Final Activist Performance (200) - The final performance project will focus on an activist approach to storytelling. Please choose a social/cultural/political issue about which you feel passionate. It doesn’t necessarily need to be serious in nature, but you must care about this topic. Your assignment is to inform and persuade your audience through a performance. Although the concept for your performance is relatively open-ended, please keep the following parameters in mind:
- You must create an original aesthetic text for the performance (the method of delivery, however, is up to you). Cut N Mix is considered a method for original text if the final product is crafted by you.
- You must utilize at least one activist performance methodology that was presented in class (wrap up on all of these will occur on 3/3 in class).
- Any videos used that include narration or spoken word must be under 30 seconds in length (unless the person speaking in the video is you). You may use videos beyond 30 seconds in length if they include background noise/ambient sounds or imagery. Basically, you cannot have your media perform instead of you.
- You must arrange for the use of laptops yourselves; my laptop will be used for recording the performances only.
- The performance MUST clock in at under 10 minutes. The timer will go off at 9 minutes, and you will be cut off after 10 minutes.
In my final performance, I will call for the open discourse of atheism with special interest in narratives of atheists who do not reflect the Eurocentric narrative that is most heard. For the first time in American history, over a fifth of Americans are not religiously affiliated. Almost ten percent are atheist or agnostic. However, while the number of non-believers or non-religious people is rising, atheism remains relatively absent in public and private discourse. While many other identifiers define a person by what they are or do (a positive relationship), atheism defines a person by an absence. Atheism is the nonbelief, or lack of belief, in a deity, deities, or any divine form. Atheism has casually referred to as an elitist’s luxury. Those who do not benefit from society’s inequalities do not have time to question divinity. Further, religion often acts as the order in a chaotic or unjust life. However, Melanie Brewster’s book Atheists in America offers the narratives of atheists who do not fit the white, heterosexual, middle or upper class male mold. Atheism is not a luxury in that only the privileged are atheists. Atheism is currently a luxury in that social norms and expectations can create a dissonance between one’s true beliefs and one’s public beliefs.
ReplyDeleteTo profess atheism is often a bold and unwelcomed act. However, those in more marginalized positions in society seem to report more negative effects of “coming out” as atheist than those in more privileged positions. For this reason, I will urge any and all effective discussion about atheism. I will encourage intentional diversity within the discourse. I will promote pride in one’s beliefs. I will attempt to increase representation and open channels for effective conversation regarding atheism.
Rosie Cook
ReplyDeleteFor my final performance I am going to discuss the topic of the endangerment of sea turtles with specific focus on the different ways people can help the growing issue. Besides being beautiful creatures, they are of much ecological importance to two ecosystems; beach/dune and marine. If they become extinct, there will be many negative effects.
Only 1 out of 1,000 to 10,000 sea turtles survive into adulthood due to countless factors. Some of these causes are natural, such as crabs, birds, and ocean predators. However, most causes for sea turtle deaths are from human action, such as pollution, harvest for consumption, illegal shell trade, fishing, oil, and erosion.
I am personally attached to this issue because I have both attempted to and actually saved baby sea turtles I found on the beach. I hope to connect the facts with my personal experiences and different ways to help the cause to inspire my classmates to save the sea turtles!
For my final performance I would like to explore the topic of abortion within the U.S. and act as an advocate for why individuals (and voters) should consider being on the side of pro-choice, while considering the viewpoints and arguments represented by the pro-life movement. This performance would not act as an attack on the pro-life proponents, rather examine their main arguments, and show the audience why they should consider changing their opinion from that of pro-life to one of pro-choice depending on the circumstances and situations I will be presenting.
ReplyDeleteBy acting as an advocate for this group of people coupled with my knowledge gained through my Gender and Women’s Studies major, I will present an argument looking at a few aspects of the abortion arguments that are present in the media today. For example, I would bring in information about defining court cases that are still being referenced today and that have had a lasting impact on the argument. From there, I would be able to move forward into the modern day arguments that are being proposed by both sides, to convince my audience of what course of action they should take in the future.
Additionally, I would like to bring in hard facts and statistics to back up the more opinionated arguments. For example, a woman’s risk of dying from an abortion is 0.6 in 100,000 which is 14 times lower than the chances of a woman dying from an actual birth. Not to mention, that there is even a higher risk of dying from a colonoscopy than an abortion. These facts will help booster my argument and provide a scientific frame to a debate that can quickly become skewed to a different topic completely. By looking at this topic through the frame of an outsider who is speaking for others, I believe I will have to keep in mind that I must have some prefaces to ensure that my arguments do not come off as sounding as if I am speaking for others, and rather want to act as an advocate, who cares deeply about this issue because of the background I have from my major and feminist standpoints.
For my final project I’m going to be taking about veganism. This lifestyle has changed me in so many ways and I want to share what I’ve learned as well as explore and explain the concepts of why people go vegan and why having more people not consuming animal products is the best thing that could happen to the world.
ReplyDeleteI’m going to discuss three main aspects/benefits of this lifestyle: ethics, health, environmental and potential to end world hunger. In terms of ethics, humans are naturally very empathetic beings and simply need to make the connection between what we’re eating and what we’re contributing to by doing so. Secondly, eating a plant based diet prevents 13 of the 14 top killers of humans and can even reverse some such as heart disease or diabetes. Also, animal agriculture is the number 1 contributor to climate change and rainforest destruction and lastly, veganism has the power to end world hunger.
My goal is to be able to create a platform where I can inform people of what is going on with these industries, as I believe social norms and hidden realities are the root of the problem. If I can just get people to start thinking and talking about this, my efforts will be worth while.
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ReplyDeleteI’d like to discuss in my final activist performance rape culture. I want to examine why there are people out there who still believe that it is the woman’s fault that she was raped or sexually assaulted. It is the responsibility of our society to put an end to this. Although I will be focusing on women who are raped/assaulted, rape and sexual assault is not limited to only women. This is significant to me because I have two friends at DU who were sexually assaulted in the last month. No amount of alcohol or drugs can justify that. Additionally, I have a handful of friends from back home who have been raped, some even by the same man. It should be very black and white: no means no, no matter how badly you want someone to say yes.
ReplyDeleteI would like to use a video that a few of my peers may have already seen, as well as speak while using pictures and also an artifact. After our intermedia performances, I am sure that my performance will be much stronger with these different media techniques. I want to tell a story that relates to the issue directly, something that hopefully will hit home and make the class want to go out and put an end to this ever so prominent issue.
For my intermedia assignment, I opened up about how my twin brother has had 3 open heart surgeries throughout our lives. I would like to expand on this by speaking about organ donation. It is something super close to mine and my families heart. I believe that everyone should be an organ donor if possible. Organ donation saves countless lives every year and could continue to help more if people were more informed and knew the impact it would have. Often people do not even think of organ donation until you are asked if you want that little heart on your drivers license. It has also been a misconception that religion forbids organ donation/transplants, but in fact there are very few religions in the world that view this as unholy.
ReplyDeleteI would like to personally talk about how it's affected my life and countless others. I hope that this project will inform others on the impact that organ donation can have on others suffering and to get them thinking about something that is often overlooked.
As of now, I plan on writing an aesthetic text and possibly including some statistics dealing with organ donation. However, I'm not set on any one idea of how to execute my performance right now.
The most important issue that humanity faces today is the issue regarding what we all have in common: our planet. We were all born into an era of mass development, and the need for profit in a world of 7.3 billion people. We are at a point in time where humanity is not going to be able to do business as usual, in that if we do, the extinction of our species is entirely possible. This leads me into the talking of what we, as a species, are doing wrong, squeezing the boundaries of the planet. The four boundaries that we have crossed as a civilization are the boundaries of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, where CO2 is greater than 350 ppm, the mass decline of biodiversity, deforestation across the world and the phosphorus/nitrogen prevalence in the ecosystems.
ReplyDeleteEverybody and their grandma have heard of climate change-- but have people truly understood it? Have people truly understood the fact that this is only a factor (a large one) of all the problems that the earth is facing? There are three other factors that I will talk about in this presentation that we as humans have completely disregarded, and we are only seeing the beginning of the effects it will have on the earth, and we will see even larger effects in our lifetime. The other thing that I want to touch on is the fact that climate change is being rejected by a minority of people-- it is not something you can reject. The theory of climate change is as concrete as the theory of gravity. It isn’t something that is debated. 90%< of scientists accept that today. But yet, we ask the question of the theory being true in our political system-- which is ridiculous to me, as an aspiring scientist. That is like asking a teacher how to fly a plane-- it is COMPLETELY out of their realm of expertise.
I vision giving the class the message that we, as a human race, need to change multiple aspects of our everyday life in order to even consider not breaking the boundaries that the planet has. We are at a point in time where the biophysical laws will take over, entering us into a new era of everything as we know. I would like to incorporate two to three metaphors in my presentation- one that is interactive and one that is done via a 10 second video. I will plan on ending my presentation with: where do we go from here? What should the plan be?
Blaise Mariner
An issue I am passionate about performing is the concept of a post-race world. The notion of a society that is "post-race" began with the Obama administration. Many thought with the election of a black president, a.k.a the first black president, meant the United States entered a a realm of post-race, meaning race does not exist, many thought that "racism does not exist". The philosophy became especially problematic with the recent spotlight on police brutality in the media as well as the news coverage and attention on Mike Brown and shootings of Trayvon Martin. Many argued that the death of these young men had nothing to do with race since we are now in a "post-race" society. Post-race has also been a driving force in media, for example the 2009 Disney Film The Princess and The Frog featured the conglomerates first black princess but set her in 1920s Louisiana not once mentioning her race in the time period. Post racism has also played a role in recent education reform. For example in 2014 Jefferson County school eliminated all aspects of civil unrest within their AP U.S history course, that "sanitized" the civil rights act, the early colonization of Native Americans because it did not "present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage.” I want to discuss how ideologies of post-race societies have infiltrated many aspects within society, not only within the media but within education, political discourse, and perception.
ReplyDeleteThis issue is particularly important to me because race was never something that was ever discussed in school, with friends, on TV etc. although it affected all aspects of my life and many others within society. As I got older I realized this was to silence those with less power or not the dominant group within society. It was frustrating to see how many groups are silenced throughout history and the present because of this post race philosophy. With that in mind I want to persuade the audience to rethink post-race ideologies. For this performance I would consider the audience to be members of society/consumers of media that encourages post-race ideologies.
I plan on using slam poetry within my performance through visual aids as well as auditory sensory through the spoken word. A narrative could be used as well with visual aids. The third option for the performance could be the use of narrative with slam, that is aided through music (stimulates auditory senses) and olfactory (smell of books, signifying history).
-Shewit Mikael