performance

I wanted my performance to speak to the idea that technology - especially social technology - is consuming our lives and isolating us from others.  I wanted to represent a taking back of my life from the frivolous temptations and distractions such technology can offer. 

concrete music

As far as most of my research was concerned, a French fellow named Pierre Schaeffer pioneered the concrete music "movement".  Its public debut was in 1948 at a concert in Paris.  As a result of new technology full of possibilities, namely a tape recorder/player, though the very first concrete musicians used record players and mixing boards, people began experimenting with the ways they could use such technology to create something new.  Concrete music is not by any means restricted to the use of traditional instruments - many musicians would use common objects, like we saw in the video in class with bottles and a box of gravel.  Anything that made an interesting sound could be recorded and collaged back together with other sounds to create a song of sorts.  Some of them are more melodic than others, though it seems there is generally a pretty strong influence on some sort of rhythm, albeit an unconventional one.  Anyway, after he first played his music for the public, Schaeffer went on to form various groups focused on furthering this musical experimentation.  The longest-lasting group was called Groupe de Recherches Musicales; as far as I found, the group still exists.  Using record players, recorders, mixing boards, and microphones, these musicians experimented and refined the budding musical concept.  When magnetic tape came out, I believe in 1949, it created many new possibilities for concrete musicians.  Essentially, concrete music was the analog precursor to electronic music.  Then, musicians would have to create all of their own sounds and recordings, and today, with so many complex computer programs, musicians can search databases to find the sounds or instruments they want. 

"looks like an alien and sounds even weirder"

I've got a soft spot for that Klaus Nomi fellow, and I'm not sure why.  Perhaps it's the singing voice, maybe it's because he seems somehow a little reserved, maybe because I know how he dies in the end of his story.  But damn, talk about range.  I'm floored. I don't really think he sounds "weird" either, I just liked that quote.  Something I found that I thought was interesting was that after their SNL performance, Klaus was so taken by Bowie's funky "tuxedo" suit that he had one made for himself.  He wore it a lot, too, until he started getting sicker and went back to performing mostly operas and wearing his baroque costume. 

While Klaus was highly publicized as one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS, Bowery kept his own battle silent so that his illness didn't overshadow his work.  It seems to me like Bowery had a pretty rough go of it most of his life, despite a few bright patches here and there and some incredibly brilliant work.  He had some deeply rooted insecurities that he never really was able to shake.  The way he dealt with this was what led him to create much of what he did.  Rather than trying to hide from the world, he threw himself in its face, and used his outlandish costumes to distract from what he didn't like.  I think his costumes are pretty fantastic; really really interesting, but some of his performances are a little contrived.  I have yet to check out any of his short-lived band's music, but I intend to; I'm pretty curious.

I'm in love with Laurie Anderson.  I don't really know what else to say about her.

Joseph Beuys is seriously interesting to me.  Everything about his work is symbolic or has a personal meaning, and I like that.  With his sculptures, it's the materials he uses that have deeper meaning.  His performances are really what I enjoy, though.  Something I found interesting: we discussed in class that Beuys refused to come to America while the Vietnam war was happening, and I read that when he actually did come, he never really set foot on American soil.  He wanted it to be a totally isolated experience, and was driven in a veiled car to and from the airport directly to the gallery.  The only physical contact he had was with the coyote (which he hugged at the end of the performance).  Love it.  Really interesting guy.

xerox project

orlan and le tiers instruit

Okay, before I get into this, I found a really interesting article about Orlan.  It's called "Castration and Medusa: Orlan's Art on the Cutting Edge" by Danielle Knafo, PhD.  I found it here: http://www.visuality.org/genderandtechnoculture/wmst320_readings/orlans_art_cuttingedge.pdf

This doesn't really have anything to do with le tiers instruit or operation opera, but I absolutely loved this passage, something about it struck me, and wanted to share it:

"Several years ago, French multimedia artist Orlan spent the night at my place. Before retiring for

the night, she asked me if I had any makeup remover. I shall never forget how we stood shoulder

to shoulder before the bathroom mirror, each removing the masks we used to face the world, two

middle-aged women, me with wrinkles around the eyes and creases at the sides of my mouth and

she with her horned implants, swollen lips, and translucent skin, the results of her many cosmetic

surgeries. As she wiped the dark purple from her lips and the silver glitter from her horns, I

couldn’t help thinking about Freud’s concept of the uncanny

opposite

bonding experience and yet the difference between our faces

of aging, the surrender to time and gravity, whereas hers the result of unbending intent. Horns do

not normally grow out of the human head, nor do faces inherit a disparate collection of features

from classical art.

I wondered how my then 3-year-old son might react to Orlan in the morning. Would he recoil

in fear at her two-colored head, hair half black and half bright yellow? Would the matching thick

round black and yellow glasses remind him of an owl’s eyes? Would he want to touch the horns

on the sides of her head?....

When I awoke the next morning I found the two of them talking playfully, my son

unbothered by her appearance."

The article spends a bit of time discussing Orlan's Medusa piece, but there is definitely some pertinent information to this blogging assignment in it.  Something I found interesting was that, in 1978, Orlan was about to go give a performance, but was instead rushed to the hospital due to an ectopic pregnancy.  On her way to the hospital in an ambulance, she decided she wanted to film the surgery and send the tape in place of her performance.  "Her transformation of deathly emergency into artistic opportunity reveals the manner in which she creatively came to terms with loss—the loss of a child—by replacing it with birth—the birth of a new art form incorporating medical technology." (Knafo)  So this event is what planted the seed for her series of cosmetic surgeries that began in 1990.

Okay, enough with all of this aside jibber jabber.  On to Le Tiers Instruit!
Orlan is quoted as saying, ‘‘I am in the process of creating a psychological self-portrait’’ which to me, pretty much explains why she chose to read the texts she did during her surgeries.  They were always philisophical books, or psychoanalytical books, so it seems to me that while her body was being modified to fit her perception of herself, simultaneously, her mind was being trained to become what she wanted it to be.  Le Tiers Instruit is a philisophical book about education, about conditioning and training someone to be a member of society.  Serres asserts that true education takes place somewhere between what we are familiar with and what is foreign to us, somewhere between science and humanities.  I think just these two points explain why Orlan would have chosen this text for her piece.  Firstly, in reading about training someone to be a member of society, or educating someone to be a member of society, while she is in the midst of cosmetic surgery - something that the majority of people choose to undergo to make them fit in, to make them more acceptable in the eyes of western society.  There's perhaps a contradiction present there, or perhaps the two ideas go exactly hand in hand.  Education and conditioning affect both the way we percieve physical perfection and the way we are supposed to act, think, and react.  We are a culture that cannot separate what is "outside" from what is "inside", and maybe this is something that is inherent in nature.  Serres' sense of true education, and the point that Orlan is making seem to mirror one another.  If true education is somewhere between what is familiar and what is foreign, Orlan is forcing us to see something that is familiar - cosmetic surgery - used in a way that is foreign.  In doing so, she makes the point that the way we use cosmetic surgery - to make our boobs bigger, our waists thinner, our faces more symmetrical, is a bit disturbing.  This constant striving towards "perfection" a la Barbie is pretty messed up.  She shows us another possibility for the way such surgeries can be used.—umheimlich, unhomey—and its—heimlich, familiar and of the home. We were engaged in a very conventional femalewas uncanny. Mine was the result

pryings

There are a lot of reasons why Pryings could be considered a political piece.  First, it's about force and agression, and about stoic resistance.  Dillon never fights back the whole time Acconci is forcefully trying to pry her eyes open, so it couldn't really be about revolution, but there is definitely a resistance or defiance about her actions.  She absolutely refuses to open her eyes, and Acconci only succeeds in exposing the whites of her eyes a couple of times thoughout the whole 20 minute piece.  It's also probably making a statement about the extent to which you can force someone to submit to your will.  Even though he manages to separate her eyelids, she isn't looking out; you can't see the colored part of her eyes, so she still can't see out.  You cannot force someone to see something.  Even if you can force them to open their eyes, you can't make them look.  This seems metaphorical to me, but I have trouble deciding how it fits into a political context.  Is Acconci the government trying to make the people see?  That wouldn't make sense, because largely the government works to reveal to us only the select information they want us to know.  Perhaps he is a revolutionary, trying to open the eyes of the masses so they might see what he sees and join his cause.  Perhaps Dillon is the government, and Acconci is trying to show her the plight of the people. 

performance art and fluxus

Performance art is one of those things I can't decide how I feel about.  Sometimes I definitely find performances very interesting, but sometimes I think maybe I don't understand the point of certain performances or something...either way I have something to say about some of the links and artists we discussed in class.  First of all, I have loved Yves Klein for a while; I think that his work is elegant and messy and wonderful.  The performances just make his work so much more interesting; I stumbled upon his finished paintings before I discovered how he achieved them.  I'm not into the sea sponge sculptures as much, but I do enjoy Klein.  As for the Vienna Aktionists: I can definitely see where they're coming from, and I do enjoy the concept behind the work; however, I really can't stomach watching a lot of what they're doing.  I don't even know if I can discuss it in detail...I have a pretty responsive gag reflex.  I couldn't do what they're doing, I like the idea behind it - leave it at that.  The Buto dancers are also incredibly interesting.  The way they move and dress is so beautiful and powerful.  I'd love to see a live performance.  Incredible.  The living sculptures of Gilbert and George are also a really interesting concept.  I think it's interesting that this bred a whole sect of street performers who act as living statues for money.  I also really enjoyed Stelarc - obsolete body.  Even though this is another one of those pieces that is really difficult to watch for me, the lack of body fluids being expelled and ingested makes it a bit more watchable than the aktionists.  I found a lot of the performances here really just sort of beautiful in a grotesque kind of way.  The way the suspended bodies look is pretty incredible, it's just thinking about the hooks pulling your skin like that that gives me the willies.  Absolutely beautiful, though.  And I loved the piece where the man is suspended in the corner with his body pressed between two planks of wood.  The aesthetic achieved through this sort of work is really appealing to me.

On to fluxus.  Fluxus is a strange movement...I found information that seemed to contradict other information I found.  From what I gather, though, Fluxus is sort of an anti-art anti-movement.  As opposed to being a true "movement" it is more of a state of mind, a way of working.  Basically, it seems like fluxus artists are just trying to find where the rules and boundaries are, and then push them if or when they are found.  It's like Dada in that it's poking fun at modern art and trying to push the meaning of art, and a bit like Minimalism in the simplicity of the work.  An important aspect of the fluxus mindset is the combination of different medias. It is more of a mindset than a movement, and as time goes on and aesthetics change and technology expands, fluxus artists will still be able to work within their way of thinking.

bauhaus

In my many years of Art History classes, Bauhaus is one of those movements that was always skimmed over, or skipped entirely.  This suprises me a little bit, as even a cursory investigation into the movement makes it apparent that Bauhaus paved the way for all modern industrial design and architecture.  I would still today, almost 100 years after the school's inception, consider the style of design prominent in Bauhaus art, architecture, and design, very modern.  It's about simplicity and functionality, something that perhaps lost popularity around the 50s, when, in the US at least, people were living out their "American Dream."  Simplicity and functionality weren't necessarily what we were looking for then, and I think that industrial design strayed away from Bauhaus ideals, but more recently - in the last 20 years or so, I can definitely see Bauhaus influence in modern design.  From 1919 until 1933, when the Nazis shut down the school, Bauhaus worked toward an ideal unity: the Bauhaus artist would be able to combine creativity of design with functionality and industry.  Bauhaus was almost a way to keep a creative element in a place where machines had eradicated one-of-a-kind, handmade practical objects.  The goal was to combine architecture and industrial design in a way that was economical, functional, and visually appealing.  Really a fascinating idea.  This is something I'd like to research more.