Hi! My name is Kate and I am from Oakville, Ontario! I am currently in my fourth year at the university of Guelph, majoring in Studio Art.

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“The Artist is Present” Documentary Reflection

2. What have you learned about features of performance art based on Abramovic’s work? Name a few key features according to her precedents. Include an image to illustrate. Consider her quote, “When you perform it is a knife, and your blood, when you act it is a fake knife and ketchup”.

Some key features of performance art that I’ve learned through watching Marina Abramović’s work in her documentary include vulnerability and risk. Vulnerability appears in a literal sense, through nudity and the use of the body as a medium for self-expression, but also through the emotional rawness of Marina’s work. Her performances often draw from personal narratives, exploring past relationships or deeply personal themes she wishes to test or better understand. Another major feature of performance art is risk. Unlike acting, which is based in fiction, performance art blurs the line between art and reality. This idea is reflected in Marina’s quote: “When you perform, it is a knife and your blood. When you act, it is a fake knife and ketchup“. With acting, there is less at stake, nothing real to lose, and sometimes not much to gain. But in performance art, the artist often pushes their physical and mental boundaries to extreme and unimaginable levels. In her piece The Artist is Present, Marina sat silently across from anyone in the audience who chose to sit with her. Participants could stay for as long as they wanted, engaging in silent, face-to-face interaction. She became a mirror, offering each person her full attention, empathy, and presence. The emotional intensity of these encounters was profound, often leading to tears or deep reflection. Remarkably, Marina treated each individual with equal respect and care, taking on their emotional energy and making them feel truly seen, even as strangers. The reactions of the participants were authentic and deeply in-the-moment. One of the most powerful aspects of performance art is that the audience becomes part of the piece. There is no real script, and each performance is unique and unrepeatable. Often controversial, performance art usually carries a message or provokes thought, aiming to create a lasting impact.

3. Discuss ways performance art resists many museum and commercial artworld conventions. How does Abramovic solve/negotiate some of these challenges, and do you find these compromises add to, or undermine the ideas at play in her work?

Performance art resists many traditional museum and commercial art world conventions because it is not something tangible. Unlike a painting like the Mona Lisa, it isn’t meant to hang on a wall or be collected as an artifact. It is not static, it thrives on movement and interaction. Often, the artist’s body becomes the medium, and the audience serves as a participant or point of contact. Performance art challenges conventional definitions of art, often sparking the question: “What is art?” or “What makes something art?” Unlike traditional forms that may require years of technical training, performance art is driven more by purpose and intention. What matters most is having a cause you’re passionate about and a message you’re determined to express or explore. Rather than existing for passive consumption, performance art centers on experience, sometimes an uncomfortable one. It provokes engagement and encourages dialogue, giving the audience something to reflect on or even be unsettled by. Because it lacks physical form, performance art is fleeting; it can’t be repeated in the exact same way. This stands in stark contrast to traditional artworks that remain on display for decades, fixed and unchanging. Marina Abramović addresses the challenges of this impermanence by documenting her performances. In some of her exhibitions, she shows compilations of past works through video, allowing a broader audience to access experiences they may have missed in real time. In her documentary, we also see her teaching others to recreate some of her earlier performances, which were then presented as a live exhibition. These methods make her work more accessible. However, this also raises the question, by making performance art something you can re-watch, does it lose some of its unique impact? The “awe factor” of witnessing something live is diluted when it can be watched over and over again.

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Assignment One: 1 KM

The Yarn Wall

Reflection

For my 1 km project, I decided to gather all the yarn I had lying around and measure out 39,370 inches—the equivalent of one kilometer. My ruler was 18 inches long, so I divided 39,370 by 18, which gave me approximately 2,187. That meant I had to measure my yarn 2,187 times. It was definitely time-consuming, but I think it was worth it in the end!

Once I had measured and unraveled all the yarn, it was time for the fun part. I began hanging it up on a blank wall in my room using masking tape. I started by attempting to create a flower, but quickly realized it was far too time-intensive. So instead, I shifted to hanging larger chunks of yarn to create a background that covered more space followed by adding in more details later.

I didn’t follow a plan, everything was guided by intuition. I taped the yarn wherever it felt right, and once the tape was down, I never moved it. I wanted the installation to feel organic and unedited, focusing on abstract shapes and loose ends.

What I found most fulfilling was making something tangible out of measurement, something we usually think of as numerical. Working with yarn allowed me to see the concept of measurement take shape in my own hands, inch by inch, in a slow process.

After receiving feedback during the critique, I do wish I had kept my video in real time instead of speeding it up. It would have better conveyed the slow, seemingly endless nature of the work, the feeling of constantly asking myself, “Is this it? Am I finally done?” It was a time-consuming process, but deeply rewarding.

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Turning The Gestures of Everyday Life Into Art Reflection

1. Describe the work discussed in the article and the unique
challenges – as well as the unique gifts- that come with attempting to archive personal movements?

In the article discussing Katja Heitman’s work Motus Mori, she explores how each person expresses emotion through unique mannerisms and forms of touch, making every interaction deeply personal. It reminded me of an experiment I once saw on YouTube, where blindfolded individuals hugged a lineup of strangers, with one loved one hidden among them. Many could identify the person dear to them, showing how touch, as well as scent and texture, are deeply personalized. These unconscious habits often go unnoticed by the person themselves but are clearly recognized by those who know them well. Heitman believes that everyone has at least one gesture uniquely their own, highlighting her belief that “no two bodies move the same way.” One challenge she encountered in capturing this authenticity was during formal interviews, where participants became overly self-aware. As a result, their movements appeared filtered and polite, losing the candidness Heitman sought to document.

2. Discuss one or two examples of movements in the article – what strikes you about them?

Two movements described in the article that stood out to me were Tjan’s unconscious habit of making himself appear smaller in public and Arab’s constant knuckle-cracking. I admired how, after becoming aware of this tendency, Tjan chose to challenge it by buying the brightest jacket he could find, intentionally making his presence louder and impossible to overlook. Similarly, I found it powerful that Arab gained a new understanding of his so-called “anxiety hands.” What may have once seemed like a negative, his habitual knuckle-cracking is now something he views differently, something personal and uniquely his, a gesture he can take ownership of rather than feel ashamed about.

3. Describe the habitual movements/unconscious gestures, tics etc. of 3 people you know well. How do individual body parts move, and how does the whole body interact? What about facial expressions, and emotional valence of the movement? How does body type inform the movement? What do these examples of small movements mean and imply?

One habitual movement my little sister does is twirl her hair into a tight twist, then thread the end through the center and pull it until it snaps with a loud pop. It honestly drives me crazy—I’m always telling her to stop, but she never realizes she’s doing it! It usually happens when we’re deep in conversation and she’s fully focused. Her fingers and hair move in a repetitive rhythm, almost like a little dance.

One habitual gesture my mom does is unconsciously bites her pointer fingernail when she’s thinking hard or feeling slightly nervous. I don’t think she’s aware of it, but for me, it’s a clear sign that she’s overthinking or feeling uneasy.

My best friend has her own set of stress signals. She cracks her knuckles on both hands when she’s overwhelmed, moving quickly from finger to finger and returning to any that didn’t crack the first time. Sometimes her face even flushes slightly while she does it—another subtle sign that she’s under pressure.

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AGG Field Trip Reflection

The first piece I chose to reflect on is Bison Survival Story Robe by Adrian Stimson. This work tells the story of the Pablo-Allard herd, which played a crucial role in repopulating the nearly extinct bison species. Stimson depicts this powerful history through a pictograph painting on the robe, highlighting the resilience and survival of the bison. I was moved by this depiction. The bison were once hunted to the brink of extinction, yet a small group managed to survive and ultimately restore their population. Their story is one of strength, endurance, and hope. This piece has inspired me to pay closer attention to stories of resilience especially those connected to the environment. It reminds me that even small efforts can lead to meaningful recovery and change.

The second piece I chose was by artist Sheri Osden Nault. When I first encountered the work, I mistook the sculptures for real animal skulls. However, I soon learned they were actually crafted from unfired clay mixed with seeds and soil. Molded from an actual bison skull, the sculptures are life-sized, which gives them a strikingly realistic appearance. Each skull is hollow and designed to be filled with mulch before being placed in the artist’s garden. Over time, they will slowly decompose and return to the earth, allowing wildflowers and local medicinal plants to grow from within them. It’s a powerful representation of the circle of life, cultural influence and giving back to the Earth, which gives us so much in return. I’m very inspired by the way this piece captures transformation over time. It reminds me of the ways in which life, death, and regeneration are connected.

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Video Assignment: When Fragility Meets Destruction

Video 1:

Video 2:

Animation:

Reflection

Our gesture involved plucking petals from a bouquet of flowers, an action often seen as “cliché,” typically associated with hyper-feminine characters in films uttering the phrase, “He loves me, he loves me not.” We wanted to challenge and subvert this picturesque image of delicate beauty by, for lack of a better word, destroying it.

In our first unedited video, we captured the simple act of stripping a flower of its petals one by one. Visually, it’s quite a beautiful image, the petals slowly drifting out of frame. We deliberately chose the most socially accepted “feminine” flower we could find, one that was pink with lots of petals. The pacing is slow and unhurried, creating enough space between each pluck to almost imagine the iconic words being spoken.

For our second video, we took a very different approach. We shot a variety of clips and edited them into fast, jarring cuts to create a sense of chaos, almost aggression. My slow, gentle plucking evolved into breaking, twisting, snapping, pulling, and ripping. Instead of petals gracefully falling like they’re drifting into sleep, they’re violently thrown behind me, bouncing off the floor. In one moment, I cradle the flowers softly in my arms; in the next, the stems are snapped in half. Rather than removing petals one at a time, I grab entire blooms and tear them apart. In doing this, we aimed to challenge traditional notions of femininity by adopting a more “masculine” approach. The final shot shows petals scattered at my feet as I walk out of the frame, leaving them behind as if they are something to be discarded.

We also paid close attention to sound while filming. We chose movements that produced the loudest, most impactful noises, which complemented the fast-paced editing. As a result, the second video developed a kind of rhythm, with a range of sounds, some soft and sprinkling, others sharp and snapping. To enhance this rhythm and add emphasis, we repeated certain clips multiple times throughout the video.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the project was filming in the studio. We had fun experimenting with the camera and finding interesting shots and angles. With Michelle’s guidance, we noticed after importing our footage into DaVinci Resolve that, while the lighting was even and well-executed, the contrast was a bit high. We adjusted the settings in the software, toning it down to improve clarity and crispness.

For the animation, we decided to take a more realistic approach, staying close to the look and feel of the original video. We zoomed in and cropped the clips to focus attention on the movement happening in my hands. In hindsight, the section we chose to animate may not have been the most effective, particularly in how it looked when reversed for the loop. The difference between the original and the reversed version wasn’t as striking as we’d hoped, so that part fell a little flat visually in my opinion.

Pauline Oliveros Documentary

Reflection Question:
Reflect on your own experiences of listening, to sound, to others, to your environment, or to yourself. How does Oliveros’s idea of deep listening challenge the way you typically give attention? In what ways might listening through your whole body, or approaching sound as a form of play and research, change your understanding of connection, communication, or creativity?

Oliveros’s idea of Deep Listening challenges the way I typically give attention to the sounds around me. It makes me realize that I often experience sound passively, hearing voices in conversation, music playing in the background, or the ambient noises of nature like wind or rustling trees. I notice these sounds only on the surface, as if they’re just happening around me all the time, but I’m not truly listening to them, not noticing how they make me feel, their rhythms and pauses, the power of silence or the relationships they create.

For Oliveros, Deep Listening is about cultivating a deeper awareness. It’s not about concentrating harder or trying to analyze every vibration, but about opening yourself up to the subtle sounds that usually go unnoticed. Sound, for her, becomes a kind of meditation, a form of play and a way of being present with herself and her environment. It’s a moment where she doesn’t feel separate from the world, but rather part of an experience happening in real time. If I were to listen through my whole body, I think that creativity might become more fluid and spontaneous. Deep Listening, isn’t just a practice of attention, it’s a way of being that nurtures curiosity, and a deeper sense of belonging.

One moment from the Deep Listening documentary that really shifted my understanding was when Oliveros invited a deaf man to act as the composer for a performance. Instead of seeing his deafness as a limitation, she treated it as another mode of perception, another way of being in relationship with sound. The man “composed” by feeling the vibrations of instruments and bodies, using his own sensory experiences to guide the musicians. For Oliveros, this wasn’t experimental for its own sake, it was an exploration of how true listening can transcend hearing, how sound is something we can all experience through our entire bodies and through the space we share.

Audio Assignment

First Words

For our audio assignment, Grace and I called a series of people with varying relationships to ourselves, from those closest to us, like our moms, to complete strangers, like a Domino’s Pizza employee. We reached out to people we hadn’t spoken to in a long time, as well as friends we’re close to but rarely call. Each call was met with a range of emotions, confusion, annoyance, excitement, and warmth.

This experience made me pay close attention to how people answered the phone and how much that small moment revealed about both them and our relationship. It’s something I had never really noticed before. We found it quite awkward and uncomfortable to call people just for an assignment, especially when we had to explain that we were calling only to record their greeting. It was equally awkward when we called someone we didn’t know and weren’t sure what to say.

Through this process, I realized I should call my loved ones more often so that hearing from me isn’t such a rare surprise. It was genuinely sweet to hear the excitement in their voices when they picked up the phone. Sharing those recordings with the class felt surprisingly vulnerable, like revealing an intimate part of my personal life that’s usually private. Still, I think the topic made for an engaging and relatable audio piece, one that kept you listening and waiting for the next “hello.”

Conceptual Portrait Proposal

Idea #1: Capturing the trace of my roommates presence through a collage of photographs

Examples of images:

• Their unmade bed- capturing the outline of their indent in the mattress/pillow 
• Lipstick stain on a mug 
• Crumbs left over after a meal 
• Footprints 
• Clothes left on the floor after they have changed
• Steamy mirror with the silhouette of where they wiped to see their reflection
• Handprints on a foggy window
• Slippers by the door
• Half read book left open, spine curved
• favourite snack wrapper in the garbage
• To-do list/scribbled notes
• Depicting what someone has left behind 
• Following their movements and unique marks that come out of things being touched
• The quiet scraps of someones life

I was inspired by the works of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, whose installations are often minimal and still, yet evoke a profound emotional weight. His piece “Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)” particularly resonated with me. In it, a pile of individually wrapped candies represents his late husband, Ross, who tragically passed away from AIDS. The pile originally weighed 175 pounds, the healthy weight of Ross’s body, and viewers were invited to take pieces of candy, slowly depleting the pile. This simple but powerful act mirrored the physical deterioration caused by the disease. The work’s quiet simplicity makes its emotional impact all the more profound.

Idea #2: The essence of my roommate depicted through her favourite outfit

• Have my roommate select an outfit from her closet that she feels truly represents her identity.
• Have my other roommates, along with the outfit’s owner, each try on the same outfit one by one.
• Film each person walking into frame wearing the outfit, cropping their heads out of the shot to remove explicit identity and highlight how it is expressed instead through movement, posture, and presence.
• Present the video as a guessing game, inviting the audience to determine who the true owner of the outfit might be based on body language, comfort, and confidence.
• Edit the footage to appear as one continuous clip of people walking in and out of frame, blurring distinctions between individuals.
• Emphasize how clothing carries memory and self-expression, though the outfit remains the same, it communicates something entirely different on each person.

I was inspired by the work of an artist who created a kind of “game” through their art, fabricating a story that unfolded within a museum setting using realistic, made-up artifacts. The goal was to convince the audience that the story was true, only to reveal at the end that it was entirely fabricated. I really like the idea of this final reveal and the way it makes the experience more interactive and engaging for the audience.

Idea #3- Hands

• Hands are the closest body part we have in terms of revealing ones true identity- hold as much individuality as a face, without revealing someone fully
• Hand becomes a stand in for the self (personal yet revealing part of the body)
• What the hands say about them versus what a face would show
• Biometrics- unique physical or behavioural measurements used for identification (fingerprints, vein patterns, skin creases, overall hand geometry)
• These patterns are established at birth and never change
• Physical condition of hands can reveal a person’s background or work history (for example, calloused, rough hands= manual labour and soft, dainty hands= life of leisure)- Narrative clues
• These details turn the hands into visual evidence of lived experience.
• Non verbal communication- insight into a persons habits and personality (nail biting, fidgeting, nervous gestures)
• Hands carry traces of lived experience, the way nails are kept, the presence of rings, freckles, scars, or softness. Each mark becomes evidence of the routines, histories, and habits that shape a person.

• Photographed each of my roommates hands as they were in that moment
• We combined different parts of our hands to create a single, composite hand, one that reflects how we share the same physical features yet remain distinctly individual. At the same time, the merged hand suggests the subtle ways we absorb the influence of the people we surround ourselves with.
• We absorb habits, mannerisms, and ways of being from our environment and the people around us
• Collaged format- interconnectivity of our lives, they are visually communicating with dialogue, gestures and hand movement (almost like the steps of a handshake)

Conceptual Portrait

Reflection

Grace and I began by thinking about a body part, other than the face, that could reveal something meaningful about identity and that all of our roommates shared in common. We landed on the hands. We were fascinated by how hands can tell a story about someone’s lived experience; calluses that develop from years of labour, or the soft, delicate hands of someone who lives a life of leisure. We felt that hands say a great deal about a person.

We were also drawn to the distinct, unchanging markings people have on their hands, moles, freckles, palm creases, fingerprints, vein patterns, and overall hand geometry. These details are established at birth and remain constant, making them powerful forms of physical identification.

Hand gestures, too, serve as behavioural measurements, and this became the foundation or system we followed throughout our conceptual portrait. Observing hand movements, gestures, and positions can reveal a person’s emotions, thoughts, intentions, and even personality traits. These nonverbal cues often communicate what someone may not consciously express. Nervous tapping, fidgeting, or rubbing the hands can signal stress or impatience; still, controlled hands may reflect reservation; open palms tend to suggest honesty, openness, and trustworthiness.

We wanted our images to reflect this idea of movement, expression, and subtle communication. The collage format, overlapping photographs pointing in different directions, was our way of creating dialogue between the hands. To us, the arrangement resembled the shifting steps of a handshake exchanged between hands that don’t actually know one another.

We were also interested in showing the connectivity between the two groups of people we photographed, our roommates, who don’t know each other but are indirectly connected through our friendship. It’s fascinating how you unconsciously adopt the mannerisms of the people you spend the most time with. I might pick up a gesture from Grace, who may have learned it from her roommate, and so on. A gesture travels from person to person, yet its origin becomes impossible to trace. This creates a chain of connection, a shared language of movement between individuals who may be strangers to each other but are linked through these subtle hand gestures.

Hey Team 🗣️

My name is Sam Smith (like the singer), I’m in second year for studio art. I love painting and doing anything with oil pastels!

Conceptual Portrait

(Titled Sam 21)

• These are the three different cards that I would hand out that has the code of the briefcase on it!
  • There are three different sizes just in case you have a difficult time seeing small letters
    • This came from my dad being unable to read the middle one and my sister wanted a smaller one since she said it was easier to hold
• The Name is Sam 21 because every time I do a self portrait I title it my name and then the age that I am

Explanation of the piece 

• The rule that I went with for this piece was home
• When I am home I don’t have to put on a performance of any kind. I used that idea to collect objects that represented who I am at home, the person I am to my core at the moment
  • I have my journal that is filled with drawings, paintings, thoughts, rants, pictures anything that I feel the need to get off my chest
  • My Snoopy who I wake up to every morning who so kindly holds both my glasses and my necklaces
  • My book that I’m reading at the moment. I’m always trying to read about peoples experiences and trying to get a better understanding of people (If you want a good book recommendation for CPTSD “What My Bones Know” by Stephanie Foo is so good)
  • I have my pencil case that I carry everywhere with me and it is in the shape of a whale shark which is my favourite shark
  • My headphones are here because I’m usually wearing these guys everywhere. I love listening to music or podcasts. I got those when I was 14, they are almost 8 years old and they work the same as when I got them, they just don’t make stuff like they used to
  • My keys are something I always have in my bag and have a collection of all of the stuff I’ve collected over the years, there is a Swiss army knife that my dad gave me, this bat I made in eight grade when we were touring my soon to be high school, my library card, a “its cool to walk to school” that I got in sixth grade for a prize, multiple little characters that my cousin gave me (she gave me 21 of them for my 21st birthday), a Iceland key chain set of a puffin, a sweater, and a mini Iceland that my friend from my old job gave me, a video game character that my older sister thought I liked (I did not have the heart to tell her I have no idea who this man is), a handcuff from my uncles OPP anniversary (I have no idea what it was, I was like 4 and got a key chain and a hot dog, that that is all I remember about it, and Scooby Doo’s collar symbol that I got from a Scooby Doo themed make up kit
  • My wallet, that is what I have on me at all times, it has my debit card, money, student ID (that I use for the bus all the time), ID card, health card, lock combo for my work locker, and my friends and my dads business card
  • I also have my coin purse that I have loonies, toonies, and quarters incase anyone needs bus money or change in general

• I also have a bunch of stuff for ‘just in case’. In any bag that I have I will carry a kit that I have that has medication, nail stuff, hand sanitizer, glasses cleaner, make-up wipes, masks (a new addition since you needed one in class and I didn’t have one, sorry about that), cough drops, tissues, single use tooth brush, band-aids, nose strips, tide stick, gum, gloves, hair elastics, and period pads (I need to restock the tampons)
• The reason I chose my father briefcase was because I am a carbon copy of the man just with less confidence. He shaped the person I am today and he is a very important part of me. I thought that if I used something that he gave me it would enhance how I have things to give to others, it is a cycle of giving in a way
  • In creating this piece I found out that he too has a little kit of just in case items. He has less stuff, just band aids, cough drops, and gum. Which crazy how this briefcase was used in a similar manner but for my father. He had all of his school stuff in here and his little ‘just in case’ kit
• This project was shaped by the conversations I had with my sister, Alex, and my friend, Audrey. I wasn’t sure that managed to get my point across when I showed my draft ideas in class. So I showed Alex and Audrey, two people who aren’t in an art program (Alex is in English and Audrey is in micro biology/medical science) to see if I managed to get my concept across.
  • Alex hated the third one she said something along the lines of it being lazy/a cop out compared to what I create and that it didn’t make sense, since it was supposed to be a portrait and why would someone else do it. She did not have an opinion of which of the other two were stronger, she thought they were both good
  • Audrey thought the third one was fun but not for this type of project. She though that the first and the second were good but that if I was going to go with who I am now the second one is what I should go with. She said that the first is like the foundation of who I am as a person, with all of the family connection and a map of how I got to the person that I am today. But the second is the house, it is what you can see when you talk to me
  • That specific point of it being like my home just lit something up in my brain and I ran with it. That is why I added the snow balls since every time I host something with a large amount of people I make snowballs. Since this class is like a large gathering I thought they would act as a welcome in to my home signal
• The cards that I’m handing out is Lakyn’s idea of handing out the code to people so that they can grab something if they need it (shout out Lakyn, thank you). I added a little note just to act like I am saying it/making it more personal than just a code

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Draft of Idea

The subject is going to be me 😎

• I’m choosing myself because every year I do a self portrait based off of how I feel
  • I usually get creative, I’ve done one with clay on paper and I just carved my face out, one with thread and sewed my face into the paper and I made a book with my face on it one time with a bunch of portraits of me inside [but I can’t find it :(]

A briefcase that holds objects that are important to me

• Collection and documentation are the rules I’m going with
  • Collection: the amount of personal objects
  • Documentation: they are going to represent me and my everyday routines

Three Ideas

• This is about who I am and the stuff I think represents me
  • Just the main things I thought of that are around my room (the place I tend to spend the most time in)

• These are the things I have in my bag or start my day with
  • This shows more of my willingness to help people

• This is like a “make your own portrait” kit
  • I think this is more of the Flux kit type of vibe (not sure I like it)

Yoko Ono

• High key recommend listening to this cause we did Yoko Ono so dirty (she is also a complex person as everyone human is)

Grapefruit

These are instruction pieces

• Pieces of paper with instructions (tunafish sandwich is my fav)
• Breaks down the idea art has to be a painting, sculpture, work of music etc
• The goal is the experience that is all in your head
  • It is playful and earnest

Play It By Trust

This is a chessboard that you are invited to play. You and the other person have to play the game with the two sets of chess pieces being the same colour

• You are not allowed to mark the pieces just remember what piece is yours

Fluxkit

• These are boxes that are collections of other objects that hold meaning to the artist and can be interacted with by the audience
  • The idea was to make art more available
  • This is what I’m going to be basing my project on mixed with the playfulness of Yoko Ono

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Past Projects

my name is Sloan, I am currently in my 3rd year studying studio art. Im originally from St.catharines where Ive lived my whole life. My goal is to work in film or photography and ive wanted to work in that feild my whole life. I couldn’t add a photo of myself because my computer is not very cooperative so I apologize for that, I did try to.

The Artist Is Present discussion questions

1. What are some of your first impressions of Marina Abramovic’s performance works, based on the documentary? Use an image/example of one or two works to describe aspects you admire, and aspects you might agree are problematic?

My first impressions watching Marina Abramovic’s documentary ranged from a few different ideas, opinions and thoughts. I really admired her true passion for finding unique ways to portray an idea, feeling or message to the audience. A quote from Marina in the documentary says “performance will never be a regular form of art” which she clearly depicts in her works. Specifically, during Marinas performance ‘the artist is present’ she takes on a huge emotionally challanging role by not only keeping composure during the whole performance, but by taking on the weight of everyone elses emotions. Throughout the documentary I also saw the side of people who argue her work can be problematic. A lot of her performances include putting herself in danger and risk to harming herself for the sake of art, and although its all about a message she is trying to portray I personally think some performances like ‘rhythm 10’ could have portrayed the message in a safer way for her sake.

2. Discuss the ways performance art resists many museum and commercial artworld conventions. How does Abramovic solve/negotiate some of these challenges, and do you find these compromises add to, or undermine the ideas at play in her work?

Performance art often resists museums and the art market because it is lie, temporary and tied to the body. it also cannot be easily bought, sold or preserved. Marina worked through these challanges in a few ways. She used photos, videos and objects from her performances as lasting “artworks” that can circulate in museums. Her MoMA show ‘The Artist Is Present’ went een further, turning performance into the centerpeice of a major museum exhibition which drew huge public attention. Her compromises dont dilute performance-they expand its impact and ensures it remains part of the larger conversation about what art can be.

Turning the Gestures of Everyday Life Into Art – The New York Times

1. The Work and Its Challenges/Gifts

Katja Heitmann’s project Motus Mori, is about turning everyday human gestures into art. Instead of recording them on video or writing them down, she and her dancers preserve them directly in their bodies, creating a living “archive.” This means every fidget, twitch, or unique movement a person does becomes part of an ongoing performance. The challenge here is obvious: movements are fragile and fleeting. Unlike digital files, they can be lost if the dancers stop practicing or forget them. But that’s also the beauty of it—the archive is alive, constantly breathing and changing. It’s intimate and deeply human in a way that data on a screen never could be. That fragility makes the work both risky and precious.

2. Striking Examples of Movements

Two examples stood out to me. The first is Mahat Arab’s anxious habit of cracking his knuckles while driving or talking on the phone. Something most of us would consider a nervous tic becomes, through Heitmann’s lens, a meaningful and personal movement worth saving. The second is the woman who always tucked her hand into the waistband of her leggings. It’s such a small, ordinary gesture, yet it says so much about comfort, restlessness, and individuality. What’s striking about both examples is how easily these tiny, unconscious actions—things we hardly notice about ourselves—can become powerful markers of identity when someone else pays close attention.

3. Movements of People I Know

When I think about the people closest to me, their unconscious gestures reveal a lot about who they are. My mom, for example, has a way of tapping her fingers when she’s deep in thought, almost like her body is working out ideas before she says them. My best friend tends to bite the inside of her cheek when she’s nervous, a small gesture that gives away her tension even when she’s trying to stay calm. And my brother has a slouched but easy stride, his posture relaxed yet still somehow purposeful. These movements might seem ordinary, but they capture personality in ways words often can’t—they’re like little signatures of how each person carries themselves in the world.

KM assignment

I really enjoyed how open-ended this assignment was and the freedom to approach it in different ways. When deciding how to measure my kilometer, I knew I wanted to physically walk the distance but also put my own spin on it. Since I go to the gym 4–5 times a week, I decided to walk 1km on the treadmill. While doing so, I tracked all the songs I listened to and created a playlist called 1km Assignment. So in a way, I measured 1km through music! I’ve included pictures of both the playlist and me on the treadmill below. 

ART GALLERY OF GUELPH

Audio project

For our audio project, we focused on capturing the sounds of a morning routine brushing teeth, eating cereal, making the bed, opening curtains, putting on a jacket… and more familiar sounds. At first, we recorded each of these actions as they naturally happened to keep things authentic. However, when we listened back, the result felt too simple and not what we were going for. It didn’t feel authentic to us as students with ADHD, our mornings are rarely that calm or perfectly structured. The original version sounded more like a checklist than a lived experience.

We decided to re-record and take the project a step further by experimenting with noises that could recreate or exaggerate the sounds we wanted. We layered and manipulated familiar sounds, testing different materials and movements like finding the most satisfying curtain sound or emphasizing the crunch of cereal to add energy and texture. Through this process, we began to see how sound design can express more than just actions it can capture emotion, chaos, and personality.

After our critique, we re-edited the audio and added even more layers of sound background noises, repetitions, and overlapping elements to make the piece feel cluttered, busy, and overwhelming. Our original audio file still plays underneath, grounding the piece, while the new sounds fill the space around it, mimicking the mental noise and sensory overload we often experience in the mornings.

The final version doesn’t just sound like someone getting ready for their day it feels like being inside the mind of someone whose thoughts are running a thousand miles a minute, constantly aware of every small sound around them. What started as a simple recording of a morning routine transformed into something immersive and personal, a reflection of how ordinary moments can feel intense, layered, and full of motion through the lens of ADHD.

‘A letter from a loved one’

For this assignment, I wanted to find a meaningful and artistic way to portray my nana’s life, one that felt personal, honest, and connected to the stories she has told me over the years. After thinking through different possibilities, I came to the idea of creating a series of postcards written from her perspective. Even though I do not have the real postcards she might have written during the most significant moments of her life, I felt that making my own inspired by her words and memories would allow me to represent her journey in a creative and intimate way.

The first postcard I created is set in 1939, during the beginning of the war, when my nana had to evacuate her home. This was one of the stories she shared with me growing up, and it always stood out because of how young she was and how suddenly her life changed. She had to move to Surrey with her older sister, leaving behind her parents and her other siblings. Imagining what she would have felt, fear, confusion, and hope, helped me write the postcard as if she were reaching out to her family from somewhere unfamiliar but safe. It was important to me that this card reflected both her bravery and the emotional weight of that experience.

As the postcards move forward through time, I explored the moment she met my poppa. Their story has always been one of my favourites. He asked to borrow her bike and promised her gum in return, but did not come back for two hours. Somehow, that small moment turned into a lifelong relationship filled with love, travel, and adventure. Together, they visited countries all over the world and even participated in mission trips, something she still talks about with so much pride.

Growing up, my nana and poppa were a huge part of my life. Even though my poppa is no longer with us, his influence still radiates through my nana every day. Working on this project was emotional for me, especially because my nana is now 93, and I am not sure how much time I have left with her. Creating these postcards allowed me to honour her life, her resilience, and the stories she has shared with me. I wrote each card the way I imagined she would have sounded at that moment in her life, and in doing so, I felt closer to her and the history that shaped her.

Hello! ☻

My name is Olivia, and this year I’m beginning my second year in the Creative Arts Health and Wellness program…

In my free time, I love to paint, draw, sew, and crochet! Through my art, I especially enjoy utilizing textile, and mixing and combining all sorts of different media!

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The Artist Is Present ~ Marina Abramovic

Through the screening of “The Artist Is Present” by Marina Abramovic, I’ve come to understand performance art as a raw and fearless expression of self that is intimate and vulnerable in nature. Abramovic utilizes her body as her medium and derives her immense physical strength and stamina which make her performances possible, from her audiences. Since her physical being is used to create her art, it was evident that those close to her, and even Abramovic herself, have difficulty separating her identity and sense of self from her art; the lines between both are very blurred. Clips in this documentary presented pervious lovers of Abramovic almost trying to rationalize within themselves how to perceive and go about interacting with Marina. She seemingly is always performing, and they never know who or what the true Marina is. I think that this truly encapsulates the all encompassing nature of performance art, and without that quality it would not be as striking, provocative, and touching as the work presented by Abramovic.

In 1975, she produced the work entitled Lips of Thomas which for me was her most memorable piece shown in the documentary due to it’s shocking and graphic nature. Part of the performance involved her inflicting acts of torture upon her physical body by cutting a pentagram into her stomach which she later used a whip upon. Not only does her physical endurance and high tolerance for pain make this piece so memorable, but the mental aspect of the difficulty behind such a feat is honestly inconceivable for me. This is a truly authentic choice of expression that is unconcerned with the public’s perception

In the performance of “The Artist is Present”, Marina set up a small table and two opposite facing chairs; one for her, and one for a member of the audience. As an audience member would take a seat, Abramovic would sit in silence and stare into the eyes of the individual. Whether it was a stranger or someone she knew for many years, each participant was given the same treatment and attention on her end. Abramovic becomes a mirror of the other person, mirroring themselves back means the piece is not necessarily about her, she becomes a vessel for the purpose of the performance. I think one of the factors contributing to the poignant depth of this piece is the space it creates to pause and slow down in the fast paced world we live in. It left participants transformed after experiencing the piece.

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Assignment 1 ~ A KM

In order to represent a kilometre in an innovative way that challenges our initial understandings of distance and measurement, I decided to create a “wearable kilometre” in the form of a bracelet.

When visualizing a kilometre, the first thing that came to mind for me was point A to point B somewhere on the map. I picture a road, bridge, trail, or path. A distance we must travel by car, bike, or on foot. Coming up with a new way to think about a concept as abstract as a distance was initially something that kind of stumped me. I then began to think about what materials could be outstretched to the length of a kilometre. I personally really enjoy working in fabric and textile, so things like yarn, rope, ribbon, or thread were some my instinctual ideas. I also really enjoy the idea that if my piece were to be unravelled, it would be one long piece of material at the length of a kilometre, even though no one would be able to guess it were that long when looking at the finished piece. The concept of being able to be made and remade is also impactful to me.

I wanted to find a way for my final piece to be personal in some way, so I landed on a piece that I could wear upon my physical body, presenting it performatively almost. I decided that a bracelet created from one kilometre of wrapped string would be the most doable within the time constraint. Jewelry is something that holds great importance for me. I love wearing bracelets, necklaces, and rings every day. They make me feel confident and more like myself; they are a beautiful tool of self-expression.

Planning notes and concept formation.

I set up a measuring tape marked at 1 metre. I unravelled and cut off 1 metre intervals of string 500 times in order to be left with exactly 1 km of thread to use in the creation of my bracelet.

The “Wearable” Kilometre

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Turning the Gestures of Everyday Life into Art

The project Motus Mori by Katja Heitmann attempts to capture a certain essence of humanity that isn’t always valued or considered. The archive of movement that she is creating through these reproductions of the subjects’ subconscious ticks creates a window into some of their most authentic characteristics; painting a picture of what makes these people who they are. As Heitmann puts it, attempting to capture humanity through data allows it to get lost in a sense.

This work is rooted in surveillance; noticing the things that most people, not even the subject themselves, would. I love how Heitmann cares only for the genuineness of the movement. As long as the participant comes at it from a place of authenticity, there is no “wrong” way for them to show up in the space. Paring the observation of movement with an open stream of dialogue or conversation allows connections to be made between performer and subject. This introduces new layers of vulnerability and depth to the piece as a whole.

I think that challenges could arise if participants were to enter the space not entirely as themselves, with some sort of mask or guard up. It would compromise the integrity of the project if, for instance, a participant were to censor or alter their natural movements in some way.

Describe the habitual movements/unconscious gestures, tics, etc. of 3 people you know well…

1. My Dad has a subconscious habit of filling lulls in conversation, or just moments of silence with tics relating to his hands. He will bite his nails or tap his fingers on a surface. I feel as though I have adopted these sorts of habits from him. When I find myself feeling in an uncomfortable lull, especially socially, I will attempt to fill this awkwardness with unconscious self-soothing actions such as biting my nails or fidgeting with rings or bracelets. I can imagine that his habits stem from the same place that mine do.
2. An unconscious gesture of my Mom’s that I have always noticed is the way she plays with her hair. During moments of silence or while watching TV she would individually examine stands of hair, seemingly in search of a dead end or imperfection. This was always something that sparked my curiosity, I would often ask her about it as a kid.
3. I noticed that one of my close friends will sooth himself through leg movements; bouncing up and down or to the side, or rubbing his foot up and down the side of his calf. I notice these movements when he’s opening up emotionally or just sharing his thoughts on a topic or matter. I also notice him engage in these motions in quieter moments, like watching TV, laying down, and trying to fall asleep.

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Art Gallery of Guelph Field Trip

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One Feat, Three Ways Video Assignment

Toss & Turn

Olivia, Lakyn, & Carly

Video 1: The One-Shot

Video 2: The Sequence

Video 3: The Loop – Rotoscope Animation

My group and I initially were approaching this assignment through the lens of chronic pain; the body contortions that come alongside daily life for those living each day in pain and just trying to function normally. I was the only member of my group that did not have this lived experience, so we were also exploring the meaning and interest that would arise if I were the one to perform the movement.

For our final polished concept, we wanted our movement to be the act of “tossing and turning” as one falls asleep. For someone experiencing chronic pain, the longwinded process of acquiring just the right position to fall asleep comfortably is amplified and extended. We wanted this fact to come across in our video, as well as the intimacy and privateness that comes alongside the bedroom and act of falling asleep. We achieved this by dressing me in skin coloured clothing to mimic nudity; the raw form of the human body. This puts the sole emphasis on my limbs and bodily movements, no distractions from an outfit. This is also a common state that people choose to fall asleep in. The “nudity” also heightens the feeling that this is a very private moment, almost as if someone shouldn’t be watching. We emulated a bed by pushing multiple tables together and laying down blankets and pillows. The hardness of this surface was quite uncomfortable to lay down on which caused me to have to move a lot in order to get truly comfortable. I can imagine that for someone with chronic pain, they would experience something similar, the seemingly never ending act of adjusting but never achieving quite the right position.

Taking on the role of performer meant that I would be left to try to to fall asleep as realistically and naturally as possible. I feel as though this goal was achieved. We played soothing rain sounds, and I was able to reach deep relaxation as if I were really going to take a nap! I tried to not think at all about the movements I was making, I only focused on maintaining relaxation and finding a position that felt genuinely comfortable to me. Watching the video back revealed many movements and twitches I wasn’t even conscious of.

For the animation video, Carly and I worked collaboratively to create a final result of two interpretations of the same gesture overlayed upon one another. We chose a gesture that was not featured in our initial two videos; me falling from a seated position covered in a blanket, to laying down on the pillow. I feel as though this gesture is effective in a loop format because it emulates the frustration and never-ending feelings associated with trying to fall asleep and not being successful. I am proud of the colour palette of our animation because it feels very cohesive, it pulls from colours in our initial two videos, and the differing palettes among overlays can be representative of different versions of self and the various swarming thoughts that always seem to catch up to us before sleep.

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Pauline Oliveros Reflection

What stuck with me most about Pauline Oliveros’ notion of “deep listening” was the implication that listening more intently and intentionally has the power to create a deeper and ever-expanding awareness in everyday life. Each day I hope to deepen my connection with the world around me, feel more present, and to just have a more grounded presence within myself. I think that deep listening pushes me further to intentionally achieve the awareness I desire by reframing the act of listening from being something passive, to a heightened continual experience. Whenever I remember Oliveros’ ideas to never stop listening, and to take in every sound no matter what, I find my entire perspective and presence change when this awareness is flipped on like a switch. I tried this for the first time on the day we watched the documentary while waiting for the bus. When I reminded myself to take in my surrounding sounds, I started to notice the differing sounds depending on the size and make of the vehicles. I noticed the sound of my breath against my collar hiked up to brace my face from the wind. I think that the more I practice reminding myself to be more aware, the more it will just happen naturally which is exciting to think about! I think deep listening also challenges my instinct to always listen to super loud music when I’m walking somewhere or taking the bus. Although I enjoy this, it doesn’t make me feel very present or in-tune to my surroundings, it has the opposite effect, it takes me somewhere else, but that also speaks to the power and influence sound can have.

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Assignment 3 – Audio Art

trekking alongside words unspoken, 2025

For this audio art assignment, my goal was to create a track that audibly narrates and expresses an overarching theme that I seem to continually endure in various aspects of my life. This audio art piece serving as an outlet for my emotions…

Through this “audio narrative”, I am attempting to capture the trepidation associated with trying to function normally when things are far from such. When you maybe aren’t able to fully express the whole truth about your feelings. When cracks begin to form in masked feelings or personas, in raw and painful ways, and then “normalcy” is seemingly always restored. The cracks are quickly sealed and never mentioned again. This piece for me feels like probably one of the most vulnerable things I’ve ever made.

Process wise, my playing was fully based in intuition. I created around twenty different clips of just experimenting with the different sounds I could make and testing the limits of the medium. This made it easy to edit a lush sounding track since I had lots to work with and layer upon each other.

I gathered inspiration for my piece from John Cage, an artist shown in class who utilizes an orchestra, and it’s structure in an unconventional way. I wanted to use the violin as my sole instrument for producing sound for my piece. Between the ages of around 7-16, I regularly took lessons and practiced the violin. I ended up loosing passion for classical music and all that came alongside it; striving for perfection, and tedious practice. But through this piece I was hoping to reignite my buried passion for music and sound. Framing the use of the instrument in an intuitive way, rather than there being a very black and white sense of right and wrong, allowed me to see the artistic form through a new lens. The process for creating this piece felt very natural and cathartic.

I also was deeply inspired by folk artist Adrianne Lenker. In particular, her tracks entitled; my angel, music for indigo, and, mostly chimes , which are either solely, or predominantly instrumental. Although her music features mostly guitar rather than violin, I hoped to emulate similar raw feelings to those her music invokes. All her instrumentals feel very intuitive and improvisational, there’s a sense of intimacy and an unapologetic authenticity. There is also a feeling of hesitation and tension between her notes which I thoroughly enjoy and tried to achieve in my track as well. To me, it feels like she’s thinking of something, somewhere, someone in particular as she’s creating. Her songs read as messages straight from her heart, and are very moving on the listener’s end.

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Assignment 4 – Conceptual Portrait

Conceptual Portrait Proposal

System: Video-record 82 exhales outside in the cold so they are physically visible to represent my grandmother’s 82 years of life

Each breath is an act of remembrance and ritual a ritual practice. Each breath is contained, and fleeting. Breathing is an act that sustains life, one that she was not able to do without assistance from an oxygen tank during the last months of her life.

Lecture Inspiration: Felix Gonzalez-Torres; his use of a numerical value to represent a person, mourning loss, highlighting what was taken, intimacy with little information to the viewer.

“Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), 1991

Isobel

This is a conceptual portrait of my grandma. I’ve captured footage of the physical manifestations of my breath in the freezing air each time I exhale. The entirety of the video portrays the completion of a system in which I repeatedly take deep and steady breaths. I stood behind the camera and held a light in front of me, faceup, under the lens so the breaths would be illuminated. For around the the last year of her life, my grandma was no longer able to breath normally or independently without the use of an external tank.

Initially, my plan was to take 82 breaths while reflection was taking place in order to represent my grandmother; each breath representing a year of her life. But, after being in the moment, this no longer seemed like a meaningful or necessary addition to the piece. I also lost count of my breaths pretty quickly, I could’ve kept a tally of some sort, but that would’ve removed attention and focus from my thoughts which was not an option I wanted to take. I wanted this process to feel deeply meditative, which is how deep breathing feels already. Mindful breathing is a coping skill I utilize more and more. But I wanted to elevate this by forcing myself to think about my grandma, the person she was, and all that has been taken from me. This reflection in conjunction with taking these deep and calculated breaths that she was unable to take for so long; in addition the the visual and auditory manifestations of my breath, results in a multi-sensory layered portrait.

Completing this piece ended up being a much more emotionally charged and difficult feat than I initially thought. My grandma’s death occurred pretty recently, and I don’t feel like I have processed it much yet at all. She was someone I deeply trusted and cherished. I felt a deep bond to her which was special since I don’t feel that way towards many others. I did not expect to get emotional, but I don’t usually allow myself to think about difficult things so intensely. The process overall was very healing and eye-opening… especially regarding the way I choose to cope with the difficulties in my life, and perhaps how that needs to change. It was also very cool and inexplicable that just when my emotions took over, and I started to not be able to complete the breaths, a plane flew right above me (truly a paid actor)!

An unexpected effect of this piece is how the process has stuck with me days and weeks after the shoot. Now, every time I’m outside in the cold and I see my breath, I think of her. This brings me an immense sense of peace, its a small way that I’m able to remember her and keep her close to me as I go about my day to day life.

🔈〰️ | ▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| CURRENTLY PLAYING: Brain In a Jar by Man-Made Sunshine (﹙˓ 🎧 ˒﹚)

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Marina Abramović “The Artist is Present” Documentary Discussion Question

First impression from the documentary –

Her works are very creative and bold, engaging with the audience and have power messages that stretch the definition of art.

Discuss the ways performance art resists many museum and commercial art world conventions. How does Abramović solve/negotiate some of these challenges, and do you find these compromises add to, or undermine the ideas at play in her work?

Performance art is an alternative form of art where the medium is the human body and the performer performs to an audience in an intimate shared experience. It challenges the traditional painting practices in museums and the commercial art world as it greatly differs from the mere aesthetically pleasing static object to view (and is a commodity to commercialise). It is dynamic and live action; interacting with the audience in ways that aren’t conventional (demanding them to participate and pay attention), and also making them question the meaning and of what counts as art itself – stretching their mental definition. Additionally, instead of seeing only the final polished product – the art itself is the concept and execution of the process.

Marina Abramović negotiates some of these challenges to these conventions with different elements like standard video projections to present her past works in the museum (utilising “static” visuals and audio for the viewers to watch), hosting a “Clean the House” workshop with 30 other young artists seeking to re-perform her 5 previous pieces at the exhibition (training them to focus on their state of mind in the present), and herself being physically present in the location to perform her work “The Artist is Present” in MoMA day in and day out for 3 months. I find that these compromises add to the ideas playing around in her work. You can experience and interact with both sides of art ideology, and it clearly demonstrates Abramović’s vision for her performance art in an emotional and interactive way.

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Make a Kilometre

Final Project – 1 km of Scrolling. (Video)

by Maria Nguyen

I chose to make it into a 5-minute portrait video format because I thought it would have been the best method to showcase what scrolling on Tiktok for 1 km would have looked like. With the time constraints, I had to speed the screen recording up 20x to keep it short.

• The reason why I chose to scroll for 1 km was because I thought it was quite fitting for this day and age of social media and mindlessly consuming
• It made me take a step back and sort of see just how much content you can consume mindlessly (sometimes you don’t remember the videos you just watched) – and how much time it takes from our precious lives 

I was also just curious how long and how many videos it would take to scroll for a whole km. Personally, when I watch short form videos I like to watch each video fully and look at comments if I am interested, so it was cool to actually experience the fast scrolling motion of just seeing glimpses of the multitude of videos.

To describe details in the video, I start with a plain title card and using a relevant phone transition I show 3 of my process photos (including a flashing images disclaimer) to present my methodology in proving it was exactly 1 km. Then, there is a recording of my finger physically swiping up on a few Tiktoks, signifying the start of the tedious process – further transitioning and zooming into the screen recordings I took as I scrolled. The videos ramp up into 20x speed for the majority of the rest of the video (you can glance at the corners of the screen to see the passage of time passing and the battery percentage going down). At the end, I purposefully made it so that there would be a “time limit” pop-up to show on screen, which forces myself to exit the Tiktok app, to make it a full circle moment. Personally, I have a 1 hour limit on Tiktok to stop myself from scrolling and wasting my time for hours – I thought it would be nice to demonstrate how to be more mindful of your screen-time and how you use it.

In a gallery context, I would say there are many different ways it could be presented. The video itself could also be slowed down to the original speed (around 2 hours), to demonstrate just how long it takes to scroll for that far – it would be mesmerizing to view the swiping of the infinite-like short videos. On one of the walls there could also be a projection or copy hung up of my in-progress Tallying and proof of the 1 km calculation. On another wall, there could be an infographic in the layout of the Screen-time page on phone settings that have information of how much free time you have in your lifetime, and how much of it you would be using on scrolling.

The short video version could also be looped and shown on a large screen in the space, or there could be an interactive experience where the viewer has access to watch the video on a smaller phone screen, just as if they are scrolling themselves (like there are multiple stands with different phones available for people to see and scroll/pause the video to see what the image was). Going into more detail, there could even be a space in the gallery where people (viewers, or even performers?) are able to be cozy and lounge around with their phones, which can further illustrate the message of wasting time watching content on your phone. In a similar case, we can also invite the viewers themselves to scroll for 1 km on a pre-set phone that automatically stops once they have scrolled for 6666.66666667 Tiktok videos, to experience it for themselves.

Work In Progress Photos

Here you can see my initial ideas, slight research, and inspiration ~

After having a short consultation with Michelle, I decided to commit to the Scrolling for 1 km idea because I thought it was very relevant to today’s issue with over-saturation and over-consumption of media and content online.

My original idea/reference was to just scroll for 1 km (or 0.621371 miles) on the website Scroll-O-Meter Club – but it wouldn’t really have been my original work/project. So I decided to scroll on Tiktok, an app that is short form video focused, and where I think it’s the worst place to scroll (in my opinion) because it can be very addictive and tends to take away a lot of my time.

These are photos of me measuring the phone screen (15 cm or 0.15 m), and also downloading the App onto my Dad’s phone (Both my Dad and I’s phone screens are both 15 cm, I had to switch between them because I wanted to have a blank algorithm for my personal FYP privacy, he had to leave so I created a new blank account on my own phone near the end).

While filming the shots and screen-recordings, I used the CapCut App to edit my video. As I went along, I added the new recordings to the timeline and sped it up accordingly to match the 5 minute time-restraint, while also considering giving myself time to explain myself with the 3 process photos. I had to mute the audio down to 0 because I thought it would be too distracting to hear the 1-second high-pitched fast sound clips buzzing through while I would be explaining myself. Additionally, I was intentional with the transitions (ex. phone-holding at the start, transitions to look like swipes on a screen, blending the entering app and scrolling irl with my hand shot to the screen recording, and the screen time-limit/leaving the app).

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NYT Dance Article

Turning the Gestures of Everyday Life Into Art

1. Describe the work discussed in the article and the unique challenges – as well as the unique gifts – that comes with attempting to archive personal movements?

This article focuses on the work of Katja Heitmann, a choreographer who is interested in the mannerisms, movements, and habits of people. The project, “Motus Mori” (aka ‘movement that is dying out’) includes a group of ten dancers that strive to keep the archive of gestures alive. These movements can serve many purposes, like self-soothing, habitual, and ritualistic – every body moves in their own unique way.

The unique challenges that come with attempting personal movements are that it is quite muscle memory dependent, as there is not much documentation other than a minimal note card per participant/donor. With the methodology being focused on the ephemeral, it is moment to moment and specific to that time and space. It is also difficult to be present at the installation for hours on end, interacting with the public (social aspect). You must be mindful of all movements and minute details of gestures, and your body is always constantly training (If you don’t use it, you lose it).

During the process of archiving personal mannerisms with the body, some unique gifts that become apparent are the ability to contain and embody a whole essence of a person just through the meticulous study and archival of their movements. Another gift would be the precious connection the dancer would have with the volunteer, as they trust the dancer with the knowledge of their insecurities and trauma.

2. Discuss one or two examples of movements in the article – what strikes you about them?

A few examples of some movements in the article are Tjan’s hiding his thumbs, and Heitmann’s father who would pull in his stomach when passing in front of a studio mirror. They strike me as both (as stated in the article with Tjan’s gesture) arrangements that let the body take up less space in the world. It’s very interesting to me, because I can relate in the same ways with my own little mannerisms (I sometimes do the same thing, even when I don’t notice it often). It might be an unconscious arrangement that may be related to low self-esteem, insecurities or shyness (not feeling like you’re worth enough to take up space in the world, hiding from being seen, or societal pressures to look a certain way when you aren’t at that standard with the tucking in the stomach – which I did as a kid when I was in pictures).

3. Describe the habitual movements/unconscious gestures, tics, etc. of 3 people you know well. How do individual body parts move, and how does the whole body interact? What about facial expressions, and emotional valence of the movement? How does body type inform the movement? What do these examples of small movements mean and imply?

The three people that I shall be describing here are my brother, my cousin, and myself (because I know myself best!). I will be jotting down some examples per person + implications/why we do them:

1 – Myself

• Head jerking
  • to get hair out of my face
• Twisting wrist/fingers
  • to “crack” and remove tension from it
• Face picking (scratching, rubbing nose, rubbing eyes, picking acne)
• Pushing glasses up nose
• Playing with necklace
• Fidgeting with fingers (rubbing hands, etc.), tapping on objects
• Squeezing sleeves/playing with edge of shirt/sweater
  • When anxious/nervous before something happens
• Covering mouth with hand (when shocked, while eating, etc.)

2 – My Cousin

• Playing with the ends of her hair – brushing it through with fingers, tugging on section
  • No emotion, focused (while studying)
  • Implies hair is crusty after showering (she told me)
• Nail/Finger picking
  • Anxious or bored bad habit
• Fidgeting with fingers, tapping on objects
  • Bored, needing stimulation
• Pushing up Glasses on nose
• Squeezing sleeves/playing with edge of shirt/sweater
  • When anxious/nervous before something happens

3 – My Brother

• Moving wrist up/down in repeated motion to “crack” it (palm upwards)
• Roughing up hair
  • Implies wanting hair to be a certain way, intentional (but also became a habit)

These examples of small movements are a compilation of different habits/mannerisms that we do at certain moments. They imply ways of being that we want of ourselves (like physical appearance wise – adjusting hair, glasses, clothing, etc. or self-soothing gestures we became accustomed throughout our lives that became part of our daily routines). Most of the time these movements are done without much emotion or without thought because it is so ingrained in our routine– it almost becomes second nature to us. Some mannerisms were specific to coping with feelings like boredom, anxiety, and stress/tension in the body. Interestingly, I wonder if it is because we are all related or because we all live near each other but I noticed that we shared many of the same gestures together. It could have been passed on from our parents and families.

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AGG Visit

Warden’s Watch, 2025

Michelle Wilson

This work is a powerful examination and conversation of how industries extract from the land (like hydroelectric projects and pollution), and how it transforms the environment on an ongoing basis. Wardens used to record their patrols on this map of the land of Wood Buffalo National Park (located in northeastern Alberta and southeastern Northwest Territories).

This work is relevant to my own research interests and practice as I enjoy working with textiles and crafts, and I would like to make more pieces with my hands in the sense of using materials such as embroidery thread and wool. Currently, I know crochet, basic knitting techniques, and have dabbled in sewing and cross-stitching but I would love to try felting wool and create soft sculptures and more works of the sort (ex. In high school, I created a collaborative quilt/blanket made of knitted/crocheted squares). Additionally, I am interested in the archival map motif, using a map (place and time) as a symbol to communicate a historical story (whether it be personal or directed towards a certain topic like Canada’s park systems). The bright colours glistened from the lighting which drew my eye to the piece, and glass bison eye was especially a very striking focal point for me because it was almost like the bison was staring back at me (but it was also such a cool way to incorporate other materials into the textile work!). At first, I thought it was the eye of an elephant because the map had lines/area shapes that looked like the start of a trunk for me. I also absolutely love the visuality of the textures that almost look like the bison’s skin but are really sewn in details.

ICFWYWM, 2022

Devlin Macpherson

This piece is a machine programmed to plot pen marks (in perfect small squares) with orange permanent marker onto a roll of paper, however, with the attention of a viewer (or many) being detected by the face detector, the machine is then programmed to ‘mess up’ those perfect lines/squares because its ‘nervous and erratic’ from the attention it is receiving while being under observation. There were mechanical beep sounds of the pen plotting, and it became especially frantic when it sensed there was a person watching (increasing as more people were there). Macpherson delves into observation, the influence of the audience, and interference with this work. The audience is prompted to leave the machine alone, to be empathetic and provide the same respect and autonomy we give ourselves.

This work is relevant to my own research interests and practice as the themes explored here of observation, interference, and the power of the audience is very intriguing to me. I consider myself as an avid observer and listener with my introverted tendencies, so I may be one of those people staring and taking in the visual information in front of me (as part of the audience). However, I can also place myself as the subject of viewership, where I can especially relate to the nervousness and feeling of being watched while working on a task. Mentally, this would affect me in a large way and could be a block to my true focus on the task because I am preoccupied with others watching me (making me self-conscious of my every move, which could lead to me being more accident-prone than before).

During my experience of the works in the gallery, I began to appreciate the deep history of bison rooted in the land and immerse myself in the stories being told by the works by the amazing artists in the gallery. I learned that artworks can have a variety of interactive aspects to it, like the touch-activated thread which can play voice-recordings/audio, watching the time-lapse of the fossils decompose back into the environment, and the face recognition software which affects the way the machine works on its pen plotting. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit at the AGG (and I might visit it again during my CREA*2000 lecture to learn even more about it!).

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One Feat, Three Ways

Video Art Assignment – Drinking

I love the interpretations from the critique about drinking/party culture or just the (peer/societal) pressures of having to finish the action (of drinking – but it can be applied broadly to many situations). I feel like the “race” between Ella and I, and the “tear leak” drip from Rhiannon’s mouth especially fit well for that. The cranberry juice itself was also very tart, and we all felt sick by the end of our filming (even with watering it down, too much sugar) – this can be an obvious connection to how drinking alcohol could make you feel sick because its literally poison to the body, with vomiting/nausea being a common side effect.

In the final videos, I took the feedback and adjusted them accordingly to those notions. Our group decided to keep the last clip in the edited video 2 of Rhiannon watering down the drink because it fits well with fighting the norm, but it has a cute and playful spin to it.

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Pauline Oliveros

Reflection Question:

Pauline Oliveros describes listening as both a spiritual path and an embodied practice, one that fosters empathy, respect, and attention to the world around us. She reminds us that “play is the greatest research tool” and that “people aren’t listening very well,” suggesting that true listening requires openness, curiosity, and presence.

Reflect on your own experiences of listening — to sound, to others, to your environment, or to yourself. How does Oliveros’s idea of deep listening challenge the way you typically give attention? In what ways might listening through your whole body, or approaching sound as a form of play and research, change your understanding of connection, communication, or creativity?

After engaging with Pauline Oliveros’s ideas through the documentary, I’ve started to realize how I often approach listening as background rather than presence. I usually focus on words or melodies, but Oliveros’s view reframes listening as a full-bodied, mindful act that connects inner awareness with the world around me. It’s very in-the-moment, being spiritually present and aware of yourself and the environment around you.This notion challenges me to slow down and notice subtleties: the tone of someone’s voice, the rhythm of my own breath, or the ambient sounds I usually tune out in so called “silence”. For example, the sounds of birds and animals chirping and moving around, the elements/weather, vehicles, and the tuning of the radio were mentioned in the documentary – sometimes I notice them, but maybe it’s not enough.

I also find that in this day and age, many people are preoccupied with digital screens and might be listening to content almost all the time (like listening to music, watching long/short term videos and shows on streaming services, etc. – this is very relatable to me). This distracts many of us and takes away the change to be as mindful. As another thought, an interest I have is Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), which I sometimes like to watch/listen to relax before bed, or to be entertained. In this realm, “ASMRtists” are free to be very mindful with creating deliberate sounds, experimenting to find sounds that give you “tingles,” something that I thought was fitting to mention during this Audio Art project. I think it’s interesting how musicians and ASMRtists can have both masters and beginners, but they can all create sounds differently + it’s very subjective to the personal experience of sounds (whether they are good or bad, some people love a certain sound/tune, others can hate it). 

Approaching sound as a form of play and research also feels freeing as a concept. It changes the mindset of being task-related into a creative, exploratory process. I remember last year in CREA*1000 I learned about the Improv Lab in MCKN, and participated in a workshop group facilitated by a Music Therapist (Priya Zalis, Clinical Improvisation in Music Psychotherapy) where I took instruments available to me (including vocals) and worked together with the group to improvise sound. Deep Listening reminds me that true connection and empathy come from being fully present, receptive, and curious. Listening not just with my ears, but with my whole self.

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Audio Art

Generational Relationships to Vietlish – By: Maria Nguyen

This piece is an amalgamation of various perspectives from my family and myself of the story of their relationship to language – specifically with accounts of learning Vietnamese and English (in the respective language they are comfortable speaking in), or their level of knowledge.

It reflects my personal experience as a second-generation Vietnamese-Canadian and my connection to language, family, and heritage. I wanted to capture how time and cultural blending influence the generational transfer of Vietnamese within my family. My inspiration was Emeka Ogboh’s Song of the Germans (2015), as I recognized the usage of other languages and culture as a root for this project was possible.

Using layering, volume automation, and audio panning, I positioned each speaker; my parents to the left, myself in the centre, and my younger cousins to the right – to symbolize a left-to-right passage of time and language shift. My parents’ steady voices represent the cultural foundation, while my cousins’ English speech and attempts at Vietnamese exhibit gradual loss. I chose not to include translations, emphasizing the personal and self-explanatory nature of the piece. Creating this was both cathartic and meaningful, and through thoughtful editing, I believe it successfully conveys the emotional and auditory story of our evolving linguistic identity.

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Conceptual Portrait

Idea Proposal

I want to create a portrait of my cousin (“Chị Tran” was what I called her), who passed away last year. 

The system I was thinking of using was to make an installation and/or collage, using her belongings that I have – I also had the idea of a conceptual portrait of the “inner child” (initially for myself), so this could be something I could incorporate into my piece. Some objects I have of hers are clothes, notebooks, a necklace, and stuffed animals. I also feel like I can use my relationship to her as well in my piece with shared objects or certain things that remind me of her. My artist reference is Felix Gonzalez Torres, with his pieces like Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) and “Untitled” (Perfect Lovers) – I don’t think I will go as minimalist in my work as he does though. I also was influenced by Spring who incorporates ashes (remains) into the art piece.

Portrait of Chị Tran – By: Maria Nguyen

In memory of my older cousin who passed away last year, I decided to create a conceptual portrait in the form of a performance / installation art piece. My system was to use her belongings, her remains, in the sense that I can feel her absence. Her clothing, hangers, stuffed animals, and photographs taken of her in the past were some objects included in this installation. The action of hanging up her piled up clothing (and wearing it) is an embodiment of my everyday life, the ritual I participate in everyday of choosing an outfit for the day in my closet. I am giving her clothes a new life.

The hangers were ordered in a rainbow-colour coordination, as I have memories of ordering it this way in her closet when I came to visit during one of my yearly visits (she also loved everything rainbow).

Additionally, at the end of the performance I played the game “Disney Princess: Magical Jewels” on the Nintendo DSi, which holds many fond memories between Chị Tran and I because she was the one that gifted both the DSi and game to me, along with speaking the dialogue to me when I didn’t know how to read English at the time (2011). In this piece, there are precious parts and memories of her that are interwoven into my life, which indicates our close (sister-like) connection.

Extra photos!

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Hi, my name is Althea and I’m a second year student in Industrial Psychology. Some of my favorite things are the ocean, swimming, the colour blue and more.

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1. Contents
2. Marina Abramovic
3. NYT Gestures of Everyday Life
4. Pauline Oliveros
5. AGG Field Trip
6. Assignments

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

hello my name is mark I am a photographer

Marina Abramovic’s performance works

I found this performance particularly impactful the vulnerability of this a performance speaks to its message hauntingly. Marina Abramovic’s, poetically display of the lengths she will go to for her art show cases her push to question what we and the audience members view as art, her performance highlights the pitfalls of our culture, her willingness to commit to the display of horror strengths her the argument and intentions behind her work boldly.

Marina Abramovic’s, performance are hard to capture after the fact, but this adds to thier significance and helps to circumnavigate conventional restraints of tangible art, however when it comes to capturing said performance many turn to photo as it can capture at least what one is seeing. this may work in some instances and can convey the message like in the photo above titled rest energy which I quite admire you can see the tension and trust through the photo even thought its a still, depite this thought some of her works are harder to capture in a still like the work below from her documentary

it cant convey the feeling as well as its hard to capture the time and subtle emotions that develop, something that is much better captured in video. Ultimately it dependes on the work and the message its trying to convey personally i dont think it takes back from the work at all, merely creating an alternate work to communicate a similar message. I think they can both provide a value exprience to the audience as long as it curated by the artist, as that it’s important to maintaining the genuine perspective.

THE KILIOMETER

Here you can see the distance to my local grocery store

I could walk but the reality for palestinians is much different

The beginning of the journey starts with getting to al Joura

this is a map showing the route many palestinians travel to try and recive aid from the new GHF sites

this this the route where palestinians risk thier lives to try and get food but many wont be able to reach the destination or return home as many are killed by military forces swarming the region

During the process of doing this performance I found my self comparing my experience of walking a kilometre to those who do the same but under extremely different circumstances . I wanted to show the lengths it takes and the physical time to walk this long distance and how many will have to it in constant fear for their lives under gunfire and drone sirens. The civilians of Palestine are mercilessly persecuted and killed at the hands of the Israeli and United States government government.

“The GHF, a non-governmental organisation created by Israel in February 2025, with US support, to allegedly distribute aid in Gaza, is an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law,”

-UN

sources:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/21/what-is-the-kill-zone-people-in-gaza-need-to-cross-to-receive-aid

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165552

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/08/un-experts-call-immediate-dismantling-gaza-humanitarian-foundation

Field Trip Reflection

Michelle Wilson

I really admired this art work and its way of communicating its message, for awhile now I have been interested in incorporating physical elements in to art and especially museum or gallery art as i felt its somting that is often not done or is frowned upon, the element of touch and interaction with a artwork can elevate it to a level that we dont see often. I was quite enthralled at how the artist chose to use sting and wire to activate personal stories connected to the piece, its somting I haven’t seen much of and i think added to the deapth of the peice immensely. Furthermore the way the stings hold the symbolic representation of culture through the bisons skull and the connection to oral traditions was very stong and profound it greatly showcases the importance of these stories and how intertwined they are amoungst indigenous history and traditions.

Michelle Wilson

I was very drawn to this piece immediately its rich texture and its attention drawing eye captivated me greatly, after hearing the story behind this artwork I was even more enthusiastic about it. The cultivation of the meterials, the use of the blanket that was a staple in the community all helps to bring this piece to life, I was especially intrigued by the story Michelle told of fishing the embroidery but not feeling like the piece was done but when she added the bison eye it came togeather and competed the work and I have to agree that the eye adds this element of intrigue it convery how the animals that roam the mapped area are always watching and cant look away from the effects done on it by us, it hauntingly demands respect conveying the importance of the bison to not only the community but also the land.

A NIGHT OF AUDIO 10/31/25

on the nigth of Halloween on the hour every hour starting at 7 and ending at 12 I recorded a 10 second audio clip no mater the subject.

Pauline Oliveros

somthing that i admired a lot about the work of Pauline’s oliveros was her ability to ad constraints in to the creative process, often times hindering her ability to do certain things but in tern allowing her self to create a piece far more powerful and interesting, as these perimeters helpt defined not only the meaning but also the process, its in the process of her work that she truly understands what is to come out of it, thinking more about the doing rather then the final product, I personally love how she says she dosnt practice music, because it allows her to be more open in the moment its a very intuitive way of creating and somting which I sought to bring in to my own audio art. By giving myslef a perimeter I was able to allow be more passive and less forward seeking in my approach nullifing any personal bias I might add to the audio somting which is the antithesis of the meaning behind the piece.

Conceptual Portrait – “untitled”(perfect lovers)

I really admire the concept behind this piece it incapsulates the concept of a conceptual portrait very well and is very simple in is approach but effective in its communication, the metaphor with the clocks slowly falling out of sync as representation of the way people slowly drift apart despite starting out on the same “time”. The clocks remind us of the fleeting individuality of love and how people can come in to our lives at a certain time but slowly they will grow out of it wheather thats through difference in health or passion. Eventually any two people who come together will inevitably have to contuine living on thier own time no matter how hard one tries to keep “the clocks” in sync , being an individual is at odds with synchronicity.

Conseptual portrait of Angela

https://visit.virtualartgallery.com/2851c80b-2c3f-4c71-a404-a9c28fab9b7e

hiiii!!

as it says above, I am Lakyn. specifically this is me getting my brows bleached. why? who knows.

I am a Studio Art Major and SXGN Minor. I am a multidisciplinary artist and I love to use multiple medias; I try not to limit myself.

I have 3 cats, please ask to see pictures. you didn’t ask? okay. here’s a picture of them

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Reflection on Documentary “The Artist is Present”

1. What are some of your first impressions of Marina Abramovic’s performance works, based on the documentary? Use an image/example of one or two works to describe aspects you admire, and aspects you might agree are problematic?

2. What have you learned about features of performance art based on Abramovic’s work? Name a few key features according to her precedents. Include an image to illustrate. Consider her quote, “When you perform it is a knife and your blood, when you act it is a fake knife and ketchup.”

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”A Kilometre to Death”

For our first project we had to create a piece that equaled a kilometer while thinking of such kilometer in a conceptual way. My piece is a performance video titled “A Kilometer to Death”. In the video you see overlaying shots of me walking in a cemetery, the cemetery on its own, a candle being lit and a candle burning. These distorted shots are periodically and abruptly interrupted by the sound of a deep ticking clock. This audio addition represents the kilometre itself, as each tick is the 96.1~ meters per minute I walked to get there. This piece is a critique on the westernized and colonized views of death, and heavily reflects the work of the Queer Death Studies group.

  When beginning this first project of the semester, I immediately knew I wanted to challenge myself. I have never done a performance video/audio piece before, and this was a great opportunity for me to start heavily relying on theory and queer studies to aid in my meaning making and conceptualize my art. 

   The QDS is a group of artists and theorists who look at death in a non-binary way using an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and studying death. A big part of their research is examining the negative effects of westernized and colonized perspectives of death, and working with fellow artists and theorists break down such perspectives. They explain their usage of Queer; how the word itself describes a non-binary approach to their studies. On their homepage they have a link to an article that encompasses everything they do, and there were many quotes that stuck out to me and became important in my project. I highly recommend reading it!!!!!!!!

 “This understands death, not as an exceptional moment in human life, but as a process of transformation that forms part of life itself” (Radmoska, et al,.2020). 

“Reclaiming instead an indigenous cosmology and philosophy, in which the dead are not left behind in a temporarily inaccessible and forever congealed past, but are present and potentially active in the here and now” (Radmoska, et al,.2020).

”These in-appropriated others are those humans and non-humans whose deaths often go unnoticed. Those who are deindividualized as a mass death which is understood as collateral damage in the service of ‘higher purposes’” (Radmoska, et al,.2020).

   Each element of my piece connects somehow to the studies of the QDS. First, the clock ticking. Each tick not only represents the physical kilometere I walked to get there, but it also serves as a sort of countdown. The QDS critiques the westernized, heteronormative idea of birth-marriage-kids-death, death being the absolute big fantastical end of one’s life. So, by spreading out the ticks I am mimicking this countdown to death we often think of in western societies through my kilometre. I wanted to even further critique this by representing indigenous cosmology; the candle. The candle for me represented the life that the dead are still living in other realms. By overlaying a candle in almost every shot of the video I am further critiquing the colonization of death and even colonization as a whole; we are on stolen land, and committed (and continue to commit) genocide on the Indigenous peoples way of living, thinking, and believing.

    The clips and location are developed within the QDS theories as well. By taking shots of many graves at once, I am critiquing the de-individualization of death that happens through thinking of mass-death as collateral damage. I never show a specific name or singular gravestone, and this specific cemetery has many broken, forgotten and even empty/unmarked gravestones. St.Joseph’s cemetery itself is a true physical example of the effects of colonialism on death, with clear connections of class, social status, culture, religion, and wealth factoring into the quality, size, longevity, and archival importance of the different gravesites. 

  By merging the videos and audio into one I am using the measurable distance of a Kilometre to expand on and encompass just a brief part of the work of the QDS. If you got this far I, again, HIGHLY encourage everyone to read the journal article linked on their website. I hope and believe it will blow your mind as much as it did mine.

_{^{Radomska, M., Mehrabi, T., & Lykke, N. (2020). Queer Death Studies: Death, Dying and Mourning from a Queerfeminist Perspective. Australian Feminist Studies, 35(104), 81–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2020.1811952}}

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Art Gallery of Guelph Field Trip

One thing that Michelle said that stuck out to me was how she said the natural materials in this piece are threatening the institution of the Canada Parks and warden paths. This connection critiques how colonial institutions have seen indigenous ways of life as threatening. This reminded me of the research I did for my KM assignment; how colonial systems of death have destroyed Indigenous cosmology and culture around death. To me we had, in a way, similar ways of thinking/deconstructing the importance of our works.

This entire curation of pieces, aka The Soft Internet Theory, was very inspirational for me. It opened my eyes to the possibility of curation, and what kind of themes or methods of art I can do in the future. This is what sculpture can be??? Wow. Amazing. How are there so many talented young/new artists?? All in all it was an absolutely beautiful, full emersion experience.

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One Feat Three Ways

Initially when discussing an idea/theme/direction for this assignment we focused on chronic pain in the context of everyday activity and movements eg. sitting in a chair. We thought of the contortion of the body, and how those with chronic pain are usually more comfortable in positions that those who don’t experience it would not be.

We didn’t fully narrow down our ideas until our studio filming session, then an idea Michelle gave us stuck out; filming Olivia trying to sleep and us leaving the room. This helped with our final decision in what we were going to invoke on the viewers Vulnerability, exposure, and entering one’s private sphere. The act of sleeping is so much harder for those with chronic pain; we can’t help but toss and turn or be light sleepers because our minds are focused on finding the right position for each joint, regulating temperature, and many more things. After discussing amongst us, we discovered Olivia was the one of the 3 of us that didn’t experience daily chronic pain, so we thought it wold be a great idea for her to be the “performer”.

We set her on two tables with just a thin blanket for her to lay on, and she brought her own pillow from home. We took multiple clips, some of her with a blanket over her, but we decided on the no blanket clips as her costuming was too good to hide. We went with nude, skin tight clothing to represent nakedness, furthering the vulnerability of the gesture.

I was the one that did the Video 2: Edited Gesture (with input from my group mates of course) and I wanted to make an edit that branched off from our initial idea of contortion of the body. I created what I called “The Olivia Worm”, where I essentially collaged Olivias body back together using clips I took of just her hand, face, torso, and legs. All of these clips were filmed in the same way the gesture one was; we left the room and allowed the camera to capture her raw, unintentional micro movements. By editing them together in a video collage, I wanted to represent the stiffness of joints and body parts, how us people with chronic pain often feel disconnected and “wrong”. Also by slowly raising the audio and using a zoom effect, I wanted to invoke the feeling of disturbed sleep because of such disconnectedness.

During our critique we were told it was very surrealist; which I personally didn’t think about when making it. I think it was a great description because my edited video is like a dreamscape where Olivia is in an out of sleep. It merges reality and a dream like state, which is something we wanted to make the views feel. This added to the vulnerability; who wouldn’t feel out of place in someone’s dream?

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New York Times Article: Turning the Gestures of Everyday life Into Art – Katja Heitmann

1. Describe the work discussed in the article and the unique challenges – as well as the unique gifts- that come with attempting to archive personal movements?

The works in this article are a beautiful example of the power of archiving. I think a unique challenge was the pure amount of gestures one could possibly archive. When we think of data archiving there is a limit; with technology there is always an end point, a hard-drive being too full, a computer crashing and deleting everything. When the body is the form of archive and when you are archiving any and every gesture a human could possibly make, it is endless. Yes people die and so do their gestures, but by allowing the performers to learn and mimic these gestures, and even by that person having family, that gesture will always exist no matter what. Whether the gesture be something a grandchild picks up, or something a performer starts to recognize as unique and can associate a name with the gesture. This seems like a lot of work, and something Heitmann and predecessors could be doing for all of eternity. Although this seems like a huge challenge, it also seems like a unique gift. While it may be impossible to see an ending point, that in itself makes it beautiful. Everyone has a fingerprint, a specific vocabulary. So much so that it as helped people with loss, Heitmann getting interviews for hospice centres to learn gestures for soon to be grieving families. So, while its never ends and that scary and intimidating, that exactly what makes it so beautiful.

2. Discuss one or two examples of movements in the article – what strikes you about them?

The first example of a gesture that stuck out to me was Tjans, the director of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. He said he realized that he tends to arrange his body so that it takes up less space. “The dancer who interviewed him “discovered that I hide my thumbs,” he said, flattening them onto his palms. “I had never thought about that, but it was exactly right.” He then goes on to make personal changes like wearing a bright yellow jacket, so even if his body language is trying to take up less space, his jacket is not. I really resonated with this because recently I have also been trying to “take up more space”. I’ve added more colour to my wardrobe, and I have started doing things without thinking about others not liking it; eg shaving off my eyebrows. It would be very interesting to see someone analyze my own gestures, and if my changes have impacted them.

This video from the article also stuck out to me, specifically because of how accurately this performer captured the mans cadence. Even immediately, her posture is spot on, and she looks as though she has the wear and tear of an older man’s body, despite obviously being young.

3. Describe the habitual movements/unconscious gestures, tics, etc. of 3 people you know well. How do individual body parts move, and how does the whole body interact? What about facial expressions, and emotional valence of the movement? How does body type inform the movement? What do these examples of small movements mean and imply?

The first one I can think of is my roommate; they rated growing their hair out and ever since have been twirling a long piece in the back around their finger. It happens in a very specific location and circumstance though. If we are sitting on the couch and their arm is resting on the back above them, that’s when they do it. I have always interpreted it as a moment of focusing, like they are trying to ground themselves. As it usually happens while watching a movie or if we are having a lengthy conversation.

The second one I can think of is a phrase I picked up from a friend: “yip yip!”. They used to text it to me a lot, and even say it in person, and slowly I started to as well. I think it’s supposed to be like a small excited dog, which I think is hilarious. I must’ve like it enough to start saying it. It is a way to give a response that’s very happy and overjoyed. Hence the small dog yipping.

The third one is something my Nan does. She likes to give a small smile and nod to something, even if she has no idea what you said. Sometimes she will add in a chuckle and a “yeah”. I think this has stemmed from her being hard of hearing for a wile but too stubborn to admit it. So really the gesture itself is stubbornness. Even if you call her out, she will say she did hear you, then if you ask her to repeat she will finally admit she didn’t and laugh about it. She is an amazing human, and can turn anything into a fn time. I think I could also observe the gesture through that lens; no matter what she wants you to be happy and feel seen.

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Pauline Oliveros Reflection: My Relationship to Music

When watching the documentary about Pauline Oliveros, I started to reflect on my own experiences with sound. To say I was moved by the documentary and her story is a complete understatement. As a music enjoyer, seeing the impact she had on digital sound and the techniques she used was fascinating and inspiring. 

When reflecting on my own experiences of listening, I realized it’s not very often that I am not wearing my headphones. I tend to have issues with audio processing, sometimes environments are too loud or too quiet, so if I don’t have at least some form of headphone or earbud, I feel very panicked very quickly. Oliveros’ idea of deep listening started to make me break down what I listen to and why, and what contexts or environments play a role in what I decide to listen to. For example, I realized when I am on the bus I enjoy immersing myself in a playlist or whatever 10 songs I am prioritizing that week. Most of the time it’s songs that make me feel comfortable; but what does it mean to be comfortable when listening to a song? For me it seems to be familiarity, a song where I know every lyric, melody, bass tone, and strum of a guitar. When I listen to these songs it truly is a full body experience. The excitement of knowing the song by heart (that happens when you listen to it 10 times a day) or even my ability to come up with music videos in my imagination. This proved to me how important sound was to improving my creativity. Even when I am painting I have a playlist going, and my speed and enjoyment depends a lot on what’s playing. 

I then started to observe other ways I enjoy music, and one of those ways is through hearing. I love making playlists for people with a rollercoaster of genres, and I often think of others and what songs remind me of them when listening. I will pay attention to peoples taste in music, and recommend new artists or an adjacent genre I think they would like. Then I remembered the documentary, and how important collaboration and community was to Pauline, and how she thought sound and active listening was THE way to make connections. Without even realizing it, this is exactly what I have been doing. To me it was just a thing I did, but now I realize it’s been a way of fostering my relationships, and strengthening new connections. 

So, even though I knew how important sound was to me, by researching my own relationship to it and why that relationship even exists, it made me realize how big of a role it plays in everything I do creatively and how important it is to the connections I make with others. 

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AUDIO ASSIGNMENT: iwillbereadyforsomethingalittledifferent

One of the poems, “Something A Little Different” is about my Dad, as a bird, going back to the city only to realize it’s not the same. It’s very dark, depressing, and almost violent. Even though I wasn’t there when he wrote it, I could feel his sense of panic to be returning to an unfamiliar, no longer gratifying place.

The other poem, “I Will Be Ready” is about the complications of love, and how my Dad will push past the obstacles and overwhelming feelings, even accepting them.

Initially I tried to use the synth to spell them out, but as I said that drained any emotion or understanding to be made available to the viewer. So instead I used intuition. In my head I tend to create soundtracks to scenarios I am in, so I thought I would let go of the heavy procedural idea I had and just feel it. I first recorded audio of myself reading the poems aloud. I didn’t know at first if I would use them in the final, but after reading them in my own way and hearing the inflictions I unnoticeably put into my voice, I knew i had to layer them in. While making the “soundtrack” I played by own recording back to myself, closed my eyes, and payed attention to the spaces I left, the ups and downs, and the story being told. This resulted in a very dark, atmospheric vibe. It also helped that I picked a very drowned out synth sound called “Mission to Saturn”. when editing, I knew panning would play an important role in this assignment. I had two poems, but one soundtrack for both. So, I decided to play one voice in the left, one in the right, and the music in the centre. This way people could move around the room and hear a different poem, or hear both at the same time. This to me added a level of uncertainty and an overwhelming feeling. How does listening to both change the context of an individual poem? Or ow does listening to one change how the audience listens to the other? Will one pay attention to the actual words being said or does the intensity of the music affect their perception of something so literal?

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Conceptual Portrait: Informal Artist Statement

A few weeks ago I received a stack court documents and transaction slips from my Dad, all pertaining to the custody battle between him and my Mom and the FRO involvement.

I decided the system or rule I would set for myself was to use these documents to create a timeline of my own, based on my own memories and understandings of what was happening behind the scenes. My Mom and Dad tended to tell me different stories, wanting me to “pick a side”. By combing through these documents and displaying them as a timeline I hope to create my own story. This will not only be a conceptual portrait of my father, its a portrait of mine and his relationship, his and my moms, all three of us, and even our relationship to money and the court/FRO system.

I have envelops, all dated “Lakyn 2003” and so on, so those will be the basis for my timeline production. I want to find documents that match those dates, as well as find pictures of me when I was that age to add along with each year. I also want to photocopy everything and black out some of the information, I believe this will give the viewers a biased and skewed understanding of what they see, just as I did navigating the relationships all these years. Viewers will also notice that it is just me in the documents, despite having siblings, so I believe assumptions will be made, and people will start to create their own timelines and fill in the blanks of my family dynamics. I want it to replicate a crime scene, a space where I am piecing together incomplete and biased information, one side of a big complicated story.

One artist that inspired me was a recently graduated student of this program named Bella Lanci. She did an installation work about her autoimmune disorders where she filled an entire wall of the Zavitz gallery with all medical paperwork from the time she was diagnosed until now. It was so raw, and forces the viewer to acknowledge something often invisible, so I want to achieve the same thing with my piece.

Another artist inspiration, this one from class, was Christian Boltanski. He did a work called “The Storehouse” which mimics a memorial, but they are just pictures of random people from newspapers and tin boxes. He was an inspiration because of his use of archiving as a system, but in a way that creates a narrative so to speak. This is why I am choosing to do an installation that replicates a crime scene, but uses archived documents. Just like Boltanski’s work, it evokes strong feelings that are hard to place and understand.

OVERSHARE: the past of an absent father

the finished product! after 4 days of prep and 7 hours of set up, it was finally done.

using the sculpture gallery (I rented it out for 2 days) I created the exact immersive space I hoped to (on a slightly smaller scale)

this was so fun to do and I hope everyone that came to visit got to see a little too closely into my families life and maybe judge my dad a little too hard (he is okay with that).

Marina Abramovic

After watching the film, I learned that Marina is extremely engaged and committed to her artwork; she uses the body as a way to make statements and challenge the audience. She captivates the audience by making the core of her artwork the shared experiences between the audience and the artwork, provoking intense emotion in her audience. I admire how she shows great courage by using her own body as her medium, testing her limits physically and mentally and ultimately achieving a connection with her audience. Even after being told to stop the performance due to health complications, she shows great dedication and fearlessness and refuses to end the performance.  

However, it is problematic that she goes to such extremes, putting her own life at risk. Her piece “The Artist is Present” consisted of her sitting in a chair for three months daily, where she remained upright and immobile. She refrained from eating, drinking, and taking bathroom breaks while performing. All of which caused great harm and strain, negatively impacting her health. Yet, the piece did show great success as it provoked intense emotions amongst the participants and became very popular as it seemed to create a profound human connection without speaking or touching. 

I learned that performance is a state of mind. It isn’t something you just simply do or act, but rather something you live. Performance art pushes physical and mental limits, often in front of an audience, showcasing vulnerability and conveying profound emotions to both the performer and the viewer. The quote “when you perform it is a knife and your blood, when you act it is a fake knife and ketchup” alludes to the fact that performance is very personal, real and raw human emotion, whereas acting is almost like putting on a mask and covering up those raw and personal emotions. 

One Kilometre

Roots and Rubbish

Turning the Gestures of Everyday Life Into Art

Something that really stuck with me is when she noted that a person’s unique movements and tics are a more human memory than physical items. I have never given much thought to movement and how distinct it is to each individual, but I find it truly remarkable how she demonstrated the ability to recognize and associate movements with people as a unique aspect of their identity. A person’s unique gesture is a great way of identifying or remembering someone. Challenges may arise when people know that their movements are being observed. As stated in the article, it can be tempting to perform and portray yourself in an ideal way, although the dancers encourage candidness.  

An example of movement in the article is how Chandra Merx raises her eyebrows, not only to express surprise but also when she is rushing or deep in thought. I find it captivating that this movement reveals the unconscious blend of emotion and thought. This shows that a single physical movement can express both a feeling and a mental state. I also find it striking how the artist who donated his “anxiety hands” redefines his anxious habit of knuckle cracking as a deliberate expression of self. He reclaims his own body and behaviour.

After reflecting, I noticed the unconscious movements of the people closest to me. My sister has a habit of fidgeting and pulling on her eyebrows when she is overwhelmed. It is something that she does unconsciously, but I always notice it. Sometimes she doesn’t even know she is overwhelmed until I point out that she is pulling on her eyebrows. My mom taps her foot when she is in thought, telling me without words that she has a lot on her mind. My friend will play with her hair when she is feeling anxious, twirling it over and over again. She tends to do this a lot when in bigger groups of people, demonstrating that she is uncomfortable. Each of these movements is the body’s way of expressing or releasing any overwhelming emotion. Although people may feel the same emotions, we each have our own way of expressing ourselves. 

Art Gallery Reflection

This piece is Out of the Ashes by Adrian Stimson and depicts a story from Waterton Lakes National Park. The Kenow Wildfire devastated the park in 2017, including the paddock where the bison herd was kept. During the evacuation, just one bull was left behind. After the fire, the staff returned and found that one bull was still there. This piece really resonated with me, as it prompted me to think more deeply about survivance. The one bull was not just a symbol of survival after such a disaster. The bull makes a powerful statement that it is still here despite all the destruction, demonstrating renewal and continuity. Still, it also represented endurance, like Indigenous peoples who have continued to adapt and protect their cultures despite the colonial devastation. This taught me about strength throughout devastation and the importance of the power to endure even when you feel lost or stuck. The piece being called Out of Ashes also makes me think that new life often begins after destruction, where the bull could be made out of ashes (destruction) and is a symbol of strength, renewal and endurance. Despite the destruction, you are still who you are, changed but not forgotten.

Lone Bull is another work made by Adrian Stimson reflecting on the story of the Kenow Wildfire at Waterton Lakes National Park. I found this piece to be very powerful as it is truly remarkable that all of the land surrounding the bull has been completely burned by the fire, except for the small bit of land surrounding the water, where the bull was found completely unharmed by the raging fires surrounding it. It seems as though in the art piece, the lone bull is carrying on just as normal, demonstrating that resilience can be very grounded. It makes me think that the land and water worked together to protect the bull. I think that the bull in this piece depicts how Indigenous Peoples have continued their way of life, language and traditions even after vast loss. The bull’s calm nature after the fire taught me that resiliance can be quiet, and it doesn’t always look like fighting. I also thought about the importance of continuing to be true to yourself, even when everything around you has drastically changed.

One Feat, Three Ways

Video 1:

Video 2:

Animation:

After completing the One Feat Three Ways project, I feel like I have learnt a whole new set of skills. I think this assignment was successful at pushing me out of my comfort zone and allowing me to dip my toes into a more technological approach. It was challenging to step outside of my comfort zone.

After trial and error, I think that we were successful technologically, as the video was well-focused and well-lit. Our videos did have high contrast, but we were able to bring the contrast down when editing. In the future, I think that it would be beneficial to put more time and thought beforehand into what shots and clips we were planning to film. A lot of our shot ideas came to us in the moment, which was great, but I think the second video would have been more successful if we had planned which clips we wanted to use ahead of time. It would have given us more to work with. I think that the animation was technically well done, and the use of colour was visually appealing. I do think that the clip we chose was difficult to edit, and didn’t turn out exactly how we hoped when in reverse.

Reflecting on this assignment makes me realize how much I have learnt throughout the process. I also think it was a lot of fun, and it was cool to experiment and see what worked and what did not go as planned.

Pauline Oliverios Reflection

Pauline Olivero’s idea of deep listening allows me to realize how often I only listen partially, or just to respond rather than to understand. Rather than listening to the meaning, emotion, and the environment that surround them, I tend to focus on the words. Initially, when I think of listening, I think of it as using your ears. However, Pauline frames it as a full body practice, involving awareness, openness and curiosity.

Pauline framing listening as a full-bodied, mindful practice allows me to reflect on how I listen and pay attention to those around me, encouraging me to explore how sounds interact to create connection and how silence can be portrayed. I think that it would be beneficial to slow down and listen mindfully to what others are saying, rather than planning an immediate response. Digesting and thinking about what was said before responding is helpful to really listen to understand. Pauline’s idea of deep listening encourages me to move away from passive hearing and influences me to engage and understand with what I am hearing, as it deepens my relationship with those in my life, and with myself.

Audio Assignment: First Words

Critique/Unpolished Audio:

Final Audio- First Words:

This audio piece consisted of greetings from phone calls that Kate and I made to a variety of people: our family, friends, acquaintances, businesses, etc. We found, when recording this, that depending on the relationship, we got different reactions and expressions, such as surprise, excitement, or annoyance, allowing the listener to understand the relationship from a simple phone call greeting. This was a unique approach as it gives the listener such little context; however, they can still have an understanding.

I found this piece challenging, yet rewarding, as it pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me feel more vulnerable. This piece was successful in teaching me new skills and techniques, as editing and recording were completely unfamiliar to me before this assignment. The reaction from certain people reminded me of how important it is to call your loved ones and speak to them rather than messaging, as it is something that is becoming rare.

Conceptual Portrait Idea

I was inspired by “A Portrait of David” by Micah Lexier, as the piece visualizes the human life cycle from infancy to old age, showing how people change visually over time.

Conceptual Portrait: Almost Touching

Kate and I wanted to capture the idea that hands are a way to understand and interpret someone, as they are the closest body part besides the face that can reveal someone’s identity. Our hands can dictate a lot about who we are, as we all have different physical conditions of our hands that are either present since birth or due to our routine and habits, as well as different ways of expressing ourselves through aspects such as tattoos or jewelry. Each aspect of our hands shape who we are, and can tell provide narrative clues to a person’s identity and story.

We wanted to focus on the idea that we are all connected through our similarities; however, we still have features and mannerisms that allow us to each remain unique and individual. Those around us influence us and have an impact on how we choose to express ourselves, as we are represented by connecting and merging some of the hands in the collage.

We decided to create a collage, combining both Kate’s and my hands, as well as each of our roommates. We did this to display the differences in each person’s hand, as well as the similarities. This highlights the idea that the people in our lives are all different, yet similar, as we are all connected in a way. We pick up habits and mannerisms from those around us, making us a unique blend of those around us, as we can see in the way people choose to express themselves with jewelry, tattoos, and hand poses.

We instructed this by inviting our roommates to pose and move their hands in any way they wanted. We tried not to influence their movement much, allowing us to see the most natural mannerisms possible. We found it interesting as we experimented with deciphering our roommates just by looking at their hands, which proved that hands are so personal to each individual and that you can notice many clues about a person and who they are as a person by looking at their hands. When experimenting, we noticed that we were looking for physical conditions (scars, bruises, calluses, scratches, nails), as well as jewelry and tattoos, and those were the clues alluding to whose hands we were looking at.

Hi! My name is Rhiannon, my pronouns are she/her and I’m 20 years old. I’m a studio art major and am in second year.

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Marina Abramovic Documentary Reflection

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1KM Assignment

When I think of a kilometer, I automatically am reminded of the walks I try to take around my neighbourhood daily. I usually take the same route but decided for this project to try walking one the the trails nearby…

Usually my walk is on a sidewalk and is lined by houses, but this time I was surrounded by nature and could really appreciate my surroundings. While I walked, I collected each type of flower I saw within 1 kilometer of my house. I kept all of them in my travel cup to use later…

I’ve always loved flowers, and like to have them around me or more specifically in my bedroom. I was thinking of how to present the ones I collected and originally wanted to just make them into a bouquet because I think they are beautiful in the natural form. I decided against this because I didn’t know how they would hold up until critique when they are presented as an artifact. To preserve the flowers, I pressed them because it is something I’ve always wanted to try but never have.

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Art Gallery of Guelph Visit…

I really enjoyed our mini field trip to the Art Gallery or Guelph. I really like the experience of going to an art museum so it was nice to have this opportunity to go.

My favourite piece we saw was ‘Out of the Ashes’. I think it is technically very beautiful and that the story behind the work is very compelling. The artist has created a desolate landscape but still manages to convey a hopeful feeling.

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One Feat, 3 Ways Video Project

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Audio Art

When thinking about audio I decided I wanted to capture everyday, daily sounds. Something I do daily is drive, I commute to work and school and often feel like I spend half of the day in my car. I don’t mean this in a negative way though, my car sometimes feels like my own little private world.

The file above is my re-visited audio after class critique. I added music to the piece because music is a part of my daily drive so it makes sense to include it.

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Sonic Meditations by Pauline Oliveros…

It’s interesting to think about listening to music (something most of us do daily) as an act of meditation and connection. Her ideas about “deep listening” are compelling to me, when we take the time to really focus on and absorb music or sounds, it becomes more engrossing. It made me think about that feeling when you are listening to a song you like and you notice a specific background vocal layer or instrumental and it makes you appreciate the work even more.

I am a huge Taylor Swift fan, and I have personal tradition of listening to her new releases in my quiet bedroom with my noise-cancelling headphones on the night they come out. I love really hearing every detail of a new song. I had never really thought about this as meditation but Oliveros’ ideas makes me think that maybe it actually is.

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Conceptual Portrait: idea proposal…

Felix Gonzalez Torres

The idea of a portrait being a moment ‘frozen in time’ is compelling to me. A significant moment or thing painting a picture of a person makes me think about grief and how memories kind of become somebody’s existence when they are no longer here.

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Conceptual Portrait: “Grammy”

For this project I decided to make a conceptual portrait of my grandmother who passed away this summer. I’ve found grief to be a very sensory experience and I wanted to compile sights and sounds that remind me of her.

My dad has been very interested in our family history since her passing and in his research tracked down these old photos from his parents wedding. I decided to last-minute add one to the end of my video because I just love it so much.

Hi! My name is Ella and I am in my second year. I am in the Creative Arts, Health, and Wellness program and I am doing studio art.

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Marina Abramovic Movie Reflection

My first impressions of Marina’s performance art was that it was very vulnerable, both emotionally and physically. Marina performed with her partner, Ulay, from 1976-1988. With that came a great deal of vulnerability as her personal relationship was on public display. Their passion for each other was evident through their work and could be seen clearly by the audience. Their performances together were physically and emotionally vulnerable. In their piece Imponderabilia, they both stood across from each other in a doorway, nude. There was just enough space for someone to squeeze through the two of them. This really shows the physical vulnerability as she was completely exposed in front of an audience, with them being allowed to move against her. This is also vulnerable emotionally due to her and Ulay’s relationship. Sharing in this uniquely exposed performance with her partner would surely have an effect on their relationship.

Another very vulnerable work of Marina’s was Rhythm 0. In this work, she essentially allowed the audience full control of her body. They were allowed to rip off her clothes, hurt her, do whatever they wanted. They had many objects available to them, including violent things like knives and chains. By the end, her clothes had been torn off and she was injured and bleeding. I think this is both courageous and impactful — though problematic. She knowingly put herself in danger to prove a point. It was very telling of the people in the audience that they were so immoral and cruel as to injure and degrade her. I feel that this is problematic because it allowed people to act on their violent thoughts. It gave them a forum where violence was deemed “acceptable,” which allowed people to do things worthy of criminal charges with no consequences. I don’t think that anyone should have the freedom to act in those ways nor should they even want to. But for those who did, I feel that they shouldn’t have had the option to act on it in the first place. While it is in no way Marina’s fault that people behaved so barbarically (it is fully their own), I don’t think they should’ve been allowed to do that at all.

I think her quote, “when you perform it is a knife and your blood, when you act it is a fake knife and ketchup,” is very literal to her work, especially Rhythm 0. She allowed people to cut her with knives and draw her blood, all for the sake of her art. If she were acting, she would not be injured (both emotionally and physically), she would be allowed to take breaks, and she could detach from her work. She immerses herself in her work so much to the point of danger and injury. It is a completely different experience than if she were to be acting.

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A Kilometer’s Worth of Music

I decided to represent a kilometer by imagining if the grooves of a record were unraveled. Each side of a record is a spiral, so I was curious about how long it would be if it were linear. It took a while to find out how to measure the distance of the groove, but I eventually found a calculation to measure it. After calculating it, Side A was equal to 0.43 of a kilometer and Side B was equal to 0.49 of a kilometer. Together, the whole record was equal to 0.92 kilometers. To get it to 1 kilometer, I doubled the play time of Track 10 so it added the extra 0.08 inches. In total, playing the whole record through (with Track 10 2x), it is equal to 1 kilometer. 

To find this calculation, I eventually found a reddit post where someone calculated it based off a record of their own. To make it applicable to mine, I plugged my own numbers (based off the duration of each side) into the equation.

I felt that this was an interesting way to represent measurement because it made something sonic into something tangible. Music is often measured in seconds or minutes, but music is never measured in kilometers. It was different to envision music being measured in such a physical way. The difference of form was really interesting to think about, it was like the music was taking shape instead of just being something auditory. 

If this were to be in a gallery, I think it would be interesting to have the album playing on a loop (including Track 10 2x) to demonstrate the km. I think it would also be cool to represent the path the needle is taking across the whole record while being completely stationary. It travels the length of a km without moving at all, which defies our perception of distance. As mentioned by one of my classmates, having a piece of chalk or some coloured marker on the needle would be a great way to show the distance visually.

References

[Request] How many feet long is the groove in a vinyl from start to finish? Assume that the vinyl is 12 inches diameter, with the artwork in the middle is 4 inch diameter. Record rotates at 33 1/3 rpm, has approx. 25 minutes of music. : r/theydidthemath. (n.d.). https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/6qrl7f/request_how_many_feet_long_is_the_groove_in_a/

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Field Trip

I thought that this work was very interesting and compelling. I have always had an interest in geography and learning about different regions, and this tied in wildlife as well. This work depicts a single animal among a vast expanse of land. As there were dangerous conditions approaching, the owners of these animals had to evacuate them. One refused to go along with them. But this animal did not get injured, it protected itself completely and was later found unharmed. This really spoke to me because it was a reminder that these animals know the land and how to survive. They do not need human intervention to preserve themselves, their instincts are enough. I think this serves as an important reminder that nature does not require humans to thrive. It can regulate itself and prosper without humans playing a part.

This drew my attention initially because of the colours and textiles. I found the embroidery and beading to be very impressive and intriguing. As this work was explained, it was touching to hear the effects it had on people. People in the community said it was reminiscent of their childhood and family. This reinforced the fact that art has such an important impact on the world. It can evoke emotions and nostalgia that other things can’t. I really liked this aspect of it because whenever I create something, I try to keep it in mind. I like to create art that has meaning behind it and can evoke feelings. Art is a universal language, and can impact the lives of so many.

As we looked through the gallery, I noticed how cohesive the whole exhibit was. The sense of community and geography was tied in very well throughout the whole thing. It really felt like I was looking at the same pieces of one puzzle, and they all related to each other very well. They built off one another, and learning from one installation translated to the others. I also thought the colour scheme being consistent helped amplify this. I really enjoyed touring this exhibition and the gallery as a whole. It was a way of experiencing art that I don’t often do, and I really enjoyed the interactive element of it.

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NYT Reflection

1. The work in the article is about archiving people’s movements and showing that no two bodies move in the same way. These movements get archived through muscle memory. A person is shadowed by a dancer, their movements get observed and then retold through that person. A challenge that would come with this would be trying to reenact the person’s movements exactly. It would be hard after only knowing someone for one hour to embody their movements recognizably. Being able to replicate someone’s movements so well so quickly would take a lot of observation and consideration. I think it is so special to have loved ones movements memorized in this way after passing. The article mentions people donating the movements of passed family members, which I think is a very special way of memorizing and memorializing. To have the small things that make a person who they are archived would be very significant to the family. Movements and gestures that you thought you’d never see again be brought back to life would be so impactful.
2. One movement from the article that really struck me was Tjan’s. Through the dancer, he noticed that he tends to hide his body so he takes up less space. This struck me because it is interesting to have movements reflect personality. As I read this, I wondered if he is introverted or shy, because that’s what I felt from his movement. This also interested me because of how much it affected his own frame of mind after discovering this trait. In order to be seen more and take up more space, he bought a bright yellow jacket. This way he couldn’t hide himself through his own movements, and he would always be seen. Another movement that struck me was not a part of the installation. One of the dancers woke up one morning in a position not her own. She was immediately brought back, realizing that she was in a position of Dora’s – a woman she had interviewed the year prior. It is interesting because the dancer forgot about that movement until she woke up in a position that reminded her of someone else. It brought back the memories and feelings of that person without them actually being there.
3. One habitual movement I’ve noticed from my roommate is that she often moves her hair from side to side. I notice that when she is feeling nervous or uncomfortable, she plays with and adjusts her hair. She uses her hand and her arm to move her hair, making her whole upper body involved in the gesture. I have also noticed that my dad is always tapping his fingertips or putting pressure on them. I’ve noticed this happen when he’s been sitting for a long time or he is absent minded. This is even a gesture I have adopted. It causes the forearm to move slightly, and you can feel the movement if you are sitting closeby. Lastly, my other roommate scrunches her nose when she laughs. This affects a lot of the face, her eyes squint and her eyebrows move closer. This gesture has a lot of emotional importance, as it is signifying laughter and happiness.

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One Feat, Three Ways – Drinking

Ella. V, Maria, and Rhiannon

The feat we chose to do is drinking. For our first video we wanted to show a consistent shot of Rhiannon drinking the juice. We wanted the motion of drinking to be clear from the front and to highlight the throat movement. In our second video, we all took part in it. We wanted to use both the professional camera footage as well as digital camera footage to add some variety. This video had editing and sound effects to really have the feat of drinking be clear and encompassing. For our animation, we decided to split it three ways to showcase our different art styles. We thought it would be interesting to have the same motion be displayed in three completely different ways. In this video as well, the juice is very accentuated as we wanted it to be the main focus.

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Pauline Oliveros Reflection

When I listen, I try to be very intentional. I really make a point of listening to what people say and taking it in. That is why Oliveros’ idea of deep listening resonated with me. I feel that I have already been trying to demonstrate these traits without knowing about deep listening. Actively listening versus physically hearing are very different, though they can be mistaken for interchangeable. What interested me particularly about this was the inclusion of personal thoughts into the listening process. Viewing thoughts as something sonic was a new idea for me, but one that I really liked. I constantly have an inner monologue going in my head, which, according to deep listening, gives a new meaning to what I thought was silence. I would consider silence to mean there is no auditory noise and there is nothing to be heard. If I think about it through the lens of deep listening, it would not be silent due to my thoughts.

I think that if everyone exemplified deep listening, connections between people would grow deeper. Truly listening to someone’s words and having yourself be heard is a very deep level of connection. You can add to this by listening to and through your body. Feeling and hearing your heartbeat, knowing the other person’s is doing the same. Approaching this through a playful perspective is also interesting. You can picture your hearts beating in tandem or creating a unique rhythm.

Even listening to the mundane sounds that exist in the background is important. The hum of a refrigerator, the static of a tv, birds chirping, a gentle rustle of the wind — these are all sounds that are overlooked, even though they have soundtracked our lives. We are often hearing sounds without even realizing. You may fall asleep to the rumble of the dishwasher or hear the ticking of an alarm clock. These are all things that are heard, but are they listened to? The idea of deep listening is so extensive and profound, it exists in ways I would never have considered. If everyone were to incorporate this practice, we would understand each other better and listen, rather than just hear.

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November 2nd, 2025 – Audio Art

In creating this audio art, I knew I wanted to do something that represented relationships. Originally, I wanted to record the conversations of myself and my roommates to represent our friendship and dynamic. I thought it would be interesting to have our voices overlapping, laughter, and showing our emotions throughout. Ultimately, I used the same idea and concept but with my family as the subject instead. I recorded our conversations before and during dinner. It was the first family dinner we had in a while, so the recordings I got felt truly representative of my family. I almost wanted this artwork to serve as a time capsule, as a way to look back on this period of time. It was interesting because even now this time together grows less frequent as my sister and I grow up, so I wanted to do something to capture these moments while they still occur.

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Conceptual Portrait Proposal

1. I want to use a collection of objects to represent either an idea or a person. I think it is interesting to be able to represent something so clearly without being literal.
2. The work of Felix Gonzales-Torres has really inspired me.

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Conceptual Portrait

I decided to do my portrait of my mom through her recipes. A big part of growing up for me was making food with my mom. She always makes handwritten notes and whenever I look at them they feel very personal and real. I used this collection of recipes and her own adjustments to represent her. I even included some recipes from my grandmother and some of my notes I wrote alongside my mom. I included these to show how these qualities that are so personal can also be transferred and recognized in others.

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Zine

I decided to do my zine on diversity in the fashion/modeling industry. I wanted to touch on how there has always been a lack of diversity in terms of body types, ethnicities, and races. It is something that has caused many issues over the years. It pushed unhealthy eating habits and beauty standards. There was also a severe underrepresentation of people of colour. I wanted to show that in contrast to the many body positivity movements and shows of diversity we see today. Though there is so much work to still be done, it is a start. It is important that big companies and brands take these issues into account and try to rectify them. Steps are being made, and I hope it will only continue to get better.

Hello!

My name is Ella, and I’m in my second year at Guelph. My favourite food is mashed potatoes, and one of my favourite animals is groundhogs.

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Table of Contents

Page 2 ~~~~~~~~~~Marina Abramovic Questions
Page 3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Assignment One (1 KM)
Page 4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Reading Questions
Page 5~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Field Trip Questions
Page 6~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Video Assignment
Page 7~~~~~~~~~~~~~Deep Listening Questions
Page 8~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Audio Assignment
Page 9~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Draft Proposal
Page 10~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Conceptual Portrait
Page 11~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Zine Project

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Kilometer In The Making

An abstracted depiction of the creation of the Kilometer during the Late 1700’s.

I was inspired by the history of the metric system and the lengths scientists went to when creating the metric system. They were so focused on rational, calculating precision that it boarders on absurd. I wanted to capture that essence with this piece.

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Reflecting on Marina Abramovic

Question 2

Abramovic’s approach to performance art places a specific distinction between performance & acting. From what I have seen the two key factors that make this difference are impermanence and audience participation

In the case of the latter, Abramovic’s performances are reliant on the audience’s physical presence to get the most effect. The intimate nature of the performances, and the often graphic content they depict, is most impactful when in the same room as the performer. When viewed from afar, like by video, the performance loses some of that vulnerability. The personal experience of being in the same room as the performance is lost.

With the former, there’s an aspect of ephemerality to performance. Even plays are still reprinted and re-enacted over and over again. Shakespeare’s works have been redone, remade and retold for centuries now. But because Marina Abramovic’s performances are so specifically tied to her there’s no way to recreate them as they were. She becomes an inseparable part of the piece, and once she moves on it can never be made again.

Question 3

Abramovic’s philosophy when it comes to resisting the commodification of her art is interesting because I find it to be a somewhat flawed approach.

It’s effective when considering the commodification of art within the realms of reproduction and redistribution. You can’t “sell” physical media based off her performances, not in the same way something like a show or a novel might have merchandise. Any media created based on a work of hers is only valuable in its connection to that original performance. This reliance on the source material makes it difficult to market physical merchandise to someone who doesn’t already know about the performance. It also cant be syndicated. You can’t make a “sequel” to a performance like you could a play or a film.

Where this approach becomes ineffective is that it changes the selling point of a Marina Abramovic performance, to Maria Abramovic. She becomes the selling point of the piece, effectively becoming a kind of celebrity. Abramovic in particular falls into this mold because how central she is to each performance. This conflicts with Abramovic’s own philosophy that “Artists should not be Idols.” In many ways her art has become iconic because of her, whether she wants that to be the case or not.

In my mind, Marina has succeeded in stopping her individual performances from becoming commodities, but has unintentionally become a brand herself.

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The Feat of Getting Ready – Group video project

Audio Project, Shorter Cut

This audio drawn from the famous comedy sketch of who’s on first. Each note musical style is made in an effort to replicate the tonality and mood of the original sketch, without any vocals, aiming replicate the elements of conversation through instrumentation.

This version of the track is slightly incomplete. I plan to extend it to around a minute later, as well as refine some of the melodic elements to make it more “musical.”

Reference audio:

Above is the original audio of the sketch for comparison.

The audio below is the longer version of the track, extended out to include some more instrumental accompaniment and build off the shorter version.

This version is meant to have the two conflicting piano’s “argument” escalate as the song progresses, eventually becoming so intense that it becomes hard to separate the two. Eventually the song peters out in a bit of an anti-climax which I figured was appropriate given the source material.

Audio Project, Longer Cut

One other thing I was considering, thanks to some advice from Prof. Wilson, was finding a transcript of the original sketch and having a TTS program read it out. That way I could have two versions of the sketch operating in opposite extremes. One that conveyed exclusively emotionality and tone, and another that was completely literal and emotionless.

The issue I ended up running into that delayed that process was an aspect of how the original “Who’s on first” sketch was made. Abbott and Costello played out that sketch multiple times, and as a result multiple different versions of the script exist with various minor differences between them. While these differences are generally small they can change the flow and pace of the sketch as it goes on, making it difficult to find a version that matches the rough speed of my audio.

If I’m going to include a TTS version, I’ll likely have to write a manual transcript based off of the audio clip I used as a reference. Not the end of the world but still a bit time consuming.

Conceptual Portrait

for this assignment I am making a deck of cards based on Tarot decks. Thats the simplest part, explaining the rest involves getting a little, well, conceptual. Theres a concept in psychology called intra-family systems. the idea us that your mind is composed of multiple different perspectives or voices that all represent a different aspect of your identity and your needs. These voices then work together to produce your internal experience, often manifesting as an inner monologue. This inner monologue can be a singular voice or multiple, depending on the person.

In my case I often think of my different thoughts as if they’re sourced from those differing perspectives. When I’m upset the aggitated voice speaks up, when I’m proud the egotist in me speaks up, etc. These cards are meant to represent some of the most common perspectives that arise for me. Their depictions are representative of how I visualize them.

An example, using an unfinished version of The Director voice.

Each card represents an aspect of me, with the deck representing the totality. I wanted to represent how our understanding of someone can be limited by our perspective, we’re never able to read someones mind, to know them with absolute certainty. So the best we can do is learn about their various seperate components, and try to understand them as best we can, regardless of how strange or hard to grasp they might be. This project is also a bit nerve-wracking for me personally as its, by design, all about being very open and vulnerable which I cant help but be a little nervous about. Never the less I think the concept is a good way to conceptualize the interiority of who someone is rather than the limited perspective of their physical appeareance.

I personally believe that each person contains infinite potential multitudes and I hope to use this project as a way to explore that.

Below is a collection of the final versions of each card, though without text unfortunately.

Zine idea

For the Zine, I had the idea to make a zine made of custom cover art for various lesser known artists. each cover would be my own take on a cover for a particular artist or song. this way the zine can act as a counter-archive for music and songs that might not get as much attention from the broader industry.

The only issue I’ve found is there are only so many bands and artists that I know of, so I’d like to ask around the class for any recommendation’s people have. I’m look for songs that are made by lesser known artists and/or songs that are important to people personally.

In the end I ended up selecting 7 songs & albums, based on feedback from everyone in class as well as some of my friends and family. I tried to include as many as possible, especially songs that were mentioned by multiple people. I made these covers while listening to those very song!

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The Artist is Present, Reflections on Marina Abramovic

What have you learned about features of performance art based on Abramovic’s work? Name a few key features according to her precedents. Include an image to illustrate. Consider her quote, “When you perform it is a knife and your blood, when you act it is a fake knife and ketchup.

“An artist should not turn himself into an idol”

Through An Artist’s Life Manifesto, Marina Abramovic offers a look into the some of the ideology behind her creative process. This is not only the performance of an artist’s manifesto, or a speech given at a prestigious art event. An Artist’s Life Manifesto is the performance piece that Abramovic is performing throughout her life. While insisting an artist should not be deified, Abramovic’s raw charisma makes it nearly impossible not to fall in love with her throughout The Artist is Present (2012). Her methods of sharing her performances involve leading a workshop that involves no sleep and no food, reminiscent of a cult leader. Although she claims suffering is necessary for an artist, she also admonishes depression as not productive to the artist. Her presentation of her ideals, as well as the content of her ideology itself, seems completely contradictory and feeds into the suffering artist trope. However, I can’t help but feel myself drawn to her complete sincerity. Much like a performance is performed with real blood, An Artist’s Life Manifesto is a true distillation of Marina Abramovic’s approach to performance, since she lives by those words, contradictions and all, every day.

3. Discuss the ways performance art resists many museum and commercial artworld conventions. How does Abramovic solve/negotiate some of these challenges, and do you find these compromises add to, or undermine the ideas at play in her work?

Performance art resists the many conventions of the commercial art world through its ephemeral, and accessible nature. It is difficult to contain a performance piece in an archival section of the museum as a tax shelter, for starters. The accessibility of performance art defies the canon of the single genius of an artist, instead making the viewer aware of how important the work behind the art is, as opposed to some finished “masterpiece” that looks effortless hundreds of years removed from its original labour of creation. Abramovic still manages to find commercial success in the conventional art space by commodifying her own work, using archival footage, and presenting it through a highly sanitized, curated exhibits.

Although it could be argued it undermines the meaning of her work, I don’t believe it does. As a person, Abramovic is very open about her indulgences in couture, and does not pretend to live the life of a poor tortured artist. Although she has been lauded for her feminist messaging, she has been open about the fact that she did not intend to attach any sort of “political” messaging to her art. For her, everything is just reality, and reality is performance.

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Make a Kilometre Blog Post

Originally this project was going to look very different. I hate how much waste is produced by my work, and I’m interested in the idea of garbage we consider “recyclable” but is not actually feasibly recyclable and ends up in landfill anyway, like receipt paper, cardboard covered in tape, etc..

Here I am collecting and sorting my materials

However, the original vision (creating a 1km snake of trash) soon became too time-consuming and physically exhausting so I had to pivot. I had originally thought to call this project the “Paper Trail”, which made me decide to switch to a walking project.

Since the walk to my work from my house is one I complete on a near daily basis, I wanted to incorporate that. After measuring, I found that it was 1.2km away (according to Google maps), but I wanted to find a way to make the whole trip 1km.

While I figured out a way to cheat the distance in a meaningful way that was still true to the assignment I decided that I would take photos of all the road signs I could on my next walk to work and hopefully something would come from that. As I walked, I was blown away by just how often I found myself needing to stop to take a photo of a sign. I have linked the google drive of all the raw images of the photos here

Here are my rough notes for when I just had my photos taken:

• consolidate my photos into a presentable format
• find a screenshot/formal way of showing how you measure the 1km from your house to Highlife
  • show how the distance changes based on the walking route you need to take
  • compare that to the time added/subtracted from a trip depending on what mode of transportation you are taking
  • spend time on the Guelph Map site again (blegh) and use the measurement tool to prove it’s exactly 1km that you are measuring and take a screenshot of it vs the measurement of your route
• move all photos to computer done
• create the “trail” map based on the maps that are on google maps, trail maps etc as a sort of tongue in cheek commentary with the traffic signals/car first infrastructure being the “sights” to see
• maybe make it a brochure??

Since I was making a commentary of infrastructure, I decided to use the City of Guelph website’s resources to measure the distance between my house and my work, and was provided with my desired results.

Next I took the second map and created a huge file in Clip Studio Paint and began digitally collaging to created the desired effect of placing the signs onto their corresponding points on the map. Here is a WIP of the map

Next I searched on the Ontario parks website and pulled up the logo to be able to colour match the correct tones to make it looks as official as possible (though I’m no graphic designer) and found a high quality photo of the Ontario Parks logo to include in my trail map, then I downloaded a more simplified version of the map I was using to create my trail from the city of Guelph website as well and lined up the trail and the map, and was finally happy with the final result!

In total the project took about 10 hours

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NYT ARTICLE REFLECTION

1. Describe the work discussed in the article and the unique challenges – as well as the unique gifts- that come with attempting to archive personal movements?

One of the unique challenges with archiving movement is that it will never be an exact 1:1 recreation. In the practice of archival, the wish (I would assume) is to preserve the closest proximity to the truth of the present (at the time) moment archived. This is to say, the purpose of a photo for archival purposes of a building is to capture as accurate a depiction as possible of what said building looked like at the time the photograph was taken. Movement is difficult to duplicate person to person as an exact recreation since no two people have the exact same build, diet, centre of gravity, etc.. This presents as a unique challenge which raises the question, how successful can one person be at archiving another’s movement?

One of the unique gifts can be best described with a direct quote from the article:

One morning, [Berkhout] woke up in a fetal position,
hands clasped between her knees, although she usually sleeps with her limbs stretched out in a line. The pose belonged to a Ghanaian woman in her 40s whom she had interviewed the year before. “That’s Dora,” she thought.

I’m undiagnosed, but I’m basically 90% certain I’m somewhere on the autism spectrum, which means I spend a lot of time rehearsing my behaviour or mirroring it from other people. For example, my laugh is considered my own by my peers, but it’s actually a blend of my father’s and different celebrities I looked up to over the years. I love that as someone who feels the need to constantly copy other’s to keep up the appearance of normalcy, I am also carrying on the memory of those people, and even taking a bit of them onto myself.

2. Discuss one or two examples of movements in the article – what strikes you about them?

When the child was sitting restlessly, I was so stricken by the natural way in which they moved around, which when mirrored became so performative. I thought it was interesting how such a small body (the child’s) took up so much emotional space by simply… being restless. As well, in imitating the movements, the dancer took on a childlike appearance, despite the fact that she did not change anything specific about her clothing, her make up or anything else, it was just the body language that regressed her age.

3. Describe the habitual movements/unconscious gestures, tics, etc. of 3 people you know well. How do individual body parts move, and how does the whole body interact? What about facial expressions, and emotional valence of the movement? How does body type inform the movement? What do these examples of small movements mean and imply?

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Field Trip Reflections

In his essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, Walter Benjamin argues against technology capable of “reproducing” copies of art, such as photography, because it cannot replicate the aura of a piece of art. I would not consider myself an avid museum enjoyer, I find the Western art canon lackluster, and have only understood this feeling of “aura” in front of the Mona Lisa. That is, until experiencing Reworldlings.

Bison Survival Story Robe, Adrian Stimson

Almost every piece from the exhibit brought me to tears, and none exemplifies this concept of aura in an artwork more than the Bison Story Survival Robe. Coming face to face with a piece of traditional Blackfoot art that was created so recently is indescribable.

The size of the bison hide, the story itself being told in the round so that it never ends, imagery that is universally recgonizable- everything blends into a masterpiece that makes the Mona Lisa feel kitsch.

I feel truly lucky to live so close to the Art Gallery of Guelph, and to have a professor who is so invested in the world of conservation through a land-back perspective.

Nalliunet | Seasons (detail from Upinngasåk), Glenn Gear

The modern setting juxtaposed with the traditional activity of the image. I stood in front of this photo for at least five minutes on my second visit to the museum, trying to to decipher the emotions that sprang up in me. The story of resilience, of holding on to traditional practices and the willingness to still share and pass on the knowledge after all this time. A lot of these thoughts come to mind when I see this specific photo.

The “new build” home backdrop screams out to me, along with hair scrunchies, Old Navy and Batman hoodies. Most images of Indigenous cultural practices are contained to a fetishized version crafted by colonial settlers hellbent on reinforcing the image of the “noble savage”.

This photo tells a completely different story. One of traditional practice alongside a trip to the mall. It forces me to think of preservation and my relationship to the Earth as less black and white, and as was the hope for the exhibit, represents the concept of the “natural” world and the “human” world being less separate than the Western world depicts.

ONE FEAT THREE WAYS

I dreaded this assignment when I heard it was a group project. I’m so glad I was wrong.

Originally I wanted to really push myself with this, and get out of my comfort zone, but during our discussions we landed on Olivia as our performer and I realized that, as someone who did theatre all throughout high school, as well as a program in college- how uncomfortable would it really be for me to be in front of the camera? Olivia as the performer was definitely the right move she brought a vulnerability to the camera that made our final product feel overly intimate and voyeuristic in the best way possible.

As well, the conceit of the video really came through the process. Originally, we wanted Olivia to contort herself into a specific uncomfortable shape, but after the first test recording we found it so evocative the way she was trying to get comfortable on the hard surface of the table- both Lakyn and I said it reminded us of how we feel lying in bed, and checking in with Olivia, it didn’t just look it, it seemed as though she really did feel it.

Once we had the raw footage Olivia and I narrowed down which clip we wanted to animate, and then we exported our frames and each did a digital rotoscope animation. I had a really good time doing the animation, and it was so fun picking colours and seeing the way Lakyn overlayed our animations together.

I really love this group and this project was an amazing experience!

For my self grade, I’d give myself an 8/10

There wasn’t a lack of care, but there was a lack of effort due to unnecessarily high expectations put on myself, which resulted in me definitely slacking on my blog posts and writing them out last minute.

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Reflections on Pauline Oliveros

What comes to mind when I think of listening with my whole body are the sensations that specific sounds arouse in me. Sudden sharp sounds like a book slamming on a table resonates through my chest and stomach- aftershocks of an initial scare feel like a low buzz of electricity humming its way to my extremities, and there is always the itchy discomfort in my right ear that will persist until it transitions into a high pitched ringing. I also think of my nervous tick of checking railroad tracks while walking along them for vibrations. I know the sound of the approaching train travels faster through the metal tracks than the air, alerting my hands before my ears of my impending doom. On the other end of the same spectrum, there is the incompatibility of my sense of hearing with my other senses. When listening to something very important, I will unfocus my eyes and try to channel all my mental energy towards my sense of hearing and comprehension, in the hopes I will be able to listen properly.

I rarely think of listening in terms of play, and Oliveros is inspiring me to try and think less seriously about sound. My main association with sound is dialogue, something I tend to be slightly on edge for in fears of saying the wrong thing during a conversation. I will obsessively practice what I want to say in my head before saying it during a lull in the conversation, making it difficult to hear anything at all surrounding me over the sound of my own thoughts. Moving forward, I’m hoping I can be open to just accepting sounds as they are, instead of how I think they should sound. I want to be less focused on finding the “right” sounds, or the “right” quality to a sound, and instead enjoy a sound for what it already is and represents. My obsession with getting things correct has been a barrier to not just my creativity, but communication as well. Sometimes, people do not have a deeper meaning to their words, but I am still wont to decipher what is being left unsaid, and what response is expected of me (as opposed to simply responding).

Pauline Oliveros inspires me to think of the different ways that listening can manifest. There is no one specific way to listen, with just your ears. Listening as a full body experience is something I am looking forward to exploring through my life going forward.

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Audio Art: Title Needed

Reflections on Audio Assignment

This assignment was difficult for me. I have a really hard time stepping out of my comfort zone, and audio production was definitely outside of my comfort zone.

Initially, I had difficulty just coming up with a premise for the work. I was dreading the actual slog of editing so much, I didn’t even start to think conceptually until halfway through the assignment. I’m starting to notice a pattern in my work-flow, wherein I put off the actual getting started until it’s so late that I end up submitting a piece that could use a few more rounds of review, instead of starting my work and going from there.

The process was difficult, since it awoke emotions in me I didn’t realize were there. Or it might be more accurate to say, I thought I had conquered. It’s hard to make a deeply personal piece of art without getting lost in the process- it’s especially hard when you only have a week of turnaround and you’ve already invested so heavily in it emotionally.

I can see myself revisiting audio art, whether it be the music production I dabbled in or something more cinematic, but for now, I am just focusing on making it through the rest of the semester.

I tend to place much higher stakes on assignments than necessary. One of these days I’ll finally learn that perfect is the enemy of finished but I can still feel myself wanting to dip back into the studio for another round of revisions…

Conceptual Artist Proposal

From the artists shown, I take great inspiration from Adrian Piper and her Calling Cards, as well as her work in performance art wherein she dresses in drag and reads excerpts from her diary on a loop while recording herself walking through the streets of New York City.

I similarly feel that people will share opinions with me that they should keep to themselves, and struggle to navigate these scenarios. Similar to Piper’s calling cards, I want to create a large identifier that will both poke fun at how commodified queer identity has become under late stage capitalism while at the same time being stigmatized.

IDEAS:

• custom name tag
• screen printed shirt
• spray water bottle
• customize a shirt with marker/acrylic paint

Conceptual Portrait: Tattoo Designs

Yes I really do plan to get this tattoo (the background colour is my skin tone colour picked from an image of myself)

To Do:

• Get in touch with an artist
• Clean up design

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Marina Abramović

Reflection

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. 

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Kilometer

Process 

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.

Time	BPM	Beats in 30 Seconds	Cumulative beats
0:30	90	45	45
1:00	150	53	98
1:30	120	60	158
2:00	132	66	224
2:30	142	71	295
3:00	150	75	370
3:30	156	78	448
4:00	162	81	529
4:30	168	84	613
5:00	172	86	699
5:30	176	88	787
6:00	178	89	876
6:30	180	90	966
7:00	176	88	1054
7:30	172	86	1140
8:00	168	84	1224
8:30	164	82	1306
9:00	160	80	1386

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.

Reflection 

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

Final work

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Turning the gestures of everyday life into art

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AGG Trip

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.

Final Reflextion

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.

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One Feat Three ways

Media

Process + Reflection

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.

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Audio

Pauline Oliveros

Reflection

. 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. 

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Conceptual Portrait

Proposal

Bacterial and UV Art

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Zine

Media

Reflection

My name is Abby, I am in second year of Creative Arts, Health and Wellness as a chosen Studio Arts Major. I am from Caledon, Ontario, I love traveling and my dog!

• Page 1 -Me
• Page 2 -Marina Abramović
• Page 3 -A KM
• Page 4 -Turning the Gestures of Everyday Life Into Art
• Page 5 -Art Gallery Guelph
• Page 6 -One Feat, Three ways
• Page 7 -Pauline Oliveros – Deep Listening
• Page 8 -1 Min Works
• Page 9 – Draft & inspiration
• Page 10 – Conceptual Portrait

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Hello, my name is Abigail but I go by Abby, I am in my second year here at Guelph and I am in the studio arts program. I love reading, music and my cat.

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Engaging with the presence of Marina Abramovic herself for the first time via documentary left me with an ensnared impression. The combination of herself and her art reeled me in, left me wanting to understand, to discover what was so captivating. To a degree, making me understand the thinking pattern and acknowledge the commitment of her aspiring students in the preparatory work leading up to “The Artist Is Present”. This prep work being an intensive workshop in hygiene and movement where they were taught her ways in performance art in a secluded countryside retreat. That commitment and compulsion of the students highlighted my initial captivation to Marina Abramovic, wanting to get closer, to know, to learn.  

Strengthening her captivating, intense and compelling energy in “The Artist Is Present” by directly challenging the audience.

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Using herself only to cause external stress to the audience, making an uncomfortable situation. Allowing them to become bestial, raw, emotional, seeing their true nature erupt through a simple held look.  

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Here you can see some of those raw, emotional reactions to Marina.

The effect of Marina Abramovic as shown has exemplified to me that my initial captivation is certainly mutual upon anyone who interacts with her. Marina and her art radiate and draw in the crowds with her unique and complex character. But that certainly is not the only thing drawing in the numbers, Marina’s resilience to repetition and the effect of time boggles the mind. Asking simply how a human can push themselves to such impossible lengths and to what extent.  

Through her patience in the repetitive three months, seven days for 7 hours in “The Artist Is Present” exhibition to the “Relation in Space” work she did with the artist Ulay.  

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Where Marina repeatedly runs full force into Ulay, both in the nude for an hour straight.  

Through being introduced to performance art through the work of Marina Abramovic, I can grasp the role of the limitations of the body, the endurance but more importantly, the risk and trust you must put in to succeed.  

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Citations:

• Photo One: Marina Abramović. the artist is present. 2009 | moma. (n.d.). https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/243/3133 

• Photo Two: Bourne, A. C., Published by Catherine Bourne                            View all posts by Catherine Bourne, Bourne, P. by C., Bourne, C., & View all posts by Catherine Bourne. (2016, September 23). Marina Abramović: The artist is present. Virtual Artist Residency. https://virtualartistresidency.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/blog-post-title-3/ 

• Video One: Abramovic-Ulay-relation-in-space-G. Vimeo. (2025b, September 17). https://vimeo.com/163376505?fl=pl&fe=ti 

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Initial Ideas that didn’t make it past the planning stage:

• Chew something (gum, candy, food) for the same (equated) length of a kilometre and stick them to a canvas – completely fill the canvas with chewed up food (meant to make you feel uncomfortable/grossed out)
• Walk a kilometre in new shoes (buy cheap flip-flops or slippers from dollar store) and then rip off the bottoms of the shoes and glue them to a canvas – show what a one kilometre walk can look like on the shoes
• Walk a kilometre in white socks – then hang them up on a clothing wire – video recording of me hanging the dirty km socks
• Take the amount of hair that fits into a kilometre (a lot) and in a video format showing just my hands balling up that amount of hair into a hairball as I ‘pull’ them out of my head

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Final Idea: Push Pins

Im showing my kilometre through clustered push pins.

• Why Push Pins?

Thinking of a kilometre, my mind goes back to the basics, the map, paper or digital, doesn’t matter. While looking at the map, you can see it’s littered with highlighted lines, shapes, and multi-coloured push-pins (digitally or not). The push pins set in to highlight and determine a specific area (can be a pin for food, the bank, hospitals), detailing the distance from the pin to yourself in kilometres. Meaning, kilometres and push pins are common to each other within the same spectrum of thoughts. They almost pin down the kilometres themselves essentially in a more poetic way, holding down a distance common to us.

Some photo examples of push pins on paper and digital maps:

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• Equating Push Pins With One Kilometre:

Taking from this observation, and knowing I need to downsize, I measured out the length of a single common push pin – 2.54 cm – And trying to figure out how many of those 2.54cm sized pushed pins could equate to one kilometre (which is 1000m), I divided the kilometre (1000m) by the push pin (2.54cm) and found out that roughly 394 push pins equated the length of one kilometre, equally as sized down.

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• How I’m going to show One Kilometre (Step by Step)

Make a 8.5mm x 5.7mm sized base out of styrofoam – inspired by topographic relief maps for the base, use air dry clay to sculpt out rough terrain then paint it black

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Then clustering up the 394 multi-coloured push pins, to similarly look like a highly popularized area on the map – fill until no black is showing through

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Final Piece:

(add popsicle stick supports to the sides of the base and paint black)

I am left with a texturized, and visually appealing piece that perfectly equates and reframes the broader ideas of a kilometre.

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Introduction:

The act of trying to pick up and hold onto as much as possible before gravity drags everything back down. Seen in our raw and very awkward attempts to balance the weight in front of us.

Carrying, picking up, balancing and holding onto multiple items can be figuratively seen as a parable to a common phrase heard in our everyday lives, especially as students, “juggling with responsibilities”. These “responsibilities” being the shoe I pick up or even the toilet paper thrown at our heads. Knowing this ‘balancing act’, which can be seen as our lives, can only eventually come crumbling down. This ‘crumbling’ process seen in real time as we actively cannot hold onto all the items we pile and stack on.

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• Video #1: The One-Shot

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• Video #2: The Sequence

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• Video #3: The Loop – Rotoscope Animation

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To conclude and cut off the overwhelming and anxiety filled emotions induced through these tense videos, we essentially, give up. The end shows our balancing act crumble straight to the ground, brought to a breaking point, to a point we all know and hate.

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• Art Work #1

“Out of the Ashes” 2025

Adrian Stimson

Walking around the Art Gallery of Guelph, observing the array of art pieces, different in all ways, I found myself drawn especially to this painting here. Taking into account my recently peeked interest in colour theory and painting from the work in my painting class this current semester, I feel connected almost to this painting. Wanting further to see the work in the process of creation, the pallet, the colours used. Wanting to understand, learn and further that connection through the paint on the canvas.

Walking away from this piece leaves me with a feeling of motivation, of inspiration to continue to work and find those colours on the pallet. In hopes to take away from this piece a semblance of understanding, of recognition in the process in which it takes to get to a final painting. To see what another eye saw as the final piece.

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• Art Work #2

“Returning the Bones (52 Days), 2025

Timelapse Video, 10:24 minutes

Sheri Osden Nault

Learning about this piece specifically through a curated gallery visit, its concept and ideas around renewal and return, peeked my interests. Specifically its purpose as a temporary sculpture that will eventually return itself to the land, interweaving cycles of life and nourishing the future. The concept of intermingling used or ‘garbage’ worthy materials into an art piece is a concept I personally love partaking in. And seeing this piece and learning of its purpose reminded and inspired me to further my development down the reuse series.

Taking away from this a feeling of enlightenment and inspiration. Wanting to strengthen the world of reused art and continue to mix in ‘trash’ or ‘unusable’ items. Not only for my own personal art gain but for, like Sheri Osden Nault said, to nourish future growth and to reaffirm living relations between people.

To highlight more clearly what exactly I mean, within most of my art pieces, I reuse materials, save junk, pick up trash, wrappers, any discarded item that another human no longer deemed desirable and redefine it as desirable again. Placing the so called ‘junk’ into junk journals, zines, or mixed media pieces. So seeing the overall premise of this piece done here by Sheri Osden Nault, I felt heavily connected and drawn to it.

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Article – Reflection Questions

1. Describe the work discussed in the article and the unique
challenges – as well as the unique gifts- that come with attempting to archive personal movements?

Reading through this article, discovering these authentic movements seen through individuals allows me insight to a more personal thought that one would not casually know. My interest was piqued reading about Arab and his anxiety hands , saying that he found in the process a new found ownership over his knuckle cracking. Another, Tjan, realizing that he tends to arrange his body so it takes up less space through the dancer who interviewed him. Through this ‘dance’ interview, the dancer dives into their personal lives, allowing them a place to feel open to understand these forgotten aspects of themselves. As well as being valuable to people dealing with loss, Heitmann received donations of movements from a Belgian woman who passed, allowing the family a form of memorabilia.

Although this can be positive, there’s a challenge that comes along with these personalized archived movements for the dancers. As time passes, other peoples motions seep into the dancers lives, seen in Berkhout. When she noticed she woke in the position belonging to a Ghanaian woman whom she interviewed the year before.

The challenges that come along with these dancers lives seem as if worth it, to put it blankly. The outcome seems to be worth that push yet of course that is a complex thing to say. As these dancers now face years worth of unwanted resurfaced positions taken from others, never being able to ‘clock in or out’. But for art, one understands that ‘Your body needs to stay in training. If you stop, your artwork is gone’.

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2. Discuss one or two examples of movements in the article – what strikes you about them?

When Heitmann mentions she also has contributed secondhand movements that she associates with her father after his death, I was taken aback by how personal she went. Having left behind only meaningless bank statements and tax reports. Heitmann, wanting to change this narrative of a ‘very one-sided picture’ as much as possible in the current situation allowed her dancers to perform his movements. Mentioning that the gestures weren’t particularly important but ‘neither were his tax filings’ and this allowed for a more human memory.

As striking as something so deeply personal was taken into her art, it also allows me insight into a different perspective of the process behind a different style of art.

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3. Habitual Movements and Unconscious Gestures Study (of 3 people)

• My girlfriend, Val
• My Mother, Stacey
• My Sister, Riley

1. Val

Quick Jot Notes of Observation:

– tight lips

– finger taping lips constantly moving

-eyebrow twitch

-awkward glancing

-tight toe

-tense

-lips

-tapping hands clapping hands together

-tongue on cheek

The Habitual Movements of my Girlfriend Val,

Taking note of her already anxious exterior due to the awkward situation I placed her in, noting down obvious anxious, natural tics. Started noticing first her face, the tension she holds in her lips, pressing them firmly together almost creating a straight line. Moving up immediately after, as if the lips set the eyebrows off to shoot straight up to her hairline, making almost an awkward, dissatisfied expression. Moving down her increasingly tense body, I immediately noticed her hand movements, her light finger taps that almost match that dissatisfied, rushed eyebrow raise. Noticing also that her feet held much tension as well, being tightly curled and closed together, almost there to comfort her in such a moment. Taking her final anxious clap as indication that her body was put through enough stress without having to say a single word.

2. Mom, Stacey

Quick Jot Notes of Observation:

-thumbs hitting each other (impatient)

-toe tapping

-tight lips

-awkward glances

-crossing hands

-picking at face

The Habitual Movements of my Mother, Stacey,

Dragging my mom to sit her down and observe her unconscious gestures already left the room in a rushed frenzy. Noting her impatient tics and twitch, her thumbs quickly tapping each other, almost waiting and listening for me to release them. Noting that she noticed my glance, she immediately crossed her arms in, protecting herself almost from my prying eyes. Moving away from that now closed off section of the body, I notice her tight lips, lips that are constantly moving, almost as if they don’t know where to run. To further magnify that worry shown in her lips, she begun picking slightly at the centre dry spot. Taking her body language at this point as sign enough that the poor woman wanted out of there and was obviously very impatient.

3. Sister, Riley

Quick Jot Notes of Observation:

-cracking knuckles

-sipping tea

-picking at finger nails

-nervous glances \ feet clasps together

-hand throw (piece of skin) picking at skin

-toes twitched hands on knees

-stretched legs

The Habitual Movements of My Sister, Riley,

Already noting the cool exterior she firmly sets in place, asserting and affirming that I won’t be able to truly see how she acts. She sits with a huff, immediately cracking her knuckles as if that slight reprieve was all she wanted in that painfully awkward moment. To continue on with her facade, she pulls out her mug of tea and ‘casually’ takes a sip, smoothly but obviously crafted. But time will only tell and as the clock ticks on, I notice the tension pulling at her facial features, worrying her brow, noticing worried, agitated glances off to the corners. To further exemplify her growing concern for when this might end, she begins picking at her finger nails, continuously, throwing her skin away as she goes. Taking her final placement of her hands firmly on her knees as sign enough that my observation has come to a close.

When Pauline uttered the statement that ones ear cannot be trained but they’re listening can be, a new realization dawned on what sound truly can be. The parameters in my mind surrounding sound expanded in a way in which I allowed myself to listen differently, challenging already set standards assigned to sound. When Pauline expanded, mentioning to take a moment to notice what you’re hearing, to focus on the unnoticed, I allowed myself to expand my own listening.

Noting my previously perceived quiet or muffled out surroundings and altering my listening habits, I allow myself to feel connected. Focusing on my own sounds then listening to the sounds around me, giving my attention not only to my own. Hearing in it almost a heavy or full presence emanating from such perceived quiet objects. Noting that nothing is truly quiet, realizing and revealing in what Pauline mentioned, that listening is the closest to consciousness. And being conscious for too long can be exhausting, being hyper aware of sounds typically drowned out.

An Understanding for the process in which altered listening and hearing unheard sounds allows your mind a place to slip into unheard thoughts. Meaning, this deep listening exercise allows for one to fall deeper into their own consciousness. Overwhelming but also finding a place in these sounds for new ideas and thoughts to flourish. Allowing my brain to give time and attention to these new, unheard sounds, rattles what I believe my listening time should be given to. Altering what I believe a worthy sound has allowed me to think differently regarding our upcoming audio project and what sounds should be given that extra attention.

Direct Inspiration,

Work of William Anastasi and his piece, “Nine Polaroid Photographs of a Mirror”, 1967, Photographs (Medium: instant diffusion transfer prints)

My Planning Process:  

Wanting more so to conceptualize an abstract idea rather than a specific person (as I fear that it will generally summarize who they are down to that one idea – I don’t want to do injustice to the person’s image.

Playing into the idea of insecurity in self-identity – meaning, portraying that obsessive mindset that leads one to copy or change their own personality to be accepted – the feeling of having to work hard/change to fit in.

• The “follower”  

With this constant need to be accepted, one loses their own identity, leading them to only simply be a reflection of others, not themselves  

• The portrait is basically a portrait of the most ideal person – reflected by the use of the most ideal (videos) of human interaction, life onto said person – making them (and their) portrait the most ideal form  

• A conceptualized perfect portrait of the most ideal person – through use of copying, following, reflecting others – a mask almost  

Gaining this initial inspiration through, 

•  my fear of misrepresenting a specific person  

• Not knowing full well my own self identity  

• Understanding the shared mindset of an insecure person + how that can be their entire identity – hence why this ‘insecurity’ is the main focal point of this portrait  

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Initial ideas (that didn’t make it past initial stages) – wanting to represent a shiny, reflective surface in some way :

Idea #1: Video recording of the breakage and re-assembly of a multitude of different mirrors 

• Taking a multitude of different mirrors, all from different places (e.g. old family mirrors, thrifted mirrors, or found mirrors)  

• In video format, record a bird’s eye view of myself breaking multiple different mirrors on a table  

• Then reassembling a newfound mirror from all the now discarded/recycled mirrors – trying to glue back together all these different mirror pieces into a reflective surface  

• Can be bumpy, messy, cracked – that’s the point – as it’s a product of recycled/discarded others  

• The video will show me assembling this mirror to the best of my ability  

Playing on the follower mindset – in which one takes snippets/aspects of other identities and morph them into something of their own – constantly recycling identities until it forms this mix-up of reflected identities

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Idea #2: Video recording of the placement of mirror shards onto someone’s face  

• Find recycled, donated, discarded mirrors, break them  

• In video format, record the placement of these broken mirror shards onto the face until they cover most of the face  

like this image here  

• Playing on the assembly of one’s identity – the video is basically a video tutorial on how to assemble copied/found identities  

• Stop until the face reflects everything else but who the actual person truly is  

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Idea #3: Projection of found video onto a human body  

• Find/record video footage of human life – go downtown Guelph, go on campus, to the mall – anywhere where there is a lot of human interaction/activity  

– like this image here

• The human skin acts as the screen for these videos  – want to keep the nude aspect as it can act as symbolism to a fresh start or a rebirth into this new identity – similarly to how we are initially born (nude) when we start out our lives, our initial identities

• Take another video recording of the projected videos onto the skin as the videos play through  

• Playing into that insecure mindset where one takes aspects of their reality, of other identities/personalities and morph and project it as their own  

Issues: don’t have a projector and have never worked with one  

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Final idea #4: Carrying a mirror around as a fake head(feel best towards this one but not 100% on which idea to choose)  

• Find a thrifted/discarded mirror (singular)  

• Carry it around the city – record quick clips of myself (or in general a person) holding said mirror up to their head (covering their face with the mirror) in random, populated spots – e.g. downtown Guelph, Uni campus, the mall  

• Video shows person just standing still, holding the mirror up, reflecting what’s around them  

• Can have natural elements of people walking through, busy streets – jarring/uncommon image to see in everyday life – placing uncommon/awkward ideas in everyday/common life 

like this here  

• Kinda like showing the process of how one gathers their ‘identities or the process of copying/following others – video documentation of what being a follower consists of (abstractly)  

• Kind of like a conceptual portrait of everyone and everything – like how followers intend to live  

To loop this back to my initial inspiration from the work of William Anastasi, while I am out in these random places recording this footage, I also plan on taking a photograph of what the mirror is reflecting (the mirrors perspective) – gaining a collection of photos from all these different places I went to (all these identities I’m ‘copying’) and cover the mirror with these images – kind of like covering up who you are, who your original identity is with all these images of others ‘identities’  

• So, I will have a video recording of the process of copying identities and the outcome/new identity on a physical piece (the mirror)  

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Critique:

• disintegrate projection of body possibly

• body copies the movements in projection video

• have a phone in pocket filming how people react to mirror head – my POV

• cut holes in mirror? – to have more of a self perspective look

• print out eyes (or google eyes) instead of cut out holes to keep that personal perspective look – to make it seem like im actually a mirror face, that this is what I look like – a reflection with eyes
• wear mirror like a mask
• while in mirror head costume – can follow people around, copying them
• can use maybe a mirrorball as a reflective head – as a mask (personal crit)
• can still cover mirrorball with reflected photos
• can even have a clip at the end of myself looking in the mirror and attaching the new photos to mirror face – kinda like reassembling ur face – like getting ready in the morning – can include a photo of red lips to emulate the getting ready idea

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Taking Away from Critique:

Context for my switch:

Wanting to completely pivot to a new idea – feeling not attached to my initial idea, not super confident in my abilities to complete it to my standards

Wanting to make it more personalized and less abstract  – Thinking of what is close to me, what I hold significance to and what has consistently been a factor in my life – or has contributed to it  

• Taking away from this observation – looking more closely at my personal belongings  

• Knowing that my family hold onto loads of memorabilia, and seeing how this hoarding mentality has projected itself onto my daily habits as well  

• Holding onto boxes + boxes of old family sentimental objects, photos, books, magazines, etc.  

• I’ve noticed this mentality has spread into my life as I also have a couple memory boxes – with a range of items from throughout my life that I’ve deemed important enough to myself, identity, and journey as Abby  

• Taking from this plethora of, to put it blankly, junk, that my family and I have assigned meaning to, enough that we won’t allow ourselves to(collectively) to throw away or donate them  

• Knowing the sheer amount of photo albums and scrapbooks my mom created during our developmental years has led me to want to document these sacred yet very random items in a arrangement that puts one into a nostalgic feeling – kind of like copying my mom (my creator)  

• Knowing how important memorabilia is to myself and my family, creating this junk scrapbook/photo album of my memorabilia/memorabilia my family saved in memory of me would be a perfect conceptual self portrait of myself and a conceptual portrait/ohmage to my family and they’re lasting habits  

Steps on how to approach this/initial planning steps:  

• Knowing my mom has specifically assigned photo albums/scrapbooks for each family member (including herself) (possibly made my her mom, my grammy – a whole lineage of scrapbooks made in my family – in which I want to be a part of) – using her specific photo album as a shell/casing for my personal items – kind of playing on how she is my creator, so starting with her name/book with the inside contents being all of me – can also be a play on how she gave birth to me, I came from her – the layout of this can be seen as similar  

• Starting from my younger ages up (following how a regular photo album layout goes)  

• Includes photos with certain items – can be little written letters associated with photo – b-day cards – hobby related items (dance), dried flowers, old iTunes apple music player with with wired headphones attached with a specific dance song ready to go – anything within out stored boxes in my family’s basement + my own memory boxes  

• All following the timespan of my life so far – maybe like each year (20 pages)  

• Its also interactive – as the audience can flip through pages and play around with specific (noted) items (e.g. the music)  

• Want to place/present it in a moving box – like how all of my family members photo albums originally are – covered in dust, spider webs – can even have old tape/writing on it (maybe use one we already have lol)  

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Conceptual Portrait Assignment: (Final Piece)

Collections of valuable items that were kept or saved in memory of me from my mom and family through out my younger years and childhood. Up until I continued on saving important personalized or identity revealing tokens of memory . All conceptualized into a personal portrait photo book/scrape book, heavily inspired by my mothers immense work with scrape booking and photo albums (which has been an ongoing family tradition/creation that most of the mothers in my family tree have upheld). So wanting to put in my own rendition, or start to a collection of photo albums/scrape books I intend on creating.

Wanting to play on specific developmental or pivotal moments in my life, incased by a old photo album my mother used for my parents wedding – playing on how they are my creators and this is what they created (so far) – and how I’ve developed into my own person (again, so far)

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My Planning Process:

New idea – diverting from original plans  

Wanting to make it more personalized and less abstract  

Thinking of what is close to me, what I hold significance to and what has consistently been a factor in my life – or has contributed to it  

• Taking away from this observation – looking more closely at my personal belongings  

• Knowing that my family hold onto loads of memorabilia, and seeing how this hoarding mentality has projected itself onto my daily habits as well  

• Holding onto boxes + boxes of old family sentimental objects, photos, books, magazines, etc.  

• I’ve noticed this mentality has spread into my life as I also have a couple memory boxes – with a range of items from throughout my life that I’ve deemed important enough to myself, identity, and journey as Abby  

• Taking from this plethora of, to put it blankly, junk, that my family and I have assigned meaning to, enough that we won’t allow ourselves to(collectively) to throw away or donate them  

• Knowing the sheer amount of photo albums and scrapbooks my mom created during our developmental years has led me to want to document these sacred yet very random items in a arrangement that puts one into a nostalgic feeling – kind of like copying my mom (my creator)  

• Knowing how important memorabilia is to myself and my family, creating this junk scrapbook/photo album of my memorabilia/memorabilia my family saved in memory of me would be a perfect conceptual self portrait of myself and a conceptual portrait/ohmage to my family and they’re lasting habits  

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Steps on how to approach this/initial planning steps:  

• Knowing my mom has specifically assigned photo albums/scrapbooks for each family member (including herself) (possibly made my her mom, my grammy – a whole lineage of scrapbooks made in my family – in which I want to be a part of) – using her specific photo album as a shell/casing for my personal items – kind of playing on how she is my creator, so starting with her name/book with the inside contents being all of me – can also be a play on how she gave birth to me, I came from her – the layout of this can be seen as similar  

• Starting from my younger ages up (following how a regular photo album layout goes)  

• Includes photos with certain items – can be little written letters associated with photo – b-day cards – hobby related items (dance), dried flowers, old iTunes apple music player with with wired headphones attached with a specific dance song ready to go – anything within out stored boxes in my family’s basement + my own memory boxes  

• All following the timespan of my life so far – maybe like each year (20 pages)  

• It’s also interactive  

How I am going to record/document these collage/layouts:  

• Can photocopy my layered items  

• Playing on the fading memory idea  

• To include all aspects of memorabilia in a way in which it is flat enough to fit into a photo album  

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Photo Gallery

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Deconstructed Photo Album

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Assignment Five – Counter Archive Zines

I wanted to take this opportunity to create a zine that allowed my own experiences as a queer woman to be heard. The world has saturated and consumed queer female love as this sexualized, performative act that simply stands as a joke. With the (not so great) help of media sites (porn) that contribute to this untrue narrative for queer women. Allowing this behaviour to be accepted or more so, normalized.  

I am done with the assumptions and questions, I am done with one assuming my relationship is not real, that it won’t last, I am done with men sexualizing my sexuality, asking to join, to watch personal, private moments in MY love life. I am not just here simply for your entertainment; I am real, my emotions, my love, my life.  

This Zine takes you on a short (would have loved to make it longer if I had more time) journey through a more realistic, sapphic and a little comedic view from an actual queer women (not some made up queer women put in place for men’s media consumption).  

My Creation Process:

I created this Zine initially by hand, on paper opposed to digitally, finding I enjoy the creation process more. Using cheaply found materials, only what I had around me, as I have loads of scrape paper from previous projects. Alongside simple printed found imaged.

Wanting to include my own personal style/taste/aesthetic to this zine, keeping that whimsical, dreamy, almost fantasy vibe while incorporating main, commonly recognized signifiers of queer, womanly love.

Zine Creation Party: