Luka's Arts In NYC

I would have to say that my favorite piece in whole play would probably have been the Kleinzach piece, which was in the prologue and epilogue. It was a very comical piece, but in the epilogue, when you realize that the main character Hoffmann makes himself Kleinzach, who is a dwarf. This piece happens when Hoffman, the main character of the opera, enters the bar. This piece is a bar song. The whole ensemble in the bar sings it but Hoffman leads it.

The music for this piece is repetitive, as in it follows the same groove and melody thorughout thewhole piece. The Vocals are conversational; when Hoffman says something the audience repeats the last word/phrase. The sound of the music is very playful but and reminds me of a bar scene.

The reason why this was my favorite piece was because i liked how the music went along with the vocals and the performance on stage. I like how the motions imitated the content and noise from the vocals. I also just thought it was a very comedic, yet sinister part of the piece that was very entertaining to me.

David Ellis is a painter and in a way a movie maker as well. He usually paints huge canvases on floors and walls, as well as does his own structures. His art honestly to me is probably the most diverse and original type of art. When I met David Ellis at the Macaulay building i was simply blown away. He has a very urban influence, which makes his style refreshing and i recognized one of the groups that interviewed him. His style is also semi cartoon-style which adds this youthful sense to his art. But i also love how textural his art can be. Often there are pieces that are very detailed and have many layers.

The thing i like about David Ellis the most is his ability to combine different mediums. For example, he had a piece that was set up in this gallery at RICE University in Texas where he made this painting on these oil drums and paint cans and made these devices so that the cans would be hit to make a sort of beat. He incorporated music into art. To me this is amazing. I think this idea is extremely unique and very innovative. It also must’ve taken a lot of talent in many different fields.

David Ellis believes that art isn’t permanent. In his movies he often paints and repaints over a work and never has really a set image that he keeps. He’ll make a painting and then painting it white and paint a completely separate thing. This philosophy to me is admirable, but i don’t know how he doe it. If there was a piece that i did where i thought it was really good, i wouldn’t be able to bring myself to paint over it, also with this policy he often does a painting in one swoop, which means there really isn’t room for extreme error. He doesn’t draft his work.

Since we saw David Ellis for class I have to say that he has been one of my favorite artists. I love his style and love the way he approaches his work. He also seems like a very cool guy. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and i might have been my favorite out of all the trips that we have gone on.

This is the piece made out of oil drums

“Vistaar”

Choreography by Madhavi Mudgal

Music by Madhup Mudgal

Costumes by Madhup Mudgal

Choreography – With this piece I really enjoyed the choreography. The performers often moved as one unit make different almost geometric shapes. The dancing was also a part of the music since the costumes had beads or coins attached to the dresses their movement worked as a sort of percussion instrument. The dancers were all female. There were five of them. They each had an outfit that was the same except for the color.

Set/Stage and Light Design – The light played a big factor in this. It helped set the focus of the audience by shifting around the stage from musicians to dancer. The rest of the stage is dark except for the one spot light and there is not backdrop. The costumes were traditional very traditional and heavy looking dresses with things that made sounds on them.

Music – It sounded like traditional Indian music. Every person on stage is a part of the music from the dancers to the musicians. There is a lot of movement in the music and it is very up beat. It was live. The relationship was that they all moved in unison, dancer and musicians. The dance was part of the form of music.

I was sitting watching a game of basketball the other week and started thinking, is basketball an art form? In my opinion it is. When i watch it some of the plays are so beautiful. The dribble moves, the cross overs, in between the legs, spin moves, post moves, all seem as much art as a dance move is to me. The dunks and the shots is almost like watching people doing back flips in dancing. I think basketball is almost a form of interpretive dance. And when someone performs some of the moves the players in this game perform they are not described in any other way other than aesthetically beautiful. There is constant conversation between two players and between two teams. And the audience almost becomes the score of the piece.

Now some would argue that this is wrong for several reasons. One of these reasons is that it has rules. Basketball has strict guidelines that you have to follow or else you get punished for them. But to me these rules are the same thing in art as following a style. When you draw cartoons,for example, you follow a certain style. Obviously a lot of cartooning differs from one another, but they do follow basic similarities. Same with singers. When you are a singer in an opera you follow your certain pitch, whether it be tenor, soprano, bass, etc. In basketball each players style also differs even with the rules. For example, Lebron James has a very pass oriented game. he doesn’t want his own shot unless he has to. he is also an extremely fast and athletic player so he drives into the lane a lot more, whereas Ray Allen is more of a shooter, working off of screens to make the three point shot as much as possible. he doesn’t have the ball in his hand a lot.

Another argument might be that it doesn’t look to convey a message. Often art looks to convey a message or deeper meaning behind it that is up for interpretation. I think basketball does do this as well. As a sport in general it tries to convey the message of teamwork and competition. it tries to convey the idea that one cannot succeed without teamwork, and the idea that you are always competing against someone in the end. I also think it conveys the idea of unpredictability. That you never know what life will throw at you. And this is shown in basketball through injuries, upsets and who ends up being in the finals.

In conclusion, i think basketball is a form of art because it is a form of entertainment that engages an audience and is aesthetically pleasing and stimulating to a certain sense.