Conceptual Art Piece/Group Activity

For our project we executed a conceptual proposal where each student at random chose a slip of paper from a container that instructed what kind of line to draw on a piece of square paper. The students would put there drawn on squares together in order of how they chose the pieces of paper. This happened in order still about 3 times with each student. When we were done the wall was filled with somewhat of an almost there pattern of lines that moved in different ways.

My expectations of this activity was that the pieces of paper would not relate that well together with their different lines because they were chosen at random. It ended up that at points in the piece there was many pattern like tendencies that were made completely by the chance that pieces of paper were chosen in a certain order. I think that this implies that randomness among a system may not show the exact perfect result but rather bring many different suggestions that is a scientific pattern unto itself.

Performing Bubbles

The Piece:
Materials:
-Large white paper
-Bubble stuff and wands (2)
-Food Coloring (2)

What to do:
-Two people choose at random one of two bubble bottles that have already been colored each with a different color
-They have to blow the bubbles onto the paper to make a square outline with the bubble ink
-It is key to have the bubble wand very close to the paper while blowing bubbles.For the best bubbles, the wand should be far enough away from the paper to create a bubble but close enough to for the bubble to touch the paper before it leaves the wand.
-The green bottle makes a square at least 5x5 feet on the inside and the blue bottle makes a bigger square on the outside of that square


The Response:
Over all I felt that the piece was successful in what I was expecting. My participants found ways to work together to make their separate parts without making a huge mess on each other. At one point the outside blue square became more blobs that outlines of bubbles. I expected this because it was expected for the green to finish first and have to wait for the blue. I thought it was a fun activity and that it showed how a tedious activity can really try on a person's patience.

I participated in two other performance pieces. The first was to have a conversation with my partner by saying our phrases backwards. I found it hard to come up with a good response even if I was trying to figure out something really general to say. The second performance piece was with the same partner. We had to say relating words one after the other and then eventually act out relating words. The acting out was hard because we had to first decide what the other person was portraying and then figure out how to act appropriately. It turned out to be really fun.

Performance Fluxus, Gutai, Noveau Realist, Dada

http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/hi-res/visualart/kuhn/intermedia/higgins-s.jpg

A performance artist of recognition from the Fluxus movement would be Dick Higgins. His artwork was considered to be "intermedia." His famous Danger Music scores instructed to do things like number 12 was to "write a thousand symphonies" and number 9 dedicated to Nam June Paik was "volunteer to have your spine removed." Scores were suppose to be short and simple which separates them from "happenings."

From the Gutai movement, Jiro Yoshihara wrote the Gutai manifesto which described that beauty is in decay. He said that things needed to decay to escape their tombs of being painted and molded.

The Nouveau Realist were counterparts to Pop Artists. Yves Klein was an artist of recognition. He did the "Le Saut dans le Vide" which means the leap into the void. He basically jumped off a building to experience the void. He also had immaterial works, like his selling spaces for gold. His explaination waws to let people experience the void, and after his selling he threw the gold into a river.

From the Dada movement Kurt Schwitter made scores as his performance art. He wrote out phonetic notes in German on paper. These had no real form of music theory but were meant to be understood by the viewer.

Bibliography

-"The Fluxus Performance Workbook" edited by Ken Friedman, Owen Smith, and Lauren Sawchyn. A Performance Research e-publication 2002.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutai
-http://www.ashiya-web.or.jp/museum/10us/103education/nyumon_us/manifest_us.htm
-http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=204
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein
-http://www.ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html

Kaprow's Shadow Activity

The purpose of the activity was to follow the leaders shadow without talking and notify if you stepped out of the shadow with the noise of two rocks hit together. It was hard to keep completely quite in the activity. Jamie and I would make noises like we were trying to say something but stopped ourselves. It was fun to run towards the person following the shadow and then stop. Because they were faced the other way they could not see you beginning to stop, so they would run out of the shadow. It was also difficult to follow Jamie when we were in the shadow of the tree that let in some light but not enough to keep up with her shadow. I had to guess where she was when we were in the tree's shadow. After a while I stopped worrying if she was behind me and I just had fun running around.