Reflecting on exercise

The improv station activity was very much out of my usual mode of what sometimes feels like "robotic student." It gave me a chance to play and I realized how little playing i do in my daily lifeand how important it is to break out of that routine! I especially liked rolling on the ball and reading out loud. I learned that I must read that manifesto to go further in this collective. So this activity is a reminder to play and remain flexible and keep making/creating/collecting/let others in to find out what else is possible.

The creative energy in the room was high and varied in personality. We respected each other's space and helped to create something that seemed completely ridiculous and absurd and loads of fun!
I had a smile on my face into the evening and could still feel the essence of improv the next day. It carries into the other activities in my life and ultimately has a positive effect that is bubbling over into the present moments building upon each other...

Uh oh, another meeting

We have our third meeting scheduled for tomorrow. Right now only 7 people are scheduled to attend. I have not really planned this gathering. I would really like to whip together a flash mob. I wonder what we will actually do.

There is some activity in the grant department which is super exciting. I also had an epiphany about space when I went to see Trolley Dances this weekend in San Francisco.

More later.

More Design, more Art History

I got a message on Monday from Kris Carpenter in Design saying that she was off for the month of August and did not send out the message to the students. So after I gave her the go ahead to send my original email on, I got interest emails from eight more students. Therefore when I sent out the minutes of the last meeting yesterday, I also requested another gathering.

Mike Ricoli responded to the Minutes email and said that he spoke with one of his professors about the project and she would like to announce it to her Art History students. My guess is that we will have a new surge of participants in a few days.

I guess I'd better get my act together and get the performance side of things rolling.

Mostly Conventional, a Little Absurd

Yesterday we had our second Dada meeting in the conference room in Wright Hall. As usual, there were those who responded but didn't show and at least one who didn't respond but did attend. I asked everyone to consider what they wanted to bring to the table, as well as share some knowledge of Dada with the group. There were 4 of us who brought either books or ideas to share, but for the most part most of the people involved do not know how they want to be involved yet.

I believe we took a step forward yesterday and I started to explain some of the performance pieces I am thinking about. Daniel was surprised that they were so literal and historical, but I personally want to start there so we at least have some pretty accessible things in the mix. I would still like to show Hugo Ball as a volleyball sized ball with the word HUGO on it. Then I thought it would be fun if we used the ball as a head and created a little movement exploration that assembled the image of Hugo Ball at the Cabaret Voltaire.

Mike mentioned that he still wants to play with large canvas paintings. I offered the idea of doing a painting on a piece of fabric that then becomes a costume piece, but he was less interested in that.

We talked a bit about space and that is still the largest obstacle. In my frustration I talked more about the flash mob elements that we would not need space - and to be honest I got more excited as I spoke about potential performance ideas.

The biggest thing is that before the meeting started I handed out tasks for everyone to complete during the meeting. I was unsure if anyone was going to do them and it wasn't until 4:00 until things started rolling. Daniel got up and asked everyone to join him in singing Happy Birthday to Mr. President. Unfortunately we also lost Julie and Mike who had to leave at that time, so the meeting didn't get as raucous as I'd hoped.

I do have the whole thing on video (or well mostly Dave Dennen and me on video) but there is pretty good audio throughout. I may cut together the highlights and post them here.

We did not schedule another meeting, but I plan to get started on the performative elements that interest me. Hopefully that will get the BALL rolling a bit faster.