Robert Rauschenberg

What struck me about the reader's article is that people tell Rauschenberg to his face that his work is full of ugly objects. People offended by this work I assume are used to the regular(as everyone is I suppose) and are not open to every interpretation of everyday life. Rauschenberg's effort to avoid the familiar while still using every day objects is fascinating because it seems that in most aspects of life, creating new ways and avoiding the familiar is always the hardest task. The attitude of many is, if its not broken, why fix it?

I like the concept of forming a picture as opposed to portraying an idea. While I am a very conceptual artist, with my art and my dance, I really enjoy abstract art and the ability to create from a non-concrete idea. When someone creates something not from a conceptual standpoint, it allows the viewer to create and think on their own about the piece. 

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. When I was at Coachella, a kid in my group and I were discussing art standing beside an artist who was painting. The guy told me how his sister was an abstract artist, and that he never quite understood her art until he tried LSD and took a long look at an abstract piece. He said matter of factly that art is what you make of it and that abstraction is exactly what you are looking at. There is no deeper meaning, no message, it just is what it is. I believe thats the way it is with most art. You take it at face value and if necessary explore the ideas deeper. The truth is that many times we cannot discuss with the artist their intention for the piece, so we must form our own ideas to go with the visual so it can mean something to us. 

Chapters 7 & 8

"Art as I see it, is any human activity which doesn't grow out of either of our species two basic instincts: survival and reproduction."

I really like this definition of art because it is broad enough to encompass almost everything that could be considered art by any one. The examples in the text go further to say that anything done from emotions or boredom is art, from drawing to dancing to singing. My own definition of art is similar, anything that someone creates is art. I am always creating and therefore always artistic. I love to create and therefore I call myself and artist. 

I like the ideas presented that art and survival go hand in hand. An artist still cares about survival and someone surviving still creates art on a regular basis. The individual actions not used for survival or reproduction are art, and by this definition we can find art in every aspect of life. 

The idea that some art is used as a tool and some is used for the purpose of itself is also quite interesting. I have found that as I grow as an artist what I really want is to use my skills to convey points of others, and get paid to do so. Art for its own sake is pure and beautiful, but is not the path to financial success I'm afraid. I think what a person decides to do with their art is up to them, and each person's use of their talent is a true tell of their personality. I for one, love change. I love progression and improvement in my life always, and it speaks to my character that I would want to use skills to portray ideas instead of the "pure" art idea talked about in chapter 7. I envy the artist who can simply portray what they want for themselves, but I honestly find that unless I am given a business proposal or assignment I am sort of lost as to what to create 

Green Screen

Green Screen Trailer

For my art show this week I attended the Green Screen 2011 Earth Day premier. My close friend Clare Edwards is a film/media studies major here and for this class made an environmentally conscious film  with three other people in her class called "Life of the Party".

This film was in the style of the MTV and VHI shows we all have come to know and love, where 3 contestants are brought in from 3 different life styles to enter a competition. This competition was who could be the Life of the Party. The three contestants were a sorority girl named Tiff, a DJ named DJ Crucial, and the token asshole named Jeff.  The film looked at each character's life in terms of how much the way they partied affected the environment.

Tiff talked about how she was the social chair of her sorority. She was constantly using fliers and other means of wasteful advertisement to promote the sorority, as well as wasting energy using plastic cups and bottles of liquor. DJ Crucial was constantly spinning music sets with strobe lights and three different decks of turn tables that wasted a lot of excess energy. The asshole basically just threw a ton of parties with red cups and beer cans, all of which waste a lot of energy.

The movie sent a good message about everyone trying to compete to be the life of the party in Isla Vista and not being responsible for their energy waste and trash. The film premier on the whole had very interesting takes on environmentalism in our community.

Random Act of Kindness

So I don't know if this is really an act of kindness, but I made a Sedar dinner for me and my room mates. I am Jewish and every year I have a sedar dinner, usually with my family. Last year was with friends and now since I have my own kitchen I decided to cook my own. I went out and bought all the sedar plate ingredients as well as everything to make matzo ball soup. I must say it was really good, and I am proud of myself. I sat down with all my room mates and some other friends, all who are not Jewish and taught them about the Holiday and the traditions that come with it as the traditional food was eaten. I provided a really good dinner and everyone thanked me many times for teaching them all about my tradition and letting them participate. While this act started off for  myself, it was an act of kindness.

Confessions

A strong piece:
I thought a really strong piece was the play admitting "this is starting to become a problem..." talking about alcoholism running in the family. Max performed his confession in acts, and a spot light like you would see in a play. He started with himself in a monologue when he was 14, trying to help his drunk mother. It was obvious that he was young and scared. His second act was his friend trying to help him as an 18 year old. His confession was that his mother had passed on his alcoholism to him, and now he has to deal with it for the rest of his life. The spotlight on him, the conviction of his performance, and the organization of his piece made this confession very successful.

A weaker piece:
I thought a less successful piece was the piece which organized the process of an addiction. I thought the piece had a lot of heart and was very well thought out, but I wanted to be guessing more. One of the elements of the confession I liked the most was guessing what the confession was, and this one was just laid out for me. While I really liked the confession I wish there was a little more mystery to it, which is why I am saying it is a weaker piece. Honestly, I did not think any of the pieces I saw the second crit day were weak. I thought they were all amazing and took a lot of courage to admit. I only said this was the weaker piece because it was laid for us point blank. I liked the way it was organized like an office based project, event though it was far from that.

My Confession

This is a recreation of my original performance. My confession s that I have been a dancer for my entire life, classically and professionally trained. I have always gone to dance in class and that is how I have learned. I have never really liked techno, I actually used to hate it before I got into it at UCSB, hearing it at every event, every party, every time I was at the beach. My first rave was EDC, where I saw people shuffling and was instantly intrigued. I wanted to do it so much, and I could not for the life of me figure out the steps. So what's my confession? I want to conquer shuffling, I want to master this dance style. I think it is so fun, and completely relevant to this time in music. I see people who are amazing at it and I want to be better. So my confession is that I have danced many different styles but I really want to be the best at shuffling.

Story time

So I just spent 3 days at Coachella and it was by far the most fun I have ever had. For this post I will share bands that I fell in love with there:

Wiz Khalifa-

Wiz was really amazing. Many rap and hip hop performers do not sound great live, but he had a great voice and a stage presence that blew me away. I was about 25 yards from Wiz and he interacted a lot with the audience. While I had listened to his music before, but as I saw him live I actually felt like I understood his lyrics, as cheesy as  that sounds. A lot of his songs are heartfelt and you can tell he writes his own music.


Mumford & Sons-

I had never heard of this band except their one song Little Lion Man. They reminded me how much I love to watch live performances. They all played in harmony, with true intimacy that only a family could have. The main singer has a beautiful, deep voice that resonated throughout the giant outdoor stadium and all of their lyrics really spoke to raw human emotions:

Chorus of Little Lion Man:

But it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn't I, my dear?
Didn't I, my...


Chorus of Awake my Soul:
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life
In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life

Work Reflections

Strong work: A strong work I thought was Andrea's dinner table piece. In this confession a salad with a cut, heart shaped bell pepper in it, sand. two candles, water in a wine glass and a set of silverware wrapped in her confession. The confession was so successful because while the dinner for one looked so personal and intentionally placed. The confession was read with struggle and conviction. I believed every word she read and every word broke my heart. A lot was revealed from the confession, about her father's heart condition as well as their relationship. She literally put her own heart on the table, which is an idea the audience can identify with. I thought at first she would not be able to handle reading it, but she did an amazing job saying every line of the confession that she had never said out loud before. Her fear of not being able to mend her relationship with him before his time ran out was conquered by her courage to read her confession out loud.

Weaker work: I honestly liked every confession because I know that mostly they came from the heart. The one confession I thought was a little weaker was the poster board about singing in the car. The reason I do not think this was that strong of a piece is because I could not quite understand what the exact confession was due to all the different topics presented on the board. It seemed that the confession was a spattering of random troubles with one solution, but the placement of all the different topics did not actually relate to the narrative being shown too well. I actually liked that it was a poster because it reminded me of grade school, but the problem was that so did the organization a little bit.

Chapter 5 & 6

I really liked the idea of chapter 5, can you portray a feeling that is supposed to be felt with the 5 senses with just one? Can a picture really represent an emotion? The type of lines and the context they are in can turn an abstract image into a symbol. Understanding comics is extremely interesting in this way because these supposed symbols can evoke responses and feelings in people depending on where they are placed on the page.It's true, certain symbols like an invisible fragrance and smoke look the same, but you would figure that trash would smell, not smoke and that a pipe would smoke, not let off a fragrance. I have always thought about bees in Winnie the Pooh and their flight trail, which can obviously not be seen in real life but is put in the cartoon to show the flight pattern from the flower to in front of Pooh. Cartoon visuals will always have a special place in my heart since I have been watching cartoons as of age...3? Wow that's early, but I absolutely love animation. Rugrats, Hey Arnold, I was a real cartoon junkie.

Art Show

In my Writing 109v class I went to a small room with 5 works of art in it, expecting to later write an extended museum label for one of the pieces. There was a sketch for a stained glass window, a photo by Andy Warhol, 2 paintings, a black chalk sketch, and a voodoo medicine cabinet. The piece in the show that stood out to me the most was Warhol’s photograph. The photograph is about 3x5 in of OJ Simpson and it was taken years before the trial. In the photograph, OJ is clutching his football near his face and staring into the distance. The expression on his face is that of calm contemplation, while he is coveting the football in the picture. This photograph really seems to reveal a lot about OJ, and is sort of eery in the way that it portrays him. He seems to be intimidating in a non-obvious way, looking like he could strike if he wanted to but won’t waste his time. I believe that Andy Warhol had a way with discovering the truth through his art, and this case is no different. The tiny picture of OJ is stunning and intimidating. 

The picture I saw was taken at the same time, but is a different picture. 

Fearful/Scary Moment

The scariest moment of my life happened this year on Halloween. I was dressed as Sailor Moon standing in front of my good friend's house on Del Playa. I was drunk, minding my own business when I felt a stinging in my chest. So without looking, I touched where it was stinging and there was a huge needle-like object sticking out of my chest. I freaked out, pulled it out and ran inside my friends house. The first thing I thought is, "I may have AIDS. My life may have just been ruined by some asshole giving me a disease." I ran inside, cleaned out the wound with vodka(classy, I know), took a Vitamin C pill and ran the paramedics. My friend Alessandra was with me and she was freaking out more than I was. She was almost hysterical, screaming at the paramedics to do something. She then told me while she was crying that she would be there for me, "we will work through this together". This?!?!? Don't tell me we will work through this, that implies there is something to work through. The paramedics told me there was nothing I could do until Monday. This was Friday night, and I would have to wait until Monday to go see a doctor because student health is closed on the weekends. I spent the entire weekend thinking I had AIDS until I went to student health on Monday and they informed me that since this was a blowdart and not a syringe, and since the needle was clean, that there was no chance anything was transmitted to me. Thank God. This was by far the scariest moment of my life, and I am thankful that the needle only hit my chest and not my eye or something far worse. I hope that Karma has gotten the best of the nice fellow who decided to make me fear my for my life Fiday-Monday.

Happiest/Proudest Moment

I must say that my happiest/proudest moment I can think of recently was Fall Serenades. Serenades is when every sorority goes to every frat and does a dance for them, and the next night every frat goes to every sorority and returns the favor. It is absolutely one of the most fun things I have done at UCSB, and so when the opportunity presented itself, I became the choreographer for my sorority. I choreographed about 4 minutes of dances for a group of very beginner girls, girls who had danced somewhat before, and advanced girls. It took up a ton of my time and energy and it was the best way I could have possibly started off the school year. When we performed we were told by many that we were the best and had the best choreography. Girls came up to me in between each house (We performed this 4 minute dance 10 times in a row!) and thanked me because they said it was the most fun they had ever had. I helped with girl's self esteem, their ability to dance, and gave them an excellent start to UCSB as well as Greek Life. After I did the 10 performances and received tons of praise, I was so happy and proud that I wondered about life as a choreographer. This was the moment I had waited for, and it was worth every second of hard work and uncertainty.

 Desiree- if you want to see this video I can send it in a facebook message.

Proud of my Art

This is a dress I made out of Band-aids for my AP Art Portfolio Junior year of high school. My concentration idea was to play with the ideas of childhood and adulthood. Here, I made a dress which is shaped for a woman's body out of a child hood object- colorful Band-aids. This dress costed me $80 to make buying all of the materials. I made the inside of the dress with the Band-aid wrappers and laid down the patterns ahead of time before I stuck them all together. The images on the Band-aids are Spongebob, Dora the Explorer, Scooby-Doo, Nascar, Spider-man and Barbie. This was not only an incredibly fun piece to make, but I think it came out very successfully. When people look at this piece they say, "You made that?", which makes me feel extremely accomplished. Watching my teacher's daughter pose for these photos in the dress I was really proud of my creativity on this piece and the execution of my idea. The color pops, the pattern rivals that of actual stitching, and the photo looks great. I love this piece and I am very proud to say I made it. 

Embarrassing Moment

The most embarrassing moment of my life could have been featured in Mean Girls or any other teenage drama movie. It is so stereotypically horrid that it would happen to me, because as I suspect, G-d is laughing at me always. So try to retain your laughter, or not. Here I go:

I was trained as a competitive dancer. I have been competing for 13 years, all of which have been a nice blur of costumes, shoes, make-up, crying, laughing, winning and losing. My sophomore year of high school we did one of my favorite dances to Feeling Good by Nina Simone. It was a heart felt, energetic dance with beige costumes-velvet booty shorts and lace tops. There is always a lull time when you are all dressed and ready to go, they have called your dance to be performing in about 15 minutes and you are stretching with your team mates trying to fight your nerves. At this time my friend Shelby points at me and says, "Darce, are you on your period?"
To which I reply, "uhhhhh Am I?!!"
Yes. Yes I was on my period, and it had gone through my shorts. My tiny, beige, velvet shorts. This was a good 5 minutes before my number went on so I obviously went into a state of mental panic and ran into the bathroom. My dance teacher had to wash my tights and shorts as I cleaned myself up in the bathroom, all in record time because I was supposed to be performing in now 2 minutes and my first move is a leap and a kick which leaves me crotch forward to the judges in the audience. When we got everything clean I run out of the bathroom and the entire studio was waiting for me, and  wondering if I was ok to go on stage. I was, and it was the most embarrassing moment of my life. I performed and everything was fine, and the judges had no idea how mortified I was.

Lecture:The Body

Yesterday's lecture really impacted me, so much that I really had nothing to say when I ate dinner with a bunch of friends right after. Mapplethorpe was really an artist who pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable in art in terms of connotation and nudity. The focus on black men and their stereotypes got to me because I of course like everyone else associate black men with those stereotypes as well. Famous actors like Samuel L Jackson and Bill Cosby who play into those stereotypes by taking those roles are not to blame, but all of this is fuel to the racial fire. 

Sam or Tehching Hsieh is really who stunned me during yesterday's lecture. Seeing a man's entire year flash before my eyes was quite haunting, and the dark mundane imagery of the video did not help at all. One of the scarier things about that video was the hands on the clock spinning extremely fast in juxtaposition with his facial expression that never changed. 

Confessions

1)

My first confession and the one that I really want to do is admitting that I have always wanted to shuffle. I have been a dancer for almost my entire life- since I was 3. I have done jazz, tap, ballet, modern, hip hop, lyrical, musical theater, on a consistent basis and have tried many more. The one type of dance I truly wish to master is the shuffle. Techno is getting so popular and I see people who are good at this dance and I just wish that I could do it too. I have been practicing in my friend's living room for 4 days now, and I have become obsessive. I will document my progress and choreograph a shuffle routine. My confession? I have an extreme desire to master the shuffle.

2)  Another confession I have is that I would really rather be friends with someone than be romantic with them. Not to say that I am not attracted to people obviously, but more that I'm scared of becoming romantically involved with someone that I am already friends with. Everyone claims that the best relationships come from being friends first, and I do want a relationship at some point, but it seems that I am really good at friendship and I would rather just stick to that. So I really am not sure how to perform this confession, maybe something about all the people in my life that I could see myself with but choose not to pursue and just stay friends with. Because the truth is, I would really rather just be friends.

3) My last possible confession is that I don't let myself be vulnerable. I never usually put myself in the care of others and don't allow myself to be in positions where I need help in any way. I really only depend on myself. Even when I was young I wouldn't let anyone dress me or do my hair I always had to do it myself. While I have gotten better over the years at letting people help me, it is always a struggle to have aid of any kind.

Duchamp

The reading we did on Duchamp was long with reason, this is one of the most influential artists ever. Since I got into UCSB art classes I have not stopped hearing about Duchamp and analyzing his pieces. His idea of the ready made was really one of the most astonishing concepts. The idea that taking an object and literally doing nothing to it but putting it there intently and signing it as art seems crazy to me but at the same time warrants a sort of confidence as an artist. I do not believe that Duchamp created ready made objects because he was overly confident and just wanted to sign his name. His idea was that the intention of the artist is what mattered.

I also liked his idea that the artist is not the only one participating to make the art. I completely agree with the concept that art is nothing until someone interprets it. I believe this tied in well with his ready made objects, because Duchamp believed that it is the onlooker who really makes something art. If the onlooker is what makes it art, than it really could be an object like a stool and bike wheel or a urinal, because the  burden of making something an art piece is not all on the artist.

Duchamp's Objects

These sunglasses normally serve their purpose to block my eyes from UV rays while I look fashionable. Today however, they are a work of art. The reflection in the lenses allows me to take pictures from any angle I want and have a different image each time. The rounded image produced on the lenses can be manipulated depending on my stance and therefore this picture is not just of an object, but rather an art piece that looks just like I intended it to. 

This is a leather sandal. The work put into walking on this sandal shows by the indentation of my own feet into the leather, so this sandal is particular to my foot. If someone else were to put it on, they would know right away that this did not fit into their foot, so in this way this sandal is my work of art. I have unknowingly put hours of time into shaping and changing the being of this sandal and it is now particular to me. 

Someplace old with something new

Today, me and my friend Marc had a two hour dance party in his living room. I know the assignment was to do something unexpected in a public place, but I decided to do something I would normally do in public in a different place. I always dance at parties and concerts, but never in a living room in my socks with a good friend. We literally decided to have a dance party in his apartment and all his room mates walked through and looked at us like we were crazy. We bumped up the music really loudly and worked on our moves for a couple hours. This proceeds my confession project, which I will write more about in later entries

Senior Art Show- Myth/Medium

Michael Powell did a senior exhibition in the CCS gallery earlier tonight, which I went to go see. The show was about his interest in the connection between a seen object or image and the medium or material that facilitates the perception of that image or object.
These works were large, each about 3x4 feet and had many different materials. The backgrounds of most of the works looked like very magnified, reflected light. Many times the image would have plastic with smudged paint over it, to create a 3D esque image. I must say while I liked the concept of the show, I did not quite understand how the idea and the pictures correlated. It looked like the pictures had a digital influence, and were in my opinion aesthetically pleasing. One picture that I enjoyed was of a grungy, black and white digitized boy, but instead of a face was refracted light that looked like it had every CMYK color in it. I stared at that piece trying to find the meaning, until I decided that the funkiness of the picture maid up for my lack of understanding for it.

Truth Vs Fiction

Truth in the media is like looking for a pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow. It is literally impossible to showcase any type of information without creating a bias. The information included, left out, what cuts of information are put next to each other all determine the mood and underlying information in the news reports. I have a hard time believing much of what I see on TV news channel networks because while the information they are displaying may be true, there is a ton of information that they do not reveal. So, for example, all over the news are reports of theft, kidnap, and other forms of serious crime. This may create a fear in many homes because all the news is showing is bad stories, or "interesting" stories. My mother is one who believes that if I step outside my front door I will be raped/killed because of all he terrible stories on TV. Since these crimes are not happening where we live, this is an irrational fear. Seeing all the information at once on TV about the terrible things in life lead one to associate the outside world with terrible things, and what the news is not showing is all the good things that happen. Every news station has an unavoidable bias and therefore it is really hard for me to rely on TV for my view of the world.

Breaking News

Construction on the Little Acorn Park at the corner of El Embarcadero and Sabado Tarde Roads began earlier this month to renovate the area and add a new swimming pool.

The $180,000,000 plan, put forward by the Isla Vista Recreation and Parks District, includes plans for a heated swimming pool, hot tub, and water slide.
According to Liz Buddah, vice chair of the IVRPD, the organization initiated the project late last month.
“We had our general meeting on February 23, and that was when we decided to spend the money, so [construction began] probably around the end of the month,” Buddah said.
Buddah said the organization is funding the project with revenue from state grants for the Anisq’Oyo’ Bridge renovation.

"Even though the bridge was not actually built, us and the organization figured that an aquatic fun zone would be better suited for the Isla Vista public than a stupid bridge."
Buddah said the project is scheduled for completion at the time of to be announced, in compliance with state funding guidelines which really are not specific at all, as seen with the never ending construction in Isla Vista and around campus.
"We really don't think it is necessary to have a scheduled date for the completion of this project. The residents of Isla Vista can afford to wait for this awesome aquatic fun zone."
It is known that while the park will be completed with a good work ethic, there will be no one to help clean the pool after it is built. It will be the responsibility of the residents of Isla Vista to make sure the pool is kept clean.

Response to Lecture

The concept of self identity and classification was explored in lecture today through artists that were incredibly interesting to me. Albert Chong categorizes himself with his race and national origin of jamaica. Many of his works depict his religion of Santeria, and his home of Jamaica. I like the technique he used to layer photographs so that they appeared to be 3d images even though they were just layers of 2d images. His portraits and works are not abstract, but are foreign to me because I do not know much about his culture or country. Seeing his works really interested me and I want to learn more about where he comes from.

I am also interested in the 3 components of the portrait: the subject, artist, and relationship between the two. A portrait can be seen in many different ways, even though I have often thought of a portrait as a straight on head shot like the Mona Lisa. Portraits have always been a common interest for artists because it not only can a portrait be of the artist but also of anyone who commissioned a work of themselves. I like the way that Albert Chong's portraits are unlike any I have ever seen, using parts of his body and objects that are foreign to some but have an aesthetic that is very cohesive.

Puns

The pun I thought of was mail box. Instead of actual mail, the pun is that I went into class with a giant box. I randomly picked a boy and made him stand inside. After a little while of guessing I told everyone what the pun was, "Male Box".

Response to Comics

More abstract representative are more accepted by people when reading comics, because in a comic you put yourself in the story. McCloud is saying that by simplifying a character, you have more to imagine. The novelistic form of simplified characters leaves much to the imagination, therefore keeping the reader intrigued. The more a character is specified, the less that another person can identify with that character. So if someone wants a character to be accessible to anyone, they can have the illustration lack in detail. The counter argument to this however, is that as humans we have  the ability to empathize with almost any character. If an object or animal is personified successfully, then it is very easy to identify or sympathize with that character. If the character has redeeming qualities, then the go-to response is sympathy. Even if the character is not necessarily identifiable, they may relate to someone in our lives so that we form attachment to them.

Preliminary Thinking

Begin preliminary thinking about all upcoming assignments:
 a. Confessions- I think I want to confess something about my fear of being vulnerable with someone else. I have never felt seriously about someone enough to let myself be in a position to get hurt by them, and I think it is my greatest weakness. I am usually proud of every bit of myself. I am loud, gregarious, and completely embrace the eccentricity that comes from within. I believe that if someone does not like the real me, than they are no longer worth my time. So when it comes to being vulnerable, I would really rather just be independent and not let myself be put in a position to get hurt. The thing about that is that if I continue to set myself apart from those who could tear down my independence for the better, than I am most likely missing the best parts of relationships. 
 b. Sequence and narratives- I really like the idea of the comic. I think that it is an incredibly interesting way to tell a narrative and I would like to do a project that takes the concept of a graphic narrative and changes it in some way. I currently work with Adobe Illustrator and am very interested in doing a narrative through that medium. 
 c. alternate persona- I have never really thought about an alternate version of myself. I generally try to work on the real me instead of imagining another version of myself, but I do dream of what would have come of me following my desire to dance. If I had gone to a school with an intensive dance program I could have become a professional and dance choreographer(in this alternate reality). My life would have consisted of traveling all over the world to teach dance workshops and work with some of the most gifted people in the business. This is my alternate persona. 

d. personal space- The concept of personal space is a funny one. Everyone has different personal bubbles which can easily be disrupted. I think I would want to find a way to physically represent personal space without it being a bubble, which is how the concept is usually depicted. I want to talk to a bunch of people who are close to me and find out what they have to say abut the matter to give me some perspective. I am alright being physically close to people, but a lot of people have issues with being touched by others. I would like to work with the concept of differences in personal space between different types of people. 

Response to Introduction

This introduction mentioned a very famous choreographer named Merce Cunningham. I am a dancer, and in the past I have not only been academically educated on Cunningham's techniques but I have also tried his choreography. I must say that as a dancer I love the nontraditional forms of dance more than ballet. I have always been someone who can appreciate the commonplace, just like the other artists Duchamp, John Cage, Jean Tinguely, and Robert Rauschenberg. Placing a move like a "pedestrian" walk as many choreographers would say pays respect to the everyday movement while pushing the boundaries of what is considered choreography. Just like Cunningham pushes these boundaries, so does Duchamp in his work The Fountain. Taking a found object and putting your name on it is just like taking an everyday movement like walking and putting it in your choreography. Taking the found movement or object and calling it art is a statement of intention, not necessarily physical effort. As far as choreography goes, I believe that using commonplace motions like waving or walking in the right context creates a dance which respects reality in a creative way. At the Mpulse Ann Arbor dance camp I attended, I learned about Cunningham's techniques through an exercise in which we took five motions we used daily (i.e. brushing your teeth, waving, walking, sitting, etc) and choreographed a 30 second dance with them in it. It was very interesting to see how common motions could be used in such an artistic way.