In Place of a Final Note, the War Diary of Yevgenia Belorusets and Future Projects

I am closing my blog. I started this in summer 2014
and this is my last post in spring 2022, eight
years in total. I wanted a place to document
my ideas, practical work, thoughts, reflections,
meetings, references, links, archives and places for
stories around and within my research. This is
my final post.
    During early weeks of Ukraine’s war with Russia
I followed a war diary from a Ukrainian photographer
and artist Yevgenia Belorusets. Publishers of this work
are Isolarii. This includes photographs, writing,
simple meditations on everyday life in Kyiv. It’s
a gentle reflection and reminds me a lot of
work by Svetlana Alexievich. Beloruset’s decision
to leave Kyiv and close her blog is inspiration for
my concluding post.
    I am working on future projects. These include
motion graphics for a feature film. This work is
complete and this film launches with screenings in
Zagreb and London end of May 2022. I am working on
exhibitions in partnerships with the Holodomor
Museum. These are digital, virtual pieces of work
taking places in cities across Europe. I am working
on motion graphics for social media. I have three
potential venues. This will be physical posters,
images and screening of motion graphics. This will
take place from early-mid June until July.

Proof Reads, Takflix and Submission – Statement on Current Events

I have completed final proof reads of my thesis texts. This
includes style details. Uses of en-dashes, em-dashes
hyphens, italics, special characters, special terms, capitalisation,
and apostrophes. This week I returned to Bringhurst’s
brilliant book, Elements of Typographic Style (1997). I used
this in my writing with Kate L. Turabian’s Manual for
Writers (2013). I am now using Bringhurst’s book as a basis
for a workshop I am designing for MA Graphic Design students.
In particular I am taking Bringhurst’s ideas of exploring
rhythm and musical harmony, structure in sound, with
page layout and physical structure. Bringhurst’s text is
available at readings.design.



Rhythm and structure in page layout, detail from Elements
of Typographic Style. Source: Bringhurst, 1997.



Workshop details, from Elements of Typographic Style, 2022.
Source: Author.

I have completed watching my initial watchlist on
Takflix. My favourite of three films this week is
Enter Through the Balcony (Blazhan, 2020). This is a
documentary survey of architects, designers and
home owners. A central focus of this film is expansion
of Ukrainian apartments and apartment blocks using
balconies. Enter through the balcony is an advertising
term. This appears when larger apartments were
divided into smaller flats. These flats are now
accessible through balconies and were from Communist
times.



Enter Through the Balcony Вхід через балкон
trailer. Source: Takflix, 2021.

I have resubmitted my final PhD thesis. This
includes all examination changes. I am including a
Statement on Current Events. I wrote this as an
initial response to war in Ukraine when Russian forces
invaded. It is about research, about where my
project is now, where it was, my intentions and
motivations. It is about power in art and design practice.
It is what I can do as an individual to document
stories, to challenge, to express ideas and what design
and what power art has in creative practice and in
current events. I am reflecting on my position now as I
complete my work. I am ending with a drawing of
Ukrainian Easter eggs, Psanky. It is Ukrainian Easter
weekend this weekend. These drawings I use in my film
endings.




References:

Blazhan, R. (2020) Enter Through the Balcony [Online]. Takflix. Available from: <https://takflix.com/en/films/enter-through-the-balcony> [Accessed 24 April 2022].

Bringhurst, R. [1992] (1997). The Elements of Typographic Style. 2nd ed.  Point Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks. Available from: <https://readings.design/> [Accessed 24 April 2022].

Fuller, J. (n.d) readings.design [Online]. J. Fuller. Available from: <https://readings.design/> [Accessed 24 April 2022].

Takflix (2021) Вхід через балкон [Online video], 24 Feb. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0xlq-nvsAI>[Accessed 24 April 2022].

Turabian, K. [1955] (2013). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. 8th ed. Revised by W. Booth, G. Colomb, J. Williams, University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Archives, Takflix and Recipes

I am organising new hardware. This involves archiving my
PhD production files and my emails. I have come across
scans. These are from late 2015 to May 2018. These are
scans I sent to myself from photocopiers at work.
They document my research, books, ideas, interests,
drawings, diagrams and research supervision notes. I have
a scan of Smith and Dean’s book about Practice-led
Research (2009). This is my first reading on integrating
artistic practice with academic research. From my early
investigations into music and working with G sharp minor
I have a scan of a 12-inch from Huddersfield Music
Library. This is Scriabin’s Second Symphony. Scriabin
composed in G sharp minor. From what I remember this
symphony is not in this key. Kenneth Goldsmith’s
Traffic in Perloff’s work exploring poetry (2010). There
are references in this work to Oulipo poetry and my
scan is from 2016. My original scan of Sterne’s black
page from Tristram Shandy (2000) is here from 2016.
I hadn’t considered before there is a front and back
to this black page. One of my favourite scans is
from a book of Samuel Beckett’s production of Happy
Days (1986). I have two scans of this, one from 2016
and another from 2018, start and finish of my
scanning. This is a notebook of transcriptions of Beckett’s
production notes for this play. Editor James
Knowlson has included all errors, mistakes, omissions,
and gaps in this transcription. I have drawings from
2016. These are from title slates opening Eisenstein’s 1925
film Strike. Alison recommended it to me for this
reason. Not all this work was in my final thesis.



Scan of Practice-led Research, 2016. Source: Smith and Dean, 2009.



Scan of Scriabin’s Second Symphony, 2015. Source: Scriabin, n.d.



Scan of Perloff’s work exploring Kenneth Goldsmith’s Traffic,
2016. Source: Perloff, 2010.





Scans of Sterne’s Black Page in Tristram Shandy, front and
back, 2016. Source: Sterne, 2000.



Scan of Beckett’s Happy Days Notebooks, 2016. Source:
Beckett, 1986.



Scans of drawings from Eisenstein’s 1925 film Strike, 2016. Source:
Author.

I have rediscovered Takflix, a brilliant Ukrainian
film streaming platform. I re-encountered this through a
talk at Visions du Réel with Ukrainian film makers,
exploring filming in resistance. Nadia Parfan was on this
panel and I was looking for her work. I have viewed
four films. Mariupolis by Mantas Kvedaravičius
a Lithuanian film maker who died from shooting
by Russian soldiers in April 2022. This film is from
2016. Kvedaravičius returned to Mariupolis this year
to make a second part to this film during Russia’s
current siege of Mariupol (e-flux, 2022). Another
feature film is Nadia Parfan’s 2019 film Heat Singers.
This was a brilliant view of a group of engineers who
have a work choir. I have watched two short films
Dream Machine in Ukrainian by Katerina Oliynik from
2018 and Bridge by Olena Moskalchuk and Oksana
Nosach from 2016. I have one more film lined up.
This is Enter Through the Balcony (Blazhan, 2020).
This is a brilliant way to watch Ukrainian films. It is
also a brilliant way for me to support Ukrainian culture,
individual film making and I have also sent these films
as gifts.

Part of my final Ukrainian lesson in term one was
translating Ukrainian recipes. Below is a recipes for
Borsch. There are specific verbs in this recipes
to describe very particular aspects of food preparation.
For example кубиками, cubes, is to dice and
соломкою to straw, or make thin, strips, this is
for cabbage. I love how specific this is. Yelyzaveta
pointed out all this writing is very much in
present tense, very immediate, very much in a
particular moment. This relates to Recipes for Baking
Bread and my original intentions to use recipes to recount
stories from history. I love this contract, where language
from an immediate sense of present, now, appears with
stories from past events. This relates to ideas in my
thesis from Tolstoy’s use of ‘now’ in language in his
novels. These verbs also appear many times in first
person, we, form. This relates to my ideas of cooking,
baking and recipes as collective and shared activities.



References:

Beckett, S. (1986) Happy Days: The Production Notebook of Samuel Beckett. Edited by J. Knowlson. New York: Grove Press.

Blazhan, R. (2020) Enter Through the Balcony [Online]. Available from: <https://takflix.com/en/films/enter-through-the-balcony> [Accessed 17 April 2022].

e-flux (2022) From Barzakh to Mariupolis: In Memory of Mantas Kvedaravičius [Online]. New York: e-flux. Available from: <https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/461330/from-barzakh-to-mariupolis-in-memory-of-mantas-kvedaraviius/> [Accessed 17 April 2022].

Kvedaravičius, M. (2016) Mariupolis [Online]. Available from: <https://takflix.com/en/films/mariupolis> [Accessed 17 April 2022].

Moskalchuk, O. and Nosach, O. (2016) Bridge [Online]. Available from: <https://takflix.com/en/films/bridge> [Accessed 17 April 2022].

Oliynik, K. (2018) Dream Machine [Online]. Available from: <https://takflix.com/en/films/dream-machine> [Accessed 17 April 2022].

Parfan, N. (2019) Heat Singers [Online]. Available from: <https://takflix.com/en/films/iftke> [Accessed 17 April 2022].

Perloff, M. (2010) Unoriginal Genius: Poetry by Other Means in the New Century. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Reddebrek (2013) Strike! – Sergei Eisenstein [Online video]. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLiNKaUp0AA> [Accessed 17 April 2022].

Scriabin. (n.d.) Second Symphony, Georg Semkor and London Philharmonic Orchestra. CBS. [Sound recording: LP].

Smith, H. and Dean, R. eds. (2009) Practice-Led Research, Research-Led Practice in the Creative Arts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Sterne, L. [1759] (2000) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Intershort, Awards and VdR-Industry Film Market 2022

Recipes for Baking Bread appeared in Intershort
(International) Short Film Festival.
This was online from 29th – 31st March. These were
online screenings. This is a Ukrainian festival due to take
place in Kyiv in September 2022. This whole festival
appeared within five weeks. This is incredible and I
am very pleased to be part of this work.

I am very pleased to announce Recipes for Baking Bread is appearing in Intershort Festival @filmpls , Ukraine and online https://t.co/2pVFdC8w0w pic.twitter.com/1jijZr7WWY

— Dr Sara Nesteruk (@SaraNesteruk) March 30, 2022

Recipes for Baking Bread at Intershort Festival, Press
2022. Source: Twitter @SaraNesteruk.

Recipes for Baking Bread has an award. This is
winner of short experimental films category at
Intershort Festival. Intershort website shows all
winners, semi-finalists, and official selections
online here. This is brilliant publicity and I have
press on Twitter from Arts and Humanities Huddersfield.

Nice to have an Islington Mill Art Academy alumni reunion recently, not least to find out about this! https://t.co/145JZECT9B

— lavender canal spectre (@LaurenVelvick) April 5, 2022

Recipes for Baking Bread, 2022. Source: Twitter @LaurenVelvick
@AHHuddersfield.

Recipes for Baking Bread is now part of selection for an
online distribution platform. This is VdR-Industry
Film Market 2022, a Swiss platform. This is part of
Visions du Réel Film Festival. This runs from 7th – 14th
April 2022. This is a prestigious festival with loads of
fantastic work. There is a lot of live action. I have
Pro Accreditation for attendance at events, online
screenings and talks as part of my selection. A
link for Recipes for Baking Bread at VdR Film Market
is online here.



Recipes for Baking Bread VdR-Industry Film Market 2022.
Source: Visions du Réel, 2022.



References:

Intershort (2022) Inter (International) Short Film Festival 2022 [Online]. Kyiv: Intershort. Available from: <http://intershort.filmpls.com/festival2022.html> [Accessed 10 April 2022].

Nesteruk, S. @SaraNesteruk (2022) I am very pleased to announce Recipes for Baking Bread is appearing in Intershort Festival @filmpls, Ukraine and online, 30 March [Online]. Available from: <https://twitter.com/SaraNesteruk/status/1509155750295359492> [Accessed 10 April 2022].

Velvick, L. @LaurenVelvick (2022) Nice to have an Islington Mill Art Academy alumni reunion recently, not least to find out about this!, 5 April [Online]. Available from: <https://twitter.com/LaurenVelvick/status/1511310458741006344> [Accessed 10 April 2022].

Visions du Réel (2022) [Online]. Visions du Réel / VdR-Industry / Film Market 2022 / Recipes for Baking Bread [Online]. Nyon: Visions du Réel. Available from: <https://www.visionsdureel.ch/en/film-market/2022/recipes-for-baking-bread/> [Accessed 10 April 2022].

AHRC Peer Review College, Public Engagement Consultation and Policy Workshop

I am gaining experience in peer review for academic
applications in arts and humanities. I am now a member
of AHRC peer review college. My term is for four years and
begins this year, 2022. I completed my training at an event
on 10th of March. This was at the University of Manchester
Business School. This was fascinating in its insights into
role and structure of AHRC application processes and
panel reviews. It was also brilliant to attend an in-
person event.




AHRC UKRI logo 2022. Source: ukri.org, n.d.

    I am considering how I describe public engagement of my
work and in my practice for academic audiences. On
Thursday 24th March I took part in a consultation
for my work at the University of Huddersfield. This
was run by a third party consultant. This is work
to develop public consultation strategies and a full
strategy map for the University of Huddersfield.
This was a fascinating experience and involved
discussion around language in my teaching and research
practice. I considered my live briefs and projects I
have run in year 2 and in particular spoke about work
I did in 2021 for NHS Calderdale and Huddersfield.
My second project for these clients was to promote
information, a resource for young people and their families
who are about to have MRI scans. NHS can benefit
from communication in this area. When people have
lack of access to information it can lead to distress,
expense and repeat scans. This costs money and is
avoidable through simple communication strategies.
This project has direction by Shyam Patel and
music by Joe Watson. A movie is below. This was
part of a wider launch to promote work in this area.

NHS - MRI Scan Animation from Motion-go on Vimeo.

As well as my teaching practice I referenced my
research and in particular spoke about my work with
Ukrainian communities. I spoke about audiences and
participants. I also spoke about mainstream
activities and specific academic audiences. I became
aware of differences and links between global and
local audiences and when these merge. For example
with my work with Ukrainian communities where local
interests and small community groups in Manchester
and other areas in West Yorkshire have become
international and global news events on a major
scale.
    I am working on ways to develop impact in my
research. This week I took part in two half-day
policy workshops. University of Huddersfield organised these
workshops by Institute for Government. This
was a fantastic and inspiring two half-days with lots
of opportunities for discussion and a lot of information.
I learned a lot about roles in government, roles of civil
service, house of lords and house of commons and how to
access policy makers in these areas. There was
discussion and analysis of profile. I spoke about my
new website. An image of this is below. I also
considered various roles and departments within
government and how my work can contribute to these
areas. For example, a fantastic presentation involving
work from an academic with OFCOM and how my work
may relate to departments and All Party Parliamentary
Groups within government. This was an inspiring
two days. It was also fantastic to connect with
other colleagues from the School of Arts and Humanities
at Huddersfield. Many of these conversations led to
interesting ideas and possible collaborations. It was
fantastic to find out more about colleagues’ work in
areas I know and areas I don’t.




Website 2022. Source: Author.



Engaging with Policy Makers Workshop Notes 2022.
Source: Author.

References:

Motion-go (2021) NHS - MRI Scan Animation [Online]. Vimeo. Available from: <https://vimeo.com/548995180> [Accessed 2 April 2022].

UKRI (2022) Peer review college [Online]. UKRI. Available from: <https://www.ukri.org/councils/ahrc/guidance-for-reviewers/peer-review-college/> [Accessed 2 April 2022].

Nesteruk, S. (2022) Sara Nesteruk [Online]. S. Nesteruk. Available from: <https://saranesteruk.co.uk/> [Accessed 2 April 2022].

Research Supervision with Lisa and Simon

Friday 1st April
Cadbury’s Creme Eggs, British Art Show
(Parallet show) Intershort Festival in Ukraine,
goodbyes.

Cinemascope, Research and Film

Cinemascope:
I am working on motion graphics for a feature film. This uses
wide cinema formats 3840 x 1608 pixels. My work is intro
graphics, title captions, lower thirds, a map, stills
treatments, graphics sections, end credits and captions.
This film launches in April.

This is an exciting project about politics and football.
My research includes 1980s and 90 East European: Polish,
Balkans and Communist graphics. My styles are
printed, posters, with lots of textures. This includes a
lot of sports graphics.



Project Research: Dekalog, 2022. Source: Author.



Project Research: Film Posters, 2022. Source: Author.

I am working on a very short short. This is an idea from
a friend, Maurice Carlin. This is a piece of work to
explore my own practices, processes and styles. I am
working on visuals, styles and stills, taking reference
from Tom Haugomat. I am making work about outdoors. I
am using cinemascope for this, to experiment with wide formats.



Film Stills, 2022. Source: Author



Drawings, 2022. Source: Author.



Drawings, 2022. Source: Author.