Performance Assignment

(Vito Acconi's "Blindfolded Catching")


"Performance art is art in which the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. It can happen anywhere, at any time, or for any length of time. Performance art can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the performer's body and a relationship between performer and audience."  


Performance Parameters and Requirements:

-Your performance will be done in class next Thursday, Febrary 4th
(it must be designed for our classroom space in Cohen...what makes sense or does not make sense for that space? keep in mind that the space itself may not be altered in any way!)

-Your performance must be between 1 and 5 minutes long
(no shorter! no longer!)

-You may work alone, or with up to two other people
(groups cannot be larger than 3 people!)

-You must incorporate at least one object into the performance
(that object should be the inspiration for your performance...how can you interact with it in a interesting/unique way?)

-You may incorporate audience interaction/participation into the piece if you choose
(but how will you let us know what we're supposed to do? will there be verbal or written instructions?)

-Plan for a "beginning" and an "ending"
(how will we know when it's happening or when it's over?)

- Rehearse!
(next Thursday should not be the first time you try whatever it is you're going to do, unless it relies heavily on audience participation...even then, there must be something you can rehearse!)

-Plan your documentation in advance
(this will only happen once, so choose a friend who's not in the performance to take pictures for you, and let them know what to expect, and what you want them to capture....this will be the only record of the event, and what will be posted on the blog, so it's extremely important!)


Videos you need to watch ASAP:

Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece"
William Lamson's "Vital Capacity"
Roman Signer's "Sleeping" (and the other "Roman Signer's Suitcase" videos on the right side)
Matt McAllister's  "Most T-Shirts Worn at One Time" (he holds the Guiness World Record!)
Jean Marc Heim's "Va et Vient" (the last minute and a half is especially relevant)
Kelly Mark's "Demonstration"
Prinz Gholam's "Ein Ding Mehr"
Sony Bravia's Bouncy Ball Commercial (for fun)

(Kate Gilmore's "My Love is An Anchor")

A Walk Down the Dorm Hall

This video/sound piece is a mixture of sounds that tells a story about walking down the hallway and investigating what was behind different doors.

Sonic Postcard

Untitled from Kelsey Dittmar on Vimeo.

Sonic Postcard

Sonic Postcard from Elizabeth C on Vimeo.

Group 1 Sonic Postcard Remix

Sonic Postcard Remix

Sonic Postcard from Tristan Chace on Vimeo.

multiplicity

multiplicity from ethan martin on Vimeo.

Sonic Postcard

The 10 second clip that I made is very different from what everyone else in the class did. During class on thursday, I displayed one of my two sounds, which was water slowly dripping into a cup. I liked this sound, and I let the class hear it because honestly, it was more boring than the other one that I made. The other one that I made was a combination of different sound clips from my favorite horror film, "The Shining". With the eerie screeching violins sounding in the background, I rattled bottles against my heater, and also slowly poured water into a cup, making a creepy combination of sounds.

Sonic Postcard

To view a this video please
visit this link!

Sonic Postcard

Personal time

For me, I usually check the time with my cell phone and organize my time that I supposed to do for a day. However, after I got the assignment for a personal time, I just wonder how time goes by without clock for my day. So I was thinking that I could realize the time passing with my make up since I reput my make up on my face after every class is done. Of course, after foundation I went back to my room and put my make up like usually I do. I think I usually put my make up every 4 hours. So That would make sense for me to understand the time passing. Since Thursday was free day for me except foundation, I went to miller and played the piano. I played 18songs twice. Each song takes 3minutes to play it. So That also helped me to know the time passing. After that, I put my make up again. So I figured out that I put my make up 3times a day and I realized that I measured 12hours after foundation.

sonic postcard

ethan martin: sonic postcard from ethan martin on Vimeo.

Sonic Postcard

Sonic Postcard Remix from Tristan Chace on Vimeo.

My Sound Project

By accident I had found that our palette knife makes a cool metallic noise, so for my sounds I hit it off of different surfaces such as my desk, my laptop, and I bounced it off my coffee mug to acquire the sounds for this project.

Remix.

Sonic Postcard Remix from Kaitlyn Gilham on Vimeo.

Sonic Postcard

Untitled from brighid Connors on Vimeo.

Sonic Postcard

This may be quiet but the sounds remind me of this day. Between the siren and then trucks hurrying to the site. Also, maybe it's quiet because it's a memory of a tragic event.

Sonic Postcard

Sounds of the Dorm-room. from Kaitlyn Gilham on Vimeo.

sonic Postcard

having a casual conversations with my friends at dinner in the dining hall.

i chose to do this because laughing and conversing with my friends happens throughout my whole day.

Sonic Postcard

Sonic Postcard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A0oirtNHdc

Personal Time Record: Text Messages in One Day

It seems these days that cellphones are a way of life. So when we got the assignment of a personal record of time, I wondered to myself how many text messages I send in one day. The texts I counted were the ones I sent not the ones received. So if you double the number below it would be the conversation(s) with each person.

~ boyfriend, Jimmy: 55
~ Ashley: 17
~ Abby: 8
~ Jacqueline: 2
~ Nick: 2
~ Mike: 2
~ Mom: 2

Due Friday, January 29th

Sonic Postcard "Remix" 
Must be posted on the blog as an embedded Youtube or Vimeo video. It should be 100 seconds long and not include any images. You should, however, use movie to make a title in the beginning (come up with an inventive name for your sound piece) and list the names of everyone in your group in the credits. When you post it, make sure you also label the post with everyone's name that was in your group.

JPG Image for your personal 10 sec. sonic postcard
If you haven't given it to Alicia already, please bring it to class on a jump drive.

Interesting found object
Michelle asked you to find an object that interests you. Bring that object to class tomorrow. Do not bring anything that is very important/expensive or that has sentimental value. We won't be altering the object in any way, but other people in the class will be "handling" it. Also bring your digital camera if you have one.

Fix your blog posts
Follow directions given in class today to fix your blog posts. Align all images to the left, make them "large" and make sure each post is labeled with your name.

Post your Sonic Postcard on the blog
This, like the remix, should be an embedded Youtube or Vimeo video. You can use your JPG image as the background for the sound clip (drag it into imovie as shown in class today).

Sonic Postcard

Sound is Possible

This is my sound postcard. In this sound clip are different aspects of a video game that my boyfriend was playing. I decided to record him because this game is something that I hear a lot when I'm around him. Enjoy :)

Ten second video

Time Log

The sun rises it time to get up
My roommate leaves for class I'm close behind
The smell of food is in the air its time for lunch
My class start up again
Last class of the day is history yaya
The sun is setting
I'm feeling hungry again its time for dinner
Home work fills my night
My nightly tv show turns
I'm tired
Its time for bed

file:///Volumes/RYAN/ryan%20felice%20%232.band/file:///Volumes/RYAN/ryan%20felice%231.JPG

A Personal Record Of Time

I kept time by recording the number of complaints made by people I met throughout my day:

The number of complaints were the worst right before lunch and dinner. We are hungry people. Typically the complaints focused on empty stomachs and/or trifling irrelevant matters. Because of hunger. Complaints were few or nonexistent as we ate... both because we were eating and because we were satisfied. The time surrounding classes also held scattered complaints regarding various assignments and work. During class, complaints were usually silent: an eyeball roll, an exasperated look, a raised eyebrow, the sharing of a frown. The occasional murmur interrupted a droning lecture. Complains almost completely stopped as, in the evening I was able to spend time with my friends. The following morning before foundations, the only complaints were the ones I was thinking, since my roommate and I were both too tired to speak. Then foundations began.

Ten Seconds of Alfred Sound

My sonic postcard is representative of some of my favorite things to hear in Alfred as I walk the sidewalks, the streets, and the buildings.

keeping track of time by my feet

i kept track of what time of the day it was and what i was doing according to what i was wearing on my feet.

shifty Ugg boots- walking back to my dorm back from classes.

socks- sleeping sick in my bed

flip flops- showering in the dorm showers

nike hightops- walking to kathleens appartment for dinner

socks- eating dinner

nike hightops-walking to cohen, then back to my dorm

socks- sleeping in bed

shifty Uggs- walking back to foundations in the morning.

Time recorder.

For me it was important to find a solution to this assignment that could be reused. I ended up taking a bucket and making a small pin hole at the bottom, I then filled it with water. I recorded every 2 hours that passed with a line along the side of the bucket. I found that the lowering water level wasn’t the only reminder of the time passed, but the drips, which sounded a lot like a ticking clock, did as well. As every drip tapped the tray it was a reminder of how fast time was moving.

Ideally if i was to fill the bucket to the top line again i would get the same results.

A Person Record of time

When i thought about time and how i tell time, i thought about my schedule and everything i do during the day. For the homework assignment i made a detailed list of things i did that day. When i wad done making my list at the end of the day, it made me realize all the things i do in a day.

My list included..

leaving foundations, walking out of harder hall, walking outside in the freezing cold towards the business building, walking in room 301 to my sociology class, learning about the steps to sociological research in 50 minutes, leaving sociology, walking to powell campus center for lunch, eating a tuna sandwich with ice tea, walking down to powells first floor to the mail room to pick up a package, walking back to my room in teffts second floor, started working on my color wheel for my color class that is on monday and tuesdays, after working on the wheel i was listening to music on itunes, i jump in the shower and get ready, then i pack my stuff for my next class, i get all bundled up for the cold weather and walk to my art history class power, learn about power and authority in the ancient world for forty minutes, walk downstairs to the ground floor and walk back to tefft hall, i get back to my room and start painting my color wheel again, i meet up with my friends and eat dinner at ade, i got the stir fry for dinner with chocolate milk, walk down to mclane for a lacrosse meeting, study for my sociology test, hang out with my friends, watched t.v, brush my teeth, then went to bed.

As Time Goes By

After returning to my room, I had two projects on my hands: my color wheel that needed finishing and a timeline of my day to be started. I set myself up to paint in my dorm room. As I sat on my bed taping and painting I couldn't help but to think about what else I had to get done. Absentmindedly I began to bunch the used tape into a ball. I kept doing this until I finished my work for the day and I realized I had documented my day without realizing it.

A Personal Record of Time

When I first considered this project, I asked myself 'what do I fill my day with?'. I kept a small notebook with me that day on my 21 hour journey and wrote down the miscellaneous things that consumed my day. I had typical things on the list such as friends, tv, texting, sleep, etc. but I also had some not so typical things such as super mario wii, european map games, colors wheels. It was interesting to see the different things I do and how most are not typical to a normal day.

Personal Record of Time: People Map

Everyday as I walk around campus I see certain people at different times of the day. I then realized that I could tell what time of the day it was by who i saw walking by. During my 21 hour experiment I wrote down where I saw certain people during the day and then I would wright down my estimate of the time I saw them. I later created this map to better document my experiment of time. Each person has their own color and some were seen more that once throughout the day.

Time Diary

I love food. I love cooking it, sharing it, eating it, and all of the social constructs that follow "meal times" and such. At my home I am used to having clocks that can be anywhere from 5 to ten minutes of or havent been switched over from day light savings, so instead I measure how time effects me with food. when i wake up weaather its 5 am or 2 pm its breakfast. and then the day effects me accordingly.

meals:
Breakfast: egg sandwich and blueberry tea -foundations
Lunch: chinese stir fry-friends at ade, after all classes
Dinner: midnight- alone in my dorm room like a losser doing work lol

a personal record of time

i made a measurement of time with a display of the things i held in my hands as the day progressed. the objects are in order according to time (earliest on the left, to latest on the right). it showed my time according to the things i did, and even though these things are normal objects i use all the time, they say something about me and what i fill my time with.

A Personal Record of Time

Baking bread; my personal record of time.

Gathering ingredients, waiting for the yeast to activate and the bread to rise; Gauging time through bread baking is a visual and physical process. In this situation, time is dependant on the conditions of the environment rather than on hours and minutes. The dough is finished rising when it has doubled in size, and the bread is done whenever the crust becomes golden brown. Over the course of the day, as the loaf disappears and the crust hardens, the ephemeral quality of bread baking bread becomes evident.

A Personal Record of Time

It's a common enough wish that a soundtrack accompany life's greatest moments. For our sound project I thought I would take this idea into consideration and put a spin on it by using music to make a record of time. After classes ended for the day (after having charged my iPod fully in anticipation for this homework) I turned on my iPod and started playing every song in my library in alphabetical order. By choosing to play every song rather than every artist the music would continue undisturbed for so long as the iPod was charged. Starting at one o'clock in the afternoon Monday and ending at 8 o'clock Tuesday morning when class began my iPod played a continuous two hundred and seventy two songs. Nearly all of the letter 'E' had played which surprised me. I expected that many more tracks would've been spent ; apparently I underestimated the power of almost three hundred songs that were on average two to four minutes long. Listening to music all day certainly made the time go by more quickly, but having a soundtrack to life when you can't skip songs for the posterity of an assignment isn't as glamorous as one might think. I also spent some time averaging out how many songs were in an hour by organizing twenty one, one hour playlists of songs alphabetically from my iTunes. The average was track list was sixteen. This makes sense, I suppose, as most thirteen track CD's take about forty minutes to play through completely, but still I expected them to be longer. Though I felt time was moving quickly in the moment, the illusion seemed hard to believe once I saw the data on paper.

How to tell time

How to tell time
I tend to tell time by where I am. After foundations I always go to Powell, entertain myself for a bit then hang out and eat with friends. Generally everybody that’s in my next classes grab my attention and we rush to class hoping well be there before the teacher, that’s always an indication that were on time. After the teacher dismisses us I usually go to my room or the studio, depending if I have work or not. Then if my phone says I have work that day I’ll go work my shift at Lil’ Alf. Following that if I don’t still have homework to do I’ll find people to hang with. Then pass out until a loud buzzing sound wakes me up. Then I get up go to foundations and do it all over again.

Morning-Studio
Noon-Powell
After-noon-Class
Dusk-Work Night-Wandering campus with friends

A Personal Record of Time

To record my day without using any type of man made time, I decided to write down what I was doing every time I looked at the clock.

ClassclassclassclassclassCLASSCLASSclassclassclass

Food

Work

Work

Work

Computercomputercomputercomputer

food

food

practice

painting

bedtime

When I wasn't looking for the time as often, I found that it seemed to be moving much faster than it really was. While I looked at the clock multiple times during class, it seemed painfully slow.

Time In Cigarettes

Photograph courtesy of Jonathan Merritt

When given this assignment, it dawned on me, what could be the best possible way to document the amount of time it takes to me to walk places and wait for people to go places? What could be the best possible way to document certain aspects of my day without using minutes? Timing in cigarettes. I would be able to measure how long it takes me to smoke a cigarette, a half, or quarters of a cigarettes.

1. After Foundations- Harder Hall to Ade Hall= 1 cigarette
2. Tefft Hall to traffic light in town = 1 cigarette
3. Waiting for Sarah May to come out of Baressi= 1/4 cigarette
4. Baressi to Cohen Studio= 3/4 cigarette
5. Tefft to equestrian center in a car = 1 cigarette
6. Cohen studio to green house on Alfred State = 1 cigarette
7. 1/2 cigarette for my selfish ex-boyfriend to come out of his dorm room
8. 1/2 of my cigarette = 1 of his cigarettes
9. Friday Morning- 1/2 cigarette waiting for class to start when i arrive

*I actually quit smoking as of today.

A Personal Record of Time

I documented time through a piece of gum i began to chew after foundations.

Garrett gives me a piece of gum after i finish eating lunch, it has a lot of flavor, kind of minty and fruity i go to harder to work on my color wheel

while painting my third yellow section my jaw hurts and my gum has lost its flavor

my jaw is feeling heavy while i mix the second tint for orange

really want to throw out gum now, jaw tired, tastes bad, painting yellow-orange

took gum out to eat nutterbutter, chewing gum made me hungry

left gum on piece of wrapper for safe keeping

forgot about gum

sam almost puts elbow on forgotten gum, finishing up yellow shades

put everything away in locker, find gum, throw out, go to dinner

A Personal Record of Time

A Personal Record of Time

When I heard the assignment was documenting your personal time without using a clock I immediately thought of my bracelets. I make bracelets to pass the time and they are a good indicator of how much time has elapsed. Furthermore, by looking at a bracelet I can think back to things I did during the day. For example, I messed up towards the beginning and when I look at my mess up I remember that I messed up because my friends were talking to me and making me laugh. To even make it easier to tell what time of the day it was I coordinated the colors of the bracelet with the colors that were in the sky during the day. In the beginning of the day (and of the bracelet) there were mostly blues in the sky, the yellow diamonds in the center of the bracelet are when the sun was high in the sky, the oranges, yellows, and purples are the sunset, the dark blue is night time. 

A Personal Record of Time

I decided to document my day in temperatures. Temperature is a good way to tell time because in the morning the temps are lower and around mid-day the temps reach its high. And as it becomes night the temps drop back down again. I documented the temperature every couple hours throughout the day. The temps in farenheit were:

18
21
26
32
27
26
25
24
23

A Personal Record of Time

Well my day starts out at 7am. However, this morning it doesn't matter because I must have woken long enough to turn off the alarm and roll over. When I finally awoke I saw that light was coming through my window which meant that I was late.
During my first class I know its about mid morning when we are released for a quick break. After this class I know I have another class very shortly afterward giving me time to check my mail.
After this second class I know it is lunch time. However, I have a lengthy space of time after this before my next class. Considering I was no sense of time what so ever I had to check the time so I wouldn't be late for another class.
Once the third class is over with I know I can go back to my room and relax for a little while before diving into homework. When it starts to get dark I wait for the town fire alarm to go off at its everyday time to go to dinner. After this I wait until I get tired to show and then go to bed.

Personal Clock

For me my personal clock runs on how i’m feeling… living every moment separately and analyzing the change throughout the duration of that moment.

Today when I got back from Foundations class, I walked into my form at 11:11. I made a wish (of course) and remembered something about a talking wrist watch my father used to own. It got wet once and after that the voice had problems saying eleven. It would say “the time is… Tleven : Tleven”. This memory made me think of being home with my dad. At this time I always feel a little bit homesick.

Almost immediately after I entered my door to the time I left to go to my next class(11:11-12:14) I recorded (somewhat accidentally) me and my roommate, Elizabeth, carrying on a normal conversation (well normal to us). These are the times I’m happiest talking and giggling like middle schoolers with my best friend. I know when I don’t feel anxious about something or restless that I have spare time to just hang out in my room.

From 1:00-2:15 I sit in my brand new art history class nervously thinking “this might be actually really hard”.

At 2:30 I call Nabal Camacho. “I need a ride to Tinker Town…. you have a car and I have the laziness. We can make this work”. He agrees to pick me up at 3:30. At 3:26 I’m sitting outside with Elizabeth smoking a cigarette. We both agree to quit smoking after this cigarette… didn’t we say that yesterday? I pay close attention to the time it takes to Elizabeth to smoke her cigarette and the time it takes me. I notice the slow burning paper making interesting designs until the ash shows through and I realize what I’m putting in my body. I think this might be it! It’s 4:00 and still no Nabal… he calls right as my battery is about to die… he fell asleep. I didn’t mind that much as it was very nice outside and I was enjoying just sitting and listening. Being engulfed in time but not afraid of it.

From 4:56 to 7:20 I work on another assignment for Foundations (COLOR). I get frustrated as to how something so simple as a color wheel can be so difficult to make.

From 7:34 to 9:30 I sit in a very awkward situation with a group of friends and at 9:37 I lose this group of friends. How could a day so simple and fairly nice end so shitty? I’m confused as I think about what just happened and how fast that moment came and left me that I had no time to analyze it. I literally have nothing to say about this.

And now at 11:55 I feel the soft sheets on my beg beckoning me to come and have a lie down. I nod my head trying to stay awake, still trying to understand the troubling issue I had dealt with a few hours earlier. And (11:57 I took a break to brush my teeth…12:02, i’m back) now I’m going to lay me down. This is my favorite time of the day… for in my sleep time seems suspended and I feel a good kind of emptiness that can be cleansing. Goodnight all, goodnight Alfred, goodnight Elizabeth and goodnight moon.

Time Passing

I took a look at what I observe throughout my day and these are just a few things that I did and saw:

• sun was out
• birds singing
• snow melting
• going to classes
• more people are awake
• lunch tables are full
• mail was here
• painting my color wheel
• got hungry
• ate dinner
• worked on homework
• listen to music
• took a shower
• got ready for bed
• slept

Record of Time

For my record of time of Thursday 21 of January, instead of using a clock, I wrote down segments of conversations I had over heard or had. I wrote them on and with materials I had at hand wherever I was. It turned out that what I had overheard throughout my day was pretty interesting, I had never noticed until I compiled pieces of conversation.

a quick heads up

Start looking for an interesting object that you can use for a future assignment. No more clues, just make sure you really think it is cool. You might want to check REPO, the OP shop or second hand stores (Erie Line, Goodwill - Hornell, Why Buy New - Wellsville...)

So what can happen in ten seconds?

an average of 41 people are born worldwide
an average of 19 people die worldwide
a typical assault rifle can fire 100 rounds
a good donut machine can make about 7 mini-donuts
a person can say "i love you" about 8 times at a normal rate of speech
a person can say "i hate you" about 8 times at a normal rate of speech
a person can say "i really need that" about 7 times at a normal rate of speech
a person can say "i really want that" about 7 times at a normal rate of speech
a president can deliver the average length sound bite with a little time to spare
a radio signal can be sent from the earth and bounce back from the moon roundtrip 4 times
a point on the surface of the earth at the equator will advance about 2.7 miles in its rotation
an average U.S. residential internet connection can transfer about 27,000,000 bits of information

Syllabus

TIME Syllabus