Hope you enjoy, and thank you again. HUZZAH
Weekly Statement: Not having a bed time makes art experience more difficult.
Monday June 20th
Title: “Sheets and Limbs”
Instructions: Wear all green. Bring the leftover white packaging sheets folded neatly in a pile onto the stage. One at a time, open them up, move them around with intention, and discover puppetry/costuming/miming opportunities. Once a few have been opened, feel free to combine. Perhaps develop from slow to fast. Perhaps fold them all back in a tidy pile before the timer goes off.
Rehearsal discoveries: the powers of repetition, pacing, multiple limbs balancing on one foot. The scarves and ones with the slits are nice for framing the face.
Performance write up: That was very nerve-wracking. The more nervous I was, the more I returned to the viewpoint that my own nervousness was an art piece I was getting to witness from the inside, and that’s trippy as hell. I wanted it to be like yoga. I wanted to enjoy it, feel the nervousness, have fun, let go, balance, and figure it out. I think I did. It was fun.
View on Youtube -----> https://youtu.be/Auh6F6dSrJY
Tuesday June 21st
Title: “Lay the Canvas”
Instructions: objects: jar full of sand. A few glass containers. Water. Jar full of sand, pour out slowly into hand and onto hands. Play with sand. Draw shapes, blow away, claw, pat even. A few glass containers full of water. Pour water from one glass container to another. Pour sand into the glass containers of water. Behold all of it.
Rehearsal discoveries: One at a time, sand then water. Water then sand. Mix. Enjoy. Texture. Be influenced by the sound of the drilling next door if it may come. Say yes to everything. Marvel. Be an example of marvel. Try not to spill everywhere. The performance is right in front of you. The performance is inside your fingers. It’s anywhere right? Is this even a performance? Yeah, I guess.
Performance write up: Once again a bit nervous and through nervousness, a bit clumsy feeling. How am I supposed to feel when I “perform?” There seems to be an efficiency/skilled/alignment-leaning answer from common glance, but the creed is that everything is art. Experiencing imbalance made me feel like I should have maintained more balance on both my feet. In one way, the art was this reminder or lesson. In another, the imbalance simply was the art. Become a Patron and View on Patreon -----> https://www.patreon.com/TenAmStudio?fan_landing=true
Wednesday June 22nd
Title: “Moving a Voice” featuring Katherine Berns
Instructions: 2 People. Person 1 creates 4 distinct movements, demonstrating each one at a time to Person 2. Person 2 comes up with a vocal sound to represent the motions. Use repetition to rehearse together. Once the four motions and sounds are established and unified, Person 1 “plays” the vocal sound of Person 2 by performing the 4 movements in any order with any pacing. After about 5 min, this task is repeated with the roles switched and a new set of motions and sounds. Then back and forth role switching with a call and response element in mind.
Rehearsal discoveries: did not rehearse
Performance write up: Lexi: The performance was fun, goofy, and a little stressful. I mean we’ve got these loud ass construction happenings that, of course, are also art (:P) but contributed to my concern that people wouldn’t hear all of the sounds we were making. Another factor is the memory base of the game requiring a more present mind. I was a little hungover and slept 4.5 hours, so I forgot the 3rd sound I had made. I think Katie realized this and avoided that sound. Which is great. I never asked her. Hmm. It’s a fun game, nonetheless, and I hope people play it. I really would like to share the game itself as an option for doing at social gatherings or just instead of tv.
Katie: Ha! This felt like an exercise in memory for sure– not only memorizing the movements I had made myself, but the sounds I had paired with Lexi’s movements as well. I would love to watch it back and see how the sounds may have morphed throughout each 5 min set. I could feel how the vocal responses changed as they interacted with one another repetitively, some becoming more fluid, while others more punctuated, or atmospheric. Maybe this is in my head, maybe this only lasted 2 seconds in our experience, but in any case, it was nice to learn in those moments that the sounds you establish at the beginning would need to have some harmonic elements and some textural elements to make a dynamic soundscape. I think it would be harder to remember if they were all harmonic (although beautiful) but wouldn’t feel as filled out if they were all textural.
After the sounds were in place, it was fun to get into making a soundscape. That’s when the game really got juicy for me. Whoever was moving became the ultimate composer; dictating not only the visualscape but also in charge of filling this time with something sonically interesting based on the limited sounds defined in the first minute or so.
I remember during my 5 mins as Person 1, after establishing the movements and “rehearsing” their corresponding sounds with Lexi, I felt the urge to create something beautiful with it. Lexi’s strength is definitely in the vocal realm and I felt like she gave me a really nice variety of sounds to work with. If something could be silly and melancholic at the same time, that’s how it felt.
When it came time to be Person 2, I watched Lexi do movements that to me felt very textural. I responded with sounds instinctually, guess what… they all came out very textural. Like I was saying earlier, I think in this moment I realized I should have been more harmonic with some of my responses. My limited vocal projections made it harder to create that more filled out soundscape I was talking about. I wonder if this made it hard for Lexi to conduct a piece of music, limited to the “popopopops” and “shooook” that I gave her? HA. I’ll need to ask her. It felt a lot more absurd and comical, but then again this may be due to a number of factors.
At any rate, I’d love to do this again! I knew before going into this that we would end up laughing at some point, and I think we both held out for a long as we could! We jumped into this with no practice, no rehearsal, just an idea. I’d love to see how it would evolve if given the opportunity to get past the giggles, or even dig into the giggles even more? ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN. Thanks Lex for having me! I want to see what other beautiful, melancholic, absurdity we can create next.
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Thursday June 23rd
Title: “Super vibe dance party with a plant”
Instructions: .
Rehearsal discoveries: Set a stage: It looks cool. Write the title on the board: it feels like people will understand. Using a playlist I made called “Fun party chill” and wearing headphones because I imagine there is copyright stuff I don’t want to deal with. Also, the silence factor for the audience makes it extra special. I am dancing with the plant. Not around it. Wearing a groovy outfit seems appropriate for the vibe.
Performance write up: it’s summer and it’s hot, and I got pretty hot at some point and told the plant all about it. It’s nice to think how everyone on the street cannot hear anything from me but in the video if I choose not to take audio off, you can hear me talking to the plant Between songs staying vibey reMarks. There were a couple moments where I wanted to play and to those hits and cues of the song but I misinterpreted where the drop was going to be on one of them and I just pretended like I didn’t to the audience since no one can hear me and I didn’t want to look dumb. Definitely can’t get away with that in a real life dance party so that’s a funny pacific very specific kind of happening. Become a Patron and View on Patreon -----> https://www.patreon.com/TenAmStudio?fan_landing=true
Friday June 24th
Title: “3 Nice Things”
Instructions: Table with 3 things vocal improv with vocal pedal. Set up 3 items (Glass of wine, jar of water, bag of chocolate) on a table. Spend 5 min singing/consuming/hanging heart to heart with each thing.
Rehearsal discoveries: 5 min of remembering how to properly loop and turn FX off and on.
Performance write up: This one felt different because my primary artistic craft is vocalizing and music. The use of rhythm and melody were so familiar to me and therefore a comforting element. I love wine. I love chocolate and water. I created the experience for myself to enjoy 3 nice things, and I did enjoy it and them. This performance was inspired by romance. I thought I would improvise entirely, but during the glass of water, two of the diddy’s I’ve had circling in my head for months came to me. I wanted to be authentic in what I was hearing, so I sang the diddy’s “You, joy, I could put more in. Every time I remember, I forget,” and “I want to kill that man...” Perhaps it was the memory of water triggering them. Perhaps. I am so proud of all of these performance this week, but getting to do one representative of my skill set felt special and prouder in a different scope of time. Did not use table. View on Youtube -----> https://youtu.be/BePckujnUuw
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