A friend forwarded this to me and read this on the internet as well. Interesting experiment.
Marina Abramović is best known for her performance pieces, in which she tries to explore what is possible for an artist to do in the name of art. Her best known piece was the recent “The Artist Is Present,” in which she sat motionless for 736.5 hours over the course of three months, inviting visitors to sit opposite her and make eye contact for as long as they wanted. So many people began spontaneously crying across from her that blogs and Facebook groups were set up for those people.
Her bravest piece, however, is my favorite. This piece was primarily a trust exercise, in which she told viewers she would not move for six hours no matter what they did to her. She placed 72 objects one could use in pleasing or destructive ways, ranging from flowers and a feather boa to a knife and a loaded pistol, on a table near her and invited the viewers to use them on her however they wanted.
Initially, Abramović said, viewers were peaceful and timid, but it escalated to violence quickly. “The experience I learned was that … if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed… I felt really violated: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the public. Everyone ran away, escaping an actual confrontation.”
This piece revealed something terrible about humanity, similar to what Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment or Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiment, both of which also proved how readily people will harm one another under unusual circumstances.
This performance showed just how easy it is to dehumanize a person who doesn’t fight back, and is particularly powerful because it defies what we think we know about ourselves. I’m certain the no one reading this believes the people around him/her capable of doing such things to another human being, but this performance proves otherwise.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=543221975709034&set=a.463525983678634.112932.100000637089787&type=1&theater
Her bravest piece, however, is my favorite. This piece was primarily a trust exercise, in which she told viewers she would not move for six hours no matter what they did to her. She placed 72 objects one could use in pleasing or destructive ways, ranging from flowers and a feather boa to a knife and a loaded pistol, on a table near her and invited the viewers to use them on her however they wanted.
Initially, Abramović said, viewers were peaceful and timid, but it escalated to violence quickly. “The experience I learned was that … if you leave decision to the public, you can be killed… I felt really violated: they cut my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the public. Everyone ran away, escaping an actual confrontation.”
This piece revealed something terrible about humanity, similar to what Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment or Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiment, both of which also proved how readily people will harm one another under unusual circumstances.
This performance showed just how easy it is to dehumanize a person who doesn’t fight back, and is particularly powerful because it defies what we think we know about ourselves. I’m certain the no one reading this believes the people around him/her capable of doing such things to another human being, but this performance proves otherwise.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=543221975709034&set=a.463525983678634.112932.100000637089787&type=1&theater
Jim's Reflections:
How can we (in our various capacities and roles) create the structure/atmosphere that brings the best and not the worst out of the people we work with and care about.
As we progress, our values will be challenged. Reading all the comments and posts on both social and traditional media for the past few month made me reflect a lot about our world and country. esp. in Singapore. Our country will be going through a lot of changes for the next few years and the problem your kids and mine will face are:
A. finding good jobs - there will be 40% graduates. I hope there are enough graduate jobs to go around for both our kids and foreigners;
B. affordable housing - land cost will be so high that housing will be very expensive for our kids to own. We will go the way of Hong Kong and Tokyo where the next generation may have to pay for the housing of this generation;
C. Cosmopolitan society - we will go the way of London and New York and become very cosmopolitan. If we integrate well, then no issue. If we do not, then life in spore will be fractured and unfamiliar.
The only thing that will anchor our kids are values, and not knowledge and information.
Question is: What are we going to do about this and how can we value add to make things better in this country we love? We should not just complain and do nothing. Not productive. We should focus on areas we have control and work proactively and positively.
-----------------------------
Also check out this YouTube vid – there’s some nudity, so only view if you’re comfortable.
Marina Abramović The Artist is Present trailer HBO
How can we (in our various capacities and roles) create the structure/atmosphere that brings the best and not the worst out of the people we work with and care about.
As we progress, our values will be challenged. Reading all the comments and posts on both social and traditional media for the past few month made me reflect a lot about our world and country. esp. in Singapore. Our country will be going through a lot of changes for the next few years and the problem your kids and mine will face are:
A. finding good jobs - there will be 40% graduates. I hope there are enough graduate jobs to go around for both our kids and foreigners;
B. affordable housing - land cost will be so high that housing will be very expensive for our kids to own. We will go the way of Hong Kong and Tokyo where the next generation may have to pay for the housing of this generation;
C. Cosmopolitan society - we will go the way of London and New York and become very cosmopolitan. If we integrate well, then no issue. If we do not, then life in spore will be fractured and unfamiliar.
The only thing that will anchor our kids are values, and not knowledge and information.
Question is: What are we going to do about this and how can we value add to make things better in this country we love? We should not just complain and do nothing. Not productive. We should focus on areas we have control and work proactively and positively.
-----------------------------
Also check out this YouTube vid – there’s some nudity, so only view if you’re comfortable.
Marina Abramović The Artist is Present trailer HBO
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