The Rough Theatre

To start off, I was SO into this reading. As a person pursuing theatrical direction as a career, I got very excited about this piece because I agree with it so wholeheartedly. I think I might actually have to buy this book! I think that technology is really exciting and theres a lot we can do with it. From including complex lighting and sound design to intricate sets and projections, tech can really bring a production together. However, I believe that a high budget and emphasis on technology can be great and fun but what really makes a piece of performance art worthwhile and good is it's effect on an audience. Through performance, writing, and visuals, a story or some sort of meaning can be derived from a work of art and that is most important. This is why avant-garde performances and low-budget shows are sometimes the best, because they can evoke an emotional response in the most minimalistic way. You don't need millions of dollars spent to better the production quality in order to tell a good story. In my opinion, the quality of a production is the ability it has to make me feel something.
The prompt for this response was "what is your rough theatre". I see so much rough theatre around me in every way. From attending a standup comedy show to watching a street performer to having an intimate conversation. There are so many ways rough theatre performances pop up in my life and inspires me. In my own projects I like to employ a rough theatre concept especially when I create art that is low to no-budget but is still pretty decent quality entertainment. You don't need a high budget and a "high production quality" in order to make something beautiful or artistic or funny or just a good performance. Art is not gimmicks and special effects, art is emotions.

16 mm Film Manipulation

I thought that it was a really awesome to have the opportunity to take some 16 mm random footage and totally turn it into something else. I have not really had the opportunity to use film, especially recently, so this was very exciting for me. It was so nice to have something so tactile that you could manipulate right there with your hands. Half of the time I felt like I was just ripping the film apart just to see what I could make in the most experimental way. The other half of the time I employed extreme precision so that I could get exactly the kind of effect that I wanted. This was really fun because I was able to try so many different approaches to making an experimental film all in one, which had my creativity going wild. I definitely wanted to try my hand at every technique just to see what would happen. I think I learned through this assignment that I am much more interested in more chaotic methods like oil painting and scratching and bleaching, just to see what it would turn  out like. Drawing the animations was very tedious and felt a bit boring to me at times and I just wanted to do something more unusual. I would really like to explore film manipulation more in the future, just because there are so many options to what you could make and I just think there is something so unique about film that cannot really be replicated digitally. I also have to say that I felt like a very cool artist while doing all of the hands-on (sometimes messy) work that this project required, which was a lot of fun.

Soundscapes and Listening

Reading assignment 3 was very focused on sound design and the focus on sounds around us. I am definitely a much more visual than auditory person so I had a bit of a hard time really deeply understanding and appreciating these readings and probably the topic of sound itself. I think this backs up the claims that most of these articles and videos were making, we don't listen enough. There is so much sound pollution all around us that sometimes it seems almost impossible to zero in on what we are hearing. Even as I sit here writing, considering the sounds around me, I am completely overwhelmed by everything I am hearing. From sounds outside to mechanical sounds within my home to the ambient noises in my apartment to the footsteps of my neighbors and to the clicking of my fingers on the keyboard. It's all very overwhelming and kind of really throws me off because I don't know what to make of it. I think that's why its worth something to analyze soundscapes and to appreciate the beauty and science behind what we are hearing. I thought Justin Boyd's sound and time video was extra interesting in all of the explorations he was doing with sound. I didn't realize how physical it could be; how changing the location of a sound or where the sound was coming from could change it all together. This also helped me to understand and link individual sounds to music which is something I really understand and I am interested in. I think it's very important to explore the basis of sounds in order to build the best, complex soundscapes.

Crowdsourcing

I have seen crowd sourcing done in many videos in the past, and I just think that it is the coolest thing. While I absolutely love crowd sourced videos and other media, I usually just take it in and then move on without much after-thought. After doing the reading and watching the ted talks it really opened my mind and made me stop to consider why crowd sourced projects can be so powerful.

Collaboration is so important to many art forms, and when you can see the individual efforts of every person involved it really makes you appreciate all of the work that went into making the final product. Crowd sourcing is a kind of mass-collaboration, where many many people can get involved and leave their mark on a project. It’s really cool to look at a video such as The Johnny Cash Project and know that every frame was created by an artist that dedicated whatever amount of time just to that one frame. What makes it so powerful is the way that it is a clear visual of how many people care about the subject. The dark and somber tones of “Aint No Grave” are portrayed in so many unique ways, showing how each person takes their own interpretation of the song and portrays it in a different way. I think that is wonderful and interesting, how in our individuality we can be connected to create one whole and functional piece of art.

Crowd sourced videos remind me a little bit of the experience of writing something like a play and passing it on to be produced. As the creator of the project, you are able to build a skeleton of what you would like to see. Then, through collaboration and different perceptions and interpretations, one whole project is formed. As a writer, you have to let go of your control and in the end it is one of the most rewarding experiences to see how everything comes together. This can relate to crowd sourced videos as they would be nothing without the input of many people and their own individuality. This individuality makes the project feel emotional and powerful in its personalization that is tailored to each person involved, including the viewer in order to feel more connected and effected by the art.

Synesthesia, Cymatics, and Ways of Knowing

Our three reading assignments cover different concepts that can all fall under the umbrella of methods of perception. There are so many ways to perceive the world and no two people have the same exact outlook on everything they experience. What really strikes me is how necessary it can be to blend the senses in order to understand stimuli. It seems that many people seem to have forms of synesthesia that vary in type and severity. When discussing synesthesia with my friends, many of them told me that they relate and also associate different senses with each other. I find that the blending of senses can also be very helpful in learning. Such as the visualization of numbers in space to help with math equations or relating sounds to numbers or letters to aid in playing an instrument. Our senses inherently overlap when experience the world and understanding this is essential to understanding perception in general.

             Synesthetic properties can also be mimicked through science as evident through the usage of cymatics. When sound waves are recorded visually we can portray a synesthetic experience that not only portrays the blending of senses but also the blending of disciplines, in this case art and science. Associating the experiences of senses can be effective when utilized in art in order to influence a viewer. Whether the effort is to portray the artist’s own synesthesia or an attempt to influence the audience to experience some synesthetic effect. Taking advantage of synesthetic perceptions can allow an artist to deeply effect a viewer through the full and rich experience of linking the senses and associations.