Fall 2019 Arts and Activism

I was one of the leaders for the visit to LFCSA. I made cuts for the scenes and stapled all the scenes. I helped to facilitate conversation and corresponded with the group. I created the survey for everyone to fill out. When at LFCSA, I worked as the leader for the Acting group until everyone had arrived. In retrospect, we as a group should have made a PDF labeling each person with their roles and what they were going to contribute, because it was hard to keep people accountable for the work they said they would do, so Sophia or I ended up doing it. That would definitely have helped the project run more smoothly. The workshop itself was so fun. The students were so wonderful, and I had a great time learning from the kids and watching them create.

Vision in Motion László Moholy-Nagy was an artist in the Bauhaus school, who was heavily influenced by the ideals of constructivism. In his work Vision in Motion , in the abstract he writes about the roles of an artist and the definition of social order of mid-20th century life. Some of the takeaways from it are: “...the content of art is basically not different from the content of our other utterances…” He opens this up by defining Hitler's degenerate art as him reacting to the reality around him. If art is not different from our sayings, then art is simply a reflection of the world around us. This is defined in his next point: “...art is produced mainly by subconscious organisation of the means implicit in the cultural and social setting of the period.” By reiterating the previous point, art to László is always within a framework or a context, and that can be defined by the period the artists is in and the interactions that the artist will have with the world a...

After reading the twelve steps or rather the twelve guiding principles, I could tell immediately that this subject matter must be heavy and weighted in its real life stakes. The 4th principle of “The Blessing is at the Center of the Wound” is just one example showing that work and the subject matters involved are in fact deeply rooted and a touchy area to say the least.  As an actor I can relate to this truth when creating art whose aim is to change perspectives. While reading “Sucking Water from Mud” I couldn’t stop thinking about how sensitive of a subject matter this event is. Dealing with personal aspects when creating art is truly the center of the matter, where the heart of the story is. Without digging into the core of what’s important, art is general and meaningless

While reading Roberta Uno’s “Steps Toward a New World” I kept going back to my sensibilities as an actor and the tools and words I use to describe being the best actor your could be. With each chapter in the excerpt, I was reminded of the power in trusting the piece, the art, having it stand as the impetus for its creation. Telling a story can be difficult if personal experiences and biases get mixed together. Roberta creates a kind of theater for the new world through her story telling. She understands the significance of what she is making in its specific moment in time, thinking about its effects that it leaves on people. Her work she writes about tends to have a strong sense of identity whatever that may be. 

Context with art especially art installations or gallery/ sculpture spaces is a fundamental aspect of the presentation. To not be aware of the context in which one is placed or sanctioned a space is quite risky and could be perceived as ignorant from a bystanders position, for example a piece in a museum will have a different impact on the viewer given the context. In a museum there is a widely understood objective with the art given the space compared to a public space in a park. This can play out in extreme favor or detriment to an artists and their work.  

Michael   Week 3 Sep 25  While taking the hidden bias test I went into the it overestimating my bias. There were times where I wouldn’t match the image with the associated image of a persons face. The nature of the test itself in its design is banally straightforward, so it made me take it pretty serious. In relation to arts and activism and biases we face, I resonated with the article as well. That these prejudices bare manifested and created from a very young age due to a particular moment, most likely subconscious, and that these become gradually established behaviors.  With art there is responsibility in starting this discussion.   

Theses on the Paris Commune - a list of critiques of the Paris Commune Militancy is essential to a revolutions' success Organization is essential even though leadership is not Spontaneity is the heart of successful revolution Centrists suck The Commune may have failed in intention but it succeeded in proving that community based revolution and action was both possible and within reach of the common man. Popotla - activist group organized protest of Titantic film set and abuse of surrounding environments Involvement of local communities Creation of art in conjunction with political action Use of media to raise awareness Create art for/with people affected rather than about them for a third party audience Artist can involve the audience without sacrificing their artistic integrity