FINAL TERM ATTACK by Keri G. '10

On Monday, I managed to trip and fall down half a flight of stairs while running down to the Senior Haus lobby to pick up the Indian food I ordered. Three hours later, I tripped over my own shoes and fell up a flight of stairs in the Haus when I ran to look at the Rocko’s Modern Life-inspired mural of a sad crying clown in an iron lung. Oh, and I was singing songs from the show on my way upstairs before I fell flat on my face.

Let me remind you that I am getting a degree in June.

It is my final term here, I finished nearly all of my course requirements over a year ago, and there is one lab class standing between me and an S.B. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT. I can see the light. I CAN SEE IT. IT IS SO SO CLOSE.

Of course, my classes are impossible this term and I haven’t slept in a while.

Case in point: I am working on the following assignment due tomorrow in 21M.840:

Create a text for a 3-5 minute performance. This text must be composed of no less than five different source materials. No single source may comprise more than 20% of the whole. Try to assemble your “text” from a combination of media–prose / dialogue / recorded conversation / poetry / sounds / still images / transcript / moving images / television / etc.

Your piece must include the following:
-5 entrances and exits
-2 extended close-ups¬†(at least one so close, we aren’t sure what we’re looking at)
-1 example of partial view (only part of the performer is visible, other parts available by technology: mic, camera, monitor, etc.) (partially seen, partially screened)
– at least 1 moment eating, drinking, or both
-1 example of gravity
-1 example of lack of gravity
-1 short dance number
-1 radical change in shape, silhouette, or something like that (costume, something more abstract, take your pick)

Clearly, Rocko’s Modern Life is the first thing that should come to mind when I have to develop experimental performance art pieces. It’s the king of all weird cartoons.

Captain Compost Heap approves.