Dou Wei-Xiang Xiang Sheng

Here is the wikipedia page of the musician Dou Wei and an introduction to the album Xiang Xiang Sheng ( Live On), actually it was done by his band Mu Liang Wen Wang.

I can't find a way to upload a mp3 file here, I tried to make a mov file and upload it but failed. Probably will send the piece by email.

Alexa’s Performance Piece

 When she was recording, I sit very close to the camera, I couldn’t control myself thinking whether I will be in the frame and I tried to avoid that. The camera raises our attention to the way we performance ourselves in everyday life. Although this may not be the main theme of the piece, but many of her works do capture the moment when people are exposed in front of camera. In my notes, there is an interesting question we asked in the class: when does the performance start? When she projected the video and sit in front of the screening, she was making the performance. But before that, did she do the same thing as she showed in the video? The line between daily life and performance is blurred. Such a “performance” is going on everyday in everyone’s mind. Just like the camera drive my attention to being aware of my behavior, the whole piece reveals subconscious thoughts going through our mind. It fit so well when her thoughts are projected to other people’s faces.

I also like the way the camera was set up; the position provides an angle and distance that makes it (she) being disconnected to the group.  The disengagement enhances the gap between the world outside and the subconscious world, also makes it looks like a surveillance camera, observing human behavior without involving with that. When she was sitting in front of the screen and observing the past (on the screen), I can’t stop asking is it a naked eye looking at the past now or is it seen from a camera’s eye’s point of view. Is the past being reproduced through the camera or by the performance that involves a human body?

The overlapping of multiple tracks in the audio successfully reproduced the subconscious thinking process. There are also many possibilities to present it in different ways. In my experience, when I think of something, I will be distracted by something else for a while and probably go back to the original thoughts, or maybe I will go along with the new thoughts and old ideas will fade away or sometimes I don’t even think about any thing and the time I realize it I will find that I forget what I was thinking just now. All these could be possibilities to present this piece or some ideas for future work. Likewise, maybe there are some other ways to visualize or reproduce the stage when we think, such as use body movement to create certain energy to type words on the screen instead of using audio. This is just a random thought came out of my mind. I think randomness can also be a point to explore this topic, because it is hard to control what we think, and how thoughts are developed in the subconscious level. This is why this piece is so persuasive and familiar to us.

Relating to her previous works, her female voice adds a layer of gender critique on it. In the voice over, she talks about grooming her hair when she is anxious. I ‘d like to connect that to Silvia’s make-up series, which also contains several performance pieces in it. The idea of make up is a way to disguise in the society as a female by masking and beautifying facial expressions. What Alexa’s voices points out here is more related to body language, but they both speak to female’s reaction to social anxiety or maybe the gap between self expectation and their social profiles. I think they both succeed in critiquing on this issue by using their female bodies or voices as artists.

Generation X

http://joeclark.org/dossiers/GenerationX.pdf

Mike Kartje's Three Performance-Videos

Mike’s three short performance videos from the week before last provided a couple of really interesting intersections for me, in terms of some of the things that I’ve been thinking about in my own practice.

Although they were not specifically identified as such, I think it is possible to read all three of Mike’s pieces as scores, of a sort. This reading is based on the fact that the performances are specific, pre-determined, and somewhat absurd. A reading like this gravitates away from what I’ve previously understood scores to be defined (as pieces in which the directives are explicit). In the case of Mike’s recent work, the motivation behind the content was not always easy to ascertain. In all three videos, however, it was clear that the content was pre-planned and not coincidental. A lot of early scored performances, including Fluxus work, relied heavily on the use of titles—and sometimes existed in text-form alone  (I’m thinking of Yoko Ono’s instructional paintings, but there are plenty of other examples).

I’ve been thinking a lot about the experience of watching someone else perform a score—a very different thing than reading a score. And I’ve been thinking about what Dwight Conquergood writes in his foundational essay, “Rethinking Ethography”:

Ethnography’s distinctive research method, participant-observation fieldwork, privileges the body as a site of knowing. In contrast, most academic disciplines, following Augustine and the Church Fathers, have constructed a Mind/Body hierarchy of knowledge corresponding to the Spirit/Flesh opposition so that mental abstractions and rational thought are taken as both epistemologically and morally superior to sensual experience, bodily sensations, and the passions.

I think that the viewer gains a distinct kind of knowledge from performance—an awareness of others, and of other experiences that isn’t accessible from reading a title alone (which is not to say that one approach is better than the other, but that they are different.)

When Mike performs, I see him as an individual performing scores that Mike Kartje wrote, whether he is silently riding a bicycle (as in the first video), or when he admonishes an unknown person (in the second video). By this I mean to say that Mike’s presence seems implicit in all of these pieces (including the third one, in which a bag billows against the wall in an empty hall.)

The second video felt particularly successful and compelling to me perhaps because the performance seemed to allude significantly to “otherness”— but also, of course, because this kind of performance is perhaps the toughest kind to pull off, and Mike seems to be particularly adept at this. I do, however, feel that a bit more direction would have allowed me to better appreciate this piece.

The first and third video also would have benefited from a bit more indication of intent. In the first piece, I was unsure how to read the content of the piece within the information that Mike had offered prior to the critique (including Derek’s work as an example of inspiration, and the desire to work with modern male identity—which I think is a fascinating subject, well-suited to video performance/ scores because of their emphasis on performance in communication and perhaps the absurdity/ futility of such performances.) At any rate—I’m not sure what the bike ride back and forth or the bag blowing on the wall elicits from me, in terms of asking me to think about how I experience the world. This isn’t to say that both weren’t enjoyable to watch—they were—or that I felt that they needed to function as a metaphor, or that they didn’t illict a variety of associations—but that some sort of direction would have rounded out my reading.

I’d definitely recommend the Fluxus Workbook http://www.deluxxe.com/beat/fluxusworkbook.pdf and The Theater of the Absurd http://www.amazon.com/Theatre-Absurd-Martin-Esslin/dp/1400075238 (or something like it) to pretty much anyone, but these were two texts that came to mind immediately during this critique.

I really like the direction that this work is going and look forward to seeing more of it.

Call for Entries

MICROSCOPE Gallery is seeking film, video, and new media submissions of all types and formats as wells as live expanded cinema or film/video performances for one-day event of programs. Works under 15 minutes (screening) or 30 minutes (performance) and completed during the past year are preferred. NOW What: open call LINK

Analog Microphotography

This image is 1mm in diameter. It was made in 1858.

Green Porno

by Isabella Rosselini

Susan Sontag Book

For those of you interested in the writings of Susan Sontag...
Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

“The only difference between human beings is intelligence.”

The Awkward Transitions of Disneyland!

"The Awkward Transitions of Disneyland!" looks at the way that the designers of Disneyland managed their space-constraints when butting up one themed area against another (comparing this with the much more spacious, and relaxed, transitions in Walt Disney World).

Eugenia Maximova (again)

I posted a brief introduction to Eugenia earlier in the semester and now she has a new project - a crowd funding campaign in order to support the book publishing of her project about the Balkan peninsula: “Kitchen Stories from The Balkan”. Here is a short video of her discussing the project...

Baudrillard on the Parks.....

Forward:  It just may be the way my mind works, but understand abstract theoretical concepts like those of Baudrillard are not my favorite thing to do- however I do find it very useful in clarifying how Baudrillard actually is existing within our world today.  This helps clarify his thoughts on simulation and simulacrum. I hope you get a chance to read this if you were having issues understanding some of the reading.  It doesn't address the reading directly, but applies the concepts to natural space, in particularly the parks idea/nature preserve idea.  And through that avenue you may be able to understand Baudrillard better in the context of your areas of research and interest. 

How would Baudrillard view our national parks systems?

Baudrillard establishes for us an understanding that our perceived lives are an ever changing, exchanging swirl of real, realish, and outright not real experiences and objects. How would a Baudrillardian lens frame up the natural spaces that we have created in America in the form of the National Park and other federally and state held lands? This type of evaluation begins with the role the wilderness myth has played in defining what natural space is, or rather supposed to be, the execution of those mythological ideals within the preserved space of the park system and how each results in an ever-increasing multi-layered cake of simulacra.

The beginnings of the national parks system reaches back into the nineteenth century. The rise of existentialism, the nation's expansion westward, and the pictoral depictions of natural space created by the popular artists of the Hudson River School all contributed to the elevation of natural space beyond our material interactions. No longer was wild, or non-urban, space a bowl of resources for the new industrializing nation to pillage for profit. It was revered and described as being sublimely beautiful, divinely inspired and greater than all man made things because of its natural aesthetic qualities and purity of space. These sentiments and ideals are communicated in the writings and visual works of the era.

Other sources for romanticizing and elevating natural space is found in the westward expansion of the nineteenth century and the birth of the dime store novel. This popular form of cheap literature told, retold, and embellished many stories from the American frontier. This tradition of aggrandizing human-frontier interactions continues today in cinema within the western genre.

In telling and retelling these western themed narratives and in the way natural space was written about and depicted by existentialists and the Hudson River School artists a pattern of expectations and assumptions are created when man interacts with nature. This is established over time and with repetition of exposure. Both repetition and persistence over time are in abundant supply for the genre of literature, film, and visual media even today. Western tropes, such as the moral cowboy who survives all the both man and nature can dish out, have obscured a more “realistic” view of out role within natural space and how interactions between the individual and the natural world traditionally occur. This obfuscated, but actual relationship we have with natural space is replaced, in a very Baudrillardian sense, by the representation and ideas that the western/wilderness has come to represent.

This is a method of replacement and changing of the real into a simulacra an hyper-real space occurs that Baudrillard describes in Simulation and Simulacra. This simulacra is created through a process of exposure and acceptance over time so that the new simulacra is now intertwined within the everyday and indiscernible from the original. Another example of this process in can be made with commodity objects. The drink coffee represents, or is intimately connected with, its botanical origins. Coffee is a drink made from a bean, grown on a tree, then made into a drink. With the numerous outlets for caffinating one's self, retailers, like the international brand Starbucks, now are the origins of your morning pick-me-up. How often has the phrase “Want to get some Starbucks” being said in conversation? The object desired is coffee, but because of prolonged exposure to the brand and mediated existence of the object, it is no longer identified as coffee, with its associated organic origins, but with a white cup with green logo you get from the peppy barista at the corner Starbucks.

Human-nature interactions are no longer based on our physical interactions performed, but the expectation established by persistent and prolonged exposure to the wilderness myth contrived within an idyllic space – fiction.

This simulated identity for natural space is presented in our National and State Parks,and federally held and protected lands. In their untouched state all these natural spaces are found to be lacking a specific attribute, it would not be far off to call that attribute supernatural, even. It cannot attained by urban space, and can only exist outside of it, and requires human influence to fully bring it to fruition. These areas must be constructed and changed by man to be more natural than they were originally found to be. Meandering trails, walkways, streams, paths, visitors centers, restrooms and campsites are all added to these spaces to enhance our experience. This is an attempt to reshape the landscape in the image of the bucolic descriptions of the existential poets and the renditions of natural space found in media. Man's influence introduces urban elements within the found landscape; then abandons the found landscape for a manipulated one. One with better views, clear paths, safer walkways, and a less likelihood a visitor, heaven forbid, interact with the space in a non-designated way. The found views from atop a mountain range do not live up the mythological views we would have seen in the past according to the poets, painters and photographers of the idealized bygone era. The solution: reshape the space to better embody that nostalgic description that has been used for comparison.

The process of nostalgia replacing the “real” is also outlined by Baudrillard. “When the real is no longer what it was, nostalgia assumes full meaning.” The auto-touring phenomena of The Great Smokey Mountains National Park is an example of where this type of modification occurs. The scenic roads and pathways that crisscross the smoky mountains of the Appalachians do not allow for such grand vista as historically described. The perfect view is obscured by nature. Trees block the sunset view and forests blur the rolling majesty of the fog covered mountains. To surmount these inconveniences designated pull-off and observation points are created along the auto-touring routes. In front of these observation points the forest has been clear-cut and tamed for the needs of the park-goer so that they may see the best embodiment of the natural that the wilderness myth provides for us.

As these spaces are engineered the ways in which these spaces are manipulated draw attention to the simulacral quality of the space itself. The way these spaces are created and performed establishes a necessary conflicting relationship between natural and urban. The largest of the manipulations are derived from how society has named and identified these places of natural wonder. Dino Felluge, of Purdue university, summarizes the phenomena Baudrillard uses to distinguish between the “real” and the simulacra. One of these phenomena is “urbanization” according to Felluge. Urbanization is the result of man's domination and near complete control over space. In direct opposition to this control are non-human processes found outside of urban and populated areas. Because we deem them important they must not become merely “natural,” but also “protected” spaces. This according to Felluge “defines the space in direct contradistinction to an urban 'reality'.”

An escape from the urban industrialized space is a long standing tenant of the wilderness myth. The woes of urban life drain the essence of man, he must, then, return to nature to seek his remedy. The confusion between the real and the simulacra experienced by today's society as a result of proliferation of simulations and their ability to fool society through intertwining themselves in intimate proximity with the “real” results in an inability to distinguish, at times, their difference, according to Baudrillard. The corrective measures for this undiscernability is to label and point out the natural, or the more natural, according to the park or institution. These are the steps and processes the precipitate the aforementioned auto-touring vistas, areas of the park set aside and marked with signage indicating its naturalness and beauty, it realness in opposition to the urban.

Another blog to look at....

All,

     I wanted to pass along this find: a blog geared toward educating graduate students on the academic market, getting jobs and succeeding post grad school.

This particular post deals with the authors observations on the top 6 ways grad students shoot themselves in the foot by acting like grad students POST.

I gave it some other parts of the blog a quick look and seems pretty interesting. Hope y'all will agree.

Another Vote For Fahner

I really think Fahner Hall is a great idea for the show.  The more I ponder this topic, the more I feel as if everyone would have something they could contribute to this space, but that is just an assumption.  I already have a few ideas of my own, however, until a "topic" is decided upon it's difficult to pursue any hardcopy thoughts of an actual piece.

I believe that the show would really be beneficial on a Thursday evening.  By hosting this on a weekday, we would be more likely to catch the busy traffic of the SIUC campus walking by, and we would not be interfering with Film Fridays or other special Friday night events that many in this class are active participants of.

As far as a topic is concerned for the show, as I have said multiple times, I still enjoy the topic of "Light".

My two cents.

It seems like if responding to the space of Faner was the concept that would leave a lot of leeway for every ones ideas. There are a lot of nooks, crannies, windows, textures, hallways etc. Let every one make a piece that responds to the building or adapt an already existing piece to work. 

Faner Hall: Faux Pas and Follower?

Some food-for-thought about some of the ideas behind, within, around, and about Faner Hall (completed 1975).

1967, The SIUC Campus Before Faner Hall (and the Student Center, and a bunch of other stuff).

Old Main (just right of #7), home of the College of Humanities (now Liberal Arts), burned "under unusual circumstances" on June 8, 1969. SIUC's administrators made the conscious decision to break from traditional university campus architectural styles when they replaced it. Why?

Fun facts:
This was the 2nd "Old Main" at SIU to burn (the first was in Nov, 1882).
There was actually a time when SIU had too many students.

Here's WSIU's In Focus presentation of a news broadcast that aired the day of the 1969 Old Main fire:
mms://odc.wsiu.org/infocus08/if_304_oldmain.wmv

Not sure how this video link will play for you, it's a streaming Windows media file.


article source:
Jordan, Mitch (2010) "Faner Hall: Faux Pas and Follower?," Legacy: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 4.
Available at: http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/legacy/vol10/iss1/4

Ecology/Deep Ecology lecture Nov 15, SIUC

Mark Denzer, "Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Perspectives on Materials, Land and Natural Awareness of American Indians"

When: Thu, November 15, 7pm – 9pm

Where: SIU Student Center, Mississippi Room

Description: Director of the Trails of Awareness Project, Mark Denzer, will focus on the field of study known as Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Indigenous People. This presentation will focus on how Native American’s utilized their deep relationship with land to shape their world and resources such as plants, trees, rocks, animals, water, and soil. He will provide physical evidence as to how Native Americans shaped these key resources into everything they needed to live and survive.

This was forwarded to me via e-mail and thought that I should share.  I know not all of you are interested in these ecological/historical topics, but it doesn't hurt to share the announcement. 

All the best- 

A Link For Nick

Soon, you'll be able to tweet iPhone or Android photos since Twitter plans to add filter options to its service.