For this week, we had guest lecturer Marcus Ian McKenzie join us to discuss his projects, his work process, and perform a warm-up exercise for performance.

In-Class Studio Time

In-class, McKenzie introduced us to the various pieces of work he has worked on or is working on and gave us insights into what his process in ideation and collaboration for these works. For his process of media making, what stood out to me was the use of Miro as a collaborative tool and his densely filled notebook. For Miro, the ability to create a whiteboard brainstorm style collaboration space seems to be beneficial for working with others, especially if there are limitations to meeting up with them physically, as was the case with some of McKenzie’s previous works. This may be a tool that I might utilize in my future projects. For his notebook, McKenzie’s reasoning for it’s densely filled nature was because of how he jotted down any creative ideas that he came up with on the spot habitually, preventing those ideas from disappearing into memory. I believe that this is a habit that I should learn to develop, as it may prove useful not just for creative projects, but for my personal life as well.

Performance Work

As for my independent research, I thought it appropriate to investigate McKenzie’s own work, namely “The Crying Room”. What’s interesting about this performance is the use of it’s medium, Zoom, as part of the storytelling. The story is meant to be an expression of grief through confusing digital visuals, and the use of Zoom as the stage the audience interacts with adds a sense of immersion to the piece, as if they are peering into the life of someone else. Additionally, I admire the sheer quantity of visual elements used in this works, as it adds to the feeling of overstimulation and portrays the confusing ways in which people handle grief in a more visceral way. I believe I’ve gained more insight into how to use different mediums and visual elements to invoke feelings in the audience through this piece.

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