Mechanisms at The Wattis Institute of Art Technology

Dear Reader,

I went to this show with my friend, and we had fun.  It was fun.

There was a lot of art at the show.

I thought about Context.  Context makes things art.  Electrical hardware installed in the wall is art if it's in an art show.  The metal air conditioning air conduits are art if they are in an art show.  I'm a person if I'm at an art show, because art shows are for people.  I didn't see any animals besides people at the art show.  There were some bicycles parked outside.

I kind of don't know what to say about the show in retrospect.  I know my reasons for liking certain pieces, but why would you want to know why I liked something?  Unless you saw the show and liked certain pieces and wanted to share my reasons for liking something.  Or maybe you liked something at the show and couldn't put it into words why you liked it and wanted to see how I put into words my feelings about pieces.

Or if you didn't go to the show, why not?  Maybe you could go and experience it for yourself.  What then?  You don't want to take that risk of going to a bad show?  I probably wouldn't have gone if I hadn't gone with my friend.

If I had to sell the show to somebody, I'd say, "It had objects in it.  If you like objects, then this show is for you.  It also had images.  If you like images, then this show is for you.  You really should go to this show if you like images.  If you like documentation of actions which are intended to shed light on past evils of insurance companies, then this is your show.  It's waiting for you.  Live the dream.  Attend the show."

There was a menu sign from a restaurant that served burritos, and some of the letters were taken out to leave a kind of cryptic artifact, like some kind of rosetta stone or mysterious stone tablet from the past.

An artist bought some Aetna stock and put it in a fund to pay reparations to former slaves from when the United States had slavery.  The reparations trust focused the spotlight on the policies Aetna sold to insure slave owners against loss or damage to slaves.  People used to be property.  Are we still property?  Aetna!  I have an app on my computer called dayforcehcm, and the hcm stands for human capital management.  My employer uses the app to schedule employees.  I'm an employee.  I'm capital.  Here's a definition of "capital" I got off the internet:  "Wealth in the form of money or other assets owned by a person or organization or available or contributed for a particular purpose such as starting a company or investing."

There were some Jay Defeo drawing type works, and I kind of liked them.  I knew the name of the artist, but didn't know their work, so it filled in a space in my mind to see them.   They were well executed and interesting forms or shapes or variations on physical objects.  There was one of some goggles, and the form was distorted and I kind of got sucked into it.  It was curious.

There were chrome hemispheres on a wall.  It was visual and unusual.  I've never seen anything like that.   If you like chrome hemispheres on a wall, then this is your show.

There was a water fountain high on a wall and it reminded me of the Duchamp fountain.  The placement high up on the wall made me laugh.  ha ha.

There was a tall piece of wood, 20 feet high, with a vibrator on it that vibrated it.

There was a collection of animal traps from montana or wyoming, I forget which.

There was supposed to be a projection in a hallway, but I couldn't see it.

There were a bunch of photographs on a wall.  There was a video projected on a wall.

There were some silver objects stacked up against each other.

There was an object with a lot of different characteristics.

There were two shaped canvases.

There were some impressions in waxy cooking grease of a certain kind of office chair, Aeron.  So funny.  I used to sit in an Aeron chair in another life.

There was a room that was supposed to have a video that was out of order.

There was a soccer video room that I only glanced in because we had to go.

I talked with another attendee today, and they said the show was about Silicon Valley in some way, but I don't recall exactly how.  Maybe it's some kind of commentary.  I've met some computer people, and think sometimes silicon valley is kind of full of itself, but there are always nice people.  If I had a piece in the show, it would be a computer with a busted monitor and a flower growing out of it.

This is a computer with a busted monitor and a flower growing out of it.

The gallery tells us to look closely at what's in it.  It tells us to pay attention, so in my mind you can constantly see new things in something you thought you already saw.

Nothing is art, and everything is art.

There were a lot of people.  It was a social event.  I met a lot of people, and saw people I already know.

Maybe it will sit in my brain and influence my life in some way, how, I don't quite know.