Having lived in Manhattan since the age of four, I grew up in one of the world’s largest centers of art and culture. It’s thanks to my caring and hardworking mother that my older brother and I were able to experience our first Broadway Show, first museum visit, and first classical music concert before starting off to college. As a result, I came into the Macaulay “Arts in New York City” Seminar with a mind brimming with memories of The Phantom of the Opera, the Guggenheim Museum, and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). I’m happy to say that upon participating in the class since the first day, I was enlightened by the discussion of the definition of art and the exploration of different forms of art.

Although not every activity was as exciting as I expected it to be, the few exceptional highlights of the course made my experience enjoyable and worthwhile. One of the first art forms we learned about was body art. The extent to which certain cultures stretched the limit of art absolutely astounded me. According to the New York Daily News, ritual body piercing in Phuket, Thailand, is thought to exterminate evil spirits and bring good fortune (Weerawong). But sticking objects like umbrellas, guns, and guitars through one’s cheeks seems more like torture than art and ritual to me (see Figure 1). Another extreme form of body art is the full-body tattoo – this is truly extraordinary and led me to discover a similar kind of art, such as that produced by Liu Bolin, who prefers painting himself rather than tattooing others (see Figure 2). Bolin works primarily in New York and Beijing, using his art to “camouflage” himself within a particular setting to convey an important message about the human relationship with the environment. Bolin says he wants “to emphasize and to draw people’s attention to the relationship between the grand scale of cultural development and the role of a single individual” (Johanson).

While many of the body artists we learned about seem to have a deeper purpose embedded in their works, those who are experts in the art of comedy seem to just want to have a good time. Before being introduced to comedy in the Arts In NYC class, I never considered the ability to make an audience laugh an art. Learning about the key elements comedians use in their acts in addition to attending my first comedy show were truly some of the most gratifying experiences I had in this course. I had never been to Comic Strip Live before, especially not as a student evaluating art, and it was fun to see what types of jokes made what kind of person laugh. When Ray Ellin visited our class, he told us three major factors comedians have to consider when performing on stage: the audience, timing, and reactions. A simple example of timing is shown in the movie, Borat, when the main character (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) is trying to learn how to say a “Not Joke.” At the particular performance at Comic Strip Live on November 5th this year, the last comedian Modi noticed that our class brought a lot of racial diversity to the audience. As a result, his act was built upon numerous jokes on cultural and religious stereotypes. He called every Muslim-looking person “Muhammad” and started banging on the walls to check if there were any Jews hiding. I became even more in tune with comedy as an art when I conducted research for my paper on the topic of humor. I learned why different cultures have different senses of humor and how comedians take time to educate themselves on what to make jokes about. It’s not just about timing, noting people’s reactions, and acknowledging the audience – it’s about learning of and relating to other cultures and their senses of humor.

What I liked about the comedy portion of the course was its lightheartedness and fun. When it came to Classical Music, I felt that Mahler’s symphonies made me just as happy, but in a different way. Most of Symphony No. 10 was gloomy and disconsolate, but the virtuosity of the chords and melodies made it enjoyable to hear. Having taken ten years of piano lessons and studied music theory in high school, I found myself absorbed in analyzing the composition and hearing how all the instruments fit together. Although there were some portions that I felt were a bit too melancholy, I was picked up again by the timpani and cymbals. The concert at Lincoln Center encouraged me to look back on my studies in theory and think about composing a short piece of my own.

I really enjoyed exploring the arts in New York City because it opened my mind to other forms of art and relit the fire of my interest in those I already know of. Born as a true New Yorker, I can’t help but appreciate the fabulous art and culture that develops here. From jaw-dropping tattoos to stand-up comedy shows to symphonies, the creativity of New York knows no bounds. I am inspired as a student and an artist to contribute to this scene. Taking the Macaulay Seminar was an overall beneficial experience, not just because it was entertaining and exciting, but also because I had the opportunity to hear the unique commentaries and personalities of my peers: mere college scholars like myself but soon-to-be the new artists who shape New York.

Figure 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Bolin, Liu. Hiding in New York No.1 – Wall Street Bull, 2011. Photograph. <ekfineart.com>.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Dir. Larry Charles. Perf. Sacha Baron    Cohen, Ken Davitian, Luenell, 2006. Film.

Johanson, Mark. “Liu Bolin: A Conversation with the ‘Invisible Man.’” International Business Times. 1 Dec. 2011. Web.

“Not Jokes.” Online Posting. YouTube, 14 Mar. 2008. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.

Weerawong, Apichart. “Ritual Body Piercings at Thailand’s Vegetarian Festival.” New York Daily News. 3 Oct. 2011. Online Photo Gallery.