Standing and Walking in Neutral
On Thursday, February 28th, 2013 our class enjoyed our first official session with Ms. Winston. Since the “Walking Figures” sculptures we are taking inspiration from have no heads or are “anonymous,” we started off by making faceless masks out of brown paper. We tore a shape, crumpled it, cut out the eye holes, attached string and ended up with a simple mask. We then wore our masks down the school hallways to the small gym. We got some confused looks from passers by and could hear questions like, “Why are they wearing those masks?” The feeling of being unknown was very different for us, but it gave us a sense of comfort because people did not know who we were!
Once we made it to the small gym Ms. Winston led us through a series of exercises to help us discover what it means to be “neutral.” She taught us how to stand in neutral – feet about shoulder width apart, hands at our sides, body relaxed, no emotion on our faces and breathing normally. Then Ms. Winston taught us how to walk in neutral at different speeds. Finally, she taught us how to be aware of the space around us by having us explore the gym in a grid-like pattern. We were only allowed to walk in straight lines. It was an incredibly fun morning of exploration!
Please enjoy our photos!
- Making our crumpled paper masks
- Who are we?
- Standing anonymously in line
- Facelessly listening to Ms. Winston
- How do you stand in neutral?
- Standing in neutral
- Walking in neutral
- Walking in neutral with different speeds
- Walking in neutral on a grid
- Walking in neutral on a grid at different speeds
- We are statues and observers