Performance Art - Walk With Me, Technology

For the performance art piece, I decided to show how technology affects us. By wearing different technology, I tried to show that technology can speed us up at times, but also slow us down. This is performed by jogging (speeding up) and walking slowly (slowing us down). It also shows the ridiculousness of our reliance on technology. 

I was wearing: headphones, dlsr camera, iphone, playstation controller, computer mouse (left leg), computer cord/box (right leg), and computer monitor (held up by computer wires). 

Enjoy! 

Extra:

• At one part, I trip on the cords and I'm pretty sure the box hits the lady next to me and then slams on the ground and breaks into pieces. I then continues to walk on and step in an ANT HILL. 
• I got bit 5 times on my right foot. 
• I think the man in a car said "CRACKER". My sister thinks he said "FASTER". 

The Dreammachine

The dreamachine has a similar affect that the strobe lights due on our eyes. Bascially, it's a tube (originally) and it is a on platform that spins really fast. The tube itself has slits on the side that lets light from the middle of the tube spill out. As the tube spins very fast, the lights begin to blur and when a person closes their eyes they start to see different colors and shapes. It is even said to bring on a hypnotic state to the person. It was created based on a book called The Living Brain, by William Grey Walters, and was produced by two artists: Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville. Unfortunately, it is recorded (in wikipedia) that 1 in every 10,000 adults will have a siezure while viewing the dreamachine, and even more with kids. It is also a good source of epilepsy.

Xerox Project

For my xerox project, I wanted to make it about our dependency on technology. With half xeroxed/half scanned pictures of my body, I think I was able to convey it in an interesting way.
Don't forget to watch the video ~! Enjoy :)

Images:

Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys (1921 - 1986) was a European artist from Germany whose artistic talents are very much appreciated and adored today. One of the main factors in his artwork that he often draws or makes installments about is the war that he was in. In 1940 he joined the military in Germany to avoid being drafted and became a pilot. After that, he was eventually captured by the British as a POW (prisoner of war). His endurance through the war and his experience of coming to terms of the kind of military that he worked for splashes out on much of his artwork.
Beuys is known for his great experimentation in all of his work, and because of this is called one of the most important german artist of the 20th century. MoMA compares him to Andy Warhol,

" His influence is comparable to that of the American artist Andy Warhol, but whereas Warhol's work features a style and imagery that is readily accessible, Beuys intentionally devised a challenging formal vocabulary, layered with meaning and metaphor. " 

Beuys was a person who felt like he needed to share his knowledge with everyone, so eventually he taught / was a professor at Dusseldorf Academy. All of the art that he made includes performance art, sculptures, installations, graphics, and music. I found one of the most interesting thing about him was that he considered everything to be art. And at one point in time, he explored pop culture and made his own band in Germany.

Here are some websites/gallery's that hold his artwork and have more information on him:


http://www.gagosian.com/artists/joseph-beuys/
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/306  

Why the Beat Generation?

The Beat Generation, the people who joined in on the fun, were basically a group of writers who experimented and reached out into different areas expression and explored them. According to Wikipedia, the "Central elements of "Beat" culture included experimentation with drugs, alternative forms of sexuality, an interest in Eastern religion, a rejection of materialism, and the idealizing of exuberant, unexpurgated means of expression and being." The group was prominent in the 1950s and in 1948 Jack Kerouac came up with the name "Beat Generation" because it represented the young people in New York (mainly) that were beaten down. (It also represented music beats too.) The beats started in Colombia University, with a group of people, who although they claimed to start their own ideas, got many of their ideas from a professor. The small group of the first beats was a bit hectic, with one of the killing another. They were also well known for their drug use, including marijuana, morphine, and LSD.

"Scandalous" Artwork

This link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/30/the-most-controversial-wo_n_989772.html#s381081
that we were told to explore, had some very interesting artwork and "scandalous" artworks that are confusing and offensive to many people. After looking through most of them, I thought some of it was funny, some of it perplexing, and the rest just a very interesting idea and perspective on the idea of art.

I think my most favorite one was David Cerny's, Shark. I think that the impact of how much it supported "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living." is not only a mind shock and something to think about about what Saddam Hussein probably thought of himself, but also something we can think of ourselves and relate to. It also poked a little fun at the one before it - the Tiger Shark in formaldehyde.

A funny one that enjoyed watching the video of, was Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning. He basically explains that he was having a difficult time drawing and that he erased his art over and over again. And then somehow got it in his mind that he needed to erase art that already existed. He then asked, while he was drunk, de Kooning to erase one of his pieces. De Kooning gave him his artwork right off the easel and Robert worked on erasing the piece for a month. It's very interesting to see the process that different people go to to decide what they have to do to achieve and get to the point where they can consider it artwork. 


Overall, all the art pieces were enjoyable and gives the viewer something to think about. The comments also gave me the ability to appreciate the art but also understand the feelings of the viewers at the time. For example, if I had to walk around Richard Serra's, Tilted Arc everyday, I would be quite upset about that!