Sculptures of Spring '08

Emily Bzdyk

Project 2- Kinetics and Interactivity

My interactive project focused o the role of the author and the audience in art making. I took my project out of the scope of the studio and the typical art approach, by removing my authorship as much as possible and creating an ambiguous work that explored elements of repetition, uncertainty, confusion, inquisition and the natural world. By using small sticks that were present at each site, I created teepee structures that would have minimum ecological impact, while still being obviously out of the ordinary. I constructed these stick towers around campus, beginning with more out of the way areas, and gradually working my way towards the paths or other more viewable areas. I made an effort to conceal my activities, working at times where there were no people around, or hiding in shadows at night as people passed on the path. I concentrated the sticks around Montgomery hall and the library, with a few out by the remembrance garden, health center, and Queen Anne. The most numerous teepees appeared along the path on the way from North campus to the campus center, where I figured a maximum number a of people would have the opportunity to see the sticks. I began my work on Monday Feb, 25th, and build the last structure on March 3rd, 2008. In addition to the sticks, I made non-verbal “announcements” of the presence of the sticks by way of orange papers with black silhouettes of the teepees which I hung in Montgomery and the campus center on bulletin boards near other announcements.

After the initial construction of about half of the total stick teepee’s, there did not seem to be much response to my work. The success of this work was dependant on people noticing and taking interest in the sticks. The goal and focus was in fact the reaction of the community to an unexplained, seemingly authorless arrival of these structures. So in the second round of building, I made the sticks much more visible from paths and buildings. I observed at people looked at the sticks and even overheard a few conversations pertaining to them. The real successful reaction came on Thursday night when a student I did not know created a facebook group titled “What the hell is up with these tipis?” The description read “There seems to have been an uprising of conical shaped figures made of sticks. they kind of look like someone is ready to set a fire. Does anyone know what these are about?” This response was precisely the kind I was going for. Talking with people I knew, without first revealing I was the creator, I also heard similar expression of curiosity and a general creepy “invasion” feeling from those who noticed them. The silent, small, numerous figures did give off a disconcerting sort of air. This was partly because they were unannounced and had no explanation that most people could find, but they were also sharp, pointy looking in their basic form, and so looked slightly alarming. There are also the connotations of sticks in piles as fire starters, or brush piles.

Mainly I am pleased that the main reaction wasn’t blatant destruction. It says something for our campus community that people would see these things and quietly, or vocally question, but not destroy because of discomfort or lack of anything else better to do. In the end, Nature interacted with almost all of my sticks, the wind leveling them over the weekend. As far as I know, they are all either removed or leveled. I found evidence of one being crushed, presumably by a foot, and other s lay in piles. Some of the sticks seem to be missing, and now the curiosity and mystery are reflected back to me, as I cannot monitor all of my sticks simultaneously to see what becomes of them. I do plan on continuing building these structures from time to time, because they are fun, and I like keeping people on their toes. As soon as they think it’s over, I’ll build a few dozen more, in slightly different areas, to continue the “urban legend” of the tiny teepees.

http://smcm.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12413395148