MDW Fair

Yesterday I went to the MDW Fair down on 35th. I collected descriptions from people.
Descriptions of
What they think of when they look in the mirror
The wall you see when you are laying in bed
What you see when you step out your front door
The area of your apartment you spend the most time in
Your neighbors
A sound or smell you associate with your block or neighborhood

I'm going to make drawings based on the responses and the photos I took of each person. I think people were especially receptive to this because they are of the art-type, open minded thinking.

I didn't read the descriptions right away because I didn't want to associate their face with what they wrote. The drawings will use a face with descriptions that don't necessarily match each other. Not sure yet how the drawings will actualize.

No Place Like Home at the Hyde Park Art Center

Today I checked out the No Place Like Home exhibit at the Hyde Park Art Center. It's a show of 5 different photographers' work dealing with the idea of home or community, each in a different way.     
  What struck me the most was a photo by Jon Lowenstien called Sade and Horace.
His photos gave me the closest proximity to "real life" compared to the other photos in the room. The texture and hand made quality of the photos are beautiful and reinforce the humanness of his work. Sade and Horace struck me right away. I don't know how Jon goes about getting people to take pictures of, but I'm assuming he doesn't know them all super closely. That pose that the two people are making is incredible to me. Did Jon tell them to stand like that? It seems natural. I don't think he made them stand like that, or at least I'd like to believe that they just did that of their own accord. The guy, Horace, is totally sexy. The gazes are amazing. They are both looking directly at you, but in very different ways. Her head is level, not lowered or raised. His head is lowered, which makes his gaze more penetrating. I think the major sexual vibe I get from this photo would remain in his face if it was in a different context, not posed with Sade. Her face, on the other hand, doesn't have that sexual power like his, it could be a face from a family photo. She is smiling, he is not.

  I wonder if they are still together. For some reason I think they aren't. Because they're so young and because of the major sexual vibe I get from the photo. Those shorts are so flawless and effortless on her body. He's grasping her against him, holding her boob up with his wrist. He's posing with his left arm behind his back, like a warrior with his prize, or catch. Her hand on his thigh. Her butt up against his pelvis.
 Even though their stance together is not a simple expected stance, it does not feel posed because I feel so much real feeling in it. I think that those two people were just not self-conscious at all when Jon took the photo. Or maybe not not self-conscious, but maybe they were proud to be together and to be sexy, and focused on showing themselves off.

This is why Joe, Cindy, and Carlos live in Chicago!

joe
cindy
carlos

Interviews today woohoo!
I have to apologize again for audio mistakes. It's not so easy to listen to the recordings, but you can understand the words if you try a little harder than usual.

I saw Joe walking on the sidewalk and just decided to interview him. I like that he was not in a rush. We stood on the corner and he moved out of the way when people had to walk by. At that moment I thought he was being considerate and it made me feel happy. I feel like I'm describing this in the way that Data (star trek) would.

Joe was nice. I didn't feel like I was annoying him at all. I think he was open to being interviewed. Joe asked me if he would be on tv. Was that a joke or did something about me actually make him think I could get him on tv?

He said he goes to grant park with his girlfriend and they just enjoy the day from there. AAW! I imagine them sitting on a bench and talking and not talking and smiling and having cute exchanges. He said that he "will never leave" the city. I don't feel like I will necessarily always be somewhere or never go somewhere. I wonder if he's done any traveling. Does he have desire to explore? Not just different locations, but anything--is he exploratory in whatever he does at work? Does he read books and desire to explore more books of that theme, or by that author? 

I actually took a picture! This is the park where I found Cindy and Carlos.

   Cindy was in a park smiling and throwing a ball for her dog.

When I asked if I could interview her, she made a face and said"interview?"

From the experience of having done some interviews already, I know a good way to make people feel more comfortable with it. They aren't expecting to be interviewed and it seems like people are hesitant to give something without knowing what it's for.

I tell them where I go to school, tell them it's a research project, which is true, and they feel better because they know what's going on. That's all pretty predictable, but it's part of what happens so I state it.

  She has pride about being born "in the city limits". And like Joe, she said that she "will never leave." How can people say "never" so easily? It is easy to say "never" and "always." What if something changes?

  She said the physical environment of the city makes her feel happy.

I want to know what "happy" means for Cindy. It doesn't mean the same thing for everybody. In a sense it probably does, but I want to know what it means in the context of Cindy. 

I'm not hunting until I find that. I don't want to pry that out of someone. I don't have the tact for that. I'll have to use my imagination, like in the drawings I posted earlier. 

  Carlos was sitting on a bench in the same park as Cindy. A girl was with him. I asked if I could interview them. She said I could interview him, but she didn't want to do it. Carlos is the first person I interviewed that wants to leave Chicago. His main reason was to find a warmer climate, but he also wants to find a different culture, energy. I felt pleased for feeling like I could relate to this, but based on his body language, vibes I got, general impression, I think I'm more different to Carlos than similar as far as the way we think about the environment around us.

  He said that he goes to Montrose beach to "absorb the energy that's all around me". That phrase stuck out to me because it wasn't as typical as generalizations that I've heard so much in these interviews.

Generalizations, or typical phrases that I've heard in response to "Why do you live here?" :  "It's just beautiful." "I was born and raised here." "It's just great I love it." because of "the culture, the hustle and bustle."

I want people to pour their hearts out to me! I don't expect them to.

What are people thinking all the time? I think of things all the time.

I want people to be able to explain their statements.

This is the sky above the park after I did the interviews.

 

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.