In my Directed Studio Projects class, I just introduced students to macro cinematography and microscopy. These tools and techniques have the power to change perceptions of the world around us and our place in it. They're also just a lot of fun to explore.
In academia we often find ourselves whether as teachers or as students, staying in our own lanes, never moving beyond expected parameters of study and exploration. This is unfortunate. Bringing the microscope into cinema opens up a new way of approaching art making and provides avenues that are much broader than then single one-way lane we often find ourselves upon. Life is much more interesting when we jump lanes. You'll never know where you might end up when you start going a different direction.
Probably one of the most surprising student tests with the microscope this semester was the use of Jolly Rancher candies. Some of the textures and colors were mesmerizing. I love seeing what evolves from these experiments.
I'm continuing my Cinema 4D experiments for fun and necessity. What started out as some explorations of soft body dynamics turned into an ersatz microscopy and analog video test. There's a lot of words that I never imagined would be strung together. I took the basic shape created for the dynamics test and with some slight modifications to form and materials created the microscopy piece. I expect I'll be using C4D for composited elements within Tether beyond the modeling of 3D printed props I've already started.