live-action music video, part II
I figure I should explain what I was doing with yesterday's entry. I am a Performance Studies major, which is different from a theater major in that I study performance theory and the adaptation of works rather than the getting up on a stage and doing scene-work from plays. There are exceptions, such as my Shakespeare class this quarter, but I'm largely working within a much broader framework than traditional theater allows.
I am enrolled this quarter in Performance Art which focuses largely on the creation of narrative images rather than narrative text. Our first assignment was to "perform" a song. This does not mean get up on stage and sing along to our favorite pop music. Rather, we were to set up a series of visual images that allowed an audience to connect to the emotional qualities of the song. To that end, I performed the piece documented yesterday. My song, "Sine Wave," was the only song playing on my iPod for the past two weeks, as I tried to mine every last thought from my brain and put it onto a stage. At first I'd wanted something elaborate and exquisite, but in the end I settled for something infinitely simpler. Basically, I used my grey duvet cover as the cocoon, and a battery-operated push-lamp for the pulsing light. I'd covered myself in metallic silver body paint previous to class and showed up looking rather like an alien. The box was just a simple wooden recipe box purchased in the morning, filled with two cans of Campbell's tomato soup mixed with a bit of water.
Most people spent upward of ten minutes setting their "stage" for the performance, but mind took a mere three. It was in that simplicity, though, that the beauty of it emerged. Everyone I talked to kept saying how eerie it looked, how beautiful, how surreal, how inhuman. I was asked if I'd let someone direct me in the piece because it looked so precise and perfectly staged. But it was just me, throwing myself into a project completely. I'd been so scared going into yesterday - after all, this was Mary Zimmerman's hand-picked selection of people allowed to take the class. All six of the graduating Performance Studies majors are in the class, two graduate students, and a handful of brilliant juniors. It's an intimidating group and I really wanted to stick it to 'em in this first performance. In the end, it looks like I did. And, man, I am still so proud of myself!
I am enrolled this quarter in Performance Art which focuses largely on the creation of narrative images rather than narrative text. Our first assignment was to "perform" a song. This does not mean get up on stage and sing along to our favorite pop music. Rather, we were to set up a series of visual images that allowed an audience to connect to the emotional qualities of the song. To that end, I performed the piece documented yesterday. My song, "Sine Wave," was the only song playing on my iPod for the past two weeks, as I tried to mine every last thought from my brain and put it onto a stage. At first I'd wanted something elaborate and exquisite, but in the end I settled for something infinitely simpler. Basically, I used my grey duvet cover as the cocoon, and a battery-operated push-lamp for the pulsing light. I'd covered myself in metallic silver body paint previous to class and showed up looking rather like an alien. The box was just a simple wooden recipe box purchased in the morning, filled with two cans of Campbell's tomato soup mixed with a bit of water.
Most people spent upward of ten minutes setting their "stage" for the performance, but mind took a mere three. It was in that simplicity, though, that the beauty of it emerged. Everyone I talked to kept saying how eerie it looked, how beautiful, how surreal, how inhuman. I was asked if I'd let someone direct me in the piece because it looked so precise and perfectly staged. But it was just me, throwing myself into a project completely. I'd been so scared going into yesterday - after all, this was Mary Zimmerman's hand-picked selection of people allowed to take the class. All six of the graduating Performance Studies majors are in the class, two graduate students, and a handful of brilliant juniors. It's an intimidating group and I really wanted to stick it to 'em in this first performance. In the end, it looks like I did. And, man, I am still so proud of myself!