Unit 5 Assignment 1
Rebecca Schneider, “Performance Remains”
! – Schneider suggests that when one reads a document of a performance, they read the document as “a site of performance” (105). This stood out to me because a document such as this describes the performance through the eyes of the document’s creator; in this sense, the documenter performs. Thus, the archived information must be read as both a detailing of performance and a creation of performance.
? – I got caught up in Schneider’s idea that performance can remain on the stage, but it remains “differently” than its original form (105). IA changed performance might be received in ways that differ from the creator’s intention, so can it still be considered a form of the original performance?
Nicholas Birns, “Ritualizing the Past: Ralph Lemon’s Counter-Memorials”
! – Birn’s phrase “the body serves as a distilled history” stuck out to me most, since “distilling” means extracting the most important part of something (19). Using the body in performance compels the audience to focus on the parts of history that the performer believes are most essential.
? – Birns mentions that Lemon’s drawings have a performative quality to them, for they “provide information, as well as the artist’s own perspective on it” (19). We so often consider performance as an act involving live movement, but should we begin to consider all art forms as acts of performance?
Unit 6 Assignment 1: On CP Snow’s “Two Cultures”
! – It’s interesting that between science and literature Snow finds “no place where the two cultures meet,” since they seem to need one another to some extent. (page 16)
? – What teaching style is Snow referring to when claiming some countries “teach out of proportion,” and why is that a problem? (page 18)
Unit 7
My group chose Thomas’s translation of Akhmatova due to its high artistic nature. We considered both the translations through the lens of the translation panel from Dr. Robb’s unit, remembering that every translation is an interpretation of a work as opposed to a direct copy. The artistic nature of Thomas’s translation compared to Anderson’s translation suggests that Anderson’s work is more directly translated. However, we thought a more artistic interpretation might invoke thoughts and feelings in the reader more similar to those evoked from reading the original work.
Unit 8 Assignment 2
Gerhard Richter’s “October 18, 1977” series has one consistent theme: confusion. The blurred nature of each piece conveys to the viewer a sense of disconnection from reality, as though one cannot focus on the world around them. It makes the paintings seem almost unreal, like a hallucination or a dream. Upon closer inspection, it seems that the unfocused confusion in each painting is not a disconnect from reality, but rather a reflection of the state of reality in the moment the photograph was taken. The era in Germany from which the photos arose was filled with disorder, with voices of the government presenting a story that did not align with the reality of the country. With the addition of Ulrike Meinhof and her fellow revolutionaries making waves in the news, few people knew what to believe about the world around them. The paintings represent this blurred sense of reality in Germany during this time. For instance, the photos titled “man shot down 1” and “man shot down 2” are some of the most blurred in the collection, for the death of Baader showed that the reality he fought for went unachieved and the reality presented by the government was farther from the truth than ever.
In particular, the paintings of Ulrike Meinhof’s life become increasingly blurry as her state of mind deteriorates. The paintings depicting Meinhof in her youth are only slightly fuzzy, indicating an era of stability in her life. The “confrontation” paintings, depicting Meinhof in prison, are so blurred it’s difficult to make out many details. This suggests Meinhof felt highly unsure at this point in her life, not knowing if or when she would be released from prison.
Skip to content