Hypha studio confirmed that my artwork will be included in the open-to-public exhibition named Change Horses Midstream(8:45)
Conversations:
Reflection of tutorial (0:20)
I invited my artist friend to draw on my hair, which turns to be controversial and I had reflection of the action of being brave (3:30)
The reflection of the period of time I cope with my hair (7:15)
Challenges:
Organization – Summary all the things within 5min to get prepared for presentation (0:25)
Time (1:40)
Make my research question more approachable on my blog (3:20)
Activities:
I went to the Mighty Crown Ball and had my reflection of the link between this performance and my project on how can performance art be more approachable to wider audiences (9:35)
New thoughts:
My tutor suggested me that I can move forward the thought of dictionary by document my foundings through my journey (1:20)
Discrimination – timing, safety, connected to discosailing (1:50)
A reflection on how to invite participants more efficiently (12:50)
I visited at least 7 degree shows both BA and MA mostly at different sites of RCA, UAL, UCL, Goldsmiths.
I did at least 4 interventions on Paris (video 7:14) Milan (video 37:00) , Frankfurt (video 55:14) and London (video 1:03:15), which covers 100+ people, and the two interventions in Milan and Frankfurt are more solid as the other two is more accidental. And gathered at least 5 new thoughts on new interventions (safety rope – video 39:50, Discrimination – video 56:20, hidden disability which now is just a thought – video 59:03, Makeup – video 59:38, workshop – video 1:10:30) and had conversations with people to bring the thoughts to next level (video 1:01:20).
My intervention in Milan is documented by National Daily Press Italian News. English: https://www.nationaldailypress.it/stand-up-comedy-2/ Italian: https://www.nationaldailypress.it/stand-up-comedy/
I contacted a few people both on the professional side (at least 3 with response, one is the person I met on Goldsmiths MFA degree show – video 1:29:50, one is my friend who study art for many years but she is focusing on digital art, and one girl who is a performance artist herself and is famous on Chinese social media, also loads of light conversations with my artist friends.) and the stakeholders side (at least 3, one is my comedy partner, one is my friend from Goldsmith – video 6:00, and one is the person I met on July 14 – viedo 1:15:35. And I also had light conversations with audiences I came across during comedy tour).
This week I am really so busy with things out of the project itself. But at the same time, I did made some progress.
Monday:
We had tutorial on timetable, so we can better manage our time during independent study.
I also meet frend from Shanghai. She works in advertising industry, so she shared some recent work she did and drag me back into those time I am also working.
Tuesday:
At Dragon’s Den, I gathered some feedback both from dragons and peers.
Wednesday:
Me, together with graphic designer, we made the poster of my comedy tour. During that process, I also learned a bit how to use PS, and can edit some basic information on my own. That laid a foundation on my future potential workshop if I need some poster.
Also the speakers debate is really nice, in the game part, I had a chance to ask course leader a question that I never asked before.
Thursday:
I had a psycho-grographic walk with course leader from academic support. We head out from CSM, and ends at holborn, a site where CSM used to be, he also showed us where MA Applied Imagination classroom and studio used to be. During the walk, I learned that we can spend some time to pay attention to the surroundings. And from the walk, I established new network, a student from Fine Art introduced the name of her programme director, which means I have more access if I want to get in touch and discuss my project.
Friday:
Had a rest and worked on my comedy tour.
Saturday:
Together with my friend, we went to support London naked bike ride, but we placed ourselves only as passengers, not the one who ride the bike, and I do strongly feel pity that I should have had the courage to do it as this is the perfect chance to free my body and do something bold. I learned that I have to live in the moment and spend less time hesitating.
After that, I wen to London LGBTQ+ Centre for open mic, after watching others’ peoformance, I thought, why not I also try, I already missed to ride the bike, I have to stop hesitating, so I performed two unprepared piece, one is I read a piece of creative writing I wrote and I attached it, which is a new experience to me, another is I sang a song which I also never do on stage. And I do thank them a lot for creating a safe, non-judgemental place for me to try to perform in front of audience without feeling a lot of pressure.
General:
For my peoject,
The inner courage of myself: I had a chance to perform in front of people.
The progress of my intervention: I talked to some founders of my comedy tour and someone support me to do my intervention during my comedy tour, while some insists comedy should be pure without other elements.
Research: Not directly by reading, I should push myself harder on this.
What should do better: Research and time management.
I went to assist an artist for some street shooting. It is a great chance to dig deep into art by working with artists. And here are some street photos I took:
Tuesday:
Our course leader introduced us the dragon den and hotroom, and course tutor shared with us the knowledge of time management and project management, I find the form she invited us to fill in very useful and I kept a blank one to pin it on my pinboard so I can use sticky notes to manage my time every week. I also did a test on which learner I am and it turns out I am actually quite balanced. She also introduced us the 5Ps: Prioritise, Plan, Productivity, Proactive and Personal, which made me reflect on the thinking of adjusting a way of blogging to make myself work like myself, but I am still figuring it out. And we are also invited to complete these 3 tasks:
Draft plan/design of your project management strategy
Draft timeline with your goals/milestones mapped out over the Summer Independent Study Period
Update your blogs with your reflections/thoughts on the session
As I already shared with my reflections on the session, I will attach my draft of project management strategy and timeline of my indepent study at the very below.
To immerse myself into art, after class, I went to see BA Fashion Communication Show:
Wednesday:
This group’s speakers debate is so welcoming that everyone was keeping asking questions, and I am so encouraged to be bold by their story.
During the break, I went to watch BA Fashion Show
Thursday:
We had online tutorial. And my tutor suggested me to think about the following questions / tasks:
1 What is my definition of performance art?
2 What is the skills that classifies a performance artist? Which part I want to explore？
3 Do a bit more research!
Friday:
I went to UAL art business society exhibition 2024 to support my friend’s first exhibition. By doing that I also approached art.
Saturday:
I explored my body movement through a Queer Salsa workshop.
Sunday:
A chill day to sleep and walking around London. At night write this blog.
General:
This week, I was browsing around the internet searching for some summer school I want to attend, and accidentally found this term experimental art. I had deeper research on experimental art. It might sounds I broadened my research field. But it actually means a lot to myself since I am new to this field. And I realized this word can better describe what I am interested into. But don’t worry, I will look into it deeper. And this term might have an answer to Thursdays question, and I will try to answer it here:
1 What is my definition of performance art?
My definition to myself is different from my definition to the world.
To myself, performance art is using body movement or certain behavior to express certain ideas, and it is usually abstract, it is more narrow sense.
To the world, my own definition is more broad sense, it can cover all the performance such as stand-up comedy!
Why there is a difference is bacause I want to narrow myself down to something I am not good at, to challenge myself, to open-up myself.
2 What is the skills that classifies a performance artist? Which part I want to explore？
The first question is still devided into two aspects. To me and to the world, I have different standards. For myself, I want to explore body movement.
3 Do a bit more research!
I did some research around experimental art.
And I also had an idea about a combination of my art and my comedy tour. I am having a comedy special tour around Europe from June 21th to July 7th, it will be no less than 7 shows covering Manchester UK, London UK, Madrid Spain, Valencia Spain, Barcelona Spain, Milan Italy, Frankfurt Germany. And a tutor once suggested that I can make full use of this opportunity to test my intervention. I thought I can record some video of my work (and the art work is related to my comedy material) and use projector (since it is easy to carry) to project it at the entrance of the comedy show, I will also put some sticker notes in case someone want to interact with it (but I think there will be so many better ways to interact than just sticker notes) and the audience can decide whether they want to spend time watch it or even interact with it (so far the interaction I want is to gather what they think what I am doing), and after my show, when the audience leave, they can watch is again at the entrance and write down what they think I am doing again to see if it is more clear or not. It is to test if comedy can make performance art more approachable to wider audience.
For the 3 tasks:
Draft plan/design of your project management strategy
Draft timeline with your goals/milestones mapped out over the Summer Independent Study Period
Update your blogs with your reflections/thoughts on the session
As I already shared with my reflections on the session, here is my draft of project management strategy and timeline of my indepent study at the very below.
For the management strategy, I did read all the strategies course tutor shared with us on Tuesday, but for me, I think what works most is a combination of using my calendar on my phone, my physical paper calender, my reminder board. And I used it for a long time ago, here is the evidence:
This week is a little bit too chill and I might had too many relax.
For Monday tutorial, I really liked it as this is the first time we are stepped out of campus building and embraced some sunshine near canal and sat at a table near entrance fountain. It is so good to spend some time in this beautiful sunny day. I was recommended by course tutor the book named Grapefruit. And she also recommended me to contact performance department. And on Tuesday, programme director shared us with some ideas and some shows he found interesting and course tutor shared us knowledges ralated to blogging and autoethnography, the class ends with us creating memes, which I enjoy the most. On Wednesday, it was our group’s turn of speakers debate and we did great! Thursday is a fruitful day, I went to watch two showcases at CSM platform theatre and studio theatre, BA Performance Design & Practice: Text Night and Now: Through our lens… On Friday, I went for a walk along Thames River. Saturday, went to the area near TATE mordern and found out some art on chewing gums on Milennium Bridge, I do think whoever did this is a change maker to change disgusting leftover chewing gums into enjoyable little art pieces. Sunday I basically spent a whole day sleeping. But at night during those days, I made a lot of handmade 6-color-rainbow bracelets hoping to share it with people at the coming pride parade in June. During the process, I thought about one possible performance art I can do and discussed it with my friend: I can go to a public place such as Hyde Park and spend hours or days just make 6-color-rainbow bracelets, from nothing to cover my arm with rainbows, I make the pride inside of one’s body (my body) visible, if I want to draw more attention, maybe I can wear in rainbow.
Evidence:
Some memes and things I shared at Padlet on Tuesday classNow: Through our lens…BA Performance Design & Practice: Text NightSome art on chewing gums on Milennium BridgeHandmade 6-color-rainbow bracelets
