Experimental art proposal

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by Letícia Parente

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1. Theoretical grounds

Art is a tool for discovering and understanding the world; it refers to those who get in contact with it rather than to its more direct content, “but to the way in which it is transmitted” (process).

This is an attempt to show, in the form of competitive measurements created in a given space and all the gestures arising from it, the competitive and tense atmosphere in which we live in the historical time, in which the systems try to fit people in so as to classify them quantitatively or distinguish them according to standardized behavior categories.

The important and desirable thing – more than the activities which people perform during their time and participation in the exhibition – is to verify and experience the answers at the level of a very varied audience in terms of culture and age.

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2. Proposal

The purpose of this work is to create an environment where people are invited or encouraged to:

Physical actions – Execution of measurements (on themselves) in relation to physical capacities and attributes, individual resources and abilities, etc.;

Cognitive actions – Knowledge of personal parameters (whether or not important); recording of the details observed on individual and collective forms, allowing a comparison among them;

Emotional attitudes – Involvement with the competitive atmosphere (or resistance or indifference) in relation to themselves and the others; search for identification with static models preestablished by a typology or characterology (pseudoscientific and obsolete) still in force at certain levels of information of the mass media;

Reflexive action – Verification by analogy of the competitive atmosphere of the contemporary world, under disguised forms of information, and denunciation of the same as a critical referential data.

 

3. Proposal execution

Assembly of semi-empirical devices (created by the proponent) for measuring personal details:

For example:

 

Biometric data     

For typological classification:

            Face shape;
            Body proportions, etc.

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For evaluation of physical abilities

            Manual strength;
            Resistance to cold and heat;
            Breathing capacity;
            Reaction to light;
            Blood type;
            Skin and hair type, etc.

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Audio-visual – Guinness Book;

Xerographic booklets and albums or photographs:

Classification of human figures from renowned paintings;

Proposals of measurements “to do at home”;

Collection of material from old scientific books and current magazines and newspapers on tests, classifications, typology, differential characters, values, etc.

 

4. Arrangement in space

See attached layout.

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5. Preferred time

April or May 1976.

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6. Cost estimate

Cr$

material for building measurement
devices 1,000.00
audio-visual   1,000.00   
photos, xerox and albums 800.00
individual and collective forms 800.00
catalogs (1,000 copies)  2,000.00

5,600.00