Second Group Crit / Ideas

For my thesis I have developed a concept, for now its reserved for "something here", it could be conversation, making new friends, trying to quit smoking, and many more. I want to think strongly about my type decisions for I think the language is very important for the translation of the project ideals to the viewer. I want to place sight specific markings that encourage interaction. These places could be places that are normally not viewed as a place where people congregate. Examples of these could be public ashtrays, water fountains, inside and outside elevators. I recently thought of a saying for the buses, "Reserved for close contact with strangers." My other project is specific to the gallery space, I want to create a variation of the hello my name is sticker, with specific tag lines. The initial tag line will be I love or I heart symbol something. There is going to be something for each artist in the show. The stickers will be used to encourage conversation about the work. The love aspect is relative, because the things people love are the things they care the most about and the things that know and like to talk the most about. I want to encourage conversation between people who like specific peoples work. Below I have included some rough sketches.

First Group Critique

For my thesis project I aim to explore the lack of interaction amongst humans. A lot of people waste their time avoiding contact with others, when they could instead learn something from one another. This occurrence has been observed in many public areas especially on certain public transportation systems. I want to encourage others to change how they view these types of situations. I aim to do this through physical alterations to spaces. At first, these spaces will seem unaltered, but upon taking a second look the viewer will notice a difference and that is the important part. The idea is to show people a different perspective of this situation by making them view something in a way the have not thought to view it before. These alterations to spaces may or may not include written text.

In the critique Victor brought my attention to Tino Sehgal, a artist who deals with a similar concept. He chooses to create situations that are art artworks, as opposed to material objects. I thought this was an interesting perspective. He makes the viewer physically interact with the work as opposed to merely viewing the work. I thought it would be fun to take this into the gallery. I would like to create a event for the space on that day, and have people participate.

This idea of creating situations has been repeatedly done by improv everywhere. They go out and create these scenes that are so out of place that the people not participating begin to interact. I want to create this concept visually on public transportation.