Tuesday, March 8, 2016

WEBSPINNA BATTLE: EARTH AND SPACE

     



     How does one become the Earth? How do I embody the cultures, climates, and attitudes of a world filled with so much diversity and history? I found this task almost impossible as I attempted to discover and create my alter ego and webspinna persona of Earth. Rather than trying to embody all that the Earth entails, I chose to focus on the sounds and feelings of the natural world. The soft hum and loud crash of an Amazon rainforest taken over by a storm, the rushing water of a crackling stream, or the pounding of instruments fashioned by God’s elements. Although the natural elements comprise a large majority of what the Earth means to me, I chose to mix these sounds with the culture of the Earth’s people. I opened my performance with the introduction track of the popular show Planet Earth. The triumphant rise and climax of instruments embodies the majesty that is our planet and I felt like it was the perfect way to introduce my alter ego. Followed by the steady rhythm of the rainforest and the gentle pace of a rushing stream, these natural sounds led us into one of the world’s most iconic figures and songs: Michael Jackson’s Earth Song. Mixing the natural world with the digital world represented the two unifying worlds’ among us. I finished my battle with Toto’s Africa, a song that captures the cohesion of two juxtaposing world’s among Earth.
     While creating my alter ego, I found it strange to steal/plagiarize sounds and songs from the Internet and make them my own. Up until I read Jonathan Lethem’s article The Ecstasy of Influence, I believed that taking another person’s work and making it your own was wrong. However, Lethem argues that every form of art or artistic creation derives from a long line of triumphs by other people. It is natural for us to be inspired by the works of others and to create our own interpretations of what we see. That is how we continue to build the artistic world.

     After Hannah and I came up with our fighting alter ego’s of Earth and Space, we used our individual persona’s to create a battle that defined our locations but also worked cohesively as a unit. We used choreography to literally battle each other with fake punches and kicks to represent the struggle between Earth and Space, but ultimately ended our battle side by side to demonstrate Earth’s and Space’s reliance on each other. It was so entertaining to dress like our personas—Hannah in an all spandex “space suit”, and me in a fur vest and majestic eagle t-shirt—and to create a dichotomy between the two places that still worked together. The entire experience of creating this battle and seeing what creative personas the rest of the class came up with was in some ways entirely awkward (in the best way), but also important for us all to burst from our comfort zones and to show our creativity in a new way.

BATTLE TRACK LIST

SPACE
GRAVITY + ADVENTURE CLUB: https://youtu.be/9g4Pi2GHLkU?t=1m2s
CAN’T BE TAMED 2:29: https://youtu.be/sjSG6z_13-Q?t=3m23s

EARTH
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