D I S S O N A N C E

Curiously, I decided to do an independent project to the class.

Well, two actually.

The first was to white tape "hate" to my black leather jacket in the style of Ian Curtis.

The second was to smoke in class.

1st Project

To say that I got attention would be apt.  People would usually ask,

"Why Hate?"

"Why not Love?"

"Why do you Hate?"

"Do you know what that word connotes?"

Et Cetera.

Really, I observed that the displacement of a word from context will not liberate it from the minds of those who perceive it.  Like Bill Hicks or Lenny Bruce, its simply a word and nothing more.  It of course brings to mind many things, but because it is dissonant, will never end in any good.

Not an unfortunate thing, rather, a detail in the pattern.

So I ended the project when the tape went grimy, and, in a touch of the unexpected, a residue remained with the outline of the word.

Every action-

Objects in motion-

Objects at rest-

2.

Smoking.

I figured it was time to test the limits of the classroom and lit up a cigarette beside an open window.

The heart palpitations were exhilarating, as I become very aware that this was not a social grace.  Dean kept lecturing and I kept smoking. 

None the wiser.

Except for some students who grinned (they also smoked).

Everyone else was a Hindu cow on a prairie in Mongolia.

I put out the cigarette in my notebook and a burn mark went through pages in the notebook.

If one were to turn the pages like a flip book/stop motion, it would resemble a black circle becoming smaller until brown and then nothing.  

Someone told me I was bad ass.

But really it was silly.

Or absurd?

 .  .  .

I smoke again the next class, and a student noticed, so Dean asked me to put it out or smoke outside.

So I watched everyone through the windows as I smoked.

Pantomimes and Chaplain poses without a sight of vigor or feeling to their movements.

Subdued and unreal.

Underwater.

Drowned.

Gone.

 .  .  .

After reading Auto-Destructive Art, a horrible verisimilitude of nihilism overwhelmed the thought process for the project.  In essence, that society harnesses "heart attack machines across their shoulders" (Bob Dylan, Desolation Row) into a grating process of destruction, whether atomic energy, green house gas, pesticides, or noise pollution (along with light), an overabundance of people will implode into itself.  

Here it is:

A cardboard (3.5 x 2 ft.)

Glass Jar with red paint dripping down through top

Duct Tape (Holding lightbulb)

60w Bulb

Wayfarer Sunglasses Beside Peep Hole

Brick

Cockroach

White Candle

Black Shoe Shine

Wristwatch

Driftwood Stick

Black Trash Bag

Having previously used a box for the Surrealist project, I took again a cardboard box and went to arranging.  Additionally, inspired by Duchamp, I wanted to have a peep hole into this box, rather than a pizza box you would open. 

The intention was to have a lightbulb that would decay the wax and shoe shine atop of a brick, and to have red paint drip from the glass jar resting atop of the box.  Because I did not want to destroy anything in nature, but still include nature, I wished to show the decay of electricity on elements.  

Yet, further still!  I provided sunglasses for those who peeped into the hole to protect their eyes.

The result?

Videos stole the show.  I watched as everyone gather to the light screen showing a destruction project.  Immediately I felt displaced, for the disparity between projects became palpable.  Who would observe a silent passive exhibit beside another that was active and stimulating?

While it could be argued, no one watched it forever, I really just sat watching social dynamics form and click to the sides and center (standing before the projector).

As for my project, only one person used the sunglasses to protect their eyes.

One student said I had cobbled a lot of shit together in a box.

Another told me my project was smoking.

Another failure.  

Another lesson.

Simply this:

People require an immediate and a secondary.  The shock and the mystery.  

Because I oriented the project to belittle someone to crawling, there was already a dis-ease with the project.  Then, that it was not obvious that those dangling sunglasses were meant for the peep hole, an irritation in looking directly at a light bulb.

I naively imagined that a person would watch for a minute as the clock clicked while wax melted, paint dripped, a light blub hummed, and a scene of the universe played out, with the light as the Sun.

And also, I ripped up the project guides lines after crumbling and wrote "FUCK YOU" repeatedly across paper.

With the sound machine project, destruction appeared a natural by product.  Inevitably, friction creates sound, weather from the vibration of a reed or string, it slowly wears away. 

After considering a pendulum machine with fire, an epiphany seized me in the form of a staircase.  For naturally, anything crashing down a stairwell creates a sound, but the possibilities of textures existed.  

Those were to include:

Water containers

Pencils

La Crosse Ball

Metal Cup

Army Bullet Box

Scrap Metals

Plastic Water Jug

Wooden Stick

All contained within a metal wire garbage container.  

Next, to ensure synchronism, I lined all of the materials up on the cusp of the stair well with a stick that would be directly behind them so that a broom sweep would push them over.

Naturally, I wouldn't allow myself to be the one who instigates the motion.  I asked for a volunteer and, as with the first time project when I asked to borrow a computer, encountered an air of reluctance before someone stepped forward.

The result?

Instantaneous sound and silence.  The textures I had imagined that would go at speeds different to other did not occur, instead, a cacophony exploded and ended.  I stood at the foot of the stairwell and received it all, the trash, materials, sound, laughter.  

Then-

nothing!

Observations:

My intention with the notecard assignment was such that: 

1. Musical  2. Sculptural  3.  Performative

1.

Start by whispering and escalate into a scream how you make your art.  End with "The end" and begin with "Once upon a time"

2.

Pick up stick, riot shield and sunglasses.  Next set to separating people into two groups, and by all means necessary.

3.

Smear some chalk on the black board and invite everyone to finger paint with the chalkboard.  Tell them they have only two minutes.  After everyone is done, go back over in chalk again.

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1. Theory + Reality

With the musical, I sought to have an oscillation of sound that was intellectual and instantaneously involving, considering free association and stream of consciousness.  To allow it structure, I instructed a "beginning" and "end".

The reality was one that 

2. Theory + Reality

With the sculptural, I anticipated a difficulty innately in moving people to do things.  Thus, the bifarcating of the class seemed an immediate method to cause an interruption of the tepid dormancy that presides over the situation of most classes, excluding the beginning exercises.  

Now the reality was fascinating, because the performer did not use the tools I provided, and merely requested that the class split up, stand on one leg, and he left.  The gesture was astounding.  If people are led to think that their participation will accomplish something, they will do it, given the right circumstances.

3. Theory + Reality