Can You See Me Now?

If we get the Lawndale studio, we definitely should set up a webcam so folks can watch us work.

Nothing says "online documentation of the inner workings of the art-making to-and-fro that is Keith and the Chuck" like a 24-hour feed of us sitting around, playing with gears, arranging random stuff on the floor and shooting the shit.

On a different note, "online documentation of the inner workings of the art-making to-and-fro that is Keith and the Chuck" is kind of cumbersome when you try to use it in a sentence.

Floor Compositions

Another part of our application for Lawndale's studio program revolved around Floor Compositions.

Here's something The Chuck created many moons ago. I'll let him explain.

Re: Quick Question for The Chuck

You had already mentioned him (Rube Goldberg’s creations) but when I was composing I didnt go back to look at the name and couldnt remember off the top of my head. Come to think of there was another idea that kept floating around, the college contests that pit teams against each other trying to accomplish some task and some of the ideas around the segways in Monte Python.

Quick Question for The Chuck

You remember anything more about the artist I mentioned who had come up with something similar?

At this point we discussed everything from the game Mousetrap to this artist that Keith knew of, that had done something similar.

I don't deny having seen the idea before. Shoot, nothing's original.

I just wish I could remember who the heck I was talking about...

...and now The Chuck

I think that many kids and no, I am not limiting it to boys, want to create for the sole purpose of creating. A kind of Art for Art's sake idea but what happens when the kid cant figure out what the outlet for this should be? Keith and I talked one day about ideas of Art. What is considered Art? Schools identify, I suppose out of neccesity, Arts and Sciences when really each of them are completely intertwined. The poetry in an Algebraic equation that solves some age old problem. The chemistry of the paint that a painter uses giving him that exact color and texture that he wants to convey his full emotion. I think architecture is a prime example, as well, of the artistic beauty in science. About this point we came across an independently thought up idea of stupid machines. Although some of the specifics were different this idea of machines that didnt really complete much of a task other than to run, a sort of Machine for Machine's sake engineering art thing. At this point we discussed everything from the game Mousetrap to this artist that Keith knew of, that had done something similar. Alas, without the neccesary funds and someplace to do it, it would proabably never get done. Then along comes the Lawndale folks and we thought wouldnt it be cool to actually get to make them. The specifics can be worked out later but for now the idea has taken some shape. Now, just so you know there is much more than what is shown on the pics that we have so fare. Just to make sure we get everything covered there will also bells and whistles, no I am not joking, we are going to actually use bells and whistles for distractions we will also of course need smoke and mirrors, to make our diabolical plan go into action. If we can possibly find any more cliches, they will be used as well. All the while there will be computer moniters with readouts of RPMs, PSI, MPH, ETC. We may even be able to give them a keyboard or mouse to interact, we shall see. There is no telling how far we can go with the information at our finger tips.

Stupid Machines

So I’ve been thinking about Stupid Machines for quite some time – not sure how long, but it definitely feels like a good while.

It all started when I was imagining projects that made use of distractive elements, or sleights of hand, to draw people in with one thing only to have them notice something else a little later. (I pitched an idea along these lines to the Texas Biennial, but that’s another story altogether.)

I also wanted to begin working with gears. I’m not sure why they appealed to me. Perhaps it’s because I’ve always loved looking at machinery – although I definitely was not the kind of kid who took apart his watch to see how it worked. (Or when I did take things apart, it was only because I’d read in books that that was what smart kids were supposed to do.) I never really cared that much how things worked. I just liked watching their movement.

But just watching isn’t enough, at least in terms of where I am now. I’d much rather someone participated in my work than looked at it passively. I prefer something along the lines of social sculpture, where the participants are very much part of the work.

Distraction, gears, participation – with these three themes bouncing around in my head, I dreamt up the idea for a machine that has the participant turning a crank and unwittingly kicking himself in the butt. No reason. No rhyme. Just a nice self-inflicted butt-kicking.

And that’s how Stupid Machines were born.

Stupid Machines are definitely reminiscent of Rube Goldberg’s creations. They take the long road to get a job done. In that sense, I see their creation as kindred, albeit somewhat paradoxically, to the practices of artists who intentionally limit their materials – toothpicks, wires, lace, whatever – in order to foster creativity.

By taking the long road, we open ourselves up for all the surprises along the way.

The Blog

It's time for a little ouroboros action, otherwise known as blogging about the blog.

I'm thinking that, no matter where we end up setting up our Stupid Machines, our Floor Compositions (more on those later) and whatever else we do, we should definitely have a computer with Internet access on site, so that way viewers and participants can check out this blog.

It'd be like a cyber version of an artists' statement, but so much better than what's usually offered at gallery shows, since people would be able to bounce around in our little world, letting the internal links take them wherever they want.

Linear reading, after all, is so 20th century...

American Politics

Last week we submitted an application for Lawndale Art Center's studio program.

Here's one of the ideas we pitched.



We really hope we score that studio space. It would definitely help us actualize some of our larger ideas.

Once we get a stupid idea in our heads, we gotta make it happen.

The sketch above is very basic. You can click on the image for more information, but even that doesn't tell half of what we'd like to do with American Politics. We'll begin elaborating over the next few days and weeks.

Let the dialectic begin.