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Reclaim the streets.

OR, perhaps more fitting:

"…less a sandcastle and more a sandbox"

No Pants Subway Ride. No Pants 2010. Improv Everywhere.

Marc Horowitz

Marc Horowitz

  

'Bodies in urban spaces' by Willi Dorner and Lisa Rastl

 

Miranda July made "eleven outdoor sculptures… to pose with — pedestals to stand on, tablets with holes for body parts, and free-standing headdresses."

 

Miranda July, Venice

 

Miranda July, Venice
   

 

Total Crisis Panic Button
 

 

 

 

Art In Odd Places; Images from an article in Paper magazine.

Make Good. Document Well.

Yellow Arrow  (the ever *faithful* Flickr)

There are three "parts" to the social practice project. The first part of your assignment is to create a proposal for a social practice event that will take place in downtown Portland; and to take part in one of the selected events as an active team member.

The second part is to create designed work inspired by the event. The designed work will evoke the spirit of the event you participate in. 

The third part (presentation or brand book) beautifully documents both the event and the designed work you create. 

The intended outcome of the second and third "parts" of the assignment is to parallel the experience of the event. If your event seeks to make people happy, your work should also. 

In this post are examples of ways to accomplish expressive and well-crafted documentation (including photography, narratives/storytelling, video, print ephemera, mapping, locative technologies / media, web sites, and social networking).

First up are collaborators Melissa Small and Sarah Sandman's project "Gift Cycle".

Above is an installation project relating the experience of their social practice project. "During the summer of 2008, a contemporary variation of the Kula ex-change was born, the Gift Cycle. In a similar spirit, the Gift Cycle was a circulatory gift economy connecting artists nationwide. Gifts of art were biked from local artists of one community to local artists of the next community en route. The trip started in Providence, RI and ended in Seattle, WA."  — Sarah Sandman 

Gift Cycle mark.

Designed work documenting the route. Gift Cycle map.

Documentation: Gift Cycle images

 

Collaborators Melissa Small and Sarah Sandman, "What's On (Y)our Plate" (a test project for Bruce Mau Design). The assignment: "Visually articulate the top 10 issues in the contemporary collective consciousness. This is what we came up with. It's a campaign and accompanying website to encourage communication in the public spaces of NYC."

 
 

Collaborators Melissa Small and Sarah Sandman. "WHAT'S ON (Y)OUR PLATE".


 

Collaborators Melissa Small and Sarah Sandman. "WHAT'S ON (Y)OUR PLATE".

TYPORCHESTRA /// A COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE FOR SERIOUSLY(?)(!) "The Seriously(?)(!) campaign promoted fiscal and environmental responsibility at RISD." Melissa and Sarah "organized a typographic orchestra in which 16 RISD students, faculty and staff performed a choreographed, collective statement. "      

    

 

 

Yellow Arrow, Capitol of Punk

Yellow Arrow: Secrets of New York

 

Yellow Arrow: Secrets of New York

 

 

Yellow Arrow site

Yellow Arrow. "HOW IT WORKS: Participants place uniquely-coded Yellow Arrow stickers to draw attention to different locations and objects — a favorite view of the city, an odd fire hydrant, the local bar. By sending an SMS from a mobile phone to the Yellow Arrow number beginning with the arrow's unique code, Yellow Arrow authors connect a story to the location where they place their sticker. Messages range from short poetic fragments to personal stories to game-like prompts to action. When another person encounters the Yellow Arrow, he or she sends its code to the Yellow Arrow number and immediately receives the message on their mobile phone. The website yellowarrow.net extends this location-based exchange, by allowing participants to annotate their arrows with photos and maps in the online gallery of Yellow Arrows placed throughout the world."

 

 

 
Simple site and nice images Urban Cursor 

 

 

 

 

Undercover Agents.

Improv Everywhere

"'Balls Across America' begins as The Yes Men launch a fleet of Survivaballs to sail up the East River towards the United Nations." —The Yes Men

"Excerpt from The Yes Men Fix the World. Attendees at the 'Catastrophic Loss' conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida, in May 2006 were bedazzled by Halliburton's latest personalized climate change mitigation system - a gated community for one - the Survivaball. For more Yes Men videos, visit the Yes Men Channel"

Excerpt from The Yes Men fix the World. On the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, December 2004, Dow spokesperson 'Jude Finiseterra' makes an unexpected announcement on the BBC. In this alternative reality where major corporations do the right thing, Dow Chemical (the present owner of Union Carbide, the company behind the spill), claimed full responsibility for the tragedy and announced a multibillion dollar compensation package. Dow stock prices lost over $2 billion in value in 20 minutes, before the hoax was revealed. The Yes Men.

…or impostors, impostors everywhere?

 

http://www.counterfeitcrochet.org/ 

http://www.counterfeitcrochet.org/ 

Karaoke Ice // Katie Salen

Karaoke Ice promoted 01SJ Biennial "A project by Nancy Nowacek, Katie Salen, and Marina Zurkow, with music produced and arranged by Lem Jay Ignacio. Commissioned for ZeroOne San Jose: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge, August 2006. Produced in collaboration with the CADRE Laboratory of New Media, SJSU."

"Imagine salons and theatrical events spawned by the passage of virtual and real objects through invisible and visible urban infrastructures. With the help of a nomadic squirrel cub and a vehicular mod, Karaoke Ice populates and parse life as a lived database, transcribed through song."

Applied Ideas: "Crowd Gaming" (MSNBC.com) // "Singing In the Car" (Sony) // +

"Human beings as joysticks. Motion sensors throughout the theater track the audience's collective movement and use them as human joysticks to play an arcade game on the wide screen." —Averblog

From Japan, Sony campaign "Singing In the Car" to promote a new vehicle navigation system. "The campaign is an online audition to pick the best performers singing in the car. Not only the videos get uploaded on Sony's website, but the best ones also will become part of the TV spot that will go on air." This is an example of interactive TV content created with consumers help. "People really loved the initiative and got crazy to get one minute of fame: you will see mums with kids, families with kids playing the sax, friends, singles, singles with dogs, couples with cats and much more. In December the best audition will be awared with the value of ten years of holidays based on government estimate (about $9,500)."

Neurosonics Live from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.

The Fun Theory // Volkswagen // Participatory + Social Practice Ideas Applied.

We used to have audiences, but the information age has transformed them into users who are no longer satisfied with the passive consumption of content. They desire interactions and opportunities to connect and contribute. Designers are placed in a position to plan and produce the systems, platforms, frameworks, events and artifacts that work as a conduit to facilitate these interactions and experiences. —Rules of Engagement by Frank Chimero

"We live in exciting times. Finally, we are beginning to understand that pleasure and fun are important components of life; that emotion is not a bad thing; and that learning, education, and work can all benefit from pleasure and fun. Up to now, a primary goal of product and service design has been to provide useful functions and results. We should not lose track of these goals, but now that we are well on our way to doing that for an amazing variety of goods and services, it is time to make sure that they are pleasurable as well. Not only does this require emotions to be a major component of design thinking, but we must also incorporate actions, actions that use the whole body in movement, rhythm, and purpose." —The Transmedia Design Challenge: Technology that is Pleasurable and Satisfying by Don Norman

thefuntheory.com

f

People. Context. Audience. A post about Harrell Fletcher.

 

Untitled (Four Girls) Harrell Fletcher, 2005

In reading through your posts for this week, I couldn't help but be excited by Nicole Lavelle's wonderful post on Harrell Fletcher. Below is an excerpt from her post — to read the whole post and get a thoughtful perspective on and greater understanding of social practice and the work Nicole posted click here. 

 

Lawn Sculptures, Harrell Fletcher, 2002

"People, context, audience

Social Practice, at its base, is about people. It’s investigative journalism reinterpreted. It’s about, and for, the regular person. It elevates, if only temporarily, the average citizen to the status of artist, collaborator or celebrity.

It’s hard to talk about Social Practice without talking about Harrell Fletcher. It seems that this brand of socially engaged art falls wholly into his realm. I always find it hard to explain what Social Practice is to anyone without using Harrell’s projects as examples.

By placing the mundane in an art context, it is immediately elevated to a place of interest. An audience is created for content which before had no audience. This is one part of Harrell Fletcher’s social practice. The other part is a total subversion of that same art world in which, by purpose or default, Harrell Fletcher’s artworks are placed. He often works outside of the restrictions of a traditional art context and make his works more accessible to “regular people.” A non-art audience."

 

The Report, Harrell Fletcher, 2003

 

North Beach Parking Garage, Harrell Fletcher and Jon Rubin, 2002

... and more from Nicole Lavelle's thoughtful post ..... "I think that some of Harrell’s approaches to his artmaking can be incredibly valuable to us as designers, especially a sentiment about interest. I think that in order for the work we make to be maximally effective, inspiring and genuine, we must be passionate about and interested in the work we’re doing. Here’s what Harrell says:

'And what is the best strategy for appearing interested? The answer is to sincerely be interested in fact nothing else will work. This is not difficult for me, because I actually think that people are interesting.'"

Thanks Nicole!