Experience/Experiment/Project: Noticing Everyday Activities as Art
Version 1:
Choose a 10 minute period everyday for a week (5 days, we all need some unscheduled time) when you will commit to noticing whatever you are doing, and what ever is going on around you as art. Set an alarm to tell you when to start noticing your 10 minutes of everyday life as art, and another to indicate when to stop.
Pause after each 10 minute experience to reflect on it and document it in a brief, simple manner: jot down notes about what happened, make or take a picture, etc.
Bring your documentation to class show & tell.
Version 2: Choose an everyday activity from your life for you to do intentionally as art for 10 minutes a day for a week (5 days, our intentions are nurtured by periods of release and relaxation.) Pick something you already do everyday rather than something you wish you would be doing.Choose a method of documenting that you will use to make a record of your experience. Write up a brief plan in advance that states what action you will be doing as art and how you will be documenting it. Follow your own plan for how to intensely notice your chosen activity as art for 10 minutes a day and document the experience accordingly.
Bring your documentation to class show & tell.
Version 3: Choose an an everyday activity where you interact with another person to do as art for 10 minutes a day for a week (5 days, life is full of things to do.) Write up a brief plan in advance that states what action you will be doing as art and how you will be documenting it. Follow your own plan for how to intensely engage in your chosen interactive activity as art for 10 minutes a day and document the experience accordingly.
Bring your documentation to class show & tell.
Version 4: Art can give you permission to do the unconventional things you want to do.Think of some things you would be curious or interested to do but haven’t done because you feel like they would be a little strange or uncomfortable. Maybe talking to someone who you want to know but don’t yet, going somewhere you don’t usually go, or moving in a way you don’t usually move. Choose one activity that seems exciting and a tiny bit scary or uncomfortable, and that in some way involves interacting with other people to do as art for 10 minutes a day at least 3 days a week (you are pushing yourself beyond your own normal limits, you deserve props and recuperation time.) Before beginning choose a method to document your experience and then let yourself grant you permission to try out your chosen experimental action/interaction and document it.
Bring your documentation to class show & tell.
Ideas to consider:
There is a big difference between just going through the motions and bringing your full thoughtful, caring attention to what you do. Everything is so much more interesting if you give it your attentive presence, even boredom.
Experience/Experiment/Project: Public Wondering Posters
1. Read from Paul Ramirez Jonas, Paul Thek and Gregg Bordowitz lists of questions/statements.
2. Write a list of 50 questions that you find yourself wondering about over and over at different points in your life. Maybe these questions relate to who you are, what your place is in the world, our moment in time, or whatever feels important to you or grabs your mind.
3. Share a selection of your questions with the class. Choose 1 question that interests both you and other people to use as an interview question. Think about how to phrase your question in a way that makes people be able to connect with it and respond.
4. Do person-on-the-street interviews with strangers using your chosen question. Talk with at least 10 people. Record their responses, preferably as an audio recording, or quickly jot down notes. Choose your favorite 3 responses.
5. Design black and white text posters using your question and your 3 favorite responses, 1 poster per statement. Use 8.5X11 paper in black, white and/or grey. Make a design motif using graphic elements, either solid blocks, patterns, or images, that carries through all your posters to make them visually cohesive. Take care that the text is legible. Make it look sharp and/or beautiful and/or interesting and/or relevant to your subject matter.
6. Put up 2 sets of your Public Wondering Posters in public places. Choose places that in some way relate to the topic of your question. Photograph your posters up in public.
7. Bring 1 set of your posters to class for show & tell, and send me a digital copy of your posters and the photos of them up in public.
8. We will meet and publicly post all of our posters on 1 shared wall, then look, feel, think and celebrate.
Collaborative Walking Project
In groups of two or three organize a public walk that guides your participants to explore a chosen question or theme.
Walks should take around 20 minutes (and no more than 30 minutes) and should be able to start and finish near campus.
Brainstorm some questions and themes that your group might want to explore with a walk.
Go out and explore places you might want to take people to and through on a walk in relation to your preferred ideas/inquiries.
Develop a course and a plan for a walk that you will lead people through: Meeting point, method of guiding people, stopping or passing through points, activities to partake in during the walk, turning around point, return path, and a culmination.
Consider the multi-sensory aspects that you want to call to people’s attention.
Consider pace and proximity between bodies.
Consider your intentions alongside openness to unexpected and individual differences of experience.
Design an invitation to welcome the public - or a specific public - as well as our class, to this walk, and share it through the relevant public channels.
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