each and every one of us has what it takes to create, we have the innate ability in just being conscious, alive, to be creative, it is our essential human nature.
Contemplate this, and be creative this very instant, being alive and conscious is all the tools of creativity you will ever need.
Filed under: Project Creativity
Extract from this book
PROJECT CREATIVITY: Part Three
David Lynch “Catching the Big Fish”
Desire
Desire for an idea is like bait. When you’re fishing, you have to have patience. You bait your hook, and then you wait. The desire is the bait that pulls those fish in – those ideas.
The beautiful thing is that when you catch one fish that you love, even if it’s a little fish – a fragment of an idea – that fish will draw in other fish , and they’ll hook onto it. Then you’re on your way. Soon there are more and more and more fragments, and the whole thing emerges. But it starts with desire.
Filed under: Project Creativity | Tags: cinema workshop, creativity, film appreciation. film education, film workshop, navroze contractor, oorvazi irani
PROJECT CREATIVITY: PART TWO
NAVROZE CONTRACTOR
photographer,cinematographer,author
August 2010
Routine? keep in touch with all the arts/life/nature/friends as much as possible..including always perfecting the art of riding
Some thoughts on creativity.
By Navroze Contractor, August 2010
Basically, creativity is the ability to generate innovative ideas and manifest them from thought into reality. The process involves ‘original’ thinking and the producing it in one form or the other, could be plastic arts, visual arts, performing arts, writing and of course, since we are on that forum, in cinema.
I put ‘original’ in brackets because I feel it is a hugely over used term and I am almost convinced that there is really nothing original. It is said that all forms are in nature. When you learn art, it is said all forms are in the human figure and so it is drawn over and over again for centuries. The starting point then for me is to be humble and not make claims that may insult or tread on the feet’s of earlier masters.
The most creative phase in life is in childhood when nothing has conditioned our minds, we have no history to refer to and everything viewed and heard is NEW. But this stage remain for a very short while as our mind develops and begins to absorb sounds, sights, touch and taste. As soon as this happens the mind collects data that we begin to refer to unconsciously.
To each, some senses grow bigger than the others. As the body motors begin to coordinate, those senses begin to ooze out through them, manifest them to some reality. If a child’s sense of hearing is intense, his vocal abilities grow faster. If the visual senses are awakened earlier it could manifest in the hands being able to draw, emote etc.
It is true that more the child is ‘exposed’ the more creative they will be. If exposed to ‘artistic’ environment there is a greater possibility of focus on that. If a child is exposed to a lot of hardship the creative juices will flow towards innovating ways to making a better life. And, creativity is the search to finally how you solve a problem. And in both cases, it may not be true at all.
Once a field is ‘chosen’ it entirely depends on how much ‘relish’ is within, and how much ‘relish’ a teacher imbibes in us. A curiosity lies within us that need nourishment and it only comes with the ‘relish’ we have for our subject. The more we read, the more we see, the more we hear the fuller our reference library becomes. The information is stored and we process it to enable our work that is ‘knowledge’. The most successful creative people are those who love what they do the most. It could be anything, arts, science, business..whatever.
For me, personally the most creative activity is any performing arts. It is here they are judged on the spot, by a few hundred discerning people. There is no second chance, no time for re edit, re think and re do. All other arts, the artist works where having the time and space to constantly change the work till complete satisfaction, but not to a musician or a dancer.
As my teacher Laszlo Kovacs said very often: ‘When you are ready to take the shot, remember, it becomes history’. This is not there for a performing artist. Their burden starts when the stage lights turn on.
…..
Filed under: Project Creativity | Tags: art, creativity, film appreciation, film education, Hemant Morparia, oorvazi irani
PROJECT CREATIVITY
This is my special feature “PROJECT CREATIVITY” in which I will invite special guests to share their thoughts and experiences on the topic.
I too will share my thoughts and experiences in the near future.
PART ONE
HEMANT MORPARIA cartoonist/sculptor/radiologist
Interviewed on July 22nd 2010
1. WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH CREATIVITY ?
A. Creativity is life itself. and being creative makes one live fully and look forward to each and every day as full of potential
2. HOW DOES THE CREATIVE PROCESS WORK FOR YOU ?
A. It works from the macro to the micro events in life- all are helped generously by it.
3. ACCORDING TO YOU WHAT IS NECESSARY TO CULTIVATE IT, NURTURE IT ?
A. courage, openness, innocence and curiosity
Film Education 
