The Invisible Gorilla

When Irve expressed shock and dismay that people looked right past our funeral as they went about their day, I assumed that those people were belligerent: purposefully unwilling to be distracted by our very beautifully haphazard distraction. As I said at the time, many people do not see art, some because they actively seem to avoid it. But what about the others?

Lo and behold: another theory comes to my attention. Actually, a theory of attention. The theory of "The Invisible Gorilla," which it turns out is the result of a very important and reputable Harvard psychology study. It showed that many people, if preoccupied by a simple task, will be unable to notice salient factors within their environment. 

Maybe, just maybe, we did encounter people whose heads were too full of numbers or algorithms or meeting schedules to even see a funeral procession going by. And what does that mean for the future of interdisciplinary art-in-the-world?

Check out the cool website for the set of Harvard experiments on attention:

http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html

A zombie walk in Columbus made quite a spectacle!

Spectacle Exhibition in Dittmann 205: One Week Only!!

Perhaps, in the last few months, you have witnessed some strange, unexplained phenomena around campus. Perhaps you crossed paths with an itinerant Victorian funeral procession mourning the death of an abstract ideal. Perhaps your dinner was interrupted by a cavalcade of shadow puppets, or maybe you were simply handed a flyer inviting you to a mysterious event with no known time or date.

Now some of these mysteries can be solved--and others compounded. For the next week in Dittmann 205 (The Print Study Room) Art 240 "Creating Spectacle" is exhibiting materials and documents created during their recent performances. This semester, our students made magic with plywood, steel, butcher paper, concrete poetry, packing peanuts, accordions, elaborate state of the art sound systems, gallons of paint, miles of ribbon, saxophones and trumpets, tons of tulle, lots of spray paint, and soaker hose. But also, it must be said, the chief ingredient was inspired play.

What some critics have said about the show:

"The avant-garde is reborn for the new millennium. The use of Tyvek is nothing short of a revelation."  --Peter Sheldahl, The New Yorker

"This Cabinet of Wonders will provide the perfect study break for any student during finals week. Oh, and it honors my legacy very well." --the ghost of Guy Debord   

To find the exhibit, enter Dittmann Center from the East, and turn right at the hearse!

Play, further supported

Another take on why play is vital to our existence and evolution. A short TED talk worth your time.

FRIDAY

So I ran into this, and (timmy! don't kill me!) it's hilarious, spectacular... As Anda said, we live in an interesting world I hope you enjoy it!!

whatever we did st. olaf needs more of it. yes?

I heard the most alarming thing on Friday afternoon.

"What is this? This is so freaky and weird."

"Yeah, I know, it's sort of scary"

Now, I would have expected this from unaware observers as we paraded around in black and wailing. But no, I heard this from people walking by the quad as we PLAYED! I had no idea that sidewalk chalk and streamers were so terrifying.

But overall. I think people appreciated it. I had several people tell me that they didn't realize how little they played. Or that the play that they engaged in was play with rules and regulations and not the free, fulfilling play that they needed. I think we opened up some eyes. Sure, there were flaws in the performance. But I want to congratulate us. Even if we only reached 30 people, hopefully we have inspired them to share the message of play with others. :)

Holding off

I've greatly enjoyed reading the thoughts of those who have posted so far. I'm excited for our conversation in class today and because it is close to class time, I'm going to wait and reflect on the blog after that conversation.

And my hope for class today: I am all for critique but think it's important to remember that we critique in order to further our thinking about the art: why didn't all 200 people follow us from the chapel? why did "this little light" seem unfitting to some? let's not let the conversation end just one or two sentences after the observer has made their remark but instead, push each to consider and consider again.

Irve Dell, Play is Not Dead

Way to be a pessimist. Those people you mentioned who did not bat an eye and walked right by us - it is not that play is dead in their hearts, it's just missing in action. Like Sofia, they have to find it. Maybe we sparked a little idea in their heads, even if they weren't ready to follow it just then.
That's what I believe.

Stephen I agree with the Pastor Benson thing, we had 200+ people watching when we came around Boe and Pastor Benson spoke but then had no more than 30 people follow us all the way through. I do not remember who said it but maybe we should have engaged the audience a little more while mourning and had them cry with us. I was definitely at fault in this as well, when we were walking I was completely in the performance and have had a difficult time remembering all the details of the spectacle. I do recall the audience being an audience; we marched somewhere and they followed us we gave a eulogy and they listened, while we wailed and cried. They watched us rather than mourning with us, I do not know what we should have done to make the audience performers as well, but I think that was the major shortcoming. Seconding Sheila's comment, costumes could have used just a little bit more.

As far as positives go, the eulogies were AMAZING! Christopher, David, Joel, Nate, Pastor Benson, Siri, James, Sofia (I think that is everyone) and everyone who performed in eulogies, great job. I think everyone did a great job of conveying the idea of play dying. Christopher's poem was fantastic, I would love a copy and it has been stuck in my head all weekend. Nate, amazing puppetry. The music was also fantastic (though there was some redundancy) and fit perfectly into the funeral.

Echoing previous comments, I think we achieved what we set out to do: play. I got lost in this world of the funeral procession and was almost solely focused on mourning play that I have a hard time remembering all the details of the afternoon. We were alive and brought life to a lot of people on campus. The "sculpture", if that is the best word for it, was a perfect final testament to just creating something and playing. It might not have been the most beautiful thing in appearance, but was gorgeous in the process of its creation and embodied what we did on Friday.

Play is alive!

Great job everyone!

What could have been better?

I was inspired by Shelia's post about bringing up some of our shortcomings in our performance. I think we all can agree that our performance went great and was a success, but what could we have done better? One aspect of the performance that bothered me a little was the music. I really didn't care for "This Little Light of Mine." It just seemed more childlike than playful- something that I really wanted to stay away from. Also, the redundancy of a few of the songs. Some of them just seemed like we were singing forever. The few songs that were all instrumental I thought were amazing! (Attie can really rock that accordion). Maybe we could have had a few more of those pieces.

Another thing was with Pastor Bension's eulogy we had an enormous audience. How do we keep that audience?

What do others think we could have improved on?

Death of Play

Spectacular

So this Friday's event was, in a word, spectacular.

We got hundreds of Oles to listen and participate, we played with classmates, played with strangers, and made a scene. Pretty much exactly what we hoped for! And all of the reactions I heard were extremely positive. So: great success!

And I'm impressed.

As a class, we're a lot of thinkers, not doers. We debate well and brainstorm fantastically. Yet it took a lot of motivation to get the ball rolling on costumes, and the hearse was built by a select few class members. Yet the outcome, regardless of our piddlings, was fantastic.

Because I believe good critical thinking is always important to continuing to develop as an artist, I would like to address any potential failures/shortcomings in our event.
--The hearse was heavy and Irve's body has died. We definitely should have gotten horses! But in all seriousness I don't know if this could have been avoided. Maybe something to do with the wheel placement, but overall it was doable.
--The costumes were great . . . for the most part. But sometimes there were costumes that were just a bit uninspiring. It is a funeral, so let's wear black! No shorts, no jeans please! And it's a spectacle, so make it a costume, not regular dress! Fortunately the costume misfits were few and far between.
--Song redundancy and enthusiasm (oh no!). We got a bit out of character on 'this little light',but we recovered fantastically. And we may have gotten a little redundant (we really love 'down to the river') but I don't think it was that detrimental.
--If our chalk is responsible for the penis outbreak on campus . . . man that's unfortunate! But that's a bit out of our hands anyways.

That's all I can think of, and it's all minor! Overall this was a major success! We definitely went out with a bang.

Embodiment

One of the best things about Friday for me was that we weren't doing a piece that was simply "about" serious play, but that we were absolutely engrossed in deep play. We created worlds that we ourselves got lost in, we improvised, we problem solved (remember the spur the moment changes and plotting of the route? or how about the chapel skyway?), we laughed, cried, sang, danced, and generally were totally alive. This type of full human experiencing doesn't happen enough, and even doesn't happen like this enough on proscenium stages. It was woven into the fabric of daily life, yet also transcended and was apart from that.

I believe that we offered ourselves a chance to create something wonderful and we took it. The event had the perfect balance of planned "setness" and improvised unknowns. We had never run through it, and we didn't need to--knowing that it was all about play and discovery was enough to keep it moving. It was difficult to make a wrong move, because we could play it off and keep going.

I was so pleased with the event, and am totally inspired by this kind of work. Thanks all, for making it happen!!!

In Character

I just read Irve's post and realized that I was so engaged in our spectacle that I didn't really notice the audience/those that tried to ignore us. Should I have been more thoughtful about the audience, or is it good to be that "in character"?
I think that the mourning part of the spectacle was harder to participate in because we were not really interacting with the audience. When it came to the playing part, I think that there was excellent participation because we began interacting with the audience and our spectacle became more accessible.
Also, I loved that when Christopher was giving his eulogy we all had to sob extremely dramatically to cover up our laughter.

play is dead. for many, no. but for too many, yes. i was amazed yesterday at how many people (students and faculty alike) did not even appear to bat an eye towards us -- walked right in front of the procession their gaze fixed ahead. either we appeared too commonplace (hard to believe) or many people simply have no time/patience/need for a distraction or diversion of any kind. curiosity is dead?

The Greatest Things. Ever!

Ok so maybe that title is an exaggeration, but recently I've stumbled upon some fun random things online, that I think relate to our class very well! You should check them out!

First, is this ad by Sapporo. This reminded me of our crankies, and the challenges presented by creating a rotating image that remained interesting as it scrolled by. I think it's pretty astounding!



Next is this fun series of "notes by Chris" that are quite hilarious, and to me seem like a clever derive!

Anyways, I think these are fun little procrastination opportunities. Enjoy!

Bjork sound inspiration

Vocal sound-scape/"planet" as an option for initiating the revival once at Bridge Square...a la the bar scene in this Bjork video.

Fabulous Busta

Busta Rhymes is definitely fertile material for costume inspiration.

Flash Mob

If we're looking for a song that already has a dance, Just Dance for Wii has lots of easy dances that can be found on YouTube.

from hattie

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/theater/sleep-no-more-from-punchdrunk-transforms-chelsea-warehouses.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=2&adxnnlx=1302909808-1sr5eMgZp8xPRzp1kRoAeg

Wheels on Fire



I took a detour to Hot Sam's Antiques on the way home, I was looking mostly at WHEELS



Because our HEARSE needs wheels, and I though it might be easier to find some than make them



They have lots of cool junk at Hot Sam's including this old wagon named "Lulu"



And a random lone side-car, which I thought was cool




And an entire trailer spilling over with LPs??



Oh, and a Rocketship...





More random junk with wheels...




Oh, and also two giant train-cars. Among other things. Hot Sam's is 20 minutes from St. Olaf off the 35, so I think it might be worth it if a team of us went up there and scouted for junk. Anyone interested?



The Serial Sleepover Artist

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/garden/14mattress.html?ref=garden

relationalaestheticswhat.

PLAY

The national institute for play's website, for some research into what the concept of play is all about.
http://www.nifplay.org/index.html

Jesse James Day Committee

http://www.djjd.org/lmth/committee/index.html

JESSE JAMES!!

tiravanija-relational art

More info on the Tiravanija show: Fear East The Soul

The website for the gallery space also features a short press release.

someone else we should look at .... pina bausch

"LA CLASE MUERTA" TADEUSZ KANTOR

giant puppets from france. quite amazing. look at other videos on your own.

more DV8

DV8 from england

ilka schonbein

did we get any pictures of the follow the leader?

150 Years Later, America's Civil War Still Divides | Minnesota Public Radio News

150 Years Later, America's Civil War Still Divides | Minnesota Public Radio News

on my drive home after following the leader, exerting and sweating, i heard this. re-enactment seems to be in the air. read this. if there is a podcast , listen to it as well. raises very interesting issues about re-enactments and history.

Audio Spectacle

I don't know how to do this to my computer, nor am I willing to download the software, but if someone else is, here's some inspiration!

This page gives you the info on how to do it.

More audio spectacles:

WE'VE GONE PUBLIC

Now the truth can be told...The Spectacle is unleashed on the world. Welcome to the newly (slightly) re-designed Creating Spectacle site.

Now anyone can view our posts, but only people with google accounts can post comments. I opted against 100% anonymity in the comments.

I tried to add hyperlinks to all the inactive urls in the blog. If there is a link in one of your posts that is still not working (because I missed it) please activate it per Maddi's instructions now.

Pushing the boundaries of sand castles

Somebody on the beaches of Mexico dug out this entire living room set in the sand. It included couches, a table, vases, and even a useable ashtray

I also found this awesome Mayan Temple made out of sand, but it was partially destroyed from the waves.

I love the effort these people were willing to put into creating these pieces of public art, even knowing that they were only temporary.

spectacular values

monetary aura obscures the art
http://blog.art21.org/2011/03/28/letter-from-london-the-price-is-right/

Awesome buildings

Whoa. These are ridiculous.

http://www.offbeatearth.com/33-of-the-worlds-strangest-buildings/

More big puppets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBXr15K2uSc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgum5wV6i_k&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnG_Ce8Qz9w&feature=related

GIANT PUPPETS!

http://www.offbeatearth.com/giant-puppets-attack-france/

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Puppet-Happenings--NYC-Adult--Family---National---Compelling-Puppet-Theater---Discussions.html?soid=1102513701162&aid=ondrDQ7DQFM

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Puppet-Happenings--NYC-Adult--Family---National---Compelling-Puppet-Theater---Discussions.html?soid=1102513701162&aid=ondrDQ7DQFM

Re: Friday, as performed by Bob Dylan

And meeting the suggestion to put slow-bieber in our shadow shows:

I thought you'd all enjoy seeing her lovely smiling face......

Friday, as performed by Bob Dylan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FISHEO3gsM

Sitting in the front seat.

Kickin' in the back seat.

Gotta make my mind up -

which seat can I tyyake?

Practice Room Jamtervention

Take-Away shows

This french website called La Blagotheque does these videos called take-away shows where they bring up-and-coming indie bands to public spaces and have them perform shows. It's really cool because it's surprising how amazing the acoustics are in public spaces that we wouldn't think would be good.

attached is my favorite video and the main-page.

http://www.blogotheque.net/-Concerts-a-emporter-?lang=en

http://www.blogotheque.net/Local-Natives,5885

Urban Camouflage

Totally fascinating. Maybe inspiration for our final performance--costumes dictated by found objects on St. Olaf Campus and surrounding Northfield.

http://www.urbancamouflage.de/

GRANDPA'S HERE!!!!

The Grandpa's Here! video from last weekend!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150104467021557&comments

MAN LIVING IN GLASS BOX IN MOA

Now THIS is a spectacle

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/914810/396/Minn-man-to-spend-month-in-glass-apartment-at-MOA-

So, as I sit here in the minneapolis airport, the only thing I can thing of is 'what would Guy deBoire do? (I don't actually know how to spell his nam

QUOTE OF THE DAY- 3/18/11

"Yesterday I helped make a sculpture out of trash, and I didn't feel as dirty as I do watching that video [Rebecca Black's FRIDAY]" -Christopher Tradowsky

Elevator Psych Experiment

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/894701/

Practice Room Party!

Our practice room party was a success even though the music building was quieter than usual to do Spring Break! However, we still got a lot of strange looks and a few people asking us to quiet down or shut the door because they could hear us in the other practice rooms and the music library. More photos and movies to come-Andy has the rest of 'em. We had a great time, though!

Digesting Spectacle; "The library is pissed"

There have already been a number comments on our library spectacle (is there a title for the performance piece?) so I won't say much except that it was really exciting. I had some ideas on the direction I wanted the piece to follow, but because we recruited outside artist/actors to help I knew that anything could happen. And it did. And I love that things started to get out of hand.

I never actually thought authority figured would show up and put an end to the performance but now I realize that was really the perfect way for the spectacle to end...otherwise I suppose we would have stopped once all the books had been torn apart.

In terms of our choice of place and time. We were spot on. The purpose was to create an anti-atmosphere in the library. To put stress on the library's normal functions and the way people act within the environment. The fact that it took place during mid-terms is even more appropriate in accentuating that stress (what if it had taken place on reading day during finals?). As with the title line given to me by pub safe: it was no one angry person putting an end to the art--it was the library as an entity.

My experience with my own spectacle and seeing others' is: what determines a successful spectacle? Is it the creation of enough friction to cause an active response--even if it's against the performers themselves? Does a spectacle have to be destructive in nature? And what is the role of identity/character creation. In the library, I think everyone participating took on a character to direct their actions and performance patterns, and I think this is essential to create an authentic, believable spectacle. You cannot act as your everyday self. It's a performance and necessitates a break from normal functioning. Even if you must break from yourself to perform yourself.

If anyone wants a constructive comment on our spectacle from a third party, read the letter from the editor in this week's Mess newspaper. Also admire the graphics.

Gerd Rohling: Master of Recycling Art

The Spectacle in the Cage reminded me of these beautiful "ancient" "glass" goblets created by Gerd Rohling. Look at them closely!

1200

MY GROUP WILL BE PERFORMING AT HIGH NOON IN FIRESDIE.

Is this a Psych Project?

So, apparently doing weird things in the elevator of Larson at 9 at night is a normal thing for psych students to do, because most people thought we were doing an observation project.

Overall, our spectacle was a success because it made people think about how they used the elevator. There were many people who took multiple trips with us to different floors, some wanting to see what happened on the way to different floors, and some who were wasted out of their mind and were going to the Legion and going to different friends rooms. (But they eventually joined in on our project because the last time they entered the elevator they went ape-shit crazy and started hitting the walls as hard as they could and screaming until they got to the bottom floor.) Also, it was interesting to see that the elevator does more movement without people in it than it does carrying people from floor to floor, because if its up on a floor and nobody calls it, it automatically goes back to floor 1. Lastly, a lot of people who live on floor 9 use the elevator that time of night, because we had to spin in circles for most of the rides up. Documentation will come with Zac's post.

well, I said I'd love it if pub safe showed up...

I honestly didn't think it would happen.

But when we were being interrogated about our library spectacle, I have to say that I got a bit of a rush from it. I wasn't scared, exactly, because what could Pub Safe do? I was bouncing between moments of wanting to be impertinent and just plain indignant at the comments like, "This is an art project? Does this look like an art studio?" - of course we all were very polite and cooperative.

I know I walked out of that library feeling pretty smug, though. Is it every artist's private dream to have a run-in with the authorities? Hah!

The Library Extravaganza

I just have a few more comments and some photos to share from the ordeal that went down in the Reference Room last night... I am so glad that I was there to witness it firsthand (and even participate a little)!

I did feel the tension. Honestly, I thought it was convenient because I needed to study for a midterm anyway, so I went to the library and got a spot a while before the herd. So I could understand how the other people who had been there comfortably studying for quite some time felt a little uneasy when the activity was growing around them. But hey... it was maybe 25 minutes... they'll get over it.

I also think that Public Safety was a perfect ending to the "piece." Otherwise, I'm not sure how it would have ended... maybe the performers did, but I couldn't foresee anything.

One of my friends who had been comfortably in the room for a while before the show began came up to me after and right away asked, "Is this for that Spectacle class?" I mean... what could I say? Everyone in our immediate area had already heard them explain it was an assignment to Pub Safe. So I said yes and told him I would love to hear any feedback that he had. Here is what he had to say... in a nutshell:

• Sort of obnoxious at first because people were trying to read/study and it's the middle of midterms
• Thought maybe it was wasteful and was hoping they were books that were going to be thrown away anyway (and I assured him they were)
• Hilarious when Pub Safe came in
• Hoping they wouldn't just leave a mess because that would be rude (I also assured him they would have cleaned up, although looking back I'm not really sure of the groups intent... thoughts??)
• Finally he said that it may have been more amusing at a different time of the year. There's really not much we could do about that, but it's something to think about. Are we trying to be amusing, or is the point that it's midterms week? Something to discuss.

I'll close with a few pictures that I was able to get when I wasn't ripping up a book or scanning the faces around me:

I loved this...

Pub Safe Officer: What are you doing?

Joel: Performance

PSO: For what?
Joel: Just for... performing

PSO: But what are you performing?

...and it went on

Cage Castle

Yesterday Sheila, Kelsey, and I created a fabulous, magical castle in the Cage. First of all, I must say that wearing rubber gloves is extremely empowering. I felt fearless plunging my hands into the trash cans and recycling bins to extract our sculptural materials. Many people asked us "CAN I ask you what you are doing", as if they needed permission to question the crazy people playing with trash. We usually responded "oh, we're just playing" and always asked the inquirer if they would like to join. Every single person excused themselves politely citing homework, meetings, or midterms as a conflict. Finally Christopher joined us, and as our professor, encouraged us to reach new heights with our castle, helping us to make it taller and taller until it tumbled dramatically in a flurry of cups and bottles. Then we calmly re-recycled our materials and left. I think we definitely proved that St. Olaf students are too serious. I wish someone would have joined in the fun.

likes/dislikes

I would call our site-specific work a success. I'll admit, I was apprehensive of how it would go; would anyone participate? Would people understand?

At 11am on La Fheile Padraig, we started enticing people to take a red thumbs down or a green thumbs up piece of paper and a tack and stick it anywhere on the Buntrock bulletin boards that they liked or disliked.

Lots of people participated; I liked this project because most people weren't too afraid of it and they got to do the art.

I did get a few upset people, responses being: "I'm sorry, I really don't care," and "I feel really uncomfortable about this."

But all in all, we got positive responses.

Nate, Timmy, and I set out to create a "No Stress, No Future Zone" with the little help of some tea and sunshine. Were we successful? Many of the people who came over commented on how it was so refreshing to really unwind, but most still had a hard time soaking up the present and forgetting about what was coming next. I think it may have been more effective if we had had some sort of sign, something more than our verbal calls to welcome people to join us. A few of my friends commented later that they didn't join in because they didn't know enough people there and were intimidated by what seemed like an exclusive group of artsy kids hanging out.

Playing in the Cage

When we dumped the first couple of recycling bins out in the cage, we got a few stares and heard some mumbles, but pretty soon the people around started to ignore us.

When it was obvious that classes had let out, and the traffic at the cage grew heavier, we had a lot of people pass by. At the very least they slowed down, and a bunch of people asked us what we were doing. A couple asked if it was for a class, but the first instinct was usually that it was for some sort of environmental studies course rather than spectacle. We kept answering, "we're just playing" or "we're building!" and we would ask people to help us out (we even had extra gloves so it would be sanitary) but not one person did. Everyone had some excuse to be on their way somewhere--and I understand that it is legitimate--but many just seemed like they were afraid to contribute and enjoyed staring instead. A couple people gave us their cups or bottles as they were leaving and one person said, "No thanks, but it's a good visual reminder." Reminder of what? Not specified... but at least it was a nice comment.

Christopher ended up adding to our creation at the end, and finally it all toppled over and we decided it was done. One hour and seven recycling bins later, we concluded that we had a good time and managed to make a few people stare and ask some questions. A success.

Just a few shots of the event:

And here's when Chris joined in... he added the glove balloon! :)

cool dance media piece.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sbjOMualLVs

Library Spectacle

Joel, Siri, and I performed our spectacle last night and I could not be more satisfied with how it turned out. Even before we began, there were conflicts. Some dude was giving Joel some serious attitude when Joel asked him if he could use a table at 10 30. He would not leave. So, we adjusted our plans and ventured further into the reference room. Every table had a few people at it and once we finally planted ourselves in our positions and began to rip books, heads instantly turned. We were a group of about 7 or 8 people and the ripping was much louder than I had expected. It would have been hard to ignore. We definitely made a scene, writing on the paper with lipstick, throwing scraps into the air, and taping the ripped pages all around the room. People took pictures and videos of us, stared, and whispered to their friends in awe. Eventually, public safety was called and they demanded that we explain ourselves. We said that they were not library books and it was for an art class. One of the PS officers said "This is not an art studio!" They finally understood what our intent there was but they did not seem too happy with us so we gathered the scraps into books and left. At this point, many studying students had completely neglected their work to watch us be interrogated by "the law."

The aftermath:

The guy who gave us trouble before the performance started said to me "You should have run"

A picture was up on facebook within about 30 minutes with a caption saying "This is why I don't study in the library" and it had already been liked twice

I went to dittman immediately after the performance and a friend of mine had already heard about the spectacle

This performance definitely created a spectacle in my opinion, and even though I got a little nervous when public safety arrived, I think it was very successful. People seemed interested in what we were doing and it was certainly out of the norm for the reference room. I found it interesting that nobody approached us asking us what we were doing, if they were library books, or if we could quiet down. They kind of took the shy yet aggressive way by directly contacting public safety. Over all, I am very satisfied with the work we accomplished and I think my team collaborated wonderfully.

Cage

Spectacle in the cage at 3 this afternoon!

-Kelsey, Sheila, Anda

Sing-Along

There will be a spectacle happening near the practice rooms in the music building sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 on Friday morning. If you cannot sing or have an instrument you cannot play, please stop by and take your picture with us.

Sincerely,

Sofia, Andy, and Kari

study break

Parisian kids watching a puppet show (via http://claire626.blogspot.com/2010/02/paris-1963-childrens-puppet-show.html)

A cool blackout print (via http://newspaperblackout.tumblr.com/post/3726027596/overheard-on-the-titanic-a-20x200-print-by)

and this!

http://watermillcenter.org/programs/summer

with robert wilson.

bread and puppet internship

check this out:

http://breadandpuppet.org/apprenticeship-and-workshops

As others have mentioned before, it seems that the most effective part of the performance was the 1st minute: the sound, lights, arrival, and anticipation. However, I do not think that the shadow shows themselves were engaging enough to continue for 10 additional minutes. While the contrast between the overwhelming lighting and music and the intimate puppet shows was certainly interesting, it was not enough to engage most viewers for the entire time. If we had gone through our shows just once or twice and then left, it may have been concise enough to sustain the initial impact a little longer. That being said, I do not doubt that there were individuals that were completely engaged and appreciative the entire time and others that simply wouldn't have cared, no matter what was going on. With a shorter show, conflicts do arise: audience members who have no way to see what is going on, etc. I, however, was not necessarily coming into this with the idea that it was a performance that would act the same way as theater. While it contained theatrical elements, I was not all that concerned with conveying a certain idea to the entire audience as I would when acting in a play or a musical performance, but saw it as more of a artistic jolt into the routine of the St. Olaf community. As we discussed in class, it may be important to define our purpose (even in loose terms) as we begin other projects. However, we do not want our purpose or expectations to dictate the random, unexpected nature of these projects which I believe are what make them most successful.

we did not mention this during the debrief but it's certainly on our minds. among many things that christopher and i are pleased with is your willingness to stick your neck out. bravo. keep it up. make dangerous art (as long as you or anyone else does not get hurt, of course). cheers.

the larger spectacle

I personally thought that the larger, weightier spectacle had to do more with the black-out and the rumbling sound than with our actual shadow puppet performances. In fact, I found that the shadow puppets were lost in this show and were anti-climactic. During this entire unit I found myself hoping to actively create a more encompassing shadow performance--something larger, that better used the space and which could actively involve the viewers. So in one sense, yes, the show was successful in that is disrupted the normal atmosphere and forced people into a different state; but it was successful for secondary reasons, and reasons that not all of us were necessarily a part of.

They ran and screamed bloody murder!!!!!

I saw people so frightned that they dropped their trays and ran!!!! The Lights went off and Everyone passed out from fright, I don't think we even had an audience. There was one woman who took all her clothes off and ran through the caf singing 'THE DARKNESS WILL HIDE MY SINS!!!!!"

Not really, but it would have been quite the spectacle. In actuality we had a very pleasant and attentive audience, if at times bored....(their own faults)

Dear Spectacolors, Way to Go! This seemed to be just what the campus needed.

We all know that Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said "humans can watch three things forever, Fire, Water, and Shadow puppet shows!".......... The last is made up but its the same idea. The reason that I believe we see such interesting response to these derives are that People Love Watching STUFF!!!!
Just look at all the wonderful television and advertisement. We are bombarded with passive 'Entertainment' (usually with a hidden motive behind them) and as long as we have a bit of control we are happy. We can shut off the tv or look away from the signs or continue on with our conversations at dinner time.
My one critique of this performance would have been that we did become something that could be ignored. I think that next time we be a bit more in their faces.

Shadow Shows

As we first walked into the caf, turned down the lights and brought up the music, I heard someone who must have seen a flyer exclaim, "something IS going to happen!" The feeling I got from the room at first was excitement. To be quite honest I wasn't able to focus as much as I would have liked on the audience's reaction. I was trying to concentrate on getting through our show as smoothly as possible, and the dark room also made it more difficult to see reactions. What I picked up on was a few people who were very engaged and others who dismissed what was going on and carried on with their conversation. Though there was a boy sitting fairly close to our show and I could tell from the corner of my eye that he stuck with our show all the way through. Even at a couple points when I was fumbling with the puppets he patiently waited for what was going to happen next. I think our performance was worth it if we received appreciation from even a handful of people.

Overwhelmed and Crumbling

I am learning something through this class--although I love the concepts and processes of our class and our art time, I hate performing. Ever since I was little, stepping in front of a crowd terrified me. During piano recitals my entire body would shake and I would forget to breath. With a poor performance I would only fear my next performance, and my associations with performing only spiraled downward. Even now giving presentations in class my body shakes and I forget what I know, stumbling over my words and dreading anyone asking a question which would only prolong my painful performance.

Although I thought I could be over this, the performance in the Caf Monday only solidified my feeling that performance is a difficult thing for me. Starting by fumbling for the matches, my whole body shook as I moved my puppets around the stage, casting a bumpy shadow. Luckily my character was angry, so I think it worked well... But it wasn't ideal to say the least. With an adrenaline rush and a heavy focus I made it through the rest of the performance, but only to crash with exasperation afterwards--I felt I had represented myself poorly and overanalyzed every component of the performance from a negative standpoint.

At this point I wasn't even concerned with the larger aspects of the spectacle--how the performance had looked to all the sitters in the caf, with moving spectacles all around them. The music creeping into their ears, their eyes unable to see except for shadows created by candle light. I'm sure as a whole the performance was spectacular, exquisite, exciting. The moments of applause from around the caf demonstrated that clearly.

My own hiccups are merely a lesson--that maybe to be convinced in the spectacle and the derive is to be more concerned with messing up with people's daily routine than to be bogged down by the intricacies of one's own performance.

"Art not theater?" but....

Art not theater?

First of all, I thought one of the main points of this project, or rather, this class, is to blur the distinction between visual art and live performance, and to experiment with creating spectacle to see how it will engage an audience.

Secondly, I don't think one can rightly say that art is necessarily separate from theater, or that this shadow puppet show was strictly art and not theater. What does that even mean? Theater is a form of art, is it not? But I would even go further and say that this project came a lot closer to what we would think of as theater. It was a live performance that filled a space full of people with visual, sound, and music.

And that being said, I think that a performance of this type should very much be created with the audience in mind - is that not in fact its highest purpose? That does not necessarily mean that we should play to elicit a comfortable, positive response from the audience and show them only what they want to see, but it does imply that we should be trying to engage them somehow, not simply create art that has no intention or care towards the viewers.

And why scorn the idea of art that entertains the viewers, anyway? To me, to entertain, or at least to involve the viewer in some emotional or intellectual way (which is to many of us entertaining) may in fact be the highest purpose of art. That's my perspective, and you can disagree.

All that being said, I think that Monday night's performance was a success, because it did just that. People reacted in all sorts of ways, and I think that's wonderful, AND relevant.

Maddie, I really like that you noticed someone crawling to scare his friends. I think that's hilarious. I think a great aspect of art and crazy derives like this is seeing how people adapt. And what people do when presented with new opportunities. I am not at all offended by this action and I'm actually very encouraged my it. Maybe more from a psychological stand-point, but I find this to be exceptional.

Art. Not Theater.

I don't think we should have done a single thing different. I can't believe (and am a little disappointed) that some of us are measuring success of an art project by claps or by how many people like it. I never got the impression that we were trying to entertain anyone. We were just trying to interrupt their daily routine and we were creating art, not theater. And really, whenever you create art, your primary goal shouldn't be for people to like it- there should be a greater meaning!

Pride Week?

A friend told me he overheard this as we started our shows: "ohhh this must be something for Pride Week". Apparently the onlooker sounded very proud of himself for making this perceptive observation. Interesting that someone can get "celebrating differences" in their head and immediately start to associate everything that falls under that category. Perhaps a compliment to the campus Pride efforts?

I heard a lot of feedback about not being able to see the shows too. Contrary to DJPJ, I have no problem with this. There is validity in art that reaches as large an audience as possible and there is equal validity in art that only benefits the pro-active viewer. I think it's interesting that the recent Interim Theatre Department production of As You Like It was conceptualized under wanting audience members to engage and follow the story about the stage, and did not succeed in doing so while this experience did just exactly that - but perhaps not purposefully. Not a critique of AYLI but interesting how an intention can simply not work for one piece but can unintentionally occur in another.

As to the "stupid football players" - can we not be the bigger person and instead of making assumptions about their intelligence - ask ourselves why they respond so negatively? Art seems to have an elitest problem in this country - it is perhaps why so many organizations struggle to appeal to the middle class. There is this idea that one must "get it" and if you don't, you're not cultured, and ultimately not worth of the artistic world. Perhaps those who so strongly voiced their discontent were uncomfortable because they felt that they did not know how to interact with the experience. Slightly hypocritically, I, too, am making a general assumption that perhaps these boys have less exposure to the arts than some other Oles. I don't know that I verbalized that thought very well but the question I am trying to get at is this: how can we as creators not judge or dismiss our audiences, especially the critics?

I also love the idea that turning off the lights and playing the sound was a spectacle in itself. I'd be interested to do some projects that were more focused on a spectacle of that sort - of that common experience for everyone in the vicinity rather than something so specific and "artistic". Both are completely valid and exciting - but it would be a fun different way to approach it.

As we continue onwards, I would enjoy discussing more our intent with each spectacle, in terms of the audience or space we are "deriving". As Irve brought up, did people's discontent speak to St. Olaf's hyperactive, single-track minded student body? Are we all so stressed out that the minute our routine or plan is interrupted or we feel that we are not 100% in control of what is happening, we begin to yell profanities? Sounds like a somewhat sick world to me and it's one that I, myself, fully engage in and perpetuate on a daily basis.

Oh shit Sally!

Around 5:45 on Monday night, I got nervous. Not about the performance, not that anything would go horribly wrong, not that I would mess up, not that I would start my box on fire, nothing like that. I became nervous about reactions. I know a lot of people who, well, are boring. They like to eat at the same time, from the same line, with the same friends, and then rush off to the same meetings. They don't like art, they don't like darkness, they don't like things that could potentially harm them or their structured life. (Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I'm friends with these people.) Now I know that we are intentionally creating a derive, but I feared that some people would be seriously frightened or angry about the event. I was nervous because I was so excited and I just wanted a receptive audience. For our final show, we parked ourselves at a table and I look up to see my friend Sally (not her real name). In my mind I'm saying "Oh shit Sally! Why didn't you go to dinner earlier! You must be so uncomfortable! PLEASE DON'T HATE ME FOREVER." Well, we did the show, and left the caf. And I got my things and I was still thinking about Sally. I was so preoccupied with Sally that I was having a hard time feeling as proud of the performance as I wanted to. I pulled out my phone to find a text from Sally. This is what it said.

Sally: What was that??? It was amazing!

Sofia: Creating Spectacle

Sally: It was really cool. Thanks for the entertainment :)

I guess that was just a really round about way of saying. Nice job guys. We really made someone's night who really hates things like that.

Also, I had fun performing, but I actually think I had more fun getting ready. Everything about Monday was great. I loved doing the finishing touches and final rehearsals in the Pause and then distributing our tags. I even ended up drawing giant spectacles in the snow around the quad after class because I was so excited (woo PR idea- Sidewalk chalk in the spring?). Then dressing up and finally waiting in the hallway. I loved watching the anticipation build within the class. I guess you can call me an adrenaline junkie, but I live for that feeling. And even more so when shared with others. I liked our show, it was neat, but the process and the amount of thought that was put in to it was even more impressive and satisfying for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and I can't wait to see what sort of shenanigans we create in the future.

Post-Show Thoughts

What a cool project. I think we did a fine job, given the time constraints. Once again, though, I haven't heard any buzz about what happened. It really amazes me that such a strange occurrence doesn't rock the student body, at least just a little.

As for the details of the show, I was initially disappointed by the obvious annoyance of some crowd members. On the other hand, though, I don't think we were doing our shows for them anyway, so I'll mark it off as collateral damage.

Reflecting back now, I most regret not being able to see the faces of the audience members. I couldn't even tell if they were watching our show. Our scale lent itself to a very personal performance, but it did feel very mono-directional.

Another thing that was frustrating was the limited shows we could do. A friend came up after and told me that I had passed her table by, and she and her friends were all upset. It really was unfortunate that we couldn't engage the entire audience in some way other than through darkness and sound.

Serious question, though: what would you have done differently, given another chance?

I think an obvious response might be to change the format of the show, so we could present to more people at once. However, I might also have liked to take the show on the road; stop in fireside, turn of the lights, give a few performances, then leave. It would have also been cool to do shows in offices, disrupting the staff's evening.

Secret Post

I think this was a rousing success considering the goal of creating an experience unlike anything people have ever seen. What intrigues me most is the wide range of experiences that came to my attention. For some, it was annoying, and many cleared out of the caf before we were through. A few friends who were sitting upstairs were mostly confused about what was going on. Some caf workers who weren't able to abandon their posts but could hear the music and see that lights were off asked us what was going on. My favorite experience to see, though, was that of the students going from show to show, watching intently--and there were a few!--because they had abandoned their primary goal (be fed) and clearly embraced the bizarreness of the situation. And while not all audience members can be this type, I believe we succeeded because not a single person in the caf that night had a typical dinner experience.

Puppet Responses

I agree with Maddi. I felt much more a part of the overall show because there was some sort of separation between us and the other people in the caf. Other than the fact that I could hear their voices, it was hard to tell how our "audience" was responding. As someone mentioned, some of the football guys were being assholes. This made me feel in the way and obnoxious during our first show because the people at the table in front of us were mouthing off. As we moved to a new location, though, I noticed that people were moving around--running from cart to cart--in order to see the different shows! This restored some of my hope in the mood of the viewers. I think, as many of us had predicted, that there was a wide spectrum of feelings and opinions toward our performances, although almost everyone that I talked to, when I told them the class is called Creating Spectacle, said, "oh... that makes sense."

I talked to just a few people who were in the caf at the same time we were. One of my friends said she was on a time crunch and felt stressed out by the dark lighting and eerie music. Another couldn't see the show but thought the ambiance change in the room was cool. Again another said it was just plain creepy.

I think Christopher brings up an interesting idea: should we spend any time worrying about the percentage of people who are bound to be pissed off? I think yes. While we don't necessarily think we need to back down and be afraid of bad reviews, because we all know those are bound to happen, we should think about what sorts of emotions will be present when we are going to create a derive. Some people will be stressed out or scared, and others will enjoy it. What we don't want is for those people who are feeling more negative emotions to shut down and not engage in what we are performing... somehow I think we can still pull them in.

i found one of our flyers in the dirt - litter!

Yes, by the third time we performed, I felt a general lack of interest. But on the fourth time, we had a better audience; it really depended on location and the specific students for the quality of audience participation.

I like how people adapted to being in the darkness. After a while people started using cellphones to see their trays. I saw one kid crawling on the floor on a mission to jump up and scare some friends.

I was surprised that I couldn't see the audience; for some reason I had expected to see people's faces. I was surprised to hear my roommate's voice right in front of me at the end of one round; I hadn't even realized she was there. It created a definite feeling of separation between what I was doing and what people were seeing, and I concentrated more on getting the puppets to move correctly.

shadow show thoughts

I felt the most effective part of the show was the first minute or so when the music went on, the lights were doused, and the candles went up. At this point people were gathered around the balconies and seemed to have a positive reaction to the strange environment created by the soundtrack and candle light. After the first repetition of the shadow show, however, reactions became more and more negative. I got whapped in the head at one point and it felt suspiciously on-purpose...
I also feel that most of the people that appreciated the event were other arts-involved students.
Based on this experience, I don't think I would choose to perform an event quite like this again. I am more interested in creating atmospheres/installation, though, based on the effect that the change in lighting and sound made upon the caf/diners.

Puppet Shows

I think Kari's post covers the entire night really well. The audience reacted in the varied ways you would expect people to interact. Some people hated it, some people liked it, and some people loved it. In the end we changed everyone either picked up a piece of our publicity, saw some part of the show, missed the show as they came in as the lights came back on, or heard about it from someone and I think that is the point.

Applause

I want to underscore what Irve posted below. I was not surprised at the lack of applause, simply because knowing when to applause requires the sort of theatrical cues we were abandoning in the first place. If we wanted applause, we would have to have orchestrated it so you all finished at the same time, the lights went up, and you all bowed or some other such gesture.

I think how this performance was viewed/valued by the community has to come down to word of mouth and the slow trickle of unexpected/unsolicited feedback. Several students figured out that I was in on it, and asked "What is this? What is this class? This is really cool!" Granted, these were art and art history students. But audience reaction in the moment doesn't have to be the ultimate gauge of success. 

And for some viewers, anything avant-garde, experimental, unusual or abstract is just going to piss them off. Is it really worth our time to worry about them?

Shadow Puppets

Overall I think the shadow puppet shows last night went very well. I think starting the music before we came out and then coming in before the lights went down was a good idea because it really prepared people for what was coming. I think people were very surprised but most people seemed totally fine with it. Some people moved throughout the caf, watching different shows, and clapping at the end of each one. Other people sat at their tables watching from a safe distance. Others were upset that we were ruining their regular pattern of a day and did their best to either ignore what was happening or be openly rude about it. But most people watched with wonder as the caf was lit up by 11 tea lights. After the show I heard a lot of people talking about it and saying they thought it was really cool :)

David raises interesting issues well worthy of discussion. That said, here are some things that I think complicate the analysis and perhaps some of his conclusions. First, this was not a theater show and indeed Stav Hall is not a prototypical theater space. The design of the show and the space would never facilitate a situation where a large audience would be held completely captive. I think we knew that going into the performance. This event was more closely related to a happening, an incident, an intervention, or an unexpected disruption of normal activity. This piece was more like indoor street theater. I think we all knew that some would like it and some would be pissed off by it. (as exemplified by Stephen's earlier post). We were more like strange waiters bringing odd dishes to tables. I suspect that this was also an event unlike any other in the caf probably catching most people off guard.

As to scale - the number of shows relative to size of the space and the number of people in the space, I think that raises interesting things to ponder as well. I don't think we thought we would reach everyone at an intimate level. Is that even completely necessary? I think the spectacle operated at two levels -- a larger overview "sum of the parts" scale and an intimate detailed scale. Based on my ability to move around the entire caf space, I think everyone was aware of many of the elements - the sound, the light and the presence of pairs moving around presenting something in a lighted box. (that alone is interesting or at least curious to me). I think that many people were aware that there were shadow puppet shows in the boxes. And of course a smaller percentage (whether it was 20% who knows) of people saw in detail the entirety of a show.

Whether you can use applause or jeers as an indicator of the overall success or effectiveness of the performance, I'm not sure. Applause and jeers are much better indicators when an audience is in a space where they have had experience with what is being presented -- they have been trained or socialized to respond in set or codified ways. Theaters, concert halls, museums etc. Jeers, in fact, might be seen as positive in our case. When any art form is seen outside of its normally prescribed context people often don't know how to react. The perceived lack of applause could be more a function of an audience not knowing when to applaud, perhaps not knowing exactly when it was over. I have seen this numerous times in actual theater shows.

To me overt negative response is more a function of our high strung, often frantically on-the-move culture's inability to engage with disruption (or the other) rather than always reject it in a knee jerk emotional way. The truth is that the disruption to their eating was only about 13 minutes long. I have waited in restaurant lines, traffic jams, doctor's offices and so on for much longer periods of time without any provided distraction. And St. Olaf is supposedly a tight(er) community, one where you would expect some level of at least "the benefit of a doubt" type support for the creative activities of fellow students even if you don't "get it".

Well, we'll continue this tomorrow. Thanks to Stephen and David for getting discussion started.

Response

"That was the coolest thing I've ever seen at St. Olaf."

"It was really cool, though some of the football guys were being assholes."

Two quotes that sum up the show perfectly!

music idea

I think minimalist music like Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach would sound really cool...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmX_GgozpQs

here's a video demonstrating two techniques of making shadow puppet joints. it's a bit goofy but the technique is sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3haMkXn7dg

maybe not spectacle but certainly a hybrid form and certainly engaging

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Ajg1G3vik&feature=fvwrel

La Musica

Here are some ideas for background music. In the end, I think we should mash up a lot of stuff, make it all crazy like, but I wanted to provide some examples to get our creative juices going.

...and of course:

Shadow Play Theme

Hey, I think we've got a theme. Stephen and I were chatting about narratives and the Grimm Brother's Fairy Tales came up. Classic children's stories that are well known but with a dark twist. The bothers wrote hundreds of different stories including Thumbalina and The Shoe Maker And The Elves. So we were thinking, familiar fables with a dark spin? (PS, We have claimed Rapunzel).

8 seconds

A week later, the crankie event seems like a blip in the St. Olaf memory. Life here sprints past people, giving us barely a chance to think, process, breathe... let alone remember an aberration such as a bunch of students walking with boxes on their chest, which encased images of, potentially, autobiographical significance.

They say people give artwork 8 seconds, a mere glance, barely enough time to be fully processed. And if I'm correct, I believe many of the members of creating spectacle had pieces that took more than 8 seconds to view. I know my piece took about 30 seconds and was more full of density in imagery and theme. This did not appeal to most passers-by, as that would take "precious" time and way more thought than they'd rather give in a walk across campus. Here, we see a passerby merely ignoring James as he presents his Crankie...


Discovering what made a crankie piece successful was incredibly interesting to me. I've decided a few things:
-Simplicity in imagery: My partner, James, had a white line traveling on a black piece of paper. Really, a very successful use of simple images to tell a story. An abstract story, sure...but a story nonetheless.
-Artists in character: if you're going to break the norm, why just do it part way? It's best to go all out, then people actually may accept you more...
-An element of surprise: The element of surprise was also present in James' work, as his cover fell to the ground with a resounding crash. Not only did this attract attention, but the immediate viewers had a little skip in their heart beat before they realized this action was, in fact, intended.

This project has shown me the true discomforts of performance art, and has also given me an appreciation for how simplicity in image and story can actually serve to be more effective in creating a positive and strong affect on the viewer-because hey, if you get them to take 8 seconds to see it, you've done well.

GetCrank.

Steven Noyz created a beautiful crankie story about a young boy's treehouse. All seems pretty standard with the boy's lifestyle, except his arms decide to pop off the boy's body and go for an international travel escapade.

All of these elements from the beautifully illustrated story come to life in his performance, with the crankie box designed to connote a treehouse and affixed upon an iron wrought tree, and the arms telling their own story. Steven dressed in black to give the effect that the arms were disconnected from his body. Steven became more and more savvy with his performance as the day progressed, taking in notes on becoming more expressive and choreographic with his hands. I was prodding viewers to read his text, as the storyline was rather important for understanding the piece. There were some enthusiastic narrators. Others were slightly reluctant.

I thought Steven and I made good partners--both of our pieces dealt somehow with the body, albeit in rather different terms. Steven had a strong narrative to describe an absurd and playful physical happening, and I described my body's skeleton with my crankie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmkEuisaa08&feature=related

Paul Chan: Shadow Art

I saw this in Western Denmark a few months ago. Warning: it is disturbing! Paul Chan's video Sade for Sade's Sake, 2009, consists of naked humanoid figures copulating without any sign of affection and with mechanical movements. Their simple contours elevate the characters' sexual activities to a higher symbolic and poetic level compared to ordinary pornography films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I7VWPCz2eU