EXAMINING THE FOLLOWING ASSERTION:
"All the authentic Fluxus artists consider the Fluxlist
to be a truly absurd parody." - Eric Andersen
EXPLORING THE FOLLOWING NOTION:
A survey or opinion-poll can also be viewed as being a performance (by the survey author) and as a self-performance (by the person choosing to respond to the survey).
On May 24th, 2000, from 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Allen Bukoff, Acting Director, Fluxus Midwest enacted the following performance at Emily Harvey Gallery, 537 Broadway, New York, New York. This performance/opinion-survey was enacted during the reception for the Italian artist, Daniel Spoerri, and his exhibition, "Le Cabinet Anatomique."
Tim Whidden/MTAA holding one of the surveys.
Survey Description
- The survey was printed on paper. There were two questions.
- Question one asked the respondent to report their level of knowledge about and exposure to FLUXLIST (the fluxus email discussion group).
- Question two asked the respondent to choose a positive-negative opinion of Fluxus from among four options.
- Participants were invited to complete the survey and then place it in a sealed "ballot box."
- Surveys and responses were designed to be relatively anonymous.
- The gallery attendees included some of the following "authentic Fluxus artists":
(left to right in photo) Alain Arias-Misson, Richard Kostelanetz, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Dupuy, Geoffrey Hendricks, Larry Miller, Carolee Schneeman, & Alison Knowles. At least several of these folks participated in the survey. There were many other attendees at the exhibition with authentic avant-garde/fluxus sensibilities--including Emily Harvey, Jeane-Claude & Christo & Jeane-Claude, Francesco Conz, Sara Seagull, etc. More photos from the reception can be viewed at Emily Harvey Gallery Spoerri reception.
- It should be noted that this empirical assessment of the hypothesis that "All the authentic Fluxus artists consider the Fluxlist to be a truly absurd parody" is only a very approximate test. Not all "authentic Fluxus artists" were present to take the survey. Conversely, not everyone participating in the survey would likely be described as being "authentic Fluxus artists." This reception did, however, present a reasonably good context in which to assess awareness about FLUXLIST and attitudes toward FLUXLIST among one contingent of authentic Fluxus/avant garde. In otherwords, it provides some real data beyond the current speculation and conjecture.
Copy of one of the surveys. Two questions and two green dots to vote.
Performance Description (Survey Giver)
- In full view of the gallery visitors, I sat on a window ledge at the front of the gallery and finished assembling the surveys (recently created at a Kinko's copy store) by cutting and affixing two green dots to each survey.
- I built a cardboard box to be used to collect the completed survey forms. The box form had been purchased from a Staple's office supply store on my way to the gallery. I sat on the window ledge and taped it together, cut a hole in the top, and then taped on the "FLUXLIST SURVEY" labels.
- In and around these actions, I began to casually distribute the surveys to curious onlookers and friends.
- For about an hour I left the ballot box and a pile of surveys on the window ledge as I circulated among the gallery visitors talking and taking pictures. For the last hour or so, I moved the ballot box and the surveys to the table at the gallery door's entrance...to better capture people as they entered and exited.
- In addition to these actions, the "performance" also involved promoting the survey to various people by talking about it and handing some of the surveys out. In order to photographically document this event, I asked several people people to pose for pictures (seen here). In addition, I got Jeff Perkins to take a picture of Carolee Schneemann and myself posing with a survey and the ballot box.
Allen Bukoff posing with ballot box. Carolee Schneemann posing with survey.
Performance Description (Survey Taker)
- Gallery visitors could choose to view and respond to the survey in any way they wanted...e.g., as something deserving a serious "survey" response, as something deserving a creative response--as being an opportunity to create their own activity or event--or as something to ignore. Some survey takers handed their survey to me (instead of putting it in the box themselves). I stuffed all such surveys into the box.
|
Richard Human putting his anonymous survey form in the ballot box.
Survey Results
The ballot box with all of the returned surveys (estimate that there are 20 - 30 surveys in ballot box) is being auctioned off on eBay, the online auction site. The auction bidding starts at $1.00 and ends, June 12th, 2000. To view or bid in the auction click here.
The ballot box containing all of the "raw" survey results combines the survey-side and performance-side of this activity in one artifact. It's sort of like a two-for-one sale...or three-for-one sale if you count the survey, the survey giver's performance, and the survey takers' performances/responses. Placing this artifact for sale on eBay permits the current value of both the survey results and the primary performance artifact to be combined and assessed in a large international open market.
In lieu of the actual survey results, it may still be interesting to consider the possible range of responses. The table below illustrates various response and performance options.
- Anyone selecting "FLUXLIST is a parody of fluxus," for example, might hold this opinion even though they have no previous awareness of FLUXLIST (e.g., a speculative opinion), because they had heard things about FLUXLIST from someone else (e.g., an opinion influenced by hearsay), or because their own experience with FLUXLIST had led them to this opinion (e.g., an opinion based on direct experience).
- Perhaps the most interesting territory lies outside the boundaries of the "official" survey responses. Consider the blue polka-dotted and solid blue squares in the chart below--indicating a lack of response to one or both of the survey questions. If someone, for example, was to respond to the survey and performance invitation by folding the survey into the shape of a paper airplane and used the green dots as decalls on the wings of this plane, that "response" would be categorized as "other"/"other"--the cell in the lower right section of the chart and completely outside the response options defined in the survey.
|
|
Performance observations
Several quick observations about the performance aspect of this event.
- Few people seemed to view the survey activity as also being a performance activity. Despite the references to it on the survey form, there weren't any questions or comments directed to me about my action being a performance.
- Few people seemed to view their participation in the survey as being a "self-performance" opportunity or as being an invitation to respond in a creative way. Although this can't be determined for sure at this point, I saw little evidence that anyone was doing anything unusual or innovative with their survey form or in their response to this activity. Whoever buys the ballot box and survey forms on eBay should be able to assess this more accurately.
- Despite the fact that this activity was referred to as being a "performance" and "self-performance" it appears that few people viewed it in this manner. It seems likely that the "survey script" is a much more dominant frame of reference (and "mind set") for this activity than the performance frame of reference was--despite the fact that it was done in an art gallery with a crowd of fluxus artists and admirers.
- More experimentation and research appears to be needed on my part to create an activity that is truly "intermedial" to both an opinion survey and a performance.
|
|
