Blindfold Activities

Friday was one of the most fun days in STAC so far. I loved running across the stage blindfolded for some reason. It didn't require any thought or effort. It was just so simple. It felt strange to hear so many people on the stage and then run across without bumping into anyone. It began to feel like me and the person guiding me were the only people on stage. I noticed both as the blindfolded person and as the running person that the way you held the person's arm would affect how fast they would run. The people who were rough with me or didn't use two hands made me feel a lot less secure than the people who were gentle and calm. Also, when I was running people across the stage, I forgot at first to use two hands. When I was reminded and started using two hands to help people across, they were a lot more relaxed and ran a little faster. When touch was the only sense we could use to determine if we could trust the person, it became really important.
I know it's obvious, but walking around with a blindfold, I found that my desire to see became greater than ever. Usually, if I saw someone walking towards me in a hallway, I would look the other way or down to avoid awkward eye contact. Blindfolded, when I heard someone's steps coming towards me, I found myself dying to know everything about this person. Is it a boy or a girl? What shoes are they wearing? Are they looking at me? Where are they going? Do they sense that I hear them? Do they care? And the only reason I wanted to know was because I couldn't find out. I noticed that without my vision, my other senses seemed to grow sharper. I realized that I could tell how big a room was by the sounds and the smell. The noises coming from the cafeteria seemed to spread out in all the space. The smaller rooms were warmer and had a stuffy smell to them. I began to resent doorways, turning sideways and sticking out my arm every time I realized I was approaching one. I was the second one to go around blindfolded, so I had already walked around the building for fifteen minutes. I wished that I had gone first because no matter how hard I tried to forget where I was, I couldn't do it. There were two times when I didn't know where I was, but I quickly figured it out when I touched something that I had seen the first time around. I wish we could do it in a bigger building that I was less acquainted with.

Surrealism & Biomorphism

Surrealism was founded by André Breton in 1924. Breton was a Dadaist who was heavily influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud. Dada was a movement occurring after World War I protesting the intellectual rigidity on art and society. André Breton defined surrealism in the "Surrealist Manifesto" as "Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner -- the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern." Surrealism is an artistic style and cultural movement that came about at the time when anything orthodox was being pushed aside for anything new and avant-garde. The Surrealist Movement began in Europe and spread worldwide, influencing not only painting but music and film. Surrealist art is not always a picture of anything in particular. Images in surrealist art are often dream-like and irrational, though they can have a realistic style. It is meant to bring together the world of fantasy and the real world. Surrealism offered an alternative to the Cubist movement and strayed away from emphasis on content. Some major surrealist artists are Jean Arp, Max Ernst, André Masson, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, Pierre Roy, Paul Delvaux, and Joan Miró.
Surrealism also affected later artistic movements, one being biomorphism. The term was first used by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the first director of the Museum of Modern Art. It was founded in 1936. Biomorphism is an aspect sometimes found in surrealism. It is the use of abstract shapes that evoke forms found in nature.

Rilke Rewrite- "The Grown Up"

Each step she took around the world
Was heavier than the last;
Her gain being determined
By what she chose to take in.

She chose not to close her eyes,
Not for longer than a blink.
For her need to know was greater
Than her desire not to feel.

And lightness was a stranger
Who sounded familiar,
And it's voice turned less and less like hers,
Thought it never changed at all,

And sometimes she'd turn back,
But could not find what she'd left-
All directions became forward
Wherever it was they led.

Brautiham Sandwich

Ingredients:
ham, obviously
any other meats of your choice
lettuce
onion
cheese
crayons, non-toxic or toxic, whichever you may prefer
paper
round roll

First, draw the sandwich you wish to make with crayons. Then, cut the roll in half. Fill both halves, but each half must have different contents(meats, lettuce, onion, cheese). Peel paper off crayons, then break them and put them into a bowl. Heat in microwave until melted, than quickly pour in one half of sandwich. When wax dries, it is ready to eat. Make one sandwich per person, or, if possible, have everyone make their own. Eat on a stage around a table using original drawing as place mat. Be as messy as possible. Food fights are permitted. When full, do not clean up after yourself. Use whatever mess you made as the set design for a play which you will put on after eating.

Being Myself, If I Can

Yesterday, Luke said something along the lines of "Be yourself, if you can". Well I was looking at some people's blogs and what they wrote about my pictures. A lot of them said I seem to be really innocent and quiet and sweet. That's very different than what my close friends think of me. But even my close friends see me completely differently than how I see myself. I wonder what dictates who a person is. Is it a mixture of every perception of me? Is how I see myself the only thing that matters? Or does majority rule? I know myself the best, so that means what I see should matter most. But if everyone else sees me a certain way, that becomes who I am. It's like someone who goes to jail for a crime they didn't do. The law of the country is telling them they're guilty. The United States, one of the biggest powers in the world tells them, "you're guilty". That innocent person may know that they are not guilty, but according to the United States, they are, and that's all that matters. I'm the only one in the world who can possible know exactly who I am, but according to EVERYONE around me, I'm someone else. Who's opinion matters? Someone could say it doesn't matter what everyone else thinks. I agree, it doesn't, until it starts to effect the way I think of myself. I don't really understand what I'm saying. All the thinking I've been doing has led me to sort of a state of uncertainty about everything. Sometimes I make myself so confused that I get this visual of my thoughts being pushed into a black hole or something. It puts my mind at ease, but at the same time I feel like I'm losing some ideas that may not be good but can't possibly hurt. Here's an idea that I actually just thought of. This blog can be my black hole. A beautiful metaphor, I know. Like this entry, it could very possibly turn into a whole lot of rambling. Hopefully, I'll get something out of it.

Inside the Mind of a Newbie

I know that for the first three days, I was pretty shy and boring. Oh well. Despite my inability to express enthusiasm, I really do like STAC. In three days I feel like I've already learned so much. I'm scared shitless to make a fool out of myself, but I'm completely ready to do so. I'm in here for writing which is funny because I remember what I submitted to get into STAC and it was crap. One of my goals is to make a few things that I can look back on in ten years and still not think it's crap. I don't doubt that I'll look back on this blog entry and think it's crap, but I think too much so I'm just going to write and try not to say anything too dumb.
I titled my blog "All that I've never thought of - think of me". I really hate titles. I'd rather go in the Emily Dickinson direction and not title anything I do. So after some long hard thinking, I decided to take this line I like from this poem I like and make it my title. I used to write about what I know. Now I try to write about things I don't know. I like to make up characters that are nothing like anything I've ever seen, but are still very real. We all live in one world, and there are countless numbers of stories that take place here. When I make up my own world, there's only one story that takes place there. Then, something I don't know becomes something I do know, and I know it better than the real world because I made it. My title expresses my fascination with the fact that through art, you can pull something out of your own brain that wasn't there before. I guess.

Best Pictures

It's a really great smile and I like that he's on one side of the picture more than the other.

She looks like she's talking to a guy she likes and she's too shy to look up but she's thrilled to pieces.

I like that she's looking to her left; it makes her look sneaky.

He looks like he's taking a breath while thinking of what to say.

She looks like she's the boss sitting at a desk. I love her hand there.

It's like an in-between face. On its way to utterly disgusted, but not quite there yet.

I just love her expression in this one. She looks like she's waiting for something.

It's kind of a smile, kind of not. I'm not sure what that face means. And it's me.

He looks really uncomfortable.

She has on a really pretty smile.

Her eyes are really squinted but you still feel like you're making great eye contact with her.

She looks sufficiently disturbed yet amused.

It's a weird face but it looks like someone asked her a question, not said "make a face".

Up close and personal. I like it.

Her smile's really cute and I kind of like that she's just in one corner of the picture.

It looks like someone just told her something really gross but she's trying to be polite and sound interested.

I love her smile. It looks like she just smelled something really tasty.

He looks like he has a good comeback but doesn't want to say it. It's great.

His eyes are great.

I love how she's biting her lip. She looks shy but like a tease at the same time.

There's no excess junk. You only see what you need to see.

I like his half smile. His expression looks very matter of fact, if that makes sense.

I like her position, how she's leaning slightly forward. I also like how she's facing the camera straight on and you can see her crooked part.

It's not a big smile, but it doesn't look fake at all either.

It's a great expression and you can immediately tell that she's really outgoing.

I like how she's kind of cross eyed, but you wouldn't notice it if no one took a picture.

I liked this picture because it wasn't silly. Silly can be good but for some reason I liked him better looking serious.

It makes me wonder what she was trying to explain, and aside from her hands, she has on a great expression.

She has a perfect smile on. It's very real.

It looks like she's trying to hide behind her hand, but it's not working.