Performing live is very difficult and nerve racking, but I hope I’m able to pull it off. I wanted to do something that was fun and light hearted just for the sake of fun, and I believe I was able to achieve that. I didn’t really choreograph it because I wanted it to be genuine and I hope I don’t laugh during it, but if I do, It’s not that big of a deal. Since I struggled with this prompt, I am proud of myself for coming up with something that I’m semi comfortable with, where I can have fun and encourage the people around me to do the same.
Month: February 2017
Project Ideation: Performance
The process for this project was a bit of a struggle, but I’m very happy with where it has ended up. As I was thinking of what I wanted to communicate, I thought of performances (in the non traditional sense) that I liked, and one stood out in particular- the theatrics of Drag Queens and lip syncing. It’s hilarious, and people enjoying themselves just for the sake of being happy is something that has become far too rare. Although it’s good to have profound works of art, one of my absolute favorite aspects of creating is enjoying doing it. I also really enjoy making people laugh, so this lead to me deciding to do a lip sync…while popping balloons with glitter. Flamboyance for flamboyance’s sake.
In Class Exercise- Project Two
To explore possible ideas for performance, I went to the science building and just wandered around with no real goal. Once I found myself in a familiar setting with people I knew, I went into the lab where I prepared a project for my entomology project.
Reading- Week 3
In the video the artist describes sound as being “freeing” and free. As performance art gains more recognition as an art form, is it possible to find it getting increasingly more restrictive?
Looking at this entire video as an art piece, was it counterproductive to add a closing song to the last 2 minutes of the video? The entire video was about how a deaf woman can allow herself to perceive sound and how her art is meant to communicate that with a massive audience, yet 2 minutes of a ten minute video features her doing that performance art with music dubbed over it.
Self Critique – Project One
I was pleased with how the final product came out in essence and in physicality. Eventually I would like to name it but as of right now, I can’t think of a proper title for it. I found it very challenging to work with aluminum, and the way that I acquired the aluminum was equally as challenging. For this project I had to think differently in order to make certain aspects work, such as creating something in different pieces rather than creating someone as a whole all at once. I wanted to communicate the seriousness of neglectful actions, and how ultimately something much larger is put into play because of a lack either understanding or respect for this Earth and the people that share it. I believe I was successful in communicating this idea, though I do wish I would have been able to spend more time experimenting with the materials as to render its form better.
Project 1- Process and Ideation
I got my idea for this project almost immediately. I’m currently in the biology program and once I graduate in a year, I hope to get into the field of conservation biology. One reason I am an art minor is so I can communicate these ideas I am passionate about in a way that is easily accessible to the public. For my intervention piece I chose to collect garbage left in an undeveloped, public area where I enjoy spending my time, and turn it into something of substance. Littering is disrespectful and harms the natural environments and the creatures that are unlucky enough to interact with it. For Instance plastic bottles release harmful chemicals that soak into the soil and water over the 450 years they take to biodegrade. I wanted to depict this is a more outright alarming way by constructing a rendition of an animal trap made out of the found trash.
I now had my idea and an understanding of what I wanted to do – portray litter as intentionally harmful objects such as foot hold traps, because like those objects trash is harmful to the natural environment. However, I didn’t want to make this object an exact replica of a foothold trap. It’s non functional and crudely done. I did this for the purpose of comparing the intentions that go into making and setting an actual trap with the intent of catching an animal to kill and mindlessly leaving something like trash that will inevitably result in the death of an animal. My piece is to say it serves the same purpose as a trap, but without the intent.
In between grunts and cursing under my breath at the thorns I was getting stuck on, I managed to collect quite a bit a trash in a very small area.
The picture at the bottom is my final haul. With the idea of the foothold trap in mind, I focused on aluminum cans, being that I could use pre existing aspects of the objects to create something new. That is the majority of the materials used in this piece.
For the construction I used only paper, aluminum, tin and a lot of glue. I then added organic elements to replicate the natural world where I found these objects. This way it could be a stand alone piece or incorporated in the environment.
A Blog: A Story of A Semester In 4D 