Arts Lab Report: Hanul Choi’s April report

April started off quite well. After the first month of quarantine, things were too stable for a while so me and my colleagues got motivated and started to do some tasks. Working at home was hard for sure as I am not used to live and work in the same space. Either way, the month started off strong by recording workshop and creating rap song about the Covid-19. Because of the quarantine,  doing or practicing workshops in front of people were impossible, so we adapted immediately to the online platform. After the mild success of the drawing workshop we did, we continued right away with the next one which is how to make salt dough.

That workshop was quite fun as we altogether made all kind of weird figures with the salt dough and painted it afterwards. We even made medals and started to compete between each other for it through different challenges. Spending time with friends always help psychologically and trying new things together is the solution to boredom.

A second song was composed and this time it was a rap song. Comparing to the first one, we enjoyed a lot this new one. Rapping felt much easier to perform and I was confident going through it. When it came to recording the music video, it was an absolute blast. Comparing to short film shoots that I had been to, the one we made within the house was done with no pressure and the experience was enjoyable. We danced like no one was watching on the roof, the garden and even in the kitchen. Hopefully the landowner doesn’t watch the video and scold us for dancing in his roof.

For the occasional intercultural events, this month we prepared a presentation that explains the culture of our country. The power of internet came in handy for this task as I made a video presentation purely out of online images, videos and music. It took me some time to compile every material necessary but it was a valuable experience for my career. My mother asked me to help her make a historical video essay so I am going to apply the skills learned from the country presentation video. 

During this month, my sleeping schedule was an absolute mess: Some days I slept at 3 AM while some days I might end up sleeping at 7 AM. One thing I learned from this routine is that it really messed with my productivity and passion. Waking up late and sleeping late makes my mind think that I am unable to do any proper work and it also gives a feeling of loss/emptiness. I was able to overcome this conflict by going to the youth centre almost every day (with work permission of course), where I was able to do something useful in a concentrated space. I think for the people who have a sleeping problem like me, should have a fixed routine to not end up feeling useless or lost in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping. I am lucky enough to be able travel and work in a safe environment during this pandemic. For those who cannot just get out of the house, I recommend them to separate their working space with their living space: To elaborate, choose a room or a corner of the room where you will just use to work on your job/passions while having another one just for hobbies: reading, watching TV or even browse the internet. I am still guilty of maintaining this habit but staying hours on bed watching something with your smartphones ends up affecting your sleep so the best solution to this is to not use the phone when you are determined to sleep or if you are watching something, don’t do it on your bed.

April was the week where Art House became a thing: we created a weekly club where the moderator, Deniz, presents a topic related to arts and we talk about it together. For the first session we discussed about our famous painter. Mihaela did a good job in choosing a diverse group as we all had very different styles. I chose Dali because I like artists who tries to bring something new to this world and who is able to transmit a strange emotion in us.

We are also trying to publish as frequently as possible in the social media of Asirys but there are too many days that feels like posting something daily is too much work. Either way this month felt like a great step forward. The world might feel like it’s getting worse by the passing of each day but I think it’s important for individuals to find a way to distract from this dark cloud. Hope others are doing fine and getting along with this troubled but temporal situation.

Written by Hanul Choi

Hanul is a volunteer in Arts Lab 2.0, a project funded by European Solidarity Corps, with the support of European Union.