Class Notes: 2/28/06

Outline:
1) Announcements
2) Presentation on contemporary artists whose work blurs art and life---use as a way to cover what was in the Kaprow and Wodizcko readings
3) Art/Life experiments
a. half the class goes to the student center and approaches passers-by to do a lee walton-style "Life/Theater Project" for 15 minutes.

1. Announcements:
March 9 class cancelled--no sub
Caponigro lecture and workshop

2. Lecture on the Blurring of Art and Life

Lee Walton "The Life/Theater Project"
On May 14th on the sidewalk of Rivington Street in the Lower East Side (NY), Lee Walton gathered a large crowd of spectators to experience his latest project entitled "The Life/Theater Project".

When the spectators were ready and the time was approaching 6:15 p.m., Walton made the following announcement to the group.

"Look around you in all directions. From 6:15 to 6:30, some of what you will see is "real" and some of it has been "orchestrated". After the 15 minutes have elapsed, those who were "acting" and taking part in the project will come back and reveal themselves...it is now 6:15- please enjoy the show."

From 6:15 to 6:30, the spectators watched as the daily activities of the Lower East Side took place in front of them. Slowly the minutes passed as each spectator scrutinized each pedestrian and passer-by. Before long the group became anxious and could not distinguish the "real" people from the "fake".

After about seven minutes, the spectators began applauding each person that passed by.

Progressively, as each person and minute passed, the entire scene became theatrical. The spectators were cheering for each person that graced the scene. At a certain point, many of the pedestrians, unsure of why they were being cheered, reacted to the crowd by waving or giving a thumbs up- some of them avoided walking down the street all together. At one point, a clown dressed in blue with a big red nose rode by on his bicycle- the crowd erupted with cheering and laughter.

After the 15 minutes had elapsed, the "actors" came back to join the crowd and reveal themselves. They were applauded for the show.

There were over 20 actors that particpated in the project and the clown with the red nose was not one of them.

Lee Walton--"Changing Things" 2005

Marisa Olson "American Idol Audition" 2004

Marc Horowitz, "Coffee In the Park" 2004
For Coffee in the Park, I daisy-chain 1300 ft of safety orange extension cord and string it from my kitchen to the eastern end of alamo square park, where I power my Mr. Coffee. The coffee is hot and tasty, but a bit slow to brew due to the electrical resistance. The first saturday, I met some very interesting people and acquired an entire band from all four corners of the park. Imagine that - theme music to making coffee in the park. Initially, I was doing CIP every Saturday, but that got to be a bit much for me, so I will now do it once a month.

Issues of public space--oblique way to approach politics:

Tis' a big shame the cops didn't like the free coffee idea in Berkeley, and shut the operation down. Apparently the city of berkeley has sanctioned several areas in the city to be "free speech" areas. In those areas, after obtaining a permit from the city, you can hand out information, speak aloud, and go about promoting your cause. I could feasibly serve coffee in of these areas, but I would also have to get permission from the FDA for handing out a free beverage. Also these "free speech" areas are fairly removed from the majority of foot traffic and are set-up to preach to choir, so to speak.


Alex Villar "Upward Mobility"
In contrast to the invisible horizontal line drawn by everyday movements in the city, this video shows a person in search of vertical deviations from this norm. Several situations depict attempts to move up in spaces like a bus stop, a telephone booth, a building marquee, cracks on a wall that lead to a window, among others. The character of the actions varies from that of a playful childish game to a teenage prank to a burglar break-in to a protester stunt, that is activities that have in common the pursuit of unusual routes of action.

Alex Villar "Temporary Occupations"
Temporary Occupations depicts a person running on the sidewalk in New York while ignoring the city's spatial codes and therefore resisting their effects upon the organization of everyday experience. The clips in the video register situations of temporary invasion and occupation of private spaces located in a public setting. The action simply articulates the continuity of these spaces with the remaining areas from which they were extricated, drawing attention to, and possibly subverting, the boundaries that demarcate them.



Review artists whose work we have already seen:
-Situationists
-Emily Jacir
-William Pope.L
-rtMark/The Yes Men

Krzysztof Wodiczko
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_4_62/ai_111655800/pg_5

Homeless Vehicle, 1986

The Border Projection (1988) and Tijuana Projection (2001)
"The Border Projection (1988) was a two-part still projection that took place on consecutive evenings on San Diego's Museum of Man and the Centro Cultural in Tijuana. Situated on either side of the United States-Mexico border, the project explored colonialism, borders, and illegal aliens. The Centro Cultural was designed by Manuel Rosen in 1982 to celebrate Mexican cultural heritage. I projected on the building's domed theater the image of a man with his hands clasped behind his head--the position taken during an arrest and search. For the Tijuana Projection (2001) I used both instruments and video projection. Young women who endure terrible conditions in the maquiladoras, the region's factories, participated in a yearlong process to animate--to become--this historical building. At the same time, they forced the building to become them. They appropriated the symbolic authority, as well as the physiognomy of the architecture. Their faces filled the entire elevation of the domed building. They engaged in a highly mediated fearless speech where they were simultaneously responding to their own projections through the instruments they used to project their faces and voices on the dome.

Of course, the media understood that the women who were speaking were not those who are normally heard in public space. This architectural landmark suddenly became human. Regardless of how critical we may choose to be, we have a psychological affair with these civic structures. We invest our hopes and desires. Buildings are conceived to have this effect. The Centro Cultural, in particular, brought modernity to Tijuana. But most progress is the consequence of a catastrophe. And the women who animated the building during the Tijuana Projection have witnessed firsthand the catastrophe of progress and modern industry."
(From interview with Patricia Phillips, Art Journal, 2003)

Mouthpiece (1996)
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n10_v84/ai_18749060
Mouthpiece is still in the initial phase of development. The prototype monitor encircles the jaw and mouth of the operator, playing a prerecorded and edited speech. The device literally acts as a mouthpiece by replacing the operator's actual speech with a moving image of the lips and the sound of the voice. Wodiczko hopes to enable the wearer to activate and select the prerecorded speeches through voice commands.

If Mouthpiece creates an objectively alien experience for both wearer and viewer, The Alien Staff offers a poignantly human encounter. It raises significant issues for our society while providing a public art performance that empowers and informs its participants and audience, a particularly challenging project for current political art.

Alien Staff (ongoing)
The Alien Staff is a portable form of public-address equipment and cultural network for individuals and groups of immigrants. It is an instrument that gives the singular operator-immigrant a chance to "address" directly anyone in the city who may be attracted by the symbolic form of the equipment, by the character of the "broadcast" program, and by the live presence and performance of its owner.

The Alien Staff resembles the biblical shepherd's rod. It is equipped with a mini video monitor, and loudspeaker. A laptop computer, field sensing circuitry, and batteries are are located in a specially designed shoulder bag. The small size of the monitor, its eye-level location and its closeness to the operator's face are important aspects of the design. Since the small image on the screen may attract attention and provoke observers to come very close to the monitor and therefore to the operator's face, the usual distance between the immigrant, the stranger, will decrease. Upon closer examination, it will become clear that the image on the face of the screen and the actual face of the person are of the same immigrant. The double presence in "media" and "life" invites a new perception of a stranger as "imagined" (a character on the screen) of as "experienced" (an actor off-stage---a real life person). Since both the imagination and the experience of the view are increasing with the decreasing distance, while the program itself reveals unexpected aspects of the alien's experience, his or her presence become both legitimate and real. This change in distance and perception might provide the ground for greater respect and self-respect, and become an inspiration for crossing the boundary between a stranger and a non-stranger. (from Wodiczko's website)


Aegis (ongoing)

The Ægis was the cloak of Athena, bearing a Gorgon's head, that she used to protect herself and others. The instrument is a piece of equipment designed to represent dual (and often dueling) truths, those living contradictions that both define, depict, and can sometimes destroy individual existence.

The Ægis is composed of of two wing-like screens enclosed in a backpack hanging from the shoulders of it's wearer. When the wearer is ready to deploy the equipment, the screens will unfold in response to physical or verbal commands and simultaneously play prerecorded video and sound images of the wearers face driven by a concealed laptop computer.

The truth (a-letheia: that which is not to be forgotten; rescued from lethe, Oblivion) demands an ethics of "response-ability" that can withstand even the threat of being silenced. Revealing the complex truth of experience requires showing the contradictions-that between authenticity and assimilation, or between liberation of oneself and being bound to or for another. For example, an adequate answer to the seemingly simple and well-meaning, but deeply insulting "Where are you from?" can only be given in the form of a dialogue between two concurrently present images, and can never be achieved without revealing ones own contradictions. Perplexity can only be met with complexity. The containers of these contradictory images require an opener; and in the process of disclosure, opening up-whether through physical effort on the part of the messenger, a mechanical device, or, best of all a sensor that responds to a verbal cue-is the heart of the Ægis. (from Wodiczko's website)


3) Break into two groups
Group 1 creates a “Life/Theater” project
Recruit volunteers to be the ‘actors’
Specify what they will do and where
Perform for the class group--10 min
Group 2 creates a “Making Changes” project
Change the environment in subtle ways
Lead the group on a silent tour of the area (and possibly others) in which the changes were made
Reconvene at south entrance to the building at 11:30


Wodiczko Links:
http://web.mit.edu/idg
http://art-history.concordia.ca/eea/artists/wodiczko.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_4_62/ai_111655800/pg_5