Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The Pat Show

For my final project for New Media, I made a fake talk show based off of the Maury Show about a paternity test with the painting.  I played all of the roles, based on the idea of identity being created through costumes we wear, except for this it is based on the roles we play.  Identity to me is shaped on the actions that we have to complete, and how we view ourselves in a space with others.  I also wanted to highlight the idea of space and medium impact the audience differently.  For my performance part, the audience was forced to experience what I was doing as I was trying to directly engage everyone in the audience.  The video that I showed onscreen was a stock footage of an audience that I found on the internet archive.  I wanted to have the video of the audience to be the only professional part of the experience, and clash that with a very amateur show.  The amateur aesthetic has a more authentic feel to it and is more flexible for expression.  I had a lot of fun making this project and I enjoyed the class.

swag

Monday, November 23, 2015

Something is Happening Gallery

Something was definitely happening at this art show.  In this gallery presentation, our class displayed two prints and our books in the Mudd Gallery.  This show was special to me as it was my first time ever presenting photo prints in a public setting.  My prints, missing frames, were placed on the book shelf, which added to the whole pop-up art gallery experience in my mind (and they even stayed there till we took down the whole exhibit.  I really enjoyed the fact that a good amount of people showed up to the gallery and were really interested in all of the works and were just awesome.  Overall I had a really good experience at the show and would really like to do another.

Bob Dylan

McCluhan quotes Bob Dylan in his text The Medium is the Message from the song The Ballad of a Thin Man "Because something is happening but you don't know do you Mr. Jones?"  Ever since he started performing, Bob Dylan has always been about authenticity.  Besides his first performance in which he tried to imitate Little Richard, he has striven to represent an authentic American experience.  As a folk performer in the early 60's, he was heavily inspired by Woody Guthrie and his attempt to capture the spirit of America.  Dylan moved from the Twin Cities to Greenwich Village.  It was here that he became the performer that he is today, shaping folk music into social and protest songs.  In 1965, he changed the face of folk music and nearly got booed of the stage of the Newport Folk Festival by playing an electric guitar rather than an acoustic guitar.  From this he injected the idea of the mythical machine into a genre of music known for its attention to authenticity.  Not only did he change the face of folk music, but inspired many artists to perform his songs.  In fact, he has yet to stop performing, a clear commitment to his craft and the message behind it.