Place#22: Fountain of Youth

Can I Speak with Sir Ponce DeLeon? 

For this video, I wanted to capture my question and the guides reactions to my question rather than her explanation itself since I knew exactly what she was going to say. I had voiced over the footage to give part of my opinion as well as more information about the questions they are normally asked. I had originally thought of asking this question because of the Fountain of Youth and how its supposed to keep you young forever. What I was most interested in was the reactions she would give me after hearing that question out of all the questions I could have asked. As expected, she kept calm and just explained everything to her knowledge that I got the name incorrect, how he wasn't there, that the waterflows through many places and we most likely drink it everyday in Aquifina and other waters. I had also asked her in the end of the video why she kept so quiet and not a single new expression on her face when I asked her a dumb myth such as that and she simply explained that she's used to many questions such as that but not that actual question. She and a few others mentioned other questions they get asked like "will I get gonoria if I drink this?", "My wife will take two!", "Am I really gonna live forever?", and so on. So I can see fully why they weren't surprised by my question/ statement. They also told me that they are going to add my question to the top of their list and tell others, which again, adds on to the myth. I basically wanted to get the aspect of the tour guide in this video to add onto the perspective of the tourists in the other videos.
 

Place#21: The Old Senator

This was one of the final videos that I had filmed. In the beginning it started out as a simple question, "where is the senator? Is he behind that tree?" And the more I asked this on the actual trolley, the less people would respond to me. I did not get a response at all out of anyone each time. And so I had decided to create a video that shows my confusion itself and the lack of communication between me and the tourists without playing that exact situation. In order to do so, I took a clip I had filmed from the actual trolley and had placed in certain pictures of the old senator in the midst of it to create confusion because that part of the trolley ride has nothing to do with the tree, yet the tree is the only thing being questioned. That is because that was the only thing on my mind. Especially the first time I went on that trolley ride. They always joke about the old senator being there for 500 years and act as if he is a person when in fact, he is a tree. It confused me the first time because I thought they were talking about an actual person by the way they sounded even though I knew no one lived that long. And so I wanted to capture that by listing the questions that came to mind when told that I was going to see the Old Senator. These were as followed: Is he behind that tree? What are his policies? Will he be running next term?

Place# 13: Lightner Museum, Flagler College, Dow Museum of Historic Homes

Brushing one's teeth
Did Flagler really brush his teeth in the men's room?

In the beginning of this individual movie, I wanted to sort of capture the movements and actions of the tourists I had watched very closely. That is why I stood in front of the men's bathroom in the tourist attire and took pictures of inside the bathroom. I wanted to keep this video a continuous capturing without voice editing to get the full actions of the different people I encountered while keeping it as real as possible. I also had decided to ask the same question in order to see if I got different reactions out of people who passed by me or went into the bathroom themselves. This had led me to talk to Flagler students, a tourist, and a few workers at Flagler such as the security guards and another worker. Throughout this video, another reason why I did not mess with the order is to show how my question progressed from a simple "I don't Know" to a whole conversation of someone joking around with me and actually contributing to the myth itself without asking me what I was doing. That alone was enough for my project to be successful. I had made many performances of each part of every project I had created and chose this one in this section because of the ending with the myth. The guy had a conversation with me about him seeing Flagler brushing his teeth in that bathroom on the 125th anniversary and how he believes he did, while the security guard was explaining how she didn't think that that was an actual bathroom during Flagler's life. The myth built right on top of itself adding in more questions as well as thoughts and answers between strangers who didn't even know each others names. Later after filming, a couple hours later, I had noticed that that same person had walked by and asked someone else if they thought Flagler brushed his teeth in that bathroom. This was the best example of how tourists normally spread myths around to each other as well as the residents themselves. All in all, it was very effective. 

Place#8: Hypolita and St. George Street (historic walking mall)

Although I did not think about making a video of me walking on St. George street with my shirt. After all the stops and walking through St. George street constantly, I had many people respond to me and what I was doing. Each time I would get people staring at me and saying "I think you are indeed a tourist!" or "I don't believe you!" Leaving the intent that I'm just making everything up as I go along. This reminded me of when I had walked around St. George street re-creating Adrian Piper's Catalysis series, which is what inspired me to do this project. I had transformed myself from an ordinary person on the street into someone who had gained everyone's attention by one bold move, whether I had an actual towel in my mouth or I just walked around with a "Not a tourist shirt". I wanted to keep this project simple and simplified like the rumors themselves. The shirt I wore walking on St. George street still accomplished the task I was trying to do, and that is starting up my own rumors like the rumors tourists create, hear, and pass on. I had created the rumor that I am indeed a tourist and not someone who lives here in St. Augustine. Also I did not want to use St. George street fully again like I've done for your past two classes because I did not want to overdue it for you. 

Place#3: Visitors Information Center on Castillo Drive

That's a Bunch of Bull!!

 I had recently went to the Picasso exhibit in the visitor center, one of the many places I noticed tourists had visited first since it's right next to the parking garage. I wanted to capture what many tourists including my own mother and her friends think about that exhibit the have of Picasso. I kept hearing "That's a bunch of bull!" or "That's a load of bull!" due to the fact that it was an exhibit of his bull works. I wanted to capture this and how fast they normally take their time in an exhibit by showing myself dressed as a tourist and walking into the exhibit and then out, going to some people in charge of the exhibit and saying "That's a bunch of bull"! I voiced over the tape since it was hard to hear everything. 

Research for Final (Re-Typed)

Old Town Trolley Tours
Tours depart continuously every 15 minutes.
8:30am to 4:30pm
Hours of operation may be extended during holiday weekends and during peak season. Please call (904) 829-3800 for details.

22 stops listed by points of interest
1. The Old Jail, St. Augustine History Museum, Oldest Museum Experience, Gator Bob’s Trading Post
2. Old Town Trolley Welcome Center US1
3. Visitors Information Center on Castillo Drive
4. Old Drug Store, Tolomato Cemetery
5. City Gates, Spanish Quarter, Oldest Wooden School House, St. George Street, Ripley's Believe It or Not
6. Spanish Quarter, Castillo de San Marcos, Pirate & Treasure Museum
7. Bay View at the Monterey, Carriage Rides
8. Hypolita and St. George Street (historic walking mall)
9. Flagler Memorial, Presbyterian Church, Ancient City Baptist Church, Grace United Methodist Church
10. San Sebastian Winery
11. Whetstone's Chocolate Factory
12. Villa Zorayda Museum
13. Lightner Museum, Flagler College, Dow Museum of Historic Homes
14. Plaza de la Constitucion, Government House, Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine
15. Potter's Wax Museum, Spanish Military Hospital, Beach Bus Stop*
16. Oldest House, Fernando-Lambias House
17. Castillo de San Marcos
18. Ripley's Believe It or Not
19. Old Town Trolley Welcome Center, Ghost and Gravestones, Uptown San Marco
20. Mission of Nombre de Dios, Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche
21. The Old Senator
22. Fountain of Youth

Out of all of these stops, I wanted to pick a few that stand out to most tourists and also share some experiences I had after performing in these places. Most of my videos were lost due to uploading them all at the same time and so I was able to still keep a few which were videotaped with my camera rather than my phone like the others that were lost. Through these series of videos, I wanted to capture in different ways such as editing, playing fully, and so on, to add on to myths people like tourists normally keep going by spreading them around. I had originally wanted my explanations such as these to be in the videos but it works out better with them typed. I had decided to go around St. Augustine, following the Old Trolley Tour cart with a "Not a tourist" shirt on and the usual outfit to expose and create my own unique rumors and to capture the behavior of a tourist while drawing attention to myself. I had come up with this by thinking of the artist Adrian Piper and her Catalysis series which she performed in New York. Each of hers brought attention to herself, and so I had created my own series in a way to do the same and feed into the rumors. I wanted to get the many reactions of people as well as the actual myths themselves by further taping these encounters with tourists and workers around me. I had chose my best videos to show this which are shown above. I hope you enjoy them!

Drawing as memory

5.)  The Sands of Time 

For this specific drawing, I thought of the material sand because of the actual sense of time (due to an hour glass) and how it effects our memory. SInce this material is so easily changed and moved, I chose to perform this piece in the breeze way where I could purposely get change from the wind. Memory can be perceived differently. For me, it is both physical and a part of you. It is physical by the fact that I created figure after figure out of the sand adding more and more while changing it over time. By doing so, the viewer remembers what the figures were since I chose numbers as an easy subject, but since they are erased, you can never remember exactly how the figure looked or the exact position it was in until you go back and watch it again, but even then you still lose memory of that figure and its specific position. That's why in the end I went back to creating a one to remind the viewers what I stared out with, but showing them as well, that I couldn't even get the same exact figure back because I couldn't remember myself. Memory is like chance, especially with the wind blowing the sand while I made new numbers. That made it even more difficult to remember the objects clearly. I had also chosen to use numbers instead of objects because of the sense of time. Like someone who has Alzheimer's, the older you get, the more you forget. So I had decided to count up to ten, and then back to one again to not only show how my memory was not the same but also show how someone with that disease get's to the point where they can only remember the past.