instituteofsociometry:

#is 05/08, 2013 | IS taking it to The Man with one of our favorite IS agent projects of all time The Nationwide Museum Mascot Project - who IS the official mascot of the IS Fairs.

INDIVIDUAL: Agent Brian Dick tag-team alternating with Agent Christen Sperry-Garcia
GROUP SIZE: two or three at a time, sometimes up to ten, collectively hundreds over more than a decade
NATURE OF GROUP: unsuspecting art fans and/or uneasy museum managers
INCIDENCE OF SOCIOMETRY: The Nation Wide Museum Mascot Project

Though the origins of shamanism are cloaked in a Joseph Campbell style myth-mash and/or ivory-tower navel gazings, humans have been putting on goofy animal costumes and accosting strangers since the paleolithic era. Though the practice exists close to it’s original form among arctic Inuits and in the highlands of Borneo and Burma, it’s experienced in the arena of western society in the form of mini-tramp front-flip slam-dunks from an anthropomorphized cartoon jersey-wearing panther or a waddling purple dinosaur leading a trail of children pied-piper like into to flabby arms of television-aided consumer-capitalism. Costumery that was once a holy vessel for a divine messenger is now bouncing and waving from an Ford-land tent-sale commercial.

Around the turn of the 21rst century performance and prank artist (and upper echelon IS agent) Brian Dick wanted to get some fresh faces off the street and into a San Diego performance art space. Recognizing that there IS nothing better than a mascot to disarm and draw in the passive consumer, The Museum Mascot project was born. Shortly after, Brian, and ‘artner Christen Sperry-Garcia started seeking permission to “mascot” venerable art museums such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Though met with the type of snobbishly paternalistic stonewalling tactics typically deployed by the permission granters at such public art institutions, they decided to just show up in costume and see what happens. Something about the benevolence of the mission – convincing the passer-by that art is fun – and the bad-p.r. security takedown of a friendly dancing manimal surrounded by a gaggle of happy kids lead to tacit permission to do their thing.

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ecallibrary:

Beautiful edition purchased on the occasion of Ruth Erdt’s workshop at ECAL as of 29 April to 3 May 2013.

Cyanotypes 16 - 22 / Ruth Erdt, Eva Vuillemin
Photographs by  Ruth Erdt and Eva Vuillemin
Graphic design by Benedikt Reichenbach
Self-published, Berlin, Germany, 2011.

Ruth Erdt took self-portraits when she was 16-22. Years later her daughter Eva did the same and shot self-portraits from the age of 16 to 22. The book is a beautiful documentation of their project. Images are very personal and intimate. Many of them capture reflections in the mirror. Blue colour creates sensual aesthetics. In a way both women turn into one person which is also reinforced by the graphic design in the book. 

Cyanotype is one of the earliest photographic printing process. This printing process gives a cyan-blue print. The specific blue colouring of the print is called “Berliner Blau”. The images were made through exposure to sunlight on the street.

Photo + text: http://photolia.tumblr.com