The idea behind “The Church Of Smart” was to use practice of how church will practice street evangelism by giving out pamphlets to people passing by on the street. Often times people are annoyed by the handouts and will quickly throw them away or not accept them as all as they expect it to be the normal religious information that they are not interested.
I decided to make a pamphlet that would have information that was not religious at all, and would have pieces of information or tips that could interest people, or that they would find funny.
My pamphlet was for The Church Of Smart, or TCoS.
I chose a location on the street to do my “evangelism” near a church and between to trash cans, each within about 50 feet, I also did this on Sunday. I did not have video or photographs because I was by myself and I felt holding a camera could have had a poor impact on what I was trying to do, people seeing a camera would emediate you realize I was not just a normal street evangelist.
Inspiration draws directly from the idea in Dada that the focus of the artists was not about creating visually pleasing objects, but on creating art that conflicted with social norms, and generated questions about how society functioned.
Using handouts is also rooted in the movements heavy use of print, and things that could be mass produced.