We’re all signed up for the project. Still some details to work out with the City. And lots of technical things to figure out. If anyone is in town and available please let me know so I can confer. It would also be great if folks got going doing their own research or even documentation of ideas/works that focus on/around the River. MOre later, but. For Now: TAKE ME TO THE RIVER.
Here are the Talking Heads doing TAKE ME TO THE RIVER
And a much earlier version by Grand Rapid’s own AL GREEN
What are some other ‘RIVER’ songs? Maybe we can do a collection or even do a concert of original songs about the GRAND.
I checked out some trailers today at a company friendly with GV. (not sure what kind of deal we might mangage). The trailer would enable us to have a meeting and equipment space with basic necessities. This too can be put virtually anywhere. This would minimize our “display-gallery” use of spaces, but also get us to make use of other spaces in the city. It also opens up the development of the use of outdoor space - which is public and visible. It should be warm most of the semester. It would be interesting to make use of outdoor space - kind of like camping. We can always try to find other gallery space for displaying any gallery-type products. Potential sites under consideration are: the lot south of fulton or possible spots near the city equipment shops off Market Avenue. Each would require multiple permissions and arrangements for utilities. These are not handicap accessible so that may be a holdup if the spaces were to be treated as publicly accessible space. Bathrooms are not included so we’d need to get access for that somewhere or get a portajohn. Portajohns are $70 mo.
The trailers are set up with 2 rooms; a meeting room, and a tool room. They can be reconfigured if need be. There is a regular door in the meeting room and a cool garage style door in the tool room. There is built-in gas heat and electrical hookup.
The trailer model in the pictures is 8 feet wide and 30 feet long. Meeting room is 16 feet; tool room 14. The pictures are deceiving - better to find a comparably sized space and look at it.
(this idea could be done as an artprize project or just happen along side of it)
Another option for engaging Artprize would be to do a research project on Artprize. With such projects especially in the cultural realm there is not much attention paid to actual research about the context for the event and what the ramifications of that might be. Civic Studio is interested in the relationship between art and public life. It seems there is a lot to learn through looking at artprize in depth. It also seems that ARtPrize is open to change and interested in making adjustments as things progress. There is potential in informing this process through doing some serious research.
What are the historic and current precedents for Artprize (documenta, spolleto, south by southwest, american idol)? What are the theoretical and economic models that undergird using a prize structure for the generation and presentation of culture? What are the details of the experiences of the participants: artists, venues, public? What kinds of art are called for in this structure?
There is scarily little research about the nature of culture and how it is presented and consumed. The most significant to date was done by French sociologist PIerre Bourdieu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bourdieu. It was based on empirical research and concluded that taste is a product of social class and that it is largely formed by those in power. While lower classes have their own aesthetic, they are always defined in terms of the aesthetics of the higher classes. So while they are separate they are also subordinate. This was published in 1968 as “Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste”. That was a long time ago. (Full text of Distinction on Google books)
The surrealists set up a research office called the Bureau of Surrealist Research.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Surrealist_Research
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/174115.html
The surrealists project was a bit of a performance with researchers dressed and operating in an office environment. We might take a cue from that and have the studio in a downtown office setting. (I’ve checked into a few such facilities).
Hans Haacke has done lots of work that operates in the “research” mode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Haacke
This includes projects that expose the relationships between money, power, art, and property.
Chicago Art Institute Prof. Adelhaid Mers does some great work that begins with research and results in info-graphics type drawings and charts of the way things work behind the scenes.
http://adelheidmers.org/
This research project would be the focus of the first 1/4 of the course (during which we would also be learning about our site). It would be a nice lens through which to engage ARtprize and provide an opportunity to share our results. And learning more about these things would be beneficial. Especially empirical research would allow us to share data with others who might like to interpret it. It might also lead to some different studio projects for the remainder of the project. Alternately, one could say that we should not spend 1/3 of the project focussed on ARtprize.
Ohio River Lifeboat Project
Check out this other river project. It is a project of the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. The Studio for Creative Inquiry is one of the first research centered cross-disciplinary studios.
If we do the river it would be good to connect with that project. Check out their web site and see what they did.
I found it of particular interest since i grew up right on the Ohio at Newburgh, IN. One summer I worked on a roofing crew. The Crew had built a flatboat in the Shop and put it in the Flatboat “race” that went from Owensborough Kentucky to Evansville Indiana. We were disqualified because the roofers had put a diesel boat motor in the flatboat. We were allowed to travel along, but not participate in the race.
Check out the “public theory” section of the Wiki from the Wealthy Civic STudio Project. http://look.gvsu.edu/wealthy/index.php/Public_Theory.
The list is a good overview of various thinkers whose work is relevant to a consideration of civic life in public space. STudio members each did research on the thinkers which you can use as an introduction.
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