Week 11: Networks and Relationships

“The medium, or process, of our time – electric technology – is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal lives” (McLuhan 7).

Our generation has developed into a very technology savvy generation that technology has become embedded in our personal lives and in the television shows we watch.  The show Reba is filled with the characters using technology.  The younger daughter, Kyra, is constantly seen with a cell phone in her hand and when Reba takes it away from her as punishment you would think the world was coming to an end.  By television using technology in it, it sends the message that everyone should be doing it (especially relevant to young kids who want to be part of the technology craze).

Take a walk down Hartford… What do you see?  Most students are using their cell phones or Ipods.  Technology can “remove” people from whatever situation they are in by giving them somewhat of an alternate reality – conversations with others via text messages.  Also, technology has become our best friend because it keeps us in close contact with our friends and family.  The days of handwritten, personal letters or greeting cards have practically vanished.  Because of texting shorthand, most personal messages can be written in a 160 character text.  Epic poems expressing how a person feels about another person or situation are no longer relevant because everyone wants their information shorter and faster. 

Because of the age of technology, I wonder how Ray Johnson would have conducted his mail art process.  Could he have been a graphic artist?  Since it is so easy to send and receive email, Johnson could have created digital art to email around to his friends to collaborate on.  The drawback to instantly sharing, however, is that once another individual has the work that is sent, you cannot get it back – they can retain a copy forever.  This would have been detrimental to Johnson’s other art form – negotiation.  Johnson’s tactics for negotiating a purchase could be hindered by multiple people having a partially completed piece of his final work.

As seen throughout history, technology will always be evolving, and as technology evolves society changes with it.  As Mr. Walt Disney says, “There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.” 

Week 10: Sons and Daughters of Dada

“Fluxus artists have consistently described their work, particularly the objects they produce, as performative” (Higgins 25).

Ray Johnson, a Neo-Dada or Fluxus artist, is credited as being the father of mail art.  Although he didn’t invent it, he was extremely aggressive about moving art through his network.  The act of not being the sole producer of an artwork is performative because it takes the collaboration of others to complete it.  The recipient of Johnson’s mail art was to decide to carryout, or perform, the instructions enclosed with the art.  Instructions included “Please send to…”, “Please add to and return,”  “Please add to and send to…”, or even “Do not send to…”.  By completing Johnson’s instructions, each recipient contributed to Johnson’s performative mail art.

Johnson also designed his life as somewhat of a collaborative work.  No one person is able to accurately retell the life story of Johnson because he allowed his friends to only see so much of his life and personality.  As his friends and family collaborate in the documentary How to Draw a Bunny, the life and work of Ray Johnson is illuminated.  Because the life and death of Johnson were surrounded in mystery, his life can be viewed as a performative piece of art. 

Ray Johnson staged his death as his final performance, a mystery revolving around the number 13.  He committed suicide on January 13, 1995 at the age of 67 (6+7=13).  Johnson checked into a motel, room 247 (2+4+7=13), and then was seen jumping into Sag Harbor and swimming out to sea.  After his body washed up on shore, his apartment was found to have hundreds of his collages carefully displayed throughout his apartment. 

Week 9: Restrictions and Obstructions

The Surrealist and Oulipo movements are significantly different.  Surrealist artists created their art, whether it was literature or paintings, by tapping into their subconscious and attempting to portray it.  By utilizing the subconscious, surrealist artists often had bouts of creative blocks where they were unable to tap their subconscious.  Oulipo stands for Ouvroir de litterature potentielle, or the workshop of potential literature.  Oulipo artists create their works based on systematic techniques or mathematical problems.  Constraints or restrictions also dictate Oulipo artists’ writing.

Constraints or restrictions can be creatively stimulating and produce beautiful results.  As seen in this picture of a hibiscus bonsai, restrictions during growth created an artistic and charming plant.  Restrictions in writing can be creatively stimulating.  When restricting a story, the author is forced to recreate the story around the new conditions.  It has been both overwhelming and exciting to set restrictions on my mundane short story.  Each imposed restraint creates a new and, hopefully, better version of the original story.

The Five Obstructions utilizes Oulipo’s constraints and restrictions to recreate the film The Perfect Human.   Lars von Trier establishes constraints for Jorgen Leth, the filmmaker of The Perfect Human.  After each restriction was established, Leth felt overwhelmed or worried about how to recreate his original film; however, once he began working under the constraints, he was able to create great renditions.  In my opinion, Lars was quite harsh on Leth about the Bombay obstruction.  I thought that Leth created a beautiful version of the original.  I liked that the people were visible in the background, but were somewhat distorted by the plastic sheeting.  To me, it gave the film an us versus them theme, or perfect versus imperfect, by not allowing the extras to be clearly seen.  Leth was extremely successful in each obstruction and seemed to thrive on recreating his original film.