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Art290—IVW
Project #1: Exploring site specificity with static documentation

“To orientate is to hop back and forth between landscape and time, geography and emotion, knowledge and behavior.  As I write this, I am sitting on the back porch of a house in the valley of Panterkill Stream in upstate New York, looking out at a wild and thickly wooded landscape that created an association in my mind:  a memory of something that happened in Minnesota.  And that led to another memory, of something that occurred on an island off the coast of Sicily, and then another memory…I have roamed across state lines and oceans, and continents, backwards in time, each thought colored according to a personal legend corresponding to the elevation and depressions of my private humors: pride, wonder, sadness, remorse.”
(p. 15, I Mercator, by Stephan Hall, You Are Here).

For this first project, you will explore how the methods used to situate an object in/on/above/below/around/through a site creates a fixed instance of meaning--for both the object used and its environment--given a particular combination of components*.  Changing a variable in each combination can slightly, or dramatically, alter the content of your installation as well as viewer perception and response.  Subtle allusions in one object-site configuration can become overt statements in another.  Your object-site instances will not be installed for significant amounts of time, and as such you will be utilizing a static documentation method (or methods) in the archiving of your instances.

Technical experiences: Navigating the logistics of temporary installation, possible exploration of moldmaking and finishing techniques, possible use of hardware and adhesives, exploration of variety of static documentation methods & use of input devices, introduction to Final Cut Pro (using still images), introduction to Garage Band.

Artist resources  Marcel Duchamp, Vic Muniz, Ilya Kabakov, Susan Hiller, David Hammons
 Annette Messager, Lothar Baumgarten, Sandy Skoglund, Pepon Osorio, Rachel Whiteread,  Ernesto Neto, Damien Hirst, Andrea Zittel, Tara Donovan, Tom Friedman, Robert Gober , Kiki Smith, Andy Goldsworthy, Anish Kapoor, Jason Rhoades, Mark Dion, Spencer Tunick, Rirkrit Tirivinija, Dutton/Peacock, Jane and Louise Wilson, Christian Boltanski, Kerry James Marshall,
Tracy Emin, Tadashi Kawamata, Gillian Wearing, Robert Smithson

            Research links: 

  • Exhibitions such as the Carnegie International, the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennial, the Sao Paulo Biennial, the Armory Show. 
  • Exhibition venues such as the Mattress Factory, Dia Center, Sculpture Center (NYC), the MCA (Chicago), the Museum of the Art Institute, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), PS122 (NYC), 
  • Periodicals such as Art in America, ArtForum, Sculpture, Art Papers, the Friday edition of the New York Times, the Village Voice, Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader.
  • Google

 

 

“Perception itself is so closely aligned with these rhythms of change that one of its primary characteristics is continual permutation….Much of the work documented here consists of provisional counter-strategies of integrating technological tools into plural zones of creative activity, and of inventing flexible models of imagination and narrative outside of enforced routines of cultural consumption.  It establishes a perceptual field which simultaneously engages periphery and centre, continually revealing multiple routes of entry and exit”
(p. 9, foreword by Johnathan Crary to Empire of the Senses, DeOliveira, Oxley, and Petry)

 

 

*Components:

 

Object:  constant

--1 pair of cast plaster feet.
--May be modified/altered in any way.
--You can create more if needed.

Consider the word “feet”—
Exploration of “feet” as a sign
or symbol.  Feet used in narrative (mythological or popular), in rituals (spiritual or cosmetic), social mores regarding “feet” (western or eastern), for example.
Other meanings associated with “feet” or “foot”.

Consider the fabricated object—Exploration of simulated, plaster feet as a surrogate for the body, either specific (possessing a particular identity) or anonymous.  Exploration of presence/absence (feet are there? What isn’t? What else is?).  Exploration of meaning through the material—the impact of physical modifications on form in light of concept.

 

 

Environment: variable

--At least 2 (??) sites
--Must receive proper approval to use site(s) if necessary

Consider location specificity and function—
Historical significance of site, intended usage of site as it differs from actual usage, cultural significance (vs. other kinds of significance) of site. Impact of site and it’s function on other groups or organisms (positive or negative). Unique attributes either natural or manmade.

Consider location anonymity and function—
No unique attributes, but rather site possesses general qualities that could place (or displace) the viewer in terms of time and geography. Location alludes to non-real world sources, i.e. fictional narratives, films, poems. Can be used as a surrogate for alternate locations, memories, situations, etc.

 

 

 

 

Documentation: variable

Video: 
--Static method only (drawing, photo, mapmaking, etc.); 1 minute of video run time per site.
--You will use Final Cut to create a DVD “slideshow,” but printed media (digital images, large drawings) can be included in final presentation.
--Need not be chronological.

Audio:
--Composed independently of video element, or a combination of both.
--Should have an association with video conceptually, but can dramatically differ from video element.
--Not independent of video, physically, in the final documentation presentation (it should exist as a track w/n the edited video footage).

 

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