Artist Critique

While observing the performance peices today, the one that stood out the most for me was, Ari's. As her peice she was leaned over in a bus stop cleaning the ground with a toothbrush. The only things she had with her were the clothes on her back, the toothbrush she was using to clean the ground and the red cup of water. She spent the entire three hrs scrubbing every inch of that bus stop.
Ari's peice used a lot of motivation and tedious movements in order to portray what she was trying to do in her performance. It was almost as if she was trying to clean a public place, which in reality was just going to get messed up again after her performance was finished. I like this peice because of the fact that I was able to relate to it. One summer my family and I went to Montauk and while sitting on my balcony I began to watch an old man with severe OCD he began to wipe the sand off the corners of his towel and everytime he would turn around to get the other side, he would kick sand on the corners he finished and begin again. Just like I had watched this old man, If I had the option I could have watched her performance for the full three hrs.
It really kept my attention. I began to wonder whats going to happen when it dries is she going to go back and start again or is she going to continue till the entire bus stop was scrubbed, and what was going to happen if the toothbrush broke or she ran out of water. Over all, i think that her project was very effective, whether what I thought she was trying to portray was in fact correct or not. It kept my focus and left me wondering, which in my opinion is what a good performance should do.

For my final performance I chose to face a fear that has held me back for a very long time. Being afraid of heights has its limits. In order to achieve this task I harnessed myself to a tree trunk and leaned over the edge of the tree house for the duration of our foundations class.

































As I sat up in the tree I would read aloud one fear that a friend of mine had faced at some point in their life. Every 4 minutes I was able to reveal a new fear. By doing so I was able to use my friends will power to help me overcome what I was trying to accomplish. Then after the fear was revealed I threw the card from the tree house and as it drifted to the ground it symbolized being able to let go of this fear that has limited you for so long.

































Here is a list of all the fears I was able to collect from my friends throughout this process of facing my fear.

Final Performance proposal

On thurs. 22nd from 8am to 11am, I Jessica Meltzer will be suspended over the edge of the tree house near the hair pin turn. I have asked each of the people in my dorm to write down a fear that they have faced. As I am suspended from this tree house facing my fear of heights, I will read aloud each of the peoples cards I have collected then throw them over the edge. Thus demonstrating how they have gotten over their fears just as I am doing during this time.

Breathless- 2 Minute Song

jess' sound.mov

Kinetic Sculpture

I found this project to be one of the most fun yet! We were given an electric motor and told we had to make a kinetic sculpture, kind of like out automata, only motorized. We were allowed partners, ones who had ideas similar to outs. My partner was Jessica Meltzer. We put our ideas together and ultimately decided on some sort of conveyor belt. What the conveyor belt would do required more thought. We eventually decided it would be used to crack an egg. Jess then decided that as a final touch, we should cook the yolk that came out. So our plan was to build a conveyor belt out of wood panels, vacuum belts, and plastic wheels, mount it on the wall, and have the egg fall into a funnel after it moved along the belt. The funnel had nails sticking out of it which cracked the shell and prevented the pieces from getting into the electric Crockpot we had under it. So the thing literally moved an egg, the egg fell, and it cracked, and then it was cooked. No deep meaning. just fun.

My Automata

In class we were asked to design a Automata that would show some sort of mechanical process. I decided to use the process of rotating gears to spin a metal circle at the end. I used two rods, and 4 gears made out of cardboard to complete the process. My gears were successful, until they were overworked and frayed. Due to the fact that these gears were made out of cardboard caused them to fray a lot easier than they would have otherwise. I learned that when making gears u must make sure that they not only fit in where they connect but, stay in place and continue to pull each other throughout the entire process.

A Walk with King Alfred

I have never noticed how many times I walk past King Alfred in a day, until I was asked to record time without using the clock. Everytime I walked past King Alfred I photographed and as it progressively got darker I was able to photograph the change in time