In summary…

Joanna Seitz
Art in the Public Context

To sum it all up, my proposals for this class have been to create, explore and manipulate a place. This has only been partially successful, as this is a huge undertaking with more possibilities and avenues to explore than feasible in a few months. Still it is my hope that I now have the beginnings of a project I can continue to narrow and refine into something smart and engaging.

Looking back over what I have done in the course of the semester, I realize that I have outlined a number of different projects that I now understand as an attempt to study this idea of “place”.

In the beginning, I proposed constructing a life-size dollhouse. Built to human scale, this three-walled domestic space could be walked into and through. It would be fully furnished and functional in terms of plumbing and electricity. In addition, the interior and exterior construction would be complete. Viewers would be invited to enter and explore the “house” or simply view it as a whole from the outside.

“…all cultural space – indoors and outdoors, built and ‘natural’ – is a function to a greater or lesser degree of the human response to its own evolving condition… the space enables the response, which in turn creates the space. Causer and caused, first and second, change places in a perpetually reversing metalepsis.”
- J. Hillis Miller

The impetus for this “dollhouse” lay in my interest in Miller’s perpetually reversing causer and caused of cultural space. Previously, my photographic work has involved shooting the lives and spaces of the people around me in an attempt to understand what makes us (and myself) tick. As many of these images were staged, it seemed logical that maybe not only the actions in the image could be fabricated, but the place itself. If I could construct a place, I would cause the construction of characters within that place. For me, fabricating this space within an art context could not only create something delightfully surreal, but locate itself within Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory on relational aesthetics – the idea that an artwork could create relationships among those who view it, and those relations could be judged and evaluated as any other aesthetic experience.

The second idea I proposed was to create and choreograph a performance piece originating from the point of view of the setting. Instead of the choreographic concepts dictating the accompanying visual elements such as set and costume to evoke or explain place, the setting/place would determine the choreography. I was not referring to site-specific performance, this would take place in a theater or gallery. For example, if the “setting” was a house, then the performance could deal with issues such as protection vs. intrusion, privacy, refuge, etc… Physical representation of the setting would be kept to a minimum.

This could be seen in two ways: a study of the phenomenology of performance or a performative study of the social contract that exists in cultural spaces. With the latter, I am talking about two things: understanding place through an abstracted expression of it’s essence; understanding place through the social contract it creates and how that contract creates place (chicken or the egg situation).

Unfortunately, the content of these pieces were not particularly original, but it did get me thinking. As I looked to develop these two ideas, I decided to try two things:

1. Make a series of photos and performance clips that explore ideas of place via the social contract that we find within them. These could be short, staged actions that either deal with expressing the social contract or the essence of the setting. Or use the setting to manipulate the contract. Is this contract what defines a place? Or does the place require the contract? What is the essence of a place? How do we know where we are?
2. Build a place. This would allow the audience to actually enter into this setting, and allow me the opportunity to use performance to manipulate the experience.

I built a “waiting room”. The

Presentation #3

PROPOSAL #2, version 3

What happened…

during my last presentation, the following things were discussed:

• the difference between illustrating/depicting what happens in a place vs. manipulating how we (the audience) will behave
• creating a place vs. using an existing one
• using performance vs. materials to explore ideas of place

What I did…

I enclosed the “waiting room” so that it was a place you could enter, sit and wait. I had someone already in there, waiting, to make people feel that they were allowed to go in and stay if they wanted.

What I learned…

• what is subtle in a photograph isn’t necessarily so in actuality.
• people don’t forget that they are “in” an art piece, although they might not make the connection that they “are” the piece…
• choreographing their (the audience) entrance is important part of the experience

Presentation #2, Part #2

To begin, I built a “waiting room”.

Then, I explored different aspects of what this space may be via photos:

and video:

(link to come)

Presentation #2

PROPOSAL #2, version 2

(working title: are we there yet?)

performance or performance video clips that explore ideas of place via the social contract that we find within them. Is this contract what defines a place? Or does the place require the contract? What is the essence of a place? How do we know where we are?

I am talking about 2 things: understanding place through an abstracted expression of it’s essence; understanding place through the social contract it creates and how that contract creates place (chicken or the egg situation).

To explore these ideas, I propose 2 things:

1. Make a series of performance clips. These would be short, staged actions, that either deal with expressing the social contract or the essence of the setting. Or both
2. Build a place. This would allow the audience to actually enter into this setting, and allow us the opportunity to use performance to manipulate the experience.

Some places:

• Kitchen
• Bar/club
• Laundry mat
• Waiting room
• Elevator
• Salon
• Studio
• Bedroom
• Den
• Livingroom
• Public/private bathroom
• Dressing room

Presentation #1: more links and notes

Dan Graham suburban house
http://thegalleriesatmoore.org/publications/grahamdg.shtml

Dan Graham writing

Playtime by Jacques Tati

Christoph Buechel at Maccarone
http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/rossi/rossi12-20-01.asp

Michel Gondry Be Kind Rewind at Deitch Projects
http://www.deitch.com/projects/sub.php?projId=231&orient=v

For the exhibition, Michel Gondry will be recreating the video store in the gallery, complete with a back lot containing a variety of movie sets where visitors can make their own renditions of films. All videos created during the exhibition can be viewed in the gallery. About the project, Gondry states, “I don’t intend nor have the pretension to teach how to make films. Quite the contrary. I intend to prove that people can enjoy their time without being part of the commercial system and serving it. Ultimately, I am hoping to create a network of creativity and communication that is guaranteed to be free and independent from any commercial institution.”

http://www.merzbau.org/Schwitters.html

Ed Kienholz Whitney Retrospective
http://www.whitney.org/www/collection/feat_kienholz.jsp

http://www.beatmuseum.org/kienholz/edkienholz.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n10_v84/ai_18749036

Presentation #1: links and notes

Todd Haynes
Karen Carpenter Story in Barbie dolls
“Superstar”

Repulsion by Roman Polanski

William Klein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Are_You%2C_Polly_Magoo%3F

Essex Street Market
http://www.creativetime.org/programs/archive/2007/nelson/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Family

Gregor Schneider Haus Ur
Gregor Schneider began working on Haus Ur in 1985 at the age of sixteen. The rooms on view here are part of his ever-changing construction and reproduction of the interior of his house in Rheydt, Germany. This work is built within his house and is contained—by a slight scaling down—within the rooms that the work exactly replicates. For this exhibition, a suite of rooms has been carefully cut out and transported to the museum where the artist has reassembled them. Presented as a sculptural environment, Schneider’s work reveals evidence of his various layers of construction, the elaborate process of their making, and the intense materiality involved in re-creating an entire home. Haus ur is a quotation and extension of the original that reveals how an apparently normal and benign space can trap and disorient through illusion and mystery.

http://www.postmedia.net/01/schneider.htm
http://www.cmoa.org/international/html/art/schneider.htm

Presentation #1

Hi all,

Attached is the introduction to a book I’ve been reading, Our House: The Representation of Domestic Space in Contemporary Culture.
There are a few essays that are interesting, but this is a good overview. I can post some more of them if anyone would like.

intro_cultdomesticspace.pd

and another inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu7aiDgOiSw

*********************************

PROPOSAL #1

life-size dollhouse
Construction of a life-sized, three-walled domestic space that could be walked into and through. Fully furnished and functional in terms of plumbing and electricity – interior and exterior construction complete. Viewers would be invited to enter and explore the “house” or simply view it as a whole from the outside.

interests and inspirations:
“…all cultural space – indoors and outdoors, built and ‘natural’ – is a function to a greater or lesser degree of the human response to its own evolving condition… the space enables the response, which in turn creates the space. Causer and caused, first and second, change places in a perpetually reversing metalepsis.”

• construction of a place
• construction of characters via their place
• surrealism
• performance spaces
• public vs. private
• identity
• ownership

PROPOSAL #2

performance piece
Create and choreograph a performance piece originating from the point of view of the setting. Instead of the choreographic concepts dictating the accompanying visual elements such as set and costume to evoke or explain place, the setting/place would determine the choreography. I am not referring to site-specific performance, this would take place in a theater or gallery. For example, if the setting was a house, then the performance could deal with issues such as protection vs. intrusion, privacy, refuge, etc… Physical representation of the setting would be kept to a minimum.

interests and inspirations:

• performance
• movement as another visual language
• time
• audience’s role or perspective – they would function as an extension of the setting
• Piña Bausch
• Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods

LINKS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalepsis
http://www.damagedgoods.be/
http://www.impulstanz.com/gallery/videos/performances/en&page=1&sort=mod_sort