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Clearing

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My final piece, Clearing , also underwent an interesting evolution. I was first inspired by a nature documentary I saw a while ago.  The link is to a Youtube video of the exact clip that I recalled. In it, a rare bird, the Wilson's Bird of Paradise, goes through it's mating ritual. The male meticulously clears the forest floor, making an area on the ground of bare dirt, eliminating all the surrounding debris and forest litter, then makes his nest in the center and waits for a mate. The females are attracted to the most "clear" clearings and best built nests. This inspired me to do the same in the forest, as I was struck by how much labor the male bird has to go through to completely clear this area deep in the rain forest of Papua New Guinea. Dwelling on this idea, I thought how the bird uses the clearing as a stage for their mating dances and rituals, which are quite beautiful. I thought of how humans court each other, and thought about having a romantic dinner in th
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Bound

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This is my piece for the Live Art Night and was the evolution of my previous piece, Oppressed . I changed the title to Bound  and I like that title much more. In Spanish, Adrian Martinez's original title Oprimiods works well, but I didn't think it translated as well as I wanted. I made the piece my own enough that it is really different from Martinez's. But I still need to acknowledge the inspiration. Nonetheless, our intention is very similar between the two pieces. For Bound , I changed many elements. Firstly, the space was changed from a small, dark closet (A pun on "being locked in the closet" haha) in the McWeathy art building at Cornell to a much larger room in the Thomas Commons. This room was relatively secluded, and signs needed to point audience members toward my piece, located away from the main performance area. Once they got to the room, they saw two signs taped to a door that was blacked out completely (to not allow light in). You can read the sign
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Oppressed

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This was my reperformance piece. I was inspired by a piece I happened across on Youtube, called Oprimidos by a Spanish artist named Adrian Martinez , which you can see above. In his piece, he wraps himself in metal wire to signify the restriction felt by LGBT people. Oprimidos  means "Oppressed ones" in Spanish. I can summarize and translate his artist statement for this piece as follows:  Oprimidos  is a piece of videoart that is a metaphor for the collective oppression felt by LGBT people. Just like barbed wire on a wall, Adrian Martinez is immobilized by his sexuality, a feeling shared by many people in the world. When one steps outside the "social norm" of hetrosexuality, they are immediately faced with brutal oppression and can feel immobilized, just as the artist has done in his piece. Martinez only has this piece as a short video in which we see him in front of the camera, wrapped in wire and wearing a nude cap. I was very inspired by this metaphor
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Fluxus Group Piece

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This was such a fun collaboration piece! I worked with my group mates and we created a symphony of sound using found and every day objects, ala John Cage! My part included me banging glass bottles together, pouring water in and out of certain bottles, starting a metronome, shaking a paint can, starting and stopping a blender and setting a coffee maker to brew. So much fun! My favorite part of the piece was near the end, because I feel like the performers and the audience both were really starting to enter a "trance" and enjoy the sounds. It got really loud and interesting! I especially liked Libby's walking back and forth, and the metronome, as they kept a constant time during the cacophony. Chris' sound poem and cans were also a fascinating addition.
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How to Build a Home

For my second piece,  How to Build a Home , I collaborated with my classmate, Lily Stewart. We co-wrote the entry on her blog, which is linked above. I really enjoyed making this piece with her, and getting out into the woods is what helped inspire my pieces later on in the class, especially Clearing. Thanks Lily!!!!!!! <3 <3
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Closed Rehearsal

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 For project 1 in my block 8 Intermedia class I performed a piece I called Closed Rehearsal . In this piece, I looked to my personal history as a choral singer. I've been singing in choirs for about 12 years and I have been a member of professional choirs for the last 6 years. As a member of countless ensembles and large chorals, I have performed Handel's Messiah  innumerable times. Most recently, I performed it with Cornell's Concert Choir during the 2016 Christmas season. With all this experience, it is very easy for me to read music. Like a lot of people read text on a page and can hear their own voice reading out loud in their head, I can look at a musical score and more or less hear myself sing what's on the page, whether I've seen the piece before or not. I spend a lot of time "rehearsing" this way, just looking at the page and studying it. While I am performing, I have my music as a reference in front of me, but because of my studying I can usually
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