Switcheroo Personal Response

Katie Gouch

The American Life- Switcheroo Personal Response

                After listening to the announcer’s experience with “Cindy Sherman” at the exhibition and the story “Suddenly a Knock at a Door” I am questioning my ability to impersonate someone.  It may be my oversized conscience or my very truthful upbringing, but I do not think that I could ever pretend to be someone else.  The man Miran in the story seemed like such a complex character because when he was being himself he was a loner and was shy.  If he wanted to be himself I’m sure that he could have found another person eating alone and could have made a new acquaintance but he chose not to do that.  Instead he waited for people to mistake him for someone else and then talked to them.  But he was so outgoing and such a fast thinker when he talked to the strangers.  Maybe pretending to be someone else was liberating?  I mean, if you do not know the person and you are not going to see them again, then you have nothing to be afraid of, you can be whoever you desire.  I guess I can relate to this when I go on vacation.  On vacation I’m not afraid to dance to the music or to be loud or to meet people because I know that I am not going to see them ever again.  On one vacation I went on I met like 10 new friends because I put myself out there and was not self-conscious.  Looking back, that was one of the best vacations I have ever had.  In all, I think that the Cindy Sherman imposter probably got an adrenaline rush from pretending to be a new identity, similar to how Miran felt alive when he acted like a different person.

Janine Antoni Video Personal Response

Katie Gouch

Janine Antoni Video Personal Response

            This video was very inspiring to watch.  Antoni’s work is full of expression and deep thought.  I think that it is amazing how her ideas develop so naturally.  For example, from just visiting the dairy farm she developed this metaphorical idea of the cow drinking from her because she has drank from it for her whole life.  I think that is very smart that Antoni develops her idea fully before creating the piece.   For example, the hemp tight rope that she is creating at the end of the video; Antoni says that she does not know what the sculpture will look like, but she knows that it will be about falling. 

            Because Antoni does so much performance art in her work I think that her having the idea fully understood before she starts making it is very important.  In this way, her technique and material choices will reflect her feelings and expressions when she makes the piece.  I have the habit of developing the idea during and after I make the art, and I think that Antoni’s work is more successful than that method because she is fully informed in her idea from the beginning to the end. 

            My favorite piece that was shown in the video was the cow/human rawhide mold.  Formally, I enjoyed how you could see the human feet and head, but the heavy folds of the hide and the cow tail secured the identity to be a cow instead of a human.  Also, I think the statement she was making about her and the cow both being absent in the piece was very strong, and it relates perfectly to her first photograph of the cow and her. 

            I also admire how Antoni follows her ideas and keeps exploring from one thought to another.  For example how the Eureka sculpture flowed into the soap and chocolate busts because they centered on the material of lard.  This can also be seen with how the fabric rope inspired the tight roping video and then the in progress hemp sculpture. 

            In the future I would like to learn more about Antoni and I would like to read more of her artist statements to better understand her process.

"Touch" Personal Response

Katie Gouch

“Touch” Personal Response

Speaking of Touch and First Touches

                These two chapters seem very closely related to me.  The chapter, “First Touches”, made a lot of sense to me because I was two months premature, and stayed in the hospital in an incubator for almost the whole two months until I was allowed to be brought home.  Nurses and my parents (when permitted) were always touching us.  I don’t know if it was for the scientific purposes like this chapter explores or not, but it was important to my parents to have contact with us.  I remember that my sister and I were so small that my dad could literally hold us both just in the palms of his hands.

                What I wondered after reading these two chapters was: Is there a connection between physical and emotional development when touch is involved?  The chapter made it very clear that when a baby experienced a lot of physical touch, stroking, and comforting, when it was an infant, the child gained more weight, developed its cognitive abilities more rapidly, and was able to sooth itself more in the future.  So, what would happen if a small child was exposed to the metaphysical sense of touch more, as mentioned in the chapter “Speaking of Touch”;  Would the child have increased emotional development and be perhaps more empathetic in life or have better social skills?  If the child was presented with “touching” pictures, stories, videos etc., that evoked emotion, would the child have increased emotional development similar to the physical growth as a response to touch?  I personally think that the child would mature and grow emotionally, but I think that it would be an interesting connection for science to test.

The Skin Has Eyes

                My favorite phrase in this chapter is “A mirror would mean nothing without touch.”  We are visual beings and see the world, but it is our physical knowledge of touch that connects the meanings of the things that we see.  I can look at myself in the mirror and see my nose, but unless I have ever experienced touch I would not know how the contours of my nose relate to the cartilage or bone and how it slopes into the nearby cheek bones.  I can definitely imagine this chapters connection to the project ‘paper stacking’ because we need to look at an object and replicate its contour form in our sculpture, and that is only possible through touching the 3D world.

The Hand

                I thought that it was really interesting that we make the lines in our hands through our experiences.  Now it makes a lot of sense that palm reading exists because the reader is trying to decode the experiences that have made the lines how they are presently.  However, the error in palm reading is that it can only tell the past, because with every movement of our hands we are changing our lines based on our experiences.

Inventory/ The Tokens Personal Response

Katie Gouch

Personal Response to Inventory/ The Tokens

                The history of the “Great Reception” makes me question why the mothers took the time to put tokens with their children.  The mothers were knowledgeably giving their children up to a life where two thirds of them statistically would die and the other third would become civil servants, either with the army or as domestics.  I understand that these women probably did not have the resources to raise an infant; however I do not understand how a woman could live with herself after she put her child in a lottery in order to give it away, or just cruelly wrapped the baby in a blanket and left it at the hospital steps.  If the mother is so decisive in throwing the child away, then would she really want the child to be able to look at a token and be reminded of the mother that abandoned him?  Specifically the token that said “He who neglects me loses me”, is particularly heart breaking.  It seems to me that the mother is acknowledging the fact that she is neglecting her child and has no remorse about it.  But that poses the question, why would the mothers take the time to make an opposite token that would match the infant’s if ever reunited?  The mothers are treating their children like leftovers in the fridge; where you will probably end up just throwing it away but you better save it just in case you change your mind.

"The Metamorphosis" Personal Response

The Metamorphosis by Kafka

Vocabulary and Personal Response

 

Vocabulary:

·         Amelioration: The act of improving something or making something healed/better.

·         Draught: The act or process of drawing air.

·         Admonitions: Counsel, advice, or caution.

·         Entreaty: Earnest request or petition.

 

Personal response:

 

            Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is a depressing story about a young man who turns into an insect and consequently puts strain on his family until he dies.  While reading this story the mental image I create of Gregor is a human-sized cockroach.  I imagine that the only human body part that Gregor has left is his head that is being enveloped by the cockroach’s shell and fangs.  Cockroaches are normally seen by society as disgusting insects.  They are widely disliked and are usually thought to be nuisances or in extreme cases, vermin. 

I believe that the metamorphosis that Gregor experienced was an outside interpretation of how he felt toward his job.  Gregor gravely disliked his job.  He also hated the management and how they treated their employees as small and replaceable.  As a result, I think that Gregor’s body morphed into something that is disliked in order to represent his inner hate for his job.  Furthermore, in the story Gregor quotes, “Were all the employees then collectively, one and all, scoundrels?”  This reminds me of how people treat cockroaches or insects around the house; they are seen as all being bad without any individual thought toward the insect.

This idea of being disliked, or being a vermin is repeated throughout the story.  Initially after the change, Gregor’s father uses a cane and a newspaper to push Gregor back into his bedroom.  The father immediately loses any humanity toward his son and instead treats him as a monster.  Further into the story, the family experiences hardships due to not having Gregor as the family breadwinner.  This further exaggerates how the family is affected by having such a nuisance in the house. 

One thing that I found really ironic in the story is that when Gregor was human, it became normal for him to support the family financially and overtime his parents became less appreciative of his role while his sister was always grateful and supportive.  Then when he turned into an insect his sister is the person who abandons him when she gets a job and then finally suggests that the family gets rid of Gregor!  I think that the development of the sister’s attitudes throughout the story radically changes and that is reflected in the end of the story when her parents see her as a young woman.

I enjoyed this story a lot, but I wish that Kafka explained more how and why Gregor died.  I believe that Gregor died because his human mind was holding on to his sister’s love for sustenance and as soon as she stopped caring and finally wished that Gregor was gone, then he died because he had nothing to live for.