4D

I really related to this quote from "Good Talk". Although I do not have the exact same experiences, as a queer person I have heard too many times, "I don't think someone would really do that" or "You're overreacting" when I try to bring up concerns surrounding the queer community. People seem to have trouble listening to my experiences and I get frustrated and angry, but I know that if I start yelling it'll just shut down the conversation. I'm left feeling like I'm going crazy, so oftentimes I turn to art to calm myself and clear my head. I hope if I can express my feelings well enough through art, maybe people will better understand and be able to have empathy, or at least offer comfort to those in similar situations, like Mira Jacob did for me.

What makes performance art, art and not just doing something? Going into this project, that was the question I was struggling with. After looking into some recommended performance artists, I was inspired to do something in the kitchen. I wanted to turn the audience into the cake I was frosting. Me simply frosting a cake is not necessarily performance art, but making it more interactive I think makes it feel more like a performance. Now you're a cake!

Petting

Sleeping

Cooking

Drinking

Both readings revealed to me the immense history associated with performance art. I thought performance art was a more recent form of art, but it has been going on for decades. "The Other History of Intercultural Performance" by Coco Fusco was very enlightening for me. It showed performance art as something more than just artists doing weird things. They were making commentary on how white people sensationalize and capitalize off of other cultures. People were so willing to believe that they were from an undiscovered culture. It was crazy to me how nobody thought twice about these people being put into a cage and treated like zoo animals. I didn't realize that performance art could have such a deep meaning, even when the performance art itself seems lighthearted or silly.

There are so many things that we say and do in our day to day lives that come from the influence of others. I wanted to explore how media can shape a person, especially the younger audience. These clips are all from media that are intended for kids or teens. What kind of messages are these media conveying? What do younger audiences learn from the products they consume? My project allowed me to look into it, and find life lessons in odd places. I wouldn't have thought that a YouTube video would offer think pieces in-between jokes or that a video game would teach a lesson about intelligence. All of these things and more influence us every day, and we don't even realize where they came from.

Cosmic Generator (Lettuce Variant) Mika Rottenberg 2017

you out here look n like you don't belong to nobody: heavy metal and reflective, Sondra Perry 2019

Shadowbanned, Jon Rafman 2018

An Unforeseen Situation, Bani Abidi 2015

Satellite Devotion, Tabita Rezaire 2019