Doors Open Milwaukee - Kate Kinser

For Doors Open Milwaukee, I went to two locations that were very different from one another.  The first was the Broadway Theater Center, http://www.broadwaytheatrecenter.com/

I walked into the actual theater, which was really beautiful inside, and reminded me of the opera house I went to in Paris.

I started to think of how a theater like this one functions and operates.  There's the audience, the performers, and the pit orchestra, among others.  The audience is like most audiences, they observe the show and express emotions through clapping or laughing, but they are all strangers to one another.  The performers know that there is an audience watching them, and they interact with that audience, but they don't know who is out there watching them, and some times may not even be able to see over the lights.  This is like the Panopticism reading, and the discussion we had with interactions on the internet.  An artist can put something out on the internet, knowing they will have an audience, but they won't know who exactly that audience is.  This is true for live performance as well, not being able to see the audience, or having no way in knowing who they all are, if they are following along, or falling asleep.  I considered the pit orchestra as well.  They are performing and interacting with both the performers and the audience, and both of these groups can look in and see the pit orchestra at anytime, but the people in the pit can not look out to see either the audience or the performers.  So in this sense, the pit orchestra is like the prisoner, who can be seen from all angles, but can not see anything out of where they are.

The second location I went to was Artasia, http://artasiagallery.com/
Artasia is a place I have walked past many times, but never actually gone inside to look at the artwork or the items for sale.  It is a long, narrow, crowded space, that encourages you to walk in and all the way through to truly explore.  I am a little claustrophobic, and knowing there was only one way in and out of this tiny space was a bit uneasy.  What was interesting was the way everything was laid out in the space.  There were so many statues and figurines that monopolized everything else in the space.  As I approached the back of the space, I heard faint chanting that grew louder and louder.  There was a staircase that lead downstairs to an area that was mostly storage, but part museum.  The staircase was lined with Asian figurines, and the speaker that was playing the chanting sound was right there, too.  Walking down those stairs was like an exciting journey into another land.  This was an experience that was able to affect my psyche based on my surroundings.  The small area made me feel uneasy, the music made me feel adventurous, etc.