Avant-Garde Night

On your own blogs, respond to Avant-Garde Night at Lumina. What were favorites and least favorites? What worked well and what worked not so well? How did the Live Cinema Explosion go?

Overall, I thought Avant-Garde Night turned out really well. The turnout was bigger than I had expected. On The Marriage Broker Joke was a really unexpected way to start off the show. I don't think many people knew what to make of it. It was entertaining, though. I certainly enjoyed it. On the other hand, I don't think There's a Pervert in our Pool went over as well as it maybe could have. I felt like it came and went too quickly, and just left people confused.

Light is Waiting, though, was probably my favorite of the night. As it started, I wasn't entirely sure what was so avant garde about it. After a minute or so, I was prepared to just watch an episode of Full House. It would've been a fun joke to play on the audience. But then the TV dropped. I was blown away. The combination of sight and sound was sort of frightening, but I thought it really worked.

Light is Waiting, Uso Justo, and I am a Boyband all seemed to go over the best with the audience. I think they were all more accessible in terms of the avant-garde. An introduction was probably needed for people to really grasp the concept of What the Water Said. Personally, I'd forgotten about it until that night, so I was probably as confused as some of the rest of the audience. Also, I wasn't too thrilled about Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine. Not entirely sure why, but I just couldn't get into it visually. It felt too erratic, and at times I wondered if something was wrong with the projector. Not to say that I didn't know the film would look the way it did, but at times I just had to wonder. Of all the films screened that night, this was by far the hardest for me to watch.

Now, the Live Cinema Explosion, I thought that turned out really well. I had no idea what would end up on the screen, nor did I know what it all would sound like. At the start, I was afraid it would turn into an unlistenable cacophony of noise. As the show went on, though, it kept an interesting rhythm and the images never got too repetitive. For those who stayed to watch it, I think the Live Cinema Explosion was a very unique experience.