Happening

This activity was real awkward. Most of the time I felt uncomfortable and overly self conscious. It is freezing outside. I just remember not wanting to copy someone else's facial movements. Usually people naturally mirror other people during a conversation but it felt wrong and weird to be doing it consciously. Also, the faces were funny so it was hard to concentrate on actually performing the activity rather than giving in to the absurdity of it.

Critiquing Duchamp

While I do not find Duchamp's piece The Bride to be visually appealing or to be clearly telling a narrative, his explanation of it seems valid and thought out. However, I would hesitate to call it a successful work of art, as the explanation required is not only extremely long, involved (and somewhat boring); but the same conclusion cannot be reached by an outsider merely looking at the piece.
For a work of art to be successful, it should be able to be "read" or understood coherently without the aid of multiple notes and pages of in-depth analysis. If this cannot be done, the viewer can neither connect nor react to the piece, and it may as well be completely meaningless.
Furthermore, Duchamp has also failed to produce the comedy that he claims it to be. If too much explanation is required of a joke, it becomes ruined. Humor is something that is intuitive, causing reactions first and then, later on, thought about more clearly. This aside, I would not even consider The Bride to be humorous though I do have a (vague) understanding of its meaning.
It seems to me that the message the piece sends is more depressing than anything else. It trivializes the pursuit of love and desire, suggesting that it is a meaningless, animal instinct, prompting actions that are futile and equally meaningless. The figures are not people that the viewer is allowed to connect to. They are mere types...the virgin bride, the bachelors with unquestionably masculine careers. Their actions are mechanical, part of a game, and they are propelled forth automatically, without having any concept of why or how.
The ultimate outcome of The Bride and her fate are never given, perhaps adding even more to cynical feeling that this work stirs in the viewer. She and the bachelors have come to the end of the game and are stuck in a standstill, unable to go forward or backward, with no future.