Project 4 Proposal

For this project, I wanted to attempt to explore the emotions and turmoils that accompany my long-distance relationship with my boyfriend. This was the idea I first started considering when I thought of a performance piece. Actually, this was something I had wanted to explore with the other projects, but found other ideas that seemed to work better at the time. This relationship is probably one of the more important things in my life, and the fact that I'm passionate about it is reason enough to make it a convincing theme. The only problem is how I plan to make a convincing performance piece using him as the subject, since we communicate mostly through text and video chats. But I think this could be a very effective element in conveying my message in the piece. I want to explore and share the difficulties faced and the patience one needs to have to handle a long distance relationship. I would want it to be a quiet and subdued piece, perhaps with some narrative included. Focus would be more on the emotional quality, conveyed through simple images and musings of the people involved. Visuals would probably include just the two of us staring at one another over video chat, overlaid with dialogue from our talks, perhaps discussing a singular topic.

Another one of my ideas is a bit of an alteration of the previous one. This would focus more on the negative aspects and purported "doubts" that come with being in a long distance relationship, as well as all the worries and troubling things that have come with my own personal experience. My boyfriend as seen over video chat would be the sole visual, with my own visage not included this time. My own voice would speak in an endless stream of my thoughts and worries and all the hurdles that came up along the way, before ending on a light, positive note.

My final idea is something different from the previous two. I wanted to take my love of drawing and maybe do a real-time illustrative representation of significant events of my life. Using either traditional media or drawing in Photoshop, I would either do simple doodles or one elaborate drawing that figuratively or literally represents what I will be speaking about. Like my other ideas, a narrative voice would ambiguously explain my thoughts and emotions over the events that are being recounted. The visuals would entirely be the sheet(s) of paper or document that I am drawing on, as well as my hand with the drawing implement. I am leaning towards making the drawings a variety of things, and metaphorically or symbolically representing what is being said.

The setting would  most likely be my own room for all three of these ideas, since my computer is located there, and not much room is needed for a single sheet of paper, if that's what will be used. Since these will all most likely turn out to be info-dumps for my life, they'll probably turn out to be a few minutes long, if not a little longer. Actors would be myself and my boyfriend, if I go that route. Though I said that most of the visual interactions would be very subdued, sometimes with not much going on at all, I'd like to include some poignant moments. Perhaps inclusion of body language shifts, or other non-verbal fluctuations of emotion. I wouldn't need much in terms of props if I was going the boyfriend route, and just some drawing tools and sheets of paper, or just my tablet, would be necessary for my third idea.

I am very open to any changes and suggestions, since this all pretty open-ended. I'm still quite unsure how everything will be implemented and how exactly I want to get my point across.