This past week, I’ve been home alone studying for my finals, while my mom was away on a road trip. It was just my dog, Byron, and me in a spacious, yet lonely, house. While I lay on my couch in the silence, I thought of various ways I could incorporate either nature or animals into my final project. Both themes appealed to me in the various photographs and paintings we saw together in the MoMA and inside the Chelsea galleries. It was about 7 p.m. when my dog approached me with an anticipating expression on his face. It was time to eat, and as he tried to grab my attention by persistently handing me his paw, he handed me the idea for my project.
I planned to make a sort of documentary (which I ended up naming a “dogumentary”) about how I interpreted a day in his life. I figured a PowerPoint presentation would be the most organized way of presenting my photos of him, while giving my lots of room to design the background and captions. In my head, an actual scrapbook is the ideal setup for displaying photos if had more time. Therefore, to substitute a physical scrapbook, I would design my PowerPoint in a way that resembled one. I piled them several photos on top of each other in every slide, as if the photos were thrown around on a scrapbook, and I gave each slide a title that reflected what I thought Byron was thinking at the time the pictures were taken. I thought that, if anything, this project would be a successful bonding experience.
I faced several challenges, ones that mainly related to the current weather and Byron’s lack of desire to comply. While taking some of the photos outside, I had to hold both Byron and the camera steady, so as to capture his actions without dropping the camera or letting him run off into the street. The cold was not my friend that day, because it felt like I chose the coldest day of the year to take photos without mittens. Most of the time, it was difficult to get my dog to stand still. He is quite rambunctious and jittery, because he is still relatively young. Many of my attempts to take photos of him resulted in him turning away from boredom or simply running off to something else that’s more worth his attention. I was able to move past his unexpected behavior by getting his attention through encouragement, either by calling his name numerous times or luring him closer with doggie snacks. Those always win him over.
I am generally not a fan of presentations, because I have stage fright. However, something about the presentations before me made me feel at ease. Everyone’s creative projects were very personal, so the entire class felt more relaxed and less formal than usual. The technology aspect of the presentation setup made me a bit nervous, because connecting computers and flash drives doesn’t always go as planned. For instance, today I wasn’t able to show a video of my dog howling, which disappointed me and took a little out of my presentation. Once my PowerPoint got started, however, I had no problem speaking about my project process and experience. To be honest, I was actually excited, because it was something I was proud to share with our class.
-Polina Mikhelzon
