Body as XYZ:
Mind Workout
Body as XYZ

‍During the quarantine, workout videos have surged in popularity. And while we are all getting in physical shape at home, what about maintaining the muscle memory of our creative and conceptual skills?

For this assignment, I’d like to switch roles with you, instead of me teaching you how to do things, I’d like you to take on a role of instructor and create a tutorial on how to work out your creative mind and keep your creative skills in shape during isolation.

I would like you to think explicitly about the ways you could train your imagination. What you submit at the end of the workshop will be this instructional tutorial. The instruction can be any format. You are encouraged to use body language as the central axis/camera to explore different aspects of dimensionality.

How do you advance and train your way of thinking? How many ways you can think differently about the same subject? How can you make your own unique sense of how something works if you don’t understand it? Think of the toolset. Are there any tools in your house to provoke the thinking process?
Write them down for yourself and think about what a mind workout could look like.



Homework:
‍
• Watch Claire Bishop, Is Everyone a Performer?‍
• Prepare your thoughts and questions.
• Film your tutorial (1st test)
• Write down the instructions or a scenario based on your tutorial explaining the idea behind the exercises.
• Upload your video to Google Drive by 12 pm on next Wednesday night.

References:
‍
• Performing-User by Lauren Mccarthy
• Do it, by Hans Ulrich Obrist
• Hito Steyerl, How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational.MOV File, 2013
• The Rodina
• USELESS machines by Marina Fujiwara
• Hand movie
• A D.I.Y. Dance for Your Home, From Yvonne Rainer
• Interaction workshop
• Video archive

Students' work and writing

Juriel Furukawa
2020
I want to create an exercise that allows for nostalgia, new perspective, introspection, connection in one's own living space

1)   Lay in several different places (at least 4) in your room/house that are
            a) Familiar to you
            b) Unfamiliar to you

2)   Set up a camera and record yourself from (Above)

3)   As you lay in these different places record your thoughts (audio or writing)
: for example
           a) How do you feel in space
           b) Have you occupied this space before?
           c) What do you see?
           d) What do you notice?

4)   After you’ve visited these spaces
           a) Take videos of new things that you’ve noticed from (below)

5)   Combine these videos in an edit
           a) What thoughts do these visuals inspire?
           b) How can you transcribe these visuals into a different form?
           c) Use either the visuals or recorded observations to create your project
mind workout tutorial
by Natasha Tolia
Being in isolation has made me develop some very simple habits to stay semi-functional. When I’m stuck in one space all day I tend to start thinking obsessively about my responsibilities that exist while I’m in that space, and since everything happens online it feels difficult to get away from and it overwhelms me easily. Some of the things I’ve noticed myself doing are ironically to help get my mind away from work so I feel like I have the headspace to make work, whereas if I’m just sitting in one place thinking about it all day I get overwhelmed and stop doing anything
Tutorial
A routine to help me you stay sane creative during isolation

1. Wake up. being awake is necessary to make something even though your brain won’t want to. try squeezing your eyes open and shut a lot if you’re struggling.

2. Open the window and bask in the sunlight in your room.

3. Try doodling once a day, even if just in your head.

4. When you feel like giving up, try going for a walk to remember there’s still stuff out there besides your unfinished work and how tired you are.

Mental Workout
by Jacquelyn Wu

With so many things going on these days, it’s common to be overwhelmed. Our minds are plagued by running thoughts as we try to find a new balance in our lives during social distancing. Instead of allowing our stream of consciousness to overflow during highly stressful times like this, it might be beneficial to focus on and distinguish on one specific conscience.

The workshop:

Find a mental state, consciousness, or feeling that you noticed is constantly occurring multiple times throughout your day. For example, it can be tiredness, relaxation, or a thought such as “did I leave the stove on?” After deciding one that state, find different ways that you can perform it. You can choose to present these variations with either an humorous, analytical, or even scientifically/psychologically informing approach. Hopefully, this practice will be therapeutic to you, or it will allow some type of catharsis.

Some info about states of consciousness.

Embarrassingly for me, my common state of mind these days is just zoning out (or the fancier term: dissociation):
1. Normal Blank Stare
2. The Soul-less
3. The Deer in the Headlights
4. The Sleepyhead
5. The meditator
6. Is that 20 seconds? (Handwashing)
7. The Virtual Blank-out
8. The nodder
9. Something’s up there.
10. The contortionist
11. The Joker
12. Paranoid
13. Monologue
14. Snacking
15. The glare
16. Yoga guru
17. No-face
18. The cannonball
19. The Rocking-Chair
20. The con-artist

Inspired by Kevin Parry’s series of XX number of ways to do things.
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