Performance Helina Boatwright

Chapter 4 

“ Stuart Hall, a founder of the academic field of cultural studies, usefully distinguishes between these two primary definitions by referring to Culture as art with a big C, and culture as life with a small c. Culture and culture are interrelated. Think, for example, of ancient Greek marble sculptures. “

Culture is local, and diverse 

culture influences our creation and murals, and makes our performances more effective. 

The relationship between the two is not straightforward, but they are interlinked. They connect with their shared expenses, kinda like when a class goes on a trip, they now all have that one memory to look back at, and even though they know nothing personal about the people, they have now learned things from that day just by hearing a comment that the student raised their hand and made to their teacher. 

“Art is powerful. It’s a way we can express our understanding of the world as it is and articulate our visions for how it could be. In this way, all art is political, whether the artist intends it to be or not.” 

How art can express what most people can say, and sometimes they say more than what the artist intends for it to say, leading to political arguments between the viewers, even if they are the artists themselves. 

Hispanic Executive | Interview with Shaun Leonardo - Performance, Pedagogy, and Philosophy

“ However, it was in the mentality of striving for the best that I was also taught that success meant economic stability and mobility.”

That a person can see their parents work hard all their life and grow up, not wanting to do anything that takes them, then have their own desires to tap into that work mentality, to serve their own purpose.

“That is echoed by visual elements in the space: the windows on one side are obscured by mirrors, so you continuously see your own image as you pass through and take in these prompts. Opposite each of the actual windows is a fake window that duplicates exactly what you might see to your left, but with one element slightly askew. So you’re presented with two realities of the same location, one which notes where you actually are, and then a limited window that gives you the possibility of seeing that same present tense in a different context.”

 

This seems to be a performance that helps people see things in a different way. Most people are stubborn and can't fathom things being different from the way they perceive them to be. So they turn down the videos of others because they feel they know everything, and what they know is the only thing that can be correct. 

The activity that I want to create is similar to the play on the word culture and how the author changes the meaning just by lowercase or capitalizing the C.  I want the person reading this to choose 2- 3 words that are similar when you say them, but different when it comes to the writing and definition. Then they will go up to someone and say the two words and see if the person can guess which word is first from hearing it said, then the spelling, then they will be handed four separate pieces of paper with the words and their definition, and have to pair them up.