Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the reading for this week--the end of the chapter on Performing and most of the chapter on Performance Processes (to page 255). Remember also to add your four del.icio.us links for this week and that we will be using some of class on Thursday for midterm reviews.
Here are some prompts, but you can comment on any section of the text that you choose (as long as you say something awesome).
•Use the 10 steps of the "time-space sequence" to break down a performance you have somehow been involved in.
•Discuss how one of the artists/thinkers highlighted in this chapter presented ideas that have bearing on your own personal artistic practice and interests.
•Examine a performance you have somehow been involved in using the model of the "performance quadrilogue."
•Explore how the recent discussions in the text regarding surgery and legal proceedings may give you leads for papers you may write in this class.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Discuss how one of the artists/thinkers highlighted in this chapter presented ideas that have bearing on your own personal artistic practice and interests.
Well I am again going to have to go with Friedrich Nietzsche! Nietzsche spoke about “great deceivers” which basically meant that they actually convince themselves of the truth of what they perform. He was speaking more along the lines of like priests and what not seeing as how Nietzsche loves to write about religion but it can work for me as well and other people too, but in a good way! I have done things, like pretending I am mad at someone, just to play with them and then actually become mad at them. It is not a hard thing to reach that if you practice something long enough, in this case be it a false emotion, that eventually you will lie to yourself so much that you will become/believe it.
•Explore how the recent discussions in the text regarding surgery and legal proceedings may give you leads for papers you may write in this class.
The fact that they spoke about surgery and legal proceedings as a way of performance actually kind of annoyed me. I was not annoyed by what was said, I was actually annoyed by the fact that I have already written a legal proceedings paper. When I was reading that part that was what came to mind, I kept thinking, “Why didn’t I think of writing it that way?” As far as surgery goes, you can compare how modern surgery is similar to shamanism. In that context I could easily write about a surgery as a performance because I see shamanism as very much a performance, with costumes, saying and speaking in tongues, music, theatrics with spoke and what not, then just compare that to doctors and nurses, how they are dressed and what they say and do.
I will use performance of the game of Softball to illustrate the ten steps of the “time space sequence.” Training: Pre-Season twice daily practice in the fundamentals of softball, throwing, catching, hitting, etc. Workshop: Breaking down and analyzing the particular movements involved in the act of hitting, catching, throwing etc, in order to produce the desired distance, speed and effectiveness. Rehearsal: Assuming our positions and scrimmaging with other players. Warm-up: Stretching, throwing and running before the game. Public Performance: We played in public parks with spectators present. Events: The game followed a sequence of innings that varied on individual and team performance. Cool down: The exchange of courtesies with opposing team, then more stretching. Critical Responses: Discussions amongst ourselves and coaches regarding our performance. Archives: The statistics of the game were recorded and photos were taken. Memories: The players and spectators retained images of spectacular or exceptional plays and/or errors. Therefore, the game of softball may be seen a performance composed of ten parts within the three phases of the time-space sequence.
Rudolph Giuliani certainly has a bearing on my own personal and artistic practices. His “Decency Commission” is an abomination of the principles our great country was founded on. He lacks the foresight and creativity to realize the benefits of art in society. It is people like him who motivate me to further explore the importance and development of art that engages in social critique. People like him exemplify the need for more socially conscious and critiquing art. The very art he believes indecent nevertheless provides a valuable topic relevant to society with the possibility of generating positive dialogue. Shame on Guiliani.
In high school I was in an All-City Orchestra. Using the 10 step process of time-space sequence: Training: learning your instrument, and learning it well enough to be picked for All-City. Workshop: breaking down the music into sections. Learning what words like allegra and largo mean. Learning notes and note placement, and time signitures. Rehearsal: Every band class you have been in before All-City. Also practicing with the rest of the all-city band, or at least the students from your school. Warm-up: Running scales before the performance. Public Performance: The actual performance in front of family and friends. Events/context sustaining the public performance: Going on to all-state if you can. Cooldown: Taking apart instruments, cleaning them and putting them away in cases. Critical Responses: Discussions of how you did, which notes you missed or were off on. Archives: Sound recordings are sometimes taken. Photographs or videos are taken. Memories: Always being able to say you made it all-city and remembering how it felt to be playing with so many people from different schools.
What I got most in the legal preceedings as performance section was that I am glad I am not a part of that drama. Schechner made all legal proceeding sound as if they are put on for show, not even just the actual "show trials."
Discuss how one of the artists/thinkers highlighted in this chapter presented ideas that have bearing on your own personal artistic practice and interests?
On page 237 Ray Birdwhistell writes about rehearsal as creating "multi-message acts in which the secondary messages are minimized, and there the role of the whole is maximized." This basically means that in the process of rehearsal the unneccessary actions, words, implications, and thoughts are eliminated and the finished product is polished and every action that goes into it is just as important as the action before it. I employ this idea because of how much truth it holds. If one rehearses more and more the unneccessary elements are naturally removed, making whatever action or routine one does crisper. I use this in my paintings, piano practice, guitar practice, spanish, everything. Rehearsal is key in a graceful perfection.
In high school I was in a production of "Peter Pan" and the performance quadrilogue holds true to the fact that it was in the z shape. The play atarted from the sourcer, went to the producer, then to the performers, and finally to the audience. It's what is expected in a production such as that, because the RSVP cycle doesn't work as well with a high school production. The students need direction and guidance, further supporting the "z" shaped quadrilouge. It could have also been a straight line performnace quadrilouge such as Meyers suggested because the producers and sourcers fed off of each other and advanced the production further.
Post a Comment