Final Idea Post - Madison Padilla

Quotes and Responses:

Chapter 9 UTOPIA, from The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert

"A goal that others—whether they are aware of, care about, or understand our specific problems or objectives—are likely to want to reach with us. Goals motivate movements."

I agree with this quote that finding a common ground is one of the most important ways to let people work together. To achieve success with a goal, it should motivate others to believe they can win as well through it. People feel they can resonate with the goal in a positive manner.

"One of the great powers of art is to shift our perspective: to get us to look at what we’ve looked at a hundred times over in a new way."

I interpreted this quote to mean that art can be viewed in multiple ways through different lenses. Rather than seeing the same thing every day, getting used to it, and forgetting its meaning, art makes people look at things from different angles to constantly curate different responses and emotions.

FINAL IDEA (short) POST

For my final idea, I have chosen to continue and expand on the idea I had from last week. My act, titled "Freeze and Leave," is based on public participation and finding what we usually don't notice in our daily lives. In my act, around 3-5 performers stand in the center of a space facing in different directions and doing different actions. No talking, no touching, and no eye contact. Performers freeze in "everyday" poses (ex., sitting in a chair, reading a book, writing in a notebook, or typing on their phones). They have the choice to choose any pose with any prop they may want. They remain frozen for 30 seconds in silence, then after the allotted time, they break the freeze and walk away normally, leaving a piece of them behind in the space. An example could be something on their person or a prop they were using. The main goal is for people to look at the habits and social rules we follow in our day-to-day lives and to see the details we might usually miss. Even when we aren't doing anything, like standing around in a crowd, we are still performing under a cultural script. Even when the performers are close to each other, they are isolated. They are physically together, but mentally apart, mimicking the real world with individual actions. By leaving pieces behind after the performance, the space feels like a remnant of an event come to pass.