Competition by Kitty Huffman

The assignment for this project was to select five objects. We had to use these objects to generate five texts, than use a performance as a way of structuring these five distinct texts into a singular piece.




I selected five objects randomly to be measured and than placed to compete against each other.





To create unity, I painted all 5 objects black: the tricycle, the kitchen utensils, the bug, the Weight Lifting Exercise Dumbbell and the matchsticks.





To activate these objects, I told a Hungarian nursery rhyme:




Egyedem, begyedem, tengertánc,
Hajdú sógor, mit kívánsz?
Nem kívánok egyebet,
Csak egy falat kenyeret.

We are committed to the Nothing-in-Between – by Kitty Huffman

We were assigned a section from Cage’s Lecture on Commitment, and we had to generate a response in our medium of choice: written, performance, performance written, etc. to be presented.


The John Cage text I received was the following:

“We are not committed to this or that. As the Indians put it: Neti Neti (Not this Not that). We are committed to the Nothing-in-between – whether we know it or not.”


This section from Cage’s Lecture on Commitment inspired me to create a video installation using footage I recorded in Wisconsin in 2011. First, I digitally altered the moving image to create a mirror effect, than I set up an installation with a one sided mirror, which allowed reflection from one side but not from the other, and this created an interesting illusion.

Video of an installation by Kitty Huffman from Colin Winnette on Vimeo.

Using mirror, I also set up another piece taking advantage of a concave mirror, which creates a 3D affect when an object was placed in the middle of the mirror.

Both pieces refer to the quote form John Cage. I wanted to create a state in between reality and illusion, between object and the reflection of it, between magic and science.

Richard Schreiber - Two Presentations

 Required English Instruction for Employees of Love me Long Time Go Go Bar



'b', 'b', 'b'  - khong khi!

   

class in session

Five Objects

1) bull

2) bill

3) ball

4) pill

5) pole



Inspired from the two years spent as an English teacher abroad, this performance was meant to transform the audience into the role of non-English speaking students in a beginner/intermediate English class. By conducting the 'class' in a stern, authoritarian manner and by using a foreign language (Vietnamese) as the primary mode of written and verbal communication, the 'students' were meant to feel tense and trapped due to their imagined occupational inferiority and their massive reduction of expression and comprehension. After the performer demanded from the audience simple vowel and consonant sounds to be replicated, he then introduced the five 'vocubalary words' (the objects previously listed) with accompanying photographs via powerpoint and tangible objects.





"note!"



"Is it OK if I touch your balls?"



dancing around a very small pole



class dismissed - remember your homework

 The performance evolved as the 'teacher' began embedding sexual references into the instruction: demanding that the 'students' complete indecent phrases using the 'vocabulary words', gesturing to his own genitalia to supplement his verbal explanations. At this point the audience was meant to realize there was more to the instruction than learning basic English words, that they were, in fact, embodying the role of prostitutes who were being taught pronunciation and relevant phrases to better serve their customers. The performance ended with a powerpoint slide instructing the 'students', for homework, to try and use the words and phrases learned in the 'class' on their clientele.



 Go Ahead, Make my Day

Video of Performance by Richard Schreiber from Colin Winnette on Vimeo.

While standing on the second tier a three-tiered apparatus, the performer arranges two cups to each side of him facing the observers. The first cup is labeled: Topics that I spend atleast 9 minutes each day considering. Within this cup are 9 shuffled slips of paper which read:

cigarette?

youporn?

talk to them?

$3 ATM fee?

write?

velcro boots?

plain yogurt?

flush?

run?

The second cup is labeled: Questions that I could answer in less than 9 combined seconds. Inside this cup are another 9 slips of shuffled paper which read:

does Obama still sneak in a drag every now and then?

does Pope Benedict masturbate?

do bankers take too much profit?

did 'The Fonz' keep a journal?

did a woman invent the bodice?

are those tea stains on that 102 year-old man's moustache?

have you ever been painfully thirsty?

is there such thing as a 'runner's high'?

After hitting the 'snooze' button (9 min.) on a portable alarm clock, the performer begins by selecting (at random) a slip of paper from the first cup before reading it out loud to the audience below. He then selects (at random) and slip of paper from the second cup and directs the question on it to one observer. Depending on the positive or negative implications of the question first posed (from cup #1) and depending on whether that observer answers 'yes' or 'no' to the proceeding question (from cup #2), the performer either ascends to the third tier of the apparatus or descends to the first tier. After noting, with an imaginary notch on the apparatus' post, his direction of travel, the performer returns to the second tier to select one more question from each of the two cups and repeat the process again. The performance concludes when either a) the questions run out and, according to how many times he ascended and descended, the performer announces how content he is with the outcome b) the snooze alarm sounds and the performer surrenders the project by exiting the apparatus looking discouraged.