Author: Anne

My first impression of Marina Abramović’s performance works is that they blur the line between Life and art.  When she performs for a long period of time, or alongside someone she is close to , it becomes difficult to separate where reality ends and performance begins.

Abramovic’s works often convey the idea that art is experiencing life itself. She focuses on simple feelings and experiences, breaking them down in order to dissect their depth. The body is a central focus in her art, pushing the idea that to make art is to embrace the human experience. This is taken even further in The Artist Is Present (2010), where for three months she sat silently across from strangers, doing “nothing.” One of the questions this piece forces us to ask is : if art represents the human experience, what does it mean when the artist presents us with stillness itself? Her works, especially those involving fasting or long stretches of repetition, ask people to slow down and recognize the beauty and complexity of what is simple.

In the documentary, Marina’s works were described as “interventions,” and that description stuck with me. Her performances place both herself and her audience in situations that have never been experienced before, pushing the boundaries of life and feeling. Rhythm 0 (1974) is an excellent example. For six hours, she offered her body to the audience, along with seventy-two different objects. Questions are raised like; what will you do if you are given permission? The work reveals how quickly mob mentality can take ahold, whether people become cruel because others already are, or hesitate because they are being watched. It also makes us reflect on our nature as a species, on what we are capable of when barriers are removed. 

The First step I took for this assignment was to track my heart rate while running a kilometer on an inclined treadmill. I checked my BPM every thirty seconds, and ran for a total of nine minutes, and calculated the number of heartbeats in each interval. To get the thirty beats per second, I divided the heart rate by two. The cumulative number was a total of 1386 beats during the Run.

Using this Data, I started to reflect on the best way to visually represent the story my heart beat is telling and after playing around with a few ideas I landed on the EKG heart symbol. With the design finalized, I transferred it onto a small linoleum block and carved it out using a lino Tool . I had to make sure to carve out the mirror image of what i wanted, since i would be using the stamp to print.

Before I started stamping, I needed to plan the layout of my book. I was Able to Fit eleven rows of six stamps on each page, which meant 66 stamps per page. Dividing the total number of heart beats (1386)  by the number of rows (11) gave me 126 rows. Then dividing 126 by the number of stamps in a row (6) gave me 21full Pages of stamps 

1386/11 = 126

126/6 = 21

With everything prepared, I began the stamping process. I applied Ink to my linoleum block and carefully placed it onto each page of the book. Stamping each heartbeat involved pressing down my full body weight to ensure the ink transferred properly, meaning I stepped on every single stamp with my heel. The physical effort of standing up and down for several hours was surprisingly tiring and definitely took more effort than the run itself. As I stamped on the Images, I started to run lower and lower on ink. I found that I was starting to get tired at around the same time the ink started giving up on me. I then bound the pages together so that they could be viewed as a collective unit.

This Project, representing a kilometer, pushed me to reflect on the subjective and contextual nature of distance. Measurement is influenced by perspectives and requires interpretation.

For this assignment, I aimed  to take the objective  nature of measurement and contrast it with subjective elements. On one hand, the measuring of the heart beats involves precise quantifiable data like BPM (beats per minute) which are purely objective. On the other hand, the way that the data is interpreted introduces a subjective perspective. The work might bring up questions about the artist’s health and fitness and the impact of constant self monitoring.

Exploring heart beat measurements taught me about the limitations of quantitative data and the benefit of individual interpretation

Michelle Wilson (with Robert Grandjambe Sr. & Quill Smallboy)

Robert

One of the works I selected was Michelle Wilson’s “Robert” , created in collaboration with Robert Grandjambe Sr. and Quill Smallboy. This piece drew me in because of its textile and auditory dimensions.. The piece is a wolverine hide stretched in drum-like fashion. Conductive thread and embedded hardware is what allows viewers to activate recorded stories by gently touching the hide, transforming it into what the artist calls a living sound map.

This interactive aspect made me think about how trust works in both art and community . By inviting viewers to touch something as delicate as a wolverine hide, there needs to be a sense  sense of responsibility and respect.

The stories by Grandjambe Sr. pushes this sense of connection. Listening to his voice, I notticed how storytelling becomes a form of connection and conservation. One story that stood out to me was when Grandjambe described walking behind his grandfather, stepping into his footprints in the snow. The image/Idea of inherited rhythm, of learning the land through movement really resonated with. In these stories, he spoke of trust: trust in himself, trust in the land, and trust in his community.

Glenn Gear

nailliunet

Gear’s “nailliunet” stood out to me for its engagement with land as a form of conservation. Rather than documenting or aestheticizing the natural world from afar, the work emerges with it t. Gear uses sound and moving image to create an atmosphere that feels alive. The title, meaning “places,” emphasizes connection to specific locations and memorys. ,surrounded by layered visuals and with soft music being played, I felt pulled into state that invited slowing down and noticing.

. In my practice, I try to immobilize or capture fleeting moments in nature to draw attention to them, to encourage observation and appreciation through stillness. Gear pushes this idea further by depicting conservation not as stillness or preservation, but as a relationship or an ongoing act of attention, collaboration, and respect. It made me think about how I might more actively engage with the environments I depict, rather than only observing them.

Reworldings as a whole reminded me that art can repair relationships—between people, places, and histories. Both Gear’s and Wilson’s works demonstrate that conservation isn’t about separation or preservation from a distance, but that it is about relationships. I left the exhibition thinking differently about what it means to engage with the natural world through art. Rather than capturing moments in time, I want to create works that listen and collaborate.

For this assignment my group chose the action of putting headphones on. In the raw Footage, I repeatedly put headphones on over my ears, each time getting to hear a new song.. Because there was little sound in the video, the audiences focus is drawn to my expressions, leaving them to wonder what i might be listening to. The goal was for me to respond to the songs naturally rather than dramatically, so it was my first time hearing the playlist of songs that was put together. Capturing this footage was Slightly stressful because it had to be done all in one take to keep my reactions authentic.

In the edited version, our goal was to emphasize sound and environment. We layered featured songs over the original footage and experimented with changing the backgrounds to match the tone of each of the tracks. Filming in all the different locations was tedious but definitely worth it. We were limited to filming near the school for times sake, but this ended giving us a variety of backrounds that are familliar to the audience. Unfortunatley, a lot of the footage we filmed had to be cut from the final edited version. Some of them were not up to par quality wise while others just didnt fit with the songs like we thought they would. Including smooth transitions between the original video and the new backgrounds really made everything fit together nicley.

I was in charge of creating the final rotoscope animation, which I did using Procreate Dreams. Learning this software for the first time was definitely a challenge, especially since I had a very ambitious idea for the animation. I could not figure out a way to organize my tracks properly so my workspace became a bit overwhellming. However, Once i started working on the video one conpentnet of the body at a time rather than one frame at a time, the process became a lot faster and more consistent. My Idea for the animation was to focus on the action (putting headphones on)  itself, rather than the expressions, backroud or sound like the previous videos. to do this, I used a small, detailed brush for the headphones and loose, messy strokes for everything else. the Bright white outline of the headphones against the deep navy blue backround created a contrast deffinetly helped draw the viewers eyes.

Overall, I’m really proud of the final result. Our team was super dedicated, willing to spend extra time filming and constantly bringing new ideas to the table. Even though our project didn’t fully follow the guidelines ( filming in the photo studio) , I think our approach was worth it and ultimately paid off. Each of our videos contributes something unique to the project, but they also stand strongly on their own.

. I found myself reflecting on the connection Oliveros made between listening and consciousness. She views listening as something far beyond the physical act of hearing. To listen is to be present and to give thought and meaning to what is being heard. For her, listening is a form of learning, and learning leads to becoming a more empathetic and spiritual person. As a classically trained artist, she desired to find freedom outside of what was accepted and used her work to explore sound as both an experience and a connection to the environment and community.

In the documentary, she describes how her works create a relationship with the environment they are performed in, using it almost as an instrument. Her recollection of the building shaking when she plays comes to mind as an example of the deep connection between space and sound in her work. I also think about the role of technology in her practice and in our general perception of sound. When interviewed, Oliveros talks about how, despite there being no physical changes to our hearing, technology is changing the way we listen and experience sound.

I think the rapid progression of technology is something that can be intimidating for artists, regardless of their medium. It’s refreshing to see someone embrace it so openly as a tool and an opportunity to expand their art. The microphone for example, is a tool that has the ability to register sounds that we cant and allows us to not only hear, but liten to sounds we didn’t have access to before and therefore grow as people. 

Bacterial and UV Art