Looking at the bigger picture

I should note first that there is a new page to the right containing everything from the final performance on the right —->

Alright I should probably do something of an analysis on the previous days’ events and the project as a whole. Overall I find it to be a neat concept in which the everyday day movements of people and how they interact with the landscape can be made into art. For instance, the part in which all of the participants suddenly froze put everyone who was just going about their day into the spotlight, putting a ton of emphasis on their everyday moves. This project also put emphasis on how a large group of people can move as one, or a few, such as when we all moved together in a line or in little clumps. Together everyone brought the hill and it’s landscape to life and turned the static into the dynamic, using movement and sound to draw everyone’s attention as well. Many sounds, such as those of insects buzzing or of aircraft flying by are not entirely out of place although the volume and distortion of them certainly made them stand out. On occasion I found myself looking towards the speakers wondering what I had just heard, forgetting it was part of the act. I imagine this drew quite a few eyes towards our performance as well.

Another thing I observed is that though the performance was the demonstration that strangers can work towards the same goal with little issue. I knew a handful of students from my university (UMBC) but a lot of the faces present where new but none the less we all worked together to pull off our objectives in the performance, including standing/resting side by side and shaking hands with everyone in sight, something not usually done with people you meet on the street.

Overall everything was successful and did a good job of activating public space while exposing the art of movement to the public.

Audio Rehearsal

Today we spend the first half our or so of class time practicing the audio for the Shua group performance. At least the others did, I took photos.  Most of the class who was not participating in the audio portion documented the rehearsal as well using a wide variety of devices from large cameras to small to phones.

Rehearsal under my belt

So early this afternoon I squeezed into a car with Professor Bradley and we headed off to federal hill. Traffic was a bit crowded but we got there in a decent amount of time. A pretty good crowd had already accumulated by the time we got there although we had a little time to wander around before things started. I used this time to use the bathroom and to get some shots showing where the event would take place, both with regular light and with my infrared filter. I’ve been experimenting with photography in infrared light which is reflected quite a bit by plant material as is visible in the photos below.

Before too long the people in charge came and told us a basic idea of what we would be doing, it didn’t sound too difficult. Again, having been in marching band for most of high school I had good experience in things like this. This helped keep me from being nervous about what lay ahead, although it also helped that I was with a good group of people, some of which I recognized from my classes (not just VCIII, either). We ran up the hill to our starting point at the word of our instructor to wait for what to do next.

I quickly ran ahead to get a shot looking down at everyone coming up. One thing I found quickly is that there is a surprisingly good view of the city from the hill.

Upon reaching the top our instructor (photographed below) told us the first couple steps and what to do with them, such as mingling amongst the regular people. After doing so we would stop suddenly, highlighting the movements of everyone not involved with the project. It worked amazingly well during our second trial run. After reaching the top he also told us some terms we should know as well as the area we would be performing on (a bit of the top of the hill as well as the side parallel to the city).

The steps where fairly simple provided that you had a good sense of balance so you didn’t slip and roll down the hill. Most things ran pretty smoothly although a few needed tweaking (such as the part where we moved in little clumps). The only particularly awkward part involved the shaking of hands of everyone around you, involved or not, although the awkwardness passed quickly and things ran well.

Some moves required some synchronization amongst the participants, such as our bow at the end or the parts leading up to our ‘pac-man’ walk, but most of it was improvisation that followed certain guidelines. Things didn’t quite follow machine-like precision like marching band had although timing was nonetheless important.

Walking the walk: Our instructor illustrates one of our steps, to walk in circles essentially, across the sidewalk halfway down the hill. When we would turn around was up to our discretion. We could also dash up and down the hill briefly if we wanted. The pace was up to us as well. The emphasis in this scene was to have a lot of movement.

The first take in which we had to lay flat and relax after crawling across the hill from it’s edges. The road and water almost seem like a symbolic divide between us and our audience.

Half of the group on the other side of the hill. We moved back together in clumps before posing and heading back up the hill.

Professor Bradley didn’t miss an opportunity to take photos as well. Here he overlooks our audience, the city.

After a successful run through of all our moves, we went over some ideas for tweaking and called it a day, heading back as the sun cast it’s rays from low in the sky. I’m confident the 26th will go well.

federal hill

Looking towards the hill, I’ll be there in just a week now for rehearsal, I’m curious to know what this will be like as I’m sure the others are. I imagine it won’t be too different than marching band was, with coordinated moves and everything. I’m hoping I will be able to bring my camera and document everything on the 26th, hopefully it will not get in the way. I have an infrared filter too that I think would create some interesting effects as I know that grass and other plant matter glows white with ir light. I guess we’ll see.

The view a lot of our spectators ought to have

First post and test image

Grassy Hill