ekloff

“A Brief History of the Audience 1960-1981″ by Robert Nickas

In this reading, roles of performer and audience are examined. References to punk and theatrical artists such as the MC5, the Velvet Underground, and Iggy Pop are given the credit for their political and social experiences. They interacted with the audience. The audience became part of the antics, with crowd surfing, being taunted, and upset by the unmet expectations.

Everyday life was expressed by Martha Roster in her Monumental Garage Sale, where an otherwise normal garage sale was hosted with a persona of a counter-culture Southern Californian. Included in the performance was a slide projection and autobiographical audiotape playing in the background from previously bought garage sale items.

The idea of the garage sale is something that I am personally interested in. There is a snippet of intimate life being given away, and status and social implications are involved with the items sold. “One is what one appears to own.” The garage sale has unwritten laws and behaviors and those who have been to a few know what to expect and can judge the activity. The number of visitors and the appearance of interest and busyness encourages others to follow suit. But does quality of signage and preparation change the monetary value of the goods sold? Does the number of items or location alter the flow and nature of garage sales?

IDEA: Make a garage sale you can’t find (ambiguous signage). I’ve seen yard sale signs exist when the event has long passed. I could create a maze that leads a crazed drive to a desired location.

February 20th of 2010 marked the first idiosyncratic performance by Bolie Folke. The formula was as follows:

1. Perform a song to open the concert event and CD Release show. Have headliner provide assistance during the song.
   
2. Accuse the headliner that they stole the opening act. Proceed to steal the headlining act by performing a song they will soon play. Rewrite the lyrics to become applicable to the situation.
   
3. Play an original song without any surprise.
   
4. Play an original song as part of the audience, facing away from the crowd as if looking at the performer. View oneself with a mirror placed on stage where the performance had originally taken place.
   
5. Use microphone to amplify a karaoke beat on laptop. Choose a topic (mashed potatoes) and start the song in a rapping voice “(Your topic) in the club.” Use computer to find a wikipedia article about or related to your topic. Proceed to freestyle rap the words of the article with your own pace and melody. Intermittently, pause the singing with minimal dance moves.
   
6. Have your own event within the event. In this case, have a release show occur simultaneously (for business cards). They can be sold at any price.

Results

The headliner was caught off guard hearing one of his songs being covered and parodied. A fraction of the crowd knew that it was a cover song, and the song stated that the song was being covered in the lyrics. The song was drastically shortened. The employees of the establishment hesitated when the name of the venue was part of the song.

Many were interested in the mirror replacing the performer and the connotation of destroying the visual center of attention. The looking within at oneself provided the performer with a new perception on the role of the crowd and the role of the performer. The performer becomes part of the crowd, part of the spectatorship. The crowd must look at itself or the reflective vanity of itself or the performer.

The song about mashed potatoes did not go as planned due to technical difficulties, but the results were just as satisfying. Confusion during the happening had many nervous by the extended lack of traditional performance as there was no singing or instrumentation other than the laptop playing. They were also amused by the humorous content. A problematic Internet connection prohibited the wikipedia entry to show up in the browser. The seeming awkward pausing and crouching by the computer provided equal entertainment value.

Business cards were placed at the merchandise table of the headliner. However, no business cards were purchased after advertising them.

Reading In the Spirit of Fluxus by Elizabeth Armstrong and Joan Rothfuss, and centering on the section entitled The Latest: Fluxus and Music, the Fluxus movement is founded on breaking the boundaries, as the Surrealist, the Dadaist, and the avant-garde before them. Anything could be a musical composition. John Cage could play a silent piano piece for over four minutes (4’33″). Instruments could be broken, or massaging lotion on ones hands could embody the idea of amplification of the quiet as portrayed in the composition called 0’00″.

“If all sounds can be musical sounds, then this fruitul premise might be trasferred readily from the realm of audible or potentially audible sounds to any realm whatsoever.” Virtually anything can be anything. You can hammer nails into piano keys. You can throw beans on the strings of the piano.

I’m sure to use the questioning that the Fluxus have for commercialized art, of rigidly defined confines within society. This will expend my ideas beyond what has been the norm or expected.

Now that I see the video, John Berger looks very familiar. I’m sure I’ve stumbled on him before. Good reads too. This is reference to my writeup to the first chapter of his book.

Reflections on Ways of Seeing Chapters 2+3:

In the history of art, women are look at to flatter men (the viewer). Women also look at themselves. I questioned myself with “Do I envision myself looking at myself?” As a male, I don’t. Asking my fiancé a similar question, she at times observes herself as she is looked at.

According to John Berger, a woman’s presence regulates what permissable. How they appear tells what can be done to or for them. Vanity of spectating oneself has been a criticism of women, yet met are are looking in vane at them too in most cases of objectifying women in art.

IDEA: Performing for an audience in the wrong direction (facing away from audience) with a mirror looking at myself.

Also discussed was the nude vs. nakedness. “To be naked is the be without disguise.” Yet now nudity has become a disguise of a new kind–a shared mystery. A possible idea for me could be to disguise nudity itself. Maybe I could wear a skin colored costume.

An interesting point in the reading was that hair is associated with sexual power, so often the female nudes in art are without any skin on their body. My quick visual was an apeman. Would people think of him as a hypersexualized being? Maybe. Or if women had excessive body hair would they come off as nymphomaniacs?

In any case, there was much food for thought and potential ideas to invest in, such as the idea of reversed role psychology, and the unspoken dialogue of viewer and viewed. Below are a few other actions that I would like to pursue and ellaborate.

IDEA: “do not STOP” signs would act as reverse psychology, especially if DO NOT was written in a smaller type size.

IDEA: Promoting a dull, expected daily ritual or habit–i.e, Having an advertisement for lunch in a cafeteria.