Looking for America (out the window)
One of the windows in our apartment this morning. Underneath the window
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Aug, 2012
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Aug, 2012
Diving In
So our week “away” from each other begins. We’ve all set out with tasks we aim to focus on in a big way. James encouraged us to “go outside our comfort zone, be ambitious, challenge ourselves.” I had a few ideas scrawled down, but the one that seemed to get the most traction with the group was to take an album by Bruce Springsteen, and each day try to live out the lyrics to a different song. I didn’t think
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Aug, 2012
Karaoke
Yesterday evening we went to a karaoke bar with the intention of each of us performing 'Stand By Me' by Tammy Wynette. When we got there however we changed our minds and staged our own individual interventions into the Karaoke format. These included: Andrea singing Bruce Springsteen Richie singing a song about a car whilst running non-stop throughout All the women in the group singing 'Stand By Me' by Tammy Wynette Laura and Elizabeth playing inflatable electric guitars for someone
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Aug, 2012
Work MORE!: Summer Special sneak peek
Mica Sigourney - Work Sample 2011 from Mica on Vimeo.
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Aug, 2012
The Big Shave
http://youtu.be/EJim-isTEdU
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Aug, 2012
Searching for America. . . .
Where is America?, You don't have to look, America is what is happening. It's time can begin whenever you choose, even in some made up fiction of America. Everyone has a different interpretation of America, and no-one can possibly exchange each other's experience. Ernesto's story of a life was vivid and very effective to imagine, but one impossible to live by anyone other than himself. He ends on "We are all here singing the national anthem." Some of us don't
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Aug, 2012
Yesterday’s practice of being a stranger in a strange land at the Dallas Cowboy/Oakland Raider’s tailgate party was a failure. Not because it was bad (I had a great time), but because I didn’t feel like a stranger in a U.S. parking lot with Black and Latino Oakland Raider/Dallas Cowboy fans. I didn’t feel uncomfortable with people gawking at me hanging out with a group of mostly white people wearing blue sparkly lipstick, my tiny shorts, and tube top. In
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Aug, 2012
Chants and Taunts at the Football game.
Raiders and cowboys, Young boys chanting and taunting the other team: TAPE sample: sports chants and taunts 30sec The Raiders are represented in silver and black, symbolizing pirates who invade and overtake with their steel and their destruction The Cowboys are represented in blue and white, colors extracted from the American flag, for rugged heroes who claim their territory Like many sports, American football is a game of reclaiming territory on a field, conquering space, and passing into guarded zones.
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Aug, 2012
Strangeness, cultural exchange and cultural identity
Today is our fourth day together as 8 collaborators and after yesterday's NFL experience it feels like we're really starting to unpick and unravel the complexities of our notion of 'Stranger in a Strange Land'. The notion of America as a story and Americans as storytellers keeps returning and ownership over that story is what seems to be niggling us most. Constructing fictions and conducting life through role-play is perhaps not unnatural, perhaps its even a necessity and the U.S.A's
13
Aug, 2012
Oakland Raiders 0 Dallas Cowboys 3
Today we tailgated at an NFL football game. For those of you reading this in England, tailgating is hanging out in the carpark (parking lot) of the football stadium before the game and eating food next to your car/truck. This is us tailgating out the back of Andrea's truck: Before we left we made some American food at Elizabeth's house. Including potato salad, hash browns and a cake with a U.S flag on it. I'll post up some
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Aug, 2012
Task
Since I'd been putting off washing my truck for about 4 years and had it with me yesterday, I decided my American activity would be to go get it washed. The car wash ended up being in one of those "one-stop-shopping" sorta places, so I figured the most American thing I could do is spend as much money in one place on as much crap as possible. Incidentally, the car wash was called "Winner's Finish" and the wash I got,
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Aug, 2012
Voice artifact from Estate sale
Sometimes people die unexpectedly and the leave behind a house full of things from their past. Estate sales are public markets. and many people can override ethical questions about reclaiming the property of the dead by the incredible cheap deals they can get from their personal objects. Estate sales are rampant throughout America, because America as a nation has a tendency to accumulate an incredible amount of things, without any necessary obligation to realize a material future past a singular