Comments on: What is Good Performance Art?

By: Victoria Bolf

Victoria Bolf — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:22:54 +0000

Maybe it’s too slippery to tack down. And unless something is happening in a very blank space (as most art shows do; white walls etc), there will be some sort of visual stimulation, right? In church worship services (admittedly not exactly “performance art”) I used to always be thinking about something else, like the lead singer’s hair, or the stain on the stairs, whatever. I don’t know. I agree with Matt, it seems so obvious: bad execution=failed concept, & poor concept=empty feelings at best. It’s sort of like why grammar matters, why punctuation matters, why words matter.

Laziness seems big at APU.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:29:47 +0000

Ze Frank on crowd participation.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:26:56 +0000

ok, also.

I think you are VERY strong on concepts. It’s obvious. But the medium is just as important. The medium and the concept are one. Inseparable. If something is made really crappy you will be so distracted you won’t be able to find it’s message. So the concept has failed.

I think this is what you do right. You consistently bring the concepts home with your execution.

So what is good performance? It’s both visual and conceptual. The Art Dept. heavily emphasizes the visual and sometimes half assly pretends to emphasize the conceptual.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:20:38 +0000

Maybe that's the idea. It's not concept or medium. It's popularity. That works for APU. That works with Ze Frank, he's funny, he's got the concepts, he's got the medium down, but what's really important is everyone knows him.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:16:21 +0000

I love Ze Frank!

By: jordan

jordan — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:44:25 +0000

I’m pretty into the visual aspect, but even pictures and presentation can have A LOT less weight and meaning when they have a weak concept.

Movies are a tough one to tackle in a paragraph, but I think moving images need to balance the two elements in a very delicate manner.

But then I’m a huge fan of radio shows, both through telling stories and/or music shows. And as far as those music shows go, sometimes I really enjoy the ones whose concept is to play eclectic, seemingly random picks.

On the other hand, I remember my parents taking me to symphony concerts every month and I was so bored visually, I would just draw or write stories on the back of the program. Sometimes full concepts for video games and shit like that, drawing characters, fighting formats, etc. It was amazingly stimulating through absolutely nothing visually, but all in context of the sound, the concept (which I’m sure I normally had no clue of).

Shit man, where does one even draw the “even line” between visual and conceptual anyway. fuck!

By: Alisha

Alisha — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:33:36 +0000

This is good performance art.