The Plan

In about a week I have my assessments and this is my plan for when that ominous moment arrives: I have created six audio tracks and loaded them onto 6 separate MP3 players that will play them on repeat. The audio tracks are from the conversations i recorded on a dictaphone while the participators made paper beads. The six tracks have general, loose themes: politics, art, music/personal, relationships, culture/location and me. They will have headphones so that people can either sit down and listen to the past workshops, or converse me with, while either playing with the beads, or making their own. I have purchased 6 individual chairs that i felt like represented the feel of the conversations that were made.

What I feel that this project actively does is help people stop and concentrate on their own thoughts. In this fast-pased world where everything is information obsessed and interested in social networking instead of physical, social contact, The conversations that developed usually was from a direct influence of the "meaningful" thoughts that they wrote down in the beads, or visa versa.

 I have realized that this project is mainly a social one, where I tried to interact with the "audience" or "participators" in a more intimate and interested way than creating a piece of work myself in hopes that the public will find it important. Art is relevant to society and the art world has perverted it by making it elite and inaccessible for those who haven't had the same training or understanding in "art speak" which then makes the general public feel that either art is unattainable or not for them. I feel, from the general excitement from this project, is that it has proven that art is still accessible and relatable for everyone, and not just the illite.

Workshops in Beirut

For spring break I had the amazing opportunity to travel down to Beirut, Lebanon. While there I did a workshop with four college or post college-aged women. I brought snacks like crisps and biscuits to help the social feel, and we made around 100 beads altogether.