Month: October 2017

For this video performance I chose to gather from many people different graphic t-shirts providing a logo/brand/community of some sort. I then sat in front of the camera, and with a straight face I layered on every t-shirt one by one. Although it is a humorous video to watch, it is extremely serious.

We, as the consumers, buy into and belong to many different brands and organizations, almost to the point of overwhelmed suffocation. As you can see, towards the end of this piece I look a bit hot, overwhelmed, and flustered. I did not mean to look like this, however that is how I felt in the moment with that many layers on my body. Every time I watch this video I pick up many different subtle elements that can relate to the society we live in today. I tried to fix my hair initially after every shirt I put on, because wanted to look presentable, however, towards the end, after being overwhelmed and feeling completely suffocated, I did not care how I looked. All I wanted was to just get the t-shirts off of my body. Perhaps this is how some people feel, at first they want to buy many different “trending” brands, however they may suddenly feel lost within their own self and perhaps not know who they are as an individual without these logos/brands defining us.

Instructions on Listening to “250 Year History of Fishing in Easton”

 

1. Please use earphones, and attach each piece into your ear.
2. If possible, please make your way to the Riverside Park, right below the Free Bridge, where the Delaware River can be seen.
3. If you are listening on iTunes, please go to the Equalizer in the Window tab, and change the setting to “Spoken Word”.
4. Press play, and slowly make your way toward where the overlook area near the Larry Holmes Statue, where you can see where the Delaware and the Lehigh Rivers meet.
5. Please make your way to outlook area of the two rivers by 2 minutes 45 seconds.
6. At this point, please look towards the convergence area, and enjoy the rest of the sound art.

Instructions

1. Download the MP3 connected to this post.
2. Walk past “The Spot” towards Bushkill Creek. Make sure to find an area where the water is fairly calm, and you can barely hear the dam.
3. Place headphones in and listen to this art piece while watching the water.

This artwork is intended to everyone, especially to those who appreciate the long history behind the City of Easton, and those who are fond of fishing. The document being read in this piece is from 1769, and is a Proclamation made by John Penn, the Governor of Pennsylvania at the time to preserve the fish population. I never realized how much history is behind the fish preservation, especially in the Lehigh and the Delaware River. Thus I wanted this piece to make it a reminder that the fish we catch in these rivers are made possible by the people who worked on preserving the fish population even before the United States became a country.

 

• 1.  Download the mp3.
• 2. Walk downtown and stop in front of the One Centre Square (concert hall, left of the circle).
• 3. Listen to the conversation with headphones.

The piece I decided to focus on was the State Theatre in Easton. The announcer is a women who did a tour of the theatre and she had an interview with the owner. I decided to do a mini history lesson of the theatre and how the theatre has developed over the years.

Instructions:

1. Grab a photograph that you didn’t have last class
2. Play the soundtrack while holding or looking at the photograph
3. Enjoy yourself!

For my soundart project, I decided to look at the consecutive floods that occurred in 2004, 2005, and 2006 within Easton. These floods devastated parts of Easton, and because their occurrences were so close in time it made it difficult for people to rebuild their lives. I wanted to capture this destruction and devastation but also the final rebuilding of Easton. This project is supposed to be listened to in a certain environment, so during class that is where we will go to hear this project.

For my sound art project I focused on the Farmers Market. I wanted to do a sound art of the timeline throughout the farmers market. Along the way, through research, I found out some very interesting facts. Such as, this farmers market is America’s oldest open aired farmers market. I was able to download sounds from different websites of old wagons and old market like noises. I incorporated the crime period in Easton that brought the market into a depressing time period. At one point there was only one vendor, and they had to hire more people in order to keep it alive. Around the early 2000s the farmers market began to pick up again, however even today it is hard for farmers market and farmers, to sufficiently make a steady income. I interviewed Megan McBride, who is the executive director of the market, and manipulated her words in order to provide more intact and dramatic effects. The end is very chaotic because even though it is a popular thing nowadays, the farmers are still struggling and it is still hard to keep the business alive.

I put the sounds on my snapchat and a lot of people thought it was a mistake, and were confused  by the sounds. However, some actually reached out in person asking what it was about.

Instructions:

1. Get to the center square(circle) in Downtown Easton.
2. Put headphones in.
3. Walk around and listen. Side note: imagining you are walking through the different time periods the market has lived through.
4. Enjoy!