Waterlogged

I never do performance art. Never, ever. I've never been that kind of person. I'm very shy, I don't like being on camera, I typically don't like having photos taken. I'm much happier on the other side of the lense. Last term, however, I was kind of coerced into a performance for an assignment for an interdisciplinary class, which is good because I suppose that's what the class is meant to do -- push you outside of your comfort zone. I was at a complete loss of what to do (and then how to justify it) until a friend tossed out the idea of taking a sip from every water fountain I walked by at Brock. With the help of another friend, I walked through one of the buildings (Mackenzie Chown, second floor, blocks A, B, D, and J) and took a sip from every fountain I could. It took two takes because the first thing I did was walk by a fountain and swerve into my cameraman to go back.

I regret missing one fountain. Another student was standing in the way waiting for her seminar room to open, and this was a few fountains in, so my face was dripping water (thankfully could not be seen, but my arm can be seen going up to frequently wipe my face) and I felt extremely awkward asking her to move so I could get another drink. Cameraman saw me look at her and keep walking, so he kept it out of the shot.
I wound up justifying it with my normal water consumption habits. I really only drink water. I gave up pop/soda back in grade 9 when I was 13 or 14, I gave up cow's milk maybe last year (but I'll still use it for cooking and baking if I'm out of soy milk), never been a fan of juices, gave up coffee when I was 14, only use soy milk for cereal, and I'm more often than not the driver to/from social occasions but even if that's not the case, I rarely drink alcohol. If I'm not sipping a tea, I'm drinking water. I tend to average about 4-6L of water a day, so comparative to the water fountains at Brock, chances are if I took a sip at every one I walked by, I'd still be thirsty.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• performance
• art
• michellechanart
• pinkdagger
• interdisciplinary studies
• iasc3f96
• visa3f96
• brocku