Table Top Assignment

(Note- Though the syllabus said that this blog should be posted by noon, I didn't perform my presentation until after noon and I wanted to post some reactions on how I felt the piece went. Therefore I am hoping it will be counted as I am posting it as if it were a regular blog assignment, before 5pm)

For my presentation, I wanted to make a political statement of some sort but also try and embrace the class philosophy of "serious clowning." For some odd reason, I have kept this Garfield postcard booklet for many years and combined with the genius strips of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, I decided to a make statements on 9/11, the war in Iraq & its current proponents, history and the perception of truth. I felt that by using comics, I could bring across a couple of interesting ideas without being overly preachy because there would be the humor of the cartoons to contrast the ideas with.

For the most part I think the presentation went pretty well. There was a question that was discussed last week in lab about whether or not rehearsal was a good idea compared to just winging it when working on a work of art. Though I originally expressed an interest in the improvisational aspect of winging it, I see that rehearsal can be a very useful tool as it allows the artist to make sure they fully understand the boundaries or limitations that they will face while creating and performing the work. For example, though I had gone in to make sure my focus of the "strip" on the table was good, I didn't take into account that the table being used was rounded off and this made it difficult when trying to keep the strip evenly flowing across the table. Luckily another student was there to assist me and I was able to keep the pace on track and aligned for the most part.