Eric

The paradox of art and life, art reflecting life while life reflects on the nature of art.

Can everyday, mundane tasks such as brushing your teeth lead to a broader understanding of art and thus to a broader understanding of life?

As humans, we all have an artistic nature. It is part of what makes us unique. It is how we perceive the world around us. If we use this perception and our imagination to create something, the product itself might be a conventional work of art, like a painting, (or an unconventional one, like -whatever you want to create-), but the perception of the action we take when creating is the artistic nature.

If we imagine something being made, or being done, or imagine ourselves taking action, we are creating in that moment a thought. The thought is real and we can know this because we can remember it, write it down, follow it, act on it. The creation of the thought makes use of our artistic nature through our perception, therefore we are creating art even with our thoughts.

Can thoughts really be art? As much as can the action of teeth brushing. (Or painting a painting)!

I just checked out the 'Yoko Ono instructions' and was pleased to find thought art in the "snow piece", the "painting to be constructed in your head", and "a piece for orchestra".
She used thoughts, imagination and perception for her conceptual pieces!
Fantastic.
Yoko Ono instructions

Cut or tear out a hole in a piece of paper. Hold the paper at arms length and close one eye. On another piece of paper, draw what you see through the hole. Use the hole in the paper to view the finished drawing.

Here's a link to pictures I took on my dérive from September 10th. I got a bit snap-happy with my new digital camera, so please bear with the extensive set of images. There are nearly 200!

The site they're on is cool and easy to view, though. Firefox works really well as the browser.

I still need to select and edit a small handfull of the best ones for our project, but all of the originals are posted on the following website. There are usefull viewing options on the bottom of the page; my preference is the "mosaic" view. The images currently span four pages of picture sets.

Here's the link:
http://gallery.mac.com/ecaselton#100111&view=mosaic&sel=0

Click the link below for KML file. If it shows up as text in the browser, go to the File Menu, select Save As, and remove the .txt extension from the title. Save the file as EricsDerive.kml to the desktop. Do not append the file name with .txt.

Download file

The cast: Preferably performed by a small group of bold young men. Backup crew includes a sound artist/radio operator, a hollywood-class makeup artist, a costume designer, and a driver for the getaway van.

For each member of the platoon: Assemble an authentic uniform as worn by a marine in the Vietnam war. Then the makeup artist goes to work on the men. Put a bullet hole in the head, amputate an arm, blow a gaping hole in the chest, cover them with dirt and blood, intestines spilling out, etc. The wounds should be very gory, disturbing and realistic. Get the soldiers geared up and into character: They are a group of fallen soldiers from the war in Vietnam. Authenticity is paramount. The uniforms, the equipment, everything should appear totally authentic.

Now is the time for the platoon to report for duty at a local military recruiting office. The approach should be slow and serious. This group of dead soldiers should seem lost and confused, as if transported directly from the battle of their death. They should avoid any direct confrontation with with the recruiting officer or other personnel at the recruiting office. Just act completely bewildered.

The tricky part is the escape. The performance here is key. A call should come through on an authentic vintage military radio carried by one of the soldiers. It should be a frantic call to action with yelling, gunfire and explosions, triggering the group to switch into battle mode with the leader shouting commands as the soldiers file out of the building following battle procedures.

The group should disappear as quickly as possible, making their way out of the sight of the recruiting personnel, staying in character all the way to the getaway van parked around the corner or in a back alley.