Chapter 3
“By allowing a wearer to face a viewer while still retaining a sense of personal safety and anonymity, Dis-Armor assists in discussing painful experiences.”
“They appropriate the behaviors of the magician, the ninja, the artist, and the private investigator to make connections amidst an illusion of order, control, and restriction. In this way ‘magical thinking’ drops its cloak of transcendental escapism and materializes as a social, political, and cultural counter perception - an alternative worldview that summons the creative and prophetic power of the multitude.”
One interesting art project from Chapter 3 is Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Dis-Armor (2004). This project is worn by an individual and consists of two LCD screens on the wearer’s back which display their eyes, and a speaker on the back that projects the wearer’s voice. There are also a collection of video cameras and microphones within the piece that allow the wearer to see and hear the person they are talking to, who would be viewing them from behind. A bulky yet advanced prosthetic, Dis-Armor was designed to help people who feel “alienated, traumatized, and silenced” to express themselves and communicate their experiences to those they may have previously been uncomfortable speaking to.
Chapter 4
“In executing projects such as this one, we hope to contribute to an idea of public science by focusing on issues (such as food production) that are of direct interest to people, and so contribute to making the meaning of scientific initiatives immediate and concrete, as opposed to the vague abstractions they tend to be.”
“In a certain sense, our works are all, to one degree or another, centered on the question of,
as Deleuze calls it – the production of a people still to come – and in this manner the production of publics and public space.”
A distinct art project from Chapter 4 is Critical Art Ensemble’s (CAE) Free Range Grain (2004). Taking place at the Schim Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, this performance was a direct response to the European Union (EU) idea of “Fortress Europe” and related border-control issues. The project was executed using an on-site laboratory to test foods brought in by visitors for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). A goal of Free Range Grain was to collect data revealing how GMOs have spread through the existing food supply despite the EU’s claims that the borders in place to keep out these organisms “could be maintained”. The outcome of the project has had significant implications for ensuing research regarding the validity of “organic” foods.
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