Intermedia with Sandy Dyas

This is by far my favorite piece I've created in this class. It speaks to something I have experienced before, but also something I've experienced harshly this year. No one seems to want to get to know me, they don't want clear communication, they don't want to get to the truth of any matter. They would rather pummel me into the dirt and smear my name rather than come to understand who I am. This piece was partly for them. Not necessarily to change their mind, nor to show them who I am, but to lay out the damage they have done, plain as day and show them, even if I spend years undoing what they've done to me, they've still caused me considerable damage. And if they don't care, that's their prerogative, but I refuse to let them forget it. But this piece is also for the people who have been put down and have had to work through their hardship. It is representative of a common way that human beings hurt each other. We constantly, as tribalistic creat...

I really enjoyed working on project three and had a lot of fun collaborating with the women in my group, but I don’t know how much I enjoyed the art we created. It was fun and felt engaging but not necessarily powerful.  I loved doing make up and using each other as mirrors. It felt engaging because I had a very simple goal of putting on make up as best I could while helping the person across from me do make up as well. There’s something to be said for art which involves simple but active engagement with a partner on stage. I also adored making the sound score with poems and songs woven together. We got some mixed feedback on that part so maybe we needed more direct focus on the sound?  I believe we had too many ideas that we tried to squish together unsuccessfully though. We knew going into this piece that it wasn’t very audience centered and I didn’t mind that aspect, until we had an audience and they weren’t super involved. I almost wish we could have invited o...

I had quite a few different ideas for this project but I am happy I settled on this one. For me, this piece speaks to the everyday fears my mental illness and trauma cause me. I don’t think people fully realize how much trauma impacts your everyday life. It’s not just for writing great college entrance essays.  Trauma has followed me since I was 14 years old. It has changed how I eat, how I sleep and how I walk around this world. It forces me awake when I don’t want to be and it forces me to sleep through important moments. It’s the ultimate double edged sword. I am working on uploading the video of this piece in its entirety, but as it is 6 and a half hours long, it is taking a long time to fully upload and I am not sure if Cornell Wifi will even permit it. In making my nightmare soundscape, I gathered a list of triggering and unpleasant noises and sounds, and layered them over top each other. I did my darnedest to not hear the whole thing through and to this day, ei...

I was thrilled to re-perform Wall/Floor Positions by Bruce Nauman. After seeing him perform his Walking in an Exaggerated Manner piece in class, I was deeply inspired by his use of body as sculpture and art. I knew I wanted to present a work of his so when I found Wall/Floor Positions, it seemed pretty perfect. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to perform the full 60 minute piece but I of course understand, and may still endeavor to do so in the future. The 7 minute section I chose to perform was a section that engaged me deeply. I don’t know if it was the movement that was repetitive but still fresh as it was performed on different sides of the body, or if the movement itself spoke to me in terms of line and form but it was a thrill to recreate. It also had a clear beginning and I could create a decent ending to it. In order to recreate this piece, I engaged with it repetitively and tried to walk myself through the pieces of movement. I was able to find clothes that m...