Day 3!

 

 

 

 

 

We began our third class by answering the questions asked in the previous week. We talked about the way blind people sense and perceive things around them.
Our facilitator talked about his experience with some blind people in Ahemdabad. We thought that maybe these visually impaired people are more humane than we are. This could be because of the fact that they are more depending on others than we are.
After the discussion, a question was raised. Are we more blind than they are?

Later, we talked about what aesthetics are. Is it a conscious decision? We talked about how so many people a are displaced from their homes for the sake of 'aesthetics.' Narendra, our facilitator talked to us about his experience in Ahemdabad, where people who were not well off were displaced from the home land.

Over design/ Over beauty or Over comfort is easy to kill anyone. This is why everyone needs change. Change is the only human thing.

Narendra gave us a brief introduction to performance art.
After this, we were given a task. We had to form pairs and research on performance art, and then come up with one act that we would like to perform during the break for the public. All of us went and researched. The part of spontaneity stuck me and Barkha Gupta, my partner. We wondered how people reacted when put in a situation. This is why we wanted  to take up a performance which would involve the public as well.

We had to present our ideas to the class. All we wanted to do was have fun with the performance. So, we came up with an idea where we would connect ourselves with a ball of yarn and then that ball would be passed around to random people who would have to entangle themselves in any way and pass the ball further. We knew that a pattern would be made in the end, but what we wanted to see was how people connect and how they react to this situation.

We shared our idea with the class, and went out to buy the material required.
At 12:45, we were set to perform. We asked a  friend to record our performance. We stood at the centre of the cafeteria and I rotated the string around my hand and passed it on to Barkha. Barkha passed it on randomly to a friend and so began the game. It was interesting to see how people wanted to participate in it voluntarily. The number of people kept increasing and they kept entangling it around their body parts in interesting ways. Some wrapped it around their waist, some around their neck, hair and so on.
After about 15 minutes, it came to an end when the yarn ended. Everybody had their own idea about what we should do now. Some said we should dance, move around together, pull, push etc etc.
We decided to move in opposite directions, and slowly everybody got more entangled inside. Slowly everybody un-entangled themselves and let go.






It was hands on experience of performing art, rather than just sitting and reading about it.

After performing, we went back to class and shared our experiences. Then, Narendra shared with us a few Performing artists and their works like : Yoko ono and her performance 'Cut Piece' in 1965, Marina Abramovic, Frida Kahlo. All of us were so enthusiastic to see more of their works and learn how they perceived art.

Today's class has been the best one ( for me ) in all these 3 weeks.

 

Day two

Our second class was to make us think more. In the beginning, there were discussions about a lot of things related to installations.
We talked about the art of storytelling as a performance. Two questions were raised : Can deaf people hear any sound, if yes then how? And, How does a blind person dream?
I looked it up and tried to find the answers.
Deaf people do enjoy music, it is through the vibrations that sound makes. Different sounds make different vibrations in the air, that is how Beethoven was able to play even though he was deaf.
Blind people do dream. But their dreams are not visual unless they went blind after about 5-7 years of age. People who are blind since birth, do not get any visual dreams because our dreams are made up of our real world experiences, inner most thoughts and anxieties.

After this, we talked about how only when you react or express yourself do you qualify the feeling. Everything needs expression. Everything that actually matters to us, like the love we feel for our family or friends is not touchable, we can only feel it. Our facilitator also told us about how there are 3 levels of art practices. One to one. One to many. Many to many.
While making something in the name of art, your inner most feeling and outer showcasing should be segregated.

We started talking about 'faith' plays a key role in our lives. How everything we do, is on the basis of faith. Whenever we say,'I think, I believe, I understand', we are talking about our own faiths.  But, what is faith, I dare ask. Nobody really knows how to define it. But, still our entire system works on the basis of faith.

We learnt about the theory of minimalism and maximum. The theory of minimalism talks about expressing the same expression with minimum material. The theory of maximum deals with expressing the same expression on a macroscopic level. 

We wondered what material is. Material is an object. Only when you use it with a motive, does it become a medium.

Experiential understanding of material is what installation is.

After our discussions, we started watching a film called 'Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry'. It was a documentary on the life and works of Ai Weiwei. When you watch a film like this, you see how one artist can actually try and change the world. Ai Weiwei wants to change China from what it is. He revolts using his art and is not afraid to speak up. He has always been in controversy about his art and has been investigated by the government of china again and again.

After watching the movie, we were split into 3 groups. Each group got one question they had to try and find an answer to.
Group one: Who is an artist?
Group two: Is it necessary for an artist to be an activist?
Group three: Who is a non-artist?

I was in group one. We never thought that defining who an artist is could be so tricky. So we started with a mind map. We could not find more than 4-5 words that fit well with it. Then we had to form our argument and present it to the class. Our argument was : An artist is someone who can express himself using medium. 
And so the questions were bombarded on us. Don't we all express ourselves? What do you mean by medium? What all qualifies as medium? And so the debate went back and forth. We kept adding and subtracting words from our definition.

An artist is an individual who consciously expresses themselves with motive, medium and methodology. 

The next group came up with the answer that: No,an artist is not essentially an activist, but an activist is an artist. 

The third group defined a non artist as a person who doesn't express with an intention of expressing. 

After all these discussions and debates, we were left with a question for the next class: Will an artist still be an artist if the viewer fails to recognize the art?