Hi all,
Happy New Year. The CRUMB team has spent the holidays basking in the
delights of a snowy landscape (Beryl is still off snowshoeing around
Europe somewhere) - we hope you and yours have had a relaxing and
rewarding break. We went to see our local pantomime theatre production
(Robin Hood and the Babes in the Woods) and came out with a whole new
sense of _interactive art_ ("look out, it's behind you!"). It featured
an amazing 'dream sequence' with florescent glow-in-the-dark costumes
and sets lit by black light... a very low-budget bit of trickery.
As you know, we launch new themes every two months, but I would
encourage you to continue the debate on re-enactment and re-presenting
live and networked performance work if you feel so inclined. [Or just
tell us your best holiday panto moments?!]
I think some interesting points have been raised thus far about not
just the role of the audience but their place also. Rod writes that he
hopes the "audience's direct experience of the live performance is
constantly undercut by their knowledge of the layers of mediation that
are at play in both the original historical event and my double of it."
- is this the same for others of you or does it vary from work to work?
How does an audience member's perception of the deliberate mediation
affect the reading of the work? (Rosanne, in her reading of the
Abramovic re-performances, alluded to the power of the process of
(de?)mystification... is this at odds with what the museum
traditionally strives to do when they present a work of art? I wonder).
the question of re-enacting (or re-staging/updating) so-called
'seminal' exhibitions is a curious one too. would their present day
impact depend on prior knowledge of the original show, and if so what
kind of knowledge? first-hand? documentary? heresay? If the ICA is
considering re-doing Cybernetic Serendipity, is it with Jasia
Reichart's curatorial input, or with a different curator choosing works
of today? Is it about the time lapse between understandings of media
art then to now, or about the place of 'cybernetics' / computer
networks in contemporary culture?
Enough questions for now... I look forward to your thoughts.
Sarah
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