For You, Audience Response: Susan Moffat
Susan Moffat performing as an audience member in For You. Photo by: Robbie Sweeny.
From Susan:
I am overwhelmed by the thought and care that went into this massive yet gentle work, from the welcome by a lovely game partner at Yerba Buena gardens to sunset with Bach in my ears--and a particularly joyful movement of the Mass that I had forgotten about, since I generally think of the deep dark mysticism of that piece and not the swinging Gloria--and everything in between, including the rich menu at the Barn and the McDonald's hamburgers at the house!
It was very lovely to be an audience member, i.e. participating but not in charge. Since making the trains run on time is so much of what I do, it was nice to have a break from that. Today I was leading an art-making and music event at the Albany Bulb, a tiny enterprise compared to For You, but I was inspired by your work to shape the experience for the participants in as personal and caring a way as possible. Your influence worked. This from a comment card today: "You can spend quality time with people you do not know and have fun." My thoughts about For You exactly...except that by the end we did know something about each other!
Participating in For You has given me many many ideas from the beauties of analog technology like the Walkmans to the value of one-on-one partnering in a performance experience. On a more personal level, it has also made me think of the best way to welcome my daughter Sonya home next week after her year overseas--you've set a high bar for special!
Susan Moffat is the Project Director of the UC Berkeley Global Urban Humanities Initiative. She has worked in the fields of affordable housing, environmental planning, land conservation and regional planning advocacy, and journalism. Her writing on Asian cities, ethnicity and place, and environmental issues has been published in The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Planning, and the edited collection The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles.