PROCESS SIGNS of LIFE IN MUSIC, ART & CULTURE
VOLUME 1 / MAY 2011
MAY 2011 | B
ride bikes.
make music.
MAY 2011 | D
fly kites.
PROCESS may 2011 // contents the team
3
editor’s letter
4
GOING
5
BANDS OF SUMMER
Three summer musical festivals are just around the corner. See the stacked lineups and where you need to go.
BEING
9
MEET, INSPIRE
Here are six artists of all sorts: a writer, photographer, musician, designer, landscape architecture student and an actor. Find out their creative process and what they do. .
FEATURE
24
YIELD, PUSH
Meet dancer Cristina Gustaitis and learn the connection between her everyday life and dance through words and photographs .
DOING
FOUR DAYS
24
39
Take an inside look at art education student, Tessa Click’s illustrator journal. Then start writing one of your own..
“It is a way for me to communicate. Dance.
It is the best way for me. I am not just using words, but movement, a concept I have discovered recently”- Cristina Gustaitis
MAY 2011 | 2
PROCESS
SIGNS of LIFE IN MUSIC, ART & CULTURE
meet the team
Pam Farmen
Katelin Carter
Executive Director
Becca Dixon
Production Team
Kaitlyn Meeks Extra Set of Eyes, Housemate
I DID EVERYTHING!
Robert Woolley
Tessa Click
Photographer
Valerie Carnevale Inspiration
Illustrator Supplier of Coffee
Tessa Tillet Inspiration
special thanks--to my parents who instilled a love and passion for the arts within me. for encouraging family dinners and loving me for me. to my three younger sisters. and to my Lord, for life, purpose and an unfailing love.
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David Bader
Extra Set of Eyes
from the editor
T
his past summer I had the chance to take the train from Indiana to Seattle, Washington. It was a three day trip that I got to spend with my grandmother. Along the way, I was able to truly relax and see the beauty of this world we live in. It was a lot of quiet time, my music pouring through my headphones as I was able to journal and snap photographs of everything that passed by my window. One of the days, I had lunch in the dining car with a woman from Seattle. The woman, a bicycle mail carrier had spent the past sixty days traveling the country asking students two questions—what inspires them and how they came to the conclusion of what they wanted to do. At the age of 52 , she was heading to school for the first time, but wanted to get inside the minds of my generation. She wanted to know what inspired them and their creative process through the interworkings of their mind. For me, I’ve been inspired by the arts and the power it has to change the lives of individuals. I believe the arts play an essential role in shaping a new generating of students that will one day become leaders and changers in this world. In this issue, I’ve highlighted artists in all areas. Grab a group of friends and go enjoy music at a music festival this summer, or get to know some of the Ball State University dance students. Keep Reading. Keep Creating. Keep Processing.
// We need enormous pockets, pockets big enough for our families and our friends, and even the people who aren’t on our lists, people we’ve never met but still want to protect, We need pockets for boroughs and for cities, a pocket that could hold the universe.” jonathan safran foer
MAY 2011 | 4
GOING
S U M M E R M U S I C F E S T I VA L S PITCH F O R K BON NAROO LOLLAPALOOZA CHICAGO MANCHESTER CHICAGO
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meet some of the
PITCHFORK CHICAGO, IL
BANDS
www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com
JULY 15,16,17
CUT COPY www.cutcopy.net Cut Copy are a synthopop band from Melbourne, Australia. Their sound, often labeled as electropop, draws considerable influence from 80s new wave, synthpop and post-punk.
FLEET FOXES www.fleetfoxes.com Fleet Foxes is a Seattle-based folk band signed to the Sub Pop and Bella Union record labels. The band came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP, Sun Giant, and their debut full length album Fleet Foxes.
DEERHUNTER www.myspace.com/deerhunter
OFWGKTA www.oddfuture.com
Deerhunter is an American four-piece indie rock group orginiating from Atlanta, Gerogia. They describe themselves as “ambient punk,” though they incorporate a wide range of genres, including noise rock, art rock, shoegaze and post-punk pop elements.
Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, often abbreviated OFWGKTA or Odd Future, are a hip hop collective from Los Angeles, California. Odd Future has released four mixtapes and eight solo albums, all available for free on their website.
DESTROYER www.myspace.com/destroyer
DAS RACIST www.dasracist.com
JAMES BLAKE www.fleetfoxes.com
KYLESA
Destroyer is a Canadian indie rock band fronted by singer- songwriter Dan Bejar. Bejar calls Destroyer’s style “European Blues”. It is often compared to David Bowie and the band admitted influences are Pavement.
James Blake is an English electronic musician from London, England. James began his final year at Goldsmiths in September 2009 studying popular music while recording songs in his bedroom.
Das Racist is a rap group based in Brooklyn, known for their use of humor, obscure references, and unconventional style, Das Racist has been both dismissed as joke rap and hailed as an urgent new voice in rap.
www.myspace.com/kylesa Kylesa is a metal band that was formed in Savannah, Georgia. Their music incorporates experimentalism with sludgy riffs.The dual drum tracks are often panned strongly to the right and left, respectively with ambience. MAY 2011 | 6
meet some of the
BONNAROO
ARCADE FIRE www.arcadefire.com
NEIL YOUNG www.neilyoung.com
Arcade Fire is an indie rock band based in Montreal, Quebec. Arcade Fire has won numerous awards, including the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year and the 2011 Brit Award for Best International Album for their third studio album, The Suburbs.
Neil Young is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is weidely regarded as one of the most influental musicians of his generation. Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960 He then forged a successful and acclaimed solo career with his first album in 1968.
GIRL TALK www.myspace.com/girltalk
THE STROKES www.thestrokes.com
ROBYN www.robyn.com
RATATAT www.ratatatmusic.com
BEIRUT
Robyn is a Swedish recording artist, singer and songwriter. Robyn became known in the late nineties for her worldwide dancepop hit “Do You Know (What It Takes) from her debut album Robyn is Here.
Ratatat is a New York City electronic music duo of Evan Mast and Mike Stroud. They first met as students at Skidmore College. Ratatat’s fourth album was released on June 8.
MANCHESTER, TN
BANDS
www.bonnaroo.com
JUNE 9,10,11 &12
IRON & WINE www.ironandwine.com Samuel Bean, better known by his stage and recording name, Iron & Wine, is an American singer- songwriter. He has released four studio albums, serveral EPS, and singles.
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Gregg Michael Gillis, better known for his stage name Girl Talk, is an American musician specializing in mashups and digital sampling. He produces mashup style remixes, in which he uses often a adozen of samples from songs.
The strokes are an Americn rock band formed in 1998 in New York City. The Strokes have been named one of the most prominent indie bands to emerge in the 21st century. Their fourth album was released this year, entitled Angles.
www.beirutband.com Beirut is an American band that combines the elements of Eastern European and Balkan folk with Western pop music, fusing the American mainstream and indie-rock culture and the World Music market.
meet some of the
COAST LOLLAPALOOZA BEST www.myspace.com/bestcoast
BLACK LIPS www.black-lips.com
Best Coast is an American indie rock band based in California, and is often categorized under the subgenres of garage rock, surf pop, and lo-fi. The band is recognizable for their fuzzy, low-fidelity sound in the vein of surf rock. The band recently released their single “When I’m With You.”
Black Lips are a self-proclaimed “flowerpunk” band from Atlanta, Georgia. In their recent video for “Go Out and Get It,” the Atlanta garage boys are seen on a cruise ship and on some tropical beach surrounded by vacationing bikini-clad hipster gals, all messy hair and sunglasses, sipping drinks.
CULTS www.cultscultscults.com
LYYKE LI www.lykkeli.com
MUSE www.muse.mu
THE DRUMS www.thedrums.com
SLEIGH BELLS
Muse are an English rock band from Teignmouth, Devon. They are known for their fusion of many music genres, including progressive rock, alternative rock, space rock, pop music, heavy metal, classical music and electronica.
The Drums are an American indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York.The Drums were also voted ‘Best Hope for 2010’ in Pitchfork Media’s 2009 Readers’ Poll. The band is currently on the Moshi Moshi/Island, Popfrenzy and Downtown labels.
CHICAGO, IL
BANDS
www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com
AUG 5,6,7
COLDPLAY www.coldplay.com Coldplay are a British alternative rock band. Coldplay has won numerous music awards throughout their history. 2009 was their most successful year having received seven Grammy Award nominations at the 51st Grammy Awards, and won three.
The band’s got an un-Googleable name and no MySpace page in sight. They do, however, have a sparse Bandcamp page. We have discovered that they are a boy/ girl duo, that they live in New York, and that they are both film students.
Lykke Li, is a Swedish indie singer. Her music often blends elements of pop, electronic, and indie rock; various instruments can also be found in her songs, including violins, tambourines, trumpets, saxophones, and cellos.
www.myspace.com/sleighbellsmusic Sleigh Bells is an American noise pop music duo. The group released their debut album, Treats, on May 11, 2010. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Sleigh Bells is composed of Derek E. Miller and Alexis Krauss. MAY 2011 | 8
DOING
to write.
w
You simply can’t read a 900-page novel on the subway, but you could read a few poems between stops. And before you know it, you can pat yourself on the back, because you’ve finished a book of poetry.
photography katelin carter & robert woolley
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NICHOLAS WILLY // TO WRITE MAY 2011 | 10
STEVIE SHALE // TO ACT 11 | PROCESS MAGAZINE
my mind.
M
If there’s something I know, it’s that I have a mind which seemingly goes and filters all the time. This isn’t always productive and intelligent filtering, but nonetheless, it makes it difficult to assess being interested in a narrower scope of tangible interests.
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connecting.
C
When I go on a photo shoot, the most important part is that I can connect with the client. I can look at a photograph and instantly know if the photographer and the client connected. This is so important to me.
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KAITLYN MEEKS // TO PHOTOGRAPH MAY 2011 | 14
an expression.
E
The process of searching out a medium to convey whatever idea we need to convey. It’s the means through which we make our thoughts concrete. We make the intangible tangible through a release-valve of the creative mind.
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PHIL JOHNSON // TO MAKE MUSIC & DESIGN MAY 2011 | 16
Phil Johnson // artist & musician
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he creative process is push and pull. It’s always dependent on the medium. I’ve found that I’m balancing mind and soul, for lack of a lesser cliché. Design, for example, needs to be built upon logic. You need sound reasoning and purpose for every detail. It’s after you have that reasoning that you can fully rely on expressive direction- that’s where the “art” of it really comes in and makes the work worthwhile. Music, on the other hand, begins with expression. Songs that I’ve written- aside from pre-purposed work- have stemmed from an urge to express an idea or emotion. It begins with the ambiguous creative seed and is then formed to fit a more logical structure. You have the melody or lyric- the piece that starts the project- and apply to it your understanding of how to most effectively communicate the message to your audience. You build the song around what you know- what you’ve learned about music. These ideas, regardless of medium, require similar approaches. Some happen in an instant. You can’t record fast enough. Others offer you the pieces and you need to find out how they tie together. Some just need to be beaten into submission.
“It begins with the ambiguous
creative seed and is then formed to fit a more logical structure”
Nicholas Willy // writer
I
chose Creative Writing as a major so my parents could pay thousands of dollars for a useless degree—and because I’m passionate about poetry. And because I like to write poetry.Though I do hate being called a poet—so, please, don’t call me one. Moving on. Poetry—in a world filled with pomp, vanities, and frills— seems to be an archaic art form, both read and created. However, I’ve talked to many writers—playwrights, flash fiction writers, etc.—who believe that contemporary poetry will soon find a new audience. People talk about decreasing attention spans. Well, arguably, you can get the same thing, be moved just as much, by a poem as you could by a 900-page novel. You simply can’t read a 900-page novel on the subway, but you could read a few poems between stops. And before you know it, you can pat yourself on the back, because you’ve finished a book of poetry. So the idea of putting poetry in the hands of more people is an exciting idea, it’s where I get some of my inspiration (I say this to avoid cliché answers, like how cathartic it is to express yourself so vulnerably).
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“I have dreams of taking photographs
all the time, all the while learning, growing and connecting with the people I document”
Kaitlyn Meeks // photographer
i
t all started when I was 16. I had saved up all of my money and found this beautiful Nikon D-50 on E-bay for about $600 dollars. One click and I had landed the best hobby I could have ever dreamed. I studied photographs on a daily basis, and trudged my heavy camera with me everywhere. I found myself taking photographs of the fruit in Meijer, the children I babysat, the football team practicing after school, the girls in my math class, and just about anything that moved and sparked my attention. I was “that girl with the camera”. Despite this infatuation for the documentation of all things that breathe, I decided against pursing a career in anything related to photography. I didn’t want to be so burnt out by the career that I no longer loved the art form that I had so quickly fallen in love with. I am currently in the process of getting a degree in Social Work. I have always had a passion for people, and meeting the needs of those around me. When I go on a photo shoot, the most important part is that I can connect with the client. I can look at a photograph and instantly know if the photographer and the client connected.This is so important to me. Therefore, I have no trouble assuming that this people pleasing social work world will work swimmingly with the artistically revived person inside of me. I am so excited to see where this collaboration will take me. I have dreams of taking photographs all the time, all the while learning, growing, and connecting with the people I document.
Stevie Shale // actor
T
here are many things that intrigue me and then often overwhelm me. I feel as if the last few years I have actually been learning more about how scattered and broad my interests are and ambitions are. Everything from the arts, the written word, music, sculpture, ministry work, and seemingly everything, which falls underneath the umbrella of what it is to create and understand the world. If there’s something I know, it’s that I have a mind which seemingly goes and filters all the time.This isn’t always productive and intelligent filtering, but nonetheless, it makes it difficult to assess being interested in a narrower scope of tangible interests. I tend to find the story and art in the world around me and long to analyze and regurgitate it out in an understandable and interpretive way. Thus, the things which intrigue me, the ideas, people, beauty, truth, lies, ugliness, abstract, etc., I love to put into something which can be communicated in the form of art…whether that be acting, music, conversationally, art…etc. and the more I’ve thought about where the genesis of this longing derived from the more it makes sense that I long to create and filter chaos in an understandable way is because I long to mimic a God who creates and longs for us to understand the ins and outs of the world we live in. The purpose.
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b
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Becca Dixon// designer
M
y gravitation towards the visual arts was first developed in the dance studio. Growing up, I was taught proper body alignment, where to position my hands on the ballet barre and how to control my movement. The technicalities of dance introduced me to the element of structure, but what kept me infatuated with the art was always the connection formed between dancer and music. I gained an appreciation for different types of rhythm and found strength in the way music could make me feel. Though I no longer dance, I’ll alwayshave in me an appreciation for space, line, form, balance and unity. Theseelements are just as important in the art of editorial design, of which I call my home. Within the aesthetics of layout, color and typography, I’ve simultaneously found my passion and lost my sanity living behind a Mac screen.The study of design has taught me to be aware of my surroundings and to take notice of the life around me. I draw inspiration from simple everyday things – whether it’s the pattern on a stranger’s shirt or the way the sunlight is casting shadows upon a building. Last summer, I became a temporary resident of New York City and experienced sensory overload. And so I took mental pictures of everything. Like the city itself, I consider my inspiration in design a melting pot, where I can let my influences from music, style, photography, and nature come together to create a purpose for and a reason behind my work.
MAY 2011 | 20
David Bader// landscape architecture student
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andscape Architecture is a growing field with limitless potential, especially as countries begin to shift their priorities toward sustainability, renewable energy, and transportation. Landscape Architects work closely with architects and engineers to sculpt landscapes into entities that are more productive, more efficient, and more aesthetically pleasing. Personally, I have taken particular interest in urban design and the way that cities function. Unfortunately, a seemingly endless amount of cities across the country have become imprisoned by mega-highways, speeding traffic, and urban sprawl. As a Landscape Architect, my goal is to fix that problem and redesign cities so that they are for people, not for SUV’s. I see a future where roads are a place for cars, cyclists, pedestrians, and transit alike. I see pedestrian-friendly downtowns that are bustling with local retailers, urban parks, farmers markets, and restaurants. I see individual neighborhoods that have their own distinct character that is like nowhere else. As a Landscape Architect, I am inspired by the opportunity to be part of a movement that considers quality-of-life and sustainability as the most important aspects of design.
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d
MAY 2011 | 22
drink coffee.
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YIELD PUSH WORDS // katelin carter photographs // katelin carter
MAY 2011 | 24
D Fundamentals remain a constant in dance. Yield and push. Reach and pull. One has to precede the other. You have to yield before you can push. In dance, it’s a process of leaning into the ground. Then there is life.You need to be grounded before you can push. If there is not ground, no foundation, there is nothing to reach and pull to. This creates patterns. One needs to know them and to be able to see them. Once this is done, the pattern relates to life, life relates to dance, dance is understood and your life is put into your dance.You breathe it and you connect. The two play hand in handthis art, turning into an outlet to create and overcome, an outlet to live and be free. Meet dance student Cristina Gustaitis, a quiet woman, carefree, emotional and sensitive. She started dancing when she was three, as a time to play and share with her best friend. “My best friend and I did everything together and I did everything she did. All I remember from the lessons was to reach for the stars. That’s where my story begins.” She describes her self having a great imagination growing up, “I would always be out in the woods playing by myself. I love pioneers and dressing up. I created characters and scenarios.” Gustaitis has felt a connection with
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nature since she was young. She’s also been concerned about the people close to her-caring, worrying and always loving. Dance started as an activity. It made her happy, it was time spent and a passion that soon began to grow as dance and her life began to merge as one. There is a connection between life and dance for her. To some it’s two separate mediums. A life outside the studio, but for her it connects. This year she has come to realize that in her fourth year apart of the Ball State University dance program. She is reading a book about how dance relates to everything in one’s life. Being grounded in dance is being grounded in life. Gustaitis is an active person. Dance is her life- movement is required, constantly. “I feel like I defiantly wouldn’t be the person I am today without dance. When I was younger it taught me discipline. I think I’m a quiet person, but recently it has given me confidence in the person I am.” “There is something about dance that helped me find who I was. Who you areyou need to find that for yourself, and when you are dancing, you have to find it. You have to sacrifice. It really shows your true character and so it just made me grow to love myself more with each day and has made me much more confidant.”
“I feel like I definately would not be the person I am today without dance. When I was younger it taught me discipline. I think I am a quiet person, but recently it has given me confidence in the person I am�
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“It’s hard to bring yourself into the movement, but that is someting in itself. It is hard to explain- I just feel. Teachers have pointed out to me that I really dance the movement and they see me. It comes naturally because I really love what I am doing and it is apart of me”
For her, some days, everything clicks. One class is just the technical aspect and she concentrates on one thing. Other days it’s everything, forgetting all technical. She just feels the movement, which can be one of the biggest experiences for her. “Its more about the emotion and artistry and how to make the movement come alive rather than just doing the movement. That can happen. I can being having a horrible day and I can leave everything there and it is the most amazing thing ever.” For here, there is no exact process in dance, no exact patter to her end result. But, processing in her mind does happen to become alive in a piece. She is currently playing Rapunzel in an upcoming performance, a book most of us have read, but few have learned to understand the character. To relate and put her own life in Rapunzel’s shoes- that is Gustaitis’s job in this role. She talks about how she has to taker her own real life situations to relate to the character and make it come alive on stage. For her, its through conversation and find out what the story of Rapunzel really means. “I practice the solo over and over, but also find those emotions and take them to find situations that have happened in my own life to produce a similar emotion. It’s a different approach.” For this particular solo of hers, she break it into three sections. It begins with Rapunzel stuck in the tower with her long
flowing locks of hair, alone with her mother. She is in solitary, which Gustaitis can relate to, enjoying her own time alone to think. Its where she learns the most about herself. This section is particularly easy for her to relate to because of this. In the second scenario, Rapunzel sees the prince for the first time. For, Gustaitis, she sees Rapunzel seeing a new life, unknown with the prince but terrified to leave something so constant and familiar with her mother. The challenge of risk enters the story, having to risk everything for another person. She cannot go back to her mom, but what if she cannot come back to her own self? Gustaitis relates to the last scenario the most. In the last scene, Rapunzel’s long locks of hair are cut. She has made the decision to leave a life so comfortable in her tower into uncertainty. Gustaitis relates to this best now as graduation and the real world approach her. It is a feeling of excitement and fear, one most of us face. She keeps to “Cristina”, her style, and emotions and brings herself into every dance she does. “It’s hard to bring yourself into the movement, but that’s something in itself. It’s hard to explain- I just feel. Teachers have pointed out to me that I really dance the movement and they see me. It’s something that comes naturally because I really love what I am doing and it is apart of me.” The passion shows. She brings herself
into the choreography, over and over, making her body connect with the movement of the dance. “Some days, I think, I suck! Then other days, I’m not thinking about dancing and my mind is elsewhere and other days I am focusing on breath and using the space.” She describes it as a way to let out her emotions. We all have our own outlet, and for her it is on the dance floor. Dance is how she processes the emotions and how she gets through the day. “It’s a way for me to communicate. Dance. It is the best way for me. I am not using words, but movement, a concept I’ve discovered recently.” For herself, she wants to perform. But, she just really loves brining dance to people and seeing the joy it can create. “It makes me see how lucky I am to have this in my life, and then to share and see this joy in others’ lives. Even if it just means I perform- I have the opportunity to make someone feel. To think. To have a connection and to open their eyes to that thought there were not thinking before.” All of the fundamentals- space, movement, the yield and push, the reach and pull make this possible for her. Space. Is important. Breath. It carries and supports. It provides life. And communication, an outlet to process, to help Gustaitis live and grow into the young lady she is.
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one day by tessa click
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buy local.
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