An object that provokes discussion

When reading “conversation pieces; community and communication in modern art”, in the first few pages Grant H. Kester goes in to describing the discussion pieces of work. Where he talks about ‘boat talks’ in which the vast group of people from different walks of life took part of it. Then he goes on with ‘the roof is on fire’ and then on to the bus drivers. It goes on to say “Despite these differences, these projects all share a concern with the creative facilitation of dialogue and exchange. While it is common for an artwork to provoke dialogue among viewers, typically occurs in response to a finished object. In these projects on the other hand, conversation becomes an integral part of the work itself.”

After reading this area of the reading and that last particular quote made me think of a documentary which I had viewed several months ago which a guy made a piece of what he called art which sometimes provoked discussion in many forms, but also did other things as well. This work I thought was interesting because in the documentary of it u could see that it would cause groups how knew each other to talk but also others. Which were from different country’s backgrounds and religions to interact. But in a different way instead of though talking through righting in the form of a journal.

“The project officially launched in August of 2000, with the release of the first 100 journals in San Francisco. I gave them to friends, and left them at bars, cafes, and on park benches. Shortly thereafter, people began emailing me, asking if they could participate. So I started sending journals to folks, allowing them to share with friends, or strangers.” http://www.1000journals.com/index.php?view=Journals%2FIndex

The journals latter grew in number to a thousand.

The journals then moved on to a list form where it was sent from one person on the list to the next. The journals could be written and drawn in pretty much what ever u could think off. When watching the documentarily this is the thing that became apparent people had read others entrees and put responses or even looked at the list of people to come and made comics based on these people they had never met.

This work is “the object based artwork” which is not entirely by the artist but given to the viewer.

This particular experiment sits in the middle of this reading sitting itself on a fence between the reading and what it talks about as being different to the readings pieces. The work is not a discussion it is the object which provokes discussion through out.

For more information on this go to http://www.1000journals.com/