Werds

I had originally wanted to work with how escapism affected myself, others and society in general. However, this is a much larger issue when it comes to combining it into only a few projects within time restraints. I think that I could have simplified my topic and this would have allowed me to target one particular aspect of escapism. I wanted to address the different issues over the span of the work, focusing the video on the drug aspect and the performance piece on the dream section. I was pleased that the last project allowed me to “explore the study and art of movement during sleep and the relationships between the subconscious activity and the body” as I had originally stated in my first artists statement.

I found one of the most challenging aspects (other than the initial frustration of forming an idea) was time and time-management; not only to create the piece, learn how to use/situate technologies, deal with set-backs and editing time, but also time to re-work the pieces. I felt that my video art was too general of a piece. It took longer than expected to gather, sort and edit the material into the program I was using. I had to restart it because I had incorrectly organized the data on my computer. I was unhappy with the result of the piece and was sick of it by the end!

I wanted to re-make my entire video into one based around one particular dream I had. In order for me to successfully recreate a dream, the audio-visual aspects are important, but even more so, the tone, atmosphere and feeling from the dream. This, I believe, would be the most difficult thing to communicate since I would have to re-imagine and then try to communicate this feeling to a conscious audience, even though it was first experienced when I was asleep. Even then, each viewer of this new film would have their own experience and perspective as a way of interpreting my video. This would require me to re-work the whole film. Due to time constraints I was unable to do this. I would like to do this eventually, perhaps as a project over the summer. Or even as part of a whole series of videos depicting dreams.

I would have liked to change/edit/re-shoot some more photographs too. I would incorporate the surreal into regular life—slight and eerie changes that blur the distinctions between the dreamworld and real world. With this last piece, I think it would have been interesting to use it as part of a performance piece. If this were to work I would have to be in a location where I would be able to sleep safely (and clothed..) where I would not be disturbed by any audiences. I thoroughly enjoyed performing and interacting with the people I met and I hope to create the same style of work.

I felt that my most powerful piece was my performance work. I was originally going to choose the article situated around performance art. I think this would have been more appropriate if I had chosen to do another performance piece for my last project. Instead, I wanted to address a broader concept that applied to my work and Dieter Roelstraete's e-flux article “What is Not Contemporary Art?: The View from Jena.”We have trouble defining what is truly 'real' and what our reality consists of. As the distinctions between the real world and dream world can sometimes be blurred, we may find ourselves in dreams where we perceive what is around us to be our reality. We often take what we are provided with as the truth, rather than questioning it. This reminds me of a quote that we discussed in my high school philosophy course by the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi “I dreamt I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?”

I think that the distinctions between art and real life are blurred, especially since art is such a subjective topic. Nearly everything can be viewed as art: architecture, natural land/tree formations, animals, humans...in addition to what we create ourselves. Similar to an attempt to answer any epistemological or philosophical question, we only can provide theories and ideas, rather than one specific and frozen definition. I believe that this would limit and marginalize works and attempt to sever creative thought processes. On the other hand, the lack of boundaries and definition may cause many people to experience confusion about abstract and contemporary work, feeling that anything can be 'considered or called art'. I also think that dreams, in an abstract way, could be interpreted as a form of art in itself. Some theories say that dreams we experience correspond to the images and people that we view throughout our lives and during our sleep, our minds review and sort out the information we intake. I think that this is true because I have experienced instances in my dream where the last stranger I may have seen walking down the street, or something that is worrying me, will reappear in my dreams.


I have developed a new way of thinking about and approaching my own work as well as others. The performance piece has inspired to me to explore and experiment with new and non-traditional forms of creative expression I have not had an opportunity to yet experience. I think that I will continue to create some of my works based around certain themes that I am interested in. For my future work I think I would like to explore time, nature and animals.