adaptation of the architectural element and perhaps the subsequent semiotical interpretation of it's video component

In the above photo's we see a combining of the original TAZ architecture. In response to St. Louis art critic Ivy Cooper's take on our original organization of the two seperate TAZ's we will combine the two distinct spaces to create an absurd interaction between viewers and a real-time video interface. It was suggested by Ms. Ivy that our first project was redundant in it's efforts to create a form of interactive autonomous space within an already fully realized communicative space....as if waving and yelling is all we should have done...or maybe cellphones would have been appropriate. Hmmm...cell phones. Our point was to make a space that was truely autonomous. if cellphones were used we might have been under surveillance and shouting does little to keep others from hearing. The other goal was to observe how viewers interact and create content within a space that visually hinted at a utopian idealism with views in sustainability, gave room for the viewer to interact with another without interference, as in an isolated group within a group and possibly called to mind happenings, actions and performances.
Technology is another reference point and may bring new possibilities to human interaction. With two moniter/camera stations situated in one space there might be a completely redundant interaction yet there will still be a recorded dialogue not seen (camera sending signal to other station) or a self awareness depicted as the extended self on screen (camera sending image to same station). If the participants choose to record their interaction then the document becomes the precedent unchanging form of the work. If nothing is recorded we have an action that in it's duration is contained within a planned environment.

Text Library

Dan Graham - Video in Relation to Architecture

E-mail discussion

wifi video stills from test transmission.


Brett,

Just to clarify, The TAZ is structurally connected to the c60, Buckminsterfullerene molecule. Historically --- I guess there is a connection with all Utopian architectural design steming from Bucky's balls....what fertile balls they were. I just have a problem with geodesic domes because they're done to death within the context of utopian spaces.

Lets keep the talk open...I just had to say something.

I like the definition of art you mentioned in your previous post by
Lawrence Weiner, "A work of art can be made the artist, or the by the receiver, or could not be made at all, according to the wishes of the eventual
receiver of the work". Here's a quote from Dan Graham, " An architectural code
both reflects and determines the social order of public/private space and the psychological sense of self". I'd like to pair that with the idea of autonomy.Do we succeed in allowing the interactive viewer a brief glimpse of autonomy?...is that the right question? Something Jamie might like to hear too. I think her self portraits in public spaces blurs the boundaries of contextual specificity defined by public spaces/architecture.

More to come





Temporary Autonomous Zone

The work of art known as the T.A.Z. is many things. It is Sculpture,
Installation, Time Art and performance and interactive.

What is it?

The T.A.Z. is a three dimensional structure with architectural history
based on the Geodesic dome.

The T.A.Z. is a physical and theoretical sculpture. Sometimes site
specific.

The T.A.Z. is a time art. The element of time comes from the video
camera transmission and participation of the audience for a recorded or
non-recorded period of time. If recorded then the transaction remains a
copy of a moment of time that exists as a single one-sided exchange. If both
parties participated in the exchange and choose to record the transmission or exchange then the recorded transmissions remain as a library. This library is then edited to show both sides of the transmission. The new
edited transmission becomes a new work of art.

The T.A.Z. is performative. Artist or non-artist perform with one
another in the form of communication. Communication is many things. It can be speech, writing, gestures or singing. One could curate others to perform in or around the T.A.Z. or respond to the T.A.Z.

In the 1970’s Joseph Beuys used a framework to make art in that he termed
Social Sculpture. Social Sculpture is a concept that art can and should
be a participatory and inderdisplinary process using thought, speech and
discussion as the main materials.

It was with this view that Beuys claimed everyone is an artist.
Beuys believed that all human beings are responsible for the shaping of a democratic and sustainable social order.

Social sculpture lifts the aesthetic from it’s confines within a speciafic sphere or media, relocating it within a collective, imaginative work space in which we can see, re-think and reshape our lives in tune with our creative potential. From Social sculpture research unit website?

The T.A.Z. does just that. It puts one in the imaginative work space.

This space allows one to create or communicate or do nothing.





>Robert.

>I'm trying to organize my thoughts a little more to
>contribute to the paper and discussion.
>Here is a start.
>more to come.
>Brett
>


Thoughts and questions about Temporary Autonomous Zones.

What do they do?

Is communication important?

Is architecture important?

Is performance important to the work?

Interaction/ interactive?

If participate or not. Is the artwork still artwork then?

How do Joseph Beuys, Lawrence Weiner, Thomas Hirschhorn. Dan Graham, Allen Kaprow and Robert Whitman.

Oldenburge and His store fronts. Installations The Street (1960) and The Store (1961.)

Fluxus
Kaprow’s large scale structures such as Kiosk and Apple Shrine.

Robert Filliou.

Whitman”s participatory frameworks and sets from 1958

Dan Graham pavilion-structure histories
Kiosks

Walter Benjamin’s arcade projects.

The rise of the new semiotic architecture or the 20’s and 30’s.
This new architecture of signs (rather than the architecture or social spaces and functions develops at the very moment when architectures traditional tasks to continue and enable the various social functions in public space. (e.g. labor and production, domestic and public leisure) were displaced by new tasks to organize space as media, in competition with, if not in execution of the interests of rising media and commodity culture.
Hirschhorn book.

Lawrence Weiner”
A work of art can be made the artist, or the by the receiver, or could not be made at all, according to the wishes of the eventual receiver of the work.

Images of T.A.Z. at Erga Topica 2, Thomas Jefferson School - St. Louis, MO

Calling for response

we invite audience participation in the form of comments about our on going project: Temporary Autonomous Zones.
We will update frequently with significant articles relating to our efforts, pictures of the project as it evolves and our comments about the work. Your are free and encouraged to respond either with ideas or related text.