Hysterical Alphabet

I found the Hysterical Alphabet performance quite confusing at first. I was not really sure what to expect when they started and found myself quickly lost in the performance. I especially liked how it was not just a showing of the clips with dialogue. The actual physical playing of the record player and the other instruments made the show something that was very alive. I recognized some of the film clips they showed such as The Last Laugh and Strike. The combining of the different media forms made the show very diverse. Though I'm still not really sure what the actual performance was about I found it very entertaining.

the hysterical alphabet-Sean O'Leary

Before seeing The Hysterical Alphabet, I had never been to a multi-media performance let alone have any idea of what to expect. Overall I would have to say that I enjoyed watching the performance even though it took me awhile to realize what the subject matter was, but whether I understood the material or not, I thought that the information was displayed in a very creative way by combining different mediums. I also really liked hearing about how the performance had been constructed from all the way from its inception to the final product.

One aspect of the performance that I really liked was how it started with the beginning of the alphabet alongside with the first theories of hysteria and then chronologically going through the alphabet and the history of hysteria. One thing that caught my attention was when the performers were talking with the audience and Terri mentioned how certain parts of the performance had just fallen into place such as getting to the letter V for Vienna and Freud. In some of my previous projects, I too felt that some things just fell into the right place at the right time event though I had not planned for it to happen that way. Another thing that stood out for me was how the project started with Terri’s research and then it branched out and added Corbett’s audio and then later Danny and his video. After seeing the performance I would have to say that after learning about the theories of montage and working on our montage projects, Danny’s video gave the performance a whole new dimension to work with along with being a performance rather than just a video to watch. I really liked how Danny was able to pull all sorts of stock footage and make a comprehendible video from it all. Danny’s work kind of reminded me of Ed Wood where he would be able to create stories and make films if not solely based on stock footage then primarily based on stock footage.

Hysterical Alphabet [JP]

I thought this performance was very well put together, but throughout the performance I felt largely uneducated. I had never heard of the idea of hysteria, so much of the performance went way above my head. It was a very awkward experience for me. As an audience member at the countless concerts I've been to at Krannert during my student career I have felt much more adapt to understanding what was going on. Included in those are several multi-media performances, often with a combination of electroacoustic music, film, and live performance.

Maybe this was my problem with this performance. Its use of multimedia was different than my other experiences with multimedia performances because the focus was on the combination of the words, images and sounds -- with the core of the performance being the text. In my other experiences with multimedia performances the core has always been the music, at least in my perception. It's not that I thought the music part of Hysterical wasn't used well; perhaps I had too high of expectations for more development in that realm.

My unfamiliarity with the text is probably the main reason I had difficulty understanding the performance. I felt bad, because I knew that these people had put forth a lot of effort to perform, but my confusion almost led me to ask, "What's the point?" I believe that the performance was very intriguing; I just wish that a more detailed history of hysteria were spelled out in a program.

Hysterical Alphabet - Erin Gillman

I had no expectations of The Hysterical Alphabet prior to Wednesday night. I wasn't sure whether the show would be a film, a lecture, performance art or a reading. In some sense it was all of those combined.

I appreciate the vast range of mixed media and the obvious time and effort put into the project. The speakers were able to create a montage between spoken, seen and heard. The images were lovely and managed to convey the humor of the Hysterical Alphabet, but the overarching idea of the piece was over my head. Perhaps if I had researched a little before I would have better enjoyed the performance.

I also got sick around the letter "q" and had to leave. You win some, you lose some.

Hysterical Alphabet, sarah christolini

I went into this knowing very little information about the history of Hysteria, however i don't feel like that ruin the experience for me at all. The artists involved made the most important information accessible to the viewers despite their different levels of knowledge on the subject and made it entertaining through the humor of the juxtaposed images to the words being spoken aloud. I was intrigued to see many of the types of montage used and found myself picking out sections of rhythmic and metric montage, however i think in it's overall entirety this montage was very much a tonal montage because of the paring of sound effects, spoken word, and moving image. I also enjoyed the use of stock video because each image came with an already established history and meaning, however when cut and paired with audio it changed the meaning completely and allowed the artists to have it mean whatever they wanted. It really inspired me to think more about audio's importance with image and the idea of having live audio, like during the silent movie era (which worked really well for a history lesson on hysteria). I am really excited to start working with audio mixing in addition to montage. It was really exciting to think this was a traveling show, that since they were performing the audio and such that each show would always be slightly different, which added to the allure and excitement of the show.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of The Hysterical Alphabet: A Multi-Media History. I thought seeing this performance after our last class project was very good timing. After our last class project, I definitely had more insight into the montage/video aspect of the performance.

The montage of the images from so many different sources really complimented each other. The relationships created between so many different images were really spectacular. I cannot even imagine how long it took to compile just the video part of this performance.

Although the video and sound of the performance were awesome- my favorite part was message and historical aspect of the performance. I found it was a fascinating commentary on gender and medicine. I hope that it exposed people who maybe weren’t previously concerned with gendered issues, to the importance and history of gendered issues. Because I was previously interested in gender studies- I found this performance captivating. I’m very glad I went to this performance and had this experience.

Allison Van Pelt

Jean Epstein's Early Film Theory and Modern Aesthetic Experience: The Material of Distance
by Jennifer Wild

This talk went completely over my head, but as my French Cinema professor explained later (she was hosting the talk in her classroom) it went over many scholar's heads as well so that made me feel a bit better. Because of that however I feel like I really missed out on the point of the talk. Going in expecting a talk on cinema theory I was surprised to be lectured on a volcano eruption and the "sublime." However that seemed to be the most important points of the lecture, Jean Epstein's experience with a volcano, and his film about it, "Eruption de L'Etna en 1923" (which is lost). He talks about the volcano taking on a human face and how he wants to overcome natures natural romanticism and be more focused on the technology, which I didn't quite understand. He was also focused on Walter Moore Coleman an American psychologist(?) He also concentrated on close ups in American cinema, the face in cinema and the volcano's face. And how the volcano and cinema's views are a force at a distance. She also briefly discussed telepathy but I missed what that had to do with her talk. As I said I was really lost for most of the talk so I expect my summary to confusing in itself.


"The Hysterical Alphabet: A Multi Media History"
by Terry Kapsalis

Being already interested in the history of "hysteria" I found this performance especially engaging. I loved the way they combined live reading and sound with pre-recorded reading and edited film. The combination of live and nonlive media was surprising at first but is what led to me to be further engaged. One of my favorite parts was seeing the artists interacting with the equipment live and reacting to the film and timing in front of the audience. And them playing with recording things and when to do it live kept the performance fresh in it's length. Other parts I loved was her reading voice as well as the edited film. The scenes chosen as well as how they were edited were especially affective in describing each woman. Each shot was interesting in it's own (he did a wonderful job picking scenes, but I also heard he has a fantastic memory when it comes to cinema and is able to pick out plenty of scenes off the top of his head), but the way he used repetition as well as flipping the shots emphasized each girl's story. The sound was one of the most surprising aspects. Many of the sound was unexpected, and mostly bizarre but it kept the play between audio and visual complicated. (I also heard that he played upon using the instruments live, letting the needle hit records randomly instead of picking exact points).

I had the wonderful opportunity of being able to talk to Terry Kapsalis after the performance as well and bought her book. She talked about in performance how she has a want of hiding which is why she enjoyed reading behind a table instead of using her body in they way she had done when she was younger. And I agree it's definitely a different type of performance with connections more to story telling then performances that are more forceful and use their bodies to express feelings. She also explained the hand gestures above each page number in her book, apparently doctors had come up with a series of hand gestures that described or were the supposed hand gestures of "hysterical" women. They are beautiful and a lovely small addition to the book.

The Hysterical Alphabet - Alexis Kikoen

The Hysterical Alphabet was a completely new experience to me. I've never seen anything like it before. The actual performance was probably the last thing I expected this show to be about. I loved how Terri Kapsalis took such a creative approach to make the audience aware of something. I loved the combination of a pre-edited media production with live narration and music. I can't really make comparisons with this, except with things we've seen in class because it was so unique. Some things that really stood out were the use of repetition at some parts, which reminded me of the wonder woman video we watched in class, and the montage of the moon waxing and waning. At one point, Terri's live narration matched up with a pre-recorded narration, and i remember not being able to tell them apart.
I would really love to know Terri's creative process throughout this entire production. Where her inspiration came from, how she got ideas for the film and photographs and music. The most interesting thing to me about this production is how inspiring it is. I love that Terri had this kind of off-the-wall idea for a production, and now several years later it's finally turned into her vision. (Or pretty close to it, i imagine.) I would love to attend more multi-media productions like this one in the future.

Historical Alphabet - Chris Hill

Alphabet Hysteria

Chris Hill

 

The Hysterical Alphabet was a very unique and captivating experience. I initially appreciated the approach Terri Kapsalis and company took in juxtaposing real time performance with recorded multi-media. I respected the playful feel of the alphabet format while addressing graphic medical accounts that had me questioning the history of gender identities and stereotypes through the lends of a historian. I was absolutely enchanted by the voice of Terri Kapsalis and fully agree with her decision to perform the majority of the piece live, and also enjoyed the dynamic quality of layering her recorded voice with live vocals to emphasize and draw interest at one point in the performance. Her soothing voice with the vintage film gave the performance a timeless quality that was effective in giving the viewer a sense of the past. The Hysterical Alphabet was rich with metric montage and rhythmic montage, but seemed to be most concerned with tonal montage. I thought it was interesting how she used the alphabet like a time line starting in ancient Egypt with ‘A’ and leading up to a more contemporary time period with the letter ‘Z’. The Hysterical Alphabet had me thinking about how the history of hysteria as a “white woman’s disease” influences our contemporary notions about women and sickness.

 

I thought it was interesting hearing Kapsalis explain the development of this particular performance. She said it evolved over the past decade from just text, to text and sound, and finally included video montage. I think it is unique that every performance is different and enjoyed the experiential quality this performance lent to the audience by including some slight improvisation.

hysterical alphabet-Meagan Havlik

I really liked watching this! It was my first time seeing a multi media performance. The best part for me was the subject. The best connection i can make with the idea of female hysteria are from some books ive read before. Some examples are The Female Quixote(1752) by Charlotte Lennox and the Dark Sister by Rebecca Goldstein. They both center around a female character who is said to have some sort of madness or illness. The Female quixote is about a rich, white young woman who is basically crazy and lives in a fantasy world she created out of ideas from romance novels.Her madness is a product of her environment, because as a woman she is forced to live an idle lifestyle with little stimulus other then love stories and gossip. The dark sister is about an ugly angry feminist writer who is considered a recluse and basand some sort of sad creature insanse for not wanting to get married, and is even called a witch by local kids. Basically being a woman is some sort of "condition" that needs to be kept in check.

I really enjoyed the video clips that were chosen, i think they went well with the theme,images of what is said to be a healthy woman (wonderwoman, busty 30s/40s/50s actresses). The part i think i didnt really like were the sound effects made with the instruments, it reminded me of something from elementary school.

She wasnt mentioned in the presentation but this was my personal favorite "hysteric"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_James

Has anyone read these books or know about Alice James?

2 reflections / aleia murawski

the hysterical alphabet:

Kapsalis explained that the project became a six year process of looking at and reading from historical and medical text. Most of the information, being true, was shocking and uncomfortable; however, the presenters did an excellent job at making it digestable and playful. I instantly found the collaboration to be extremely interesting, especially that it was a project initially between just Kapsalis and Corbett, and then it was later extended toward Danny, who supplied the visual element. It is an interesting collaboration to go from her originally responding to text, John responding to her writing, and then Danny responding to their project together. 

My immediate reaction to the event was that the presentation was really well-constructed. In contrast to earlier lectures I have attended this year, it was organized and captivating. From the beginning, when they turned on their lights and turned down the rest of lights, they commanded our attention in a respectful manner. 

I was immediately impressed by the narration. Kapsalis's voice is the prefect amount of dark, humor, and intensity. Her writing was also both playful and critical. She carried the audience well from one letter to the next, and there were really nice moments of added drama through unexpected narration (either on its own or paired to imagery) and moments of pausing and recollection (which offered a nice disruption to the linear quality of moving through A to Z). 

I had two favorite moments. One was when she said 'so many rising wombs back then" against the montage of hot air balloons. This is just one example of when I found the media and the language to really complement each other. My other favorite part was when she was referring to two letters, or characters, specifically. It was the part about the neighbor hysterics, and she said something like "and one day they were soon to be reunited again as neighbors." I thought visual here was especially striking, because it took me a moment to understand what was being abstracted by all of the light and smoke, and then to see two figures hanged was quite terrifying. I really appreciated these moments when the text and visual responded to each other, at times simultaneously, and other times working as variables that were answering each other. 

This presentation had a really great layering effect as well. I thought the visual layering in the film was effective, along with the layering of audio (both analog and digital) as well as this recorded and live-performance layering. It helped elevate the drama and keep the audience more involved in the show. I agreed with the quote at the end that, this intent to keep it both recorded and live made it more about the performance to be included in and less about being a film or something to just watch. 

the material of distance 

Jean Epstein's early film theory 

modern aesthetic experience:

I found this lecture to be quite scholarly, to a degree that made me appreciate the speaker's dense knowledge of the subject, yet, also made me feel incredibly disconnected. It was a really well-informed lecture; however, the speaker used so many direct literary references and quotations from Epstein's work, and since I had no introduction to his work or methodology before his presentation, I was lost immediately into this lecture. 

This was presentation was centered around Jean Epstein's film theory based off of his work "Le Cinematographe de L'Etna." This document was about being the process of work being seen, not read, emphasizing on the significance of "sight." This made me think about the kino-eye or our conversations in class about montage... It is about the significance of looking and positioning moments. Epstein, specifically, is concerned about moments of magnituted and distance, the perceiver and the perceived, and "theory of close-up" (atoms of images delivered with particular force). He also had an interest in taking the subconscious and using that towards making quantifiable tests. I had a difficult time relating this back to his thesis, but my attempt at the material is that he studies Etna because, other than it being a spectacle as imagination, it represents specific cultural mythology that he wanted to explore. He uses cinema to overcome the sublime and uses technology as a mediation of distance. I thought the presentation was interesting; nevertheless, I struggled to follow it. Other than his consciousness of modern experience delivered by the technological and his rejection of romanticism, I felt like my mind was exploding like a volcano the entire time. 

Field Trip Day, September 23, 2009

Some information on our field trip, including directions to Knight Auditorium.

Public Event

The Hysterical Alphabet: A Multi-Media History Wednesday, September 23, 2009 7:30 pm Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum 600 South Gregory Street Urbana (View Map) Terri Kapsalis Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Hysteria’s four-thousand-year history deeply inflects our ideas about gender and illness. The ancient Greek myth of the traveling uterus, Freud's Dora, and the French-Victorian vibrator all reveal hysteria as a cultural symptom. This multi-media production offers a history of hysteria with humor, playfulness, and critical insight. Terri Kapsalis reports episodes from medical lore in a "hysterical" version of the alphabet backed by Danny Thompson's disquieting film collages and John Corbett's musical manipulations. Hosted by: Department of History and School of Art and Design In conjunction with: Art Graduate Student Organization, Community Informatics Initiative, Department of Dance, Department of English, Department of Psychiatry, Gender and Women's Studies Program, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Institute of Communications Research, I-Space Gallery, Medical Humanities and Social Sciences Program, Spurlock Museum, Women’s Resource Center

Knight Auditorium is inside of the Spurlock Museum at 600 S. Gregory Drive.

animal charm

http://www.animalcharm.com/


youtube

http://www.youtube.com/user/therealanimalcharm

Text Layering Tutorial

http://www.layersmagazine.com/photoshop-cs4-a-picture-worth-a-thousand-words.html

stop motion studies - alexis

Blogger crops it, and i don't know how to get around it. so for the full image go here:
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b333/al_ex_is/?action=view¤t=stop-motion-3---Alexis-Kikoen.gif

:)

i forgot to loop it

Dancing- Allison Van Pelt

Emily Breidenbach

Stop Motion Studies : JP

"The Defining Moment"

Hamin got high by Vinay Srinivasan

sean's sample gif

Creepy Flower by Emily

JJ Vaught Test

Sample Gif

Allison Van Pelt- Sleeping GIF

JP Sample GIF

une fleur pour vous? - Alexis Kikoen