Triangle

How doe triangle communicates impermanence ? It suppose to be the most stable shape, but since I'm hanging it off the ground, the gravity becomes the permanent and everything else would risk falling!
I find beauty in the impermanence: Age, petals falling from the sky, water, dancing. I can't really duplicate nature, but it has its way to use same materials over and over again yet still be able to be unique in its nature's making. The triangular metal plates that I hung off the square net looks like a flock of bird, but it also looked like the shape of a fish. Swimming, flying, how free is that! but yet its tied to a string!
The installation goes from dense to less dense, leading the eyes to move around , and navigating the three-colored yarn with the metal plates that is hung off it.
I have a vision of Brenda's , the chair of department, who's a sculptor's work I saw over summer in the AVA gallery. I like to see how sculpture could work without heavy wood making, but simple strings and metal. Turns out that there are also lots to consider. the straightness of the triangle, the tensity of the string. How the knots are seen , or invisible, or just messy.
Argh, I am challenged but inspired and happy to constantly learning new things.

p.s. forgive this jibberish writing, I swear i will make sense of this later.

My Senior Show Concert !

Press Release from Hopkins Center Website:

HANOVER, NH—Dartmouth’s and the Northfield Mount Hermon School’s percussion ensembles join forces on Saturday, February 18, for Long Live Spirit and Inspiration: East Asian Music and Rhythms. The concert that celebrates the music of East Asia—and the contributions of two student members of the Dartmouth ensemble.

Under the direction of Hafiz Shabazz, the concert celebrates Dartmouth seniors Christina Chen and Si Jie Loo, both of whom made the college’s World Music Percussion Ensemble their musical home during their time at the college.

Chen, an Economics and History double major who plans to go into journalism after graduating, came to the ensemble with 14 years of training in classical piano and wanted to experience music that was less rigid and more interpretive. Shabazz’s performance during Chen’s freshman orientation pointed her to the percussion ensemble, which became like a second family, as well as a creative outlet. She will play percussion and piano in the concert.

Si Jie Loo, a studio art major from an ethnically Chinese family in Malaysia, studied Chinese drums during high school and transitioned to West African djembe after joining the percussion ensemble her freshman year. She’s played a key support role in the ensemble, organizing performances, recruiting new members; and she’s also led the ensemble into Asian music, selecting repertoire and teaching the music. For this performance, her sister, Si Xuan Loo, who graduated from St. Lawrence College and now lives in Boston, joins the ensemble on erhu, a Chinese violin.

Also joining the Dartmouth group are student musicians from Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, MA, bringing traditional Korean samul nori percussion instruments. Student Director Eunjung (Katie) Chang was an award-winning musician in her native Korean.

The Chinese music the concert will sample dates back millennia but many of its modern forms sprang up after the Opium Wars of the mid-nineteenth century, including new genres of narrative singing and Cantonese music that fused the local traditional music with Western jazz elements. The Korean music comes from a 5,000-year-old tradition, especially the reign of King Sejong in the 15th century when the Korean alphabet was created and an advanced form of musical notation developed. The lively folk traditions of nongak farmer’s music, samul nori drumming and ritual shamanistic music go back to agricultural and religious festivities described in the Chinese annals.

The World Music Percussion Ensemble specializes in non-western drumming styles and techniques, from ancient African rhythms to rock, rap, hip-hop, Afro-pop, Salsa, Brazilian Sambas and world jazz. Shabazz is a master drummer and ethnomusicologist, percussionist, performer, and lecturer in Dartmouth’s Music Department who has toured as a professional musician throughout France, the Caribbean and North America, and has taught at the University of California at Berkeley and Duke University, and has lectured in more than 500 schools and universities.

my first attempt on writing a review

So I m working in the Marketing section of the arts center and I wrote this amateur review for the Merce cunningham show:

This was my first Merce Cunningham show, and wow it blew me away. With Cunningham’s renowned impact on avant-garde, I was almost expecting walking out with question marks. To me, the term avant-garde has always sound intimidating, sophisticated yet abstract, and it would sure be difficult for me to ‘get it’. But to my surprise, I walked out nodding and smiling by how much I can relate to the dancers who portrayed Cunningham’s vision.

Cunningham has broken down the modern contemporary steps into an easier and relatable language of life. An act where every dancer inserted a bouncy ring inside their leotards reminds me of my interaction with the ‘outside’ world -- the uncomfortable first impressions and insecurities that I have to carry inside us despite that flawless confident smile. The bouncy ring in every dancer seems to represent that insecure feeling: awkward and uncomfortable yet we have to pretend that it is never there.
The dancers from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company looked like they have taken part-time acting classes. In “Squaregame”, big fluffy tutu-looking dresses weighed heavily on the female dancers as they circled around a male dancer in the middle, who was sorting out his four-sleeves-sweater. I was amazed how a dance performance can become a witty comical show. Not only were the dancers’ demanding dance moves in sync with the playful music, together with the dancers’ expression they delivered perfect comic timing.

The “Antic Meet”, music by John Cage was my favorite piece. When two female dancers tip toed their perfect lines onto the stage, their elegance was turned completely upside down with the ‘cat fights’ they were having with each other. Each of them either purposefully blocks the other’s way or makes funny face behind the other’s back. The audience and I broke into laughter. The unexpected scene made the extreme talented and skillful artists human, because they have related their act to our everyday life and challenges. No matter what we do, there will always be somebody looking at us, thinking that we are complete idiots; therefore no act would be perfect without some healthy backstage drama! Isn’t that why people watch reality shows these days? The act continued with two men marched in circles and greeted each other with their poker face and straight defensive posture. This time, gender seems to determine how the dancers interact with each other. The culture of machismo was shown here when the two men refuse to show their emotion, possibly weaknesses to each other. The dancers have skillfully interpreted the different human behaviors and left space for some thoughtful reflection.

Though all three pieces in the show were first performed more than thirty years ago, Cunningham’s works transcend time and spaces. The extravagance of Andy Warhol’s décor combined with sharp retro color (the bright purple leotard, anyone?) still works like magic visually. Even with my little expertise in the modern contemporary dance, I could tell that Cunningham’s works will continue to impact and influence today’s younger dancers and audience.

Fear

I remember the time when I was still an active blogger, can't wait to tell the world how I feel and what I have learn.

Recently, it has all stopped. I fear people bridging my privacy, knowing too much, I fear I have invaded others' privacy for mentioning them or giving TMI about them. In the world of social media where you could just add an '@'sign in front of a person's name to make sure they are notified when you talk about them, I slowly fail to see the very purpose of mentioning.

Are the attention-seeking real? Do I really want to know what people think about me? from a mere picture, one-sentence statement, what I wrote about my life? Fear of judgment has become my biggest hurdle to write, to express myself like I used to be. My experience of living in between cultures have exposed me to the many interpretations of actions and behaviors in life. A free-spirit girl in America can be interpreted as a slut in Morocco; a submissive woman in Malaysia can be seen as lack of woman's right from the west. News reporting became a bias information feeder to the ignorant readers who blindly trust but do not question deeper.

Who are my readers anyway? Are they just family and friends? I refuse to put my blog on private because I believe that my thoughts are interesting and meaningful enough to educate a stranger. My pride told me that I can unconsciously impact a conscious reader. Discussing about my life could eventually inspire others' journey of seeking self, education and purpose in life. However, recently, I think I am muted. I have muted myself.

Oh I have lived. I have lived through the wonderful extreme ends of Moroccan culture, breathed in the dry desert wind and lush spring flowers of the country, crossing lines of black and white to understand reality of human suffering and wandering, peaked through the lives of both elites and struggling hard workers from the deep narrow streets of the old cities, and invaded the exclusive religious but unorthodox ceremonies in the dark. Can I tell? Can I really tell what I have seen, heard and smelled?

Can my stories recuperate my adventurous desire that fails to surface in this purposeful arranged routines in the summer by this prestigious and expensive institution that I pay a peanut (compared to many) to get in?

But I think I have already made my decision. My brain could not hold anymore. It wants to be freed, freed of secrets, freed from hiding. I have a lot to say, and somehow, neither my term paper, nor my facebook and twitter status are enough to contain that. Whether its my superficial self seeking for attention, or my civic self wanting to teach others about my free-spirited life, I think it is time again for me to speak up.

Stay tuned.

Eliana's blog

I tried to write, but never did, so here it is , my experience in Morocco from a 3rd person's perspective:P

http://regardshome.blogspot.com/

open ended possibilities

what are they?

I wanna do a senior project that consists of research and drumming in Cuba, stage production and documentary.

Where do I need to plan that performance, when do I want to go, what application do I need to fill , advisors, recommendation letter. What come first?

Takes months to get all the material ready. You want to realize a dream? do the job of planning and logistics.
Yeap, that's what I have been doing besides class. on top of that, I still need to find art related internship in the summer, after I come back from Morocco foreign study abroad program.

Luckily I got to talk to people who are so supportive regardless of my amateur approach to this project. From recommendation to execution to budget handling, I wish I can synthesis all my resources as soon as possible before I leave.
All rantings do not get my job done. so I have to do more writing. please hope for the best!

flights...

I have a friend who's in the soccer team , they travel almost weekly in plane to compete with other universities.
Free plane rides...whoa...

one of the benefit of having a 'good' job is also the free business trips you can get from your company.....

but after my more then 28 hours straight flights, I am not so sure I am up for plane trips anymore. Sleeping in the plane can kill time, but it makes me more tired.
With luck, you might get two seats for yourself because nobody's next to you. But if not....its just pure cramming.

Ahhhhh...two more hours till the FINAL touch down.

Welcome home, myself.