IndieGoGo!

David showed us this site, www.indiegogo.com , where a bunch of people put up their ideas and projects that they want to advertise and get help with funding.

Some of the things look reeeally cool. One idea, "Plain Face" is a hopeful cut out animated short which I am really interested in. I don't think it's so much the storyline as it is the style that it's being created in. (I mean the storyline's great, but it's the visuals that really got me.) Her artwork and graphics seem really simple to look at, but beautiful. The creating of them looks intricate, and I'd love to attempt something similar one day. The idea is explained more at http://www.filmandscissors.com/blog/?page_id=6 .
http://www.indiegogo.com/plainface .



ANNNYYYYWAYYY, I was thinking... I wonder if one day IndieGoGo could possibly be revealing the world of Perf-Art to the rest of the world?!

Some visuals!

I have put together some really basic images to give us an idea of the physical component of Perf-Art. It's great to actually see it, however basic these visuals are, instead of having it in our heads the whole time.


A representation of an artist inside the cubicle, performing and painting.



Showing the cubicle with the cameras placed above and around.



Annnnd the cubicle with the speakers that will play music and hopefully take people on a journey where they've never been before!

Questions; will the idea work?!

Is there a need for it?

This is a difficult question to answer. Is there a need for Perf-Art?
Well obviously that's subjective. Some people live for art and dedicate their lives to it, whereas I know others who do not have an artistic bone in their body and live for logic, structure and routine. Which by no means is wrong, absolutely not, but if I were to ask these people if they thought there was a need for Perf-Art they would tell me there is no need for ANY art. And I mean come on... there's a need for art.

I think there is a need for art to keep evolving and changing, and that Perf-Art is just a part of that process. So, long story short; YES. There is a need for it.

Is the need a long term one?

Perf-Art as an art that gets exhibited is probably not something that is needed in the long term. Art evolves and changes over the years, and what is now contemporary art will change in time. However, if you looked at Perf-Art as not so much something that people can come and view, but as something that personally benefits the people who TAKE PART in it (ie. the "Perf-Artists") then I think there's a possibility it could stick around for a while. In my mind Perf-Art is something terribly therapeutic, and given the chance I would LOVE to be placed in a small private space with loud music and paint and the chance to let go and let my mind and body freak out and do whatever the hell they want. It would be amazing to just let go of everything in an incredibly safe environment.

Does your product perform?

Perf-Art is not an appliance, or a tool that can be broken. There is no right or wrong to Perf-Art. It is art, it is expression, it is what it is.

Do you know your competitors?

It's hard to talk of competitors with art. Hundreds of people paint portraits and hundreds of people make money from painting portraits. If you have talent, and people like your style, they'll come to you whether there's competitors or not.

HOWEVER, yes! We have found someone who has done something SIMILAR! It is in no way, shape or form the same, but I suppose you could say it is a basic form of what we are trying to achieve. It's called Paint Dancing.

Perf-Art is taking Paint Dancing to the next level however, adding more to it, and exhibiting the outcome.

Is your pricing realistic?

For people to be able to see Perf-Art it will not cost much at all, if anything. We are not aiming for Perf-Art to be a profit making project. The only money we acquire will go towards getting Perf-Art up and running.

Is it within your own capacity to do it?

The biggest problem for Perf-Art would be the funding aspect of it. However there are ways and means to get around that, which include donations (whether that be from sponsors or from people who'd like to get involved in the project), private funding, getting an art gallery onto the idea and allowing them to allow us to use their facilities!, or even turning Perf-Art into one great big collaboration that a university tute group puts on or a high school class, and getting funds from said institution. Once we're passed that burden, it is definitely within out capacity.

We know enough people with enough skills (and that includes us (Dom and me)) to get this idea up and running!

Does it have growth potential?

If people like the idea, and the facilities, Perf-Art could be done anywhere by anyone. Even if they don't want to exhibit the work and they just want to do it in private for a personal benefit.

What if it doesn’t work?

It definitely is a big risk, and it may not work. However, even if this idea isn't taken on too kindly by the public, for me it would be well worth it just for the experience. And of course they loss of money and time would hurt, but because this was never a profit making project, the disappointment would not be incredibly drastic.

PAINT DANCING!

After a bit of searching I have finally come across something with similar components to the "Perf-Art" project that Dom and I are working on.

It's a bunch of people getting groovy to some tunes and painting to show how freaking good they're feeling!

www.paintdancing.com -> GOOO!

The painting's are not of anything, they're just paint on paper, but... it's still a beautiful form of artwork if you ask me.

The people are just allowing themselves to feel.

And apparently this Paint Dancing has taken off in the US! It started off in the creator's (Matt Jones') studio, and now people can host Paint Dancing events, and from the videos I've seen, they're damn well attended too.




Obviously there are quite a few differences between Paint Dancing and Perf-Art, but the concept is similar.

The obvious differences are;
-The artists who take part in Paint Dancing are simply standing and dancing (however I suppose there are a few exceptions, a few awesome crazy ones letting loose!) and painting on paper, whereas with Perf-Art the artist is within a closed space, and paints on the cubicle surrounding them, and MOVES! Perf-Art is a performance as well as an artwork in the making.

-If you were to Paint Dance, you would be surrounded by other people all taking part in the artwork with you. In Perf-Art, the artist is alone to deal only with their own emotions and expressions.

-The final artworks of Paint Dancing are not designed to be a final artwork put on display and exhibited to the public. It could be done, but the main point of Paint Dancing is the dancing, however Perf-Art is focused on the creating of the art, but with a definite plan of exhibiting the finished physical expression to whoever is interested.

I WANT TO PAINT DANCE!!

The three main components, Performance, Visual Art, and Music.

We have been looking at examples of each of the components of Perf-Art. So some examples of what we think the finished painting on the inside of the Perf-Art cubicle will look like, what we are hoping the performance will look like, and types of music that would work well.


Dom said to me that straight away the artist he though of who's work he thinks would most likely resemble Perf-Art work is Jackson Pollack. These two paintings are his work, and I freaking agree with Dominic. I had a very similar idea of what the painting would look like, I just wasn't knowledgeable to be able to put an artist to the work. But there we go, Jackson Pollack.
This type of work is Abstract Expressionism.

. . . . . . . . . .

This video is an example of interpretive dance. We saw it as a great video because the dancer seems to completely block out the world around her, focusing on her internal self. It's also a good example video because the performer is within an enclosed space, and obviously an artist taking part in Perf-Art will be within a small area too.

. . . . . . . . . .

This song, from American Beauty could either stir up some deep emotions for people, because it's calm and delicate and ridiculously beautiful and stirring. OR, it could make people laugh and think of a flying plastic bag because of where the song appears in the film. It is an amazing piece of music and so Dominic and I felt it would be a fantastic example anyway, to show the type of music that could be used in Perf-Art to stir emotion in the artist/performer.

. . . . . . . . . .

A different style of interpretive dance, filled with more movement and with more space used. I think the dancer is amazing. She moves with grace, man!

Our Audience, and a Persona.

Perf-Art's audience would consist of anyone open minded, and appreciative of art. Probably from a young adult age, and above.

An example of someone interested in Perf-Art is Georgia, twenty-four years old and studying drama at university. She works part time on weekends at a restaurant near her house, in the northern suburbs, and creates art installations and sculptures as a hobby.

1) What is she thinking?
Her thoughts are very 'now' orientated. She obviously has an idea of where she wants to be in ten years, perhaps set-designing and creating things to be part of sets, but she likes the idea of living in the present and not let life slip you by whilst working towards something in the future.

2) What is she saying?
She talks about what she did on the weekend; how work went, which friends she saw, how little sleep she got. She always talks about great movies, but how she hates it when famous actors and actresses are cast in it when it is clear that they are not suited to the role at all.

3) What is she doing?
She's often learning lines, or writing lines for something she's going to be performing in the future. Or she's socialising and catching up with people she doesn't see that often anymore. Or working. She works a fair amount, considering she's a full time university student.

4) What is she hearing?
Georgia hears about many up and coming performances, exhibitions, art projects. And she hears a lot of comments about the food at her place of work. Many of them complaints because the food order has been incorrect, or the food has taken too long. Often things without her control, but she hears it all.

5) What is the reward for this person?
Being someone who appreciates both art and performance, Georgia gets to experience the best of both. Not only that, she gets to see the outcome from several different artists, and compare the difference. Curious as to the mindframe of many artists while they create all the art she sees in exhibions, she actually gets to see video footage of these artworks being created.

From the real world, to web.

Writing down three or four sentences, and then reading those sentences to everyone else in our tute, we had to share our idea. The same idea from last week, so for Dom and I we had to write down and share our "Perf-Art idea". We got the response that we were hoping for when everyone heard what we had called it.

This also meant that we got to hear other people's ideas which was great because we have a better idea of what page everyone's on.

In addition to simply writing down what we had come up with last week, we had to 'classify' what our idea is. Mobile, web, film, or real world. Because ours is a live, physical thing it falls into the "real world" class.

What then had to be done though was we had to swap our idea with someone else, and David would give us a new class that we had to change this new idea into. Or incorporate it in to that class somehow.

Dom and I swapped ideas with Karl, and I think I understood what his idea was. I probably will not do it any justice at all describing it because I won't know the write words to describe it, or its correct functions. BUT, from what I understood it's one device where you can plug in multiple musical instruments in order to tune them, and essentially play... (I think...) instead of using multiple amp's, etc...
So this idea is a real world idea, from what I understand a pretty cool real world idea, and David asked Dom and I to turn it into something that is web based.

What does the internet do best? It connects people. So we thought we'd take that very aspect of the internet to incorporate into this nifty little device. In fact we decided not to change the idea of the device at all, simply allow it to connect to the internet, and so other people on completey different parts of the globe who have the same device can connect it up to the internet. This essentially will allow people to play as a complete in-tune band, at the same time, while being thousands of k's away.

I LOOOOOVE how Karl turned our Perf-Art idea into something that is web based. Here are his exact words.

"The art is consumed via the web (application). The audience reaction is monitored (eg. filmed by webcam, sound recording, a musical input decide, or measure brainwave activity) which is then uploaded to the site and collaborated with other audience reactions to create a new piece of art (eg. iTunes visualiser from sound). THAT is then consumed and it continues to evolve!"

So it's like a great big cycle of art, that keeps on going.
I LOVE IT!