Thoughts about Chapter 1- Media and Performance

"...crossfertilization between theater, dance, film, video, and visual art was essential for the birth of Performance Art." This quote really summed up the understanding of Performance Art. It is all these different techniques and expressions put together into one to make an artistic performance. With our upcoming project I looked to the book to get some ideas about how to relate myself or my ideas to technology or by using technology. I found Rauschenberg's performance, Open Score to be quite interesting because of the usage of 500 volunteers. The volunteers bodies were the canvas, they made the art. The many artists which were discussed in the chapter all viewed art and technology in many different ways. For example, how Jonas placed a camera under glass which recorded the above dancers acting on the table. It's an unusual view of acting, however it made beautiful art. I was rather excited because I took some of the ideas of a few of the artists and kind of molded my own possible idea for my project in the class. After reading about Robert Witman's Prune Flat performance, which had performers in front of a screen of images, I thought to myself what could I add to make it more of myself? Then I read on only to broaden my idea when I read about Nauman's Art Make-Up. I look forward to collaborating past ideas with present, along with myself to create an interesting take on performance art. Hopefully all goes well... keep everyone posted!