Day 64: PERSONAL SPACE:

Today Danger Dane Tinly and I followed through with our Personal Space project, or rather, our "Lagoon Monster" project. We Set up our project on the running trail on the shore of the lagoon nearest to Manzanita Village. We recorded an audio loop of crunching bones, chewing, swallowing, roaring, and burping noises, and played it through a speaker hidden in the bushes on the hillside opposite the lagoon, across the running trail. Just in front of the speakers hiding spot, we placed a sign with warnings posted all over, including an eye-witness sketch of the lagoon monster itself, as well an LA Times article with two new headlines reading "Lagoon Monster attacks campuses nationwide", and "Monster Strikes one Victim so Far". Closing off the running trail, we tied caution tape from the lagoon's fence to the sign. To top off the visual aspect of the piece, we laid a real cow Femur (nice and disgusting with pieces of meat and tendon intact) in the bushes, easily visible, as well as carved claw prints into the dirt trail, leading from the lagoon to the bushes. As people passed, we stopped them, and warned them of the risk in passing, and suggested that they stay away from the bushes, keep moving, keep their limbs away from the bushes, and to leave their food if they decide to pass. Most people didn't ask any questions whatsoever, and followed our instructions, obviously weirded out by the creepy sound effects. The funniest reaction we got was when an older woman walked by...listened to our warnings...and as she was walking away, stopped, turned, and asked; "Art department?". I guess it was that obvious...
Overall, I think our project received some great public reaction!

Week 9: ART SHOW

A couple weeks ago I doubled up on shows for a week, and will talk of one of those shows for this week. I went home on mothers day weekend a couple days early (leaving after class that thursday), and while I was home, decided to stop by my old high school and surprise a few of my favorite teachers. While on campus, I made a trip to the school's art building, and stopped by the ever changing gallery to take a look at some student work for the Art Major's final show (my high school actually offered a high-school "art major" program). I was very surprised at the high level of skill displayed in many of the pieces. There was an array of mediums on display, from sculpture, to pen and ink, to photography, and even a couple installation pieces. A couple of my favorite pieces were done by some of the younger students that I didn't know personally, who seemed to take their work less seriously, almost making for a more light-hearted viewer experience. One of these such pieces involved a video projection of a flip book, in which he make slight changes to random images, coming off as a surprise to the viewer.
It was pretty cool to see some of the pieces that the younger classes were doing for assignments that I had myself when I was enrolled in the same classes.

Week 9: PROJECT PROGRESS.

This week Danger Dane and I have focused on our personal space project. We have made some definite modifications to the piece, that should make for a more interesting public interaction. Initially, as out interactive impute, we were planning on being news reporters covering the eery presence of the lagoon monster, but upon reflection, we realized that repeating our "news" coverage on loop for the three hours would get super repetitive, so instead, we though that it would be way better to lay out some caution tape, and be security for the pathway near the lagoon. I don't want to go into too much detail before following through with it in a public sphere...but note to desiree...TRY to walk past us on tuesday.
Other than that interactive change, We have been refining our sound effects...I LOVE FREE SOUND PROJECT. a mixture of our own homemade sounds and some borrowed...sounding plenty creepy.
LOOK FOREWORD TO PRESENTING!

Day 63: LEAST FAVORITE PLACE?

Choosing a "Least Favorite" place is almost as difficult as choosing a "Favorite Place". I think this is because I try not to spend time in places that I truly dislike, or rather, I zone out the place if i really don't like it. One place, however, that I've never really likes, yet have been forced to spend a lot of time in, is Huntington Beach, CA. Dozens of surf contests a year are held in HB, and as a competitive surfer, this means many-a-long-weekend have been spent down there, surrounded by tourists. I feel like HB attracts the hicks of the California coast. To me, Huntington is an overcrowded, tourist-run highway town that prides itself on its polluted beaches, claiming itself to be the undisputed "Surf City". If it weren't for the fact   that most of the surf industry s located near HB, I wouldn't spend much of my time there at all. I get a very Fake vibe from the place every time I'm there...not my style.

Day 62: FAVORITE PLACE?

Choosing a "favorite place" is quite the difficult task. I love a ton of different places for different reasons. If I had to choose one place, however, I would have to say my hometown of Venice, CA. There are so many faces of venice that only show themselves after years and years of immersion. From the hardcore skate scene, to the raw, underground surf scene, to the boardwalk, to the flourishing art communities, to the hole-in-the-wall restaurants, to the vast diversity of people, every walk of life, profession, and attitude, Venice is truly a cluster-fuck of prepossessing grittiness. I've lived in venice my whole life, and I can honestly say that it took the whole 19 years for me to recognize and appreciate all of its aspects, not to say that I'm done soaking it up...I don't know if thats even possible. I didn't realize how influential growing up in Venice has been on me until spending time up here in Santa Barbara, only making my appreciation for it that much greater. Venice...Home Sweet Home.

Day 61: FREE FORM

For this free form entry, I think i just want to post a picture of my dogs for no reason other than that they are the shit. Meet Rory (left), and Beau (right). Rory is a german-shepherd and golden retriever mix, and Beau is a true mutt. I love them with all of my heart. 

Day 60: AlT. ID

Out of all the Alternate Identity presentations presented today, My favorite would have to be Mary-Beth's project, in which she took on the identity of a stereotypical MTV girl. She recorded a video of a mock audition tape for an MTV like "RealWorld", where she just talked into her computer about herself. As subtle of this project was, the presentation was awesome. Mixed in with the interview was footage of her doing all of the  things she talked about. Seeing Mary-Beth in class prior to the project, and then seeing the ditsy persona she took on, made for a hilarious clash that added to the worth of this project.

Day 59: CRITICAL EXAMINATION

When I think about how people portray themselves on various social networking sites, like Facebook, or for that matter, how I portray myself on Facebook, the themes of personal space and alternate identity are most defiantly prevalent. The whole idea of online social networking revolves are these very themes in both direct and indirect ways. Whereas the goal for some might be to portray themselves "as accurately as possible", directly corresponding to their identities, everyone actively seeks to presents information that they see "fit", whether the info is perfectly true to their identity or not, in a sense, creating an alternate identity in the process. People delete, or "untag", embarrassing photos, and "friend-request" thousands of people, falsely demonstrating who they are through "hyper-selectivity". One can easily look at a profile on Facebook and read what someone's portrayed identity is, however, this outwardly, publicly expressed identity isn't always the person's "true" identity (not only in the corny sense, but in the sense that they could easily be lying on many levels). As far as personal space goes, everyone would like to think that their is some very personal aspect of online social networking, but truth be told, anything that can be accessed by millions is the absolute opposite...total public space. Whether people realize that online social networking forces the "personal" aspects of identity together with the "public" sphere, or not, the very idea of online social networking seems to combine clashing concepts...but who knows, maybe thats why its so popular... i mean, I have a Facebook and am on it far too much.

Day 58: FAVORITES?

I would defiantly have trouble picking a favorite alternate identity piece out of all that was presented today, an even more trouble picking a least favorite, mainly because all of them were really cool in their own unique ways. If i had to pick a favorite, however, I would most likely choose Max Rutman's piece about highlighting his OCD tendencies. This piece was very simple and genuine, not trying to be more than it was, but rather, emphasizing a particular quality. Where most people seemed to like the part of his video where he removes gum from underneath his seat the most (ridiculous in its own disguising way), I found the most entertaining aspects to be the subtle adjustments made to groceries while shopping at Albertsons, and the small organizational adjustments made while in his room. These weren't necessarily narrated in the video, but did a great job at stressing the real aspects of the video that, upon close attention, were ridiculously humorous. His video had me cracking up for its duration. Bravo!

ALTERNATE IDENTITY AND FINAL DAY

Today's final exam was most defiantly fair and straight foreword. It was relaxing that kip was walking around and talked to us during the exam about our identities. As a response to today, however, i want to focus on my alt. identity:

For my alternate identity piece, I decided to have a couple friends, Michaela and Milana Vachuska, cover my arms in tattoos. My left arm is a full sleeve, covering from my wrist up to my shoulder. This piece was primarily done by Milana, who drew two sparrows with bright sun rays emanating up to my shoulder and dark, bold blue rays down my forearm. On the outside of my forearm, i got a "tattoo" that I've wanted for a while. Milana wrote the name of the street I've lived on my whole life in Venice, "Dudley Ave"in Old English font. Michaela proceeded to do all the swirly embellishments to connect the two pieces, truly making it into a sleeve. On the right arm, I told Michaela that i wanted something with the word venice in it, and gave her freedom to just go with it. She read my mind, and drew a small scenic landscape of the boardwalk (off of which i only live a few steps) with the word venice hovering in the skyline, framed in swirly embellishments.  Both of the pieces turned out awesome. The amount of public attention and recognition was FAR beyond anything I could have expected. Everywhere i went, heads turned, glances turned into lengthened stares, and best of all, upwards of 20 people asked when I got the work done, and if it hurt. Usually I played with them, and said "i got it finished up a couple days ago", and "it wasn't too painful", only telling them the truth if they didn't actually figure it out on their own. more than anything, its made me consider actually getting a tattoo in the near future. But we'll have to see about that. PICS BELOW

MY BROTHER

My brother, Sam Lewitt, was recently featured in an interview in Art in America. Super stoked for him!
Check out the interview and review below.

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/conversations/2011-03-11/sam-lewitt-miguel-abreu-prosumer/


http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/sam-lewitt/

Week 8: WEEKLY DOCUMENTATION.

For this weeks progress documentation, I should be covering the alternate identity project, however, seeing that i am currently in my alternate identity, I would rather save the photos and description of the project experience for a day or two from now. At that point, I will have completed the project, and rather than having part of the documentation now, and the rest later, I think it'd be a better idea to wait until its all done and together before releasing it. regardless. I can talk about the project a little bit more in this forum. I have decided to go with the idea of getting a friend to cover my arms and parts of my upper body in tattoos (sharpied on), the majority of which are tats that I have actually wanted to get at some point or another. This makes the project almost a blend of an alternate identity and a suppressed, real identity. I had my friend, Michaela Vachuska, a very talented artist, and freshmen at UCSB, do the majority of the tattoos, allowing her to put her own spin on them, making me a sort of human canvas. As to not release any photos yet, I've decided to include some pictures of work that Michaela has done, mostly drawings. PHOTO DOC TO COME!

Day 57: FREE FORM FROM ALTERNATE PERSONA

This friday I went home to Venice for a couple of days to surf and kick it with the fam. On my way down I stopped to surf with my buddy in Oxnard. While changing, he showed me his new ink. Got his family crest on his ribs. Pretty cool piece. I think he said he was still going back for color detail though. I couldn't let him get one and up his count on me, so i figured when i got home I'd hit up my buddy jamie and see if he had a few hours to spare to do a piece on me. I got the name of the street i grew up on on my inner arm. Turned out okay. He's still learning, but has some skill. Might have to get it cleaned up a little, but not bad at all. Ill post a picture of it a little later once it stops swelling and the redness goes away a little. After Jamie finished me up, we cruised down to the skatepark and bumped into Justin "Beans". jamie inked him up a few weeks before, and the piece looks nuts. He got some lyrics tatted all the way down his left side, from his pit, to hip. turned out really clean. Already planning my next piece. If any readers out there wanna hook it up, Im your canvas!

Day 56: ARTIST?

If I could be any artist, of any genre, I'd probably want to be the front man of a Philadelphia underground hip-hop super-groups Jedi Mind Tricks (JMT), and Army of the Pharaohs (AOTP), Vincenzo Luvineri, better know as Vinnie Paz. Vinnie Paz is an Italian-America rapper from Philly that focuses his lyrics on topics such as conspiracy, war, corruption,  politics, as well as his rough childhood and family issues. I've been listening to both JMT and AOTP, as well as Vinnie Paz's solo work, for years now, and slowly but surly have been recognizing his genius. Often times, people seem to pigeon hole his genre of rap of simply thuggish and violent, but upon a close listening, the complexity and depth of his lyrics reveal themselves to those willing to work a little in the process of uncovering.

Jedi Mind Tricks - i against i

Jedi Mind Tricks- On the Eve of War

Jedi Mind Tricks- Put Them in the Grave

Day 55: SUPER-VILLAIN?

If I could be one super-villain, Id probably be the Joker. To tell the truth, if i was going to be a total douche-bag super-villain, I would at least want to be funny, and I think the Joker, in a strange way (and as proposed by his name), has a sense of humor, even if it is mis-lead. The joker I'm thinking of follows Jim Carey's portrayal, thus might be slightly skewed. He's got a pretty dope costume, a cool staff, and jokes, louse all  the bad stuff...not too bad. Its tough to chose a super-villain though because they never seem to win, and choosing which loser to be isn't a daily thing to strive for. Any-whoo, the Joker + Theo = the Thoker. thats me.

Day 54: SUPERHERO

If I could be any superhero, I would most defiantly be AquaMan. He's the shit. As a surfer, I feel that both AquaMan and I share a certain affinity with the ocean. We have a ton in common. He kicks it under the water, I kick it on the water. He talks to fish, I would like to do that (and talk sharks out of a Theo-snack). He wears a tight spandex-type suit, I wear a wetsuit...same thing. Basically we're the same person, although he might have an edge in the whole "live under water" thing. I would kill to be able to breath under water. No more would i ever have to worry about sketchy surfing situations where drowning lingers in the mind. Not to mention, dolphins? I want to talk to them. They seem like they could have a lot to say, and I want in. Lucky AquaMan.

Day 53: FREE FOR ALL

This past weekend was the Spring Extravaganza. I didn't really have very high expectations for it considering i really only like one of the artists that was scheduled to perform, however my favorite part of the live performance wasn't what I thought it'd be. Biking over to Harder stadium, all I could think about was how sick Talib Kweli would be. Talib is an insane semi-underground hip-hop artist from New York (He's worked with the likes of Mos Def, Common, and the Wu-Tang-Clan, just to name a few). I've loved Talib for a while, and his performance was all i expected it to be. He had great chemistry with the crowd, and even squeaked in a few of his inevitable political messages (getting the whole crowd to join him in a "Fuck Fox News" chant). Although Talib's performance was the most close-to-home in terms of my musical taste, who really stole the show, in my opinion, was Rusko's performance. Rusko is an English dustup DJ / producer that over the last few years has gained world-wide recognition. Although I was familiar with his stuff before the show, I never could have guessed how fun Dubstep would be to listen to live. He was unable to contain his own energy, jumping up and down like a 5 year-old, which most defiantly rubbed off on the crowd, starting a huge mosh-pit, that, by chance, I ended up in the middle of. he did a remix of the Tetris theme song that brought everyone to perhaps the highest point of energy of the day.

A great day to say the least.

Day 52: FREE FORM

For this Free-Form, I thought I'd Share a few doodles from my notebook for this class. These are super quick ones that are not even finished nor will ever be finished. I've never really shared doodles until recently...but Fuck it. WHY NOT? they're kind of an intersection of art and life i guess...or at least art and academia. Enough talk. 

Day 51: RESPONSE TO LAST LECTURE

Today in lecture we covered a ton of artists very briefly, giving us what seemed to be almost an overview of the many ways artists tackle the idea of "Art and life" as intersecting parts, rather than separate entities. Out of the many artists covered today, my favorites were the works of Chris Burden, Kenji Yanobe, as well as the strange works of Alan Kaprow. Along with these artists, we revisited "Sam" Hsieh, focusing on two of his pieces, one of which involved him not going indoors for a year in New York City, the other involving himself and another artist, Montano, being attached by an 8 foot rope for a year, not 

touching each other, and never being in separate rooms. Although i find the presentation on Hsieh's works, or rather, his lack of presentation, to be fairly boring, I take his pieces to be incredibly fascinating and mysterious, the mysteriousness being half of the interest. We finished class by watching clips from Louie Psihoyos' The Cove, a documentary shedding light on the horrifying slaughter of dolphins in a small cove in Taijii  Japan. We examined this film form an artistic standpoint, highlighting how the filmmaker had to artistically utilize his available resources under circumstances that seemed to make his task impossible. 

I thought the broad spectrum of works covered in todays lecture was fitting for out last lecture, and seemed to sort of tie a knot quite well.

Week 7: Art Show

For this week's art show, I went to a "open mic" night at this restaurant / bar down-town off of state street. Normally I'm not one to go these kinds of shows, considering it usually ends up being a fairly sad display of half-decent, half-shitty bands and solo artists that shouldn't quite be performing yet, but my buddy, sadly in one of the categories, not sugar coating it ( and because of this, ill just call him Frank), was performing for the first time. I went with him to show some support, and actually had a good time. He writes his own stuff, usually just him and his acoustic guitar and a mic, but for this occasion,  his roommate, a fairly skilled drummer, accompanied him on a small makeshift set. Although the music may have not been that amazing or anything, the vibes in the room were awesome. Everyone seemed to be there supporting friends, so they were all super into the show, cheering too much, never too little, which seemed to give the performers, including "Frank", a lot of confidence. hats off to "Frank" for getting up on stage and doing his thing!

Weekly Progress Documentation:

For this weekly progress documentation, Im not so sure whether to talk about the flash mobs, the alternate identity brainstorm, or the upcoming personal space projects. Since I already responded to the flash-mobs a few days back, and just spent two days worth of journal entries on the alternate Identity project, I might as well elaborate a little more on the Personal Space project.
-First of all, me and "Danger" settled on working together to recreate the presence of a lagoon monster by the shore of the Lagoon on campus (in front of the U-Cen). to start the process of the project, we filled out, and turned in, a disclaimer / approval form for the project...APPROVED! Super stoked that they don't hate (or at east will allow) the Idea of piles of chicken bones on campus.
-To further the progress of the project, we have started to plan out how we will start the cumulation of chicken...to start, looks like were going to be getting tons of protein. chicken with every meal im guessing. potentially a few trips to butchers to ask for they extra bones (not sure if it works that way...worth a try tho!)
-lastly, to start with the creepy sound part, we've found a good microphone that we can use to record some of our own sounds, as well as started to browse "FreeSoundProject" for possible sound bites.

Hope it all comes together!

Day 50: MORE IDEA DEVELOPMENT...

Some more Alternate Identity project development:
Im not too big on any of the ideas i just talked about in yesterdays post, however, to elaborate on one in particular, I would have to pick the second idea, that is, to take on the once heavily desired punk identity. This one would have more meaning than the other two, seeing that the identity was something that could have been a very real one for me had circumstances let it be so. I think this one could be pretty shocking as well, considering that when living in the dorms I see a lot of the same people everyday, friends or not, basically everywhere I go. These familiar faces, assuming they've seen me before, would probably notice such a dramatic change of style. I also feel like the nature of  "punk identity" is very "in your face", so to speak, so it would most defiantly provoke more public response than a more subtle change...however, Im still not so sure i like the idea that much, so I think I might keep brainstorming.

Day 49: IDEAS...ALTERNATE PERSONA

A few rough alternate identity ideas...just a stream of thought...not edited too much.
THREE: I was thinking it would be kind of a cool idea to change something super subtle for the 48 hour period, something that wouldn't be that noticeable unless people really paid attention. Im not quite sure yet as to what would best exemplify this, but something along the lines of changing from being a right handed person to a left handed person (maybe put a cast on my right arm so i couldn't even use it). I don't know about this though...sounds a little to simple tho, and would be more of a nuisance that anything else.
TWO: Another Idea i have is one that I've kind of wanted to do since the confession piece, and was originally going follow through with for the confession in a slightly different way. I wanted to take on the identity of a true punk rocker (ripped up / re-sewn with patches, big-ass mow-hawk, and waterer else somas to mind). This idea is rooted in my childhood fascination with my brother's raw, punker identity...aways kind of wanted to be like him in that way, why not now?
ONE: I thought it could be funny to be a raccoon for a few days...sorry for the reoccurring raccoon theme in my proposals, but its only natural when your dorm room overlooks the dumpsters, a raccoons late-evening playgrounds. I'm not so sure how I would do this...maybe just spend the days scrounging around by the dumpsters making a ruckus. The main problem with this ridiculous idea is that I would naturally have to break character at various times throughout the day and night.

Day 48: LINKS TO WORKS...

PUN: http://thecircadianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-one-project-documentation.html
NEXUS (TRUTH/FICTION): http://thecircadianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/04/breaking-news.html
ALTERED ACTIVITY: http://thecircadianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/04/day-10-switch-up.html
CONFESSION: http://thecircadianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-four-project-     documentation.html
NARRATIVE / SEQUENCE: http://thecircadianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-39-free-for-allnarrative.html
ACT OF KINDNESS:  http://thecircadianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/04/day-27-random-act-of-kindness.html

Day 47: FLASH MOBS

Today in class we did four separate flash mob in various locations across campus. We started with a big game of duck-duck-goose in the center roundabout on the main bike-path on campus. Personally I didn't like this one. It didn't seem like much of a flash mob at, but rather just some people playing a game. There wasn't much of an element of surprise to it, and it didn't really get much of a public reaction, despite the large amount of passers by. My favorite one we did was the first time we did the handgun flashmob in the study area of the university center. Our thirty person class entered the U-Cen from different entrances, at scattered times. Once all of were in the same general area, sitting down, acting casual, two of us bumped into each other, resulting in a stare off turned "hand-gun" stand off. As soon as the rest of the class saw this, we all pulled out our "hand-guns" pointing them at each other, until after about a minutes time, Desiree let off the first "BANG!" We then all proceeded to "fire", falling off over the place, strewn about the room. A few random spectators decided to join in the battle, machine-gunning from their study areas. Once everyone was down and "Wounded", Maxwell and myself stood up, worried, yelled "What the F*&#!" and ran out frantically. This one got some really great public reception and a range of reactions, so much that we actually re-did in another location. As fun as this one was, I think today was enough flash mob for one man to handle.

Day 46: FREE FORM

for this free form, i think ill just post a doodle I doodled the other day.

Day 45: OTHER CLASSES?

Other than this art class, ArtSt 7a, Art and Life, I am taking Communications 89, Geography 12, and two freshmen seminars (a 16 unit total). My communications class deals with Theories of communication, which often times, seem pretty boring, but can apply to broad life encounters, and help with general understandings of daily interactions both with other people, and with media. In my Geography class, we focus on learning how to interoperate different types of maps, and learn various forms of both analogue (compass and map and ruler) and digital navigation. Sounded cool when I signed up, but by far my least favorite class. My freshmen seminars ended at week five, but were super interesting. One of them was taught by professor Hall, and was on the topic of Music in documentary and political film making. I loved this seminar. We watched countless clips of films, and the critically discussed the use of music, and how it is used to make the viewers feel certain ways. The other seminar was on the topic of the Cuban Revolution. I really didn't know anything about this topic in history, so this seminar was extremely informative, as well as interesting. We looked at the revolution from a few different perspectives, giving us a fairly well rounded understanding of its drives major players (namely Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara). I seem to be doing pretty well in all of my classes, and for the most part, enjoying them.

Day 44: LECTURE RESPONSE

Today in Lecture we focused on the theme of sequence and narrative. After briefly covering Davin Antin's basic theories of narrative, we looked at the many works of Duane Michaels, Jim Goldberg, Bill Watterson, Chris Marker, along with many others, looking at the diverse ways that narrative are approached. My favorite works that we looked at were Michaels' Alice's Mirror and Take One and See Mt. Fujiyama. Bothe of these pieces approached telling stories through small sequences of photos that play with the changing perceptions of the viewer, making for an almost active viewer experience, something not very common in the medium of photography. We ended class by looking at a short 27 minute film by Chris Marker entitled La Jetee. Kip prefaced this video as the inspiration for big hollywood movies like Terminator, so, naturally, it wasn't quite what I expected...but even better. The film consisted of stills, and a single video image, edited together with some great narration and subtle sound effects telling the story of a man who is the subject of human scientific experience with time travel, who visits his love throughout the past, yet cannot remain happily with her. At first, I was slightly apprehensive towards the editing of the stills, yet they grew on me throughout the short, and ended up, in retrospect, working perhaps better, and more moving, than had it been all video.

Week 6: PROJECT ELABORATION

For the Personal Space project, Im 99% sure that me and Danger Dane are working together on a project that is based around reconstructing the presence of a horrible lagoon monster. To follow through with this project, we are thinking about making a trail of bones (kip said it would be okay to use chicken bones so long as we didn't kill the chickens, but instead used food waste, not that killing a chicken ever crossed out minds) towards the shore of the lagoon in front of the University Center (where theres always foot traffic and sun-bathers). Near the bone trail, we want to hide a speaker (or hide, ourselves, with props with which to make noise) and play sounds of crunching and gurgling, the sounds one might imagine an eating lagoon monster might make. We think the sounds will attract a lot of attention, not to mention the bones would freak some people out. To take this project even further, we thought it could be crazy to hide, drenched in water, and walk out in front of passers by, starring eerily at the lagoon monster's "nest". could be a stretch, but could also be epic.

Day 43: CONSENT FORM

Filled out...ready to go...kinda.

Day 42: PERSONAL SPACE?

Three more personal space ideas:

One: Sea Monster: One idea I had was to make a card board cut out of sea monster, strap it to a surfboard, and paddle it across the lagoon around mid day when many people are eating on the outdoor seating area outside of the university center that overlooks the lagoon. I think if this is done properly, it would provoke some pretty funny reactions from the lunchtime spectators.

Two: Raccoon and hunter: For this idea, Danger Dane and I were thinking of collaborating in the portrayal of a raccoon hunt on campus. As residents of the dorms, we are witness to nightly raccoon scavenges, and fights. The raccoons have become both a menacing symbol of nighttime, as well as a staple to out dorm experience. Because of this, raccoons have found ways to permeate into the majority of our jokes / stories...so why not create a raccoon story for all those who don't have the privilege to see them like we do. One of us would "dress" like a raccoon, the other like a hunter with a big net, and chase each other around campus. I picture dane as the raccoon.

Three: Chicken Bone Monster: following the theme of Lagoon monsters, me and Danger dane (another collaboration idea) were thinking about staging what would seem like a scene straight out of an cheesily scary horror movie. We wanted to pile up a bunch of chicken bones (i guess we'd save the bones every time we eat chicken) into a path, leading from the path next to the lagoon, into the bushes, We would then be hiding behind the bushes with many different props to make gruesome, frightening, monstrous sounds. the combination of these sounds and the presence of bones, we hope, would catch peoples attention, and condition a "wierded out" response. I think, to take this project to the next level, we should post flyers around campus about the presence of a lagoon monster this spring, and to "Beware". This would for sure crank up the student interest level.

Day 41: FLASH MOBS?

I think the Idea of doing an on-campus flash mob as a class could be really fun and  interesting. Personally I find flash mobs that include singing / dancing to be kind of annoying, as they remind me too much of something out of high-school-musical (not that I've seen it...). What i do like, however, are the flash mobs that involve subtle, yet mass changes. Flash mobs that include freezing, although extremely common, and, now, unoriginal, seem to provoke the most interesting reactions, with the viewers immersed in a sea of human statues, rather than watching a dance, shocked. I think my favorite flash mob that I've seen was one that we watched in class last thursday. This flash mob (which isn't a true flash mob because its staged for an X-Box 360 commercial) involved a large amount of people pulling out their "hand-guns" (shaping their hands like guns), and facing off in an awkwardly tense stare down. I think this could be a fun one to try out somewhere like the U-Cen or Library

Day 40: MOVIE TALK

Hmmmm. One movie that i watched recently was American History X, the story of Derek Vineyards', former neo-nazi from Venice, CA, efforts to dissuade his brother from following the same violent, hateful path that he himself claimed as his own. I cant remember too many cinematic details, in terms of shots / pans / etc., however one shot that i distinctly remember as standing out cinematically was the infamously scarring, black and white,  "curb-stomp scene". More than the violent part of the scene itself, i distinctly remember noting how well done the following shots were. In these shots, the police come screeching to a stop on his street, guns drawn telling him to put his hands on his head. as the camera, pulled back, follows Derek from the perspective of his young brother. This scene bleeds a dark, ominous vibe, really capturing the horror of the demented events that just ensued.

Day 39: FREE FOR ALL...NARRATIVE

For today's "Free For All" journal entry I think I want to use the space to elaborate of my Narrative piece, as for last week's "work recap" entry, I hadn't yet finished my Narrative video edit and didn't want to share too much before it was done. Now that I have presented it to the class, and its in the past, i might as well write about it a little.
Right from the get-go, I pretty much knew i wanted to make a video, or montage of some sorts.  However when i thought of video narratives, i continuously was turned off by the possibility of a corny video story. I actually came upon the idea that i followed through while watching a surf movie which was based on a day in the life of one of the worlds best. I thought, seeing how most "day in the life" videos seem to be basically the same, just a camera following someone around, it would be funny to change it up, and make a video about a day in my life... through the travels, trials and tribulations of my shoes.
To follow through with this project, every time i left a location, putting on, or taking off my shoes, i took photos of the process, and every time i left my shoes somewhere for a period of time, i took photos of them. I then proceeded to edit these photos together in sequential order (including a few photos of my feet without shoes to illustrate the fact that my shoes are often left waiting, bored, while their companions are doing their own thing),  with title slides for the main "scene breaks" throughout my day.
I thought that it was pretty funny that representing my day through this perspective allowed what was actually quite an eventful day to transform into what seems like a total bore.
Heres the youtube link...

Day 38: FAVORITE NARRATIVE

In today's "power-critique", My favorite piece was done by Erika Frost. Her piece was a narrative about a young girl named Jenni. I should be more careful...Not a girl named Jenni, but a Half-Girl, Half-Cat, named Jenni. The piece was done in an almost-documentary-like style, with self-filmed interviews about life as a cat/girl, the daily struggles it entails, and her social perception. From her interactions with her roommates (mad at her for clawing the couch), to her feeble attempts to climb trees (referring to her often human limitation), to her minor difficulties with bike-riding, the interviews contained only what was necessary, and nothing that shouldn't have been included, not overdoing any aspect. The subtle comedy throughout the whole piece had me cracking up throughout the entirety of the video, leaving the most lasting impact. It sort of reminded me of a more childish version of a monty-python skit. 

Hats Off!

SEQUENTIAL NARRATIVE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f44IEQQAlKk

Day 37: RESPONSE TO LECTURE

Today in lecture we focused on the theme of personal narrative and spoken word. As always with a new topic, we defined spoken word, focusing on its diversity, inclusive of monologue, storytelling, performance, poetry, stand-up, evangelism, improv, talk-radio, teaching, persuasion, and so-on. The main focus of the lecture today, however, was the performance aspect. A handful of students got up on stage, one-by-one, to perform various spoken word pieces in front of the class. Of these student pieces, my favorite was the first, a piece about a girls urge to not be the "nice girl" anymore. Although these pieces were quite successful in their own right, they were the "warm-ups" for our primary guest performer, world famous spoken word artist, Beau Sia. Fairly Unfamiliar with spoken word performances, and having just learned of the diversity present in the art form, I didn't quite know what to expect. Sia's performance, however, was captivating at every moment, instantly turning my into a fan. He admitted to, in-a-way, using us a test mice for some new material he has never performed in front of an audience, making his strong performances even more impressive.

Week Five: PROGRESS CHECK

So for my Sequence / narrative project,  I decided to do a day in the life of me... seen through the eyes of my poor shoes. I don't want to explain it in too much detail as I am not quite done with it (still need to finish the edit), but actually taking the photos of my feet every few hours was pretty darn fun. Im planning on editing it together as a sort-of "slow-mo" flip book, with large gaps in time, still, however, covering the major events throughout my day. I wanna put in scene title cards as well. Not much to report without giving it totally away. I'll have it up tomorrow!