This week’s tactical media theme of exploratory material and reading from Charlie Gere’s Digital Culture wove together very well, and painted an interesting picture of art in the digital age.
In exploring the participatory art projects of artists Stephanie Rothenberg, I was drawn to Invisible Threads. Labeled as a “mixed reality performance installation,” it allows users to order designer jeans from the virtual manufacturer and watch the entire production process in the virtual sweatshop.
The question that came to my mind while watching the video of the process and looking through the photos was, what were the reactions from participants? Did seeing the process in which their jeans were made make people think about sweatshops and clothing production in a different way? This was probably the intent of the project, but it would be interesting to know if it fostered dialogue for those involved in such an interesting “mixed reality performance installation.”
In Chapter 3 of Digital Culture, Gere discusses the history of performance art. Before the emergence of widespread technology, the interactive practices of this artistic medium offered a foundation for interactivity through multimedia.
“Much performance art was also deliberately confrontational, seeking to shock audiences out of their complacency.” [Digital Culture, p. 88]
Although Gere describes performance art’s peak as being from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, there are still modern examples of the form today, even beyond the wonderful multimedia artists featured in this week’s material. Spanish artist Yolanda Dominguez used performance art to shed light on poor factory conditions after the terrible Bangladesh factory collapse killed over 1,100 people last April. Actresses in upscale clothing laid on the ground amid makeshift rubble in front of stores in Gran Via, an upscale shopping district in Madrid.
In this piece there are observable interactions from an audience. Although many people walk by or simply snap photos, you can see that a few people seem to be checking on the women or brushing material off of their bodies. This is an example of not only physical interaction with performance art, but the idea of the social critique. Dominguez seems to be using the piece to foster dialogue about the substandard working conditions many garment employees face, similar to Invisible Threads.
Brooke Singer’s page seemed to be an eclectic mix of art, from informative posters to interactive projects. She certainly had variety on her side! The Excess NYC project seemed like a really interesting goal: Divert food waste from landfill for consuming and composting. Not only were there text and photo updates of the project, but they also take volunteers –a creative way to bring a community together to collaborate towards reducing food waste.
A few questions that came to mind while delving in to this week’s material:
Does performance art reach a larger audience due to its varying styles of engagement? For instance, are people more likely to start a conversation about garment factories after seeing the models in rubble on the street, or does it make just as much of a statement as a photograph on the wall of a restaurant? Are people more likely to engage with a site like Brooke Singer’s, where they can sift through multimedia materials at their leisure? Or are they more likely to engage if there is an artistic piece obstructing their street or sidewalk, forcing them to pay attention?
Hey Lauren,
I had similar thoughts after checking out the digital sweatshop project. The whole “Second Life to Real Life Portal” aspect seemed a little hokey to me, but I thought, as a whole, the piece got the message across that sweatshops are bad, mmm kay?
There’s a difference between subtly encouraging someone to think a certain way and forcing something down their throats (I’m thinking of those awful Truth anti-smoking ads from a few years back). I think the most successful participatory art projects are a combination of both.
Hi Lauren,
I like your questions about exposure and what’s the most efficient and effective way. Like would a commercial about domestic abuse cause the same reaction if played during the Superbowl as it would on an inner city billboard?
Not that I am stereotyping Superbowl watchers as beaters, or inner city as having a higher rate of domestic abuse, just different audiences… Or are they?
Hi Lauren – You ask some interesting questions. I think performance art has a larger capacity for public engagement vs. traditional art. However, I wonder what happens to the performance art piece after the performance is over. Does it loose its effectiveness? Do you have to be present and personally “witness” the piece to truly understand the message they are trying to convey?
When I was watching the video for Invisible Threads and it showed the people watching their jeans be made it actually felt like the process was replicating a master/slave dynamic. There we were watching the people do their work and making sure that they did their work, while also making sure that the workers felt policed. The people watching smile as though the workers below love being lorded over by some huge faced “real life” managers. So, while there was definitely an awareness brought to the issue of outsourced labor it seemed like it reinforced the hierarchy often associated with labor.
K I love the idea of the projects as a combination of both. I also love the idea of a commercial about domestic abuse running during the Superbowl! It’s such a widely received broadcast that you would be reaching an enormous audience, hopefully with some diversity within even if the majority of viewers were fans. What I also wonder is, because so many people have come to expect the Superbowl commercials to be funny or technologically impressive, would people be more affected by a well produced darker commercial about domestic abuse if they are expecting something else? It would be interesting to see the reaction.
Interesting observance about the preservation of performance art. If you watched Fashion Victims, you will see that although it happened months ago, it’s now online and able to reach a mass audience. That of course depends on its viral potential, but perhaps that is the future of performance art? Public engagement and shock while it is unfolding, and if you are able to film and capture it, it can then be stored and shared online. I guess the effectiveness of the piece depends on the viewer. Were you affected at all by watching the piece? Did it send a message home to you?
Jarratt – I like your observation about Invisible Threads. For me personally, watching a bunch of animated people work in a virtual sweatshop felt a little more like the Sims than a deeply rooted message about working conditions. Do you think a documentary from inside the actual sweatshop would be more effective? What multimedia form would hit home with you regarding this issue?
I’m also intrigued with Brooke Singer’s project about diverting thrown-away food for hand-me-down consumption rather than composting. There seems to be a lot of artistic things you can do to take such an initiative to a broader audience in a way that weaves physical context and the online space in a compelling manner.
I was thinking of how Stephanie Rothenberg creatively mapped the movement of humanitarian capital between developing and developed countries in her garden project involving Kiva.org. If you do that same gimmick using the variables of nutritional needs in the developing world and thrown away food in the developed world, I think there’s gonna be some interesting results.
Interesting question on the reach of performance art, Lauren. Like all participatory media, I suspect it depends on the message and the particular characteristics the performance art employs. I was describing the Invisible Threads project to my husband over breakfast this morning. I was telling him about the interactivity of the project, the way that the participants were able to interact with the virtual world and the production of the jeans in the end. We then went on to discuss sweatshops and labor and the concept of how disconnected we are form the way consumer products are produced. It was just a casual “catching up” conversation, but sweatshop labor is not something we usually talk about over our bagels and yogurt.
So in my case, yes, the Rothenberg installation did influence me to discuss the intended message. But, interestingly, the message was the second aspect we discussed. The first was the medium. But while the message was secondary, it was still a topic of discussion.
That being said, we also discussed WITNESS, EngageMedia and The Interview Project. What was different about these three discussions was, beyond mentioning that these were online video projects, the medium was not part of the discussion – only the topics of gender-based violence and other social justice issues.
So in answer to your questions, I would argue, performance art doesn’t necessarily reach a larger audience, but it does play a larger role in the social sharing. I think most of us, in relating our experience with Invisible Threads would include the “wow” factor as significant part of the discussion, whereas the medium would not play as large a role with some of the other projects.
Lauren, your thoughtful exploration of the tactical media theme and your engagement with the works of Stephanie Rothenberg, Yolanda Dominguez, and Brooke Singer is truly insightful.