Manifestos!

ASSIGNMENT:  DEEP SONG AND URGENCY

Artistic Praxis:  Write a manifesto. Go to www.manifestos.net and nose around (not just poetry here, much art and politics).  Do a ton of nosing around.  Think about your own particular obsessions/commitments/desires.  A manifesto is a statement of need—a calling into being of a movement into the world.  If you can’t manage one—a passionate and bombastic proclamation about how what you believe could and should change the world (through politics, art, work, living, etc.)... then write a defense or an apology for your less dogmatic position. 

Whatever you write (even if it is a defense) should be a big statement, by which I mean a philosophy of making/being.  You can tie your statements to other passions (birdwatching/comics/whathaveyou) but be aware that such statements are intensely public statements of private practices and will be read as such.  You should be nailing your soul to the door of city hall, and daring others to refute or join you. 

   

Manifestos often have three sections:

    * An Intro which declares its context—a specific place and time. The description can itself be an explanation of the kind of art/life/work you are calling for. This section should identify what you are against and why.

    * Mission statement for your art in list form (often numbered).

    * Conclusion: how this would change the world—why others should enter into your utopian/dystopian vision.

Make others want to join you.  Make me.

Musings: “Play and Theory of the Duende” from In Search of Duende, Federico Garcia Lorca (p.56-72) 

Prompt:  Was this difficult?  Why, do you think, it was difficult?  And if it wasn’t—why do you think this was easy for you, in particular, as an artist?

LINKS TO TIME ISSUES

Great article about time in art: http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2012/08/dwyck-tempus-fugit-degas-comics/

The power of controlling time through movement (by a technical genius): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXO-jKksQkM

This one done with video (and technical geniuses): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4X5z8AQc3s

No video tricks here, nor (not too much) technical virtuosity: http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2013/10/07/world-orders-flawless-slow-motion-choreography-video/

Stop motion video wall art (playing with time differently): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4&feature=player_embedded

Stop motion video body-bed art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY&feature=player_embedded

Control of reading speed in a video poem by Thomas Lux: http://www.motionpoems.com/?p=11

And bodies/video/text in a book trailer with a limitation--present the flavor of a novel in 1.5 minutes (yes, just like a movie trailer... these things exist): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUvnmgCQgzE

FROM ALLY! David Sedaris reading Miranda July (with repetition!) http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/11/fiction-podcast-david-sedaris-reads-miranda-july.html

FROM MATT! A video game that limits elements to create an aesthetic communal experience. http://youtu.be/3RLFAc1kU9o 

FROM QUINN! All about time. http://www.wimp.com/illusiontime/

PROPOSAL

DUE TUESDAY FEB 25th

Each group will create a detailed 3-7 page document that outlines their vision for their project

Each proposal will contain these elements (but may also contain anything else you deem relevant to your particular project):

• A WORKING TITLE FOR YOUR PROJECT 
• A MISSION STATEMENT that includes:
• The exploratory goal (what the artists seek to get from this process, what compositional strategies/structures they are investigating, what their working method will be)
• The communicated goal (what content/elements of this process they want to convey to the audience, what kind of experience they are curating for the audience)
• The Venues (where will you meet? where will the final work be shown/performed?)
• The Product (as clearly as they can possibly envision it at this point--and it may change over the ensuing weeks--provide a description of the Final Event and Final Object/s of your project)
• METHODS AND MATERIALS SECTION
• A comprehensive list of physical materials needed to complete the work (and here you may include your plans for gathering these materials-- this is a DIY project-- and materials are always a source of limitation... think of it as a challenge and one that is at the heart of most art making... artists are not, in general, a rich bunch)
• A WEEK BY WEEK calendar of your meetings with your group and what you hope to accomplish in each session/each week.
• Have you organized your group yet? Delegated certain responsibilities? Named a group manager to help keep the timeline running smoothly?
• PROBLEM SHOOTING/NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED LIST
• This takes the place of the budget in our case. This is the place where you highlight issues that need to be figured out at the onset--things that must be converted from vision to reality and how you plan to do so... this will necessarily be very different for each group.
• ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RESOURCE MATERIALS
• Please keep a running list of websites/books/people you are looking to for inspiration or for technical know-how. You would be surprised how useful it can be to return to your sources when you hit a sore spot. I'm certain that this list will expand as you continue to work--and you will have to turn in an updated list with the reflective response to the final project. But I am looking for your seriousness of purpose here, and the time you've spent thinking through facets of your project by connecting them with other work (analogy/translation/layering is at the heart of this class.)

GOOD LUCK!!!

SOME LINKS for PERUSAL and RESEARCH

For limitation-based computer programming which incorporates the unexpected:

• The Jackson Pollock site: http://www.jacksonpollock.org
• The silk site (psychedelic drawing w/symmetry and colored light): http://weavesilk.com
• Andre Amador making murals on the sand: http://www.viralnova.com/beach-art/
• Simon Beck doing similar work in snow: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/simon-beck-snow-art
• Pioneer of environmental, site-specific art--Christo: http://christojeanneclaude.net
• An article on site-specific movement performances: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/28/site-specific-dance_n_1707315.html
• Giuseppe Arcimboldo (art from food--old-style): http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/arcimboldos-feast-for-the-eyes-74732989/
• Brian Dettmer (book art): http://twistedsifter.com/2011/11/book-art-brian-dettmer/
• the controversy about Beyoncé co-opting the choreography of DeKeersmaeker (the video we watched in class): http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/oct/10/beyonce-dance-moves-new-video

emails for classmates

tvagui11@stlawu.edu tzintzun

vrbean10@stlawu.edu tori bean

lebell09@stlawu.edu laquan

cdbrya10@stlawu.edu cynthia

tjcost10@stlawu.edu tommy

erdayb12@stlawu.edu emma

npdeve12@stlawu.edu neil

ngdign11@stlawu.edu natalie

etlago12@stlawu.edu elizabeth

alluca11@stlawu.edu allegra

eepenn11@stlawu.edu emily

jhraue12@stlawu.edu julia

qrself11@stlawu.edu quinn

msshoe10@stlawu.edu matt

vnsmit13@stlawu.edu victoria smith

aetalb10@stlawu.edu ally

Assignment #2

ASSIGNMENT #2: REPETITION AND MEANING

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
                                    by Wallace Stevens

I
Among twenty snowy mountains,  
The only moving thing  

Was the eye of the blackbird.  

II

I was of three minds,  

Like a tree  

In which there are three blackbirds.  

III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.  

It was a small part of the pantomime.  

IV

A man and a woman  

Are one.  

A man and a woman and a blackbird  

Are one.  

V

I do not know which to prefer,  

The beauty of inflections  

Or the beauty of innuendoes,  

The blackbird whistling  

Or just after.  

VI

Icicles filled the long window  

With barbaric glass.  

The shadow of the blackbird  

Crossed it, to and fro.  

The mood  

Traced in the shadow  

An indecipherable cause.  

VII

O thin men of Haddam,  

Why do you imagine golden birds?   

Do you not see how the blackbird  

Walks around the feet  

Of the women about you?  

VIII

I know noble accents  

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;  

But I know, too,  

That the blackbird is involved  

In what I know.  

IX

When the blackbird flew out of sight,  

It marked the edge  

Of one of many circles.  

X

At the sight of blackbirds  

Flying in a green light,  

Even the bawds of euphony  

Would cry out sharply.  

XI

He rode over Connecticut  

In a glass coach.  

Once, a fear pierced him,  

In that he mistook  

The shadow of his equipage  

For blackbirds.  

XII

The river is moving.  

The blackbird must be flying.  

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.  

It was snowing  

And it was going to snow.  

The blackbird sat  

In the cedar-limbs.

In addition to the Wallace Stevens poem, please watch this short film on Jackson Pollock’s process and consider rhythm, repetition, and movement in his work (and in the film-maker’s work who produced this short documentary).  Viewable here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cgBvpjwOGo

Somatic Work: Going further with the somatic writing—take a phrase (movement shape) and transpose it on at least three parts of your kinesphere and vary at least 3 elements of its performance: (speed, size, force/musculature, continuity, dimensionality, directionality.) Learn your phrase so you are able to repeat it for the class on Thursday.

Notebook Prompt:  After you complete the musing, movement, and writing exercises—how do you see/feel them relating to or diverging from one another? Was Pollock dancing?  Why or why not—how or how not?

**We will be meeting in the Noble Center dance studio on Thursday for class. Wear VERY movement-friendly clothing (no jeans... sweats or yoga pants or even shorts, etc.)

For Tuesday 2.28.14

1. Please bring physical notebooks.
2. In those physical notebooks--have or discuss or sketch something from outside the class that references repetition in a way that interests you (drawing/journal entry/snapshot/found item).
3. Be ready to move.
4. Be ready to discuss obsessions/passions/ things you may want to explore (content-wise or process-wise in your final project).  This is your attempt to woo partners into your vision. Treat it accordingly.