During this project, we explored the trance that looped videos can create when the sound of the short clips repeats over and over again. I wanted to explore the responsibility to lead a "normal" American life that we feel in our country. Why is it that we must get up to feed the cat, take family vacations, or advance technologically? When shown at the same time, my videos hopefully create a sickening response that leaves the viewer feeling sort of lost and confused. I did not want to create an experience that mesmerized the audience because I wanted it to have a "call to action" or awakening affect.

When I showed the rest of the class my project, they did not know what to say at first. They noticed that it was obtrusive and off timing. I did this on purpose so that the message was sort of screaming at them and calling them out to do something about their ever day American ways.

Response: Passivity - An Ecocentric Paradigm for Collaborating with Natural Processes

In this essay, Adam Clarke exposes a sort of epidemic that has taken over society as a whole. The intense lack of respect for the naturally aesthetic and perplexing should bother us every day, but instead we ignore or even partake in the destruction.

To regain our rights in nature, Clarke suggests that we try a process as artists called passive collaboration. When one executes passive collaboration correctly there is no trace of manmade objects; in fact, the truths of nature that were there all along are revealed to the viewer. We can see examples of this attitude or approach to art making in the works of Andy Goldsworthy who understands that using so much as a knife in his artwork is vaguely intrusive upon nature.

I enjoyed how the process of passive collaboration was also referred to as re-enchanting nature. I like to think that this section of the essay calls for artists to reinvent themselves through nature in a non-destructive way. We must prove ourselves, not in the way that Robert Smithson did to the gallery world, but to nature in order to show that we can be a part of the cycle of the earth without destroying it. For me, the best way to understand Clarke's words is to be conscious of the materials I use and the marks I make, because they may have permanent affects on our earth. If I just use what is around me and my brain, I will be able to help bring out the spark of nature's cyclic beauty. This is of the utmost importance; after all, we will only be here for a short time, and then, the earth will just keep on turning.

Response: Approaches to What?

I feel like Perec is trying to awaken us to the fact that we, as individuals and a society, have formed habits and lifestyles that are free from question. He suggests that maybe we should investigate our lives for those habits and question them in order to break the mold and embrace our lives as normal or complex as they may be.

HABITS:

looking at myself in the mirror

running water while brushing my teeth

putting the right shoe on before the left

tugging at my shirt

going pee every morning when I wake up

sticking one foot out of the covers

sleeping on my back

smelling someone I know when they walk past me

holding my breath when someone I don't know walks past me

Documentation & Depiction Project

I ended up choosing my first idea about my leaky air conditioning. Every five minutes for a half hour, I rotated the image slightly clockwise. It started out as a red and blue circle that I swirled together to make purple. The water splashed so much more than I thought it would. It is interesting to see the darker splashes in the beginning of the project or the heavier water spots from when it began to rain. I am very happy with the amount of variables that I did not have control over. This was the first time I paid more attention to the process than the finished product. In fact, I think it is a way of cleansing and refining my art making.

Listening Exercise

Listening to the world around me seemed like something easy and simple. Today, I had an auditory experience around campus that surprised me quite a bit. My interior space was the weekly gathering of college coffee. This is not a conventional interior space, but it seemed appropriate because it was along the confined brick walk in Elon, surrounded by columns and conversation. The place was packed with people I knew, but I turned my back and listened to the happenings and be separate from the event. I have to say that the most challenging part of this exercise was not listening to everyone's conversations. Translating something I know as the English language into sound was so hard! I heard so many different voices and footsteps. My favorite sound from this location was the water pouring out the water cooler. There was a line to get water, so it became a rhythm that soothed and calmed me in the midst of so many people.

I sat behind Alamance building in a usual reflective spot on a bench. The wind here played a huge role in my listening. It seemed to carry sounds from the distance to me and whisk them away again before I could hear the words. I heard heals on loose bricks and a class on the grass doing a feminist lesson. The most interesting I thing I experienced, and this is perhaps why I like this location so much, was how the air conditioner kept turning on and off. As I mentioned in the project ideas, I have an air conditioner right outside my bedroom that does the same thing. I did not even realize it, until I almost fell asleep. I felt like Pavlov's dog because I was trained to sleep at the sound of the AC. I struggled to concentrate after that point when thoughts of my schedule and to-do list began to haunt me once again. I decided to retire 20 seconds early because 1o minutes seemed impossible.

9/2 Documentation & Depiction

BRAINSTORM: a) My first idea is to finally pay attention to the dripping air conditioning outside of my window that i wake up to every morning. I do not think it would be natural to sit and watch the drips from the AC, so I would like to sit inside and listen to them instead. The water will drip onto ink-covered watercolor paper and create a pattern and record of the event.

b) Another idea is to count how many times I sneeze during this current allergy season. Unfortunately, it can be up to 30 times a day. I do not know how to record this, but an idea will come.

c) I work at Red Robin (home of the smiling burger. how may i help you?). We pride ourselves on getting hot food out to the table in 10 minutes or less. On one of my days off, I would like to just sit and watch the kitchen and servers interact to get the food out in time. Each order is printed on a ticket with the time it was sent into the kitchen. When the kitchen is finished making the food, they stamp the ticket time and send the food out. I will collect the tickets, record the times, and actually see how accurate the "10 minutes or less" goal truly is.