Final artist/ teacher statement

What I learned as an artist and an educator while creating the final product:

•  As an artist:
• I learned the skills necessary to create a devised theatre piece. -Working as a group to create something, media manipulation, etc.
• I learned how to rely on visuals and sound to create meaning and a compelling experience.- our piece was not story driven. There was no character arch, there was only the idea: people disconnect in different ways. So to create a piece that could communicate that theme without the aid of dialogue or story we had to utilize the visuals and media to communicate and engage.
• I learned the value of symbolic movement- our piece had minimal dialogue and so during the prerecorded interviews we had to create something that would be visually intriguing otherwise our audience would check out. 
• I learned that if you can defend a piece of work then anything can be considered art- our piece wasn't visually enjoyable. It leaned closer to Dada than to traditional art forms. But, because we were able to defend our choices and explain our process it was looked at as art.
• As an educator:
• I learned that if I give vague and general guide lines for a project I can't expect all the projects to turn out the same.- Watching the other groups' work and comparing them to ours was like going to an art gallery, seeing the neoclassical pieces next to a cubist piece, and then trying to grade both styles with the same assessment scale. It becomes quite difficult to compare and grade work that are so far on the theatrical scale from each other. 
• I learned that if I ever want to work collaboratively with a group of other creators in the school: like if I joined up with the English and History department to present something, I'd have to act as a mediator so that ideas wouldn't get squelched by those in the group who are more assertive than the others. In this project I saw quite a bit of that, my ideas and the ideas of others had to go through the self-assumed idea person. If it didn't get accepted by this one person than it wouldn't go through. Many ideas could have been adapted or used if the dynamic had been different.
• I learned the importance of choosing your collaborators in a project: as I go forward as an educator I'm positive I will be required to group up with a team I don't have a say in selecting. But, I will do my very best to select the different collaborators in projects I participate in. As much fun as it was creating upper level theatre with half a group that has no experience with lower level theatre it was actually quite stressful and overall cumbersome to the overall project and product we were able to present. 
  

My own contributions to the final product:

• Images for the slide show.
• Props for the final performance.
• I acted as collaborative director- taking what we talked about and translating that to the stage, and translating it in a way that our less theatre savvy partners could access/understand.
• I provided costume design.
• I was the stage manager of the project. I was the communication liaison- the other group members would communicate with me when they were late, or to double check on the times or places we would be rehearsing. Group members contacted me to confirm their assignemnts.  
• I acted as musical advisor- giving compositional advise and ideas to our music director. 
• I acted as group therapist.

How a version of this assignment might be used in my future classroom:

•  How I might use this style of project for my theatre class:
•  I could use this for a divised theatre of the oppressed project. -I'd start by having the students interview each other and then branch out to others. That way we get a larger variety of sources: those who are up to date with the theatre practices we will be using and those who aren't. This would provide the same challenges encountered in this project: translating information that has no relation to theatricality or public performance into a theatre piece.
• I could use it and have students reinterpret a text and present it in a new form. -I might make a hybrid of the crucible project we did earlier and this project. Have students in role and interview characters from a text and then create a devised piece off of that.
• I could use it to fill a unit section I don't like to teach- have the students teach themselves! Yay, devised theatre!   
• How I might use this style of project for my history class:
• I could have students take actual interviews from historical persons and use that as a base line for their devising. -They could use Nixon's interview and use that as the inspiration of a theatre piece. 
• I could have students interview people about current events and then have them present something like out devised theatre pieces. 
• I could have them be in role and have interviews with each other as historical figures and have them use those interviews as the base line for a larger devised piece.  

Game-o-Matic

I made a game about the influence of drugs on the community. The druggie needs drugs but the drugs impair the druggie. The family accompanies the druggie, hates the drugs but is confused by the druggie. The doctor helps the druggie and the druggie accompanies the doctor, and the dr. hates the drugs. The church helps everyone and hates the drugs. It is a super complicated relationship chart.

The information provided explores the difficult balancing act family and community has to deal with when drugs enter the picture. It is so hard to support and yet be deeply upset on how the druggie is behaving. The aesthetics of this game is very simple- which I like. In fact I, like Nephi, Delight in plainness. I like how it is kinda cartoony. It makes this conversation much more approachable.

I would love to do this for a particular play, charting out the different relationships that exist in a show- how a character reacts to another character or a group of characters.
I can see how this kind of a project would be helpful in my classroom. I can't wait to help them do this! Yay teaching!

Round Robin

Textual poaching

My artistic piece that i am engaging with is the Indiana Jones. I've always loved the movies, and Harrison Ford's portrayal of this iconic character- with his whip, hat, and leather jacket.

Me and my whip!

The smolder.

Falling! Aaaaah!

For this textual poaching I decided to use this character and upload a series of photos of me in similar action shots. The relationship between me and the character is that- I am an actor! I am a Male! and I have a leather Jacket!
I found that as I approached these photos I found myself uncomfortable with the amount of chest that is visible in the iconic moments. Being raised in the LDS faith I have been taught that modesty is one of the ways we show respect to ourselves and to our God. It was interesting in this project to find that my own sensibilities crept in and maintained my standards.
Modesty is often only associated with the female body- it was refreshing to have to grapple with my own modesty as a man and balance that with the expectations of the character, the fan base, and the world at large- because, really, who cares if a man exposes his nipples?

If I were to adapt this project to my classroom- I would have them adapt a popular character from film- or even theatre in general, and have them translate them into a different culture. For example- Arthur in a Jewish culture, or Iron man the Japanese samurai. I would explore what choices they made to adapt the character to the culture and I would stress the importance of respectfully representing the other cultures being explored.

Process Piece

This audio sketch records the Human process of taking a shower. Please be advised: the following contains nudity.

The piece consists of three parts:
Beginning- the shower is turned on and the subject pulls back the curtain and enters the shower.
Middle- the subject proceeds to wash themselves.
End- the shower is turned off and the subject pulls back the curtain and exits the shower.

The content records the various sounds encountered during a shower- Namely: Water turning on and off, Shower curtain movement, and splashing. It is a celebration of the everyday, the mundane, the simple.

By bringing focus to this process the artist is calling for cleanliness!  

Medium Specificity

Facebook- Video
Facebook- picture compilation
Facebook- Picture promo

What I created is a series of advertisements for my upcoming production. I used Facebook as the media platform because I wanted to reach an audience that is bigger than the one I can reach with work of mouth advertising. What I created functions as a celebration of the platform I chose. In Facebook, it is common to see images, words, emojies, and video clips- and so I used all of these forms in my communication.

Along with being a celebration of Facebook,
my work is a slight commentary on the platform as a whole. Because I am using social media as an advertising platform I am limited- by the copyright issues connected with the work I'm producing, and by the platform itself. Because the work I am producing doesn't have the copyright necessary to advertise broadly I cannot state the name of the show I am working on nor can I state the body of work that it is based off of. Another way that I am limited is in the length of the video I can present to Facebook. It would be impractical to post an entire 40 min video of the production on Facebook for several reasons, two of which being:
1. buffering time constraints

2. user attention spans.  

So, overall- I'd say Facebook is a good place to do this kind of advertising- IF you know how, and IF you follow the copyright rules so as to not get in trouble!
:D

- Digital and Social Media Adaptation

Ode to an Orange-1
Ode to an orange 2
Ode to an Orange 3
Ode to and Orange 4

The adaptation of this assignment in my theatre classroom would be interesting. Most of the texts we interact with in a drama classroom are meant for theatrical representation- and so they would easily lend themselves to a social media platform.
I can see a complex twitter feed being devoted to Crucible, or some sort of video blog about the music man. The interesting thing would be to try to reverse the process and take something presented on social media and then translate it onto the stage. I think about that one commercial-

Where we have classically trained actors performing newsfeed updates, and texts.

If the end goal for this project of turning a text (poem, image, story, etc.) into a social media post- would be to then take a social media post and transform it to the theatre I would super get behind this exercise.

I would also LOVE to apply this technique to my history classroom. Taking historic records and texts and translating them (while maintaining their integrity) to modern social media would be a fun way to engage with history.

This seems to be a project mostly geared to English education but, I would like to see it adapted to theatre. Taking, for example, a performance as our original text and then translate it to social media would be a great way for students to synthesize and analyze the important elements of a production.

Overall I see this as a beneficial project.  I look forward to including this in my future curriculum.

Thinking and Writing about Digital Media

The Digital media that I create is mostly limited to two platforms: Instagram/Facebook, and Youtube. During the month of October I activate my Instagram page and add to my 31daysofbarkerhalloween posts. My wife and I both dress up in halloween costumes for everyday of October- and we share those costumes with our friends and followers. My other creations live in Youtube. My brother-in-law creates videos and I act in them! The example in the link is one of my favorite comedy sketches we put together.

My Digital media consumption also gravitates around these platforms- but it also includes Pinterest. I enjoy a dank meme or a cooking recipe as much as the next person! I spend my time with these media providers because they make me feel connected to friends, they provide me with entertainment, and they update me on breaking news which I then verify with news media providers.

My personal guidelines for navigating media available is simple: if it is gross-I don't want it. That is mostly applicable to Youtube, and Pinterest. I align myself pretty close to the Gospel view of media- if it is of good report, virtuous, or lovely- funny, creative, clever, or inspiring- I seek after those things. I end up unfollowing people from time to time, and I have a filter engaged in my google searches- so I don't end up getting stuff I don't want: try searching x-men pictures without a decent web-filter installed. It gets pretty dicey.

Digital media is unlike any other kind of media for a couple specific reasons:
1. You can access it so quickly (provided you have an internet connection)
2. There is a record of you viewing it.

When I view art in a gallery- I have to go way out of my normal travel route to see art, and even when I'm there there is no record of what I saw, and/or how long I was looking at a particular piece.
With Digital media- BOOM! there it is!

And so I try my darnedest to avoid pages, and media providers that have inappropriate content.

As a teacher I can see the media I participate in being a crucial part of connecting with my students. I often will use a meme or two in my power-points during lessons- and videos are always a nice way to break up lectures.

I feel that presenting Digital media in the classroom is helpful for my students. I shows them that I am approachable, and relatable - but it also models appropriate media consumption. If my students are going to search out Youtube videos it would be nice for them to have a standard that they can follow- or an example to exemplify.

I know when I am searching for media I rely on the example of others to help me cut through the crap.