Month: September 2016

Score:

1. Invite a friend and a stranger
2. Ask friend and stranger to step out of the room/sight
3. Out of two random pieces of clothing shown, instinctively click the one you personally favor within 10 seconds
4. Repeat 9 more times
5. Ask friend and stranger to perform score for you with you in mind (click the one they think the initiator will favor)
6. Compare results

“Friendly expression” was created and structured predominantly around my personal fascination of exploring the relationship between artistic statements and real life manifestations. As brought up in class, there are many different categories of items or themes that could compared as the content of the score. However, personally I have always been interested in exploring the logic behind one’s taste in fashion. Why is it that two people very similar in upbringing or background may prefer totally different styles? Are we attracted to people who have similar styles?

To me any form of self-expression is a form of art, which is why the way we choose to dress ourselves is also a piece of artwork; one that’s everchanging and evolving over time. This led to the inspiration of “Friendly expression,” which is a test designed to prove my hypothesis of “people with similar taste in art are more likely to foster relationships.”

In the actual creation of the score, I was heavily influenced by the ideas of “Happening” and “Fluxus.” I wanted to create an environment that encouraged instictive thinking and decision making, one that’s special to the performer of the score during the time in which the score if performed. That’s why I added a 10 second timer and set the default to a comparison model between 2 items rather than a yes/no model 1 by 1.

Evidently, there are also heavy traces of inspiration of Fluxus in this piece. This was my way of attempting to explore the blurred line between art and life in the form of fashion, but also clarify the relationship between how our interpretation of art may impact the way we shape our social circles and life.

When performing this score in class, Marina was my principal volunteer, and she selected two more volunteers in class that she thought knew her the best (partner A) and least (partner B) respectively. Results showed that partner A scored better than partner B in selecting the items that Marina preferred.

Marina:

Partner A:

Partner B:

Marina’s results:

Partner A’s results:

Partner B’s results:

I would accredit this phenomenon due to partner A’s furthered understanding of Marina as a friend, life-form and artistic self. It was also interesting to observe partner B’s reaction throughout the process of performing the score. Being asked to consciously decide and recommend clothing items for Marina, partner B was in reality being asked to try and understand Marina’s artistic preferences. As a couple of decisions went by, one could observe partner B formulating his own understanding of Marina as he went from spending almost the full 10 seconds and looking at Marina in the beginning to flying through his latter decisions.

Although partner B had a higher discrepancy overall in his suggestions, his top choice was actually consistent with that of Marina’s and partner A’s.

This idea of understanding a person and being able to deduce their likings/preferences and preferred method/medium of self expression is the primary goal of this score and with a larger and more diverse sample I believe I could draw some interesting conclusions.

Life melody

• Take turns to roll dice with your friend.
• After 40 round, you get a list of numbers.
• Create a note based on the list of numbers you get. (you friend’s number is feet, your number is string)
• Play your note on the guitar
• Share it with others

Statement:

Fluxus — the most radical and experimental art movement of the sixties

This score I want to people think about a normal thing but in a different perspective, think desk as an instrument, plastic bag as clothes, spoon as a weapon.

There are two things talked in the class inspired me. One was the video showed in the class. The video talked about artists use factory machines and chess create a special concert, although the melody sounds strange, but it indicated a new type of art and appearance that people never think about. I think this is the representative of Fluxus. Life is art, you can find art in your daily life, and this is the important thing I learned from this class, sometimes things can be different if you look it in a different way.

Another one is Yoko Ono’s CUT PIECE show, usually we think art is far from us, never think we can be a part of it and change from viewers to producer, however, in this show she invited her audience to cut off her clothes, firsthand experience is also a shiny point in Fluxus art.

So I start to think I can create a melody based on daily activities and cooperate with others, imagining there is a melody hide in your daily life and you can easily dig it out, this must be a very nice experience. I like to play guitar, then I start to think guitar has six strings, and dice also have six numbers, maybe they can fit it well. Let the dice give me notes and I can share it with my friend.

I did this with my roommate last weekend after we got the number, we tried to play it. First, my roommate and I both thought it would be jumpy, and you can’t find any rhythm, to be honest, the melody was much better than we expect, although there was a little jumpy but you still can find the main rhythm in the notes.

This score actually is very excited because you never know what you can get at the end, also it can be improved in many ways, you can add more dices or play with another melody together, and I believe you can find more interesting way to play this game, the main goal is create your own melody.

this is the melody I made based on dice: dice

For Group A

-One person

-You have  a lap-top

-Having a deck of cards

-Each time draw a card

-For each card there’s a word

-Guided by your own rules, you can search, type, or whatever

-Show something to the other group

-Then draw next card

-Repeat previous steps, show something

-Do not show cards to others only when the game is over

For group B

-Any number of people

-Each person have two cards, “Yes” or “No”

-The person from the other group will show you something

-Guided by your own rules, raise yes or no

Process

Do you remember the first time when standing in front of a bunch of people and everybody is holding their breathe waiting for you to speak the next sentence? What kind of feeling you have during that moment? Scared? Excited? Or like both mixed emotions that really hard to describe?

This was inspired by Yoko Ono’s “GrapeFruit” and as a person who loves playing games, rather than watching others performing, I prefer letting everyone come and have fun.

I’m very interested in how people express themselves, because it’s really really really difficult to correctly convey one’s idea to another, letting others to accept your mind-set is even more difficult. Thus we will be terrified, because we are aware of we’ve been judge by others, but at the same time we really want others to understand ourselves.

So this is the starting idea for my score, initially it was only two people play against each other, showing things they have searched and take turns, and after several play test with my friends I realized this wasn’t “fun” enough, more specifically I don’t feel the excitement that I want people to feel in this version, and then I found the reason is the number of participants, when with only two people, for example, me and you, when I was told to show you something, it’s more about personal relationships, I may concern if I show something disturb you may damage our friendship, or I may know your characteristic and show something please you in purpose, well that sounds a little bit improper but you get what I’m trying to say here. Comparatively it’s different when it comes to your “public image”, it’s more about self-expressiveness rather than relationships, we all have the moment when we were misunderstood, not only misunderstood, people will sketch their own image for you, which is definitely an experience, good or bad? Well if you want one answer out of two, I strongly encourage you to play this again, that is another thing I want to express in this piece,  things don’t necessary need to have an answer.

That’s basically how I iterated this piece to the final version, from 1 to 1 version, it changes to 1 to many, and I just explained the kind of experience I want people to have as a player in group A, as for people in group B, the experience will be totally different.

As a player in Group B, you are supposed to give a “Yes or No” answer for everything the person from Group A shows. What I think about this is that I want it to reflect the real-life situation where people put “good” or “bad” “tags” on things which makes them easier for decision making. However for something there isn’t a necessary answer to divide things into left or right, yes or no, good or bad, so I hope forcing people to judge things this way may make them feel the same as I do.

As I mention I try to make 2 groups have different experience, and in order to enhance both, I turned my target to the choice of words on the cards. People from Group B will not see what the person draws, there is already a gap between these 2 group of people, this is the gap of communication I previously mentioned, in this case, what if there is also an ambiguity in the expression included?

Even I know this “game” will be different every time I, I’m still very surprised that I couldn’t guess any of the words when Lexie shows to us. Even though whose words were written by me.

Score: Sing a note—any note you like—until you run out of breath, then keep going.

The two main things that gave me the idea for this piece were the works of John Cage and the music section of Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit. If I’m being honest, I didn’t necessarily enjoy their works at first. I’ve been a musician most of my life and have played fewer than a dozen “modern” pieces, preferring instead to stick to mostly the baroque era. The fact that there were pieces that consisted of four minutes of silence or recording the ambient noise in a room and that they were classified as music kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

The one piece in that section of Grapefruit that I actually did connect with a bit was Overtone Piece, because it was one of the more directly “musical” pieces and, perhaps more importantly, was something that I’d actually done. When you get up to the higher registers on the flute, it’s frequently easier to use harmonics (the word we use for overtones) instead of the actual fingering for the notes because of how convoluted they get in the upper registers. Because of this, there are many pieces that I’ve played using exclusively or almost exclusively harmonic fingerings. As part of practice, I’ve also done a fair few exercises consisting of “bugle calls,” or pieces where you use one fingering and create the different notes as overtones, using your embouchure to change pitch instead of your fingers.

Once I had that touchstone, I decided that I would start there for the assignment. I played around with several ideas involving the flute specifically. Most of these were the sorts of things that we would do to pass the time in band class or orchestra rehearsal, such as playing with the flute held backwards (so it sticks out to the left instead of right), not blowing into it at all and instead slapping the keys down so that the notes would come out with almost a percussive quality, and popping some of the springs so certain keys would be stuck in a down position. There were a few obvious problems with these. The most obvious is that, especially for the last example, these were things that could actually break a flute if not done very carefully. The other major issue that I ran into is that I don’t actually have a flute with me, and so couldn’t fulfill the performance requirement of the assignment.

After realizing that I couldn’t actually use a flute in my piece, I tried to come up with something based on it that could be used with the voice or any instrument. This was how I eventually arrived at my final score. One thing that I remember very clearly about band and orchestra is that many pieces ended with the flutes holding a ridiculously high note for several measures. This note was almost always just long enough that nobody had the lung capacity to finish it, but it also rarely had a good place where we could drop out and breathe in the middle. When these notes came up, I remember that I would pour every last bit of breath into them, and then even when my lungs felt like they had collapsed, I would sometimes find that I could keep going for just a bit longer to finish up the piece.

Documentation: (a video of a solo performance of the score)  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2RfICEbuIW5TlZDRVhYQVMzU3c

Whenever the mood strikes, write down the last five things that made you smile.

Draw those five things interacting with each other while participating in one of the following activities:
1) throwing a party
2) taking a nap
3) solving a mystery
4) posing for a photo
5) playing a board game
6) relaxing at the beach

note: if none of these scenes appeal to you, you may choose to draw your five things in any situation you desire

Once completed, stash the drawing away in a place you can easily find later.

On a sad day, pull out the drawing and remember the things that made you happy.

Smile.

PROCESS

My score was mainly inspired by Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit. As I was reading through it, I noticed that most of her scores had some sort of therapeutic property to them. Whether it be screaming into sky or shooting a hundred panes of glass, there always seemed to be something cathartic to finishing one of her scores. I wanted to try and capture this healing element – boil this essence down into an easily achievable activity for a kind of instant relief.

I was also compelled to try and make the piece something to do in solitude. In some scores like “Tunafish Sandwich Piece”, I felt a quiet, meditative sort of vibe. I wanted my score to also involve this sense of self-reflection – a moment to yourself surrounded by good thoughts. The resulting artwork is something made by and made for yourself. It’s possible to share the drawing after the score is completed, but what’s more important is the process of taking a step back and reflecting on what makes you happy.

With that in mind, I made the first iteration of my score. Initially, I had it so that the person completing the piece would roll a dice to decide which scene they would draw their objects in. But as I tried it out for myself, I found myself re-rolling a bunch of times anyways because I didn’t feel like drawing whatever it was I had gotten. In the end, I made the scenarios into more of a guideline instead of a necessity. It just felt sort of silly to try and force people into drawing something they didn’t want to in what was supposed to be a therapeutic activity.

Another thing that got altered was a small phrase at the beginning at the piece. “Whenever the mood strikes” was initially “On a good/happy day”. But, again, as I was testing, I realized that this should happen naturally. I actually tried out the score on a day where I wasn’t feeling too great and found that it helped take my mind off things. I was so focused on tracing over my memories and drawing them into the scene that it sort of drowned out any negative thoughts I had at the time. I never did get around to trying this on a “happy” day, but I can assume that it would have a different vibe to it. It might be worth testing out in the future.

Oh, and here’s a link to the image I ended up drawing. It’s kind of an eclectic mix considering I had just been scrolling through the internet at random at the time, but I feel like that adds a fun element to the piece. It would be interesting to see how different people fit their objects into their scenes and what kinds of interactions come out of it.

Score:

To be done with one other person for the optimal experience. 

Share a happy memory with your partner. On the canvas, they should draw a flower in response.
Switch roles.
Grow your garden until the canvas is filled.
Exchange light touches.
Take the canvas with you on your way.

Artist’s Statement:

This piece was a culmination of many parts of the class. One significant inspiration was Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit. A lot of the works contained within seemed to offer unconventional instructions for happiness. For example, I quite enjoyed “MAILING PIECE I”, which goes “send a sound of a smile”.  I liked the sort of intangible synesthesia aspect of it, and I wanted to take that sort of mixed up positive feeling and solidify it. Hence – envisioning memories as flowers. It’s here where I tried to incorporate the material I read in the first chapter of Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life.  “Art […] is experience” was a quote that I agreed with a lot, as well as how Fluxus as an “anart” phenomenon reflected the existence of an ever-changing self in an ever-changing world. I wanted my piece to have a self-reflection aspect to it, where the participants could take a moment to really think of what kinds of solid moments from their pasts brought them joy. I also wanted my piece to be able to bring people together, since I think that a piece of both games and art that is often overlooked is the interaction of people through them.

Positive growth from games and art is something that I really wish for others to achieve after experiencing any kind of artistic piece I create. I want people to be able to love each other and themselves more! And I thought, “Okay. Well, how do people grow closer?” Through shared experiences! So I decided that the participants of this score should share their best experiences with each other. I thought it would also be very interesting for the person listening to portray how they interpreted the event, since everyone experiences things differently. The storyteller may have thought of their own memory as a passionate red kind of experience, but the listener might connect it to a different color or texture. This is why I left the “canvas” portion of the instructions vague and unspecified. I hope that people who attempt to do this with each other will experiment with materials are used to create their shared memories.

Since I was so focused on growth, I decided that a good way to represent this piece was through flowers. Everyone can create a simple flower and can use the basic concept of a flower to create something new. I thought that it would be absolutely lovely to have a physical, tangible garden of happy thoughts.

I added on the second to last step, because I wanted to increase the intimacy of this piece. Throughout the enactment of “Growth”, it is unlikely that the participants would actively seek to touch each other, unless they already knew each other very well. I wanted to end the piece with a sort of culmination of the physical. From intangible thoughts to interpreted creation to simple touch between people. A closing of the distance, in a way.

Then, the last step. I myself am uncertain of all of the different ways that last step could turn out! I want to see how people interpret it, how people choose to part ways after such an intimate meeting, how people choose to bring this new memory with them. I really hope that this game piece seems full of love!

Documentation:

I performed this in class with Marina. We were limited by time restraints, but I was still very pleased with the results! I shared two of my happy memories (going to the beach this summer – leftmost flower, and Chinatown a couple of weeks ago – rightmost flower), and Marina shared one of hers (getting her puppy – center flower). She brushed my arm very lightly at the end, and I returned the gesture. Marina took the paper with her to keep.

Even without performing the piece in its entirety, it was still a very joyful experience!