Framing Life

 For our final performance, aybala50, skindeep, and I wanted to talk about two overarching themes of the class- labeling (or genres) and framing. First we gave everyone a strip of paper and had them write a word on it that they had been labeled with or would label themselves with. We then had the class hold up their labels at the same time and to look around at everyone else's labels. We wanted the class to discuss how seeing these labels affected how they now saw each other, but there was little participation. We then asked half the class to hold up their labels while the other half made blinders with their hands so that they had a limited view of the class. We asked those making the blinders how it felt to see only part of the "whole." We also asked the people holding up the labels how it felt to be exposing themselves like that with people staring at them and their labels. 

The point that our group was demonstrating with our presentation was that labels change how we as humans perceive the world- whether we mean to or not. Limiting our vision was a means to demonstrate that everything in life is framed: our present is framed by our past; books are framed by the cover, pages, and backstory; photographs of our lives are framed, as are paintings; and our visions of how we see the world are framed by how we lived our lives and what experiences we have been through.