EchoBOOM

I didn’t really know what to expect from the play, but it was definitely different than any play that I have seen since my Centenary experience began . Visually, the set was quite simple: it consisted of fencing and benches as to resemble the outdoors of a school. The acting was incredible; Rachel was fabulous as she has a strong voice and is passionate in everything that she says and does. She was believable and interesting. I missed seeing Nate Wasson, but I heard that he was incredible; I have no doubts that he was.
Visually, the crosses added an interesting effect; they were real people who developed and collapsed when they needed to be present. They represented the deaths of real people, and interestingly enough, they were played by real people. I don’t know why, but I really liked when the “crosses” climbed up the fence and got onto the roof of the set. Perhaps it’s because their silhouettes were captivating…I’m not sure, but visually, it was one of my favorite parts of the play.
On a different note, the play introduced the idea of being under constant surveillance, which definitely is related to visual culture. How do we feel about being under constant surveillance, and how will it change the way we look at the world? An interesting thought to ponder. Would people act the same if they knew that they were being constantly watched? Would you go crazy? I know that I would take on a different aura, a different personality, if I were under constant surveillance, and, yes, it would drive me crazy eventually. For me I can compare it to being watched performing a dance when you don’t quite know it well enough. You don’t know what the other person is going to think, and you are worried about their reaction if they see you mess something up. Our world is moving toward this idea of being under constant visual scrutiny, and I don’t know it we have really weighed out the pro’s and con’s. Perhaps we should think about it a bit more before we become so totally sold on something…
A big pat on the back to those who performed and those who worked on the technicalities of EchoBOOM. They did a fantastic job.

Marketing and Visuals...

Why does a visual picture sell a thought or an idea so much more? This is what I have been asking myself since I got off of work today. There is a new thing at the Boardwalk called EuroBungie, and in order to encourage people to participate, they are creating posters for advertisement. Makes sense of course, but on this poster, guess who you will see jumping on the eurobungie? ME! They wanted a picture of me having fun on the Eurobungie in order to encourage others to do it, something that makes me realize how important pictures are in advertising. They want a picture of something thoroughly enjoying the activity…which then leads me to wonder, how did they market something before pictures and posters came along? World of mouth is the only thing that comes to mind. How much MORE effective is advertising now that it was 100 years ago? How similar are the advertising techniques? What is the history of advertising, and when did it become so important in today’s society? We wouldn’t be able to c

People Watching...

One of my favorite past-times is people watching. What better way to spend a relaxing evening than at a fraternity house with a whole lot of drunk people who are doing things thinking that no one is paying attention to them, things that they would not normally do or at least think twice about before doing. All the girls who act like little hookers…why? Would they normally do it? And I’m sure that, while they may not realize it at first, they have to eventually realize that they look like little hookers and would stop. But they don’t. And they think that people think that they are cool when really people are laughing at them, wondering what the hell the girls are thinking. It is an interesting cycle of consciousness. How do I feel about visually watching a little hooker? Well, obviously I could be a little hussy too but simply choose not to. It’s always easy to become a tramp, but it is more difficult to erase that image that people have of you. So wouldn’t you want to be careful of the image that you create?

Texas Street Bridge at night

Why did they decide to put tube lights on the Texas Street Bridge, and where are these lights getting their power? And when the bulb goes out, who is in charge and says, “It’s time to change the bulbs”? I am curious about these things, but one thing is for sure, this bridge at night-time is definitely one of the more visually interesting things that Shreveport-Bossier has to offer. From the I-20 bridge, it looks like rods of light hanging in the air. I remember being really small and asking my mom about thelight-up bridge, only the colors of the tube lights were all different colors then, and now they are mostly that red-orange color. So why did they decide to go to one color? Didn’t the many colors make the bridge much more interesting? I think it did. So why did they bland it up? SOMEONE ANSWER MY QUESTIONS.

Stained

An Escaped Image performance is coming up--THIS weekend in fact!--and one of the dances in the performance is entitled "Stained." It is important to name your dance appropriately as the name of the dance is supposed to be an indicator of what movement can be expected. In Stained, three dancers begin on the stage with black, brown, and white paint already staining their bodies. Each dancer represents some type of issue that people face, such as pride and social anxiety. Half-way through the piece, three more dancers hit the stage, and these three dancers have paint on their hands. The paint on the hands is a brighter color than the black, brown, and white (the colors are red purple, and green) and the three "new" dancers stain the initial dancers even more.

The purpose of the piece is for the audience to realize that certain things of the world stain you, some for good and some for bad. There is always an effect of these things, and the circumstances will leave their marks on your forevermore.

Dance is an incredible art in that everything must be stated via movement and appearance. Words are generally not spoken (although they sometimes can be). So this means that the movement and the appearance, or the visual elements, but be incredibly strong and story-telling. The paint on the young ladies tells their stories, and their movement tells their issues. What a beautiful aspect of visual culture it is. Come to the concert on April 26th @ 8:30 and see for yourself!! :)