Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Interactive Performance Description
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Private to Public -- Putting on Makeup in Starbucks
When I first started thinking about what I could perform in public that I normally do in private, I couldn’t think of anything. But when I ran through my daily routine, something that stuck out to me was putting on makeup. I always put on my makeup in the same place, next to my desk, and I have a specific box with all of my makeup in it located right next to my mirror. It is located in a corner, tucked away from the rest of the room, so its difficult to see me from most areas. Some of my friends have seen me doing this, but unless you’ve spent a significant amount of time in my room you probably wouldn’t. When it came time to choose the place in which I was going to put on makeup, I originally wanted to do it in the Lawrinson bookstore, but it closed too early. So I went to Starbucks with a bag of makeup, spread all of my things out over a table, and I began to apply makeup using my compact as a mirror. I put on mascara, lip gloss, foundation and eyeliner, and I did my nails last. People didn’t look at me too much, only every once in a while; although when they saw my roommate start to take pictures they noticed more and more. I became a bit embarrassed, and I wondered what people thought about it. I could see them staring as she was taking the picture, looking back and forth between the two of us. They all looked confused, and stared until I packed up my things. All in all, it was an interesting feeling – I felt a bit exposed, but not horribly so. I had put on makeup in a public bathroom before, but never just in a coffee shop or somewhere that you wouldn’t associate with “getting ready”. I think this experience showed me just how private putting on makeup actually is to me – something I hadn’t realized prior to doing it in front of people I didn’t know.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Altered State
The two things I did to alter my state were that I balanced a book on my head and simultaneously avoided stepping on any cracks in the pavement. I walked around campus, and it was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I realized that when I walk, I do so without really thinking about where I’m stepping or what I’m stepping on. I also realized that, while I usually consider myself to be someone who stands up fairly straight, but by balancing the book on my head I found that my head is usually tilted downwards, and I’m usually looking at the road in front of me. The two together forced me to be very aware of my surroundings, knowing exactly the step I needed to take before taking it, and at the same time not looking directly down for any reassurance. It was interesting because the whole process of walking like that took huge concentration, and it took planning without any real close visual aid. It was as if I could plan seconds in advance, but nothing less than that – there were no spontaneous movements or decisions, and there was no stepping without thinking about it in advance. It was a very strange way to move around, and I found that I walk around with such ease normally, that I never considered if the way I walked and where I walked were dictated like that, how much different the experience of walking would be. This also forced me to use my peripheral vision much more.
People had very funny reactions to what I did. One car slowed down when they saw me walking with a book on my head, and one guy walking past me actually made eye contact with me and smiled for about five seconds. It was kind of awkward and people were definitely really confused, but at the same time I could tell they thought it was funny so it wasn’t that bad. It was kind of embarrassing, but overall it was an interesting experience that made me think about how I do things (like walking or looking around) so naturally and automatically and without thinking about it. Limiting these things that I do so freely made me walk slower, concentrate on what I was doing, and made everything generally a lot more difficult.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Extra Credit Questions – 500 Days of Summer
Story Questions:
Summer Finn is hired at a company that makes greeting cards where Tom Hansen also works. He sees her for the first time when their boss introduces her to the team, becomes convinced that they are destined to be together and that he has found “the one”.
Summer Finn and Tom Hansen
The first conflict is that Summer Finn does not believe in love, and isn’t looking for a relationship when they initially get together. Tom is looking for a relationship with Summer, but they casually date for a while. When Summer breaks up with Tom he is devastated, and the second conflict is that he wants to be with her and she just wants to be friends. As he is trying to win her back he finds out that she is getting married to another man. For so long she refused to be his girlfriend, when all of a sudden she agrees to be someone’s wife.
Summer realizes that she does not want to be with Tom, and she breaks up with him, seemingly abruptly. She moves on and meets someone else, and Tom becomes upset and eventually depressed without Summer. His performance at work is depleted, and his boss changes his job to writing cards about misery rather than love, which he is good at. He then attempts to win her back, but finds out she is engaged to another man, and his depression and lack of motivation worsens. He quits his job and stops doing anything productive.
Summer gets married and is happy with her new husband. After Tom has spent many days in depression because of Summer and quits his job, he gets sudden motivation to follow his dream of becoming an architect – something Summer had always pushed him to pursue, since he studied it in college. He builds a portfolio and begins going to job interviews, slowly getting over Summer in the process.
The ultimate impact for Summer is that she ends up happy with her new husband. After Tom sees Summer in the park and realizes that she has moved on and that she didn’t intentionally try to hurt him, he moves on too. She tells him that he was right about love all along, but that he wasn’t right about her. They learned from one another; Summer learned that love does exist, and Tom learned that some things are just coincidences and that both people in a relationship have to make each other happy. While waiting for one of his interviews, Tom meets a new girl and feeling spontaneous, asks her out. She says yes, and that her name is “Autumn” – the next phase of Tom’s life, coming just after “Summer”.
Scenes depicting the conflict are intermingled throughout the film, depending on what day it is out of the 500 days in which the story takes place. The first scene where the conflict of Summer and Tom breaking up is shown is when the two of them are sitting in a diner eating Pancakes. Summer very matter-of-factly says that she thinks they should stop seeing each other, and Tom doesn’t know why. She compares them to “Sidd and Nancy”, where she is Sidd and he is
The opening scene shows Summer and Tom towards the end of the story, sitting on a park bench. Just after this, a narrator begins to describe Summer and Tom’s opposite opinions of love, showing Tom growing up with the goal of finding the right one, and Summer growing up believing that love didn’t exist – her attachment only to the inconsistency and independence of her own life.
conflict?
The story is moved along through the director showing what day it is out of the 500 days. Slowly, as you watch the days change, you realize that the later days show Tom sad and depressed, usually without Summer, with a much darker tone. The earlier days usually show how they meet, their first kiss, and the two happy together. The viewer needs to pay close attention to the sequence, but the story progresses showing longer, more detailed clips of the beginning of the story in early scenes, and longer and detailed clips of end of the story in later scenes, although they are all intermingled throughout.
conclusion?
The major conflict is shown in a short scene (at the diner eating pancakes) early on the in film, and it almost immediately snaps back to a scene where they are happy together, far before they break up. The lead in to this scene is depicted later in the movie in short bursts. Then, during the second conflict, when Tom thinks he can win Summer back, the film shows Tom going to a party that Summer invited him to. The scene shows Tom’s expectations going to see Summer, and the actual reality of what happens. This scene is shown in two views right next to one another in a split-screen. The two views of his expectations and the reality of what is happening are the same at the beginning, and opposite at the end. He realizes that she is engaged. After this event, Tom goes into a deeper depression before moving on with his life, and ultimately making it better.
the outset?
When Tom begins to leave his depression, he gets a bit of motivation, and draws a large scale city landscape on his wall. He begins to sketch again and put his portfolio together. When he runs into Summer in the park and realizes that she has moved on and is happy with someone else, he gets the closure he needed, says what he wanted to say, and then begings to fully move on. This gives rise to his motivation to continue with his interviews. He then meets a new girl who he would previously not have talked to or asked out when he was obsessing over Summer, but he takes a chance, and is finally over her.
