#compile/arrange records/future reading materials for her class?

[dolyx]

(going to sydney's house except that u get the chance to improve ur housekeeping skills bc none of these mfs has the time nor energy to keep things tidy around them.)

[davidforsee]

October’s Offals and Offerings

So, quickly what has / is / will David done / doing / do? first, addendum, after noticing a peer’s dedication to research inclusion and archiving on her blog, I am inspired to be much more consistent about making a daily posting practice This week I tacked my accumulating pile of philosophical, social, and generalist research into forming a coherent thesis proposal as well as road-map of a process going forward. 1. Hours of Work

Studio Time

2 hours, resources and inspirations compiling, a series of artworks ranging from collaborative commercial projection installations (teamLab) to performance art works. I arranged these in my studio in two rough axes of spaces to objects and spaces to bodies, and will be populating my blog with this content.

1 hour, studio meetings, ambient peer discussions [such as giving Eddy an idea about using light and reflection in his vintage fashion display piece] and logistics 30 min, thesis convergence conversation with Stephanie and Erin 1 hour, readings from Queer futures around homonormativity, and Raymond William’s Keywords, A vocabulary of society and culture as well as Raymond Williams Now in response.

Outside Work

2 hours, recording for a small series of video “statements” in the style of barbara krueger (20 min setup,1hr20min record, 20min editing.) - exploring possibly using a conceptual approach 1 hour, meeting with Jennifer Metsker around thesis process, free writing excercises, potential artists, and more. 30 minutes, free-writing and ideation of previous central question 1 hour, thesis make-a-thon channels research 2. Reflections on Work Some quotes from my blog last week: Vergangenheitsbewältigung. reckoning with the past How does the image of an artifact - a forgotten, abandoned object or a glitch from a digital translation - reflect the American struggle to decide which histories to celebrate, protect, and destroy? I’d love for the performance to coincide with an installation that stages a speculative “archaeological dig” or “artifact collection” / “wunderkammer” for audiences to enjoy and actively unearth in the absence of a live performance. and: “I told my fiancé about the TV piece and we both really liked it.” - paraphrasing Erin Taking an initial idea I entered the class with, a performative interpretation of the different television shows performed solo, and expanding it conceptually through my new research/central question and initial research, I can clarify a concept for a material realization of this question - as well as a new question. My piece will be conducted throughout the year as a speculative and conceptual exploration of the historical evolution of mass media, working temporally through the year from theatre, to print, to recording, to cinema, to radio, to television, to internet, to mobile phones. I’ll specifically be exploring the embedded artifacts of Whiteness in these mediums, as well as the progressive distancing of audience and creator. I will map the evolution of the mediums to the course of the year and strictly limit the execution of the artifacts to the technological limitations of each medium (so, no use of video except for documentation until I reach cinema). During this I will be researching critical race theory around the history of each medium (especially in relation to Whiteness and American history), consulting performers and creators at UM grappling with each medium, and hope to collaborate with this array of people to create a collaboratively assembled series of “artifacts” from theatre to mobile device-integrated work. Each iteration will further layer on each other, to both be used as material in the next form and to critically explore the specific influences of Whiteness on the historical conception, reception, and aesthetics of each mass media. This reflects my own larger path at UM as a collaboratively focused InterArts Performance major. What does this look like? A completed installation which shows progressive distinct "artifacts” of the mass mediums, that recursively feature its own maker’s identity and reflect on it’s presence. As well, as a final cumulative performance of selections from these media in a “television performance” where audiences switch “channels” between the layers of theatre, radio plays, and more. The aesthetics of this performance would be akin to the work of the recent play of the National Theatre’s, Network.

3. So What’s Next?

I have clear technical questions of how to realize these various media: specifically my lack of experience in audio-recording only media, radio, and mobile devices. Thankfully these are later in the process and allow for time to research and reach out to collaborators who can help realize a fuller version of an artifact.  I also will be making a gant chart to map out the rest of the year to a historical progression of media, which I’ll follow in limiting the scope of materials used in each iteration.

I also need to further converge my definitions and vocabulary for this piece through making initial theatre pieces. Each iteration will ask these simple questions: how do we distill this medium down to it’s apparent structures, how is Whiteness embedded in these structures, and how do we perform through these histories?