Monday, July 16 Performance: “Beet
Dreams”
documentation text written by Erin Garceau (14)
In 2024, everyone will not need anything but each other and vehicles will run on eco-safe fuel but people won’t have to go so many places because they crave utopia—we have a world to use, so why make more and build upon it box house after box house—we don’t need it. We’ll just need our family, friends, and lovers. It would be easier to just live than worry about how to live. Kids can be honest with their parents about their dreams and desires and won’t have to lie about bad habits and secret loves.
Ending world hunger by successfully backed U.N. programs.
In 2024, all the roads in Huntley will be complete (no construction.) In 2024 everyone will wear clothes from the 50s. That will be in.
In 2024, my children will be happy, healthy adults.
Today we used the above four intentions for our performance. Our cards today, in general, spoke of secrets and road construction. Our medium today was beets. Nicole has used these in past performances, so it was a fun idea. An idea we had was to do this performance in front of or in a Huntley construction area. It didn’t turn out exactly as we planned. We decided that inn front of the Marlowe Feed building in Huntley would do because of its constant traffic, and because it showed our location in the documentation.
In this piece we took a pretty normal secret that was mentioned in one of the cards: secret love. We started by drawing two people in the center of the piece. They had no actual gender because we wanted to show that secret love could be a secret for many reasons: race, religion, sex, etc. This way we weren’t just choosing one thing, it was more like the piece was for everyone. Then below the people we drew a world with small people on it. From behind the world sprouted rose petals. From the rose petals came rose vines with thorns on them. These swirled everywhere and where they ended we drew smaller roses. We also used the rose thorns to draw symbols that represented a secret of our own. The image also included a chemical formula for a substance Alex believes is the future of sustainable fuel.
Our audience was everyone driving by. This included truck drivers and just normal people driving by. Basically everyone when they stopped in the traffic jam, or just drove by looked at us and our work. Some people laughed and honked and others looked confused. Some people even honked their horns at us!
The other thing we did was that everyone in Brood 13 chose one thing to do before 12noon on Tuesday that would support their own current or future health and happiness. Erin worked on art and role playing. Selena listened to music that made her happy (death metal, thrash metal, alt rock, alt punk, melodic death metal). Nicole did 90 minutes of yoga. Alex tried to fix his bed so he could sleep better in it. Lori brainstormed strategies with the group for achieving one of her goals for future happiness.
Overall this was a fun performance. We’ve really improved our skills and I think we’re just getting better and better!
Tuesday, July 17 Performance: “Quiet
the Gangs”
documentation text written by Nicole Garneau (37)
Intentions:
In 2024 I am surrounded by people who care about the environment and make protecting the environment their first priority. In 2024 all the animals and plant lives will be alive and thriving and will not suffer from extinction. People will be filled with joy and loving compassion toward all beings.
In 2024, everyone was equal and more free in life.
In 2024, I will be free.
Today Brood 13 investigated the idea of personal freedom. We wrote about what our own personal freedom could be, and we called and interviewed radical scholar Red Tremmel about his ideas on freedom. He told us his philosophy that the world is divided into gangs—families, churches, schools, ideas, etc. are all gangs. And as teenagers, Brood 13 youth are under heavy recruitment. Red says we have to consider if freedom for us could create lack of freedom for someone else, and that freedom comes when we quiet the voices of all the gangs so that we can listen to our own hearts and make our own ethical choices. Everyone in Brood 13 also shared one way in which we might be getting in the way of our own freedom.
Brood 13 explored the idea that in order to promote loving compassion on the earth, we had to start with ourselves. Based on our discussion of our desires for freedom, each member of Brood 13 wrote a letter to someone else in the group expressing sincere compassion for that person. To perform the texts, we really tried to locate a Wetlands preservation area in McHenry County, but failed. So we stopped at another location that we felt spoke to the intentions of environmental integrity and each person performed the compassionate letter they had received.
Wednesday, July 18 Performance: “Spiritual Enlightenment”
documentation text written by Lori Moore (17)
Intentions:
In 2024 every human in the world has reached enlightenment, a state
of clear mind and love (Budhan vision).
Endangered species and extinct animals will be revived through scientific
discovery.
The world will be completely unpolluted.
In 2024, I hope my sister will be a happy 28-year-old woman and Heather
will be a happy 31-year-old woman.
Since one of our intentions was dealing with extinct species, we decided to go to Dufield Pond today. Dufield pond is part of the McHenry County Conservation District, and it is a wetlands preservation area. In Illinois, 1/5 of all wetland species are endangered, and 64% of all Illinois endangered species use wetlands. To support the vision of an unpolluted world, we each picked up at least 5 pieces of trash each (mostly cigarette butts) and put them in a garbage bag. Then we found a patch of dirt at the edge of the pond and wrote the first word that we thought of when we heard the words “spiritual enlightenment.” Lori wrote “faith,” Nicole wrote “compassion,” Alex wrote “peace,” Selena wrote “hope,” Elizabeth wrote “trust.”
Currently, the only known scientific method for reviving extinct species is through cloning. So we “cloned our words by writing them twice in the ground with a stick. It was peaceful and spiritually relaxing because of the water and the trees and the wind.
Thursday July 19 Performance: “Zen”
documentation text written by Alex Fayer (21)
Intentions:
Things in the world become less about money and more about humanity
and togetherness.
I think everyone will be much older, wiser, and we will have families.
Today we were on a tight schedule as Nicole and Lori needed to leave early. We were able to get into the Zen Garden at McHenry County College, so we thought today would be a good day to do a performance there. We went to the Zen Garden and drew the Kanji for wisdom, humanity, and togetherness. Lori used calligraphy to draw the word “family,” while Nicole meditated through words about listening to music. After we all finished we filed out and looked into the garden. Luckily, we had Guy and Samuel documenting so that we could all participating. It was incredibly relaxing to sit and paint our words while watching the bugs and listening to the wind.
