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. 

Drawing as Nothing:

4.) It pours when it pours

In the beginning, I had a few difficulties with coming up with something for this project and so I looked into Yoko Ono's "Cut" piece for inspiration. I loved the fact that her clothes were being cut off of her body, not by her, but other people after a simple command she gave them along with a choice. I thought to myself, people can change and "draw" for you so why can't nature. For my piece, I decided to use this method with drops of water left after a rain storm since it sprinkled on and off that day. I put on clothes that would show the change and found a spot under Kenan that kept dripping more and more and stood under it. As the video progresses, you can begin to see the water seep down into the fibers of my shirt as well as my bangs and glasses falling down near the end. I decided to do this because the drawing is nothing. I'm not doing anything except for standing in the way of the water and the ground. The raindrops are doing all of the drawing for me as it seeps into my shirt. Sort of like Yoko sitting there on the floor as everyone else cuts off a piece of her clothing, doing the work for her. 

Drawing as walking or Navigation

3.) Watch Your Step

When thinking about what I wanted to do for this project, I decided that I liked the walking aspect most.  Watching a video where one artist walked in a straight line, walking through buildings and all, my thoughts focused on what I used to do as a kid. When I was younger, I remember coming across a stone on the sidewalk and ended up kicking it and following in its path until I had lost it. I wanted to further emphasize on this by causing everyones attention by doing something that is normally not seen. This is where I decided to walk as if I was Tightrope walking. In order to do so, I had tied about three different yarns together and formed them into a ball of yarn that I tied to a stop sign. From there I kicked it and followed in its path, the same path I take most of the time when I walk around St. Augustine. When I got to the end, I had literally just walked away like normal to emphasize how we normally walk. I found myself very unbalanced in the process and almost falling to the ground in a few places here and there. I really did need to watch my step more. 

One Mark Against Many:

2.) My "Abbey Road" 

Viewing many different performances of artists as "one mark against many" I had decided to take it to a different approach. Rather than standing there in everyones way, I had decided to move back and forth in a straight line without moving out of the way of people while I had a straight face on. Doing so, I wanted to draw attention to myself to make myself that mark against many others. To do so, I wore a tank top and shorts in freezing cold weather while walking back and forth across the street. Many people looked at me and kept commenting which is what I wanted to cause. Also, I had decided to go against the crowds by walking out in front of cars and stopping them, which is why I picked the busiest street that crosses St. George street. At one point I crossed in front of a car which caused a crowd to do the same after I got to the other side and so I crossed again in front of them, and in the video, you can see the lady rolling up her window after she tried to yell at me. I wanted to show how normally a person such as myself gets lost within the crowd and becomes just another face. I wanted to bring this forth by staying a person in the crowd by crossing the street when everyone else did, yet staying different by wearing the wrong atire to spark interest and stand out. I was the opposite from everyone else, making myself that mark.