^Our performance was on September 24th in the Recital Hall of the West Wing!
My Reflection: The Mirror (Group E)
Reflection on our Preparation Process leading up to the Performance
The title of our performance was “The Mirror.” In the preparation stages of our performance, and in deciding what we wanted to do for our artifact, we read each other’s stories (that we wrote for Part Two of the Group Research Project). After reading each other’s stories and lots of discussion we decided to base our artifact off of the story I wrote.
Here is what I wrote for Part Two of this project– my paragraph describes an idea I came up with for an artifact for Short Story #2 which was ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ by Ursula K. Le Guin.
“The imaginary interactive artifact I would create for the short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, would be an interactive two-sided ‘mirror’ art piece that would be placed in the middle of the city of Omelas. I think the city is described as one that is quite happy on the surface, but a city that has a dark secret that lies underground– a child who suffers at the expense of everyone’s (citizens of Omelas) happiness. I think placing this ‘interactive mirror’ in the city, would be more-so a surprising exhibition that would shock townspeople as the child’s suffering is one that is known to all people but not spoken of. The guilt of this moral dilemma consumes certain people in the town and leads them to disappear and walk away to an unknown place– however, the installation of this ‘mirror’ could help create dialogue and open-reflection amongst the townspeople and help them confront the ethical problem that is directly tied to the child’s suffering. To describe this ‘mirror’ in further detail, I think it is an artifact that on one side will show the city as it is normally (happy on the surface, while everyone being ignorant of the child’s misery), and on the other side a visual of the amount of pain the child suffers on a day to day basis. The artifact encourages some sort of introspection for the citizens and I believe would be something that could wake the citizens up in confronting the moral dilemma the town faces. Despite me saying before, how this ‘mirror’ can perhaps prompt conversation and dialogue between the townspeople as the subject is like the ‘elephant in the room’– a potential problem that may be caused by the controversial exhibition and interactive artifact could be an overwhelming sense of guilt that may be felt by the citizens when seeing and interacting with the piece. As the child lives underground –under the city– the citizens may not know or have ever visualized how bad the conditions are for this one child– this artifact, thus, I feel, has the risk to make more people want to walk off into the unknown land. I think that there are many artifacts, and in-fact, art exhibitions that act similarly to this interactive artifact for the town of Omelas. The article I have linked below from Goodness Exchange, shows an exhibition of an NYU Associate Arts Professor and Israeli-American artist’s work (that of Daniel Rozin). He creates mechanical mirrors out of strange materials that reflect a “new reflection” (Allerton) of the person looking into it. I think this project is extremely interesting and eye-opening as I feel like the technology Rozin has created is kind of an inspiration of what I would like to base my artifact off of, as the mirror for Omelas is supposed to reflect a kind of ‘alternate reality.’ Instead of showing a different or per-say new reflection of a person, like the work of Rozin’s, I feel like the interactive artifact for Omelas would more-so reflect what I mentioned before; the dichotomy between the happy city and the child’s suffering– a citizen would see these visualizations when peering into the mirror.”
I think reflecting upon the whole preparation process leading up to our presentation date and what we accomplished, I can now post-performance identify numerous successes we had. I think we did a really great job in terms of bringing the idea I pitched in my story to life. More specifically, that idea being a double sided mirror where on one side it had the sad child from the story and on the other side of the happy ‘normal state’ of the city of Omelas. I wanted the mirror to represent the dichotomy of what life is like in the short story. The intention was to place the artifact in the middle of the city by someone unknown and citizens of Omelas would progressively start to notice its strange and sudden appearance out of nowhere. The presence of the artifact was supposed to 1) help spark conversation amongst the citizens of Omelas about the moral / ethical dilemma of the child’s sacrifice for the happiness of those who live in Omelas and 2) prevent more people from walking away from Omelas. I think that we did a really good job in recreating what I just described. We had our artifact (the double sided mirror, which we painted on one side and on the other was a regular mirror) and other stage props (a horse prop) to help give more points of visualization to our audience. I was really happy when one of the professors commented at the end of our performance and said that he loved the extra props we made for our performance as it gave a more ‘theatrical’ feel to it. This justified the way I felt post-performance– that we were able to successfully ‘tell a story’ to our audience and bring our idea to life!
I do not think there were that many failures that I can point out in our group project. I think, however, if I were to point out one flaw it would probably be the quality of the materials we used in order to make the project ‘interactive.’ Our concept was that whenever someone smiled (in the presence of the mirror), the mirror was supposed to turn around and show it’s ‘ugly’ side– the side showing the condition of the kid’s living conditions and himself (this was supposed to help spark conversation regarding the moral dilemma of caging a child up for the town’s happiness). In order to make this work, since we had limited time and resources, we put the mirror (painted on the backside) on a rolling chair and the wheels on the chair allowed us to spin the mirror around whenever a character smiled. Ideally instead of using just a rolling chair, we could have used something more high-tech such as motors or sensors and I think this could have definitely been achievable if we had more time– and this is one thing I would change about our performance.
However, despite all of this, I believe that the final artifact we performed with directly relates to the established form of interaction I identified in my research and matches the artifact I described in my story. It was a clear form of interaction (the link between facial expression and the mirror moving /flipping sides) and I believe it was quite clear to the audience as well as one of the Professors picked up on the interaction and how our idea of using a ‘rolling chair’ to depict the interaction as something very ‘smart’ and innovative!
Reflection on Teamwork Dynamics
My personal contributions to this project was in helping paint the mirror. I think at the start when we delegated roles we decided we needed people to build the horse, buy the mirror and paint it, and someone to write the script. I think our communication in getting all of these tasks done was really great as we were all easily reachable through WeChat. Furthermore, we each made time throughout the week before the presentation to meet up to make our props / artifact, practice the script, and fully rehearse and run through the performance. I think one challenge, for me in particular, was how the rest of my group lives at dorms and I live off-campus– because of this, the first few times when we met over zoom it was challenging for me to communicate certain questions or comments I had. We quickly resolved this problem though, when I communicated this concern / worry of mine to them, and we from then on met at school everytime we needed to meet.
As the only senior student in the group (they were all freshmen), I feel grateful to have met my group members as there are not many chances for me, as a senior, to collaborate and meet with freshmen in my other courses!
Our Script
*It starts with the boy being bullied for a little bit
Boy: “Please, I’ll be good, I promise I’ll be good
Bully: Shut up, filthy. You disgust me, you represent everything that is wretched
[bully walks off stage]
boy, alone: But I’ll be good
*On the stage everyone stands with a partner whispering to them, the microphone is positioned so that the audience can hear the vague whispers and gossip
The whispers stop as the focus is shifted onto the mirror in the center of the stage
Someone at the side where the audience can’t see:‘ hurry up we have to get to the festival’
12: ‘Okay okay let’s go’
[skipping with a 8 year old across stage until they see the mirror, maybe there’s bells chiming or they’re laughing or something and then they stop when they see the mirror]
8: Ive never seen this mirror before
12: Do you see that? Inside, in there! It’s a boy
[points]
8: Quick Quick we have to get him out
12: [ name of 8 year old ] we can’t
8: What do you mean we can’t?
12: I’ve seen him before, hasn’t your mom told you about him?
8: No. . . but why can’t we let him out?
[pause]
12: Think about it like this: You’re happy, right?
8: Well, sure of course
12: How do you know?
8: [shrugs]
12: When you see that boy, you know.
8: But he’s just like me, why can’t I be his friend?
12: [frantic] Hey hey! look! when you frown I can’t see him..
8: Oh.. But everytime I smile because of something that makes me happy he comes back
12: I wonder who put this mirror here, I’m not sure I like the way it makes me feel …
Horse: What are you kids doing here? Quickly, go up to the Green Fields for the procession
12: yea, we should do that. Quickly [ name of 8 year old ], c’mon
[ walk off stage]
Horse, talking to himself/horse: Oh what a lovely day it is to be joyous. What a lovely life . . . easy, quiet girl, can’t you see the beauty of the world around you? It’s the first day of summer, and the sun is shining so. What a gift it is to know joy.
Horse: Come with me, observe the beauty of your mane in the reflection.
[stands in front of the mirror]
[slowly realizes and gets disgusted]
[kids come back with their parents]
[parent one steps up, kids and parent two talk in a little circle farther on stage]
Horse: have you seen this mirror, this monstrosity?
Parent 1: The children were just telling us about it, but sir it isn’t so bad is it . . . It’s not as if you didn’t know
Horse: yes, i knew, but do you think it should just be out like this . . . wouldn’t you rather forget at times?
Parent 1: Well, sure, but we shouldn’t
Horse: Look at me, aren’t I the picture of joy? Exuberance? And my horse, don’t you think thinking about . . . it. . . that, takes away from the festivities?
Parent 1: I think you should be wary of vapid irresponsible happiness, lest you end up like him, unable to be helped. . .
[bully enters again, kicking and spitting on kid in the mirror] [people watch in shock] [bully walks around stage as if to walk out of building and towards town square]
Bully: Shouldn’t you all be out enjoying life?
Horse: look, this mirror, we just saw you through it
Bully: ugh, not that poor wretched thing
Horse: I suppose so . . .
Bully: I think it’s good to go and give it a good kick sometimes, keep things in order
Horse: wouldn’t you rather just forget it exists at all?
Bully: don’t you understand you can’t just forget about it? You need to hurt it. You can’t let it know that it is important or even cared for, that will ruin everything
Parent 2: you’re supposed to take those feelings and put them in your own children, don’t you understand?
Parent 1: This is just the way things are
Bully: This mirror shows you how the world works
Horse: I do understand but I don’t like it, it horrifies me . . . I don’t think I can stay here, are we not just prisoners?
Parent 2: Maybe we are . . . but you can’t just leave Omelas. Too many young people have just left and never returned. You don’t know where you’re going and it could be dangerous out there
Horse: But how can I stay when I know that this is happening, when this mirror reminds me of reality every time I am happy?
Parent 2: [exasperated] Why can’t you honor this boys sacrifice?
Horse: Because it is wrong
Parent 2: If that is wrong then all of our joy, the nobility of our architecture, the poignancy of our music, the profundity of our science is also wrong
Horse: I can not agree with you
Parent 2: I can not agree with you either, but please stay
8: please don’t go away
12: please don’t walk away from Omelas
Horse: i’ll stay
Parent 2: I’ve never been able to talk about the boy with anyone before, I try to just forget it like you, but no one here wants to ignore it anymore
12: maybe being able to talk about it is a good thing?
8: I think so too
Horse: maybe this mirror is what the people of Omelas need
Parent 2: There’s a chance it could make more people try to walk away, like you, but there’s also a chance that it makes people talk about the truth more
Bully: [kinda interjecting/interrupting, purposefully sounds awkward/ruins sentimental moment] Sooooo…. Do you guys want me to move this from the middle of town or..?
Parent 1: No, no, I think you should leave it
Horse: Yes, I agree, please leave it right there.
Critical Analysis: The Suit (Group D)
I really liked the performance of Group D– ‘The Suit,’ I think it was a really clever idea to have someone press an activator and a suit (made out of garbage bags) envelops the wearer’s body to protect him from danger. I think it was extremely creative and it was easy for me to understand the concept when Tammy, at the end of the performance, said that the function of the suit can be comparable to Black Panther’s suit in how it automatically encapsulates his body when activated by touch. I definitely do not think it strayed far away from the short story topic at all– the idea still directly related and solved a problem in the short story; so this was helpful to me as I had already read the short story on The Plague prior to watching their performance.
I think one thing I can suggest, that another Professor pointed out after their performance, is perhaps changing the ‘manual’ part of putting the suit on. Perhaps finding a way to embed sensors or motors or buttons to automate this ‘encapsulation’ would be really cool and really enhance the quality of the artifact! However, my group struggled with this also– due to the time constraint and lack of resources, thus, I feel like this is extremely relatable and also understandable on some level.
Photos
These photos are from the day a few members from my group (Charlotte, Beatrice, Roman, Serena) and I got together in room 406 in the North Wing to paint our artifact (the mirror) to depict a sad boy. We only painted the mirror on one side (the side that did not have a mirror on it, but was the backside of the mirror we bought)– and used paint we found at school, paint brushes Beatrice brought from her home, and trash that we made when we were making our artifact.
After finishing painting the boy (using the reference photo, as shown above), we decided to stick on trash that we produced and glue it on the backside of the mirror to 1) give the painting a more 3-D effect (which one of the Professors mentioned he really liked after our performance on the 24th) and 2) to really depict the horrible conditions of the boy, as described in the short story.