Presentation for Tuesday

My presentation for Tuesday will be on my life changing experience of when I was 3 years old and I saw my father get his first and only DUI, getting taken out of our truck, and getting cuffs put on him, and getting taken away while leaving my mother and my siblings who were 10 months old and 9 years old while I was 3. I feel like this presentation should be very personal and this is my most personal experience since I was born. I feel like people in general need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy, and with everything that had happened, i feel like my life and the life that we were leading changed for the better. Up until this event, my life was full of a "machismo" with my father having the majority of the saying in the family. and when this happened, my mother shook herself out of her comfort zone, and finally took the first step to take us out of where we were at, and take us onto better things. Before this, we were alright, we had everything we needed, but we weren't getting ahead. I feel like my family and I wouldn't be where we are at now. My brother and I certainly wouldn't have gone to college and I don't feel like my sister would be the strong independent woman she is now. This dramatic example shook all of us out of apathy and now, we are all better off.

Final Performance Concept

Abby Armstrong

Final Presentation Proposal

For my final presentation, the experience I would like to recreate is when I hospitalized due to a severe illness last year and left school. I know it’s a sad, dismal topic. However, it is an experience that provided me new insight and helped me see the bigger picture of what I came to college for.

I want the audience to feel what I felt: the helplessness, denial, boredom, sleeping for weeks, etc. I want them to visualize the monitors, the white walls of the hospital, constant beeping of machines. To engage these senses, I could play the sound of the hospital machines in the background, lightly while giving my presentation. I want to emphasize the boredom that I felt. This is because while all of my friends were at school, I was bedridden. However, I am not quite sure how I would do this. Although, I was severely ill, my mind was moving at one hundred miles per hour. Thinking about every class I missed, every assignment I wasn’t completing, every joke I wouldn’t be part of, etc. Therefore, I thought it may be beneficial to do a cut n’ mix. I could combine content from my blood tests, doctors’ notes, my emotions and my daily activities.  This would then represent my jumbled thoughts. The painkillers that I was on almost daily heightened my feelings and made me feel low rather than high. Therefore I want to convey that in my presentation some how. For almost three weeks I couldn’t talk normally due to infection of my throat, however, me not talking in this performance wouldn’t be all that effective because I feel like I wouldn’t be able to provide my perspective in a efficient manner.

These all have the potential to be effective in my opinion, however, it is the matter of the fact of what is the most effective. I really want the audience to feel the way I did.

Final of Lee ①

         My first year at American is a nightmare, it's the worst time in my whole life. The language problem, the culture shock, and especially the food suffered me a lot. I have been America for almost two years. However, it's just the third quarter I've studied in the Universities, even though I took a Summer quarter t this year. I wasn't sick or had finance problem. The reason that I didn't attend that much quarters in university is that I've been to the ELC. ELC is a place that DU established to help international students to improve their English. At first, I did get into the university. However, I wasn't a hard worker at that time. I was busy to play video games, read novels, and play with my friends. I believe my English may be not that good at that time, but it is not that bad to catch one F and two Ds in the first quarter. The university sent me a letter to tell me that I had to go to ELC to improve my English. I've been a really hard time at that time. I am afraid to tell the truth to my parents. I don’t disappoint them. And I strongly believed if I got a chance I can do better. I kept that thought when I went to the ELC. I despised the ELC until I finished my first quarter. All my friends were in university, and we used to mock the students who waste their life in the ELC when I was in University. Some students of ELC, their purpose is not really to learn. Their parents own a company, their got money; they came here to enjoy American life. To have a good car, a better coat, and even a fantastic house. They don’t care about the score they got. However, when I became a student in ELC, I feels different. It’s not a shame to know who you really are, it’s shame that you know who you are but you don’t want to accept and change. After passing the first quarter, I realized that ELC it’s not that easy for me. Learning something is not wasting your life, is improving it. Then i spent four quarters to get out the ELC. I think this is important to me, because it changes me a lot. I grew me up a lot after that. It's a great experience for me. 

final performance

For my final performance I will recreate when I got to play in a grand piano concert in 8^th. This is significant to me because I had been playing the piano for 7 years at that point and this was my last year of taking lessons. My teacher gave me the opportunity to be part of the grand concert. I was excited and nervous at the same time. This would mean many hours of practicing and rehearsal. It would be a lot of pressure. Part of the grand’s concert is there are 12 grand pianos on stage and 2 people playing at each piano. Everyone plays the same song but there are 2 parts so it can get very confusing to stay on beat and not mess up.  I want the audience to experience how many hours I spent sitting at the piano practicing learning the new piece and trying to memorize it. Becoming frustrated when I could not play part of the piece right and wanting to give up. I will do this by making a cut n mix piece to read to the class and I might have parts of the piece playing over and over in the background to show how many times I had to practice the same section over and over. I then want to show the excitement of the day of the concert and being nervous right before going on stage. I will end the performance with playing the whole piece at the end and feeling accomplished once I was done playing. I will also pass around the music of the piece I played to let the audience see the music. The senses this will incorporate are seeing the piece of music and I might show a picture of what the stage looks like with the 12 pianos set up on it. Also hearing the cut n mix and the sound of the pianos playing and then the audience will pass around the music. 

            When looking into what has shaped my belief system and truths, a stand out moment for me was finding out my Uncle was gay after his death. Both my mother’s brother and my mother’s Parents knew the fact that my Uncle was gay. Finding this out was difficult because it kept him from becoming close with my mother, Father, and sisters. It was his belief that he would have been disowned from my mom if he had told her his sexual orientation.

            This shaped me because it not only caused deep sadness for my family, it also showed me that openness and respect are vital for any healthy relationship. I never got to know my uncle and he never got to know me. His untimely and unexpected death forced me to look at my relationship with my sisters, and ultimately led to my belief that sexual orientation, sexuality, mental, and physical health should be discussed, understood, and respected.

            The senses in which I hope to engage are all of them, I am finding it difficult currently, to find definitive and logical options to have my audience feel loss and then understanding, while also putting into play the roles that the ‘taboo’ topic of sexual orientation, sexuality, and mental health have had on me specifically. Possibly in mixing the senses into one object I can create confusion, and in making this object one of a sexual nature (sex toy or something…) I can incorporate the taboo of the implications of being gay did to my family. Also, bringing a sex toy to class will be uncomfortable for everyone making this object a representation of how my uncle felt. However, I don’t feel like this encompasses the entirety of the emotional response I had to this event. 

On a daily basis I go on Reddit, I've found it as a great un-biased news and entertainment source. The other day an article caught my eye. The link was titled, "Most of us don't know what "net neutrality" is, but we'll be sorry when we lose it". 

I certainly didn't know what "net neutrality" was, but after reading the article I feel I have my topic for my final presentation. Net neutrality is the concept or idea that the internet is a place where people are free to express themselves, they don't need anyones permission to create, invent, communicate, broadcast or share anything. I have already spoken about how browsers and search engines can affect our internet freedom, but this article brought up an even scarier reality.

Yes google selects which websites you see first when you search, but you have the power to use a different search engine if you are bothered by google's results. However, companies like Verizon, At&t have access to actual physical parts of the internet, and they are pushing for an end to net neutrality so they can make money off of "net partiality". 

Think of it this way, what if a large supermarket were allowed to buy roads and highways, and thereafter highly toll competitor's trucks or simply ban them all together so that there was no competition at the grocery stores accessible by those roads/highways? That is what these companies are pushing to do to the intricate system of the web. 

Final Performance Concept

For my final performance I want to recreate my spring break experience from last year. Last year I went with three of my friends back country skiing in the San Juan mountain ranges. While we were hiking out to the cabin we were staying at we nearly froze to death two separate times. This experience was significant for me because I had really never felt anything or had to go through anything like that before and it was a really eye opening event. It really made me rethink a lot of things and made me appreciate others that I had taken for granted in the past.

For my presentation I was thinking of using pictures I had taken during the trip as a background to show what the area looked like and make it easier to understand. I was also thinking of having a soundtrack in the background to help convey the feeling of isolation/wilderness that we experienced while we were out there. I was thinking it would probably be something like wind blowing, snow falling, trees moving, something to just give it an outdoors feel. I figure that engaging with both sight and sound it would help to immerse the audience into what it felt like being out in the wilderness.

Another experimental idea I was thinking of bringing to my performance was trying to convey the feeling of freezing or getting colder. I was thinking that if I brought in cups filled with ice or something similar and had the audience hold on to them it might work. One of the greatest sensations that we had to deal with while we were out on the trail was getting progressively colder. At the time it was scary because we thought it might be dangerous and I think that by just having people hold something very cold it might give a similar effect. I think that just by making the audience a little uncomfortable or irritated by getting colder it could help illustrate my point or make it more relatable.

Another sound bite I am trying to think of a way of implementing is animal noises. The first night we were out the shelter we were staying in we could here wolves circling us. I don’t want it to go throughout the whole presentation since it only had to deal with one night but if there is a way to have it go over the rest of the background noises I think it might also add to the immersion.

Another way that I could add effect is when I’m describing the different points of the trip I could change the lighting in the room. Since it spanned a couple of days I could have the lights on during the day time portions and off during the night. Just another way I thought might add a sense of immersion.

Overall it was a really difficult but extremely memorable experience going on this trip and for that reason I want to talk about it for my final performance.

Voice Analysis Tool

• To run the program you need to download Max Runtime at http://cycling74.com/downloads/runtime/ (it's safe, please download the version that is compatible with your Mac/PC (PCs, 32-bit is good))
• To download the program, please go to https://www.dropbox.com/s/q6fm2dy6aiepobl/VoiceAnalysisFINAL.mxf and download the attachment VoiceAnalysisFINAL.mxf (don't open this yet until you've completed the below steps)

• Macs
• Please download this external object that the program needs to run: 
• http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/files/maxdl/OSX-MachO/analyzer~_1.4.1.tar.gz (Macs)
• Mac users: in the finder, go to Macintosh HD > Applications > Max 6.1 Runtime > Cycling '74
• Place the Analyzer~ folder in the Cycling '74 folder
• 
  
  PCs - http://web.media.mit.edu/~tristan/MaxMSP/WinAnalyzer~.zip (PCs)
• PC Users: Go to Start > My Computer > OS(C) > Program Files > Max Runtime 6.1 > Cycling '74
• Place the WinAnalyzer~ Folder in the Cycling '74 Folder
• PC users must execute this second step: download ftp://ftp.fftw.org/pub/fftw/fftw-3.0.1-w32-pl1.zip
• Unzip the folder and locate the fftw3.dll file
• Keep this window open and go to Start > OS(C) > Program Files > Cycling74 > Max Runtime 6.1 > Support, then copy the fftw3.dll file into the Support folder
  
  
  

• This program only uses .wav files, so if your files are a different format (.mp3, .m4a, etc), please go to http://media.io/ and use their free online audio converter. Convert it to a .wav file
• This does not convert .flac or .mov files - if you have these types of files, please email them to me to convert them for you!

• You are ready!

Phoning it in

During this quarter, I have, as I am sure most of my classmates have, become fascinated with the relationship between the audience and the performer, the reader and the writer, etc.  I hesitate, however, to use the term "relationship," for it carries with it a connotation of duality, of Two within One.  (Fun Fact: the word "relation" can be traced etymologically to the Old French word relacioun, meaning "report" or "act of telling."  Appropriate, no?)  My Final Performance will attempt to revert back to a more antiquated meaning of "relationship" and to dissolve, to the fullest extent possible, the idea of an any polarizing relationship between audience and performer.  What will remain is only a retelling of events which can and hopefully will be used by each of the 'audience' members to create a final narrative.

Let me 'splain.  The first logical step in deconstructing what we all recognize as performance is to remove completely the performer from the performance space.  As far as I can figure, as long as there is one person, one figure (a performer) set apart from the rest of those present at a performance, the paradigm will still exist.  I considered having each member of the class read my narrative while I lie on the floor, unmoving, in an attempt to disappear from the performance; however, this gesture would sure call more attention to me, the 'performer' than I would like.  The absence must be much greater and much more real.  I realized that there is no way that I could accomplish what I would like to do while being, spatially, within the walls of the performance space.

I landed upon the idea to communicate my narrative using technology with which we are all familiar.  Using skype would not do, it would be too communal.  My presence would still resemble that of a performer.  A phone call is the only form through which I can achieve maximum Performance-Duality-Dissolution (PDD).  The phone will be answered by one human inside the performance space, and, when prompted, this human will pass the phone to the human next in line.  Each human will hear a segment of the narrative created for the performance, and after each human has each heard one part of the narrative, they will work together, using the little information they have received, to create a whole out of each of the parts each of them have heard. It is not to be assumed that the segments will be provided in chronological order; furthermore.  To further reduce the presence of a 'performer,' I will use the second person when speaking to each of the humans within the performance space.

I though of displaying a photo of myself during the performance, but then I decided against inserting an artifact that was entirely counteractive to my cause.  I will use instead one or a few of some gifs I found that display morphing faces, not to be too blatant.

I plan to tell the story of how I typically write a poem, taking and synthesizing experiences from various poems written and their specific processes.  Hopefully the parallels between my form and content will become apparent during my performance.

Final Performance.

My final performance I will take a peak into the lives of NHL athletes at the highest level in what they do in everyday life to show that they are like normal people and then the concept of how they are perceived as superstars and how the NHL wants to keep those in the spot light. I will recreate this by showing some highlights of the athletes and small clips of their everyday lives, compared to them being on the ice and playing the game they love. 

This event is significant to me since I have grown up playing the game I love since I was three years old and have wanted to play ever since.  The sense I am going to engage is through the life of the player the smells of the equipment that no one wants to experience, but what they play with. 

I am going to use highlights of some of the players on the ice and then some of what they do off the ice that makes them human, this will give a visual stimulus to the class and be able to help explain that professional athletes are still human. I will also show covers of some websites to show the front page’s of these super stars as well as some video games in recent years that show them being at the height’s of their careers in ability and fame. This will be able to grasp the class and give an insight into everything that these athletes go through to be the best and then also be like the rest.

final performance concept

For my final performance I would like to recreate my experience of the “college process”.   At the start of my college process journey I thought I had it all figured out. I was going to apply early decision to Colorado College and play lacrosse there; however as time progressed, I hit some bumps in the road and had no idea where I wanted be. In the end I applied to 15 schools and not one stuck out to me as a “top choice” school I really liked every school I applied to but there seemed to be one factor for each one turning me away. This process was long, stressful, tedious and confusing but was a very important time in my life. It brought me to the University of Denver, where I am so happy and thankful to be. Specifically, I want to recreate the day that I, on a whim, applied to DU and the day I received my acceptance letter from DU.

            I would like the performance to be confusing because I felt confusion throughout the entire process. I am thinking I could create a cut n’ mix piece and read it to the class; hopefully they in turn will feel this confusion and have to make sense of my writing. I would like to write a poem regarding the process as a whole and put it into a cut n’ mix. Next, I would like to have some kind of visual or video clip but I don’t know if that would be effective, and I am still trying to figure that out. I think a clip or other type of visual technique/media might be beneficial for the audience to see. If I do not play a video clip, I want to play the sounds of paper ripping and typing on a keyboard, two sounds I was very familiar with during this process. I will play this sound while I read my cut n’ mix. Those sounds might take the audience back to their experience of the college process and understand my experience better. I definitely want to recreate that experience of opening an acceptance/rejection letter from a school. I was thinking I could pass out envelopes to the audience with their names on them and have a letter inside with a decision from a school. Each member in the audience will get a decision from one of the fifteen schools I applied to with the given decision I received. By doing so, the audience will be forced to think back to their decision letters from schools, which will make the performance more personal. It will also force the audience to be involved in my performance, which I think is important.