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Project

Project Name:MSJ 11214 Convergence Communication 1

Topic: Performance Art Obstacle of being

Project Date: Summer 2018

Project Description: The theme of our group work was Obstacles of Being. We choose this according to our Curriculum Integration theme, the Social Norms Theory. In this case being represent the normal human, who can choose to do whatever he or she wants and on the other hand obstacles are those things that blocks the way to do so. Social norms are the kind of things what inhibit our spirit to doing some good works as it is unusual to them. We choose this theme to show how our daily life is obstacle by the social norms such as politics, taboo, fear, depression and so on.

Project Justification: We did a performance art as a group work. I think it was the best way to express our message according to our project theme, Obstacles of Being. We shared our thought with the course coordinator to improvise our work. Our instructor suggested us to do a performance art as it goes with our theme perfectly. In the act we wanted to show how every human is facing the obstacle in their daily life. All of our group member played a role in the act. One of us played the role of the character of a being and six others played the obstacles such as local politics, schooling system, superstition, conservativeness, and dogmatism. The last member played the role of the society where we tried to present how society is observing every of the norms but still ignoring them rather than helping the victim.

The Curriculum Integration theme of University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh’ (ULAB) summer 2019 semester was the Social Norms Theory. In my opinion, this theory aims to understand the environment and interpersonal influences in order to change behavior, which can be more effective than a focus on the individual to change behavior. Social norms can be both positive and negative. Social norms theory posits that individual behavior is influenced by oftentimes incorrect perceptions of how other members of our social groups think act. These misperceptions extend to a broad array of attitudes and behaviors, including alcohol and drug use, risky sexual behavior, sexual assault, homophobia, depression, body shaming and prejudices.

The theme of our group work was Obstacles of Being. We choose this according to our Curriculum Integration theme, the Social Norms Theory. In this case being represent the normal human, who can choose to do whatever he or she wants and on the other hand obstacles are those things that blocks the way to do so. Social norms are the kind of things what inhibit our spirit to doing some good works as it is unusual to them. We choose this theme to show how our daily life is obstacle by the social norms such as politics, taboo, fear, depression and so on.

We did a performance art as a group work. I think it was the best way to express our message according to our project theme, Obstacles of Being. We shared our thought with the course coordinator to improvise our work. Our instructor suggested us to do a performance art as it goes with our theme perfectly. In the act we wanted to show how every human is facing the obstacle in their daily life. All of our group member played a role in the act. One of us played the role of the character of a being and six others played the obstacles such as local politics, schooling system, superstition, conservativeness, dogmatism. The last member played the role of the society where we tried to present how society is observing every of the norms but still ignoring them rather than helping the victim. In our act we placed the being in the center where he or she were surrounded by the obstacles. Later on, one by one every obstacle came to the being to show how a being is not on his or her own to do whatever they will to do. As an example, we tied the hands of the being with chains to show the primary restriction of a human being then wiped the lipstick from being’s lip to show that she or he is not allowed to do whatever she or he wants and finally we tied the legs with chain and put a black mask on face to cover it which symbolized he or she is completely restricted with all the norms now.

Once we finalized the concept of our theme, we introduced each of the characters to our group members which we played later. We organized and planned out each of the act before performing in the exhibition. We made the list of the materials which we used during the performance. We made the budget to measure the whole project cost. In the act we used red t-shirts which symbolized the obstacle we also used locks and chains to tie hands and legs of the being. To cover the face, we used a black mask and we also used placards, paper boards, make up box as our materials. We had to arrange rehearsal for the act as we were doing a performance art. So, we selected a room as per our need for the rehearsal. We had to make few changes throw the rehearsal like, before there was no black mask in the layout which we added later. We improvise some of the things with the help of our coordinator like tie up the hand and legs of the being. It was tough to maintain time with the class ongoing but this helped us a lot to understand the concept which helped us on the final act. All of our group member was so supportive and so was our instructor.

We exhibited our performance at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on September 07, 2019. The gallery was suitable for our performance. We performed our act in the middle of the gallery. The main light was focused to our central character. There were audiences from different cultures such as students, guardians, teachers, activists, thespian as Tropa Majumder was the chief guest of the program. If we get chance, we will definitely act our performance on street to express our message towards different cultures of people.

I tried to interview the audiences from different backgrounds to get to know their opinions as there were various types of people such as teacher, student, guardian and mass people. I choose them because each of them had different moral views and their perception of understanding was so different from each other. My first question was to them if they can relate with these obstacles in their life. Surprisingly every one of them has faced these obstacles in their life and stated me “We are facing this similar kind of problem in our life everyday and trying to solve it our own way” and then they thanked us to pick such a topic to talk about. In other question I asked them did they get the message properly through our act. Most of the answer was “We understand what you tried to present but the ending of the act could be clearer as you finished the performance too quickly. As a result, it might be hard for some of the audience to get the message properly.

The realization that I have received from our performance is as it was our first-time experience in such a platform and in front of different types of audience, we were bit nervous and ended our performance quickly. Though some of the audiences whom I interviewed acquaint that they got our message because of the placards and the props we choose to use on our act helped the audiences to understand the real message of our theme. If we get the chance to do this performance again, we will be able to make it more understandable and communicative to the audiences.

In conclusion, for me the whole project was a great experience and it was a good opportunity to part of a a good team who helped me through the whole process as it was my first time to do this kind of work. This program helped me to develop my communication skill and to create new way to communicate. It helped me to take new challenges and I learned how to face the obstacles and how easy to solve them if we can keep patience. I appreciate the initiative of ULAB to introduce us the theory to organize curriculum integration program in every semester along with a new theory.

Learning and Outcome (Self-Reflection)

I have gained a thorough understanding of a variety of art genres, such as performance art and installation art. By experimenting with new methods and concepts, I have also improved my creative abilities and am now better able to express myself through a variety of media. In addition, studying numerous art forms has given me invaluable intellectual insight that has improved my appreciation of and comprehension of the complexity of art in all of its forms. Overall, my education has deepened my grasp of the arts and given me useful knowledge and expertise that I can use in many other facets of my life.