My proposal is to use internet digital technology in order to create the content and performance of a collaborative conceptual video artwork. Borrowing from Dada, I will use a form of cut up in order to decontextualize the status updates on my Facebook feed over the course of a weekend. Dada artists in the 1920s, as well as many people following them (e.g. William Burroughs) used cut up procedures in order to attempt to shed new light on overused language through introducing unfamiliar juxtapositions. My procedure will be to take one sentence from each status update in my feed over a three day period, not use the same individual twice in a row, and not use material from any prolific individual more than thrice. The linear text of a feed is cohesive in context, but reshaped on the page, each sentence seems to lend itself to new meaning in conjunction with neighboring sentences. Next, in homage to John Cage, I will divide the resulting new text into fragments 4 lines and 33 characters (approximately). Following Cage’s notion that the spontaneous decisions of audience response is also music in his piece 4’33”, in which he created a musical composition in three movements that does not rely on traditional instruments but rather audience response, as well as seeking to use the interface of internet technology in order to solicit response that helps to form a collaborative, somewhat interactive piece, I will post a message on my FaceBook wall asking for volunteers to videotape themselves reading a fragment for an art project. In order to minimize influencing their reactions and make their readings as spontaneous as possible, I will not give any details or direction to those who respond. In order to add customization and choice for those who participate, I will send each individual three fragments and ask them to choose one fragment to read. After collecting video responses, I will edit the pieces together into a video performance, allowing the juxtaposition of images of real people contrast with the jarring series of sentences that they are reading. After posting the video online, any comments or lack thereof will also be considered to be part of the performance. The contrast between reading status updates that are meaningful in a feed but depersonalized, and seeing real people read status updates that seem somewhat coherent but are not, and also seem more personal, should elicit a range of responses from the viewer. The net result is a conceptual piece that borrows from Dada in order to ask questions about how we use social media in order to interface and communicate with each other as well as to show how language, borrowing from Cage, tends to take on the characteristics of poetry even when it is decontextualized and reshaped, but especially when read aloud. Other more cogent thoughts? youtube/watch?v=VwziH7Ijjcs&feature=youtu.be
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:59:22 +0000
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