Well...this was my first attempt at messing around with any kind of electronics and processing, so pretty much everything was new to me. I've always had a basic assumption of what circuitry did as a whole, but never had an idea of how they did what they did. Finding out that the actions of the hardware were dictated by software cleared up some ambiguity. Although all the code is new to me, I was able to find a few similar patterns I've used before in html and actionscript. Although I haven't completely wrapped my head around how all the connections that I made worked, I was able to grasp a clearer understanding of the hardware and their roles, such as resistors. I've always heard the term, but never knew their functions were so self-explanatory.
Going through this process sparked a few thoughts and ideas, especially after reading about how sensors can be used to convert real-world measurements into electrical signals. With my understanding, I've gathered that basically, this stuff is used to tell things what to do and when to do it. For instance, some kind of sound sensor could program certain lights to turn on when a sound reaches a specific pitch, just like a guitar tuner; or by using a depth-of-field camera, a projected image could scale up and down in size corresponding to how far or close an object or person is; or by using a digital thermometer, a design on screen could change in color, scale, and form when cued to specific temperatures.
Our objective was to throw a party in place of having a typical class. We chose class because typically the classroom is not an environment for fun and time often drags while we're in it. We placed a time limit on the party and the guests were told they had 10 minutes to play as they walked in the door. A myriad of options for fun awaited them: they could color, draw, play with play-doh, play cards, eat pizza and candy, play video games or watch a movie. With our child-like themes, we intended to stimulate a nostalgic experience for everyone individually. We wanted every guest to feel that they had escaped reality and at the end of the time limit, were be left wanting more.
Photos from before the party (set up), during the party, and after the party (clean up).
The word “fluxus”, means “a flow”, an unstoppable movement towards a commitment that is more ethical than aestetic in nature.Fluxus, which developed mainly in North America and Europe, following the influence of Cage, did not aim at being avant-garde in the sense of creating a new language, but rather at making a different use of established channels of art, and at the liberation of art from any specific language.It therefore focused on interdisciplinarity and on the use of means to a new concept of art, as “total art”.The artistic experience, be it work or event,is the opportunity to create a presence and a sign of energy within reality. Thus “Fluxus” has functioned as a moving front of people, rather than as a group of specialists, following not so much a tactic of experimentation in new languages as a strategy of social contact, with the aim of creating a series of chain-reactions, or magnetic waves, above and below art.The concept of “Fluxus” was first put forward in America in 1962 by George Maciunas.The first exhibition, the “Fluxus International Festspiele”, was held at Wiesbaden in September 1962. See: “Anthology of Fluxus”, by Lamonte Young, 1963. Thanks to David Faber for Translation.
The origins of Fluxus lie in many of the concepts explored by composer John Cage in his experimental music of the 1950s. Cage explored notions of indeterminacy in art, through works such as 4’ 33”, which influenced Lithuanian-born artist George Maciunas. Maciunas (1931–1978) organized the first Fluxus event in 1961 at the AG Gallery in New York City and the first Fluxus festivals in Europe in 1962.
Fluxus is similar in spirit to the earlier art movement of Dada, emphasizing the concept of anti-art and taking jabs at the seriousness of modern art. Fluxus artists used their minimal performances to highlight their perceived connections between everyday objects and art, similarly to Duchamp in pieces such as Fountain. Fluxus art was often presented in “events”, which Fluxus member George Brecht defined as “the smallest unit of a situation”. The events consisted of a minimal instruction, opening the events to accidents and other unintended effects. Also contributing to the randomness of events was the integration of audience members into the performances, realizing Duchamp’s notion of the viewer completing the art work.
The Fluxus artistic philosophy can be expressed as a synthesis of four key factors that define the majority of Fluxus work:
1. Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style.
2. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.
3. Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.
4. Fluxus is fun. Humour has always been an important element in Fluxus.
Fluxus encouraged a “do-it-yourself” aesthetic, and valued simplicity over complexity. Like Dada before it, Fluxus included a strong current of anti-commercialism and an anti-art sensibility, disparaging the conventional market-driven art world in favor of an artist-centered creative practice. As Fluxus artist Robert Filliou wrote, however, Fluxus differed from Dada in its richer set of aspirations, and the positive social and communitarian aspirations of Fluxus far outweighed the anti-art tendency that also marked the group.
In terms of an artistic approach, Fluxus artists preferred to work with whatever materials were at hand, and either created their own work or collaborated in the creation process with their colleagues. Outsourcing part of the creative process to commercial fabricators was not usually part of Fluxus practice. Maciunas personally hand-assembled many of the Fluxus multiples and editions. While Maciunas assembled many objects by hand, he designed and intended them for mass production. Where many multiple publishers produced signed, numbered objects in limited editions intended for sale at high prices, Maciunas produced open editions at low prices. Several other Fluxus publishers produced different kinds of Fluxus editions. The best known of these was Something Else Press, established by Dick Higgins, probably the largest and most extensive Fluxus publisher, producing books in editions that ran from 1,500 copies to as many as 5,000 copies, all available at standard bookstore prices. Higgins created the term “intermedia” in a 1966 essay.
If Fluxus is an attitude and not an “Art Movement” in the traditional art-historical context, what exactly is the Fluxus attitude?
While Fluxus objects and events tend to possess the physical attributes of humour, simplicity, and intermedia, they are also created from an attitude towards life and art that encourages globalism, chance, experimentation, temporal factors and the unity of art & life. These aspects of the Fluxus attitude should be very familiar to readers of this Blog because they are all ideas from Ken Friedmans “12 ideas of Fluxus” listed in the previous post!
Much of the Fluxus attitude consists of what has also been termed postmodernism. The postmodern attitude is partly based on the idea of the simulacrum, described by Jean Baudrillard as a copy without an original. Baudrillard says in his essay, Simulacra and Simulation, “Of the same order as the impossibility of rediscovering an absolute level of the real, is the impossibility of staging an illusion. Illusion is no longer possible, because the real is no longer possible. It is the whole political problem of the parody, of hypersimulation or offensive simulation...” Fluxus art and artists often use postmodern playfulness as a tool to expose the unseen and unstated, yet often obvious, contradictions and hypocrisy in the ideas and beliefs that our modern society accepts as “known facts”. Given Fluxus origins in the late 1950s and early 1960s it should be stated that postmodernism owes at least as much to Fluxus as Fluxus owes to postmodernism. Fluxus was in all the right places at all the right times to influence the postmodern philosophers and writers.
INTERMEDIA RESEARCH (FOUND)
Intermedia - Art that combines and explores shared mediums/ media, with a particular emphasis on works that work with the mediums of visual and sound. New Media Art
Intermedia was a concept employed in the mid-sixties by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the ineffable, often confusing, inter-disciplinary activities that occur between genres that became prevalent in the 1960s. Thus, the areas such as those between drawing and poetry, or between painting and theater could be described as intermedia. With repeated occurrences, these new genres between genres could develop their own names (e.g. visual poetry or performance art.)
Higgins described the tendency of the most interesting and best in the new art to cross the boundaries of recognized media or even to fuse the boundaries of art with media that had not previously been considered for art forms, including computers.
MY THOUGHTS ON INTERMEDIA
+ Intermedia = “Hybrids of media”
+ I feel that today, intermedia has made its way into the mainstream. It’s no longer just used as an art form, but is now used commercially. To an extent, intermedia has been accepted and adapted to. Although, I still feel that some forms of intermedia still have that “shock factor”.
MY THOUGHTS ON FLUXUS
+ The careless characteristic about fluxus art is interesting. Fluxus artists/performers leave room for outside interpretation. Often, the user interacts with and completes the artwork.
+ The DIY approach to fluxus art is inspirational. It’s encouraging, especially for non-artists. It shows that the attitude has no boundaries.
+ Fluxus art is odd, yet engaging. The unconventional use of elements cause interest.
GEORGE BRECHT
+ Many fluxus performers seem like they’re just poking fun at situations; somewhat satirical. Viewers expect the expected but get the unexpected. Performers are dressed and prepped like classical musicians. Instead of doing what is assumed, they pour water, opposed to instruments, that don’t even produce music, just drippy noises.
NAM JUN PAIK
+ engaging because the user completes and essentially creates a part of the art
+ engaging...but no idea what this is
BRUCE NAUMAN
+ disturbing, yet humorous
+ very unconventional, open for interpretation, odd, engaging (from curiosity)
About three quarters of Americans are aware that an intake of 8 glasses of water is the daily recommendation. Out of the three quarters, only about 34% do so.
(The Rockefeller University, New York)
First off, I've chosen to "transform" one of the drinking fountain spaces in the CCS Taubman Center. I want to emphasize the fact that water is a necessity and it is FREE (from drinking fountains, of course).
My transformation process will include:
+ a "FREE DRINKS" sign to grasp attention and to put emphasis on the fact that it is free of charge
+ beneficial facts and statistics about water on the drinking fountain itself. I intend people to read through the facts while they drink, causing them to possibly drink more water; and for people to leave with a higher sense of awareness.
