Aisle 24

Aisle 24: Performance Art Supplies

Well it is officially time for me to start becoming pretentious. Let the grad school party year begin!

I had orrientation yesterday. The faculty is wonderfully nice and facinating (even the areas I have no interest in drew me in). I met a bunch of people, several of whom seem to be just as freaked out as I am about the whole grad program at Tisch, so yay for solidarity. I believe a support group is in the making, a support group that goes out and drinks and watches performance art and then drinks some more to forget the naked man dancing in the tub of fritos. This is just a guess.

The one consitant thing we were told is that this summer is going to be hell for all of us. Well... I do have tons of reading, but I'm kind of use to that. The only two things that freak me out, honestly freak me out, are the second class I'm taking and the fact that in a year I will have a masters and have just finished a major performance art project (which I have no clue as to what the bloody hell I'm doing).

So the class that scares me. Ok first off when I got the course book I wanted to work with the ECA workshop but due to personal problems and apathy I never handed in my proposal (or wrote it for that matter), the only other class I thought was worth checking out would have been the Law as Performance class. Where they look at legal procedings and examin the performance aspects of the whole thing. Interesting to me that is. Did I sign up for it? Nope. I went and signed up for Black Womanist Spirituality in Popular American Music.

...

Yes. That is my first class after I get through the intro course (which starts tomorrow). Ok so some of you might be wondering exactly why the hell I picked this? Alright, the course description was boring (hence me going for the law thing) but the way the professor described the course I was rivited.

The class will deal with black feminist thought/politics (which is, in my opinion, a lot more interesting than standard feminist philosophy), and how it reacts to the culture of Christianity and religions contesting Christianity (Sengreia, Voudun {VOODOO!}). So again, why am I taking this? I love music. I also love social and cultural studies (hence the occasional passionate punk essays I spout off). I also, while not being overtly religious, am interested in regligion of all types. I like hearing people talk about their religious beliefs and so forth. I also like it when I can add something to the conversation, so um... this is kind of me trying to add something to the conversation... In any case I'm going to take a class that promises to be incredibly fascinating about a subject I have had very little formal training in. This is going to be another one of those situations like when I went from no philosophy courses to jumping into an advance class on modern French philosophers.

The other class I'm taking is a course on performance and theater in New York City. I'm going to go watch performances of all types and write (critically and theoretically) about them. This class will be fun. I was going to take a theoretical class on technology and theater but decided that I really wanted to get a head start on writing about theater. Also it's a way to go out and see odd shows of all sorts. So as of right now I am excited.

Once the fall swings around I'm even more excited, here's the list of possible classes I really could get into:

Freakshows and Racialized Performance
Healing and Performance
Foundations of Visual Culture
Time and Performance: Tradition and Temporality

The Spring has some interesting ones as well mainly a class all on Antonin Artaud and the Psychopathology of Expression. I'm such a dork for being legitamately excited about that, but I am. Yay theater of cruelty!

So the question is: What the hell do I want to focus on in my studies? I know I have a project due at the end of the spring, a big ass project, but I have no clue as to what direction I am going in. It seems half the people I know have some what of an idea and this disturbs me. Eh I'll figure it out, I normally do.

The one bad thing about this, I'm going to become something of a recluse till a year from now. Which may be a good thing. I have one hope and one dread that I'm not mentioning here as I don't really want to spell either of them out. Both might actually happen, which depending on their order will either be bearable or not so much so.