Jill Rodesk and I had very different self-portraits. Hers was all about interacting with the audience, whereas mine was purely a spectacle to watch.
After much thought as to what to do about my self-portrait, I decided to showcase things that are important to me: music, Chinese, exercise, and studying. My original thought was to write some of my favorite activities on a pre-cut heart made of paper. I would have drawn this out to be four minutes or so, and this would have been BORING.
I realized that the only interesting way I could show who I am was to do it through dance. Dance is defined as movement, usually rhythmic to music. That’s what I tried to accomplish. For example, my hand gracefully reached toward the keyboard in sync to the soft music, and then I performed my exercise routine during the intense part of the song. Two very different motions, but both were motions and both were to music.
I was so nervous before performing my act, because, honestly, it was embarrassing and ridiculous. But once I was up there, showing shortened versions of things I love – things that make up my life – I felt comfortable and excited.
Unlike Jill, I never thought about interacting with the audience. That would have been fun, but I just didn’t think about it.
Despite our portraits being totally different styles, we did have one thing in common: the “drop.” My dubstep piece started off with piano and a gospel choir. This was the time during which I was trying to study but my hand kept, unwillingly, creeping over my body and starting the music again. The idea was to show that my brain was conflicted: did I want the music on or not? In my performance, it was supposed to appear as “I truly don’t know.” As the song neared 1 minute and 30 seconds, the beat started getting faster and more aggressive. This created a feeling of anticipation. Finally, it “dropped.” That means that it went from piano and gospel to fortissimo. That’s when I threw down my notebook and started to exercise.
Jill’s piece also, in some sense, had a buildup and a drop. When she handed out her slips of paper, we noticed that they all said to wait until she counted to three. She started building up anticipation from the beginning, like my music piece. Then finally, at the end of her piece, she laid down the drop: the countdown from 1 to 3, leading to the opening of the papers she handed out. It was exciting! And I’m sure it also made some people’s day.
Kyle Leighton (Blog B, I think)
