Growing Up

Here is Zara's and I performance 3 video!

Project 4 Plastic surgrey

Zara Anderson and Kristal Viera

Performance 4 “Food”

Score

Dress: Latex gloves, hairnets,  and Plastic aprons

Two computers on each side of the table

Sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpi5RoNmvTU

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/cosmetic-procedures/3d-animations.html

Table : Covered with white napkin PBJ sandwich on cutting board with an assortment of tools.

Performers get ready for surgery.

Both Computers are turned on.

Performers then proceed to remove fat and imperfections from the PBJ sandwich until the EKG monitor flatlines

Performers stop what the are doing, turn off the computers

face the audience and bow.

     Project 4 was an interesting as it was a last minute decision based off of having just watched a clip from the show botched.  Botched is a TV Show on E! that is about people whose Plastic Surgery has gone wrong or who have had to much and it no longer looks good. There is everything from people trying to look like KEN  Doll (Barbies BF) to people who got their surgery abroad like Thailand for a cheaper cost (AKA no anesthesia or pain medications). They come on the show to meet with these two L.A. plastic surgeons to get even more work done! or correct their mistakes which is not always possible. I cant watch the show without having a few drinks first its just to much!

       Although I understand that plastic surgery is necessary in some cases such as for children born with birth defects like a cleft pallet,  people in an accident  who need corrective surgery, or even breast reductions/ corrections for large breasted women or women who want to feel normal after breast cancer etc. But things like toe tucks, face lifts, leg elongation, making your eyes look more Asian or western looking like a ken doll is just too much! Getting every bit of your body changed to look like some ideal beauty or like someone else is just.... sad

       Anyways I wanted to play around with this idea of doing an absurd commentary on plastic surgery to demonstrate how I feel about it.  I'm really glad Zara didn't want to do anything were we ate and went along with this odd idea she was super helpful! The idea for the PB&J Sandwich come from knowing that Zara didn't want to do anything with meat. Then the idea formed if we wouldn't do this to a sandwich why would we do it to ourselves? I thought the crust, Jelly and Peanut Butter would nicely emulate the skin  and fat removed during a liposuction surgery. I then wanted the EKG heart rate monitor to flat line at the end of our mutilation of the sandwich and to symbolize the death of individuality.  By the time we were done it was no longer a delicious overfilled PB&J  on taxes toast but a slice of thin white bread.

      I'm very glad the class seemed to like it and that it didn't feel like a funny piece. I loved hearing everyone's interpretation of it. Overall I think this was the most successful performance yet.

Pictures to come soon!

Preformance 3

 This was a harder performance for Zara and I to come up with, we really struggled with a way to create in-congruent sound without the use of our computers. We really wanted to use our voices with differently visualization and that is how we decided to do something were we would appear differently then we would sounded. At first we were not sure how to do this and then started to play around with the idea of being adult but acting like children or being children acting like adults. We choose the latter and from there it just kind of evolved. We decided on pretending to read from kids books but voice heavy text instead such as parts of a scientific journals, news clippings and the bible. When I started to look for text that would be opposite of the kids stories I had chosen, is when the performances meaning changed for me. It turned from a possibly funny idea into a serious thing about how children have access too to much information now. It became about how the world is moving so fast that schoolchildren  have  access to everything and due to that they lose their innocence much faster. I tried to exhibit this lost of innocence through the my actions in the performance and from the comments we received it seemed like it came through...
       

            Originally we were just going to read our text one at a time but as I was writing out the score I remembered, how on the very first day we read random text in different ways. Coincidentally that day Zara and I read together, reading separate scraps of papers at the same time. I decided to incorporate the way we read that fist day into our performance.  It was relay fun to bring that back as its was more or less Zara's and I first collaboration together!

Here is our score!

Kristal viera and Zara Anderson

Dress: child like in P.J.’s  and wearing crowns

Scene: A child's room, quilt, pillows and Stuffed Animals

Lighting Full lights and lamp light

Audience comes into room  as the two performers sit on their “Bed”  acting like ordinary children oblivious to the crowd.

Once audience is settled, chosen father will say sweetly “ good night girls!” and turn off the lights.

Two performers respond in unison with  sweet voices “ Good night father!”  and settle on the bed to sleep

A moment passes

Both performers sit up straight very serious

Performer 1 turns on the lamp light

Performer 2 picks a book from the pile, Stressed the title and then reads the book out loud very clinically/seriously

Performer 1 interrupts her when she feels ready by reading a new book out loud  

Performer 2 waits until she is finished before she starts reading another book aloud starting with the title.

Performer 1 waits until she is done and then both performers pick a book together and read alternating pages.

Performer 1 and picks up a different book and starts reading at the same time

Once both performers are done reading both performers drop their books on the floor.

Performer 1  turns off the lamp light

Then both lay back on the bed.

The show is over.

Preformance 2

                                                                          

                                                    Crushing crackers! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

    

 Performance 2 was really a fun piece for me to preform, as I was not as nervous as the first one nor was it as serious. Neither Zara or I had much time to obsess over this performance and so our decisions were made fast and without overthinking it to much. Using Sandy's advice and looking at the fluxes workbook helped a great deal. After looking over a few options we settled on  Davi Det Hompson score "Lessons" which were simple and to the point :

"Arrange nine crackers on a table.Ask someone to choose the most beautiful cracker from the grouping. Smash the remaining crackers with your fist"

 It was short simple, more so then what I was trying to come up with. Zara decided to add the Austin powers music to give it a comical vibe instead of the seriousness that colored our last performance. 

I felt the actual performance went great and discovered it was almost an endurance piece as well, when I realized half way through that we had to keep hitting our fist into cracker dust on a hard table.  Overall I felt it was a successful performance that I enjoyed.

 Here is our score and a few pictures!

Dress in all black

Two spot lights at the long ends of the table

1. Have a table with crackers on it
2. Have the audience sit  around the in a circle approx 3 feet from the table
3. The show starts when the Austin power music starts  
4. Set up nine crackers  on a table
5. Have Female performer 1 close her eyes and spin nine times with her finger pointed out
6. Female performer 2  will retrieve the audience member from the crowd that female 1 points to
7. Ask the chosen audience member to  pick the best looking cracker
8. Have the audience member sit down with the cracker
9. Divide the remaining crackers between the two performers
10. Each performer must smash their four crackers one at a time  with their first

If the music stops before remaining crackers are done being smashed  stop immediately the show is over.

If all the crackers are  smashed before the show is over start smashing the crackers all over again until the music stops and the show is over

Pictures of Preformance 1

Invetigating sound

The Performance we did last week was an equal collaboration between all three members of the group. At first all we knew we wanted to do was Spencer's idea of getting a mike and trying to pick up sounds from everyday objects. After some thinking we came up with the idea of writing something down to pick of the sound of writing with a pencil and sharpening it afterwards. We felt as if this simple action captured the essence of the prompt which was to do a "repetitive everyday action ". We then decided that we wanted some planned chaos in the performance so decided to have Zara and I try and set up the sound board, so that it wouldn't be prefect and then have Zara or I use it during the performance, as we had no idea how it worked and no idea what would happen to the sound Spencer was trying to record and amplify. I feel as if it worked out rather well, as it was not perfect and the sound board did not work as perfectly as it would of, had Spencer been the one at the controls.  We then decided to wear all black so we would be uniformed and it would not detract from the sound or actions we were doing. However Spencer didn't have a black shirt, so  we switched to white and black instead, which as the audience informed us  added to the performance, as it allowed them to add to the story they were making up in their heads. 

 I think we were most successful with the "planed chaos" aspect as we really didn't know how it was going to turn out or even if we would pick up any sound.

I'm not sure what I would change if we did it again maybe have more things to pick sound from or switch everyone's role?  

During the work I felt unsure how the audience would receive the work and was worried that they wouldn't understand or like what we were doing.

Overall I liked how it turned out and getting to hear what the audience thought was interesting and very informative!

Below is a score and the paper I was writing on which I  received instructions to write about a childhood story. 

Video and pictures will be posted soon! 

4/13/16

Zara Anderson

Kristal Viera

Spencer Rudnick

Before beginning:

●      Place a pencil, a pencil sharpener, and a sheet of paper on a table.

●      Place a microphone, an XLR cable, a delay pedal, an echo pedal, a distortion pedal, a mixer, 8 patch cables, a lamp, a power strip, and a speaker on the other end of the table.

●      Plug the lamp and the mixer into the power strip, and plug the power strip into an outlet. Point the lamp toward the section of the table with the writing implements.

The performance begins when the light is turned on and the mixer begins recording.

For one minute, each performer takes turns plugging cables into things, flicking switches, etc. By the end of the minute, the sound system should be set up in such a way as to reinforce the sounds heard by the microphone, with the option to pass them through each effect pedal.

Kristal sits down in front of the pencil, sharpener, and paper. Spencer holds the microphone to record the sounds made by Kristal using the pencil. Zara turns knobs on the mixer and effect pedals to affect the sound.

Kristal, with great force, writes down a memory from her childhood. Eventually, Kristal should apply enough force to break the pencil lead.

Kristal sharpens the pencil until it is satisfactorily sharp.

 The light , mixer and speaker are turned off.  We all stand together and bow

END

Hello!

^_^ 

Ignore this post i'm just playing around with things 


LA Plena