Link to my work:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F-im3YgSPkxhoaeYVoFeF834glldvrhA
Project Requirement:
For your final project, create a performance piece. This can manifest as a video, as photo documentation, or as a discrete object (a physical object).
- If you make a video it must be 2–4 minutes in length. Best practice for a video documenting a performance piece is to shoot on a tripod or have the camera on a still surface and create a single-take video (no edits, no camera movements).
- If you document / present your performance through photo documentation, you must bring printed photos to class and install them / hang them on the wall. Since this method is documenting something that happened over time, this presentation method requires a minimum of five photos.
- If you present your performance through the display of a physical object, you have to arrange / install the object on display in our classroom for critique. Present it with the same attention and care you would a drawing, a sculpture, a painting, etc, i.e. just as formally, with the same attention to aesthetic detail of how you present it. Presenting a performance through the display of an object you might also think of as showing an artifact from the performance — an artifact, or a remnant, bi-product, etc.
It might seem that presenting a performance through photo documentation or through the display of an object is easier than making a video, but I assure you this is not the case. Each presentation option requires careful decision making, perhaps even more so with the second two options (photos and object).
Keep in mind that in a performance art piece, the action / gesture / intervention is the focus, is the purpose, and not whatever medium you choose to depict the performance (video, photos, or object). Let me know if questions; I’m happy to discuss further to help clarify.
Proposal
For this project, I want to explore the connections amongst people. My focus is on the distance between them. I will look at this subject from the point of view of a bystander/ a God’s eye. My interest is to show those distances as a whole, which cannot be seen if one is in them. The distance between people could be considered as the reflection of their relationship. It changes frequently as the relationship is modified. Relationships are very complex, and difficult to observe on a short time frame. They need too much time and attention to be understood. However, distance does not require so much attention. It is immediate. Therefore, distance is a more opportune concept to observe.
I want to make a video around three minutes of such observation where at least two performers are tied with ropes. As they move closer or away from each other, the status of the ropes will change. The rope will be loose when performers are close to each other, accordingly, it will be tight when performers are more separate. Although performers will be not speaking or making facial expressions, the audience will still be able to recognize some of their thoughts from their movements. What is more, if there are three performers or more, there will be a chain reaction. If A, B, and C initially stand in an equilateral triangle shape, A walks away from B also causes A moves closer to C. Two ropes will have totally different changes. If two performers move at the same time, there is a possibility that they will be stopped by their own movements. What is going to happen in the next second will be both predictable and unpredictable. The movement of each single rope is predictable, and presenting it in the form of ropes is like a logical chemical reaction. Meanwhile, what the performers are thinking to themselves is unpredictable. This will enlarge the possibilities of the chain reaction, and add complexity to the whole performance.
Another performer that is expected to affect the movement is the performers’ choices. After several movements, the performers are expected to react to what they feel from the ropes, and make choices. For example, if performers want to feel relatively comfortable, they will keep the moderate distance so the ropes are loose. In case of there being three performers or more, they should try to make the distance between each two of them equal, and each movement made by one performer is likely to cause a chain reaction, which is hoped to be observable in the video. On the contrary, if the performers try to pull the ropes to the extreme and test the possible longest distances between them, they will be pulled, thus risking an injury. At that point, it would be interesting to see the choice of the performers on the other side of the rope. It requires that two performers cooperate to achieve one steady tautness of the rope. Therefore, unless the performers are told what to do, different participants will make this performance different. It moves from exploring the overall connection and relationship of people to reflecting unique individuals’ different choices of keeping distances.
The ropes—the distances—the connections are people’s life choices. They represent people’s attitudes towards the outside world. Through this performative video, I want to show my read of Arthur Schopenhauer’s words: “life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”
