Artist Talk Outline

-Start out with our reasoning for the fake wine bust and why we still offer free pizza, when we were partly making a statement about how people must be bribed or rewarded to attend art viewings. We can tell them that we offer them pizza as a thanks and appology for being part of our project.

-Next each one of us describes our own character such as their traits, goals, etc.
(Have 4 channel composite playing again in background as we speak.)

-After the character descriptions we can describe our opinions about what the Jones family and the movie represents.

-Next we can describe the meaning and reasoning behind the entire project including the community dinner performance, the performance/screening stunt, and the final artist talk.

-Conclude by asking if people have reactions or opinions they want to share of they have questions before playing the footage from the fake wine bust to end the artist talk.

Performance/Screening Review

The performance was successful! I think everyone involved including myself played their part well. Thanks Jill and Don, you both did great and played crucial aspects of the performance, making the illusion believable. Andrew did a good job introducing us, and the fiasco ran smoothly from there on. We attracted a large crowd, which was great, and they reacted as we hoped. Just when it seemed people were beginning to get bored with the video, Jill came in and acted upset, which caught some attention back. When Don came in and turned the light on, everyone in the room was surprised by the interruption. I think the majority of the audience truly believed they were in trouble up to the point that they read the letter. Overall, I think the screening/performance went better than planned, and everyone's roles were important to making it as successful as it was.

Screening

*Invitations have been delivered in the student mailboxes.
*There are posters put up in the school, and the rest of promotion will be done through word of mouth.
-----------------------------

The food will be warmed around 11:30 or 11:45 and set up on the table. The projector will be ready to go between 11:30 and 11:45.
We will need:
*Table with table cloth and chairs
*Painting of Woman
*Microwave
*Turkey and Side Dishes
*Drinks
*Our wine glasses and plates
*Paper plates and cups
*Plastic forks and spoons
*Our costumes
*Projector and laptop
*Video Cameras
----------------------------------

We will document this event with two cameras, one behind us and one in front.
----------------------------------

I will consider this event a success if at least a hand full of people attend the screening, and their sense of reality is blurred with illusion.

I think success is a good word because the success is defined by the artists goals. For example, one person may not think something is a success because it does not please them, while on the other hand the artist sees it as a success because the goal was to create the unpleasurable. Since we are not dealing with money and numbers, if we can get the IDEA across to the audience I see it as a success.
------------------------------------------

I see the post screening as more of a lecture style presentation. First we could show the movie by itself. After it plays through once or twice we will talk about our ideas and motivations behind the video and performances. After we discuss our ideas we can show the footage of the event screening with the video, mixing the real with the posed or acted. At the end I think we should ask the audience to critique our work, ask questions and maybe tell about their reactions to the series of events.

Performance Review

I believe my performance was strong overall, because people seemed intrigued and also slightly disturbed by my presence and our group as a whole. Our appearance drew attention because it was far from the normal stereotype of what people expect, and it successfully interrupted the community dinner. Our silence, and blank expressions made people uneasy and confused, also making our subtle interactions with each other stronger. I think my scream was a very effective aspect of the performance. Everyone expected us to remain silent, since we did most of the performance, which made the scream unpredictable and startling to the students. I screamed during one of the loudest moments during the dinner, and caused the whole building to go silent for a few seconds. It was also very strong how the others from our group were startled by the scream, but ultimately knew what I wanted, and passed the plate, making it seem like a normal situation to our "family." Overall, I think my performance and the group's performance as a whole was very effective and made a stronger impact than I expected, which drew a lot of attention to our characters and scenario.

The only problem I had during the performance was trying to remain serious or keep a blank expression, especially after the scream and when certain people would try to talk to me. Other than that, I think the performance went smooth.

The audience, for the most part, seemed intrigued and interested about our concept. Some seemed disturbed or confused, which I believe to be a good thing. Everyone I talked to after the performance thought it was absurd and interesting, and wanted to know our reasoning behind the act. Overall, I believe we achieved our goal of advertising our film screening with the performance at the community dinner.

I would not make many changes to future events, besides trying harder to remain serious. Our performance was documented with stills, which I have not seen yet, but I believe stills were more appropriate than video since the actions were mundane for the most part. This did influence me to think of integrating performances into my other works.

Performance Proposal

The students of the Experimental Cinema class are organizing a performance that will compliment the screening of our movie. We plan on screening our film during lunch on December 2, 2009 at 12:00 PM. The event will be promoted with free food and drinks during film screening. There will be free food and FAKE wine, which we will serve, in costume, at the front of Myers while the movie plays. We want people to believe that we are serving real wine and are breaking the rules to draw a crowd. The reason for the free food and “wine,” is to attract a larger audience and show how most people must be forced, bribed or rewarded in order to attend art viewings, when ideally they should want to attend the event for the art alone. We will serve the fake wine to anyone who wants it until Jill Wissmiller enters the room to realize that we are breaking the rules. She will act angry and leave to get the head of security, Donald Kelly, to handle the problem. He will come into the room and take action as if the situation was real. We need Donald Kelly’s participation to make the illusion more believable, and leave a stronger impact on the audience. Our reason for this act is to show people that they should not have to be bribed to view art. Finally, we plan to present a lecture to the student body, describing our process and reasoning behind our actions.

MEAT THE JONES'S Performance ideas

*2 candle sticks

*table

*curlers

*mu mu

*make up

*beer cans

*microwave

*turkey and other sides (cream style corn and brusselsprouts)

*wine glasses

*same plates

*portrait hung w/ fishing line

* leaves

-Be at the school at 4 PM Monday

-We will be eating at the table in the middle of the community dinner buffet. We will not interact with each other or anyone else. When we are done eating we will leave and get out of costume and return to clean up when the dinner is over.

We are forcing our presence upon people at the community dinner to make them question if there is really such thing as a "normal" family. The ideal family often depicted by consumerists on television lead us to believe that those families are "normal," when in reality most families are far from that stereotype. We represent an absurd family who feels they must meet for a "normal" dinner, but actually none of the individuals want to be there. Also this performance is meant to be a preceding event to the screening Thursday December 3 at 8:00 PM.

We will sit in between the two buffet tables facing the guests of the community dinner. They will have to walk by us in order to get to the food. They will have to notice us, to confront us, and possibly interact with us, ultimately realizing that we will not speak to them or acknowledge them. In a sense, we are like an advertisement. Since this action is out of the ordinary for the community dinner, it will hopefully cause the people at the dinner to question and discuss what is going on/why it is going on. They will more than likely question the more obvious absurd things about us first-why we are dressed the way that we are, why there is a microwave at the table, etc. Hopefully these questions will lead them to discuss what these different costumes and our actions mean. Our act of eating on display will create a sort of small commotion; it will interrupt the normal routine of the people who come expecting a “normal” dinner. The dinner that we eat is symbolic for our piece, as it represents the idea of a “normal” family and all of the fronts that acting like what we are told is “normal” comes with. The performance comments upon the ideas of reasonable versus absurd. Where do these ideas come from? What officials/voices in society do we let determine our ideas of normalcy? For example, reality shows seem to be gaining popularity over sitcoms because they claim to show us what people are “really like.” They show us a side of “reality” that we cannot normally see, and this further influences our opinion of what is real and what is staged. Since our “family” will be on display and undoubtedly looked at, we will be commenting upon this idea of privacy and reality. What is real and what is staged? What does this mass marketed idea of a normal family mean, and what happens when that idea is exposed and deconstructed?

Entire Performance and Meaning

Meaning of Wine stunt/ entire performance

Comment on marketing using edgy tactics to appeal to teens. Television is loaded with imagery and symbols to create an image of the cutting edge, when in reality, they are simply selling false ideals. The realization that the wine bottle are filled with colored water will hopefully force the viewer to question the illusion of the television to which they invest their time. These images are not real, they are all illusions, the very idea of television is a marketing dream. All persons sitting still, captured by projected light plots, waiting patiently for the next stream of advertisements.

We would like the idea of FREE! FREE! FREE! Everything to be the main reason people show up to our screening. We will serve them half eaten, left over food, and Fake wine, destroying their illusions of their American ideal. We wish to show that within our consumerist economy, all that is truly bought and sold are false illusions of a family (or personal) ideal.

Rather than watching programming or marketing ploys on the television screens, we will be watching ourselves existing on the screen. People should look deeper into their motivations behind investing so much of themselves into a consumer illusion. We must look into ourselves. There is nothing for us upon this screen, only the flickering of dim specters, which propagate our ideals for us. We must take agency upon on our own minds, we must combat the circulation of a system which dictates what it is that we desire. We can’t live these false dreams. Let’s breath in the sun, Exhale the moon.

If your mind could be projected upon the television screen, what would appear? Would you bathe in the shimmering light of enlightened hearts, or drift helplessly upstream through a river of “have” and “have not’s”. To which have you been placed?

Watch TV, it is easy. spoon feed what is right and what Is wrong, what you need and what you don’t. Lay there awaiting the dawn of the next Sun sale, 20.00 dollars off! NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! There’s no motivation, needn’t be any.

Installlation Ideas