My VIS 110i class typically begins with a crash course in performance art, the intrepid discipline that is slippery to define. Explaining what performance art is (or can be) includes what it generally is not (not dance, not theater, not cinema, etc.), but that it can and may include elements of any or all of these arts. This course focuses on creating performance art pieces produced for camera although as the course progresses, I open up the option to present live works for the class. Over ten weeks, my students produce six sometimes seven short performances, as this allows them to learn from sheer experimentation and doing, along with the feedback from weekly screening and crit sessions. At the close of the quarter, students often reveal that they not only have learned how they can express ideas and experiences through performance art, but that they have learned a good deal about themselves in the process.
I asked students to choose the piece they feel is the strongest that they made during our time together, along with a one or two sentence explanation. Below are their selections.
DINCO
Breanna Lau
Ms. Information
Ms. Information is an intervention by ICAM and film production student Breanna Lau that comments on media sensationalism, AI-generated content, and the uncritical acceptance of facts that may be fiction.
Muzi Liu
HI CHAT
In the age of AI, when beauty and “reality” can be generated with such confidence, whose standards are we learning to trust?
Ileana Garcia Reynoso
Strive for Perfection
Performance for camera, physically showing the need to strive for perfection.
Yuntian Guo
Until It Melts
A quiet accounting of what gets carried alone. Held in the body, until it melts.
Jay Siqueiroz
inmyroom
"inmyroom" means I have nothing else to do, besides think inside my head and let the thoughts come through. Release them and be hopeful, that they can go away, and I can become anew.
Izabella Soto
The College Cocktail
The makings of a typical college cocktail.
Brooke Lee
where are you?
“where are you?” is a performance art piece inspired by the bystander effect that is put into play when watching someone helpless, obviously and desperately suffering.
Maddy Kwan
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
This is an exploration of how the Christian faith teaches people that their sins can be “purified” (or excused…)
Anthony Keegan
Live Wire
Exploring space/confinement while blindfolded and surrounded by about a dozen deafening invisible cables connected to an amplifier.
Mili Ai
Untitled
Jacob Ryan Resurreccion
manananggal
A performance piece dealing with feelings of cultural detachment.