What We Say Official Upload by Frank Lawrence

In everyday conversations it is unnatural for one of us to consider simply what we say.  Now, when I say, "what we say" I mean specifically what we say and only the words of the conversation that one contributes.  I took a recording of a normal conversation that I had with few of the people living on my hall the day we returned from Thanksgiving break and documented only what I personally contributed to the conversation.  While watching one side of the conversation I was able to see myself exactly how other people see me.  The thoughts in your head and all of your intentions are impossible to relate without the spoken word or with our actions.  No matter what your intentions or what your thoughts are before taking action or speaking the only way people can perceive them are through actions and words.  My piece is meant to show how simple it is for one to send a message that is contrary to one's thoughts without intent.  What you say is what everyone else sees, so watch what you say.

Melissa Rice Final Project

In this performance video I am slicing apples, poking them, and burning them. I used apples because they can be considered a pure fruit, almost like an innocent child. I am using such destructive force on these apples to demonstrate in an abstract way what society does to its innocence. We slice away at the beauty of an average person, having them feel cut up and try to repair themselves but they are already broken. We poke and prod at those who inhabit some illness as we ridicule and force them to feel shame. We set fire to those who are a total threat to us and don't believe what we want them too. We all have a right to feel beautiful, have an illness, and believe what we think is right. Society created a monster that destroys its innocent. Will you still pick one of those 'defected' apples?

Bagheads Final

Expressionless - Samantha Tutino

My piece is supposed to convey the way humans believe we are able to "read" each other, or how we use the term "I could just tell," when describing how we believe others are feeling. In reality, we are able to hide what we are thinking and feeling quite well, I know I have on many occasions and I'm sure everyone else has too. Certain things are not considered "socially acceptable", and others may just be embarrassing to discuss in public. Either way, this video portrays that we are not able to tell what everyone around us is feeling or thinking as well as we believe. The sound of the fearful wind is supposed to confuse the viewer, the same way our own opinions and experiences cloud our judgments of others. No viewer could know what each of these six people were thinking for all 30 seconds they were on screen, and most would probably guess that they were scared, angry, or sad. Very few would probably believe that this was after Thanksgiving dinner, where we were all laughing and talking and enjoying the company of one another..

final project Isabella

My final project is a combination of performance and video. Essentially, it is four videos playing simultaneously collectively expressing a notion of love. However the type of love represented by these videos is very anxious, almost to the point where love is absent. Two of the videos in this piece are simple gestures; one is a woman obsessively putting chapstick on, the other is a woman wringing her hands. The latter is juxtaposed with someone drawing pictures and words symbolic of love, and the former juxtaposed with a scene of a parking lot, a very still scene that adds a static element to the piece. This parking lot scene, in a way, provides a contrast to the very gestural nature of the work. In this project I attempted to explore the nature of love and how sometimes we misconceive what it ought to be. There is a lot of anxiety in love, however sometimes it transforms itself into simply anxiety.

play both at same time