“Cycle of Experimental Art”, (1968), Rosario, Argentina by Graciela Carnevale:
In the context of Fascist Argentina, Carnevale invited an audience to an exhibition where she locked them inside the gallery for over an hour without prior notice or explanation, until the crowd finally decided to smash the glass to escape.
Touchy is a human camera, who is blinded constantly until someone’s touch enables the opening of the automated shutters. While a continuous physical contact is maintained between Touchy and a user, the camera shoots a photo every 10 seconds.
[via designboom]
The de/Rastra oscillographic synthesizer is a real-time audio/video instrument and computer-interfacing device that allows a performer to generate visualizations intrinsic tocathode ray tube technology while simultaneously creating the acoustic analog of the displayed imagery.
“I would be humiliated if I found out that anything I did actually became a commercial success.” – Lydia Lunch
Spinning Beach Ball of Death, a performance by Improv Everywhere:
“For our latest mission, a presenter at the TED conference has his talk interrupted by the Mac spinning wait cursor, commonly known as the “Spinning Beach Ball of Death.” As he stands awkwardly and waits, things get weird.”
Punishment is a new series of works by Julius von Bismarck:
“The title of the exhibition points to a pre-Christian legend that says that the Achaemenid King and Egyptian Pharaoh Xerxes had the strait at Hellespont punished with 300 lashes, after bridges that had been built on his order were destroyed by a storm shortly after construction.
Julius von Bismarck took up this anger allegorically for his new series of works. From October to December 2011 he went on a journey through Switzerland, South America and the United States armed with a whip. At impressive locations he plays with the rhetorical power of this traditional retaliation, whipping nature, defying its power, until he is exhausted. In a contemporary context, he thus rebels against socialization and, as a modern Sisyphus, questions value patterns which are conveyed to people today by societal constructs and authorities.”
“Feisty anti-Kremlin activists — the ones that terrorized the Red Square with purple smoke bombs and an illegal performance of their hardcore tune Putin Pissed Himself – strike again! Pussy Riot crashed Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour with their new anthem Virgin, Exorcise Putin! and its catchy chorus of “Holy shit, shit, shit/Holy shit, shit, shit.” Watch the video as they trash around and get dragged out by security and Russian nuns.”
[via animalny]
I just stumbled upon the story of Josh Harris. How did I miss this until now???
“Josh Harris is the founder of Jupiter Communications and Pseudo.com. The dot-com pioneer dreamed up legendary art project Quiet: We Live in Public, a late ’90s spycam experiment that placed more than 100 artists in a “human terrarium” under New York City, with webcams capturing their every move. It ended badly, and Harris’ personal life later took a dive when he tried a similarly intimate stunt in his own loft. ”
Here’s a documentary.
The Antics Roadshow is an hour-long special made by Banksy charting the history of behaving badly in public, from anarchists and activists to attention seeking eccentrics.
Contributors include Michael Fagan talking about breaking into the Queen’s bedroom: ‘I looked into her eyes, they were dark’; and Noel Godin, who pioneered attacking celebrities with custard pies: ‘Instead of a bullet I give them a cake’.
Explaining his reasoning behind the show, Banksy said: ‘Basically I just thought it was a good name for a TV programme and I’ve been working back from there’.
Narrated by Kathy Burke and produced by Jamie D’cruz, The Antics Roadshow examines the stories behind some of the most audacious stunts of recent times and what motivates the perpetrators, from mindless boredom to heartfelt political beliefs.
It includes a world exclusive first interview with the man responsible for putting the turf Mohican on Winston Churchill’s head.
I memes non sono soltanto gif animate, personaggi bizzarri ed espressioni vernacolari. A volte, gli elementi replicanti prendono la forma del “comportamento”, dell’azione insensata, inutile e improduttiva. Qualcuno dà il via alle danze e milioni di persone seguono il suo esempio, replicando il comportamento iniziale secondo infinite varianti. L’azione viene reinterpretata, coverizzata, stravolta e ricopiata. Spostata di contesto, mescolata con nuovi elementi, reinventata.
Per chi ha un po’ di confidenza con l’arte contemporanea, non è difficile riconoscere in queste azioni il DNA di molte correnti artistiche fondamentali del secondo Novecento, come la performance art e l’arte concettuale. La performance come atto spontaneo, non teatrale e dis-funzionale. L’arte concettuale per la centralità accordata all’idea e alla sua formalizzazione in un set di “istruzioni”. Istruzioni eseguibili da chiunque.
Qualche esempio di comportamento / performance virale?
Planking, ossia sdràiati a pancia sotto nei luoghi più impensati, fatti una foto, mettila su Facebook. Di origine australiana.
Tag 241543903, ossia metti la testa nel freezer, fatti una foto, caricala su Flickr e aggiungi un tag numerico.
In questo caso, la commistione con l’arte è ancora più evidente. L’iniziatore del “gioco” è infatti David Horvitz, artista concettuale doc, che nell’aprile 2009 postò sul suo Tumblr una serie di “istruzioni” come parte di un progetto più ampio che cita famose opere degli anni Sessanta e Settanta (basta pensare agli instruction pieces di Yoko Ono).
Il prossimo quale sarà? E’ già arrivato, si chiama Owling…
P.S. nel freezer la testa ce l’ho messa anche io :-)
BYOB Venice has been short (rain came to disturb us after a couple of hours), but very cool!
More info: http://www.byobworldwide.com
“Sewing machine orchestra is the first version of a performance created by Martin Messier. The basic sounds used in this performance consist entirely of the acoustic noises produced by 8 sewing machines, amplified by means of microcontacts and process by a computer.”
(Via TRIANGULATION BLOG)
Be Your Own Souvenir project by Blablabla:
“This proposal aims to connect street users, arts and science, linking them to under-laying spaces and their own realities. The installation was enjoyed during two weekends in January 2011 by the tourists, neighbours of La Rambla and citizens of Barcelona, a city that faces a trade-off between identity and gentrification, economic sustainability and economic growth.
This shapes through a technological ritual where the audience is released from established roles in a perspective exchange: spectator-performer, artist-tourist, observer-object.
The user becomes the producer as well as the consumer through a system that invites him/her to perform as a human statue, with a free personal souvenir as a reward: a small figure of him/herself printed three-dimensionally from a volumetric reconstruction of the person generated by the use of three structured light scanners (kinect).
The project mimics the informal artistic context of this popular street, human sculptures and craftsmen, bringing diverse realities and enabling greater empathy between the agents that cohabit in the public space.”
(Via iGNANT)
From “the prank collective” Improv Everywhere: King Philip IV of Spain autograph signing:
“For our latest mission we staged an unauthorized autograph signing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with an actor who bears a striking resemblance to King Philip IV of Spain. Standing in front of the 400-year-old Velázquez painting, the “King” greeted museum patrons and offered free signed 8×10 photos.”
Highscreen, 2011, by Aram Bartholl:
“In this public intervention ‘HIGHSCREEN‘ I revived dumped CRT screen from the streets of Berlin to show Internet art on them before they eventually go to electronic hell. Featured works in this intervention: ‘404’ by JODI 1997, ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ by Evan Roth 2010, ‘therevolvinginternet.com’ by Constant Dullaart 2010, ‘Super Mario Clouds’ by Cory Arcangel 2002″
This guy is a total genius…
[via]
The italian artist group IOCOSE has thrown some real sunflower seeds on Ai Weiwei‘s porcelain ‘Sunflower Seeds’:
“The porcelain seeds, previously exhibited at the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, are now part of a new artwork. The new artwork looks exactly the same as the previous one, as the natural seeds and those made of porcelain are indistinguishable from each other. IOCOSE reclaims the authorship of the new installation and reminds viewers of Ai Weiwei’s previous statement: ‘what you see is not what you see, and what you see is not what it means’.”
