Design Seminar 2

i am reading Harry Frankfurt’s book ‘On Bullshit’

fascinating + humorous

i am drawn to the works of Sasha Baron Cohen ( Borat, Bruno ), Andy Kaufman ( his ‘foreign man’ character in its original inception + Tony Clifton ), Chuck Barris ( his gritty + puzzling faux-memoir ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’ ) and others that seem to use performance, and particularly semi-deceptive performance, as a major part of their work

these are 2 comedians + a gameshow producer

their work delves into humor, acting, perception, performance, manipulation of an audience

more recently, in my professional life, i have witnessed the concept of theatre being used to completely baffle + bullshit a company ( not my current company, but definitely a famous brand ) … i consider the performance to be somewhat brilliant, but unfortunate for so many people that were victimized along the way … i am trying to keep this as vague as possible, while simultaneously revealing some truth that, yes, in our own lives, we can implement the concepts of theatricality, we can play a role, and in doing so we can buck the system and turn the tables ‘our way’, every step of the way, by living a beautiful lie

well, i propose that my thesis now takes another twist, another turn … i am looking at dynamic media through the lens of cyberSurrealism … my proposal, my latest turn, was that i consider life itself to be a found, living prototype … i am a usability practitioner that ‘test’s these found systems … and i am looking for the unintended use-case scenarios { uucs }, areas that can be exploited to perpetrate some sort of poetic justice in the world … sounds a lot grander than its turning out so far, at least in my thesis explorations to date … but i am basically trying to find any tiny evidences in the world that poetic potential still exists

we all have poetry in our hearts

but the big picture that we’ve created as a dominating species on this planet seems to echo otherwise

and this is a shame, a disappointment to me

and so, i want to play with these found systems, to create my own characters, to build new stories, other realities … cyberSurrealities, in fact … realities, little beautiful lies, that get planted + sown online, that grow into physical artifacts + events, and that eventually blossom + unfurl into wonderful, impossible little stories … episodes of truly incredible things … i long for the re-invention of that magic we experience as children wondering about the universe … i want to lose my shadow + fly … + i want millions upon millions of other people to re-establish their own belief systems in the impossible, to believe once again that the impossible, the unexplainable, can happen

Tags: Andy Kaufman, Arts, ArtScience, Borat, Chuck Barris, cybersurreal, Dynamic Media, Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit, performance, poetry, Sacha Baron Cohen, story, Theatre, Tony Clifton

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 1:41 am and is filed under 1: Lightness, 2: Intellectuality, 3: Public Domain, 4: Otherness, Narrative, Student Forum, Susi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.