Projects
My Performance Art Video
Apr 21st
Here’s the video on my performance assignment for class. I danced for 30 minutes to different types of music in Vaughn Center at the University of Tampa. I started dancing to Edith Piaf, then Frank Sinatra, and ended with more popular music like Daft Punk and Deadmau5. The idea was to decontextualize dancing to iconic songs by doing it in a populated area. I wanted to break down the barrier of embarrassment for the audience to join me in my dancing. In this sense, audience interaction was essential for my performance to be successful.
I didn’t quite accomplish the goal to the level I had imagined, but the objective was, well… you’ll see! Here is Dancing without Stars:
Using the Grid
Apr 6th
For this project, the importance of using a grid was behind it.
One artist influenced me in this work. His name is Marcel Duchamp. For a while, he followed the cubist movement at a par with Picasso. What I found very interesting about the cubism movement was the notion of capturing different dimensions and attempting to put them all in one plane. The work I got inspiration from was his painting called “Nude Descending a Staircase” . I like the idea of having time represented in one still frame.
Having this in mind, I wanted to photograph a moment in a normal day. Something that we wouldn’t stop and think about. But I wanted to do it differently. Rather than leaving the shutter open and let objects move in front of the lens, I wanted to have different photographs of moments and paste them together. That way we can appreciate every part in greater detail. I used the grid as a way to have different moments represented in every square. Here you see a girl studying for an exam.
For this one I wanted to keep the 5×5 grid as a structure to separate the different times. You can see how the girl is reading in one frame, and then drinking on another. Also, if you see the computer, you can actually see my in the process of making this.
I did another one of a bathroom. For this one however, I broke the grid. It was harder because I took less frames and used a 4×4 grid. I think it needs an interesting subject, other than the water falling from the shower. For that reason I did not present it.
I want to continue this project outside class and capture seemingly uninteresting moments. We can only see so much from our perspective, and I think we can start appreciating more what we do and what is around us by having those moments broken into pieces.
DaDa Collage
Mar 31st
This work I am not proud of. I let time creep up to me and could not create a work of high level, which is why I have the glasses on, because I want to hide from showing this. Nonetheless, there is a concept behind this.
This is me with everything that identifies myself, from the top of my head to the extremities of my body, hands and feet. Anyone who knows me can see these objects and know its me without seeing me. On the top left hand I have my wallet which is distinctive, on the right hand I have my blackberry which anyone who has seen me walking around can instantaneously remember of seeing me with it in my hand. The camera represents my passion for art and I wear it any new place I go. The pencil is my tool to transfer my knowledge onto paper so I can communicate with people, the pencil is the same one I have used since high school.
On top of my head are chemistry words which represent my way of thinking which is very confusing, sometimes even to me. Under that are the words “the real love is the killer app” which is an idea I take very intimate, in which love is what separates us from other people. The calculator is my business orientation, which combines with the wallet and blackberry to enforce it. The formula across my mouth are words of how I speak, which can seem complicated at first, or just not understandable, but in reality is very simple and very understandable if you know how to read the words. The Adidas stripes are from my backpack in which I carry my computer, which is extremely important to my life and how I interact with the world. The small shirt at the bottom is my country of origin, Venezuela, which is becoming smaller and I am distancing myself from because it is being robbed from me by the current government. Finally, the women’s chronology represents women that have influenced me over time; for example my mother.
Yes…
I’m a mama’s boy haha
