Ministry Project Write-up

Hello Classmates. Although we didn't have to post our write-ups on the blog, I wanted to read what everyone else thought about our project, so here's what I thought. You all should post yours too. - Josh

One discourse surrounding our simultaneous group action project boils down to the age old question, “can we imbue objects with supernatural powers by saying magical spells?” (i.e. water, nilla wafers and koolaid, relationships). I think all of us find this idea quite absurd and the primary element of our performance was the lampoon of such a notion. The fact of the matter is, many people believe this and this belief provides lots of ammo for ridicule by those of us with superior disbeliefs. What is interesting to me is the parallel of satirizing what some believe are supernaturally sacred ceremonies, or sacraments, and our status as internet-ordained ministers. When I was ordained to marry my brother, my mom and her family were appalled and mostly boycotted the wedding. My uncle said, “authority from God pales in comparison with authority from the state.” For my mom’s Catholic family, only ordained priests who have been through years of seminary have the magical power to invoke God to transubstantiate wine to blood or ordinary water to water that repels the dark forces. That being said, I think it is an equal lampoon of religion to be able to type your name into a field on a web page and legally perform marriages, or even go to a court house, or Vegas for that matter. When you think about it, this is just a much of a joke as consecrating water against vampire attack. The humor lies in the fact that the political and legal system still have this policy called marriage, which is necessary and practical when it comes to things like property, etc., but that still has this residue of religious belief attached to it (i.e. only heterosexual people can do it because that’s what God says, or, you have to be a judge or a church minister to perform them.) In fact, the whole issue is so complicated, I can only deal with it through comedy, and I find myself having a hard time even beginning to explain how ridiculous society is.
I think our three team ministry did a good job in covering a wide spectrum of satirizing religious belief. The same sex wedding evokes all those issues aforementioned regarding current policy, church/state; the satirical communion satirizes a current sacred belief in transubstantiation; and the holy water vs. vampire satires an archaic religious superstition. By lumping these three elements into the same project, we expose their similarities within a diverse spectrum of socio-religious absurdity. If an audience member that didn’t believe in vampire attack but did believe in communion were to witness both ministries, he/she might have a hard time justifying his/her belief in one and not the other. In other words, you can’t logically laugh off vampire attack and also take offense to a same sex wedding. After all, they’re both in the bible, somewhere. Since I already stole the obviously shallow interpretation of our project as “a satire,” some one else should write about this important and age old question, “if water is blessed in a forest and there is no one there to see it, can it still burn vampires?”

Readings List Week 14

Here's what you need to do before class on Monday:

•Post four links to your del.icio.us site
•Have your final project proposal ready to turn in (at least one page but no more than two; written in academic style).
•Write your response/recap regarding our Simultaneous Group Action project. This should be between two and three pages and should be written in an academic style. Consider the efficacy (and various levels of possibility) of the rituals/exercises you performed; discuss the purposes, motivations, and processes involved in the conception of this project; comment on the group dynamic and the issue of simultaneous performance.

Email me if you have any questions.

Assignment Post Week 13

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the reading for this week: section 6 in the library reserve binder: the chapter on Funding from A Guide to Guerilla Performance and Multimedia. You might consider the following: which aspects highlighted by the authors do you consider to be the most useful to your personal work? Which aspect do you consider the most dauting? Which interviewee presented the most compelling argument? The most compelling suggestion? Why?

Also, be ready to present your Simultaneous Group Action Piece. Remember that we are not meeting in our regular room, but instead in University Center Room 126 (Brooks Room). The room will be available for the duration of class. It would be advantageous to the group if you all had an idea of what each partnership was planning to do and where you were planning to be. After the piece, I will be asking you all to write up a summary and review of this piece, so keep in mind the issues you raised as a group in conceiving the piece, the aims of your piece, the different methods you used to address the points and goals.

Again, it is suggested that you turn in a proposal for your final project on Monday to maximize your development time.

Finally, please take a moment to review and comment on the projects posted on the blog by your peers. Your critique feedback can be very valuable to them, and it may earn you some extra credit points.

I look forward to your project on Monday!

Readings List Week 13

Here is what you need to do before our next class:

Read section 6 in the library reserve binder: the chapter on Funding from A Guide to Guerilla Performance and Multimedia; be ready to present your Simultaneous Group Action project; post four links to your del.icio.us site; post two thoughtful comments on the forthcoming entry on the Funding chapter.

It is also suggested that you turn in your proposal for your final project on Monday so that you can have more time to revise and develop your final piece.

Internet Gaming Performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEQKgM5T_mM

This is one of my Internet Gaming Performance project,
and I will load up rest of mine if it is working fine.

Hey Classmates!

For my internet gaming project I pulled some email and address trickery, possibly fraud. I have come up against prejudice and descrimination in my life for being a lesbian. Consistently, this ignorance comes from a lack of awareness and/or education. Where I mainly encounter all of this is with my father.
I did some research and found nine differant sources for gay/bi/lesbian/transgender support newsletters that include spiritual guidence, information in general including what is going on in the world surrounding the topic, shared experiences or stories, and other support avenues.
Using my fathers real full name, his e-mail address, and his full real home address, I took the initiative to sign my father up to receive weekly and monthly newsletters through his e-mail, and to be delivered to his mailbox from all nine sources.
My goal is to acheive some sort of outreach to my father, hopefully provoking him to atleast take some head and a possible glance, maybe even read some of the information promoting equal human rights.

Here are some screen shots of the process.





!!!!!Please feel free to provide me with some critique in your comments, since I did not present in class.!!!!

I am sure their is no need for summary since it is scripted above, but I'd like to hear your interpritation and/or overall what your reaction is.

For Your Group Project in Class on Monday

Please remember that class will meet in University Center Room 126 (Brooks Room) instead of in the University Hall blackbox theater. That room is reserved for the duration of our class period, so if any group wants to use the space or advertise the space, feel free.

(Assignment Post) Reading Week 12

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the reading for this week: the JSTOR article Going with the Flow: Performance Art and Mass Culture, by Philip Auslander. You may post on any issue raised in the text, but please site your source. You might consider especially what new elements you would add to Auslander's arguments given the almost twenty years since his writing of this piece. What trajectories can you follow? What claims may still stand? Do you sees breaks or cycles?

Readings list for Week 12

Here is what you need to do before our next class:

Read the JSTOR article Going with the Flow: Performance Art and Mass Culture, by Philip Auslander; be ready to present your Internet Gaming project; post four links to your del.icio.us site; post two thoughtful comments on the forthcoming entry on the Auslander essay, and post two thoughtful comments on the assignment post regarding the performance piece at Colorado College. If you did not turn in your proposal for the internet gaming project, please email it to me as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Assignment Post: Corpus Projecti at Colorado College

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on Lian Sifuentes' performance installation at Colorado College.

Here are some considerations, but you are also welcome to raise your own issues regarding the piece:

•How would you categorize this piece and/or what movements in performance history have strains evident in this piece?

•What do you consider the purposes of the different elements of the piece (installation, projection, presence, etc.)?

•Provide a critique of the piece.

Ordained Ministers Perform Weddings at UCCS

Hello classmates. Here is a link to the Universal Life Church website where you can be ordained in a few minutes. http://www.themonastery.org/ Just click on "Free Online Ordinations" at the top. There are many online churches where you can be ordained online but the ULC is the oldest and most popular. Over 20 million ministers! I thought it would be funny to wear suit coats with the ordination certificate on the inside and to offer people marriages, baptisms, etc. like we were selling stolen jewelry. Should we spout some rhetoric concerning the conceptual issues of our funny project or wait until Maria drills it out of us? Perhaps she will give Carla blog points for a discussion of conceptual issues. I for one think laughter is its own explanation, and I absolve myself of the sins of an inadequate proposal. Please RSVP by April 23, 2007.

Required Event tonight or tomorrow night

Reminder: Tonight and tomorrow night the performance installation at Colorado College will be running. I have just learned that you are asked to reserve a time, since each person experiences the piece individually for a short time. However, if you can't contact them, or they say they have no more slots, you can still go and slip in between scheduled people. Each slot is set for about 10 minutes, but almost everyone only spends a couple minutes in the show, so this opens up the piece for unscheduled visitors.

Here is the gallery's phone number: 719-389-6797

Lian Amaris Sifuentes, Corpus Projecti: An Interactive Performance Installation for an Audience of One
Coburn Gallery, Colorado College, 902 N. Cascade Ave.
Monday, April 16 and Tuesday, April 17, 6:00 - 10:00pm

Reminder: Extra Credit Opportunity

TONIGHT:
Rock Your Mind Lecture and Performance Series
The Evolution of Glam Rock: King of the Highway, Queen of the Hop: Philip Auslander and the Swayback
April 14, 6:30 - 9pm
The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham St. Lakewood, CO 80226

Week 11 Assignment Post and Reading List

For class on Monday, you will need to have your proposal for the Internet Gaming project, as well as four new posts to your del.icio.us site, and two thoughtful comments on the blog post that follows. The reading assignment is the same this week as last week: section 8 in the library reserve binder: Actuals: A Look into Performance Theory by Richard Schechner.

Here are some considerations:
•Concerning Schechner's use of the term "actuals:" what are the implications for performance art specifically? What examples can you think of that fit within/outside of his parameters?

•What examples can you cite relevant to artistic practice that bear out his categories of contemporary (or modern) movements: "wholeness," "process and organic growth," "concreteness," and "religious transcendental experience"?

•Concerning ritual, are you aware of rituals that are examinable and explainable following his model? Elaborate.

(Assignment Post) Readings for Week 10

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the reading for this week: section 8 in the library reserve binder: Actuals: A Look into Performance Theory by Richard Schechner.

Here are some considerations:
•Concerning Schechner's use of the term "actuals:" what are the implications for performance art specifically? What examples can you think of that fit within/outside of his parameters?

•What examples can you cite relevant to artistic practice that bear out his categories of contemporary (or modern) movements: "wholeness," "process and organic growth," "concreteness," and "religious transcendental experience"?

•Concerning ritual, are you aware of rituals that are examinable and explainable following his model? Elaborate.

Derivitive Humps

Here is an example of work that is derivative of another artist in a way that comments on the original piece. And, it's funny.

Readings for Week 10

Here is what you need to do before our next class:

Read section 8 in the library reserve binder: Actuals: A Look into Performance Theory by Richard Schechner; be ready to present your Being Audience project; post four links to your del.icio.us site; post two thoughtful comments on the forthcoming entry on the Schechner chapter. If you have already turned in your proposal for Being Audience, you can expect email feedback from me shortly.

Performance Art on Second Life

Eva and Franco Mattes (a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG) have done some projects in Second Life reenacting historical performances. These projects are right in line with your internet gaming performance due later this month. Here are the links:

Joseph Beuys' 7000 Oaks
Valie Export's Tapp und Tastkino
Vito Acconci's Seedbed
Chris Burden's Shoot

(Assignment Post) Readings Week 9

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 266-286 in the Fusco book and the following two JSTOR articles: Shaping Belief: The Role of Audience in Visual Communication, by Ann C. Tyler and Art and Audience, by Nick Zangwill. You can comment on any issue raised that you wished, but please cite your reference with a page number so that we know where you are coming from. Of particular interest may be parallel and conflicting perspectives on audience for designers versus artists, as well as claims of audience necessity or ancillary status as you are placing yourself in an audience position.

Photos from Performing the Process on Flickr

Some photos from Friday night's gallery performances are now posted on the class Flickr site. Take a peek.

Readings for Week 9

Here is what you need to do before our next class on Monday, April 2:

Read pages 266-286 in the Fusco book; read the following two JSTOR articles dealing with audience theory (follow the links):
Shaping Belief: The Role of Audience in Visual Communication, by Ann C. Tyler
Art and Audience, by Nick Zangwill;
post two comments on the upcoming assignment post; post four links to your del.icio.us page; write your proposal for the Being Audience project.

Have a nice Spring Break!

Reminder! Class Meets in Gallery Monday

Just a reminder that we are meeting for class in the Gallery of Contemporary Art instead of in University Hall on Monday (at the usual time, 1:40pm).

Also, if I don't yet have your final version of your proposal for the social intervention project, I need it ASAP. Thanks.

See you then!

Readings Week 8 (Assingment Post)

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 97-113, 177-194, and 203-224 in the Fusco book.

Here are some considerations:
•Comment on the usefulness and functionality of some of the alternate labels for work (other than "performance art") mentioned in the Ramos essay. How might some of these terms better describe your own work? How are they useful in the context of Venezuelan work, or do you find similar problems with all terms?

•Discuss the claim from the 1981 CADA work that "the work of improving the accepted standard of living is the only valid art form/the only exhibition/the only worthwhile works of art." Pay attention to specific implications of words and how they translate for you and your experience, i.e., if this statement is assumed to be valid, what is really meant by "form" and "exhibition"?

•Are you persuaded by Lotty Rosenfeld's discussion of her work? Why or why not?

•What are the implications of Felipe Ehrenberg's designation of the street happenings between the two galleries as art? If these are pieces, is he the artist of the piece because he identified them as such? Or do the pieces have unwitting artists, or no creating artist at all?

FYI Events: One Act Play Festival

For Your Information:

UCCS Director's One-Act Play Festival

Thursday March 15 & Saturday March 17
The Problem directed by John Herrera
&
In the Living Room with Naomi directed by Nick Elgas

Friday March 16 & Sunday March 18
The Boundary directed by Greg Reilly
&
The Sound of Music in My Head directed by Colin Gregory

Thursday March 22 & Friday March 23
Venus and Adonis directed by Kathryn Ross
&
Words, Words, Words & Variations on the Death of Trotsky directed by Kim Felton

Location: Osborne Studio Theatre (UHall 233)
Dates: March 15-23
Time: All shows begin at 8 p.m.
Cost: Tickets are FREE (donations accepted!)

Readings for Week 8

Here is what you need to do before class on Monday:

Read pages 97-113, 177-194, and 203-224 in the Fusco book; post two comments on the upcoming assignment post; post four links to your del.icio.us page; write your proposal for your Performing the Process project to be performed in the UCCS Gallery of Contemporary Art on Friday, March 23.

Extra Credit Options

If you haven't already looked over your midterm report, please do so. For those of you interested in extra credit, here are the guidelines we discussed in class:

I am open to extra credit options that allow for individual and unique experiences and demonstrate student initiative. From time to time I have and will announce and suggest some options--like the flyer for the gallery show and attending the Philip Auslander lecture. You are also welcome to design and propose your own extra credit ideas. The amount of credit possible will depend on the extent of the project you propose, how relevant it is to class, and how much it incorporates theories and issues we have read about. You can propose a small project or self-assignment, a series of small options for a larger cumulative effect, or one or two larger, extensive projects. Be creative and consider areas of our study that are most useful to you in your personal practice. You can email me your proposal idea or give me a write up in class, and then I will tell you how many points the project would be worth before you start.

For those of you preparing flyers for our gallery performances on the 23rd, make sure that you bring a copy of your flyer to class on Monday or email me a copy of your flyer by that time for credit. Get your flyers stamped at the University Center Information Desk (ground floor) to be posted on any University bulletin board. If it is a department or other organization board, (i.e., Student Government or Science department) then you have to get approval from that particular organization. You also will need special permission to post in dorms or the library. You are also welcome to take flyers around town.

Readings Week 7 (Assignment Post)

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 59-96 in the Fusco book and section 5 in the Readings Binder on reserve in the library, In Defense of Performance by Guillermo Gomez-Pena.

Here are some considerations:
•What is your response to Jesusa Rodriguez's theories of humor, and do you see these claims translated into her work?

•How do you think Tito Vasconcelos' characters, especially Tatiana Illhuicamina, translate differently to an American audience than to his community?

•What was the most persuasive argument to you in Gomez-Pena's chapter? Why? And what was the least persuasive argument in your estimation in his chapter? Again, why?

Readings for Week 7

Here is what you need to do before class on Monday:

Read pages 59-96 in the Fusco book; read section 5 in the Readings Binder on reserve in the library, In Defense of Performance by Guillermo Gomez-Pena; post 2 comments on the forthcoming "assignment post;" add 4 links to your del.icio.us page; attend one of the options for a required event this week and post a blog entry describing the experience and critiquing the performative elements.

The Tania Bruguera performance last night in Boulder was a bit of a problem in that CU never posted the details of the performance, and I was unable to get the details from the phone number listed. Therefore, if you made it up there last night and found the event, SUPER kudos to you, and post about your experience. Otherwise, because it was a slight fiasco, I have added another option for required events this week. Here are your choices:

•Rock Your Mind Lecture and Performance Series
Hip Hop to Hardcore: Miles White and the Flobots
March 10, 6:30 - 9pm
The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham St. Lakewood, CO 80226

•Attend the opening for Katrina: Catastrophe and Catharsis at the FAC Friday evening and critique the performative behavior of the patrons. I am interested in interactions and behaviors of artists, curators, and patrons, not the art being exhibited (except in the way that the art affects behavior and creates observable space). Follow link for details on the show and opening.

Extra Credit Opportunity

For anyone interested in extra credit and design, you are welcome to create a flyer for our gallery performances, print a bunch of copies, get them stamped/approved, and post them around campus (or around town). Here is the information for the flyer:

"Friday, March 23, 2007
6:00 - 7:30pm
Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS
Free and open to the public

Performing the Process

Students from the Visual and Performing Arts Seminar, VaPA 390: Theory and Practice: Performance Art, will present projects concerned with performing the process of art making, shielding or disregarding a "product," and demonstrative, ephemeral, or live art. Artists include Andrew Castle, Amelia Charter, Ultra Donahue, Sean Fallon, Jonathan Herrera, Joshua Kemp, Sooin Kwon, Jeffrey Phelps, and Karla Russell.

The VaPA 390 Performance Art course is a studio-based course exploring practice, theories of, and issues in performance art and includes visual art, theatre, film, and art history students who develop and perform a series of performance works throughout the semester engaging methods of performing self, being audience, and social intervention among other concerns in historical and contemporary performance. Performing the Process is the one project in the semester locating the students' work in a traditionally understood art space and requiring an audience."

The second paragraph contains optional information, but the flyer should include date and location details, and at least the information in the first paragraph.

Email me an image of your flyer or bring a copy of it to class by March 19th for credit.

In Class Project

I made flyers and posted them in various places aroung the Beth-El Nursing College. The flyers read, "What do you think about art?", and made a false claim about an important psychological nursing study as a way to generate more responses. The flyer included my email address, the official seal of the VAPA 390 Performance Art Class, and the incentive of having your opinion published in the UCCS art gallery. A week after posting the flyers, some were still hanging but most were gone. As of today, I have received no email responses. I guess nursing students just don't care about the accuracy and integrity of important psychological nursing studies on art. Or, they are not fooled by phony looking flyers that contain very little evidence of academic rigor.

Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed (assignment post)

For those of you who attended Friday night's screening of Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed, post 2 thoughtful comments on the film and/or Dr. Macaulay's lecture. Consider performative elements in the history, the festival, and the hype of the circumstances.

(Assignment Post) Readings Week 6

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 133-173 in the Fusco book; and "Presence" in Absentia: Experiencing Performance as Documentation by Amelia Jones.
Here are some considerations:

•Are you convinced by Jones' claims and contentions about experiencing a work only as documentation? How does it's presence in document differ from the live experience of the piece? How do these issues affect your process of deciding methods of documentation?

•Respond to and critique one specific work by Mendieta, Clark, or Oiticica. Given that your experience of this work is solely description in an essay and possibly documentary photographs, what elements of your response do you think are owed to this written perspective?

Reminders

Here are some reminders:

•A required event Friday evening, March 2, 2007, 7:00 p.m. at the Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS: Film Night: Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed. $2.00 UCCS students, faculty, staff

•Fourth Annual Colorado Springs Undergraduate Research Forum (CSURF) abstracts due Monday, March 5. Follow this link for information and to submit an abstract.

•Pick one of two required events next week:

CU Boulder Visiting Artist Lecture Series
Tania Bruguera
Tuesday, March 6
OR
Rock Your Mind Lecture and Performance Series
Hip Hop to Hardcore: Miles White and the Flobots
March 10, 6:30 - 9pm

For more details, see last week's events post.

•Please post your photos from Monday's in-class project on your Flickr page or responses to your projects as a post on this blog so that we can all remember how awesome your projects were.

Readings for Week 6

Here is what you need to do before class on Monday:

Read pages 133-173 in the Fusco book; read "Presence" in Absentia: Experiencing Performance as Documentation by Amelia Jones (follow the link to JSTOR); make at least two thoughtful comments on the upcoming "assignment post" regarding the readings; post four links to your del.icio.us page; prepare your Social Intervention projects for presentation and critique (with revised proposal). Responses to your proposals are on their way via email.

(Assignment Post) Readings Week 5

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 225-265 in the Coco Fusco book and pages 13-22 in the Interventionists book.

Here are some considerations:

-How is a figure like Alejandro Jodorowsky especially pertinent to current students of art, and more particularly to students like you in programs like VaPA?

-Respond to Bustamante's contention that the group movement in Mexico ended with the 1983 MAM exhibition. What other "institutionalizations" are you aware of and what effect do you think such recognition or inclusion has on artists and art forms/trends that were previously uncannonized?

-Link or trace the use of the term "tactics," especially in the Thompson essay and the Chavoya essay. How does this term function and how is this useful in your efforts to construct an intervention proposal?

-Respond to the direct dealing with situation, concept, space, community, and issue in Asco's work. Does this account of some of their projects help you in concieving your own piece? (What direct issues are you involved in/aware of and do they seem like subjects for art work to you?)

Readings for Week 5

Here is what you need to do before class on Monday:

Read pages 225-265 in the Fusco book; read pages 13-22 in the Interventionists book (follow this link (3.8 MB)); make at least two thoughtful comments on the upcoming "assignment post" regarding the readings; post four links to your del.icio.us page; write a working proposal for your Social Intervention project (at least one page but not more than two pages).

Here are also some links to intervention projects from inSite 05:
Paul Ramírez-Jonas
Måns Wrange and here
Judi Werthein
João Louro

Because of copyright issues, the link to the Interventionists reading will only be active for about a week, so get it while it's good!

Recommended and Required Events Listing

Here is a listing of some recommended and required events for you to put on your calendar:

•Marina Zurkow: "Nicking the Never"
Gaylord Hall, Colorado College, 902 N. Cascade Ave.
Public Lecture, Feb. 20, 7:00pm
RECOMMENDED

•Marina Zurkow: "Nicking the Never"
Coburn Gallery, Colorado College, 902 N. Cascade Ave.
Gallery Reception, Feb. 22, 4:30pm
RECOMMENDED

•Theory Lecture: Notes on Postmodernism
Feb. 22, 6 pm
The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham St. Lakewood, CO 80226
RECOMMENDED
For other great (recommended) Belmar events, see their website.

•Gallery Talk: "The Way We Live Now" with Mark Addison
Feb. 23, 6:00pm
Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS
RECOMMENDED

•Jospehine Lobato: Miracles and Memories
Opening Reception and Artist Talk
March 1, 5:00 - 8:00pm
UCCS University Center, Lower Level
RECOMMENDED

•Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed
Film Night and Lecture with Suzanne Macaulay (in preparation for Frozen Dead Guy Days)
Friday, March 2, 7:00pm
REQUIRED

•CU Boulder Visiting Artist Lecture Series
Tania Bruguera
Tuesday, March 6
Location and time still to be determined: see website for updates
REQUIRED or Hip Hop to Hardcore

•Rock Your Mind Lecture and Performance Series
Hip Hop to Hardcore: Miles White and the Flobots
March 10, 6:30 - 9pm
The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham St. Lakewood, CO 80226
REQUIRED or Tania Bruguera

•Denver Art Musuem Logan Lectures 2007: Artists on Art: From Any Angle
100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204
Betty Woodman, March 15, 6:30 pm
RECOMMENDED

•Julia M. Becker: Savoring the Sacred in a Secular World
Gaylord Hall, Colorado College, 902 N. Cascade Ave.
Artist Lecture, March 29, 4:30pm
RECOMMENDED

•Rock Your Mind Lecture and Performance Series
The Evolution of Glam Rock: King of the Highway, Queen of the Hop: Philip Auslander and the Swayback
April 14, 6:30 - 9pm
The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham St. Lakewood, CO 80226
RECOMMENDED and EXTRA CREDIT AVAILABLE

•Lian Amaris Sifuentes, Corpus Projecti: An Interactive Performance Installation for an Audience of One
Coburn Gallery, Colorado College, 902 N. Cascade Ave.
Monday, April 16 and Tuesday, April 17, 6:00 - 10:00pm
REQUIRED

•Fang Lijun: Heads
Opening Reception
April 18, 6 pm
The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham St. Lakewood, CO 80226
RECOMMENDED

•Denver Art Musuem Logan Lectures 2007: Artists on Art: From Any Angle
100 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204
Fang Lijun, April 19, 6:30 pm
RECOMMENDED

Gilbert and George and "The Laws of Sculptors"

“Art for all” is the belief that underpins Gilbert & George’s art. Their trademark format is the large grid, a square or rectangular picture broken into sections that becomes a unified field of signs and images. Gilbert & George began working together in 1967 when they met at St Martins School of Art, and from the beginning, in their films and ‘living sculpture’ they appeared as figures in their own work. Gilbert & George believe that everything is potential subject matter for their work, and they have always addressed social issues, taboos and artistic conventions. Implicit in their work is the idea that an artist’s sacrifice and personal investment is a necessary condition of art. They have depicted themselves as naked figures in their own work, recasting the male nude as something vulnerable and fragile rather than as a potent figure of strength. Of their most recent show at White Cube, ‘SONOFAGOD PICTURES’ (2006), Michael Bracewell wrote, “lustrous, ornate, pictorially complex, vividly coloured, yet suffused with tenebrous solemnity, they have all of the dramatic visual impact which one might expect to find in neo-Gothic medievalism – in Victorian reclamations of Celtic or Moorish symbolism, for example, regally bejewelled and portentous with romantic mysticism. At the same time, however, the SONOFAGOD PICTURES possess a darkly graven strangeness, at once archaic and ultra-modern, in which their temper no less than their signage appears deeply contemporary, ritualistic and disturbed.”Gilbert was born in the Dolomites, Italy in 1943; George was born in Devon in 1942 and both live and work in London. Together they have participated in many important group and solo exhibitions including The Venice Biennale (2005), Turner Prize (1984) and Carnegie International (1985). They have had extensive solo exhibitions, including, Whitechapel Art Gallery (1971-1972), National Gallery, Beijing (1993), Shanghai Art Museum (1993), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1995-1996), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1998), Serpentine Gallery, London (2002), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2002) and Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2004-2005).

Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramovic, from Yogoslavia, performed a series of works based on ideas of ritual, bodily pain, and the state of conciousness of the performer. In a work titled "Rhythm 10" she used knives to ritually stab her fingers, in "Rhythm 5" she ultimately passed out from lack of oxygen beneath a flaming star, in "Rhythm 2" she ingested various drugs that altered her body mechanics and mental states, and in "Rhythm 0" she had audience members inflict pain, with various instruments, upon her for six hours. She felt that during the high energy of a performance her body could withstand things it normally could not. In "Rhythm 0", Abramovic explored the relationship between an audience member and the performer, a strongly reoccuring theme in performance art, by giving the audience a choice to inflict harm against her without consequence. From all the performances we have studied with the theme of audience/performer boundries, I think this piece is the most powerful. Since Abramovic, considered the "performer", is completely passive to any act by the "audience", the roles of each are reversed. And when the action is that of real violence, the performance by the "audience" is heighted, made more real, in the present.

Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci came to performance art through poetry. This interesting transition was made because of a need he felt to trancend the written word on the page. Acconci felt that it was simply not enough to read his work, because his audience would be unable to know him. His most notable works, then, became both poetic, and liberating through performance. His work empowered him, as in his "Seedbed" peice, where he masturbated beneith the ramp of a museum in New York as guests walkd over head. He relincuished all power and made himself voulnerable when he performed his "Telling Secrets" Peice, in shich he met with a small audience between 1 and 2 am on a winter morning in a small dark shed and whispered his most intamate secrets to them.
To me, his most compelling peice whas his "Following Piece" in which he followed compleate strangers through public places, and mimiced their actions. His followings could last for minutes or hours depending on where his target went. Acconci would follow his target untill he or she entered what he considered to be a private space such as a home or automobile. The people he followed retained their ananemity, often only apearing to him from the back and never having a distingushable face. I can only imagine the sort of introspective details this would reveal to a person throguth conflicting manerisms.
Acconci did several of these private peices that were documented by a photographer. The subjects eing followed were never aware of Acconci's presence, so their interaction was genuine, though the target was oblivious.

Dennis Oppenheim

Dennis Oppenheim originally began his artwork through exploration of body art as a sculpture. In 1970, Oppenheim did a peice called, "parallel stress" where he suspended his body by the fingertips and toes between two walls. These walls were two broken down concrete casts on a pier between the bridges (Brooklyn and Manhattan) in New York. He stayed there suspended for ten minutes. He did the same position on his stomach in between two gravel hills with an empty pit below him for one hour. His body's arc was parallel which he documented with photos. His main focus was his Landy and Body Art. He has a serries of performance art surrounding the same ideas projecting his rebellion against the resilliance to physical stress and potential harm to body for exhibition. What he was exhibiting in these performance art peices spoke to the changes in his body that would occur by manipulating his spatial relationship in a structured world.

The reading on Anderson, Heyward and Piper also made me feel that my performing the self piece wasn't as bad as I orginally thought. These artists were using what they knew to interpret their art. They used what they already knew and combined it with other things to create their performances. The audience was able to better understand their meaning for it. The reason I chose such a straightforward approach to my performing the self piece was because I didn't want the meaning to be completely lost.

My assignment post for the Goldberg reading were the artists: Laurie Anderson, Julia Heyward and Adrian Piper. Each of these performance artists used material from their own lives for their pieces and these types of pieces were called "autobiographical." Using their past as fuel for their performance allowed them to connect with the audience in a different way than other types of performance art. The fact that it's the artist using their own past as symbols in their performance makes the performance seem less removed than other forms of performance art or any kind of art.

Readings Week 4 (assignment post)

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: Performance Art: (Some) Theory and (Selected) Practice at the End of This Century by Martha Wilson and section one in the library reserve binder, chapter 5 in Performance: A Critical Introduction by Marvin Carlson. (Pages 152-226 in the Goldberg book are addressed in your individual entry posts.)

Here are some considerations:
•After the descriptions of performance art as a genre in these two readings (and almost one month in class), locate/delineate your understanding of the nature of performance art.

•How do the discussions in these readings of some of the artists you are already familiar with from class videos, discussions, and prior readings clarify, expand, or change your understanding of these artists' works?

•For those of you with a background in theatre, respond to references to theatre as the antecedent and discussions of theatre's relationship to performance art.

Readings for this week

Here are the readings for this week:

•Pages 152-226 in Goldberg;
•Performance Art: (Some) Theory and (Selected) Practice at the End of This Century by Martha Wilson (follow this link);
•Section one in library reserve binder by Marvin Carlson.

Remember that you are required to post 4 links on your del.icio.us page, 2 comments per “assignment post (forthcoming),” and compose and post an entry on the blog (topics received via email). Thoughtful comments posted to peers’ entries may be eligible for extra credit.

Last Call

Anyone wanting to make up missed assignments from the first few weeks of class has until the start of class today (Monday) to do so for partial credit. This includes del.icio.us links posted to your site (4 per week--now you should have 12), comments on any blog "assignment posts" (2 per post), Flickr pictures uploaded to your site from the Beuys project, as well as 1 or 2 comments on the Carlos Basualdo post if you went to his lecture and are interested in the extra credit opportunity.

After today, anything not turned in or posted on the internet by class time on the due date will not be eligible for full credit but will be eligible for partial credit for one week following the due date. Please talk to me if you have extenuating circumstances; I am happy to work with you to help your grade if it is something that is important to you.

I am looking forward to all of the performances this afternoon!

Critique Guidelines

Here are the guidelines for critiques that we will be using in this class starting on Monday. We will discuss the method at the beginning of class before we start your performances, but you can read over them now to get a preview:

There are a few key steps in critiquing artwork. These steps can apply to other specialties and fields, but we will only discuss them in terms of visual art.

1. Description: The description of the object(s) is a matter-of-fact listing of what you are actually looking at. What is it? If you are looking at the Mona Lisa, you may say that it is an oil painting on wood, approximately 30” x 20”, hung at such-and-such a height, the paint is applied in a delicate manner to depict a seated woman before a pastoral landscape. Other details may come out about the painted background and the way her hands are situated, but there is to be no interpretation or evaluation during the description process. Only hard facts about the physicality of the object are to be discussed – not history, context, or intent. It may seem redundant to describe work that everyone is standing before, but different people notice different things and it is helpful to point out those details. Describing the object(s) also sets the groundwork for the rest of the discussion as the following steps depend upon what is pointed out in the description phase.
   
   
2. Interpretation: Now you may take what was discussed in the description phase and talk about how those factors come together and what it means. Do not discuss artist’s intention during interpretation, however you may bring in historical and environmental context.
   
   
3. Evaluation: At this point you should be able to articulately evaluate the work based upon how well the work operates between what it is and what it is doing/trying to do. This should be the culmination and combination of the description and interpretation to result in well-stated judgments and opinion. If a work seems to be attempting humor, but the materials take themselves to seriously, you may raise that point. A work may succeed because what it is and how it operates are in accord. The artist’s intentions should still be left out of this phase. As a matter of fact, the artist’s intentions should almost always be left out of critiques. Artists rarely know what they are talking about in relation to their work.

Readings Week 3 (assignment post)

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 97-151 in the Goldberg book.

Here are some considerations:
-Suggest a theoretical happening based on the tenants of the Bauhaus (descriptions of Bauhaus festivities and Schlemmer's conceptual assertions might be a starting point.)

-What concerns of the period influenced the aesthetic investigations of the Bauhaus (re: interest in technology, etc.) and what parallel concerns of contemporary life might likewise influence your aesthetics?

-How do accounts of and artists statements regarding some of the early happenings in the 1950s-early 1960s fit in to class discussion regarding the need or lack of need for artist intent and responsibility? (ex., Alan Kaprow's statement regarding 18 Happenings in 6 Parts: "the actions will mean nothing clearly formulable so far as the artist is concerned.")

-Discuss and react to the social implications of the work of Klein, Manzoni, and Beuys; or defend the assertion that Joseph Beuys is the best artist ever.

Performer/Audience/Mirror (assignment post)

In class we watched Dan Graham's 1975 piece, "Performer/Audience/Mirror." Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the piece, continuing our class conversation, and/or responding to the following quotes concerning the piece:

"The performance is doubly reflected back to the audience by the artist's lecturing and the architectural device of a mirrored wall. Graham has written extensively on how video, which can deliver information in real time, functions semiotically as a mirror. Using the mirror at the back of the stage as a monitor, Graham voices his unrehearsed observations, activating the various feedback cycles taking place within himself as a performer, between the performer and the audience, and among audience members. Issues of duration and attention are critical for both performer and audience." (Rewind: Video Art and Alternative Media in the United States, Chris Hill, ed.)

"Through the use of the mirror the audience is able to instantaneously percieve itself as a public mass (as a unity), offsetting its definition by the performer('s discourse). The audience sees itself reflected by the mirror instantly while the performer's comments are slightly delayed. First, a person in the audience sees himself "objectively" ("subjectively") perceived by himself, next he hears himself described "objectively" ("subjectively") in terms of the performer's perception." (Dan Graham qtd. in Hill)

Carlos Basualdo and Tropicalia (extra credit post)

For those of you who were able to attend the Carlos Basualdo lecture last night (Monday), make one or two thoughtful comments for extra credit.

Here are some considerations (although you are as always welcome to discuss other issues as long as you do so thoughtfully):
•Revisit Basualdo's distinction between a cultural "movement" and a cultural "moment."
•Basualdo spoke a lot about an artist we will read about later in the semester, Helio Oiticica. From what you learned about Oiticica, what can you infer about his performance work? What elements of his works that were discussed are relevant to performance work?
•Discuss the relevance of the major works in the Tropicalia exhibition (that are decades old) to current work.

Art Service (You Got Served)

•In what ways was this exercise useful to you?
•What are your reactions to the demonstrations of the other "team"?
•Did you consider yourself "audience" to the other team?
•Respond to your audience--the other team, passersby, etc. Did you find that you wanted their attention? Did you feed off of spectators?
•How did team membership influence your willingness or lack of willingness to perform? How did it affect what you chose to do?

Reminder: Carlos Basualdo Lecture Tonight

From the Lecture series “Curatorial Voices in Contemporary Art":
Carlos Basualdo
Monday, February 5th 6:00 pm
CS Fine Arts Center Music Room 30 W Dale St
Basualdo is the Curator of Contemporary Art the Philadelphia Museum. His presentation will introduce his most recent project, Troplicalia: Revolution in Brazilain Culture (1967-1972), an interdisciplinary exhibition that highlights the Brazilian avant-garde’s exploration of the politics of form.

Performance of Self Hint

If you are still looking for some examples, ideas or directions relative to performance of the self for your project proposal due on Monday, I have marked a few sites on the class del.icio.us page that you might want to check out (especially those tagged "self" or body").

Readings Week 2 (assignment post)

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 50-96 in the Goldberg book and the Performing Bodies conversation article found on JSTOR.

Here are some considerations:
•Construct a bridge between the motivating principles of the Dada/Surrealist artists and the contemporary Chinese artists.

•Explore the progressions, crossovers, and functional distinctions between the Futurists, the Dadaists, and the Surrealists respecting their performances.

•What provoking differences can you identify between the works of Zhang Huan and Ma Liuming despite their parallel backgrounds? Consider the similarities evident in an intial survey of their work and what different conceptual groundings could have led them to seemingly related products.

Karawane: Hugo Ball vs. Marie Osmond

In the Goldgerg book this week, you have read a fair amount about important Dada artist Hugo Ball. Some text and an image from his 1916 Cabaret Voltaire piece Karawane can be found on page 61. About seventy years later, Marie Osmond revisited the same piece. Hear her amazing rendition here.

FYI: Link to Andy Kaufman/Laurie Anderson piece

Here is the link to the Studio 360 radio piece on Andy Kaufman with Laurie Anderson.

Enjoy!

Week 2: Here is what you have to do before our next class

READINGS:
Here is the link to the JSTOR reading for this week:
Performing Bodies: Zhang Huan, Ma Liuming, and Performance Art in China, by Zhang Huan; Ma Liuming; Qian Zhijian
This week the reading assignment also includes pages 50-96 in the Goldberg book.

INTERNET:
At least 2 comments on the forthcoming "assignment post" regarding these readings;
At least 4 more links posted to your del.icio.us site;

PROJECTS:
A performance involving the Beuys clip art with photos posted to your Flickr account;

WRITING:
A working proposal for your Performing the Self project: at least one page and no more than two pages.

The Beaver Trilogy (assignment post)

For those of you that made it to the film last night, please post at least two thoughtful comments on the film.

Here are some considerations:
•Discuss Gary's characters (that he portrays) in contrast to the characters portrayed by (Sean Penn's) Larry and (Crispin Glover's) Larry.

•Discuss transformations or other subtleties between Gary and the two Larrys (who are both characters portrayed by actors).

•Examine a trajectory (thematic or otherwise) from the first film, an accidental documentary, through the other two subsequent fictionalized films.

•Highlight any performative methods (and locate them in the piece so I know what you are talking about) that were particularly effective or that may be useful to you in your personal practice.

Class photos now on Flickr

Photos from Monday's class exercise have now been posted on our class Flickr page.

Remember to set up your own Flickr and del.icio.us accounts and email your URLs to me ASAP. Also, make sure you are set up as an author on this blog, and don't forget to comment on the assignment post about this week's readings.

REMINDER: Film Tonight, 7 p.m.

Beaver Trilogy is a series of three short films revolving around the same character. The first piece, “The Beaver Kid” is a documentary about filmmaker Trent Harris’ accidental meeting of an eccentric young man from Beaver, Utah in 1979. The second piece, “Beaver Kid 2” is a fictional reworking of the original documentary starring Sean Penn. The third piece, “The Orkly Kid” is another treatment of the original documentary, this time starring Crispin Glover.

“Filmmaker Trent Harris is a genuine maverick who has posted his first piece of genius.”
James Christopher - The Times London

“Best Independent/Experimental Film of 2001”
Los Angeles Critics Association

“A rivetingly strange, multi-layered inquiry into celebrity, obsession, and serendipity.”
A.O. Scott- New York Times

• Runtime: 83 min
• Language: English
• Color: Black and White / Color
• Rating: Unrated (language, adult themes, Olivia Newton-John)

Links

• Beaver Trilogy Official Site
• Filmmaker Magazine / Interview with director, Trent Harris
• Reruns / PRI’s This American Life featuring Beaver Trilogy
• IMDb / Beaver Trilogy

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Also, if you have not signed up as an author for the blog, please do so ASAP. If you have already set up your del.icio.us and Flickr accounts, please email me with the URL (address) of your sites. You can also email me with any other questions you may have.

Readings Week 1 (assignment post)

Please post at least two comments on the readings for this week: the Klaus Groh essay, the Jon Erickson essay, and pages 7-49 in the Goldberg book.

Here are some considerations:
•How do the working definitions of performance art, whether delineated, implied, or retreated from, differ for each author?
•What claims are you inclined to believe/agree with? (and why)
•Are you willing to answer any of the questions asked by Erickson in the concluding sections of his essay? ("Should we expect a historian. . .to be a skilled theoretician at the same time?" "When and how does theatre become 'performance theatre," "the relation of art to life" etc.)
•Defend or refute Goldberg's claim on pg. 9 that the base of performance art has always been anarchic.
•If you have studied the Futurists in other courses (art history, English, etc), how does this recounting of the movement's history differ from what you learned before about the individual artists work, their motivations? Does this recontextualization affect your reading of their manifesto claims?
•Why are these authors making claims about artists' "desperation" (Groh), "impatience" (Goldberg), experience in "ridicule" (Erickson)? What might this imply about the art world, mainstream culture's perception of performance art, or an artist's choice to work in performance? How does this square with your experience of the "art world"?

Please note: Erickson's references to Goldberg's book, Performance: Live Art Since 1960 differ from his references to her book, Live Art: 1908 to the Present, which is an earlier version of our class text.

Welcome

Joseph Beuys Sonne Statt Reagan, (1982)

Welcome to the VaPA 390 Theory and Practice in VaPA: Performance Art's weblog.