A Short Note About Time Choices

I know that personally videos usually only hold my attention for about 2-4 minutes, so I tried to best show my performances in that amount of time.

The only exception to this was the "Blind in Walmart", but that video was longer because I thought it was important to keep the continuous shot.

Performance 5 Scale

 

The principles of design used for this performance:
A scale was used throughout the entire performance, ha ha, get it? Just kidding. Now really,
The focal point of the performance was the scale which emphasized the idea of how weight is always on my mind and "weighing down on me". The scale is present in every shot, and I am literally carrying the scale around with me. The variety of the places and tasks was unified with the scale being in every shot.

The rhythm of the video was perhaps one of the most important elements. There is the rhythm of the shots between close up of getting on the scale and have tasks where the scale is present. My original idea was more about getting on the scale all of the time, but it's not just the act of weighing myself a lot that's present. The constant thinking about weight is also present, so I wanted to bring these elements together and make it more literal. There is also the rhythm of the music, which has a steady beat throughout the song which pulls the rhythm of the video together, and the music also coincides which the events of the video, and with the overall theme of the performance.

Performance 4: Blind in Walmart

This is the longest video, but I thought this performance would be best left as a continuous shot to really show how difficult, and what a long process this was, even though I only had to find a few items.

The principles of design:
The main principle of design for this performance was the emphasis on how difficult something seemingly as simple as shopping can be without your eyesight. I am almost legally blind, (not my own "diagnosis" but from my eye doctor) and even I didn't think this performance would be as hard as it was. I had to depend on what little knowledge I had on the store, and colors to find things. I emphasized the difficulty the best that I could by using the contrast of the blurry setting and focused setting throughout the video. The performance was also shot as a continuous shot to emphasize the experience.
The variety of the shopping items added to the performance by sending me to different places of the store. The performance is meant to raise awareness that stores are designed in certain ways. You know that you depend on signs and prices, but do you think about the colors used? Or the position of items? Although it was a lot more difficult for me to go shopping, I was still able to because of the variety of the principles of design that stores use.

Performance 3: Roller Skates

The Principles of Design:
Throughout the performance I used roller skates as my mode of transportation. The use of roller skates as transportation is what unified the performance.  I thought that roller skating would be a more efficient mode of transportation compared to my usual walking. It actually ended up being a bit more difficult because of my injured ankle. The roller skates were the visual focal point of the performance, but the narrative was about the trip itself.
There were two types of rhythm, the fluid motion of the skating itself, but there was also the rhythm of the "stop-start" because of the intersections. (Which, just as a side note, the part where I am about to cross the street and two vehicles go out in front of me, there was a "No Turn on Red" sign, and both vehicles turned anyway.) The performance emphasizes the difficulties of transportation.

Performance 2: Napping

The Principles of Design:

The most important principle of design for this project was the variety. I napped in a variety of places, I napped for a variety of time, and I napped in a variety of ways. All of the variety is what unified the act of taking a nap.

This performance was inspired by my statement that "I could literally sleep anywhere". And so I did. Some places were easier to fall asleep and to stay asleep than others. For example, the bathtub and the car were my "best" napping spots. I was able to fall asleep on the wall, but I kept waking up because I was afraid of falling, so that was the least amount of actual sleep that I got for this performance.

Performance 1: Food

The Principles of Design:
The variety of the different foods is what unified the performance and the food together. There was a variety of different colors, textures, tastes, and sizes, but they could all unified together as well because of these things. I started off by organizing the food into colors, and I ate the food in different categories based off of the color, texture, size, taste, and randomly.