h a l f b a k e r y"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
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People in the West are losing their sense of collectivism. They are living in a hyper-individualist, neurotic, alienated state.
In their free time, they search for experiences that evoke the lost feeling of this primordial mass collectivism, of losing one's own individuality.
We can easily capture
this in an art piece.
The Tate Modern in London is big enough to host it:
1. A huge, really mega huge transparent plastic bulb in the form of an elongated torus.
2. A rail at the bottom of the torus pulls along a big patch of some green stuff.
3. Ventilators and windblowers push air into one direction through the torus.
4. Release locust storm inside the locust vivarium. The storm moves in one direction, chaotically organized.
5. The hypnotic sound of the storm is amplified through sound boxes (microphones inside the bulb)
6. Enter the tiny, neurotic individual visitors, who can walk in the center of the torus, being surrounded by the storm, but safely separated from it.
Vertigo guaranteed. Locusts really do the trick. They biblically represent the untameable, the chaoticically organized, the collectivistic, the socius in its raw, monstruous form.
Locust invasion
http://capital.lk.n.../locust_canary1.jpg
Great image of a storm - there's nothing you can do [django, May 28 2006]
Infantile joy
http://www.lwr.org/...5/Niger/locusts.jpg
Chasing or being chased? [django, May 28 2006]
Pineapples
The_20Thwarted_20Pineapple
First I'd heard too. Believe it's this... [spinglespangle, May 29 2006]
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Annotation:
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Whilst disturbing at the start. I like it. |
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mmmm <licks lips> locusts! |
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I prefer this to your "war on locusts idea" -
I'm a fan of the locust, but more than that I
really like your idea - most excellent and
inventive + |
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I likes.
If I may be as bold as to suggest changes to your art piece: How about if you replace the real locusts with light-weight, realistically-formed, locust-shaped pieces of foam?
You see, we do search for experiences that make us feel part of a collective, but inevitably these are just an imitation and fall short of the mark. Realistically, how can you truly lose your individuality when the very essence of our society is the juxtaposition of collectivism? The foam locusts would represent exactly that, the fact that these experiences are a pale reflection of the reality we wish to attain, if only temporarily. Just like the effect of some drugs, compared to the feeling of real happiness. |
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You cannot be serious!
How on earth can you justify the TP call after such a clear description of not only the artwork itself but the motivation behind it? |
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And how do we cater to their hyperindividual needs and desires to deliver them to the dome in the first place? |
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The pineapple pretty much applies to the first paragraph, and the assertion that this will make the observer mildly psychotic. |
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Drilling down into the mechanics of it, I don't understand points 2 and 3 in relation to point 4. Is the greenery travelling in the same direction as the wind? Is it the wind or the greenery temptation that moves the locusts? |
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Finally I don't understand the guarantee of vertigo. I fail to see how observing a swarm of insects through glass would have this effect. Truth be told, I can't see how it would have any effect, except possibly to allow people to observe locusts. The substitution of foam would eliminate this benefit, so I came to the conclusion that I totally misunderstand the idea and hence tendered the pineapple. |
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//<tenders pineapple>//
//the TP call // |
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I'm sorry, I don't often like to admit that I've no idea what people are talking about but... |
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What the heck are you two talking about? |
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Yay! A pineapple used in anger! |
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Myself, I kinda like this. I think there are better ways of providing a collective experience - anything where there's a crowd of people and chanting, really - but as an experience it would surely be interesting. |
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I think I'd like it better if there wasn't a risk of infesting London with locusts, though. |
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//Drilling down into the mechanics of it, I don't understand points 2 and 3 in relation to point 4. Is the greenery travelling in the same direction as the wind? Is it the wind or the greenery temptation that moves the locusts?// |
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Locusts fly only in one direction: with the wind, and towards a patch of green biomass. These two conditions have to be fulfilled, else they won't fly. |
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Hence the wind blowers and the patch of green. |
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//so I came to the conclusion that I totally misunderstand the idea and hence tendered the pineapple.// Texticle, May 28 2006 |
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Oh, I see. In my view, although the idea relies too heavily on these assumptions, it could be argued that they have some validity so I choose to go with them as givens. |
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There's only one green vegetable mass? This will confuse the single-minded loctusts as glass or plastic molded into a torus will refract and reflect the image of the greenery. The swarm will fly in the direction of the nearest patch of vegetation, which may be different for every individual. Hence the harmonious collectivity that the swarm represents is ruined by them flying into each other and into the walls, killing themselves. Also in a torus, not all the individual would be able to see the greenery at the same time and some would be in front of it flying away from it, showing how stupid individuals behave in mass collectivity. |
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//They are living in a hyper-individualist, neurotic, alienated state.// I'm not. |
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//The Tate Modern in London is big enough to host it:// |
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The Tate is also bad enough to host it. |
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