Archive | April 2014

‘I’m only Human’

Apr17

Even previous to the discovery of Laurie Anderson and her work intertwining song with multimedia and speech, music and singing was always something which inspired me and therefore an element I wanted present in my performance. Songs for me are the most beautiful and direct way of creating emotion and feeling and so felt would work well with the themes I wanted to explore. The music of Christina Perri has been a great influence to my work, with many of her songs creating part of the performance. At the moment I am toying with different idea’s for a title for my piece and the main thought is ‘Human’ after 0ne of her sounds with particular prevalence for my work. I will not be performing the entirety of her songs; instead I shall use snippets and experiement with the way in which they will be sung and whether they will be live or pre-recorded. Here is a link to one of her songs, Human:

 

The lyrics from this which I will be singing a cappella are:

 

But I’m only human
And I bleed when I fall down
I’m only human
And I crash and I break down
Your words in my head, knives in my heart
You build me up and then I fall apart
‘Cause I’m only human

 

These words beautifully complement my performance in which I try to explore the notion of public/private self and the perfection many of us crave; we are all human and will therefore make mistakes and will undoubtedly go through periods of lows and difficulties. Her songs explore the emotions we go through as human beings as she transforms her life struggles into the beauty of music, just as Spalding Gray transforms his struggles into performance. Other songs I will sing include,’ I believe’ and ‘The Lonely’.

 

Works Cited

 

AZ Lyrics (2014) [online] Available from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/christinaperri/human.htm [accessed 17 April 2014]

Youtube (2014) [online] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5yaoMjaAmE [accessed 17 April 2014]

Decoration of the Public Self

Apr17

For my performance, I intend there to be a vast difference in the presentation of the public self outside Studio 1 and the private self inside the performance space. To create the juxtaposing atmosphere between the two selves I have been looking into different ways to decorate the public space. Today I went to Dunelm Mills to explore the possibilities of fabrics for the curtains which I will use at the start of the performance. I was drawn to the artist Pierre et Gilles whose extravagant art is the inspiration behind the kind of design I want for my screen.

pierre

 

The extravagant  flowers and butterflies in this image reflect the kind of design which would be perfect for a screen. I want a design which is beautiful and encompassing of the happy, bubbly personality of my public self. I struggled to find something of the same extravagance, however found some prints which could work. The following fabrics include flower and strawberry designs.

photo 1 photo 2

 

 

photo 3

 (Fabrics, taken by myself. 17/04/2014)

 

Next I will need to research more designs and measure the space to see how much material I need. To further decorate the space I will add brightly coloured throws and cushions for the audience to sit on, fresh flowers and flower petals, fairy lights and personal soft toys which will give the space a cosy yet positive vibe.

 

 

Works Cited

[online] Available from: http://www.pinterest.com/chewie101/alice-in-wonderland/ [accessed 17/04/2014]