Week 3: September, Tuesday 29th 2020
Conceptual Video art
Sum up each action in one instructional sentence or formula.
- Walk the streets of NYC, engage with an object and change the state it is found in.
2. Accompany a stranger on a park bench by sitting.
3. Using yourself as support, climb an old wooden ladder.
4. Drive a white van into an alleyway in Detroit, exit it facing the opposite direction that you came in.
5. Let your child stumble down a dirt backroad, measure the resistant distance that you allow yourself to be away from them.
6. Conduct sounds from caressing the material of a package and it’s contents.
Defenestrate objects. Photo them in mid-air
The photo is comprised of screenshots taken from a video of a Dell keyboard being thrown. I chose the keyboard for being a spare of a back-up I had layering around. The idea behind it was to throw an object that would not have a hindering aspect to it. The decision to use the keyboard was decided by it’s Shape and potential arrangement with the cable.
It was thrown in a few manners, inciting a number of questions with each performance and framing. Where can I throw the keyboard? How is it to be thrown? Can a door be a window? the keyboard was inevitable broken in the process, in which brought out several addition questions: When to stop; what is acceptable damage? The following slideshow highlights a few of those manners:
Justin:
W1:
Excellent notes on Sol Lewitt, Yoko Ono, Nauman complete and very good evidence of curiosity and engagement with material.
Kilometre image and description – seems related to conceptual practice, I like how you showed all your thinking, and each component could be an expression of a KM. I like how you measured the kilometre precisely and how you documented it in multiple forms. Which do you find most interesting though?
W2: Image of Abramovic/Stillness gesture, and description complete and a great simple idea! I appreciate you made yourself uncomfortable/challenged and even embarrassed – to create interest and meaning in the work– this is hilarious to be under the low coffee table! I’d love to see this as a video, with all the ambient sound of a normal household going on, and you doing this absurd gesture. Wish there was a bit more reference to Abramovic specifically– and a sense you were engaged with that material/ideas.
W3: 6 conceptual sentences are complete and get the idea – to write the simple formula for actions in each piece, as opposed to broader themes. Defenestration image and description are good, wish it had more clarity (when it does the images are better) and more “air” or sky… but I think there should be more reason to throw the keyboard than just because it was around… maybe something frustrated, or about language even… could throwing a keyboard up in the air be a kind of performed poem? Ha! More possibilities to explore/express here, and there should always be a good reason for every choice.
W4: Good notes on Adad’s work to get his formula, and I like your Distancing video,you’re your partner’s performance of stillness. I think it’s good she had a bag, and was really doing something in a real moment, caught in this portrait. Consider having more lighting in front of your subject next time, instead of in the background.
Good effort on these pieces, do go through and think about all the lecture materials and references as thoroughly as you can, there are a lot of good ideas there and make sure everything is intentional. Good work, it’s fun having you in the class!
If you would like to talk with me about your work in progress, readings, exercises, one-on-one comments on your work, and grades – send me an email in the morning to book a 15 minute appointment during my office hours: Thursdays 1:30-3
And you can show up to a zoom meeting with Nathan anytime during these hours to ask your questions, and get tech support for using software and finishing your projects:
Mondays and Thursdays 1-4pm