SITUATIONS – THE EVENT / NOVELTY

At its most basic, the main premise behind my work is to define a situation and within it create an interaction that will in turn provoke awareness in those involved. Erving Goffman called it being “interactionally disorganised” when describing the experience of a participant confronted with a Fluxus event. Like a slow reveal, participants are encouraged to embrace the pre-reflective state in the way the events “(dis)organise and disseminate knowledge” (Saper, C. Fluxus as a Laboratory, Fluxus Reader, 1998).

 

All of my work puts forth a recognisable situation (the art installation/an encounter), which then turns into event once the phone rings, the headphones are worn or the script is read, and the work becomes activated. In the overall structure novelty then becomes the “realization of a truth revealed by an event” (Badiou, A. Being and Event, 2007).

 

My work looks at how much these situations can be structured whilst providing room for the uncontrollable dimension. Each piece aims to locate the artist, participant and onlooker within a live encounter and explore the individual and collective behaviours through both a structured and unstructured situation.