Monday, 26 March 2012

Neutral Ground Gallery / Film Pool

This was a class field trip to local areas in Regina. The first stop was the Neutral Ground Gallery. The first thing that struck me was the way to get into the gallery. A large staircase then a long hallway with extremely creaky boards. It reminded me of a old cabin. Once inside the Neutral Ground Gallery the atmosphere felt like a gallery. The lighting and vast white walls all contributed to this feeling. The pieces within the gallery were mainly sculptor. All three pieces used wood for structor. They all dealt with life. Two of them reminding me of ca coons. The other almost looked like a birds nest. This trip to the gallery can relate to intermedia because it combines more than one form of art. The act of a group of people all traveling together to an art gallery changes the mood and can almost be part of a performance. Also with the artist there talking about her pieces it also had a performance feel to it. The act of getting there and listening is the intermedia side to the Neutral Ground Gallery.

The trip to the Film Pool felt like more of an informative trip. Again like the Neutral Ground Gallery to get into the Film Pool you had to climb a large number of stairs. When officially inside the Film Pool it was a lot more modern feeling then the Neutral Ground Gallery. We got a tour of the facility and all the equipment that the Film Pool had to offer. After the tour of the facilities we were taken down to a room where there was an artist in residency. She was a puppeteer and worked on Nightmare Before Christmas. This part of the tour was my favor. It is interesting to see how things are made that people take for granite on the T.V screen. Again if there was a way to connect this trip to intermedia it would be the act of taking the tour as a performance.

Monday, 19 March 2012

Cultural Events

Cultural Events

Can-West championships Women's Basketball game

Upon arrival to this event there was absolutely no parking close to the university. The parking coordinators were out and the signs saying parking lot full were everywhere. With a ten minute walk I was finally in the university and now waiting in line for a ticket. I have never seen the kinesology building so full of people bursting with energy. Everyone seemed cheerful and hoping the University of Regina girls basketball team will win. This would ensuring them the title of Can-West champions. I got my ticket and found myself in another line to get in the door. I was handed a noise maker. This was also new to this cultural event as I have attended other games and did not experience this generosity. It was definitely a time of high energy. I finally made it into the doors and was faced with another challenge as both stands where filled with people. Finding a seat was nothing short of a challenge as I had to race another couple up to the top I ensured enough spots for me and my friends to sit. The Game started.

A person could feel the energy in the air. Everyone was completely immersed in the actions; the ball, bounce, bounce, past shot! Swish! “The Cougars Score!”, the announcer screams over the microphone. The actions of the crowd felt as one. One large living unit, it was as if we all knew what each other were thinking. When the ref made a call against the Cougars the crowd let out a loud “boo”. This venues sold alcoholic beverages. The social convention of drinking as a public practice was in full effect. University of BC was ahead by 10 points and when it was like this there was a huge amount of energy still as the hope of a comeback was in grasp. The cougars began to fade and so did the energy in the gym. Some people began to leave when it became apparent that the Cougars were not going to catch up. This shows that winning is a large aspect of sports, not just support of your home town team. No one remembers the losers.

Living Skies Film Festival

The event began with the signing up of which events you were going to attend. This festival lasted for two days with an awards galla at the end. There were three workshops on Special Effects, Independent Film Making and a special guest speaker. The guest speaker was Donal McWilliams on Directing the Personal Documentary. The events began with the first screening of films. These films consisted mainly of films created at the high school level. After about an hour of screening it was time for the special effects workshop. This workshop was given by Emersen Ziffle, a fairly successful independent special effects makeup artist. His presentation was a slide show of his latest works. It was more informative rather than educational.

The next day consisted of screenings at 10:30 in the morning. This is when my documentary had its showing. There were not many people for the early showing. After this screening there was a presentation on Independent Film Making by Angela Edmunds. Her presentation consisted of a slide show and in my opinion on how not to succeed in the film world. Her view was more based on living happily. There was another screening and then the final workshop by Donal McWilliams. He is on the Canadian Film Board. He talked on his take of documentary film making which was also on the boarder of being experimental. The last event of the Living Skies Film Festival was an awards galla. Again there was alcohol served. The awards lasted till around 10:00pm and then most people left to go to other bars.

No Parking Exhibition at the 5th Parallel.

The first thing that intrigued me about this exhibit in the 5th parallel was that there was a guy playing a guitar at the door. This indeed brought more attention to the exhibit because it caught the attention of more people. Within the gallery the pieces were set up with paintings on the wall and sculptures and ceramics in the middle. One piece that caught my eye was a suit of armor that looked as if it was made out of ceramics. The piece was complex as it was made with many hexagon shaped figures clipped together with metal rings. This would not be a practical suit of armor to wear to any location because it would break with the slightest impact. Therefore it must be a piece of art. There was another piece that interested me. It was untitled, and was a chalk drawing of the top part of a mans head looking straight at you. I find chalk drawings to be very interesting and I am not totally sure why. It might be because of the ability to draw such fine detail and still have a sense of cartoon to it. The atmosphere of the area was different from the rest of the university. Although there wasn’t anyone else in the exhibit I still felt that I had to whisper and maintain my distance from the pieces as though I would get in the way of other people looking at the piece. This is the overall sense that galleries generate.

Much Ado about Nothing

This was a play by William Shakespeare in the Shoe Box theatre in Ridelle Hall. Plays feel different from other cultural events because the people tend to stand outside the theatre until the last minute before rushing to their seats. Most people are dressed fancier than they would at other cultural events. Once we took our seats the atmosphere changed again. Everyone began to talk wildly, about other plays, the actors, or their dislike of the seats they occupied. Moments later the atmosphere changed again. The lights dimmed and actors rushed the stage and immediately began to talk. The talk of the audience quieted down just as quick. The play was now in full swing. The play felt different than a movie would. The actors presence changes the atmosphere of the room. The feeling that the actor can hear and see you changes how you would react. In this play the stage was very primitive when comparing it to a movie. Unlike a movie a primitive stage does not take away from the overall piece. It is also interesting how the stage does not change except the way it is lit and it completely adapts to fit every scene in the play. There was an intermission half way through. The people quickly left the theatre to go stand right outside the door and talk again. Just like the beginning of the play they stood out there until the very last second before rushing there seat and beginning to talk again. This time the talk was about the actors, their opinion on how well they are acting, and the scene they liked most. The actors rushed the stage again just like the beginning of the play with no warning. The play was on again. At the end of the play the actors came and gave a bow. The audience went hysterical with applause. Than audience rushed just outside of the theatre again and discussion broke out. This time, after a few minutes the actors came and immersed themselves in the crowd. This continued for a few minutes as people slowly disappeared into the darkness.

Cultural Events

Cultural Events

Can-West championships Women's Basketball game

Upon arrival to this event there was absolutely no parking close to the university. The parking coordinators were out and the signs saying parking lot full were everywhere. With a ten minute walk I was finally in the university and now waiting in line for a ticket. I have never seen the kinesology building so full of people bursting with energy. Everyone seemed cheerful and hoping the University of Regina girls basketball team will win. This would ensuring them the title of Can-West champions. I got my ticket and found myself in another line to get in the door. I was handed a noise maker. This was also new to this cultural event as I have attended other games and did not experience this generosity. It was definitely a time of high energy. I finally made it into the doors and was faced with another challenge as both stands where filled with people. Finding a seat was nothing short of a challenge as I had to race another couple up to the top I ensured enough spots for me and my friends to sit. The Game started.

A person could feel the energy in the air. Everyone was completely immersed in the actions; the ball, bounce, bounce, past shot! Swish! “The Cougars Score!”, the announcer screams over the microphone. The actions of the crowd felt as one. One large living unit, it was as if we all knew what each other were thinking. When the ref made a call against the Cougars the crowd let out a loud “boo”. This venues sold alcoholic beverages. The social convention of drinking as a public practice was in full effect. University of BC was ahead by 10 points and when it was like this there was a huge amount of energy still as the hope of a comeback was in grasp. The cougars began to fade and so did the energy in the gym. Some people began to leave when it became apparent that the Cougars were not going to catch up. This shows that winning is a large aspect of sports, not just support of your home town team. No one remembers the losers.

Living Skies Film Festival

The event began with the signing up of which events you were going to attend. This festival lasted for two days with an awards galla at the end. There were three workshops on Special Effects, Independent Film Making and a special guest speaker. The guest speaker was Donal McWilliams on Directing the Personal Documentary. The events began with the first screening of films. These films consisted mainly of films created at the high school level. After about an hour of screening it was time for the special effects workshop. This workshop was given by Emersen Ziffle, a fairly successful independent special effects makeup artist. His presentation was a slide show of his latest works. It was more informative rather than educational.

The next day consisted of screenings at 10:30 in the morning. This is when my documentary had its showing. There were not many people for the early showing. After this screening there was a presentation on Independent Film Making by Angela Edmunds. Her presentation consisted of a slide show and in my opinion on how not to succeed in the film world. Her view was more based on living happily. There was another screening and then the final workshop by Donal McWilliams. He is on the Canadian Film Board. He talked on his take of documentary film making which was also on the boarder of being experimental. The last event of the Living Skies Film Festival was an awards galla. Again there was alcohol served. The awards lasted till around 10:00pm and then most people left to go to other bars.

No Parking Exhibition at the 5th Parallel.

The first thing that intrigued me about this exhibit in the 5th parallel was that there was a guy playing a guitar at the door. This indeed brought more attention to the exhibit because it caught the attention of more people. Within the gallery the pieces were set up with paintings on the wall and sculptures and ceramics in the middle. One piece that caught my eye was a suit of armor that looked as if it was made out of ceramics. The piece was complex as it was made with many hexagon shaped figures clipped together with metal rings. This would not be a practical suit of armor to wear to any location because it would break with the slightest impact. Therefore it must be a piece of art. There was another piece that interested me. It was untitled, and was a chalk drawing of the top part of a mans head looking straight at you. I find chalk drawings to be very interesting and I am not totally sure why. It might be because of the ability to draw such fine detail and still have a sense of cartoon to it. The atmosphere of the area was different from the rest of the university. Although there wasn’t anyone else in the exhibit I still felt that I had to whisper and maintain my distance from the pieces as though I would get in the way of other people looking at the piece. This is the overall sense that galleries generate.

Much Ado about Nothing

This was a play by William Shakespeare in the Shoe Box theatre in Ridelle Hall. Plays feel different from other cultural events because the people tend to stand outside the theatre until the last minute before rushing to their seats. Most people are dressed fancier than they would at other cultural events. Once we took our seats the atmosphere changed again. Everyone began to talk wildly, about other plays, the actors, or their dislike of the seats they occupied. Moments later the atmosphere changed again. The lights dimmed and actors rushed the stage and immediately began to talk. The talk of the audience quieted down just as quick. The play was now in full swing. The play felt different than a movie would. The actors presence changes the atmosphere of the room. The feeling that the actor can hear and see you changes how you would react. In this play the stage was very primitive when comparing it to a movie. Unlike a movie a primitive stage does not take away from the overall piece. It is also interesting how the stage does not change except the way it is lit and it completely adapts to fit every scene in the play. There was an intermission half way through. The people quickly left the theatre to go stand right outside the door and talk again. Just like the beginning of the play they stood out there until the very last second before rushing there seat and beginning to talk again. This time the talk was about the actors, their opinion on how well they are acting, and the scene they liked most. The actors rushed the stage again just like the beginning of the play with no warning. The play was on again. At the end of the play the actors came and gave a bow. The audience went hysterical with applause. Than audience rushed just outside of the theatre again and discussion broke out. This time, after a few minutes the actors came and immersed themselves in the crowd. This continued for a few minutes as people slowly disappeared into the darkness.

Monday, 12 March 2012

Hallway to Highway

Ideas I’m Working with

I am focusing on the idea of the way humans behave walking in a crowd. It is my observation that it is similar to way they behave in traffic. The way I plan to show this is by turning a hallway into a highway.

Equipment

Yellow tape
White Tape
Cardboard
Printer
Double sided tape
Stands
Help

There is no help needed for this project

Describe what I’m Planning on doing

I am planning on turning a hallway that supports a large amount of human traffic into a highway. This will entail using tape to simulate the markings on the road. Yellow tape in the middle in variations of double lines and single lines will be placed on the ground. There will be white tape on the edges to represent the outside line of the highway also on the ground. This tape will not affect the flow of traffic as they can be stepped on. There will also be traffic signs such as speed limit and turns. These signs are hopefully going to be put up on the edges of the hallway against the wall by being secured by a stand, or hung from the ceiling, or attached to the wall with double sided tape depending on what the facility will allow. If this is unacceptable then they will be taped to the hallway wall by a means of double sided tape, so it will not affect the wall.

Inspiration

My inspiration came to me one day in Cost-co. The way people pushed their carts around the store in a large crowd were similar to the rules of the road and obeying the traffic laws. I am inspired by my curiosity of human nature as well.




Overview of Ideas

My idea is to turn a hallway into a highway. I am hoping to see if the transformation will change the way people walk down the hallway. I am curious to see if people follow the rules of the road that I set out in the hallway or will it not change the way people walk.

The Location of the piece will be located in the hallway going into the Archer Library. The piece will occupy that entire hallway area (the area with the dark gray brick). There will be 6 signs put up on a stand that is located along the wall. The signs will be put in a location so they do not interfere with the flow of people. The installation will go up on March 25th 2012 at 6:00pm-8:00pm. The Installation will remain up till April 2nd where it will be taking down at 8:00pm-7:00pm.

The installation activity is just to see how people react to the space when it is changed to represent a road. The question I am looking at is do the people walk and obey the rules that are set or walk do they walk and ignore the rules that are set. The installation should only take an hour and will be installed on Sunday at 6:00pm so there is a very low flow of traffic in the hallway. This piece will not generate any noise during the set up or the duration of the installation project.

Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Reflections: Performance piece

Self Reflection

My finished project is called “Don’t Turn Around”. It consists of an arrangement of chairs in which each has a set of instructions. All of the audience members actively participated in the event. There was one person in the front of the room facing the wrong way and once everyone had time to find a seat and read their instructions one participant was instructed to open the door. This was when I entered the room. I then started taunting the one person to look back. I made loud noises, ran as close as I could to the one person whispered. As I performed these tasks some of the audience interacted with what I had done by the rules written on their card.

I started out thinking about what I would find interesting about human nature. I decided to figure out what exactly it takes to create an emotion. In this case this emotion was vulnerability. My original idea was to have three people sitting on a couch behind the crowd. The crowd would not have of been able to turn around and then the three people sitting behind them would start commenting on their features which one would deem personal. The comments would not of been terrible and after the three people commenting have left the room everyone would have to write an emotion on a paper and put it into a hat. After everyone would pick an emotion and read it out loud. Over several weeks from the time I had thought of the idea to when I had to perform, my idea had almost changed completely. I believe singling one person out would make them feel less protected by the group of peers with my original idea.

My work is a balance between movement and sound. For the individual who is at the front of the class unable to turn around this piece is mainly sound. They were not able to turn around and all they could do is hear and never really have a sense or where things and sounds were. The only visual the individual at the front would have is the sight of shadow of the performer. The lights were set up to create a triple shadow so her perception of sight is not trust worthy. For the rest of the audience who is situated behind the individual at the front of the room they actively participated in the performance by creating sound based on what instructions they received. Their senses were not tempered with so for them the performance had both visual and sound elements.

I believe I have achieved the acquired goal of creating an emotion and sense of being vulnerable. Comments on the critique reassured my goal. Such comments as, "my perception of where people were was completely thrown off" and "I am still shaking and palms are sweaty".

This piece connects with my current theme and interest of human nature. This piece fits this category by exploring the capabilities and feelings an individual will feel when faced with the loss of perceptions, and being singled out.

Looking back at my proposal I feel like this piece was executed with the same image and idea that was portrayed with a few minor changes. I decided to take the faulty objects out and add an onion at the start. I felt the faulty objects would not of contributed to my piece and the onion created a sense of being uncomfortable. There were two problems when performing the piece and it was the instruction cards not being clear enough, and there was an extra chair for people to sit in. These problems drew away from the overall piece. To change these problems I would have the right amount of chairs and make the instructions more clear. Overall I believe my ideas and techniques were effective in creating emotions within human beings.

Reflection of Harmony

The concept of your project is very intriguing. The way your piece was set up it instantly offered the participants excitement. This was due to the participants waiting outside anxiously thinking of what could be going on inside the room. My first thoughts that arose in my head were the images of someone passed out at a party. The spot light pointing at you helped zone the audience in and I personally could not focus on anything else. Having everyone walk in separately really allowed for the person to be more creative and draw what they wanted to instead of what the individual’s perception of what the audience wants them to draw. Having one person go in alone also allowed the piece to be more personal. I do not think this level of freedom and intimacy would have been achieved. Personal excitement to participate would have been lowered. This would be because watching someone paint on your face could produce the same emotions as actually painting on your face. Your performance also dehumanized your body. It became just a canvas for us to paint. This is interesting because it allowed the participants to open up and not feel any remorse or other feeling towards you. Once this happens the true nature of humans are revealed. I believed your piece accomplished this glimmer of truth of every participant.

Overall the performance has a lot of good characteristics and it is an interesting way to look at a performance piece. I feel like this piece needs very little improvement. The only thing I could think of is being in a different room with different lighting. The room was still slightly distracting with the reflective walls still lighting up most of the room. I believe if it was done in a room that can be made to be completely dark and with an overhead spotlight your audience would not be able to think anything else but “must paint on face”. The addition of music could really change this piece in a number of ways. The total atmosphere would have been changed and depending on genre I believe it could drastically change what pictures are painted. Such as classical music would spark more complex drawings or heavy metal could spark more skulls and cross bones painted. I believe this could easily be made into a performance piece in a gallery.

Your piece was entertaining to watch and it is creative. The way it was set up was well thought out and contributed to the piece. It would be interesting to see your piece done with a larger crowd. There would almost have to be a larger canvas such as just wearing shorts. This would be interesting to see how the art builds over time with less and less space being available to paint on. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in your performance, thank you.