Artistic Critique of Harriet Smith

Harriet's piece was my favorite overall. It was a very simple act of just standing in various places around the powell dining center. She stood holding a tray of food and staring into space. She wore a brown chunky sweater and grey pants with a few red checkered patches and brown doc martin-like boots. On her back she wore an orange and teal designed school back pack. Her food looked untouched and quite cold by the time that we got there. All the colors in the room and on her plate of food really worked together with her clothing and hair which is what really made an impact on me. She did not talk to anyone and she kept a very straight face. Here eyes looked pretty blank but she seemed to be looking at either tables with people at them or empty tables. Her curly brown hair and piercing brown eyes really made if feel somewhat eery and people eating probably didn't feel too comfortable.

Harriet's piece had a lot of meaning to it and I think it was something that a lot of people could relate to. Theres always those times that you feel pretty alone during a meal because no one is around to eat with you. You ask the question, where do I sit? Should I sit with people I'm somewhat acquainted with? Should I sit alone? As I watched Harriet walk from one place to another, holding that blank stare, I tried to imagine a kind of dialogue going on in her head. I imagined her picturing a table full of her closest friends or a table full of her loving relatives. I kept expecting her to finally make a decision but she just held her pose. The viewer begins to almost sympathize with her and wish she would just sit somewhere. She made me think about how many other people actually do something like this on a daily basis? Kids with no friends, getting made fun of, getting shooed away or pointed at and whispered about. Someone from our class tried to invite her to sit down but she refused because her performance piece did not allow her to. Although, if she was not performing and actually had nowhere to sit, a small gesture like that would have been appreciated.

Harriet's piece just really made me curious because of the awkwardness of it and the emotion in it. I had been read her proposal before viewing her piece and I believe that really helped me get attached and think about what she was doing and why. It was a very daring thing to do and I bet she was ridiculed by a few people but it was affective. A very memorable piece to me, well done!

Endurance Performance

With this performance, I was really looking to have a good time for my final project. Impersonating a mime fit into that idea perfectly. I love to make people laugh and I've never really tried doing that without talking. I didn't know if I could do it really. When the day came for me to mime, I didn't hold back anything.

I decided to pace around King Alfred to almost mark my territory, letting the people decide whether they wanted to risk coming into my space. Many people decided to walk far away from me or keep their head down as they went by. Others came right up to me and waited for me to do something.

The student interaction was really fun. Some people mimed with me and I got tons of hugs. I heard other students talking about me from a distance and pointing at me. The people who did come up to me gave me comments like "This would happen in Alfred" and "I think you're awesome for doing this!".

The hardest part about being a mime was the fact that I had never done it before. It was really cold out (especially at 8 am) and coming up with different routines and expressions for every person was hard as well. I kept my composure quite well, I was proud of myself! Overall, it was fun to be outgoing and goofy for 3 hours while challenging myself to keep quiet!

Three Hour Endurance Proposal

I, Julia DeAngelis, will be impersonating a Mime for 3 hours on Thursday, April 22nd. I will not be able to talk but I will be interacting with people in various ways. I will be wearing typical mime attire as well as painting my face. I will be located by the King Alfred statue the whole time interacting with people who walk by and sometimes following them a bit :).

Breathless- 2 Minute Song

Sonic Postcard

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.

Automata

My Carousel automata is designed to have one horse go up as the other goes down to represent the horses on a carousel. These horses are somewhat creepy and made of only cans (coca cola cans to be exact).

Personal Record of Time

The way I decided to keep track of time was by counting how many steps I took in about 24 hours. The numbers actually quite shocked me. I went through the whole day counting to myself (and sometimes out loud) exactly how many steps I took. It became quite difficult when people talked to me while I was counting and sometimes I would back track and recount. I set up my information by using the same pants and shoes i had worn that day and physically displayed the information on them with patches. The patches all mention the exact number of steps I counted going to and from different places all day. This presentation of my information is pretty self explanatory.