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Archive | December 21, 2009
Leo Nunez – Emergence Exhibition
Another piece of work from the Emergence Exhibition “Propagations” by Leo Nunez is a system of cellular automatons, made up by 50 robots. Different states emerge from this complex system. These states are defined not only by the interaction of the robots with the spectators, but also by the interaction of the robots with their [...]
“mission”: reappropriating public space in new york
Why is it ok to take down someone else’s work (/advertisement) and put my work up instead:
The message of this work is not “buy! buy! buy!” it is “look, enjoy, think, like, don’t like, form an opinion.” It engages viewers in a dialogue which advertisements do not. Each piece of art put in a public space, in place of an ad, is an opportunity for viewers to reconnect with the space they inhabit.
I didn’t sign this work:
If this poster were an advertisement for me-as an artist-it would be just as problematic as a conventional, legally paid for ad. Jordan Seiler uses this quote from Lewis Hyde’s The Gift to describe his work: “unlike economic exchange, a gift has no expectation of return.” As a gift to the city, I have no expectation that this work will garner recognition or accolades. It was a very small way to change a very large cityscape. It was perhaps a utopian gesture which has the potential to lead to more concretely efficacious ones.
Just getting my feet wet:
As I prepared for my project (reading about street art, about Jordan Seiler’s work, about resident/public-space interaction) the holes in it became quite clear to me. I’m not sure such an obviously political work is the best use of reappropriated ad space; it’s a case of the message is the medium; I think just putting a piece of art in a space conventionally used for advertisements is enough of a message itself. Or perhaps I just needed to put my work in a more specific location—out side the TimeWarner center or maybe even very close to a news stand. My lack of experience entering the instillation limited me in some ways in these options.
