Final: The Coldness of Death

For my piece, I died.

Well, looked like I did. I put on my best funerary clothes, and painted my face, and slumped myself on that bench. I endured the cold and pain of my arms falling asleep. I also managed to keep a straight face while everyone came to see us. I was listening to them talking about me, and commenting on how I must have died from secondhand smoke from Garret Colbert. I wanted to be able to laugh with them, and be able to stick my hands in my pockets.

On the bench, I felt like such a party pooper for spring. All around me were birds tweeting, and buds growing on the tree, and here I was, dead.

Jackie Goertz: A Critical Analysis

For her endurance piece, Jackie walked in a circle in the space between Reimer and Tefft. She didn't wear shoes, and didn't speak. She wore only a simple dress. Her pacing varied, but the circle was the same size. She never stopped. When we came to view her, she did not acknowledge us. She just kept walking in her circle, with her head down and her hands clasped under her chin.

As I was watching her, I had a significant emotional response. It was fairly cold out, and here was Jackie, with a little dress on and no shoes. If I hadn't known she wasn't allowing herself to speak, I would have asked if she was cold or uncomfortable. I looked at her, walking in this circle like a lonely little girl, trapped in this dirty environment- behind her was this hulking black dumpster, surrounded on three sides by brick walls, and garbage lurking about. Every so often she would stumble a little, or limp a bit. The pavement was rough, and there were shards of broken glass all over the place. It was heartrending. I looked around at us, forming a semicircle, just staring at this girl forever walking in her circle, not going anywhere. I was reminded of an animal in a cage who constantly paces in front of this audience. She endures our stare, the cold ground, the endless walking; all of this without getting anywhere.

I found myself thinking about gender, after comparing this to Chip and Ben's performance. They were masculine, and had power by being at the top of the hill. Jackie, on the other hand, is frail, and trapped in an undesirable place. What Jackie did reminds me of some things said in the book, The House on Mango Street. The narrator describes her grandmother, "She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow." Jackie herself had a window of sorts where we could see her, and I imagined her walking was melancholic and uncomfortable. In another part of that book the narrator calls herself a "red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor." Jackie could have walked away from her circle, but she didn't. She was tied to her own rule of not being able to leave.

A Modest Proposal

I, Devon Rinn, will be at the smokers' bench between Cannon and Barresi for three hours on Friday, April 23. Using theatrical make up, I will paint my face to look dead, and wear entirely black clothing. I will not be able to speak or move (a real corpse cannot do either of these things, and neither should a pretending one). If the weather is undesirable, I will still be there. I'll ponder my own mortality, while adopting the persona of a dead person.

Two minuet sound Sonic Cougar

Sonic Cougar Presents "This Might Sound Like Shit But Its Really Good." Coming out of the den with the mission to sonically Maul your ears.

Sonic Postcard

Devon Rinn: sonic postcard from Devon Rinn on Vimeo.

Kinetic Sculpture, "Pee-Wee"

Pee-Wee is the name we decided to give our crazy, whimsical kinetic sculpture. The materials we worked with were different and are what give him such personality. The simplicity of his spinning hair is what topped him off without going too far. We had fun with this project and made working with a motor less scary and more exciting.

Bunny Automata

My cardboard automata is a rabbit that jumps up and down in some grass. I used a reciprocating motion crank to make it move up and down, and fashioned a cardboard wind-up key to use as a handle.

yarntime

My method of keeping time was by knitting. I started this knitted timeline with seven stitches of green yarn using small needles. As I changed locations throughout the day, I changed the color of my yarn. Green = outside, navy = Cohen, blue = dorm room, yellow = dinner, light blue = bed. Obviously, the length of knitting is equivalent to the amount of time I spent in each place. At one point in the navy section, I felt that time was passing more slowly, so I switched to using bigger needles. The yellow crocheted circle at the bottom was an experiment to see how much i could crochet in the same amount of time I knitted half of the light blue. I attached it at the bottom to make it resemble a pendulum.