Laurie Anderson

This block we got to see Laurie Anderson, which gives me confidence in professional storytelling.  She is amazing and manipulates thoughts with images and sounds.  I really enjoyed her talks and most of all her video work (Dog Playing Piano).

A major take away for me is when she talks about how she was never asked what her strongest medium was, but the art she produces is made from the medium that helps projects her concepts.

This helps me refocus myself and the vision, for myself, as an artist. 

△s Dancing W/ ☐s

So this was my final performance—and WOW was it final.  This piece was the piece that I had the most fun with.  I think it was because with piece was very surreal.  When I first performed this piece, in class, there was me sitting on a pedestal and there was a spotlight shining on me.  The audience sat in a crescent shape around me and I told a story.  It was a decent performance (Emphasis on decent).

There was more ways I could have improved the performance and I think I did during live night.  It was amazing.  The audience was so huge to me—as I progressed in my story the more the audience was in the palm of my hand.  I couldn't believe it.  And I am impressed by my voice and its effect on their attention (It was pure Amazement).

If there was something I took away from the Live Art night is having confidence in my peers as well as in myself.  Also displaying everyday actions as High Art.  I challenged this by sitting on a pedestal while I told my story—something I do everyday.  Our night went smoother than butter on fresh baked bread and together we challenged the definition and stereotypes of (A)rt with a capital A.

Trust in our fellow Artist.

Cake

This piece was a collaborative piece with Madi, Lucian, and I.  It was really fun to make and very experimental.  Randomness—is the vein that flows blood through this piece.  This piece consisted of us sitting in front of a cake and saying what ever came off the top of our domes (I do say it was so much FUN + we all were recorded).  A lot of what is in the video was chosen by “Chance Operation” (Thanks to Lucian).  So the final product was clips that were randomized and smoothed over with special effects.

A few take a ways from this piece is always being open to experimenting.  As well as not relying on perfection and quality.  A lot of art is based off of having as much resemblance to Life as possible.  Whether it is realism, abstraction, and/or conception art is not only defined by perfection but the imperfections that draws out the good in a piece.

So, Imperfections art the perfect perfections.

"Dear Dad"

This piece was, and still is, very difficult for me to perform.  The piece had me sitting on the floor next to a black chair.  There was a spot light on the chair.  The audience sat in a half circle around me and the chair.

Through the piece I didn’t break focus with the chair.  During this performance it was hard to keep the momentum.  I didn’t practice what I said during the piece.  I think the piece went very well but there was more I could have added for emphasis and detail.  I guess an example of this would be me repeating more words and after saying goodbye to my father—an example would be me turning off the spot light after I was done.

This piece was really nerve racking for me.  I was in a panic and there was a rush of emotions I thought was buried.  One way to look at it is in the end we cry tears but tears don’t age.  I could feel myself quiver and slowly breaking due to my nervousness.

Over all I think this piece was successful.