Performance Art Piece - "From Black to Bright"

From black to bright,
dark to light.

My performance art piece for Art & Tech class, "From Black to Bright", is meant to portray the transition from suffocating darkness and detachment to a much brighter, happier life.

The black fabric that each person becomes wrapped and entangled in symbolizes a dark phase in one's life. The upsetting experiences that someone goes through to reach that point or during their phase is suffocating and blinds them from the light, like the black fabric.

However, that darkness is a 'phase' for a reason - things will get better, and there is always light at the end of the tunnel. As the people unravel and unwind themselves out of the black fabric, they are releasing themselves from its grasp. They can breathe again and immerse themselves in the daylight and fresh air, and the words on the bright posters make this apparent.

This was done in the driveway of my cousins' house in another town a few hours away from my home since we were visiting them during Thanksgiving break. Their neighbors and other family members of mine were the audience. Both of my cousins were involved in the piece. Everyone enjoyed it and found it interesting except the two little boys, but they wouldn't understand it of course!

Flash Mobs

I've always thought flash mobs were pretty awesome.  The spontaneous choreographed performance must be such a surprising experience for those who witness the public event, and all the ones I've ever watched on YouTube or TV have been entertaining.
The video above features my favorite scene of Step Up: Revolution.  I'd never seen any of the Step Up movies before and didn't really know what they were about or anything - I just happened to catch this one on television and ended up really enjoying their flash mobs.  This scene gave me chills, so I thought I'd post it!

I know the time and effort for preparing and executing a flash mob could be used for more important things, but flash mobs make people's day.  There are plenty of other things that could make people's days too, but there's just something about an unexpected, large performance that induces much joy and awe.

Xerox Project

To be honest, I had no idea what I wanted to do when my Art and Tech class received the Xerox Project guidelines.  I still didn't know what I wanted to do until after I actually started scanning, and decided on some sort of bird-creature.
The parts of the bird mostly consist of my arms, ears, eyes, foot, and face, but my little Toy Poodle, Roxy, wanted in on it too. So I scanned her face and her paws, and she received many treats afterwards!
This took several hours to complete, but it was so much fun to figure out what I wanted to do as I was going along instead of having an entire plan already. Putting it all together took forever, but I love the way it came out!

I Wish to Say

This week we've been studying performance artists in my Art and Technology class, and one of them was Sheryl Oring.  She is known for using typewriters to do her work.

One of her ongoing projects is called "I Wish to Say," which stemmed from her worry that the voice of the people wasn't really reaching the US government.  This project consisted of Oring typing up postcards containing what different people wanted to say to the President.  Every postcard was typed word-for-word, and all the original documents were sent to the White House while she kept copies.

One of the postcards was dictated by Penny Ross, a former junior high school art teacher.  She revealed that her job had been erased because the state she lived in, Arizona, had ended its funding for the arts.
Reading that story in Sheryl Oring's blog stunned me.  Being an art major, I just couldn't believe that funding for the arts would come to a halt anywhere.  I really hope something is done about this once it reaches the government, because I know I'm not the only one who considers it a great loss for any student not to be educated in some way in any subject of the arts.

Cut-Ups and the Dreamachine

Brion Gysin was the creator of the cut-up technique.  This technique is often performed as typing a story, cutting the paper into sections, and then reassembling the pieces out of order to create unique words and sentences that no longer make sense.  It blurs and erases the previous meaning of the story, creating something entirely new.  I love this idea because it's a form of an exquisite corpse.

Gysin also created the Dreamachine {or 'dream machine'} in a collaboration with Ian Sommerville.  The Dreamachine is a very intriguing contraption featured in the picture above.  One must face it with closed eyes, and as the Dreamachine spins rapidly with an illuminated center to create a strobe light effect, the viewer experiences vivid colors and patterns.  I find this to be incredibly interesting, and I think it'd be fun to try sometime - I'm curious about what I'd see.

Grid Art Project

From this...

...to this:

This Grid Art Project for class took me almost nine hours total to complete!
I chose to use a picture I took at the beach a little over a year ago of a beautiful crane standing at the edge of the ocean.  I used thousands of different-colored beads using the Perler brand, which allowed me to iron and fuse them together.  My childhood friends used to do this all the time, but I never tried it myself until now.  Ironing the beads took forever and was very frustrating because there were a bunch of spots that didn't fuse completely even after ironing it for longer than the directions instructed, so it took a while.  It was very hard work but I managed to get it all to stick together, even though it's still fragile.  I think all that time and effort paid off though, and I'm happy with the result!

"Find what you love."

This wasn't the first time that I watched Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Address, but I still find his words freshly inspiring every time.  As an art major who would ideally love to make a living as an artist, it's not easy staying hopeful about how things may turn out if I do end up going that route.  However, Steve Jobs' words about how he overcame obstacles because he had such a strong love for what he did reminded me that even though being an artist wouldn't make me a rich woman, the money won't be the most significant part because I'll be genuinely enjoying the work I produce.  That is the key to success: having a love and passion for what you do.

Words and typography are both forms of art, too, and I've used both in images I've made before.  The unique and individual fonts that are available probably wouldn't exist today if it weren't for Jobs.  The calligraphy class he decided to take was what caused him to create the different fonts for the computer.  I feel that everything happens for a reason, and this is an excellent example of that - even if something seems irrelevant, in can lead to very significant results in the future.

It also makes me think of how many, if not the majority, of the students in my art classes aren't art majors, but they're all taking the art class for one reason or another.  But each professor has made a point to explain how the concepts behind the techniques or lessons they are teaching are not exclusively important for art majors - the students with different majors will be able to take the information learned and find ways to tweak or twist it in a way that can be of significant value in what they're studying.

Steve Jobs was truly innovative and it's inspiring to know how successful he became for doing what he loved.  I'm positive that everyone who has ever listened to his commencement address gained something from it. I know I have.