I've assigned the following readings for this week's class:
- Fernández Mallo, Agustín. Postpoesía. Hacia un nuevo paradigma
- _______Joan Fontaine Odisea
- Goldsmith, Kenneth. “Why Conceptual Writing? Why now?”
- Suggested: Dworkin, Craig. “The Fate of Echo”
The eight graduate students taking the seminar are invited to comment on those, and many other things. Meanwhile, this is what I am thinking about:
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| Screenshot. 1 year performance video (River y Whid) |
"1year performance video" by M.River and T. Whid is a web intervention on Tehching Hsieh's "One Year Performance". To enjoy it this time, however, this is what you need to do:
Please, watch for a year
The premise here is opposite to Hsieh's, as far as the involvement with the "work of art" goes. For these two artists, only a short recording is necessary. Their performance resides in its simulation. The audience, however, is expected to invest 365 days of viewing. Their streaming is recorded. Their watching is monitored, every second counting, adding towards a final "1 year" goal. The change in the conception of the artistic essence of the performance, hence, resides in the transformation of the "subject observing an artistic object" into "artistic object being observed while observing," turning the spectator's viewing into the work of art.
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| Poster for the original performance by Hsieh |
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| River and Whid's 1 Year Performance. Home site |
In Joan Fontaine Odisea by Agustín Fernández Mallo, I read:
El objetivo perseguido por esta performance es alcanzar un estado de disipación físico y mental de resonancias místicas por causa de la constante e ininterrumpida visión del film Rebecca de A. Hitchcock.___________________________________________________ El 27 de enero de 2001 el autor-ejecutante, D. Agustín Fdez. Mallo decide que da comienzo el evento, con la única premisa de no salir de la casa hasta la fecha de su conclusión que se deja abierta al momento en el que éste considere haber alcanzado el citado estado de disipación física y mental. Se valorará favorablemente que el número de textos escritos por el autor-ejecutante a lo largo del proceso sea el menor posible.____________________________________________________ (Fernández Mallo Joan Fontaine 8)
Hsieh's words:
It's all poetry. Post-poetry. Or isn't it?
--Alex Saum-Pascual
