Art as Performative Enactment

I found the idea that "intermedia only exists or comes into being as such through the interaction between objective elements and the subjectivity of the viewer" to be interesting. I have always found the subjective side of the viewer to be extremely important in all art, but never realized how crucial it is in a performance piece. It would never have crossed my mind that in a performance piece "the point is not a theoretical one imposed retrospectively, but is rather given immediately and necessarily in the act of viewing". I feel as though this can make a performance piece simpler, in the sense that the piece must be simple enough for the viewer to be able to grasp the entire concept in real time. However, at the same time this makes giving the piece meaning much more difficult because it can never be too detailed or too subtle. Achieving a balance between the artist's subjective-interpretation of his work and the interpretation that the viewer makes of the artist's work allows the viewer the opportunity to take in all the information and process it simultaneously. 

The link I am posting is a performance art piece by Tony Orrico

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vldw0qs3A8

In camera edit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTVqDOKQL_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaDurK6_xwE

Response to Art as Performative Enactment - Maxwell Legocki

This article was enlightening to me in the sense that it gave me a more in-depth perception of what goes into performing arts. The three concepts, play, symbol, and festival, helped me break down and better understand performing arts. I was especially fond of play and the idea of how the game is created for the sole purpose of being played by players, making it the master of the players is interesting. Usually when I think of a game, I feel that I am the master and in control however this different approach has me thinking differently. I see it more as a back and forth debate now, with both sides sharing a mutual benefit from interacting with each other. A game is required for the player to play, and the player is required for the game to play itself.

I see the three balls and the triangle as the game and the player being the man bouncing the balls within the triangle. Without either of them, both are nothing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjHoedoSUXY

Art as performative enhancement

So this piece discusses the relation of performance art and intermedia, but more specifically he speaks of its origins in regards to three concepts: play, symbol and festival. With play, he discusses that a performance piece that involves the audience could be viewed as a game. When the audience participates, they are playing the game. However, through their participation the art comes through when it is realized that the game is actually playing itself through their actions. With symbol, he explains the idea that what we recognize in a work of art is the idea of self-identity. We exist in the world in which this art takes place. With festival, he talks about how a work of art can encourage a sense of community, be it through participation or through observation.

Here is a piece (or a description of a piece) that displays a few of these characteristics.

Art as Performative Enactment by Greg P

             In response to Art as a Performative Enactment, the concept of play had the greatest impact on my understanding of performative art. The most interesting note was how movement was imperative between the game and the player, and how we subdue ourselves to the game as the player. This reminds me of watching a movie and believing in its entirety that the movie is, in fact, real; I buy into the game, and in the sense of cinema, what the director wants the audience to believe. In the end, the movement of play unravels itself as the medium presents itself to the audience. The author notes that the dynamic being of the medium goes unchanged whether there is an audience or not.

           

           

            This video demonstrates a simulation of an actual video game. Unlike the video game itself, the user cannot control where the pieces of the Tetris should go or which way they should shape, but the audience gets to interact with the creator of the video by comparing what they would have done in the game to what actually happened in the video. This video brings out true realism because it uses real people as the players in a game that they subdued to or bought into.  In addition, the video of the game enforces the point of movement, from the top of the bleachers to the bottom, also symbolizing the beginning of the game to the end. 

In camera edit

New Project from Qi Su on Vimeo.

In camera edit- An adventure to the fridge from Qi Su on Vimeo.

Response to Art as Performative Enactment

Of all of the readings we have done so far, this is definitely the most interesting to me. I appreciate the philosophical analysis that the author utilized from Gadamer. The three concepts that he talked about as the origin of the work of art: play, symbol, and festival - all helped to put into perspective for me the abstract and ontological conceptualizations that artwork provides both the artist and the viewer. However, after reading through the descriptions of each of these concepts, I feel that Hans Breder's work did not help me to understand the grandiosity with which Gadamer explains all of these topics. This could also be because I did not find Breder's work very fascinating. Anyways, I would like to focus more on the three concepts that Gadamer suggests for art.

Play was the most interesting to me because I've never understood a game to play me. More importantly, I've never looked at art as having boundaries that we work within. I understood those boundaries to mean working with the goal of creating meaning where there is none. 

"Opposite movements activate self-consciousness in a place that is between dream and waking consciousness - a place of deep meditative consciousness." 

This is my favorite line in the entire article. Even though this line is interpretive of icons in Breder's work, I find it to be indicative of what happens in viewing a lot of performance art. Seeing something exist within reality, but is contrary to reality, evokes a sort of meditation that requires introspecting beyond surface level explanations. And I believe that it is this reason why there is a theme in art that goes, the harder it is to understand, the more meaningful it is. As cliche as this explanation may sound, I do believe there is some truth to it.

The video that I am choosing to include is the weirdest performance art video that I have seen. I do believe that this video invokes the viewer to meditate on a deeper consciousness.