A Simultaneous Situation

Above is text from one section of an installation on display in the Arsenale in Venice--unfortunately as I write this I realize I don't have the name of the artist (Falke Pisano perhaps...). I share it here as an example of the simultaneous "situations" I'm collecting and trying to implement in a public realm. It is also a source of inspiration and a novel example of the simultaneous instance of how the viewer not only experiences an art work but also becomes an object related to the work.

11:11 Archive Experiment

I've created a blog to begin collecting individual accounts of 11:11. Everyone is welcome to leave a comment to build the archive! Visit:

1111archiveexperiment.blogspot.com

If you want to continue to write on the blog to document your experiences, please e-mail me (elevenelevenarchive@gmail.com) so I can add you as an author.

During the next couple of weeks this experiment will take place in Shenzhen and Bejing through the Invisible Generation events taking place in these cities.

11:11:11:11:11:11

Often times when I look at the clock, whether on purpose or at random--the time reads 11:11. It is a strange phenomena, one that has reoccurred steadily for several years of my life. But what is intriguing to me is that it is a visual image of simultaneity. Why these numbers are significant is an honest mystery, could it simply be due to my remembrance of the sequence of numbers versus other times? Or is there a dimension of it that is spiritual and symbolic?

No matter what the possibility is, I started keeping an archive of what I'm doing during the chance encounters with this particular time because of my project with simultaneity. I share them here with you now and I'm curious to know if any of you have experienced these moments and would maybe want to join me in archiving when and what you are doing during the 60 seconds (x2) 11:11 exists in reality.

Friday, September 18: Unplugging my cell phone from its charger
Sunday, September 20: I finished watching Vicky, Christina Barcelona (11:11 p.m.)
Tuesday, September 22: Turning on the computer to write a friend an email
Thursday, September 24: Having coffee with a friend and I looked at my phone
Saturday, September 26: Getting a ride home from a relative after a party, the clock glowing in the dashboard reads 11:11 (p.m.)
Friday, October 02, 2009: Making the bed
(These were all random encounters with seeing 11:11)

State of Mind: Version 2.0

...worlds exist outside of the World...but is the World still here when you close your eyes?

The above closing lines from the movie "Memento" have become a source of new inspiration for my project, which I now visualize in two phases.

Part I: Exhibition
This exhibition, currently titled "Simultaneity and the Infinite Mind" is in the planning stages and currently includes three Vision Forum artists, whom I will mention at a later date when timing, location, works, etc are more clear. The working concept relates to relative simultaneity. Simultaneity—as a scientific concept—extends from Einstein’s theory of relativity, which explains if two events occur at the same time, but are also separated by space (i.e. occurring in different towns, countries, etc) there can be no absolute certainty if they happened at the same time or which one occurred “first”. The observers involved in the experience are integral to actual account of the situation.

The three artists I’m collaborating with explore simultaneity through different paths; one person in two places at the same time, how other worlds exist in parallel with our universe, and how people in different places can dream the same themes, maybe even at the same time.

Part II: The Observers
I'm interested in the observer’s role not only in the context of an exhibition, but also in reference to simultaneous events because it is their account of the situation which determines the "certainty" of the event. What Einstein clarifies about relative simultaneity is that each account by the observers involved is acceptable. And like this notion, I'm drawing a slight parallel to how art is subjective, open to one's own personal interpretation and understanding, therefore each person's observation about an artwork is right.

During the actual realization of the concept exhibition mentioned above, I want to film the works of the participating artists installed in a chosen space (with and without the audience) from which I will create multiple video narratives and short stories from this one event. Each filmed narrative will have an accompanying collection of stories to go with it. These narratives will then be "exhibited" again at multiple locations/sites (like a coffee shop for example or on YouTube) where one can watch the event and read the companion story.

My mind is exploding with many point of interest that can be investigated in this situation...such as the way an exhibition is experienced without a person actually being in the context of an art space with the works. Another factor relates to the short story concept... How does the text influence one's thinking of the art work and what if the text is a fictional account? If I mix up fictional and real images in the video and do the same when I write the stories, how does the observer know what is reality and what isn't between the two accounts?

Just as the movie "Momento" is the account of a double narrative intertwined with one life, so too will this project explore the many narratives intertwined within one exhibition.

Simultaneous+ly

In the article 'Art and Objecthood' by Michael Fried, the notion of simultaneity appears not once but three times through the course of his arguement against the theatrics of art. Choosing to focus only on these sections where Fried inserts the word which is the topic of this post, I became interested in disecting how the critic uses the term. An interesting tangent emerges, about how one experiences art which also relates to time. Simultaneity, as Fried describes it, comes into play as the viewer involved in the "experience" of (art) becomes an object within the situation (an exhibition for example).
I'm attempting to extract and simplify a rather complicated text, but I find it interesting that Fried's focus on "experience" also relates to a very contemporary description of how one see's a trip to a museum or art-related event. And the experience market is having an affect on the art world for both curators and artists alike. I'm just skimming the surface of my thoughts addressed above, but it could be a possible course of investigation through this Vision Forum process. Furthermore, what are some of the ways one could exhibit experiences of simultaneity through contemporary mediums?

State of Mind

The main focus of my project is about dreams intermixed with concepts of simultaneity and reoccurrence.

I’m interested in developing this from a curatorial perspective whereby I will try to orchestrate an exhibition(s) or book that calls upon artists involved with Vision Forum. This will be a great way to meet people, initiate dialogue and explore how these topics take form through an international community network.

Part I: Ideas to explore
Dreams manifest in the mind, in the form of an image and follow a narrative:
-How are they affected by or become reality?
-Why does an experience from the past reoccur in dream form?
-Do these dreams change when they reoccur?

The dream can be a metaphor for an exhibition:
-An exhibition can be repeated in different locations/spaces to mimic the concept of “reoccurrence”
-How does an exhibition change when it reoccurs in different spaces?
-Or, what if 2 exhibitions occur simultaneously in different locations?
-Mode of display = to be discovered…

Contrasts/themes emerging from this project:
Reality/fiction; dream/science; past/present; artist/curator; observer/narrator

Part II: Emerging thoughts about staging the event
Create a call for entries from other participants in VF and try to organize reoccurring and/or simultaneous exhibitions during workshops or other events

Curate a two part book to “capture” the events
-There could be established observers at each event who tell about their experiences to see if the idea of simultaneity produces similar results
-Who is an observer and what is their role?
-Do they affect the work or are they affected by the work?

I'm awake now

At 7:45 a.m. I dragged myself out of bed, and now having had a cup of coffee I can function enough to write about a dream. It actually occurred during 15 minutes after the alarm went off at 7:30. It was vivid, about a project I was a part of in some way. I was in a room that had an almost yellowish filtered light from overhead skylights. The walls were covered with black and white posters of images from popular culture, such as Audrey Hepburn and images from my generation, like Garfield the cat.
It was an exhibition coming to an end.
People were working in the room to take posters off the walls and underneath, the walls were the color red. Paper and images were all over the floor, I felt like I wanted to salvage something.
A person in the room told me that things are becoming (constrained, consolidated, conformed), he used a C-word like this to reference how the economic crisis if affecting the actions of everything, even how art is exhibited in museums. Since limited funding poses a problem, alternative methods of display were sought for this red, yellow-filtered room situated only in the space of my mind.

My project for VF 2009 will be about dreams, reoccurance and simultaneity. Specifics will follow soon.