Another journal

I’m taking classes at the Conceptual Oregon Performance School this summer and I’m a huge nerd. Here are my notes from class and related links. This is a video based class so the majority of the links are videos.

Gender & Punk Class notes/discussion topics:

• “Gender & punk” being a loosely defined, small framework for a gargantuan range of topic
• Most videos are based in music rather than performance or art realm
• Old-school punk (definition of movement in hindsight, sensationalised after the fact)
  • Iggy Pop interview on the Tom Snyder Show 1980
  • John Lydon interviewed
  • 1983 Islington Squatter Punk documentary
  • Poly Styrene interview, 1978
  • The problem with punk clothing
• Target Videoin San Fransisco, generally amazing source of video documentation of performance, music and interviews in the 1970s and 80s.
  • The Screamers, live at Target studios: 122 Hours of Fear
    • Tomata du Plenty known for performance, locked into viewer/camera
  • The Cramps live at Napa Mental Hospital
• Pranks! Karen Finley
• Lydia Lunch interviews on Video Wave, 1983 and 1985
  • The idea of someone always being “on” [see Wind Up Monkey class notes 07/23, Paris Hilton, complex acting]
    • Mythbuilding
    • Taking every opportunity to “create experience”
• Backyard cover band loses only fan
• Using spaces, venues: Crispin Glover on Letterman, 1987, promoting Rubin & Ed
  • In a similar vein of Letterman being snide/undercutting his guests:
    • Don Van Vilet (Captain Beefheart) showing his paintings
    • Harmony Korine
  • Crispin Glover’s current work
• John Waters [fan site]
  • Have another pretzel for Chrissake
    • Reacting to a specific time and place.
• It’s easy to look back and see what a person or group is reacting to
  • What is the thing/enemy that art is being made in response to?
  • It’s easy to look at old transgressive work and mock it, denying previous context.
  • Is “seeing everything on the internet” really seeing, or seeing “everything”?
    • Not if Pink Flamingos‘ chicken scene is still shocking.
  • Cycle from transgression to accepted to novelty.
    • Documented trend cycle studied in fashion, (Introduction, Rise, Peak, Decline, Obsolescence), Laver’s Law.
    • Smart ass infographic
    • Timeline is growing tighter for cycles, btw.
• Anna Nicole thought child was gas
  • Howard more interested in getting footage than what is being filmed
  • So much chance involved, to create purposefully as a video piece is both impressive and terrible. [see Hello/Goodbye class notes 07/17, mention of set dressing]
  • Series of essays on Anna Nicole as sacrificial fertility goddess
• Audience documentation of performative action—gone public and popular, beyond expectations or preferences of performer or videographer
  • Bullied Kid Fights Back (unexpected result)
  • Fan hits Justin Bieber with water bottle (multiple documenters)
  • Megadeth Dave Mustaine vs the lazer(performer freakout)
    • [Related to discussion in the "I’m an ice sculptor" class—the simultaneously paternal and petulant relationship of performer to audience]
  • Laser on Kiss (performer freakout)
  • Shoe thrown at Bush (unexpected result)
• Harry Pussy’s Sex Pro [ungooglable, no vid link at this time]
• Infinity Factory: Throbbing Gristle’s Genesis P Orrige interview
  • Throbbing Gristle’s ‘discipline’ in transcending stage
• Two dogs stuck together
• Performative action: Public marriage rejection at Washington Wizards game
  • Becoming a staged action with plants, to create drama
• Vancouver riots
  • People tagged on Facebook, then easily found by police
  • Everyone is documenting with cameras and camera phones

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.