Dinner Party

The installation Dinner Party serves as an experiment in relational aesthetics. Participants are handed a set of rules by which to comply during a structured meal setting. They are served very small amounts of low calorie foods arranged in meticulous formations on a fully set table. The rules and dinners are inspired by pro-anorexia websites. What Dinner Party aims to explore is the relationship between people and food under extreme conditions. The behavior of participants is challenged by the rules they are inclined to follow. By placing restrictions on multiple people in a social setting, questions are asked about eating disorders and eating habits in general.

Dinner Party

invitation front

invitation back

Rules For Eating handed out to participants

Plate #1

Plate #2

Plate #3

Plate #4

  

Food Arrangement Inspiration

jk

Fluxus Happenings

I'm constantly asking myself the question "What is art?" and I'm just generally interested in any art that asks the same thing.
Since I'm struggling with the concept of a dinner party as a sculpture installation (and it's taken a very psychology-based turn recently), I did some research on Fluxus happenings and their blurred art-social structure.

They were frequently performance-based and often required the participation of a spectator. They evoked gestures and actions constituted from an individual's everyday experience. In a way it's considered anti-art, but it could also be considered as a boundless form of art.

Fluxus Art Amusement: Manifesto by George Maciunas


Cut Piece by Yoko Ono:

and WOW this is so perfect for my research:
Eat Art by Daniel Spoerri:

pro-anorexia research

Search "pro-anorexia" and find websites devoted to "thinspiration" in the form of photos, quotes, sets of rules, and ways to conceal symptoms (see previous post), but search "pro-anorexia research" and find a whole new set of information about these destructive sites.

Since deciding to include some information from the websites in my installation, I've been plagued with the words that I saw. Images of them literally flashed in my mind like a '90s movie montage. So today I devoted my research to the pro-anorexia websites and their effects.
Girls (or anyone really, but the forums I read were mostly girls) who use these websites view eating disorders as a lifestyle choice rather than a disease. It's correlative with the idea of a dinner party; strange that they're just on different spectrums of social gatherings. The support and admiration gained from these websites could be compared to any celebratory gathering.

One research paper I read discussed the political content- as if there is some  hidden agenda to purposeful starvation. I think that's where the set-up of my installation comes in.. and why I chose to use nice plates and glasses to signify that the cause of hunger was far from poverty.

Even completely sane and mentally healthy people shouldn't read these disturbing and delusional websites.

It's good because I finally figured out what my project was truly about, but it's bad because this kind of thing even exists at all.

sources:

https://bir.brandeis.edu/bitstream/handle/10192/24532/BeliveauThesis2013.pdf?sequence=1

http://www.ucs.ac.uk/SchoolsAndNetwork/UCSSchools/SchoolofAppliedSocialSciences/Virtually%20Anorexic.pdf

http://www.sirc.org/articles/totally_in_control2.shtml

things that should be banned from the internet

I've been putting off researching this because I knew how dangerous it could be- but I was unaware of the disgust I would feel when reading these websites. I've been looking for foods to serve and wanted to use an anonymous online food diary for meals... like I had the idea to find someone who posts their meals online and serve that to my dinner party guests.

I found a lot of online food blogs and also found a set of rules to follow; rules that would surely kill anyone who responded sincerely. I just can't believe this is online at all.

I'm considering reading or having them listed at the dinner party to increase shock value.

Please NO ONE click these. I used them in research but highly recommend NOT reading them:

Rules

Safe Foods

Food Diary

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Here is a video and article on an artist mentioned frequently in Relational Aesthetics, Rirkrit Tiravanija.
His work features the audience interacting with art in a social way.

Relational Aesthetics

Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud was really helpful in explaining interactivity in art. I was having a hard time defining this project since to me it doesn't really fit into the ideal "sculpture". This book gives a lot of examples of these sculpture/installation/performance- based works that rely so heavily on the relation between audience and artwork that it takes precedence over the piece itself.

I was interested in the availability of the work as well as what takes place between art and audience. The fact that this isn't readily available but requires social activity and planning is difficult for me- and requires a great deal of documentation in the moment.

This book mentions big exchanges within daily gestures which I think encompasses my dinner party project pretty well. Differing principles are the attraction in the otherwise common setting.

Specific artists were mentioned briefly in passing but required outside research.

hosting a dinner party

As a few more elements of dinner parties have been brought to my attention than originally foreseen, I've been researching "how to host a dinner party" on search engines.

Since the theme is pretty fancy, I thought this article was really helpful. (Yes, it's from the website of LC from Laguna Beach.) I'm thinking maybe of playing music and making name cards for place settings? Also this one was helpful in my research of what would normally be expected at a dinner party.

Chair Search

been checking craigslist daily for a dining room chair set -- the only ones posted are $150-$800.
inquiring classmates about borrowing, also considering buying and returning.

Dinner Party

Google image search dinner party inspiration:

I want the setting to seem extravagant and contradictory to the food being served. I like the idea of extra utensils and unused plates. 

Notes on A Natural History of the Senses

Taste:

• the powerful social component associated with eating
• foods eaten symbolically:
• Catholic communion
• rice as the inspirational center of lives
• Jewish horseradish dish to symbolize tears of ancestors
• the intimacy of taste
• the meaning of taste as "trial" or "test"; food as thrill-seeking
• food and sex, food as pleasurable
• the delicacies of other cultures:
• Masai drink cow's blood

• Italians eat deep-fried songbirds
• Aztecs eat roasted dog
• "diversity is our delight" and the privilege of an array of foods
• the history and taboo of cannibalism pages 136-138
• New Guinea cannibalism/sex ritual
• "the tongue is like a kingdom divided into principalities according to sensory talent."
• salt, sour, sweet, bitter, others?
• negative effects on taste buds
• toothpaste breaks down phospholipids on taste buds, causing orange juice to taste bitter
• heredity of taste; mood and diet in relation to taste
• the relation of smell and taste
• "...in England during the eighteenth century... the idea arose that torturing an animal made its meat healthier and better tasting"
• eating the goose while it's still alive :( :( :( :( page 147
• cravings and emotional balance
• carbohydrates for Seasonal Affective Disorder
• sweets as rewards
• drifting from "real" taste and preferring artificiality
• discussion of specific tastes
• chocolate, vanilla, truffles, ginger
• taste makes the horror of killing to live palatable

Restrictions I-V book

Restrictions I-V video

Restrictions I-V

Restrictions I-V

Restrictions I-V is a performative exploration of physical and psychological restrictions. Using the concept of self-as-subject, I created and borrowed tools to deprive myself of these functions: use of teeth, warmth, use of thumbs, vision, and privacy. 

The video document shows either use or result of use of these five physical or metaphorical tools. 

Aside from the last restriction entitled Privacy, the aspect of privacy was unintentionally everywhere in this project: the photos and videos offer insight into my life that I didn't necessarily choose to share. 

The accompanying book exhibiting both "object" and "use" is a tactile item that creates an intimate experience between the single viewer and the artwork. The unedited Polaroid photographs parallel the loss of control discovered through the use of the tools. 

I specifically titled it I-V to imply that these are only five of an infinite number of possibilities. In other words, this project is designed to be explored further. 

Privacy

"He lives without privacy in a lidless room." - Sylvia Plath

I think the most compelling restriction I've placed on myself is lack of privacy. When considering things I took for granted it was towards the top of the list - something that's just understood as a right in our society, yet something that we like to think we have control over.

Aside from the obvious last restriction entitled "Privacy", the aspect of privacy is unintentionally everywhere in this project: the photos and videos offer insight into my life that I didn't necessarily choose to share. 

I'm intrigued by the idea of "audience" for banal occurrences. For this project, my exposure threshold was exceeded. Why would anyone care to watch me eat? Sleep? Put on makeup? Take off my clothes and get in a river? (Well that last one is quite unusual, actually). 

I think I became interested in the idea of privacy when I started thinking of it in terms of alienation and control - something I take way or restrict. I hope this comes across in my videos and photos. It was my choice to live without privacy in my own lidless room. 

Francis Alys

Francis Alys is an artist I learned about somewhat accidentally during the course of this assignment. I had been researching his paintings for another class when I came across his work in book arts and performance!

His books (none of which I've read yet) are narratives of performances but utilize a wide range of media, which I'm immensely interested in doing in my own art.

I've researched him quite a bit and there are some specific pieces that I found fascinating:

•  he stopped in a crowded area and stared at the sky until a crowd gathered around him, wondering what he was looking at
• he traveled around the world looking for his "doppelgangers" or people that reminded him of himself (physically, I think) and photographed them usually from behind
• he has used a fox, a mouse, and a peacock, all in different art "installations"

I find his documentation technique really interesting and will be reconsidering some aspects of my documentation. 

image from Alys' Doppelganger series

video of him pushing a block of ice around

Question for consideration:
What is the difference between making art and just doing something kind of strange?

Joseph Beuys - Multiples

This is another book I checked out from the library on an artist whose work I found directly inspirational to my project.

The format of the "catalogue raisonne" (comprehensive list of artworks and their images) was something I had hoped to emulate in my book. I might be interested in adding a short description of each object? I am pretty interested in these in general even though I sometimes find them confusing and incomprehensive because I always find myself wanting to know more than what is provided.

Beuys talked about objects in terms of multiples and his reasoning behind creations.
I found this quote particularly relevant:

"But if the concept of art becomes anthropological it is totalized and really does refer to human creativity, to human work and not simply the work of artists. Why anyway should the term art refer to the work of painters and sculptors? That is simply a restriction that never existed before."

This fits perfectly with my overarching questions "what is art?" and "why is this considered art?" which I'm hoping to explore more thoroughly in the future.

(this is not from Multiples but it is an experiment with a coyote in a room which I think is cool and reminds me of an animal behavior class I took once)

more updates

I'm using the 24 hour lab video capturing equipment tomorrow to upload and hopefully edit my videos.

For the book, I ended up using spray adhesive on thicker paper that I ordered from Talas. It works if I let it dry for a minute before adhering.

I bound it using a non-adhesive binding technique from Keith Smith.

updates

I was talking about "masochism" over the weekend and realized I'd been incorrectly using it as a synonym with exhibitionism.

Then I started questioning these experiments I'm doing. I had been comparing my work to other famed performance artists (not comparing in an on-their-level way, but more of an influential/research-based way), but it technically can't be classified as masochism because there is no pleasure involved? Is pleasure derived from art? From the audience or the performer?

I suppose it doesn't matter because the outcome is the same but I was just interested to learn the true meaning of the word.

Contract with the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s

This book was excessively descriptive of the specific performances illustrated within. It mentions the calm demeanor in the artists' statements, which was probably most influential (since I had already become familiar with most of the art works by this point: Acconci, Abramovic, Burden). I want to convey this in my work, too, which is why I'm leaving my book very simple.

I want the viewer to incur meaning behind the images and videos without being told too much initially. I don't want to have long journal entries or anything, but I'm really excited about expanding all of these experiments in the future.

Here is a video link as a reminder for me to watch it later

Artworks: Perform

This is another book I checked out from the library about performance art. I specifically focused on the chapter entitled Performing the Object but was surprised to find inspiration in a chapter entitled The Performer is in All of Us, giving examples of works in which the audience or public is the performer. This is of interest to me considering my last project was left in the hands of the public. I think other people are so fascinating to study.

Specific artists from this book whose works I found useful to my research included Chris Burden and Jeppe Hein. In similar ways to Vito Acconci, these artists had me questioning how some of these performances could be considered art, which was something I struggled with in my own assignment.

Neato Acconci

Vito Acconci: Writings, Works, Projects by Gloria Moure is my favorite inspirational book that I've checked out from the library. Vito Acconci does weird things - even weirder than I could have imagined. The most useful chapters were about bodies and the use of his own body in his art.

Here are some particularly enjoyable pages that I thought were helpful in terms of research for my own experiments:

This is a video of Vito moving his arm in front of his face until it presses up against his skin; explores space and boundaries, containment

In this piece Vito puts his face in a bowl of soap. explores discomfort, control

Vito has his mail forwarded to a museum display. Kind of cool and weird voyeuristic.

Other experiments not pictured but still notable are ones in which he is blindfolded and has balls thrown at him and ones in which he leaves deep bite marks on his skin.

Vito Acconci, to me, is a contemporary artist creating works at the forefront of the question of what can and can't be considered art, which I am immensely interested in exploring as a student.

Glue and Paper

I've been researching paper and glue that will work in the book. So far I've run into problems with too much moisture in the glue, which causes the thin paper to buckle and wrinkle.

I'm simultaneosuly trying spray-adhesive and thicker paper. I've ordered two different weights of paper from Talas (a book-making supply company) that my Artist Books professor recommended.

Teeth

My "teeth" representation is created from nails and wood and glue, all of which I wouldn't want to come in contact with my food.

I found a variety of food-safe silicone sealants on Amazon intended for caulk guns. I was able to find the equivalent at Menards. Instead of injecting it through a caulk gun, I painted it on thinly and it seems to be drying verrrrry slowly.

________________________________________

In other advancements,
I've finalized the 6 restrictions for my project:
The 4 physical restrictions (tools of the body) are teeth, vision, warmth, and thumbs.
The 2 social and mental restrictions (tools of the mind) are privacy and decision-making.

Breathing In/Breathing Out

In conjunction with the self-experimental aspect of my Poetic Function project, I have checked out Vito Acconci and Marina Abramovic books from the library. Here is a video of a Marina Abramovic and Ulay performance that I thought was fitting research considering my attempt to get someone to chew my food for me. I'm interested in the use of another person in my presentation - even if only to get someone else to photograph the happenings.
Abramovic and Ulay perform this necessity of life together, and it's kind of also becoming animalistic in a way.

Another Person's Treasure

Another Person's Treasure

Another Person's Treasure is an interactive sculpture accessible by the public. It displays objects collected during the construction of the unit, as well as objects added by viewers of the work. The clear door invites viewers to look inside and the doorknob invites them to physically connect with the piece. Viewers are encouraged to participate in the give-something-take-something experiment, which allows Another Person's Treasure to be constantly evolving. 

In the construction process, I collected scrap wood to build the walls and roof of the sculptural structure. This re-use of materials mimics the transforming of ordinary and not-so-ordinary objects into a piece of art.

As this project progresses, I am interested in the psychological aspect of the giving and taking of objects and of the objects people choose to present with little or no direction. 

The Organ of Marvelousness - Celeste Olalquiaga

words:

portentous: done in a pompously or overly solemn manner so as to impress

interregnum: period of discontinuity in a government, organization, or social order

scopophila: the pleasure of looking

laicization: secularization; the process that takes the licit use of powers, rights, and authority from a priest or other cleric

quotes:

"Immersed in a perspective of the world that saw in both organic and human creations the physical manifestation of a mysterious cosmic force, the "age of wonder" anchored all transcendental implications to their earthly correspondents in such a way that, for almost three hundred years, things enjoyed an unprecedented autonomy as purveyors of the enigmas of the universe." (pg 211)

"This produced that awareness of human insignificance in the face of cosmic magnitude known as a feeling of awe or wonder, best described as a state of suspension, of "held breath" - a literal arresting of the emotions." (pg 212)

"This is because marvels' appeal lay in their peculiar mix of the unknown and the mythological, whose poetic impact superseded the religious meanings that Christianity attempted to impose on them, freeing mirabilia to ride on the wings of imagination to the most esoteric meanings their novel appearances could inspire." (pg 215)

"The fragmentary aspect of these remains (as of all collectible naturalia) is fundamental for the imaginative projection that accompanies them, since fragments carry an implicit invitation to be restored to the totality from which they came." (pg 221)

thoughts:

• pgs 211-214: the display of relics, mirabilia, and naturalia in the Middle Ages and the term "age of wonder" in general; the visual display of natural history; the entire second paragraph on page 214
• pg 212: the ceraunic stone - claimed to be the concretization of thunder. the idea that anything intangible can have a tangible representation; the human need to see and touch and define
• pgs 214-215: Middle Ages' embalmed crocodiles tied with chains and hung from church ceilings signified mysteries of divine power and served as guardians to thwart other evils
• pg 219: actual body parts and whole bodies were treated as relics collected in the 16th and 17th centuries
• pg 223: examples of fake marvels like "ave manucodiata" whose legs were cut off to fit the legend; the history of searching for mystery/requiring something unknown for satisfaction

Element of Surprise

Marcel Duchamp's With Hidden Noise utilizes similar elements of surprise and the unexpected actions of strangers that I'm hoping to reach in my own sculpture. Duchamp asked his friend to put an object in the already-made sculpture and bolt it shut. Duchamp himself never knew what was inside the sculpture.

Likewise the objects I receive are not dictated or directed by me. The psychological aspect of what people choose is just as interesting as the finished product.