Simplicity

On enjoying the little things in life.

#Unconcealed: Interactive Performance Art Exploring Domestic Violence

The final group project for my Interactive Arts class was to create an interactive art piece. Wasn’t exactly a surprise given the course description. Also not a surprise was my excitement over this project.

I lucked out an found an awesome group. Like me, they wanted to create an art piece with an activist aspect to it. Our performance piece, entitled #Unconcealable, explored the effects of domestic violence and the scars that never leave a person. 

The video really describes it best.

Did I mention I was the performer? And I looked terrifying? So bad I shocked many people and my former professor almost walked into a wall because she was too busy staring at me?

Thank you to the fantastic group that put this together with me!

 

I Capture the Castle

My final project for Communications 226 secretly has a bit of my heart and soul in it. A scene from Dodie Smith’s novel, I Capture the Castle, was the basis for my original screenplay. The novel always stuck out to me as unique and quirky, quickly becoming one of my all time favourites . It had been years since I read it but I knew I would never forget the scene where a young Cassandra falls in love with her sister’s fiance. As I debated what novel I would use for the screenplay, I Capture the Castle was something I toyed with throughout the semester. So when it came to crunch time, I went all out for it. I was just heartbroken I wouldn’t be able to use an actual castle in the movie if it ever became a film.

When my class started selecting what films they wanted to work on, I was ecstatic when someone picked my little, cute and creepy idea. When all was said and done, I had a stellar team to work with who took my original work and made it so much better. With some struggle we managed to convince two great actors to work on it with only the promise of pizza. One perfect day of shooting later, editing couldn’t have gone better. I was so lucky with this project. I am amazed at the great 5 minute film we have and just wish we had time (and money) to make a whole movie!

Thank you to all involved: Tristan, Ayla, Joe, Sanj, AJ, Gabe, Natalie, Nicole, Flora you were all fantastic!

Capitalism and Evil

I don’t equate capitalism and evil. They’re just very close.

 

My Communications 226 professor shared this beautiful little tidbit with our class last Friday. To be honest, I wasn’t fully paying attention and my ears only perked up at this line. So I may have misquoted him only slightly. But what I heard tugged at my heart-strings and was one of those ‘ah-ha!’ moments for me. That is exactly how I feel. A moment of epiphany.

Not exactly equal. Just very, very close.

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“To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are. Modern environments and experiences cut across all boundaries … ; in this sense, modernity can be said to unite all mankind. But it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish. To be modern is to be part of a universe in which, as Marx said, ‘all that is solid melts into air’”.”

—	Marshall Berman. From Communications 221 by Stuart Poyntz