Amber McKenna

You go about your daily routine as a student: coffee, class, dinner and study time in the library.
Today, however, is different. Today, 30 of your fellow students crumple to the ground and lie silent.
This scene was a reality on campus May 19, when the students in the Approaches to the Figure class made a political statement with a performance art piece.
The class was attempting to spread the message that, according to U.S. military policy, as stated in “Cobra II” by Michael Gordon and General Bernard Trainer, “U.S. military will kill up to 30 civilians to kill a high-priority target.”
Sophomore Bridget Butler was studying at a table in the back of Nicholson Library on May 20 when, suddenly, she heard a loud thud and saw several people collapse.
“They were all lying there like they had died,” she said. “It was more alarming than anything else.”
Butler said the unexpected performance made her aware of a fact she previously knew nothing about.
“It really shook me,” Butler said.
The goal of the project was to inform the campus of the U.S. military’s policy, Ron Mills, professor of art and visual culture, said.
Mills said his students discussed many options about how to best animate what he called “an appalling piece of information.”
Throughout the day, the students, without costumes or make-up, collapsed in sync and laid still and silent for one minute. Then, they quietly rose and distributed slips of paper describing their intended message to onlookers.
“We didn’t want the sensationalism to overwhelm the content,” Mills said.
Mills said the statistic came from sophomore Gabriel Stallings, who heard of the fact from a friend in the military.
“This factoid is not widely understood,” Mills said.
The class performed four times May 19: in Jazzman’s Café in the morning, outside Walker Hall between mid-day classes, in Dillin Hall during dinner and in the library in the evening.
Participating students also drew chalk outlines of their collapsed bodies on the sidewalk outside the library and the Miller Fine Arts Center.
Before proceeding, Mills said he received permission to do the project from the administrators who supervise the various locations and that all were supportive of it.
Another part of the artistic process, Mills said, is the contextualized levels of viewing. This means documenting the reactions of the audience and capturing the images being taken.
“Appropriating the art is helping create it,” Mills said.
Freshman Jordan Weigel said she was leaving class in Walker Hall when she saw students collapse, who, seconds before, looked as though they were on their way to or from class.
Weigel said after the initial surprise at the situation, her first instinct was to help. After seeing a few cameras she realized that there was more to the circumstance than met the eye.
“It was unique,” she said. “I’ll remember that statistic forever now.”