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!

Performance Concept Criteria

At the end of class, we will take some time to start preparing Performance Concepts for the final. Concepts are due to the blog by the beginning of class on Tuesday.

• 500 Words
• The concept of your final performance: What is the experience you wish to recreate? Why is this event significant to you?
• What are the senses you wish to engage? What are different options for engaging various senses? Please list more options than you plan to use and evaluate the possible effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of each.

I will leave some time at the end of class for us to meet one-on-one to discuss your final projects, and any other questions you have about the end of the quarter/your grade/performance studies/life. Please be prepared to meet as I will be aiming to meet with everyone.

Voice Analysis Stuff - 11.7.13

• 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))

• 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

• To download the program, please go to https://www.dropbox.com/s/q6fm2dy6aiepobl/VoiceAnalysisFINAL.mxf and download the attachment VoiceAnalysisFINAL.mxf (it's safe, I promise!)

• 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!

This exercise will require both quantitative and qualitative analysis

• The numbers from the Voice Analysis program are there to give you a general idea of what is happening in your recordings
• The average human voice will be somewhere around 60-63 in the analyzer. Bear in mind that even a difference of a point is significant here (it's not like one voice will be 40 and another 70, even when varying between male and female).

• However, once you notice your vocal trends, you will need to do some deep listening to qualitatively interpret how it sounds, and apply those qualitative attributes to a critical explanation of how your two conversations contrast and differ.

• In Summary: you can use the numbers, but you must also use your ears and senses to make sense of what is happening!

In-Class Write Up

• 500 Words

• Explain the contexts of both conversations - what is the contextual source of contrast here?

• What is the average pitch and loudness of your voice in each conversation? How do they differ from one conversation to the next?

• What is the average pitch and loudness of the other person's voice in each conversation? Again, compare both dialogue partners

• Take a moment to just listen to the conversations. What are the subjective qualities that you notice (without taking into account the numbers)?

• Did you tend to mimic the pitch and loudness (tone) of the other person's voice? Or did your voice take on an opposing role (either dominant or submissive) in relation to the other person?

• Please write a few sentences to critically analyze your conversations, combining both qualitative and quantitative data, and applying the data to the theory of what we have studied about how voice works as a tool in performance within a space/context, communication with another and in relation to an audience.

Final Performance Assignment

Please note changes in time constraints.

The final performance project will focus on a narrative approach to story-telling. Please choose an event from your own life that you feel is significant in shaping your personal/cultural/spiritual/political/etc. perspective. Your assignment is to recreate this event in a performance with the objective of helping your audience to experience it on as many sensory, emotional and critical levels as possible. Although the concept for your performance is relatively open-ended, please keep the following parameters in mind:

• You must create an original aesthetic text for the performance (the method of delivery, however, is up to you). Cut N Mix is considered a method for original text if the final product is crafted by you.
• You must include at least one material artifact/piece of media/source of additional sensory impact.
• Any videos used that include narration or spoken word must be under 30 seconds in length (unless the person speaking in the video is you). You may use videos beyond 30 seconds in length if they include background noise/ambient sounds or imagery.
• You must arrange for the use of laptops yourselves; the teacher's laptop will be used for recording the performances only.
• The performance MUST clock in at under 7 minutes. The timer will go off at 7 minutes, and you will be cut off after 8 minutes.

On the final day of class, the week before the final performance (Thursday, November 14th), a final self-critique/reflection paper will be due. Please write 1200-1500 words on the following:

1. A brief overview of your performances over the quarter: what improvements you saw, what aspects of performing you continue to struggle with, what you see as the strengths/weaknesses of yourself as a performer (please use the videos uploaded to DU VideoManager as reference)
2. The concept of your final performance: What is the experience you wish to recreate? Why is this event significant to you?
3. The Pentad of the performed experience: who are you performing as (if not yourself) and who else is present? What is the action and why is the action being performed? Where and when is it happening? How is it happening - what are the unique characteristics of this experience that need to be recreated to get an accurate sense of its significance?
4. What are the senses you wish to engage? What are different options for engaging various senses? Please list more options than you plan to use and evaluate the possible effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of each.
5. What is the mode of aesthetic text (lyric, dramatic, epic)? What kind of relationship will the performer (you) have to your audience (closed/open - see various options on page 71).
6. Finally - this part is especially important - please analyze the factors that contributed to your unique perspective of this experience:

• What personal significance does this experience have and how does it relate to your personal development both before and since this event occurred?
• What are the cultural factors that shaped your perception of this experience?
• What were the social norms that influenced your reaction to this experience and how (if at all) did they contrast with your own personal perspective?
• How might your Truth of this experience vary from the Fact?

You may choose to write up each section separately, or write the whole paper as one cohesive essay. If you dedicate only 200 words to each section your paper will be of sufficient length.

Assignment for Thursday, November 7th

This exercise is designed to analyze the tonality of the voice as it shifts in response to one's perceived audience, environment and social norms/pressures. Please use a personal recording device (the voice memo app on your smart phone is an acceptable option - or, if you don't have one, the library rents them out, see http://library.du.edu/services/computers-tech-availability.html) to record yourself participating in at least two different types of conversations. These different types can include:

• You talking to friends and/or peers
• You talking to someone you consider a superior/someone who has more authority
• You talking to someone you consider a subordinate (or a conversation where you feel like you have more authority than the other speaker)
• You talking to family (if the family member is considered also a peer AND a friend, please do not use this option in conjunction with the first one)
• You talking to someone you consider an adversary

This is due a week from today - Thursday, November 7th. Please have these sound files downloaded to your laptop by class time (if you do not have a laptop, you may email it to someone in the class who does). We will do an in-class exercise to look at the frequency/pitch, volume and inflection of the voice as we speak to different audiences.

If you have problems recording or downloading, please feel free to visit me during my office hours (Tuesday/Thursday, 2-4pm)

Peer Crit for Second-Round Intermedia Performances

Please choose a partner in the class who you will be responsible for critiquing. When that person performs please write down:

1. What your response as an audience member was to their performance. Think about all the senses that were evoked during the performance.
2. How the performance has changed since the last iteration of it. What has improved? Was there anything that worked better last time?
3. What did you enjoy about the performance?
4. What are some suggestions to take the performance to the next level?

Please type up and email these critical notes to your partner (you may need to exchange email addresses) and COPY me on the email. If you partner performs today (Tuesday), please email them/me by the beginning of the next class; if you partner performs on Thursday, please email them/me by next Tuesday's class.

Media Techniques

• Media Techniques
• Getting Media
• CreativeCommons http://creativecommons.org/
• Licenses
• Music http://creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos
• Videos http://creativecommons.org/videos
• FreeSound http://freesound.org/
• Search
• Sort by relevance, duration, rating
• Advanced search options
• Browse Tags
• SoundCloud
• Advanced search for license to modify, but still can’t filter for those who allow downloads
• Vimeo Music Store
• https://vimeo.com/musicstore
• Advanced Search Filter - can search for free CC licensed music
• Certain Tracks can be customized
• Vimeo videos
• Advanced Search Filters
• CC licenses
• Downloadability
• Minimum Stats, etc.
• YouTube Downloading
• Firefox → Tools → Add Ons → Search All Add Ons for “YouTube Download”
• A “download” button will appear underneath YouTube videos - choose what format you prefer
• Open Source Media Software
• The Open Source Movement: Open source software is made available for anybody to use or modify, as its source code is made available.
• Open source software promotes learning and understanding through the dissemination of understanding.
• More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_movement
• Source Forge: http://sourceforge.net/
• Find, create and public open-source software
• Advanced search to filter operating system, license, status (the closer to production/stable, the more established the program is)
• Open Source Video Editing: http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/ProductReviews/Software/5-best-open-source-video-editors-for-small-business.html
• Screen Capture
• Camtasia: Free 30 day trial http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html#
• Cam Studio for Windows: http://camstudio.org/
• Audio Editing
• Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
• Windows, Mac and Linux
• Manual http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/documentation
• Media Presentation
• Prezi: Cloud-Based Media Presentation http://prezi.com
• Like Google Docs, always available in the cloud/co-editable with partner/team
• Automatically embed YouTube Videos with just a link
• Can also embed videos that you download (note: this does not work with .mov so always export to .mp4)
• Add Background Music

(Short) Assignment for Thursday 10.24

Now that you've read about what Pelias/Shaffer had to say about storytelling and myth and listened to a real-life depiction of this issue from the RadioLab podcast, I'd like you to think about how these concepts relate to your re-framing of your Intermedia/Ethnography issue.

For Thursday please post 3-5 sentences describing how the process of coming up with a new perspective for your issue relates to the content of the "Yellow Rain" podcast and/or Ch. 4 of Pelias/Shaffer. Some issues to consider when posting:

• How does culture shape people's perceptions/opinion on the issue?
• How has your own personal experience(s) shaped your perception of the issue?
• What is the difference between Truth and Fact in this case?
• Does your process of coming up with an alternative perspective on your issue resonate more with the Hopper Method or the Personal Narrative Method? To reiterate from the reading:
• Hopper Method - objective is to replicate the storytelling as closely as possible to the original
• Personal Narrative - the objective is to be as authentic as possible to the performer’s own interpretation of the event

Assignment for Tuesday: Ethnography Performance Concept

This weekend, I would like you to read Chapter 4 of Pelias and Shaffer, which deals with cultural perspectives in storytelling and the shaping of Myth. It also introduces the issue of Fact versus Truth. Here is my one-sentence summary of this issue:

• Sometimes a person's experience is not objectively/factually accurate BUT because of how perspectives shape an experience, that person's perception represents their TRUTH, which is different from FACT.

On that note, I'd like you to listen to the RadioLab podcast "Yellow Rain," which deals with this discrepancy between Truth and Fact.

Finally, I would like you to post to the blog a short (250-word) proposal for how you would present your Intermedia performance from a different perspective. This will require seeing the issue you presented on from a different point of view, one that may not represent FACT, or represent your Truth, but may feel truthful from another's perspective. Please include:

• Your issue
• What your stance WAS on your first performance
• What a different perspective COULD BE on the next performance
• How you would/could change your media to suit this new perspective

Intro to Intermedia Day II

Here are some concepts I'd like to start out with:

Bobby McFerrin, "Watch Me Play...the Audience!"




Considerations:

• What senses does McFerrin evoke in this performance?
• What part does synesthesia play?
• How does McFerrin use both himself and the audience as media?

Bill Viola, "The Crossing"

• From Viola's website: http://www.sfmoma.org/media/features/viola/BV01.html

• Use of materials as media - water/fire
• Visceral reaction to the synesthesia of seeing water/fire devour a human body - haptic/tactile
• The soundtrack of the water hitting the body - auditory
• The facial reaction of the man, slowed down - the stretching of time opens up an emotional/relational sense of connection
• Finally the symbolic use of fire and water: Viola uses a lot of religious iconography in his work.

Bill Viola Talks about his Five Angels installation

Bill Viola - FIVE ANGELS from Institut für Kunstdokumentation on Vimeo.

NoiseFold

• NoiseFold, in a word, amalgamates adjective, noun and verb. The name can conjure an immediate reference to noise music with its loud, near unbearable volumes, radical explorations of extreme frequencies, disjunctive ruptures, glitches and wall of sound dynamics. 
• Utilizing our own custom designed real-time performance software we are able to generate novel 3D visual forms through hybrid processes, bending geometric coordinates and folding multiple data streams back on themselves
• The visual images oscillate from fluid deformations of virtual objects to archetypal landscapes and speculative architectures. As in other NoiseFold works, the visual data is sonified to produce a rich pallet of electronic sound.  The work is designed for multi-screen and multi-speaker configuration that provide opportunities for the trio to join in duets, perform solos or share data between the individual performers. Combining cinema, data sonification and acoustic music as an integral whole, NoiseFold and Uitti seek to extend network media performance into the realm of contemporary chamber music.

Intermedia Project Assignment

The objective of this assignment is to begin to utilize the synthesis of multiple sense to create a more immersive experience for your audience. Remember that "media" is anything that can deliver a message from the producer to the audience - so when we talk about media, we're not just talking about videos, music, technology, etc. We might be talking about setting or physical artifacts that the audience can perhaps feel if they are passed around or interacted with, or hear as it encounters other objects within the environment.

For this project, please choose a cultural/political/social issue that you a.) care about and b.) have a strong opinion about. Again, this does not have to necessarily be a "serious" issue, but please choose something you are interested in or passionate about.

• Create an aesthetic text about this issue (it can be poetry or prose, narrative or persuasive, you can use cut n mix, but please have the end product be original)
• Gather at least two materials that add another "sense" to your text. For example:
• Tactile - you can find a physical artifact (object) to pass around to your audience
• Acoustic - you can use an audio clip or allow the sounds of a physical artifact to add to your performance
• Kinesthetic - you can integrate movement or you can invite your audience to move
• Olfactory - please no burning objects! But anything else that adds a scent to your performance :)
• Taste - you can bring treats that might be relevant to the issue you are talking about (for example, if you are talking about a specific culture, the audience can further connect by tasting some food from that culture)
• Visual - Pictures, physical artifacts and/or video

Due on Tuesday: Please post a 500-word intermedia concept to the blog

• Discuss the historical context of your issue
• Discuss your personal relationship to the issue
• Define your stance on the issue
• Discuss any oppositional stances on the issue
• Include any ideas of further media to include

Questions for Thursday's Class - 10.10.13

Pertaining to the Youngblood reading:

1. How does Youngblood define ecology?
2. What is the job of the "artist as ecologist"?
3. How does Youngblood define "intermedia"?
4. How does Youngblood talk about "synesthesia"?
5. What is kinetic empathy? How is it different from emotional empathy?
6. Why is kinetic empathy important for performances?

Assignment for Tuesday 10.8 - Critical Feedback

• Over the weekend, please read Ch 12 of Pelias/Shaffer, consider all of the evaluative tools and models, then view your partner's video and write an in-depth critique of your partner's performance. Around 500 words, please.
• Choose at least 3 out of the 5 views presented by Pelias and Shaffer on p. 185 for critiquing a performance.
• Include a balance of positive, critical and transformative feedback (ex of transformative: "This part of her performance was effective, but an approach to take it further would be to...")
• Write about both the content and the delivery of the performance
• Please write at least three sentences relating the piece you are critiquing to the final section of Ch. 12 "Evaluation and Ethics"

Considerations for In-Class Conduct Thursday 10.3

Over the weekend, we will be reading Ch. 12 out of the Pelias/Shaffer book: "The Evaluative Role of the Audience." This part is all about how to be an effective critic. Please consider the following:

• “The burden of a critical response is to negotiate interpersonal dynamics as well as to develop a sound basis for any judgment.”
• Code of conduct - allow the burden to be placed not just on the critic but on the performer to allow the critic to do his or her job without it getting personal.
• Fair
• Sensitive
• Honest
• Constructive with feedback
• Relevant
• Complete
• Specific
• Good feedback considers all of the following factors:
• What was effective
• What could be improved
• What was effective, but may also be effective using a different approach (not just good or bad)
• Content - what was the message?
• Form - how was the message delivered?
• Multiple  senses
• Auditory: voice, pace, shuffling of clothing/papers, etc.
• Visual: body language, facial expression, posture, ways of moving through the space
• Once you have your partner, please be sure to write down AT LEAST one of each:
• What was effective about the content
• What was effective about the delivery
• What could be improved regarding the content
• What could be improved regarding the delivery
• You will be discussing your critiques one-on-one with your partner at the end of class
• You will be given a copy of your partner's performance video
• Over the weekend, please read Ch 12 of Pelias/Shaffer, consider all of the evaluative tools and models, then view your partner's video and write an in-depth critique of your partner's performance. Around 500 words, please.
• Choose at least 3 out of the 5 views presented by Pelias and Shaffer on p. 185 for critiquing a performance.
• Include a balance of positive, critical and transformative feedback (ex of transformative: "This part of her performance was effective, but an approach to take it further would be to...")
• Write about both the content and the delivery of the performance
• Please write at least three sentences relating the piece you are critiquing to the final section of Ch. 12 "Evaluation and Ethics"

Tuesday 10.1.13 In-Class Considerations

YouTube/Vimeo Performance Reflections:

Write Down - do not put your name on your answers (5 min)

• Why do you think I assigned this project?
• What connections do you think I wanted you to make with the reading/discussions?
• What connections (if any) did you actually make with the reading/discussions?
• In what other ways did this assignment help you with this class?

We will discuss this briefly in class but if you do not feel comfortable voicing your reflections feel free to just hand in to me anonymously

Preparations for peer critiques - since we will be pairing up AFTER the performances, please be ready with one of the following for EACH performer:

• 1-2 things the performer did well regarding the delivery
• 1-2 things the performer could work on regarding the delivery
• 1-2 things the performer did well regarding the content
• 1-2 things the performer could work on regarding content

Assignment for Thursday

Peer-Analysis Assignment:

Please trade your Cut-Up assignment with a partner. On your partner's text please identify (note: obviously, I know that these texts will be somewhat incoherent; so if a persona or other details are not clear please use your power of aesthetic interpretation and make it up):

• The Pentad - Who, Why, Where, When, To Whom, What, How (please be thorough: see below for further details)
• Persona - Do you think the persona depicted is of a different or same cultural perspective as the producer of the text?
• If speaking in the perspective of another: please evaluate how well Alcoff's 4 steps for speaking for others were achieved)
• Any literary devices such as similes, metaphor, hyperbole, understatement, personification, apostrophe, allusions
• Mode of Aesthetic Communication: Lyric, Dramatic or Epic?
• Please post the text and your analysis on the blog by class on Thursday
• Be prepared to read the text you analyzed performing within your own interpretation of your analysis on Thursday.

More on the Pentad:

• Agent: Who?
• Physical - not just static, but in motion. How do they move/
• Demographic characteristics: Age, sex, nationality, education, religion, race, socioeconomic status, politics, etc?
• Attitudes - this is always changing, because it is based on experience
• Disposition/sense of morality
• Are we supposed to sympathize with the speaker, or is the use of the persona ironic (as in the "Westminster Abbey" example in the book, p. 66)
• Purpose: Why?
• Personal versus culturally/socially influenced motives
• Scene: Where? When? To Whom?
• This is where relationship to audience comes in (open, closed, related to the Mode of communication)
• Physical/temporal setting: both space and time. Perhaps these two factors are incongruent?
• Act: What?
• Action
• Text
• Subtext - Again, "Westminster Abbey" poem give a good example of a subtext incongruent with the actual text
• Agency: How?
• What are the techniques the persona uses to convey his or her message?
• Formal/informal?
• Style
• What is the structure: monologue, sonnet, folktale, conversation, etc.?

Cut-Up Assignment + Linda Alcoff's 4 Steps to Reconcile Speaking Others

Linda Alcoff's 4 Steps for Speaking for Others (link to pdf for those who are interested)

1. Determine your intentions: are your intentions to teach, or to learn?
2. Determine your vantage point: where does your cultural perspective differ from the perspective you are performing?
3. Be open to criticism
4. Predict what, if any, outcomes may be harmful, or perceived as harmful by members of the cultural perspective you are presenting.

Cut-Up Exercise

go to : http://www.cutnmix.com/macversion/ or http://www.robopoem.com/ for PC users

• Write a brief aesthetic text from your or another’s perspective (if writing from another’s perspective please complete Alcoff’s steps recommended for “Speaking for Others.”)
• Find one or more other texts to cut up with your text (this can be lyrics, a poem, a movie script, a set of directions - anything!)
• Cut N Mix: 1.) Download the app for your respective computing machine 2.) Open the app and go to "Input Tracks" tab; 3.) Select "Track 1" tab and write in your composed piece (sorry, this does not do "cut' and "paste"!) 4.) Select "Track 2/3/4" tab and insert your reappropriated piece(s) 5.) Tab back to "Output" and determine your parameters (i.e. turning down one track, etc., size filtering out words) 6.) Hit "Mix Tracks" 7.) I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS IN CLASS SO PLEASE READ: Again Cut N Mix cannot cut and paste so hit "Save Mix" and save it somewhere you will be able to locate. It will save as a TextEdit file. You can use that to print it out or cut and paste into Word/GoogleDocs/Open Office.

  
  

• Refine the language to make as much (or little sense) as you would like. This is another layer of your aesthetic interpretation.
  *At least 20 lines, please!

YouTube Performance Assignment - Due in class Tuesday 9/24

Here is the elusive YouTube performance assignment that I've been asked about!

• YouTube Performance
• Please find a video on YouTube or Vimeo that illustrates a performance within a cultural/political/religious identity with which you identify
• Prepare a presentation in which you set up a contextual introduction for us, and then analyze the performance while you play us the video
• You may play the whole thing and then analyze is or (and this is riskier but perhaps more rewarding) teach us something about the video WHILE it is playing. You may pause the video to point something out, or talk over the video, or perhaps lower the volume.
• Please analyze the following elements of performance:
• Who the performer is
• Who the producer of the content is
• Who the audience is
• What the setting is
• What about this performance is subject to change (i.e. what makes this iteration of the performance unique? What are the varying factors that make it nonrepeatable?)
• What is the relationship between the producer and the performer? The performer and the audience?
• Is there anything that constitutes media here? (I am open to wildly creative interpretations of the term “media”)
• 3-5 minutes in length please (entire performance, not just the video clip)

Code of Conduct

In giving critique:

• Be nice
• Be honest
• Be respectful
• Critique the work not the person
• Unless indicated otherwise assume traditional audience expectations
• Be specific, especially with negative critiques
• If possible give room for improvement/a different solution
• Identify your own personal/cultural biases
• Be flexible/open-minded
• Personal experiences stay in the room
• Hugs (when appropriate)

In receiving critique

• Understand the critique is of the work not of you
• Detach emotionally (when possible)
• Be nice
• Don't reject someone else's critique
• Feel free to defend your work if you feel strongly
• Go down with your ship
• No disclaimers

Prompts for Tomorrow's Class

A few things about this week's reading:

• The Youngblood reading, you may notice, can get a little intense with obscure references. Don't worry about these references, but if something piques your interest feel free to look it up!
• Please take note of any questions you have on the reading, as we will be breaking into groups and each group will be responsible for posing at least one question to the class on the reading.
• Additionally, each of these groups will be responsible for presenting a response to one of the following prompts (I will assign these prompts in class tomorrow):
1. Why do we study performance theory? Why does it matter?
2. What do Pelias and Shaffer mean when they say all performances are dramatic?
3. What defines aesthetic text?
4. What limits does the book place on performances that will be considered and how can we rethink those limits on: relationships between performers? The number of performers? The medium/media? The setting?
5. What do Pelias and Shaffer mean by defining performance as a transactional process? Who/what are the different agents that participate in this transaction?
6. Why does Salter say technology is integral to the history of performance?
7. Why does Salter say performance is integral to the history of technology?
8. How does Salter define performance?  
9. How does Youngblood define ecology, and how does this definition relate to performance?

Please keep these questions in mind as you go over your reading. See you tomorrow!