Social Aesthetics, Lars Bang Larsen

Larsen Essay <Link to Social Aesthetics if you want to read it.

Besides having a bangin' name, Lars Bang Larsen had some cool ideas. Here's my thoughts on his 1999 essay, "Social Aesthetics."

art as activism
uses of art-institutional space
ephemeral art
social aesthetic activity

social interaction + observation of its effects without conceptual rigidity -- without pretension!

utilitarian/practical aspect
purpose and direct involvement
not convoluted

"The social aesthetic involves a utilitarian or practical aspect that gives a sense of purpose and direct involvement; in the construction of the subject's interaction with culture it could be said that social aesthetics discusses a notion of the lasting phenomenon which substantiates a critical cultural analysis, a reason for one's existence."
 I think the utilitarian or practical aspect of this type of art that Larsen is describing is critical in making the artwork accessible to anyone. There's a lot of art that "non-art" people ask to it: "Why did you do this? I don't get it." Larsen cites a project by Palle Nielsen that involved building a playground in a place where one was much needed. There is a utilitarian and practical purpose right there. So what makes it art? I am tired of this question, but I need to answer it for myself. It's art because Nielsen used his artistic license, his position in society, to address the residents of the neighborhood personally and build a playground with them. As an artist, you can do whatever you want. He builds one playground, that doesn't make him a contractor who builds playgrounds until he dies or wants to choose a different career.
 There's a lot of different kinds of art, but for my purposes, do do what I think is important and meaningful for myself, I need to communicate clearly with other people. And when doing something like an action with strangers as art, stating a utilitarian or practical purpose to work towards allows the action to happen. It makes the interactions possible because it lays a common ground of understanding, a context to interact within. Then you get the experience with the other person, hear who they are and how they perceive. That is the juice that I'm after. Part of it anyway.
 So, art-making for me then is a practice in which I address my present questions and interests, obsessions and frustrations through methods that vary from drawings, comic strips/books, painting, collage, interviews, actions,writing. Would it be ideal for my whole lifestyle to be in an effort to address my most recent ideas, questions, etc. Because those ideas, questions, etc. have the purpose of allowing me to learn and grow, be spiritually/emotionally/intellectually freer. Building, building, building with no end til death and then what. . .
 Anyway, Palle Nielsen--he made a playground after informing the residents with the plan. They participated. They did not expect this to happen. I like surprising people and I like to be surprised. These were non-artists making art. The term "non-artists" is problematic to me. Yes, I identify myself as an artist and others do not, but I have this optimistic idea that anyone can make art. Make art? That's a problematic phrase. I just don't like feeling that other people think art is alien to them. And I don't mean Picasso. I mean, other people feel like they can't even try to draw or paint or do something unusual because, that's just the way it is, that kind of this is reserved for other people to do.
 Nielsen's playground in the museum, Model for a Qualitative Society, relates to my concern by changing role of the museum goer and of the institution. Daddytypes blog says it well: "It was a time when the authority museums were being challenged. In his press release, Nielsen questioned the viewers' assumptions of what a museum--and, by extension, art--is: "There is no exhibition. This is only an art show because the children are playing inside an art museum. This is only an exhibition for those who are not playing."source 
  This catches my attention because I'm hesitant to support the "white cube" way, but maybe I could take advantage of it. n55 spaceframe

Drawings of what people might be doing and thinking

Finally some drawings on this blog!

This is how I imagine some people possibly reacted to my letters that I delivered. But, since I didn't get any responses from the last two deliveries, I am more pessimistic, thinking, well they probably didn't even open it up and read it. But maybe they did do what I drew in the drawings. Maybe they had grand intellectual discussions. Maybe they cried and called their friends about it. Maybe they got in a fight with their husbands. Maybe they got paper cuts. Probably not though. Who knows? p.s. use the good ol' command+ trick to zoom in on these photos so you can read the writing.

Interviews: Martin at Logan Square Food and Liquor, Old Guy Sitting outside at California and Armitage

http://soundcloud.com/tlly/sets/attempt-and-2-interviews-oct-5/

  Here are 2 more interviews conducted on Wednesday evening while walking from West Side School for the Desperate (an arts collective at Central Park and Wrightwood) to my home near Armitage and Campbell.
 There is also included, not an interview, but an attempt to interview. As I was walking around I was scoping out potential interview-ees. I can get a pretty accurate grasp on if it's going to work out--if I have a good chance of being allowed to interview them. I looked inside of Vas Foremost Liquors, and I saw the vibe and it didn't look promising, so I wanted to test it out. And sure enough, no interview. They were unfriendly, but not offensive, I guess? The door to their store said "Must be 21 to enter, if you're not 21 Don't even try!" Okay!

 The first place I went into, Logan Square Food and Liquor--maybe it was called "pantry" or "supply" as well, can't remember-- it's an easy to miss place if you aren't on the lookout for an inconspicuous convenience/liquor store. I don't usually go into those places because I don't need anything that they sell, but I noticed some guys at the back who appeared to be playing arcade games, so I figured I would ask them. The guy at the counter was friendly, which I appreciate. He smiled and greeted me. I went to the back where the guys were playing some shooting or race car game.
 I asked the first guy, "Can I interview you?" He said he doesn't speak English well. I wondered if he was just using this line to say "no." I asked the next guy. I was a little afraid that they'd be annoyed that I was interrupting the course of their virtual battles, but I didn't care that much, so I asked. He also said his English wasn't very good, I said, "Well I can understand you just fine," and he seemed willing enough so, interview happened.
 Hopefully the sound of the TV attached to the ceiling didn't drown out too much of the interview.
 Martin, the arcade player, is from Mexico. He's lived here for 8 years. He had a relaxed and amicable demeanor, maybe shy mixed with relaxed actually. His answers had a tone of, "well obviously", which I can understand. But I also can't truly understand because I'm not from Mexico, or a country that lots of people leave to go to a "better" country, as far as job opportunities, standard of living, etc. I thought about this on the walk after the interview. What would it be like to be from a place where people are striving to leave, rather than living here, where people from elsewhere are striving to come here? Or would it not be that different? Just an opposite norm? A norm is a norm. It sounds ridiculous to say that it wouldn't be so different to grow up in a poor family in Mexico vs a wealthy family in the U.S., but I was just trying to wrap my mind around the feeling of a cultural "norm".

  The next guy I interviewed was sitting with a couple of friends, all probably in their 60s or 70s, sitting outside a store, just talking. They seemed to have a great familiarity with each other, old friends perhaps. The man I interviewed was comfortable with himself in a way that I've observed old people can be. He lives here because it's beautiful. That's it. No explanation necessary. He asked about me, do I ever go downtown? Where do I go to school? Do I live here? I felt kind of silly, I could feel my youth next to his old age. He terminated the interview, by saying, "well! okay, thank you" or something like that. I felt the itch to ask more questions to get to some deeper nugget of meaning about this guy's perspective. But it didn't come. I wanted to know how exactly the city is beautiful to him.

 Photo credits: thank you "really boring" from flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/reallyboring/4383842274/
and Google Maps street view.

New Style Deliveries

Here's what the most recent notes look like. I decided to change the notes to handwritten. I knew from the start with the typed notes that handwriting is more personal. I decided to start with typed notes as a form of neutrality, so as not to give the unknowing recipient any preconceived notions about my identity. The 2 responses I got from the typed notes were interesting, but gave me little information as far as actually answering the question. Which isn't a priority--getting an answer directly to the question "Why do you live here?". But I think that handwritten notes, more personal notes, will yield more responses in general, whether answering the question or not.

 The images show the notes and the envelopes with the notes in them.

 So, we shall see what happens.


Also, here is what the original notes looked like:

 

They were simply that on a strip of paper in a completely blank envelope. I left them in mailboxes, but in other more noticeable places if they were available, such as on the doormat, under a glass on a table, on a child's toy--places I thought people would notice an envelope more rather than if they saw it in their mailbox.

Fry Guy and Daniel the Valet Guy

http://soundcloud.com/tlly/fry-guy
http://soundcloud.com/tlly/daniel-valet

I biked down Armitage the other night and interviewed 2 people.
I apologize for the crappy sound quality. It was windy. It sounds bad. There's a couple of moments where I "generated silence" (thanks audacity), and it's abrupt. I'll do better next time.

The first guy, I forget his name. I chose him because I saw that he was just standing there. He was waiting for his order at a hot dog place. He smiled a lot. He seemed content with his situation of living in Chicago. He didn't have much to say. The part of that interview that sticks out to me is when I asked him if traveling gives him a fresh perspective on living in Chicago, and he replied: "I don't know I never really thought about stuff like that." I was kind of disappointed that he doesn't think of stuff like that, but not everyone does. The world is made of lots of different people, etc.

The next guy, Daniel, was also just standing there, because he's a valet guy, and he also didn't have much to say. I found it curious that he decided to tell me that he was in a bad mood. And I appreciated that. I wouldn't expect a total stranger to tell me how they feel without me asking. His responses seemed like generic answers for why you live in Chicago. Answers taken from a tourist guide to the city. Maybe if he was in a better mood he would've thought about it more. Well, what he said basically implied that.

I realize now that I'm catching people off guard by doing this. They aren't expecting to be interviewed. So, not that I feel like I need to find reason for this project to be "worth it", but just the part about making something unexpected happen to someone is satisfying to me.

Sophie Calle, Appointment with Sigmund Freud

 I found this book called Appointment with Sigmund Freud by Sophie Calle. She was invited to do an exhibit at Freud's house in 1999. Calle placed some of her personal belongings in different rooms of the house with little written stories next to them on cards. Each object she chose to display correlated to a memory of hers, which is written on the card. As a book, reading from the first to the last story and looking at the images of Calle's things, Freud's things and the interior of the house, I wondered if there was a narrative development from the start to end of the book. But I realize that that is not an important factor of this collection of stories.

  Calle's way of writing makes you want to know more. I think it's funny that she's sharing personal information that most people would never share about themselves, therefore we as voyeurs and humans wanting to relate to others are lucky to get this glimpse into her life, but because she has opened the door, we want to know more. She leaves out information, creating intrigue. For example, in her story paired with The Dutch Portrait on Freud's wall she recounts that she found a letter, and "The letter was signed be a friend of my mother. I assumed from this that he was my real father. Whenever he came to visit us, I would sit on his knee, with my eyes deep in his, I would wait for a confession." (page 73) The fact that she mentions there is a question as to who her real father is makes us want to know more about that issue. But the anecdote is specific to Calle. It is her memory. It is written as she remembers it. It is not written to explain to us her past. It seems to be written to herself, as if these are the words that go through her head when she looks at that object that triggers the memory.
  It seems like the stories can serve for Calle as a way to bring deeper awareness to who she is by investigating specific memories. Themes are apparent, especially sexual and romantic relationships. The memories range from when Calle was a child to a teen, to a twenty-something, to what can be assumed as her present age (at the time the story was written).
 A tone develops from the stories. I get a sense of how Calle views things. There is a sense of humor present throughout the whole book.
 Modes of communication comes up as a theme. A few of the stories recall letters--love letters
(p 73) letter signed by friend of mother who may be her real father. she hid this letter behind a painting and read it from time to time

(p 69) letter she stole from her husband that another woman wrote to him.

 Calle has a quirkiness that is revealed in the stories
For example, she wears a wedding dress on her first date with a certain man
(p 79)

(p 83) Calle's bathrobe slung over one of Frued's chairs relates to her first lover who left the robe with her when she was 18. She recalls that with this man she requested that he never show her his naked front side. Well this seems odd doesn't it? On second thought, don't we all have preferences and tendencies that may be viewed as "odd"? If we all shared our stories of oddities then we wouldn't actually be odd.

(p 87) Paired with one of Freud's belongings, an Egyptian mummy mask with glass and obsidian eyes, Calle says "No matter how hard I try, I never remember the color of a man's eyes or the shape and size of his sex. But I decided that a wife should know these things. So I made an effort to fight this amnesia. I now know he has green eyes." Another peculiarity about Calle. You can't remember the color of your husband's eyes? What does this say about Calle? What's more is what it says about the person reading it, thinking about what it means.

I have a desire, or compulsion, to find a common thread in all of these stories. They are not so disparate, but how do I relate a story about stealing shoes when she was 11 to not being able to remember her husband's eye color? The common thread is Calle. The stories are all hers. They are all experiences she had and remembered. We all have experiences that we forget, so remembering something, even though it might be mundane, is significant.

 This project, the Appointment, makes me wonder, what if other people did this? What would their exhibit look like? I know you know this, and it's been said a thousand times, but, we all have a different story. And every day we engage with and are oblivious to an infinite amount of things to perceive: coming from our environment, our memory, people we interact with, etc. Calle decided to hold onto a few objects from her life that are now imbued with stories.
 What's fascinating to me is a broad, sort of generalizing idea, which is the infiniteness of life. I could write a few words, or a long story for many objects that I own. I could even go outside and go on a walk and collect things along the way and write down what those things remind me of. The memory is such a fascinating thing. Without it I guess we'd be jellyfish.

The images in this post are from the book Appointment with Sigmund Freud (2004 by Thames and Hudson)

Interview with Anonymous Cops

http://soundcloud.com/tlly/anonymous-cops#
  I stepped out of New Wave Cafe yesterday afternoon and was about to unlock my bike when I thought, hey I should interview those cops. Two of them sitting in one of those big SUVs. I asked them if they were busy and if I could interview them. I'm kind of surprised it's only about 9 minutes long. It felt longer, I think because the first guy I interviewed seemed to be growing tired of it while I was interviewing the second guy. The second guy was going on and on listing bands he has seen and would like to see. Which was fine with me.

   The second guy said he would rather live in the suburbs because there's better property value there and better schools for his kids. He seemed perfectly honest. At least to the best of his ability, but I wondered, what lies beneath that? Maybe I could've found out if I asked why those things are important to him.
   I wish there could be a video of those guys. They were like a pair you would see in a cartoon show. Not that they were not "real" to me. It's just that, I see cops sitting in those cars all the time, wearing their uniforms, and I think, oh, cops, but once I started talking to these guys I saw how they were different from each other.
 The first guy seemed to be the cool one. And the second one seemed like more of a softy, more sensitive, at least more talkative and not as self-conscious or self-aware (?) of what he was saying. I don't want to start sounding like I think I'm omniscient and can see into the true character of people. Because I can't. This is just the impression that I got.
 Anyway, their answers to the questions were predictable enough.
 Also, I asked them 4 questions. I said I would ask 3, but then I asked another one.

 The questions:
 Why do you live in Chicago?
 Do you want to stay or leave and why?
 What feeling do you get from the physical environment of the city?
 I really enjoyed it when the first guy stared at nothing, thinking, and said, "How does it make me feel?" (at 2:35 in the audio track) I felt like, "yeah! I'm making someone think about their feelings!"

and then at the end I asked them if there is anywhere they go or something they do to relax or escape the environment of the city, of their daily routes.