What are your feelings about this performance art group?

[DKeys]

http://improveverywhere.com/

I have conflicting feelings about the work that they do. While I appreciate the conceptual aspect of it, I think you get into dangerous territory when you are playing with people's personal space

What do you think?

[DKeys]

The whole drone thing is terrifying, but it's all probably been done for years, it is just now coming out because of the internet.  But then I am a conspiracy theorist, and I'm sure they have much more sophisticated ways of spying on us. Must be a super boring job--not that all of you aren't fascinating:)

[Not Hi Ng]

Wow Diane, you've opened another can of worms. With surveillance cameras everywhere we can all be performance artists, even without knowing. The city of Berkeley is toying with the idea of surveillance drones. I'm sure there are artistic souls around who can come up with a creative purpose for them.

[DKeys]

Requirements to join the New York Surveillance Camera Players---

To become a performer with the SCP, you 1) must be unreservedly in accord with the SCP's basic positions; 2) must be someone who lives in or near New York City, or is passing through NYC when the SCP is scheduled to perform; 3) must be comfortable with and (ideally) capable of deriving pleasure from appearing in public and, of course, on the closed-circuit television monitors of who-knows-how-many surveillance systems; 4) need not be one of the SCP's media spokespeople, but should be comfortable with the fact that the group is media-friendly and so is often videotaped and interviewed; 5) need not have any professional training as an actor; 6) cannot be a professional actor; 7) cannot expect financial compensation for your involvement; 8) must be an anarchist, autonomist, libertarian, free-thinker or "independent"; 9) cannot be a Communist, Socialist, Marxist, Leninist, Trotskyite or Maoist, an adherent to the ideologies of the Republican, Democratic or Reform Parties in the United States, or someone who is racist, sexist or homophobic; and 10) cannot be a police officer, an informant of any kind, a private security guard or a member of any of the United States' armed forces or intelligence agencies.

[DKeys]

yeah, the 'actors' are willing participants, but the 'audience' is not. That's what makes me wonder. This group has always interested me too--they perform for security cameras

http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html

[De Villo Sloan]

Diane, I think makes a bunch of good points. The most important might be distinctions between pranks, performance art, popular entertainment, serious art. They all have different roles and purposes. (Even more difficult they tend to blend into each other.) The comments seem to focus on a particular distinction:

Art that seeks to create or maintain an illusion (popular entertainment is more in this category)

Art that seeks to question or shatter an illusion (performance art tends to go in this direction)

As for audience, people are manipulated and coerced in almost every aspect of life. I think you have to believe in the intelligence and basic goodness of human nature, if people are given half the chance. It's the total cynical contempt that elites have for the masses that have brought us to the present (not so great) cultural situation we're in, IMHO - I'm talking about celebrity culture, etc. here.

[De Villo Sloan]

I really apologize for giving this a heavy turn, but Not Hi Ng below raises a key concept that informs a lot of performance art & avant garde strategies. That is "defamiliarization." You take ordinary things the audience accepts daily without questioning and make them seem strange or unusual. The idea is to jolt people into an increased awareness of accepted reality - like dressing & driving to work on the superhighway everyday. Few people question that. Maybe they should.Perhaps the audience comes to see the absurdity or even danger of certain aspects of their lives. Maybe the art will help them change for the better:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamiliarization

The Fluxus program seems a bit different: The complete eradication of any distinguishing boundaries between life and art, although that has a number of different interpretations. 

So you get Alison Knowles going to the same diner every week and ordering the same tuna sandwich, and that's the performance.

Performance art comes from concept art and conceptual art - it's "idea art." 

[Not Hi Ng]

The participants in these performances are willingly taking part, they must download the MP3, acquire their clothing, props, etc… They have the option of stopping and going home at any time. I think the truly sinister is when people are mass manipulated without their consent, don't even realize they are being manipulated and, even worse, cannot get out of it.

Millions of people in Los Angeles get up at approximately the same time, dress themselves similarly, follow each other thru a maze of freeways, spend the day in similar office buildings, follow each other home thru the same maze of freeways at approximately the same time, and do it every day. And it's happening not only in Los Angeles but in cities all over the world. Have they been manipulated and don't know it? 

Does the familiarity of seeing this happen every day negate the daily freeway trips as art, as opposed to seeing a mass of people acting in an unfamiliar manner once?

[DKeys]

I guess having a background in theater I think of 'breaking the third wall' as a very aggressive act--not that that is entirely bad, but being provocative just for the sake of playing with people's minds is what I worry about.If it's in the spirit of art and fun it is powerful, but never underestimating the power of stupid people in large groups who gain courage from blending into a crowd, some will take it too far. Someone always does. Maybe it shows how easy people are to manipulate. What is the difference in pranking-- that has become popular entertainment and performance art? The people doing it? The intention? or is there no difference one just sounds more meaningful?

[De Villo Sloan]

People working at Wal Mart are asked to dress in uniforms, "act in a certain manner," and show up at a certain time and place. That holds true for the military as well. So IMHO I can't see how the piece under discussion is any more sinister than the social reality that produced it.

Other performance pieces have been far more pointed. The Flux Mass is an example: George Maciunas reworked the Catholic mass & many people participated in communion with clergy in gorilla costumes & all sorts of bizarreness. That seems far more pointed in its message & intention to offend.

Indeed, some of the DKult rituals have pushed the envelope in terms of the D-Konversions, building shrines to the Elgin Shroud in their homes, etc. If that isn't performance art, I'm not sure what is.

So I don't have any red lights going off in terms of this particular performance.

The fact that Vanessa Place (performance artist) has just proclaimed herself a corporation and is selling 20 one-dollar bills to her "audience" for $50 is far more sinister to me than the tourists. But even VP might have some redeeming point in her concept.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Is it art? I wonder.

Is it a performance? I suppose so, but am very suspicious of mass performances.

JSA: a sporting event satisfies your 3 criteria -- attendance, dress (of fans) & behaviour. Is the game and/or the crowd art? I don't think so.