Before

 

...playing

...exam

...competition

Benjamin Bruant 
Classical Guitarist

M.A., Royal  Academy of Music (RAM) London

From top:

1. Portmouth, June 30th 2012

2. RAM, May 29th 2012

3. Duke's Hall, RAM June 20th 2012

Our photography work recently: http://benjaminbruant.blogspot.co.uk/

twinkle twinkle little stars

des yeux qui font baisser les miens
un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche
voilà le portrait sans retouche
de l’homme auquel j’appartiens

bà ơi bà,

cháu yêu bà lắm!

Bà & Bi

13. 7. 2008

scanned Ben

ISH May 2012

[Zen Installation] Peace Is Every Step

Zen Installation by sam Hang Tran

Peace Is Every Step

I want to create a Zen installation using what I have learned from reading about Zen Buddhism - mainly books by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Master living in France. Thich Nhat Hanh turns thousand year Zen Buddhism wisdom into modern everyday life lessons with simple and clear English writing; with real stories and examples of those who have found Zen helpful for themselves in life and for their relationships with others.

The fundamental idea of Zen is to simplify to the minimal. There are minimalism architecture and sculptures in the 1960s with simple blocks (Tony Smith). In ‘Zen For Film’ by Nam June Paik (1962-1964) there is eight minutes of white film. 

What are the degrees of minimal? How much minimalism is too much? Is being minimal equal to being simple? If a project is too simple, can it convey any meaning?

I tried to think of the most simple and ‘minimal’ installation possible to convey Thich Nhat Hanh’s wisdom: having one of his books on the floor in the middle of a white empty room - nothing else on the floor or on the walls or in the room. The book I first intended to use in the installation is ‘Anger’ - a size A5 paper cover book of more than two hundred pages with eleven parts.

Would people pick up the book to read? They probably would because there is nothing else in the room, on the walls. How much would they read? How much would they get from what they read? Does the empty quiet room help people to concentrate on reading the book or after how long they would find it boring and leave?

In this digital era people including myself have been reading book less but surfing for information from the internet. There is more quantity than quality reading from an unedited internet source compared to reading a book written and edited carefully from a known author. However I am not fond of using technology to convey Zen ideas. It’s not ‘simple’ or ‘raw’ enough to be ‘zen’ enough. 

To get people’s attention using sounds, we make it loud i.e. Ambulance or fire alarm. To get people’s attention using texts, we can make it larger than usual. With that thought, I tried enlarging the pages from the book. After trying with different sizes, I find size A3 is big enough but not too big. A3 is four times bigger than the original size of the book. Bigger than that, the distance between words and the words themselves are a bit too big and would make the texts too much longer and make the readers, one of whom is myself, find it long and tiring to read. 

While enlarging pages from ‘Anger’ I picked up another book by Thich Nhat Hanh ‘Peace is every step’. ‘Peace is every step’ contains more than one hundred practical and small Zen lessons in daily life. Each lesson is written in one, two or a few pages. I want to hang the enlarged papers over a wire across an empty white room. Longer texts from ‘Anger’ might make it hard for people to follow and there is not enough space for the whole book. Because of that, I decided to use small lessons from ‘Peace is every step’ instead. I picked out the pages I find more relevant than others to mostly western audiences who would be in the room: Non-Surgery, Pillow-Pounding, Parents, What’s Not Wrong?, Blaming Never Helps, Real Love, Hugging Meditation, Investing in Friends, The Art of Mindful Living, Love in Action etc. 

I first thought of putting the enlarged pages on the walls as posters running from one to another in the flow of texts in the order of pages . Pages, in that way, would be glued on the walls and stay fixed there. By hanging the papers over the wire, the papers would be more free in space and people can also pick the ‘tails’ of the papers up a bit to read if they want. That way the papers as well as the audiences have more freedom – a more ‘zen’ factor to this Zen installation rather than papers being fixed on the walls.

I often turn on instrumental music when studying – this is using one ‘distraction’ to distract oneself from other distractions. I searched on the internet for Zen/ meditating music and was satisfied with mediation music from Tony Scott for this Zen Installation. 

Having asked for an empty white room, I got room PDR for my installation. The room is spacious enough however there were many tables, chairs and wine bottles from a party before and I was not allowed to move anything outside of the room. I tried to re-arrange and clean the room to the best I can – pushing all tables neatly one next to another against the walls, chairs under the tables, hiding the bottles away.

My idea was to have the wire hanging on eye level across and in the middle of the room. Trying to adjust to what the room had to offer, I finally had the wire hanging in a diagonal line across the room. I hang the pages starting from the left side of the room, as that is how we read, and the pages go the same order as how they are in the book. I hang them on both sides over the wire. Mediation music by Tony Scott was played using a borrowed iPod attached with a small speaker hidden behind the projection screen in the room.

During the viewing, some people pulled the chairs out from under the table to sit – this is why it would be better if it could be an empty room with no clutter in it so people would concentrate more on going around reading than sitting down. However since I was not allowed to move anything outside, leaning the tables and chairs neatly to the very end sides of all the walls in the room was the best I could do. Despite what some people say it is better having the wire in a diagonal across the room, I actually still think that having it hanging in the middle of the room would give the whole installation an equal space between both sides and therefore would give more and equal space to readers/ audiences from any side of the wire. 

Despite how beneficial I think Thich Nhat Hanh’s books and Zen wisdom are to people, if looking at one normal size book, people might just find it boring and walk away. The moment I opened the room for people to walk in, people start walking around looking at the pages and stopped at the pages to read what is on there - everyone was quiet in the room filled with meditation music. On purpose, I ducked down and walked to the other side of the room divided by the wire and later on people were filling the room reading the pages on both sides of the room divided by the wire. Almost everyone was immersed into reading the pages. I was happy and satisfied to see that. The quietness lasted for about half an hour until Raine (my tutor) asked someone to speak up for the critic part.

References:

1.     'Anger', 'The Art of Power', ‘Peace in every step’ – Books by Thich Nhat Hanh.

2.    Meditation Music by Tony Scott

3.    Minimalism Installation - Tony Smith

4.    'Zen For Film’ - Short film by Nam June Paik (1962-1964)

 Coursework for Convergent Media

March 2012

 

paper books vs. ebooks/ kindle

- less distraction when reading a paper book than ebook on computers/ phones/ kindles

- also reading papers is better for eyes if there's enough light - books most of the time are bigger than kindle as well

- not everyone has access to computer/ kindle/ smart phones all the time to exchange files like exchanging books

- paper books can be lovely and invaluable gifts :)

to be cont'd (maybe)

Brighton

Sep 2011

Scene I – “What Are You Reading?” (The Train)

Before Sunrise script (1995)

Screenplay & Story by Richard Linklater & Kim Krizan 

Opening Titles 

The opening titles are overlaid atop images of the train route from Budapest, Hungary, to Vienna, Austria. We believe that many of the landscape shots were taken between St. Pölten and Vienna.

Dido and Aeneas Overture by Purcell plays in the background as the opening titles roll. The scene cuts to a young woman entering a train compartment, then to another coach car where we see a number of passengers in their seats. The coach car is quiet as the first scene begins.

Scene I – “What Are You Reading?” (The Train)

Location notes: the train is en route from Budapest, Hungary, to Vienna, Austria, which is usually about a three-hour journey by rail. Scene trivia: Celine is reading “Madame Edwarda; Le Mort; Histoire de l'œil” by Georges Bataille. Jesse is reading “All I Need Is Love” by Klaus Kinski (autobiography). Also, the couple that argues in German is recognized to have Austrian accents. 

(We see a middle-aged couple sitting in the front of the coach car, on the left of the screen. Celine is sitting across the aisle from them, on the right of the screen, reading a book.) 

Woman: Kannst Du sie bald auswendig?

(Can you tell me what is so interesting?) 

Man: Es wird dich nicht interessieren, aber es steht etwas ueber dich in der Zeitung. 70,000 Frauen sind dem Alkohol verfallen. Du bist eine davon.

(It won't interest you, but there's something written about you in the newspaper. 70,000 women are addicted to alcohol. You're one of them.) 

Woman: Das trifft mich ueberhaupt nicht. Wenn hier jemand dem Alkohol verfallen ist, dann bist es du. Schau dich doch mal in den Spiegel. Schaust Du Dich manchmal in den Spiegel?

(That doesn't concern me, if someone is addicted to alcohol then it's you, just look at you in the mirror, you look at yourself in the mirror sometimes?)

Man: Bei mir hat es einen Grund, ich bin mit dir verheiratet.

(I have a reason to do it, I'm married to you.)

Woman: Koenntest du diese verdammte Zeitung endlich weglegen jetzt.

(Put the damn newspaper away already!)

Man: Das mach ich jetzt seit 15 jahren. Koenntest du mir den Gefallen tun und mich endlich in Ruhe lassen.

(I'm doing this since 15 years now, could you do me a favor and just leave me alone?) 

(Jesse appears on camera briefly for the first time.) 

Woman: Ich lass dich so gern in Ruhe, aber ich hab einen Vorschlag. Du lasst mich auch in Ruhe. Ich hab einen wunderbaren Vorschlag, du ziehst zu deiner Mutter und du kannst alle deine Kochbuecher mitnehmen.

(I'll gladly let you alone, I suggest you let me alone too. I have a great suggestion, you move to your mother and take all your cookbooks with you.) 

Man: Das ist ein wunderbarer Vorschlag, den unterbreitest du mir ungefaehr zwei mal im Monat.

(That's a wonderful suggestion, you bug me with that about twice a month.) 

(She slaps his newspaper down, and out of his hands, then grabs the paper.) 

War das jetzt wirklich notwendig? War das notwendig?

(Was that now really necessary? Was that necessary?)

(Disturbed by the couple’s fighting, Céline stands up, takes her bag from the overhead rack, and moves to another seat about halfway toward the back of the car. As she settles into her new seat, she looks across the aisle at Jesse. He looks back. She looks at Jesse one more time after picking up her book.) 

Man: Geh zu deiner Mutter.

(Go back to your mother.) 

Man: “Geh zu deiner Mutter zurueck,” ich kann es nicht mehr hoeren. immer das Gleiche . immer das Gleiche. Ich kann es nicht mehr hoeren.

(“Go back to your mother,” I can’t take it anymore. Always the same. Always the same. I can’t take it anymore.) 

Woman: Das ist so langweilig!

(This is so boring!) 

Man: Ja, du bist langweilig!

(Yes, you’re boring!) 

Woman: Ja, du auch.

(Yes, you too.) 

Man: Ich kann doch diese Wohnung nicht dem Chaos preisgeben.

(I cannot expose this apartment to that Chaos)

Woman: Das Chaos ist alleinschon deine Sache. Ich behalte...Ich kann’s nicht behalten, die Katzen.

(The Chaos is just your thing. I keep…I can’t keep it, the cats) 

Man: Apropos Katzen.

(Appropriate, the cats.) 

Woman: Ja?

(Yes?) 

Man: Wieder vergessen!

(Again forgot it!) 

Woman: Wer hat das Sheba nicht gekauft? DU hast das nicht gekauft! Ich geh' jetzt in den Speisewagen. Nimm das Geld mit.

(Who didn’t buy the ***Sheba? YOU haven’t bought it! I’m going now in the lounge car. Take the money with you) 

Man: Jetz' bleib doch einen Augenblick.

(Now, just stay for a moment.) 

Woman: Ich moechte nicht, dass du mit mir kommst.

(I don’t want that you are coming with me.) 

Man: Wart' doch einen Augenblick.

(Wait a moment.) 

Woman: Wie geht diese scheiss Tuer auf?!

(How do I open this fucking door?) 

(Céline looks up from book, disturbed. She moves to another seat, across from Jesse. They glance over at each other. The woman who was arguing with her husband leaves the car, walking down the aisle with her husband following her between Jesse and Celine. They look at each other, smile then Céline looks away.)

Jesse: (Still looking in Celine’s direction.) Do you have any idea what they were arguing about? (Points toward the exit.) 

Céline: (Glances up at him, looks over.) 

Jesse: Do you…do you speak English? 

Céline: Yeah. No, I'm sorry, my German is not very good. (Jesse leans back, disappointed. Celine pauses for a second, then continues.) Have you ever heard that as couples get older, they lose their ability to hear each other? 

Jesse: No. 

Céline: Well, supposedly, men lose the ability to hear higher-pitched sounds, and women eventually lose hearing in the low end. I guess they sort of nullify each other, or something. 

Jesse: I guess. Nature's way of allowing couples to grow old together without killing each other. (Céline smiles, small laugh, turns away.) What are you reading? (She shows him.) Oh, yeah. 

Céline: How bout you? 

Jesse: Umm. (Looks down, then laughs as he shows her, and she smiles.) 

(Couple returns to car, still arguing, albeit a lot calmer.) 

Woman: Typisch! Sind ihre? Wirklich so gehuepft, dass du sie dauernd anstarren musst?

(Can you tell me why you were always staring at her?)

Man: Vergiss es.

(Forget it.) 

Jesse: Look, I was thinking about going to the lounge car sometime soon. Would you like to come with me? 

Céline: (Nods.) Yeah. 

Jesse: Okay. 

(*** Scene trivia: “Sheba” is a brand of cat food.)

(They get up and leave the coach car. Jesse “punches” the automated door mechanism as they enter the lounge car.)

(Unofficial script: http://sunrisesunset.wikia.com/wiki/Before_Sunrise_script)

skype

uncle, grandma
and i
:)

Jan 27th 2012