a final post, post-performance

Jason asked me to pass along the recipes from our dinner so here's the whole thing...

A PERFORMED DINNER 12.15.09

Menu

Margaritas with Sauza hornitos and gran marnier

Chips + Pico de gallo Salsa

Guacamole

Ceviche

Rice+Beans

Salmon steaks with roasted Tomatillo salsa

Flan with clementine section

Margaritas

3 cups lime juice/mixer (the fresh juice of 8 limes add mixer to complete 3 cups)

2 cups tequila

1/2 cup Gran Marnier

Mix ingredients into a pitcher and refrigerate.

Lime slices and kosher salt for serving

Add a few ice cubes to cocktail shaker and shake mixture until cold. If "with salt", pour salt onto a plate, rub glass rim with lime wedge and overturn glass onto salted plate and rotate.

Pour mixture into glasses, serve with lime slice.

Chips

Open bag. Place in a large bowl.

Salsa

Place in small bowls for chip access (retain 2 large tablespoons of salsa for rice prep)

Guacamole

3 avocados

1 large tomato

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Tobasco sauce

Cut avocados in half. Remove pit. Scoop out fruit and mash with a fork until semi-smooth. Place in mixing bowl. Finely dice tomato and add. Add about 6 small dashes of tobasco. Squeeze 1/2 lemon into bowl and stir, salt to taste.

Ceviche

1lb scallops

1/2 red onion finely chopped

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro (de-stemmed)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 jalapeno peppers (seeded and diced) NOTE: cut peppers in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scrape out seeds, dice. Be sure to minimize contact with seeds and juice. Do not touch face or eyes in this process. The juice can cause severe discomfort. Use latex gloves to protect your hands if necessary.

Marinate scallops overnight in lime juice (completely covered in a shallow bowl). Scallops should be opaque white before use.

To prepare, drain lime juice and save in a bowl.

Into a mixing bowl cut scallops into 1/2 inch pieces.

Add remaining ingredients and stir. Add reserved lime juice to taste.

Place a sprinkle of mixed greens on a salad plate. Top with ceviche.

Rice

3 cups water

1.5 cups of rice.

2 tablespoons of salsa

Bring water to a boil. Reduce heat to low (2-3). Add rice and salsa. Stir and cover. Cook until rice has absorbed the water. 15 minutes +/- watch

Beans

Open two cans of beans and rinse in a strainer. Place in bowl.

In a large skillet place a dash of olive oil (tablespoon or so) and turn heat to medium/hi (7-8). Peel and cut 2 onions lengthwise into about 1/4-1/2 inch slices. Add 1 tsp of salt and tablespoon of ground cumin. Sautee in the olive oil until translucent. Remove from heat until 10 minutes before serving.

Reheat pan, add beans and stir until hot.

Salmon steaks

Place all steaks in a shallow glass baking dish to prepare. Brush tops with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and ground pepper. Turn over steaks and repeat process. Let sit for 10-15 minutes.

Light the grille on high - all 3 burners. (turn on gas from tank, turn first burner closest to front on hi, push starter. Once the pilot starts, turn other burners up to hi. After 5 minutes, brush the grille with wire utensil to clean before cooking salmon.

Once clean, place the steaks on the grille and cook for 6 minutes per side, turning with spatula. Remove to serving platter. Cut through "girdles" with scissors at one side to be removed before serving.

Tomatillo salsa

Peel and rinse 1lb of tomatillos until they are no longer sticky. Slice in half lengthwise and place cut side down on baking sheet.

Peel and quarter 2 larger onions and place on baking sheet.

Crack and peel 8 large cloves of garlic, removing the rough end. Place on baking sheet.

Turn broiler on to 500 degrees.

Roast until tomatillos start to blacken/brown

Meanwhile de-stem and chop 1/2 cup of cilantro.

Juice of one lime.

1/2 tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp oregano.

Place all ingredients in a blender. Mix until smooth.

Flan

Serve on white plates with one section of Clementine placed on top of each.

“Untitled (forever)”

Without declaring a discrete beginning to my performance, I began by placing a box of supplies and a change of clothes next the window. I changed from my ‘regular’ clothes into a short black dress, opaque black tights and black high heels. I sat on the ground and began unpacking my materials, laying them out in front of me very methodically. Included was a set of sewing needles, sewing thread, scissors, matches, a washcloth, a bottle of water, a pencil, tape and some black india ink. I began lashing a sewing needle the pencil using the thread, wrapping it very tight and securing it with a piece of string. I lit a match and briefly held the needle in the flame. Next, I opened up the india ink and the bottle of water. I poured a little bit of ink in the cap, and dampened the washcloth slightly.

I pulled up a section of my tights just above my left knee and cut a hole about two inches wide. I dipped the pencil in the ink, and began sticking the needle into my skin. Each poke created a tiny dot which I ordered into the shape of the infinity sign. I had to go over this shape probably six or seven times to create a solid line, wiping off excess ink with the damp washcloth in after each iteration. When I was satisfied with my work, I packed my equipment back up, and changed back into my regular clothes and took a seat.

Though there was no specific narrative to the ‘story’ I chose to perform, it followed a definite course of rising and falling action, a character, setting and transformation. However, though I made myself into a ‘different person’ for the duration of the piece, the actions I performed resulted in a permanent change to my own body.

“Sleepover/dark arts”

Before our class began, I set up a table in the middle of the room with blue sheets hanging off of the edges. On the table were some candles, incense, pine needles and pine cones and a spilled glass of water. Some drops of blood were in this glass of water and lots of the items were also spilled on the floor. My friend Katie and I wore yellow nightgowns and laid under the table, partly obscured by the blue sheets. We both had slightly bloody noses. We laid under the table asleep for five minutes after the class begun until an alarm went off. We woke each other up, got out from under the table and cleaned the blood off of each other’s noses and began cleaning up the table and spilled water.

The structure of this performance stresses the aftermath over the action. Only evidence of what may have happened was observed, and the resolution is all that the audience witnesses. It is ambiguous whether Katie and I participated in some kind of illicit, violent, supernatural or sexual activity during the night.

“The other half of the day”

I began recording my dreams every night in detail. I determined before class how many dreams I was going to recount, and randomly determined what times I would tell them over the course of class. I did this first during Devin’s reading performance and also the two following classes. While I retold the dreams to the best of my ability, I performed some kind of very slow physical movement with my eyes closed. Sometimes these movements corresponded in some way with what I was describing and sometimes they were more related to the difficulty and cloudiness associated with trying to remember dreams. I tried to get other classmates to participate as well and Corinne retold a few dreams during one class. I stopped when I stopped being able to remember my dreams very well.

I did this both as a performance and also as a personal exercise in organizing my night time thoughts. It became frustrating to me at some point that the experiences I was having in my dreams every night were not valuable during waking life. Performing these dreams to the class became a way to balance the worthlessness of nighttime. I was truly amazed by the frequency of certain topics; Providence, finding drugs on the ground and a boy I barely know from Providence came up almost every other night. It was almost indulgent to talk about these sorts things so much, and I realized that maybe I would like to pursue these topics in following performances. I had never done anything so directly personal in my creative work before, and figured that now was a good time to test the waters.

“Is it you, or me looking at you,”

I set up two chairs facing each other next to a table on which I laid out lipstick, eyeliner, eye shadow and mascara. I sat Devin in one chair, and sat in the other, and leaned in very close to his face and began applying make up and fixing my hair as though I was looking into a mirror. I started whispering/soft speaking statements to Devin, which he would repeat back to me in a normal speaking voice. The content of these statements progressed from questioning the properties of the ‘mirror’ I was looking at to reflections on the differences between two males that I had recently been attracted to. These statements often brought up issues of identity and communication, specifically the question of self and the line between someone else, and the ideas that we project onto them.

“Heavy research”

I laid out a large piece of plastic on the floor and secured it to the ground, and asked for a volunteer from out class. Corinne decided she would do it, and I instructed her to choose some position on the plastic, whatever felt most comfortable for her. I told her that I was going to ask some questions in a very methodical manner, and began with simple questions about her background and progressed to more personal questions, and sometimes questions about myself. I recorded her responses on the piece of plastic and made associations between her spoken words and physical movements as though I was trying to develop some kind of precise way to measure all of her behaviors. I often drew connections between things she said that were entirely illogical, making associations between unrelated statements based on physical movements or ideas I developed independently.

Whereas the previous performance explored the balance between two way communication and self-projection, “Heavy research” is very focused on the very one way examination that is sometimes performed on subjects of interest. In cases of infatuation, the tiniest physical movements become matters of great importance as they relate to body language. Whatever communication that occurs is recalled again and again in the mind of the observer, often drawing many connections between information in an effort to understand more about the subject. This reconstruction of the subject becomes more present in the mind of the observer than the subject itself, bringing back the original question asked in “Is it you, or me looking at you.”

rumrill's recap

Performance I
For this performance I led the group, referred to as
my "children", on a quest to the school library.  Throughout
the performance I spoke only in rhyme, and requested a chant
to be repeated after each couplet.  We went through the art
school, outside, and through the doors of the library, where
my character went off to live.  Part of the piece involved
trying to get "outsiders" to join the journey, however most
bystanders did not care to.  This piece was made in an
effort to tell a story, but have the members of the class be
a part of the story being told.

Performance II
This performance began with me distributing typewritten
notes to everyone in attendance.  These notes supplied them
with a username and password, and invited them to use a
facebook page under my name. This page would be seen by
everyone I know.  The participants were allowed to do
whatever they'd like so long as they did not get the page
banned.  This would include sending messages, use of the
"chat" function with any friends of mine, and changing any
personal information of Robert J. Rumrill.  Notes were also
given to certain friends, and some strangers.  At the start
of the next class, I changed the password and username back,
signifying the end of the piece.

Performance III
This performance, a written out sequence of questions, was
made in an effort to create something that, if performed in
such a way, could go on forever.  The performance began with
me asking questions to the audience, such as "Is it alright
if I begin?" all questions were either directed to the
audience, or to specific people within the audience.  At one
point the score called for me to ask "Could you take over
for me from the beginning?" and to give an audience member a
copy of the score, all the while continuing doing "my part".
The audience member would then start the sequence again,
eventually giving a copy to someone else, etc.  Creating and
endless tide of questions, as long as everyone is game to
continue.  This particular performance ended when everyone
asked Corinne, who was in the process of performing a silent
piece, to take over for them.

Performance IV
This performance began with me leaving the room with both
female members of the class.  They carried a bag and led me
to the women's room.  I then asked them to get chairs for me
and themselves, and waited there for them to return.  When
they did, I removed a tub of rocky road ice cream from the
bag, and proceeded to eat it in front of the mirror.
Through this, I made idle chatter regarding my love of ice
cream, and how excited I was to be eating sch a large
amount.  At a certain point, I asked one member to leave,
and send another person in their place. Another member of
the class came in, and I continued to eat ice cream, and
voice my thoughts.  This sequence happened until there was
no one else to send.  Each successive person got more and
more complaints about what a chore it was to eat such a
large amount of ice cream. I finished the rest of the tub,
with the last person in attendance, debated with them
whether to throw up or not, sent them back, cleaned up my
mess, and returned to the class full of ice cream.

Performance V
This was done in collaboration with Devin. For this piece we
decided to set up on opposite sides of the room with amps
and guitars. In addition to those audience members already
present in the room, we gathered as many people as possible
and brought them into the performance space. When the
performance began we asked everyone to leave the room with
the exception of one person who, prior to the performance,
was asked to stay and be seated in the middle of the room.
Once everyone else left the room Devin and I turned on our
amps and struck an open chord at the same time, and let it
ring. After doing this, I sustained very loud feedback,
while Devin did a slide guitar solo, reminiscent of standard
rock or blues.  When Devin finished his solo, he indicated
to me that he was done (through raising his guitar), and I
did a similar slide guitar solo, while Devin supplied
feedback. Once I finished my solo, Devin and I struck open
chords, similar to the beginning of the piece, and played a
final guitar flourish together.  Once we were finished, we
turned our amplifiers of and the audience member clapped
quietly and politely.

Haircut

Haircut

This performance occurred in room 412 of the Fuller Music Building at the University of Hartford at 5:00 AM on December 18th, 2009. The location, set-up, and performance rituals were based around those commonly employed in concert music. The audience was seated in front of a stage, the performers entered and exited to applause, and bowed before and after the performance.
The performance itself consisted of me cutting approximately 18 inches from the bottom of Daniel Mumbauer's hair with kitchen scissors. The entire event lasted about 10 minutes. The dullness of the scissors and my lack of knowledge of haircutting technique made the process long and somewhat painful - I was constantly pulling his hair to create tension, and by the end my hands had seized up from squeezing the scissors.
Daniel agreed to the haircut under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. Though he has talked about cutting his hair before, he has never made the decision to go through with it, and would unlikely have done so if sober. The decision to cut his hair in this way is in direct contrast to the standard model for a haircut, which usually includes a location equipped to cut hair, a trained hairdresser, no audience, and a person who fully wants his hair to be cut. In this case we were also present in a building that was closed, and in a room that we entered without permission.

seth's recap

Adult story time - this piece was in response to "tell a
story". For this piece the class and I sat down at a table
like you would have done in elementary school, and I read a
more violent/adult version of the famous story of the three
little pigs.


Dirty vs Clean - For this piece I walked into class wearing
a shirt, tie, and black slacks. Before class started I had
put a plastic tarp in the center of the room with 6 chairs
in front for the audience to sit. I then started to walk in
circles on the tarp while squeezing  different bottles and
colors of soap on the tarp. I had decided to include the
class in this performance so while I was walking around in
circles I would sporadically pull people from their seats to
help me squeeze the bottles. I also included the audience by
GENTLY tossing bars of soap at them. after everyone helped
me with the soap I continued to do roll around and do
various body poses in the soap. The point of this piece was
that even things that are made to keep you clean can make
you dirty as well.

Ritual Piece - The idea for this piece came to me shortly
after rereading the ritual chapter of our textbook. I knew I
wanted to do something that involved the act of everyday
ritual, so I acted out the three things I do every day which
are eat, drink, and wash. i showed this by sitting a table
by myself in the front of the room, I had a protein bar, a
bottle of water, and hand sanitizer. I continuously did all
three things in a row for about 20 minutes until the protein
bar was done.

Blindfold Drawing - I blindfolded the class and walked each
person to crammed uncomfortable area where I had placed a
very large foam board. I put a different color marker in
every one's hand and then continued to play three totally
different instrumental songs which lasted 18 minutes and
told the class to draw what they felt. While they were
drawing I would move them around the space and change their
markers so no one but me would know who was where and who
drew what. At the end we were left with this enormous board
covered in scribbles, shapes, patterns, and words.

OK, NOT OK - This piece symbolizes the internal battles we
all must face on a daily basis. I sat the class down in a
circle facing outwards and started to walk around the
circle, the first time around i would look the person right
in the eyes and with a smile on my face say "everything's
going to be ok". After my third time around I started to say
"everything is not going to be ok" and my smile changed to a
more serious/stern look. After walking around saying that
three times I walked into the corner to a body outline and
laid there for 2 minutes which symbolized that for me on
this particular day everything was not ok. This piece was in
dedication to a friend of mine who had recently committed
suicide.

PERFORMANCE PIECES

Manipulation II

In the early morning hours October 15th, 2009, I placed five 11"x17" hand-written signs in high-traffic locations of the University of Hartford campus. Each sign gave a single instruction: "Look Up", "Look Down", "Look Left", "Look Over There" (with an arrow), and "Look Behind You." 

This piece is intended as a follow-up to my previous performance using index cards with instructions to manipulate an audience, in effect making the audience perform and the performer an observer of the results. In this piece, I did not observe the results of my actions, leaving to chance that someone will view the sign and follow the instructions presented. Placing the signs in areas of high foot traffic, making them large and prominent, and keeping the instructions simple but unusual (for a sign) were methods employed to increase the odds of someone following the instruction.

Assuming that a person noticed the sign then followed the instructions, it can be said that my actions the night before in some way manipulated that person into doing my bidding. Even if no one followed the instructions posted, I can state my intent as merely wanting people to take notice of the sign in some way, and then with a high amount of certainty can consider the piece a success (barring wind or some other force removing all the signs and depositing each of them in a place where they will never be encountered again).

Poker

This piece was in response to an assignment to "tell a story." In order to do so, I took on some of the "classic" persona of a poker player, and presented to the audience a single hand of poker.  The audience members were seated as individual players, told the game was texas hold 'em, given stacks of poker chips, and dealt cards by myself, who played the dealer. In this way there were two levels of involvement - myself as storyteller with an audience, and myself as a poker dealer with players (enhanced by the fact that the members at this point likely believed that they were actually going to play the game).

After encouraging each person to look at their cards, I then began narrating the game, describing each player's action and placing their bets or folded cards into the middle. I then dealt the community cards and narrated each round of betting. In addition to giving the plays, I began analyzing the actions from the perspective of the other players, describing what each person may hold or may be thinking. In this way I was inhabiting three roles - the dealer, who described the play ("action to you", "3000 chips in the pot"), the storyteller ("you raise to a total of 500" "you decide to fold"), and the minds of the players  ("if he did have an overpair, you probably have him beat"). The audience is now just that - observers with no real influence on the action, despite what may have been suggested at the beginning.

The hand came to showdown, and I then described the actual intent behind the actions of each player, comparing that to what I gave as an analysis. The performance lasted about 15 minutes.

Light and Sound

For this piece I placed myself in between a speaker attached to a laptop producing high-frequency attenuated white noise and a light attached to an automatic dimmer at the "off" setting. For exactly 60 minutes the light linearly increased to its maximum setting while the sound linearly decreased to zero. I was positioned in a cross-legged posture, with the light to my left and the speaker and one wall of the room to my right. As the light increased my silhouette formed on the wall.

The very start of the piece included two elements - the sound and myself. When the piece began the light entered as a third element, slowly trading places with the sound. The end of the piece saw the sound disappear, with the silhouette created by the light taking its place. 

Manipulation I

In this piece I wrote a number of actions on a large set of index cards, separated them into individual piles, and placed them on a table with instructions for each person to pick up a stack and perform the actions written. The class decided to following my directions, and began to perform.

The actions themselves were meant to be comical - examples include "do 30 jumping jacks" and "shout someone's name to get their attention." Events were loosely timed as to create interesting interactions, but mixed up cards and actions performed out of order prevented these from happening, creating some interesting, though unplanned, situations. Each deck also included certain actions of varying levels of extremity, some which were tame enough to be performed ("bite someone's toe"), but many that were skipped.

The inspiration for this performance was literature on various psychological tests done in the 20th century on the tendency of people to obey authority figures. I used my roles as member of the class and "performer" of the day to convince the class to follow my instructions. In other settings it would be unlikely that anyone would do what was presented, or at least to the degree in which the class participated. As noted before, though, not every action was performed - the class's drive to create a good performance and participate for my piece's sake had limits. This did not cause a stop to the performance, though - people merely skipped the cards and continued onto the next one, actively adapting the piece to meet their own standards. 

a piece for the group

A PERFORMED DINNER 12.15.09

MENU


Margaritas with Sauza Hornitos and Gran Marnier

Chips + Pico de Gallo Salsa

Guacamole

Ceviche

Rice+Beans

Salmon Steaks with Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Flan with Clementine section