Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Museum of Antrhopology

Please choose an object/ artwork from the Museum of Anthropology that appeals to you. Spend at least 10 or 20 minutes just looking at it - and listening to what it has to tell you. Then write two descriptions about it: one that is very subjective/emotional, another one that is objective/rational. Use only your personal associations for the first description but some background information about the object/artwork for your second one. Try to bring out the contrast between the two descriptions.
Then try to imagine the story of your chosen object/artwork - that can be imaginative but should also do justice to the cultural and historical context of your chosen piece. Please tell this story in the form of a dialogue or monologue. The object/artwork may be one of the speakers in the dialogue or someone else may be talking about it. Make sure you add concrete details rather than remaining too abstract!

This exercise, too, is meant to be fun! Enjoy!

gudrun

3 comments:

  1. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7AeKm6s_LIeWklrLUFIeFhSTlU/edit?usp=sharing

    here is mine

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  2. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bpORJm9hj7Pn3anRTBGVn-RV75fo0z5kCNXJ8qt2mWQ/edit?hl=en&forcehl=1

    Mine!

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  3. What I chose is not so much an object, or an audio recording, but a dance, Diablada. The only explanation/background to this dance was given by a set of masks that were hanging from the ceiling and a small plaque on the wall.

    This is the Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Originating from the Andean town of Juli, the 16th century Jesuit missionaries created this dance. The purpose of this dance is to create a visual sense of the devil, hence reasserting people's belief in the devil.

    The masks on display showed the progression/development of Diablada. It started out as a simple mask with small horns. However, the masks grew quite elaborate with bulging eyes, flaming hair, and many ornaments.

    The main colour that was used to paint the masks was red. It is a very emotionally intense colour, making it a perfect candidate to represent the emotionally provoking devil. Also, it is very eye-catching, such that many places requiring immediate attention (ie. traffic lights) incorporate red to do its job. I suppose that red was used to capture the attention of all audience members who were watching the Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins to be aware of such sins.

    What intrigued me about Diablada was that in my opinion, dancing is a form of celebration. Thus, "dance" carries a strong, positive connotation. However, Diablada is a dance with a negative connotation, which is foreign to me. However, after watching a video on youtube (link attached), I'm convinced that Diablada is a story-telling dance, as the song contained foreign lyrics that sounded as if the singer was narrating a story.

    -Andrew Moon

    LINK:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMUq9qYSwz8

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