Art 610 project idea

For my senior project i want to work with the idea of community-based/dialogical art. I like the idea of reclaiming art from the galleries and giving it back to the people. In western culture we have elevated the role of the artist and set them apart from everyday people. We have been told that they are some how better then everyone else. I am fascinated by the idea of having the viewer become not only included, but involved in the creation of artwork. My goal is to have a sense of communication through art. To get people who might not talked to each other normally to create some form of dialog.

I have always had a fascination with the graffiti/writings people do in public places, such as: bars, restrooms, street signs, etc. Much of the time these are mean, rude, or derogatory, but some are just funny or entertaining. I hope to create a series of booths that give people a place to write their feelings. I am hoping to create a positive and constructive place where people can express their feelings without fear of judgement or ridicule, for all their writings will be anonymous unless they want to lay claim to it.

Each booth will start out as a blank canvas aside from one quote i will put in them to act as a catalyst. Hopefully people will make comments on other peoples writings as well as including their own thoughts. In the end i hope to have all sides of the booths covered. People don't have to contribute, they can also just go inside and read what is in them and hopefully take something away from it. At first i wanted to set a theme for each booth (which I still might do), but to me now it seems a bit contrived. I think the whole part of this piece is to let go and see where the community takes it. I have an idea where I would like it to go, but in all actuality once i set them up they are out of my control. To be honest I think that is the beauty of it. People will be free to express themselves in any way they like. Some might be frustrated and need a place to vent, while others might try to leave words of encouragement for that person, if they ever come back to look at it again.

I am intrigued by the fact that once these are constructed i will have no control over them. Any thing that might get censored would be done by a participant and thus another part of the piece. In a sense it will be a living piece of art work, that is not managed or contained by any one person.

Open Street Mapping Project

At first i didn't see the need for the Open Street Mapping Project. I thought it was a redundancy since we now have Google Earth and Mapquest. Since these two tools are free for use on the internet i assumed that they were free to use in any way we wished. I had no idea that they had proprietary issues. After finding this fact out i gained a whole new appreciation for The Open Mapping Project. An open source map that everyone can contribute to. And what i particularly found beautiful is that the user is able to highlight what they find important. By allowing them to focus on mapping things other then just roads and street names, they can activley change and expand how we use maps as a society. They make an example of people mapping mailboxes but i see greater possibilities. People can decide to map open spaces, or trees or sites of importance to them. From this we can create a living map of experience that is more then just a map showing where we are but also where we have been and where we are going.

Trimble Tutorial & The GPS Revolution.

I found both of these articles very interesting. For the first time i actually understand how the GPS system works. I find it fascinating how many different ways the satellites and receivers can make corrections for tremendous accuracy. The GPS Revolution was a nice read because it is a quick overview of GPS and it's history while the Trimble Tutorial is much more indepth and informative. Overall they work very well as a one two punch of explaining the whole GPS process. What I found most interesting is the triangulation of points and how it can be achieved two ways. One by three precise measurements or by using four satellites that don't have to be as accurate.

Art of Participation

The Art of Participation at SF Moma is by far one of the best exhibits I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. I say experiencing because for once i was actually engaged in the works of art, not merely a passive observer. Two artists that really struck me were John Cage with his piece 4:33, and Tom Marioni with The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest form of Art. I really enjoyed these pieces because in both cases they would be nothing with out people their to create them. In Cage's piece it is a composition of 4 minutes 33 seconds of silence. It was and still is a profound piece because while the artist has not composed a single note there is a great deal of ambient noise. It is the awkward silence that then gets broken by the shifting of the audience or a cough from the crowd, but it is at that point that one realizes that they are not witnessing a piece of art work but they are PART of the artwork. And while the composition of the piece remains constant throughout every performance, each in itself is completely unique and can never be recreated.

Similar to this is Tom Marioni's piece in which he holds a kind of salon where he invites the public (in this case) to come together and drink beer and share and swap ideas. One difference is that participants in this piece are aware before they even step into the room that they are going to be part of the work. It was great to see the different kinds of interactions that took place. Some people were content to just drink beer and observe while others took a more active role. One component that i particularly liked was the hands on activity of constructing cardboard furniture. There were tables and benches that had quite a difficult set of instructions to follow. it was great seeing people struggle both on their own as well at together. The best part for me was when some people took partially completed furniture and arranged them in new ways to create completely different pieces. Proving that ideas and creativity flow freely between groups of people, especially when social lubricant is involved.