Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

Are you doing a Beauty Parlor presentation this Friday?? There will be 4, yes FOUR, groups presenting this week, including mine, so let's do what we can to make sure things run smoothly. Please let me know in advance (by responding to my e-mail) what you need to have happen in your presentation, that is...

1. Will you be playing music?

2. Will you be playing a movie clip? In what format (youtube, DVD, VHS, etc)?

3. Are you showing still pictures? If so, please have them prepared in some way by putting them together in a powerpoint or quicktime slideshow!!

4. And finally, do you need to hook up a laptop? If you are bringing a Mac, do you have the ADAPTOR to connect it to the projector?? If you're afraid that your computer is too old or buggy to work with the projector please handle that in advance and locate (borrow) a suitable computer.

It's the last week of Beauty Parlor!! Astounding!

Thanks!
christine

In 1995 Michael Jackson made a video for his song "Childhood" which is on the album History: past, present and future, book 1. Michael Jackson chose a little boy to play himself as a child for the video. The boy he chose is a white boy. who happens to be my brother in law Ryan. There are a number of things that could mean, he might see himself as a white person, or wish he was white as is commonly speculated, and he may be commenting on those speculations.

the video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVJscGa5vbc

the flesh Maria is associated with religion, and by extension righteousness.  When she's addressing all the workers in the catacombs she's standing in front of a bunch of crosses.  But you can also see the distorted shadows of the crosses in the background.  I'm not sure how that fits in, but it probably means something.  Maria spends a lot of time and energy announcing that Freder is the "heart" and that he's going to save the world.  I think that Maria did just as much active saving as Freder.  The book of revelations talks about false prophets being a sign that the real messiah is coming soon.   and there was a false messiah in Metropolis, the robot Maria. Maybe the distorted shadow crosses behind Maria in the catacombs had something to do with the flesh Maria and the robot Maria being part of the same whole.  If the flesh Maria had not been so perfect, perhaps the creation of the robot alter ego would not have been necessary to complete her self? I'm not sure I really think that.  It's just a thought.

This is my Exam Design Assignment. It is now double-spaced, properly enumerated, and in PDF format.

Sam is in a dark place. The voice of Panopticon comes from offstage.


Sam: What is this place?

Panopticon: A prison!

Sam: I'm talking to a dang prison? Why am I here?

Panopticon: You were arrested for talking to yourself. That's disturbing the peace.

Sam: If you're a figure of my imagination, how come you're patronizing me and not playing along with my psyhcosis?

Panopticon: Why should I? That's not my job.

Sam: You're not answering my question! What are you?

Panopticon: I'm a prison. I'm circular with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners an at all times be observed. I'm a structure.       Panopticon.

Sam: So you're watching me?

Panopticon: I might be.

Sam:  Do you even exist? I'd rather be kicked in the head. How do I get rid of you?

Panopticon: Wait for legislation, the pills to come. Or... just try an forget... (evil laughter)

just before screening the film we watched with all the loud banging noises where we saw each frame scroll through instead of one image afteranother, the hosts of the program said that it was significant that it had been produced on video, and the artist had used the fact that it would be shown on a monitor as a tool.  So, it is interesting that we actually watched it on film and not on video.  on a screen and not on a monitor.

I really enjoyed the film that was made in the woman’s kichen, where she was reading the wok directions.  At one point near the end, she said something along the lines of -and now you know everything you need to be a real asian- clearly this is a commentary on cultural approriation and she was making a joke about people who think that having “asian” things in your home makes you asian.  after the film was shown, the hosts said that that particular film maker would often just set up a camera in her own kitchen and record herself interacting with her own posesions.  So if we can assume that she really did have the electric wok and the japanese cook book in her home who was she commenting on? was  she just making a joke about her own cultural appropriation, or didI misinterprete it entirely?

#1

I can see your retina floating in the empty space between your forehead and your hair.
how do you walk with all six legs of yours?
it’s a quarter after the hour.
no wait, that watch has been stopped for decades. I have no idea
it is with your eyes, under the stairs or in the closet on the shelf behind you
resting on some couch, the end of it, near the wrist is purple and blotchy as if it were bruised in the severing
waves to me
it waits for you in some dark attic
where is your other hand?
the current which courses through your circuits is no different than that which coursees through those of any other woman.
soft hair and skin
you, universal different from any other woman
a fold, a ripple in no dance and no water
it would be a glitch
if G-d came and blew away with a single breath all you know,

#2

the object’s ability to function is not based on what is “there.” there is something there that is totally not there.  the pressence of something that does not have a form.  in order for he ritual to be effective.  they are also an extension of my femininity.  I bring out the feminine pressence of G-d in my on self in order to find it on my arm, on my head, and in the room with me.

#3

As I was floating down the street one day, I saw a park full of trees.  As it was a lovely fall day all the leaves were begginning to change their colors.  the leaves fell from the trees and driffted gracefully toward the ground.  I floated along through this enchanting scenery when suddenly, “FFFFFT!”
    “Oh my! Excuse me,” said a lovely young whoopie cusion.  
    “I’m terribly sorry, I was distracted by the foliage,” I said, flustered.
    “I didn’t see you either, I’m such a noodle head, I’m so sorry.”
    “There’s no harm done.  though it appears we are both a bit deflated.”
    “So we are.”

Finally, that old pair of shoes has been laid to rest. Born an orphan in some unknown factory in an unknown location the shoes were purchased in Seattle Washington by Maria at the Payless shoe adoption agency-store. It wasn't exactly love at first sight. Maria was starting a new job and decided to purchase the least expensive pair of black shoes on her credit card, however she is Shoes' only surviving family. Shoes was always too something. Too trendy, slightly oddly shaped. So fashion conscious they weren't fashionable. Sassy with a full 2 in heel, they felt good to take off after work. Their only redemption in Maria's mind was the fact that they were cheap, a point that was cited frequently.

New life was breathed into Shoes when her owner's one pair of sneakers wore out and for two months she wasn't able to find a pair she liked. Moving away from the city, this pair of heeled shoes found herself hiking down nature trails, kicking soccer balls and walking across miles of pavement. Suddenly she was taken on dates.

For a brief and glorious period at the end of her life she was able to escape her limitations as a fashion "don't" and live an extraordinary life far beyond the expectations of many normal work shoes or boots. When Maria finally did find herself a pair of sneakers she liked she was thrilled but found herself a full two inches shorter. At this point Shoes were worn and tired after a life full of adventure and peacefully passed on.

Maria
Fashioning the Body Paper #2
Scott Turner Schofield and Brecht’s Notes on Theatre

    In this paper I want to make the argument that many aspects of Scott Turner Schofield’s Play, “Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps” were in line with the qualifications Brecht laid out describing his idea of the epic theatre. The play was effective in the ways that Brecht talked about in terms of inciting critical response and helping the audience to see a clearer version of reality by including its complexity. However, at the end of this paper I come to some places where I think the play might not so easily fit on either side of the epic theatre/traditional theatre binary from Brecht’s description. Maybe it’s just an effect of taking this class, but it appeals to me a little bit that Scott’s play resists (or transcends?) this binary in some ways and isn’t easily categorized.
    First I want to examine the story of the play. In his notes, Brecht says that the regular theatre has plot whereas the epic theatre has narrative. He also says that traditional theatre’s story has a linear development whereas the epic theatre moves in curves. Lastly, he talks about how traditional theatre follows an evolutionary development, whereas epic theatre jumps. Each of these statements has to do with the structure that the story, or more appropriately to use his terms, narrative, takes in the theatrical work.
The structure of telling stories which Scott used in his performance fit very well in with the idea of montage or jumping around. Not only were the stories separate montages but there was also at least an implied element of randomness in their order (and possibly even to which stories he got to telling). Scott literally asked us, in the between the stories, which ones we wanted to hear next. Placing the scenes of the play in a random order seems to defy any traditional linear structure or an order which uses them portray growth or evolution. Brecht never said scenes needed to be random in order to produce a work of epic theatre, but the effect is very in line with the epic theatre. Also it promotes the idea of being able to let the scenes stand for themselves. Instead of just being parts of a larger plot they are worthy of being individually included for their complexity within themselves.

Winter Quarter Project Proposal

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“Representations of the body in film throughout the ages.”

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Project Proposal By:

Garrett

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Fashioning the Body

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Julia Zay’s Seminar

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