By Raven Watkins, Florida State University
Hola! I am writing to you from Valencia, Spain where I will be living for the next month. I am excited to learn how to conduct forensic work in the field, and how to execute a stop-motion animation with my own creative direction. I also will be emphasizing the practice of dealing professionally, gently, and supportively with survivors and the affected individuals of war crimes and loss. I do not take the honor and responsibility lightly to directly aid in the recovery of identity of the victims which left behind families who deserve to mourn their loved ones. I hope to bring a unique perspective to my art with this experience by gaining empirical and processual knowledge alongside the historical and anthropological research I have been conducting.
During this project, I will be utilizing the FSU resources of the Carnaghi Arts Building, which will be the location my stop-motion animation will be created. I am also in the Honors in the Major for studio art, which is going to be the continuation of this project beyond the IDEA Grant. I also will be attending the Center for Field Sciences forensic anthropology school in Chelva, Spain. This is to learn forensic skills in identifying victims of a war crime. It is applicable to my stop-motion idea by deeply expanding my understanding of the past, present, and future marks which the Spanish Civil War made on Spanish people, and continues to make today.
As my project was originally inspired by my time in Valencia last summer, this will expand my knowledge and understanding of Valencian culture and history in a way which considers the present affect the events of war had on the people of Valencia.
At this point in the project, I have more research, a better understanding of how I will complete both the field school and stop-motion, but all I need to do now is execute. All of the hard skills to be learned from these new areas of study will come with a stack of obstacles which I will learn to overcome and synthesize my data, qualitatively and creatively. I am excited to get started on this and become a strong interdisciplinary and international student with multiple fields of interest, all while conveying what moved me most of all the beauty Spain has to offer.
HSF House Blogs 