Month: November 2018

Score:

Take a walk following these rules:

1. Sidewalk Slalom
   1. Walk down the part of the sidewalk closest to the street, swerving between obstacles
2. Moving around a bench
   1. If there’s a bench or some other object to the side, walk the wrong way around it
3. Turn Around
   1. At random points, turn around abruptly
4. Change Speeds
   1. Without warning, go from a walk to sprint and back
5. Walk on curbs
   1. If something is above walking level, walk on it
6. Up and Down
   1. Go down a stairs, and then right back up
7. In a circle
   1. Walk in a circle around things
8. Path Less Traveled
   1. Go off the sidewalk in parks and plazas
9. Hop-chain
   1. When there are barriers with small chains, jump over them
10. Walk Everywhere
    1. Walk to a dead end or secluded alley and back.

Documentation:
Walking Path:

Sidewalk Slalom:

Plaza Walks:

Other videos:

Artist Statement:

Above all other influences: I just wanted to take a walk. It’s a relaxing experience to explore somewhere without a goal. Before you leave Boston get some long walks in. (That goes for everyone reading this) Okay so the inspiration for the medium was my own desires, but how did I put it together?

There might have been a time in life where I wouldn’t consider a walk through a city a valid form of art, but that was long ago. More recently there was a time where I would not feel confident enough that a walk I would do could potentially be considered arts. I have to thank our good friend R.Mutt for that confidence, because his Fountain has showed that anything can be art as long as someone thinks it’s art. There’s something about the absurdist of Dadaist art that connects to the absurdism I was trying to create. Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven certainly encapsulates more than me the absurdist public performative nature I was trying to encapsulate.

Of course wherever Dada goes Fluxus will soon follow, and Fluxus was a larger inspiration for me. If R.Mutt proved that anything can be art Allison Knowles and her dedication to the Tuna Sandwich showed us what anything as art really means. Going for a walk, eating a sandwich, making a salad are all pedestrian activities that Fluxus artists worked in throughout the movements history. This piece also comes with a score, which is certainty inspired by those of Ono. I mentioned Map Piece in my last write up but it’s even more relevant here. The work is a walk following an imaginary map; I continue to walk that path.

The final major inspiration  (although if I would have done further research into the Situationists before going on the walk it might not have been the final paragraph) were performance artists. While my walk was not as impressive or interesting as walking across the Great Wall of China it was still inspired by Marina Abromovic and Ulay’s Lovers. That piece was the first time I learned of a walk that was also a work of art. The goal of my walk was much more inspired by a Monty Python sketch then a 3 month spiritual journey of two collaborators and ex-lovers, but it remains in the same medium.

Oh and yes, here are the two (1, 2) most influential Monty Python sketches. Not just on my walk, but on my life.

For my intervention work I decided to ask people on Omegle who they were voting for. I was surprised by the ranges of results, with some people going in depth about the dangers of a ruler with unchecked power and other people asking that I show my tits.

There were a lot of bots who did not seem like they were going to vote which is probably for the best.

There were also people outside of the U.S. who talked about their own political system, with many feeling that a two party system doesn’t really work.

A lot of people disconnected almost immediately.

There were a lot of interesting people.

People didn’t seem to be buying into the whole ‘blue wave’ idea.

People were supportive of my team though.

This intervention was inspired by the then upcoming midterm election, with the idea of carrying the political weight of the 2018 midterms to a virtual space composed on a basis of randomness and escapism. For my project I thought it would be funny to do polling surveys on Omegle, highlighting the idea of face to face interactions and calling into question what subjects people do and don’t want to approach with randomly assigned strangers. I also thought the idea of adding politics back into a space that was virtually devoid of it was interesting, acting as an almost polar opposite to New Games that brought people together in opposition of the current political climate, and Tactical Media that sought to undermine oppressive systems.

To start I wanted to act the part, with the suit alone hopefully adding a false air of seriousness and validity similar to that of the Yes Men. Unlike the Yes Men however, I wanted to introduce a serious political discussion in the face of many penises, in fact the opposite of the Yes Men Managerial Leisure Suit.

While the vast majority of people on video chat didn’t respond, I was happy with the meaningful conversations I was able to have from people all over the world in the chat only section, and did appreciate the few times people video chatting did diverge from their ordinary behavior.

RULES:

• Each player receives ~20 colored googly eyes, with adhesive on the back.
• Players designate a public space as the play area. This space should be open and crowded.
• Each player must attempt to stick a pair of googly eyes onto as many targets in the play area as possible before being noticed.
• Only items that specifically belong to another person are valid targets. The goal is to make people think, “Wait a second… when did my umbrella get googlified?”
• Invalid targets include:
  • The wall
  • Posters
  • Yourself
  • Products on shelves
• Once a player is noticed, they are out.
• The winner is the player to googlify the most targets before getting out, or else the first player to use up all of their googly eyes.
• If every player gets out, they must all move to a new play area before continuing.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT:

I wish I could say that this game had some deep and world-shaking meaning behind it. And, I mean, I guess it does: everything is better with googly eyes. That’s a law of nature, as immutable as gravity or the inexorable march of time. Everything looks better when it has a little goofy face. EVERYTHING.

So, given that law, I guess this project makes the world a better place. Not in a huge way, sure. Secretly googlifying things doesn’t solve the many crises our society faces right now. But I hope that it makes people happy, and brightens their day a bit. Maybe discovering that someone has left them a googly surprise gives them the little push that they needed to turn their day around, or to keep on fighting their own battles. Even in a world as wracked with awfulness as ours, simple acts of whimsy are a form of charity.

I think my biggest influence for this project was the comedy troupe Improv Everywhere, which works to create elaborate happenings that bring a sense of wonder to the lives of random strangers. I was also strongly influenced by the stealth aspects of tactical media, such as the subterfuge required to sneak doctored Barbies back onto shelves, even though my project lacks the activist focus of tactical media endeavors.

PLAY REPORT:

Googmeisters was fun, and nerve-wracking, and difficult. I played two rounds in the Curry Indoor Quad, one of which I won and another I lost. Some notes from this experience:

• Prime targets for googlification include water bottles in the back pockets of backpacks, stuffed huskies, litter, backpacks with unzipped mouths, umbrellas.
• Most people, upon noticing me, wouldn’t call me out. They’d just smile and go about their day. I think they appreciated what I was doing.
• The most fun part of the game was spotting a prime target, moving in to googlify it, and then discovering that my opponent had already got it.
• Despite the core whimsy of the game, some parts of it were deeply uncomfortable. Once, a student put her phone back into her pocket after she spotted me eyeing it. Multiple times, I found myself thinking, “Aha! There’s someone walking alone who doesn’t see me! Now I just have to wait until no one else can see us, and I can strike!” While my intentions were entirely benign, it would have been hard to miss the other contexts in which such a train of thought would apply. I’m not sure entirely what this discomfort means for the art piece.