mIn our contemporary art history class tonight there was a really great exchange, not surprisingly the question of “what is art” came up, as it always does. (what other disciplines spend so much time trying to define themselves?) This discourse was largely around the supposed dichotomy between social practice, and studio practice as models. I came home and started thinking about what is common between art forms that are not questioned as art now. And it occurred to me that one element is presentation in one way or another that frames them exclusively, either a white box scenario, or a ticket bought to experience them in a venue specifically dedicated to their “performance”. I am not suggesting that these parameters exhaustively encompass everything "generally accepted to be art", just that work presented in these ways tends to be more easily(or set up to be) engaged with as “art”. What these contexts have in common the more I thought about it, was less about what they include, and more about what they exclude, they exclude distraction.
What if we/I/one were to go to an event, say a protest, festival or some other public event, (or for that matter just a busy place like a shopping mall, or sports event) and offer people either blindfolds or sound blocking headphones to experience the event. by excluding sound, or vision could we intensify the senses left in tact? Would this be a way to replicate the expected context of art, so that a “common” experience could be similar to the experience of art? Could this be a viable strategy to highlight the art in everyday experience?
It seems to me this would be like offering a live sound or visual performance.
Type rest of the post here
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Live Recordings
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Notes for meeting with Fritz Haeg
OCT. 29th
Points of departure from lecture:
1 Objects as vessels (personal topic: love of making and doing, how to bridge/mutually express the physical with the experiential, also objects as vessels of memory, and memory as object. place for personal symbology/poetry within a group dynamic and collaborative creation?)
2 Giving something a name (personal topic: sweat shop vs more than free trade, parallel university- working title vs “official naming”at what point does the name define the design)
3 Role of the private home (personal topic: relevance of a physical space)
4 Website as project (personal topic: mixed feelings about technology, resistance to its assumed status, pull of its possibilities, fear of its influence in (driving) the design process)
5 Teaching (personal topic: graceful interface(purposeful, gainful, confusion between) teaching and learning, learning and teaching)
6 Strong grounding in one field to explore away from, I would like to hear more about this.
You had a question at dinner looking for a word to describe what you wanted your work to achieve, you said that “accessible” wasn't the right word..... I wrote on my hand the word “gracious”, and also the word “courtesan.” I think of a courtesan as being a sometimes uncomfortable, but respected exception to the mainstream rules and expectations, a conduit for intelligent and sensual consideration, a person who embodies and grants permission for other ways of being. I think that a courtesan is also welcoming while maintaining all of her/his own strength. A courtesan is the consummate host/hostess to an alternate way of being. They blaze, and balance on, a hair fine line between definitions, just as you described your own intent. Is "courtenesial" a word yet?
OCT 31st:
Today I met with Horia, I talked to him about PU, and told him about Fritz's critique of the mission statement. He pretty much agreed with Fritz. I really feel attached to the official tone of that document, but perhaps what we need is a cover letter, or intro that is more conversational. Horia also asked a lot of good questions, in particular he brought up the topic of ceremony. Ralph and I had talked about this, but kind of left it on the back burner. I realized that thinking about that more now can help give shape to the project.
OCT.30th
I met with Fritz this morning and we touched on most of the topics mentioned above. I started the meeting by showing him the "mission statement" for Parallel University before we looked at my talking points. After the reading of the mission statement, he asked me about the wording and intended audience. TONE He found it a little dense (in the not easy to digest sense) and talked about the fact that it might be our introduction, either printed or (especially) as a web presence. He asked me about the project and said that my conversational explanation was very different than what he read. He stressed the importance of tone to the introduction of a work, especially one in which one wants contributions, collaboration with others.
I was thrilled, as he had touched on both the topics of "naming" and "technology". We went then to the topic specifically of "naming". We didn't manage to find an answer, or any particularly new insight, but we did agree that the name, even a working title can shape the design of a project. He did put forth that in his experience the best names were short, maybe two seemingly contradictory words, and that the best thing is to have a name that both describes, and leaves expectation open to interpretation. He elaborated on what he said in his lecture about the name of "edible estates" really fueling that project.
Next was the more complicated topic of how to keep ones poetry alive in a collaborative process (the object element of this question didn't really come into it) This was a really interesting conversation, I don't really know how to write it, except to say that after I was finally able to explain my question, Fritz seemed whole hearted in his validation of the importance of this. To summarize...and this was something that was revisited through out our conversation, he said that the poetry came in the creating of a space for something to happen in, and then also, in another way, from experiencing fresh and new what people create in that space made available. This last part is what I took from the conversation, not what he said, but I think he agreed with me.
I don't want to go on and on in a point by point fashion so I will just finish up by saying what I got from the exchange (after all this is all about me right?)
I felt that Fritz came to our meeting more like a friend (hard to do with a stranger!) and was letting me sort of guide the topics, but was also (like a friend would be) really generous in sharing his own experience, and the conversation wondered where it would, with occasional change of topic by me. In particular the topics of technology (which I probably should or will elaborate on at some point) and "naming" were very distinct, and those of physical space, teaching and personal poetry were so interwoven in my mind that it is hard to parse them here. Ultimately he left me with a few very specific questions to apply to my own projects, and a vague sense of encouragement, or respect for my pursuit of them.
One last thing, the topic of the courtesan, we didn't really get into this the way I'd fantasized it going, (I was thinking of this intentional contemplation of a question he'd brought up as my thank you for his time.) But we did have an interesting few moments trying to figure out how to pronounce "courtenesial". At the end of the day the word and concept is a gift to me, I had perceived Parallel University as granting no degree, instead that the students grant themselves permission. The thinking I did about the role of the courtesan really "fleshed" out the means to that end for me. The University as Courtesan!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
An open question
Is technology the new “institution”? Is a facility with technology now assumed as a basic prerequisite for “legitimacy?“ Do we now consider the aesthetics and functionality of an artist's (or any body's) website to be an indication of their validity/viability? Do these elements factor into our assessment/reception of a persons work? Is any attempt to proceed with out , or stumble around, technology perceived as (assumed to be) either an intentional statement, or indication of a more fundamental and general ineptitude? Do we exist now in a "culture" that assumes technology to be an "unspoken", or implicit partner in our dialogs? Is this a new ethos?
nothing more to read right now, check back later
Friday, October 19, 2007
Another bus story
I couldn't quite understand this fellows name, but he took my book on the bus last week (he literally took it away from me as I was reading.) He did to give it back to me after he ascertained that the only picture was on the cover. I think he may have wanted to point to the irony of me reading a book on "relational aesthetics" when I was on a bus full of people I could have been relating to. I was social practiced by a two year old! Thank you little man.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
what I leaned today!
I picked Allan McCollum up at the airport this afternoon. He is delightful. In the short time we had together, bringing him to town, making a rather round about way to the safeway, through my neighborhood, and via powells to his hotel, I learned two things. One, never use your nick name on a resume, I should always say "Sandra" rather than Sandy, I suppose Sanone is completley out of bounds. And the second was an implicit and more profound lesson. We were at the safeway looking for tiny toothpaste and shaving creams. Necessitated of course by the new airline laws. I said that a good project would be to set up an exchange at the air port where people could leave their liquids before going through security and people coming off flights could pick them up. He didn't say, oh good idea, or how would that work, he said: "Apply for a Grant". And I oddly said, ok I will! I think this is perhaps one of the differences between artist who "make it" and those who don't. An assumption that they deserve funding for their pursuits. So I will be applying for a grant for this air port exchange project. Thank you Allan!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Bus meeting
Today when I got onto the bus my favorite seat was available, the one just up to the top of the steps right behind the back door. Sitting there is like being on a ride, I don't like rides, but I like sitting there and feeling "like I'm on a ride". Michael and Uma clocked me coming up the isle (I don't mean hit me, I man saw me in a meaningful way) I "clocked them clocking me" and I wondered what was up.... soon after I sat down Michael leaned over and said "excuse me, what do you do?" I told him that up until yesterday I worked in the stacks at the library. He leaned over to Uma, and said, I was pretty close. I asked him what he had guessed I did. And he said school teacher. I told him that he was really good because I had just started school to be able to teach. I asked him what he did, and he said he was a seasonal construction worker, but mostly in summer. He told me he had a deconstruction job last week, which was really fun. And next week he has a landscaping gig, he hopes that the weather is like today, but he doesn't really care, he loves working outside. He then explained that what he is really good at is relaxing, being lazy. He told me the trick to that is to balance inactivity with moving around pretending like you are actually going to get something done. Uma was pretty shy and mostly hid behind Michael. They got off soon, we shook hands and expressed our mutual pleasure about the meeting. I was particularly taken by this experience, as Michael performed, with me as a recipient, exactly the kind of social practice work that I might do. (I am a little obsessed with the relationships that happen on buses) I loved this experience, and I feel like this is a great demonstration of the synchronicity/coincidence/connection that I am interested in, and I got to be on the receiving, responsive (rather than generative) end of it!
Points of departure
I am not quite sure how to use this space yet, I mean in terms of what is worth posting.
Here is a list of some of the things I am thinking about.
coincidence
connections
physical trails of experience
elevators
memory/rethinking-redefining memory
collaboration
work/play
