OWEN MUSIC How will the music work Will…
OWEN: MUSIC!
How will the music work? Will it be live at your location? Will there be a feed for us to hear? Or will we just cue our performance off of your performance?
OWEN: MUSIC!
How will the music work? Will it be live at your location? Will there be a feed for us to hear? Or will we just cue our performance off of your performance?
Why is it that artists:
1. Don’t put links in their MOOC profiles?
2. Prefer email over comm on open Web?
3. Want to “protect” their IP rather than share?
I thought artists were, you know, progressive?
Hi Vanessa,
As a performance artist in a MOOC π I think your questions are hugely important! I’ve been wondering myself why questions about the nature of being performers in a virtual classroom have not surfaced in the PBR forums and, pointedly, I’ve wondered why I haven’t had the courage to raise them there myself….
Prefer email over comm on open web?
Again, I’m going to suggest that within the 35+ age group the Real-to-Virtual World mapping is very strong. We import behaviours and codes of social interaction from the real into the virtual, forge associations and connections that resemble those with which we are familiar in the Real World. For today’s children, this mapping will be much weaker. They will have grown-up comfortably in both worlds and will struggle less with disparities between the two. It is within this context that, for me, email tends to hold primary appeal over more open modes of communication. For me, the privacy it affords makes it feel most appropriate for personal disclosures. As an artist, I wrestle with insecurities about my work, about my life, so couching expression in the comparatively safe space of email feels best:-) I think this can sometimes come across as a caginess, an unwillingness to share. However, it is not a case of not wanting to share – rather it is partly a case of selecting the environment for what one wants to say (and I have a sense that not everything fits a more public platform) and partly being ignorant of the multiple alternatives to email out there.
But it is more than this. We’ve been having really great, vibrant, searching conversations with by email π and you are right: there is content there that we should “out” π but the confidence you inspire in the course of those email exchanges are what will catalyze my content “outing”. So, for me, those emails are very valuable conversations.
Interesting questions concerning the public/private… if in reference to our communication, i think the reason email (or 1 platform) works better is because since our online meeting we have moved across 3 “platforms”… this can get confusing, not to mentions time consuming, important conversations can get lost across the different threads. While these confusions can be politically interesting in a work of art… the communication in order to make a work. requires some clarity and coherence (i think… but up for discussing that :)) I am happy to continue our discussions on this public thread, and if you can offer a tutorial in relation to point 1 and point 3 it’d be most welcome! π
Interesting comment, Owen. I hadn’t thought about the benefits of email from a simple filing/archiving perspective.
Thanks Ciara ‘n Owen! That comment BTW, may have sounded like, but in fact was not, directed at either of you. It was just a general rant (I rant a lot)(if you ever see me in my “DQ” leotard, it’s the “Dairy Queen” logo, but I wear it because I might have been called a “Drama Queen” once or twice)
Anyway, it was just a general rant that I feel like we have such powerful & productive communication tools today, and when you hang out with New Media types, they are often all over them, but it’s so disappointing to find how many “Artist-Scholars” in our Practice Based Research in the Arts course barely use them.
#1 about links in MOOC Profiles was just a frustration / rant that I’ve come to believe that meeting colleagues, building artist networks, and collaborating is far more valuable in this or perhaps any MOOC than the “lectures” themselves. Therefore I’ve put in a lot of time trolling thru classmate profiles and I wish they had links to awesome websites, or at least a flippin facebook page, but most classmates don’t list any kind of link at all and it just frustrates me to see ARTISTS, you know, COMMUNICATORS, not use the power of our age.
A person in the developing world who makes less than a dollar a day and has a smartphone has MORE ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE than the president of the united states did 20 years ago. As artists I wish we were seizing this power more.
As long as I’m ranting, it drives me crazy that 90% of forum comments are either technical comments / complaints, or arcane “do you think that lecture 4 point 3 could actually be considered another way of framing lecture 3 point 4?” That stuff should be 10%. The 90% should be “Here’s what I created last week, here’s what I’m working on this week, here’s the website for my upcoming work — can I get your feedback?”
#3 about IP – hahaha, I didn’t mean Internet Protocol Address, I meant Intellectual Property. As in “let’s waste forum time grilling Ryan about the TOS / TOU of Studio West instead of just freaking posting something worth thinking about.”
haha — anybody want a “DQ” leotard of their very own? /EndOfRant.
Hey Owen, I’m sure we can find whatever you like, but here’s one possibility, Lollygagger Stage. The Lollygaggers are a pretty cool group of creative / event types. If you like the stage it might be fun to do it in their space. LMK and I can ask them. Or I can look for more options.
i had to look up “Lollygagger”… such a great term! Maybe for the next gig, but for this one a simple inside interior of a stage/gallery would work best i think, so that those present at the gallery are not just watching a video of a gig happening outside, but feel like the gig is happening right there with them in that space! what you think? π
Sounds good. I’ll look around and post more pix!
hey vanessa…talk to baldi mcmillan im sure he can hook you up
Hey Owen, I made the shirt. Or actually I tried making a leotard. See what you think. It can be a t-shirt if you prefer. Also I can reverse the colors to black on white. The type can be larger or smaller, higher or lower, stacked, whatever you like. Just LMK. How many avatars am I ideally providing? And how many can you live with? What’s next on the to do list? Yay! π
Great Van! Following our conversation off here i imagine there are 4 other members in the band + me. So, 1 female singer (you?), 1 keyboard player, 1 guitarist/bass player and 1 macbook player all in ONO OKOY t-shirts/tops/leotards. The background should just be like a gallery… white…or like a cabaret stage. Whatever you think works best. I think one of the guys in the band should be really really hot and maybe revealing some body! I saw that in one of your videos there are pubic hairs showing…that is very interesting! π Some speakers should also be visible. Does this sound good to you?
Great Owen – so 5 total: You, Me, +3. And will there be any other “fleshvatars” besides you? Or are all 3 musicians avatars? Keyboard, Guitar, Laptop?
And give me the time – start / stop etc. I’ll get on recruiting however many peeps we need. Basically a pretty spare space with music “stuff” and a spot for you to stand it then?
Fantastic! Yes, 5 in total – i am the only “fleshvatar”. The event starts at 7pm GMT but i will need to confirm exact start time for the performance. Yes, spare space and spot for me to stand in.
Oh, and how are we projecting our performance into the gallery? Do you want to run Second Life (the 3D world) on a laptop and project it on a wall?
There is apparently a good internet connection. I can use my laptop to project. I have never used second life before… will i need to connect to second life (where you avatars will be playing) and then project it onto the gallery wall?
Right, you’d need a free account from
http://secondlife.com
Or we could just make an avatar for you (but you might have fun playing with your own) and either way park him/her/it at the location. Then on your laptop point your camera at the stage and do your thing.
I came across this prompt today on Plinky, and I thought it might help artists brainstorm about their websites if they are participating in Vanessa’s Micro-X challenge.
haha, brilliant!
Xta posted this vid in our discussion group. Thought I’d share it here!
What’s the difference between .Re/search & .Re/act?
You can really post whatever you like on either page. If you have multiple paragraphs, images, etc, something to document, it might go better on .Re/search. Here on .Re/act it’s ideal for short questions, ideas, thoughts, venting, etc. Here on .Re/act you don’t even have to go “New Post,” you just click “Hi [Vanessa]” and type stuff! π
Vanessa, thank you so much for creating this space and making it so accessible! It’s great to have somewhere that supports a more informal chat with our fellows than the “official” PBR forums. In the spirit of that informality, here’s a little something “8 bit style” I stumbled over yesterday – Is it a kind of Super Mari(na)o?? π
http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/dmai/
Ha Ciara, very cute! Did you back that Kickstarter project?
Hi Vanessa, No I didn’t. In fact, I’ve got to confess that I just became aware of the whole Kickstarter movement. I’m a bit uncomfortable with the kind of work M.A. is doing these days – but I like the retro graphics of that site and the “old-fashioned” gaming environment.
Ha! With an oeuvre as vast as hers who knows what part of “these days” makes you uncomfortable. (I do know which part of her oeuvre makes my students uncomfortable – definitely anything with a knife. — interesting side note — some students think she’s insane (I had a student raise a hand and literally ask “is she insane” once) but overall, while she makes them uncomfortable, they do have a real respect for her. Vs. Eva & Franco Mattes (who I think are brilliant) who really, really piss a lot of students off.
Anyway, given her unparalleled stature in performance art, I think her late-life “pandering” for credibility is sort of unbecoming, and of course, unnecessary. For me MA & Allan Kaprow are these giants in the field. In many ways they ask similar things from us. Yet in many ways the’re so opposite. MA wants an institution, and AK ran as far from them as he could.
Funnily enough, I’ve no problem with the knife-wielding work. Au contraire π However, I am uncomfortable with the rather prescriptive “performance-art method” approach that she’s been promoting in later years and the manner in which she’s been promoting it. I agree absolutely with your comment about the unattractive and unnecessary “pandering”… Her historic works are extremely interesting in and of themselves.
Ak, on the other hand, was my girlhood hero and continues to inspire my “blurring” π
THE FUN Conference on Nightlife as Social Practice
8-10 November 2013 in NYC
http://madmuseum.org/series/fun-conference-nightlife-social-practice
The secret is easy, just go here:
http://en.gravatar.com/
Signin with the same email you use here on PB.Re and paste any photo you like.
I used the Kozel transcript instead of the video; because of the transcript’s portability, I explored my project in my backyard on another glorious Houston day. I noticed a more dramatic interplay between nature and civilization than I would have had I been in my office/classroom. Anyway, the true research/practice space for my work is my journal/notebook (earlier I said it was my office/classroom, but honestly itβs my journal, which I make sure is always small enough to take anywhere).
haha Xta! That totally makes sense that your “studio” is your paper journal. You’ll never guess, but I think mine is my online blog! My blog that you’ve been looking at is actually new, a new sprout to focus on Virtual Public Art. My 4-1/2 year blog is
http://iRez.me
When that site first launched it was a way to document performance works. Back then I had more experience with Wikis than with Blogs, and it was kind of a coin toss which to use. I kind of thought a wiki might be better for documenting, but I went with blog on a whim. For a while it was just a place to document works. Later it also became a place to express ideas. Later still it grew into a community space with 3 dozen authors. And while I do my work, Performance Art or Public Art, as an avatar in 3D virtual worlds, over time the blog, perhaps like your journal, became not just the adjunct documentation place, but the primary focus of energy.
I love that sentence, “Spend some time engaging in low-focus data retrieval”. There’s so many ideas in there.
Vanessa,
Thanks again for continuing to build this online community. Β I hope this new site of your becomes used by this community that you are building, and continues long after the MOOC we are part of is completed. That truly would be proof that the course was worthwhile and effective.
It occurred to me after listening to Kozel’s talk, how much of the contributions of underground artists, and thinkers has been, in shaping contemporary art theory and discourse. Some of these were already notable in academic circles, but many other key people are only now beginning (often very late in life) to achieve the recognition that they always should have enjoyed.
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Michael, thank you for sharing the video of Barbara T Smith’s extraordinary final performance. I found it incredibly moving: particularly the passing the mantle of her work to her trusted, younger friend and colleague. The sense of dignity with which Smith enacted her ritual, combined with the healing affect reminded me of the work of Alastair MacLennan. MacLennan resists the term “performance” preferring to describe his performances as “actuations”. He has lived and worked in Northern Ireland since the mid 1970s and is currently a Research Professor in Fine Art at the University of Ulster, Belfast. Immersed in some of Northern Ireland’s cruelest and bitterest moments, MacLennan made “actuations” that served as a poised and poetic counterpoint to the surrounding violence and offered healing possibilities within the peculiar rite of the performance. Thank you both for introducing me to Smith’s work and reminding me of MacLennan’s today.
Hope you are enjoying the tail-end of the weekend!
Best wishes,
Ciara.
Ciara,
Thanks so much for taking the time to write your reactions to Barbara’s piece and to introduce me to the work of Alastair MacLennan. Through sites such as this one, we can all better inform each other about such artists.
Amazing pieces Michael, thanks for bringing them – you must have such a vast archive!! π
All 3 were precious insights and yes, I agree with Ciara that the Barbara T. Smith mantle passing was really a sweet and beautiful piece. It’s wonderful to be sharing these pieces here… and… with Studio West finally opening and revealing whatever it is pretty soon… perhaps you’ll also be able to post them in “Your Studio” there!
How’s the Phenomenology project going? I’m really excited about Susan Kozel’s ideas, I actually think they apply amazingly well to avatars! I started to work on it Wed and 5 mins in my graphics card fried! π (new one just arrived) oh, slave-2-tech!
Hello Vanessa,
I’m also finding this week’s assignment particularly exciting. I’ve just finished my individual submission which is, in part, inspired by our exchanges last week. It’s called, “What do you get if you put a performance artist in a MOOC?*” It struck me that, despite the rather sober nature of its content, it sounds like the opening of a joke….A joke to which I do not know the punch line!
I hope you are having fun with your new graphics card π
Sadly I’m working with students and haven’t had a chance to install the exciting, new, hopefully not fried graphics card! π
.Re/search – for posts on any topic
.Re/cipes – creative recipes, public art actions, etc
.Re/act – less formal, more interactive, like a personal twitter
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Owen Parry 14:32 on 09/11/2013 Permalink |
Can you cue your performance off my performance and play the music too (just as the band would)? In my venue there will be a short introduction ritual for the band… maybe 8mins, then there will be orange smoke and then the music cue (by you) and start playing together. Does this make sense?