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
This week I did pop-up intervention and handed in my written proposal and being so stupid to find out in the last day that learning agreement is acutallly a prepared form to fill in, not those encouraging sentences I wrote before. But anyways, I did it! Bye-bye unit 1!
For my intervention, I did the version 4 as I planned last week and I am happy to see people are interested about it but I still didn’t have the courage to draw the whole room’s attention to do some serious performance, it is still like a conversation I explain to people what I am doing, that part can be done better.
For this week’s art journey, on Wednesday, I went to CSM Foundation show to see some artwork, some of them gave me inspiration, some of the gave me courage to dive into the new field for me which is art. On Thursday, I went to see CSM BA Fashion show, it is amazing, I was so impressed by all those creative ideas, the clothing combined with the background music and the way they chose to perform, whether by just walking or by performing, all made the clothing alive. On Friday, I went to UAL high holborn for a doctoral school launch event, not to do some academic stuff, I went to watch Vicky’s, an UAL PhD student, improv performance art show. I imagined myself at the same position, I think I still don’t have that much of courage and very smooth body expression. On Saturday, I went to my very first voguing old way dance workshop. I cannot bend my knees too low because of my previous knee injury, but I am still happy to experience the half-improv-and-anything-can-happen-without-any-judgements kind of body movements. More than that, I also had an experience of very strong sense of LGBTQIA+ community, I have a better understanding of this aspect of the world, because community can mean neibourhood in my language and I didn’t have too much understanding of this word before. On Sunday, I had an invitation of a private view of an exhibition named NOWSHOWING. I am really happy to have a private view because the artists are basically all there to guide us to watch the art piece and sharing their thoughts on the art work, which is really helpful for me. Also, I came across my alumni, PhD students I had conversations before and people from MACCC cohort, so it is also a great opportunity to establish networks. But I was too introvert to speak a word and I turned on my silent mode and walked away silently. I should be more open up to communicate with people next time.
That’s all for the week and I attached my final written proposal down below to save it as a record.
Evidences:
CSM Shows: Foundation 2024CSM BA Fashion ShowShaping Futures – Launch Event: New Doctoral School Voguing Old Way ClassNOWSHOWING Exhibition Private View
Written Proposal
What:
The area I intend to research is performance art, and the precise question I will be addressing is: How can performance art be more related to wider audiences?
Why:
This topic is valuable to me because become an artist is a next level of my life journey, and performance art is the most approachable kind of art for me now, and I really want to open-up my body since I used to be an uptight person. To the world, this topic is of great value because I want to make performance art more approachable to wider audiences.
How:
To accomplish my project in practical terms, I want to create a series of light and life-related performance art and test it with wider audiences. As a fresher to performance art, I will use literature review to know more about theory and history of performance art. To make my performance art come true, I must combine theory with practice, thus, I will watch many different kind performance both online and offline and go to different kinds of body movement workshops both at campus and society. I will make full use of intervention pop-up showcase to test my idea, and when there is no pop-up showcase scheduled, I will get feedback by chatting with my peers, go to office hour to chat with tutors, or interview people, or posting my work on social media, very rarely I might use questionnaires (but personally I want to avoid using questionnaire because it is usually too simple to get deeper feedback and I can barely find questionnaires interesting). I will also consider testing my series of performance art with my upcoming stand-up comedy tour around Europe.
My rough schedule is:
May-Mid June: Get to know about performance art by second hand research and watch some performance shows which is highly related to body expression. Start to participate in body-related workshops.
Late June-Mid September: Try to make my performance art, directly perform it or record and play it and gain external feedback.
Late September-November: Make my performance art into series and prepare for graduation showcase festival.
What If:
I hope this project can make performance art more approachable to wider audiences. I want to break the situation of the wider audience cannot understand performance art, and find it hard to link the written introduction with the art itself. I want the art itself be more down-to-earth instead of being too high to be popular. At the end of the course, I want to position myself as an artist or a performance artist. And for my stakeholders, I hope more people can be the audience of performance art and can relate performance art more to their daily life. At the mean time, I fully understand those who love or wants to create abstract art. Those people currently are not my stakeholders.
Howell, A. (2000). The Analysis of Performance Art: A Guide to its Theory and Practice (1st ed.). London: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315079813.
My question now is: How can performance art be more relatable to wider audiences?
This Monday, which is the public holiday, I went to CSM to see NuMoment Nutalents, which is a music show with artistic installation. Tuesday I had a very useful lecture on how to do presentation and storytelling by Sasha. I was impressed once again and gained self-confidence to get rid of slides. On Friday, I went to Goldsmiths to watch RE-ALIGNMENTS: BA Curating degree show 2024. This Saturday, I went to a blindfolded dance movement workshop near elephant and castle. I tried to open up my body but find it hard to fully trust the surroundings when I am blindfolded. But I do get to know new people and gain new experience from it. I challenged myself to make the movement bigger and by doing that I am doing a bit better than when I first step in the classroom. And on Sunday I watched a Chinese stand-up comedy show, trying to refresh my mind with a more speaking-related performance. This week, I searched Marina Abramović and watched some performance art on the app RED, and I found some very interesting and life related performance art which gave me inspirations of my intervension. And I also had a conbersation with my classmate, she gave me a very different point of view by pointing out she actually wants art to be abstract because she can feel all the feeling without the pressure of feeling the very “real world” thing, and she thinks that if art is required to be relatable to wider audience, that also limits artists a lot. That made me think deeper of my question, how can I balance the accessibility of the wider audience towards art and not to limit the expression of the artist and not to spoil another part of audience who wants abstract art.
For my intervention, I thought about 4 versions and decided on the last one.
Version 1: Create 2 pieces of performance art in the same theme, one is abstract and another is more life-related. Record it and use laptop to present it.
Version 2: Make video, use my word to reinterpret abstract art in a funny light way, make the video replace the written introduction beside the artifact.
Version 3: Record a video using abstract body movement to express that a lot of kids look at my hand especially in public transportations. They whisper to their parents in their own way, which is a very loud whisper, then more people look at me. I want to record my inner feeling and my own feedback in an abstract way, then link my laptop with a headset, if you only watch without the headset, you may not understand or have your own understanding, but if you put on the headset, you can hear me tell you what I am expressing in a funny light way which is very different from what you see.
Version 4: New Possibilities of giving somebody the finger. Interactive performance art. Let the audience choose a middle finger for me so I can curse people with my right hand, they can use anything, either provided objects here or any other things. Reinterprete the action of give the finger.
Evidences:
NuMoment NuTalentsI went to GoldsmithsBlindfolded dance movement workshop
