FOR THE SAKE OF CLEAN SOCKS
[MORE FROM THE STUDIO]
the futility of urban living #2
change machine
[click image above to watch ]
this one does have an ending, sooner or later.
28 May 2006
About Me
- Name: Thomas Knauer
- Location: Utica, New York, United States
has been dealing with HKPP since February 2008 and is finally getting around to writing his way through the experience and his continuing recovery.
Written Lately...
- FROM THE STUDIO AGAIN
- ONCE MORE INTO THE BREECH
- TO FIX THE PARKING TICKET, WE ZIPPED TO SYRACUSE A...
- PAST ENVISIONINGS OF FUTURE THINGS
- PREFACE
- THE WIDENING GULF
- RANDOM THINGS
- CAPITOL HILL, WASHINGTON D.C.
- THE CHICKEN KING RIDES AGAIN
- 1.3.1.1.3.3.1.1.
10 Comments:
Does the change machine always misbehave that much? Or did you do something to the dollar bill to perplex & confound the poor thing?
That's hilarious and also vicariously frustrating.
Did you know that lots of change machines actually have an adjustable sensor, so that they can be made more receptive to messed up bills? My dad's factory had the sensors turned down pretty low, because everybody's money was sweaty and dirty and they wanted everyone to be able to get lunch. Having that extra bit of knowledge makes an unresponsive change machine even more frustrating.
Actually it is only about two minutes of video: a forty second beginning segment, a ten second ending segment, and three attempts in the middle. The code randomly chooses from the three attempts in the middle for an indeterminate period of time until the ending segment [getting the quarters] is selected.
The fastest I have seen is 219 seconds.
Oh, that's interesting! I got 164 seconds.
Aha -- that explains a great deal. It might also account for a few hiccups in both the audio & video that I experienced while viewing it -- perhaps the seams momentarily becoming visible? If so, it doesn't much matter, because I simply put it down to the failings of my internet connection.
I didn't Actually fight the hiccups too much -- kept them to a minimum but didn't try to eliminate them -- hoping to make evident that some repitition was going on.
Every time I watch, then, I keep hoping the next one will be it, but it so often loops back.
Dr. S: Wow! You must have change machine karma or something. I usually end up in the upper 200s to mid 300s.
I have been considering recoding this to make it go even longer. How much might y'all be able to endure?
I don't think I could have hung on much longer. There's no need to experience the futility of urban living in one's own living room, really; as soon as the video starts being *that* mimetic, I'm bound to shut it off.
ah, this cracks me up. both virtually and in reality. these moments are just the kind of absurdity that make me laugh and they make great stories...and this is such an eloquent story.
Well, I always do get the wrong end of the stick when it comes to people's blogs (as Dr. S can well attest). It never even occurred to me that the clip was repeating itself.
Have you considered exploring the idea of boredom in your work more directly? Because what struck me about these pieces is the way that they document a peculiarly modern kind of futility and simultaneously provoke and enforce boredom in the viewer. Obviously, I'm not saying that your work is boring -- though, in a sense it is. Rather, I'm saying that I'm interested in the way it tests the viewer's tolerance of boredom -- something that is, in turn, complicated (extended?) both by one's awareness that one is viewing Art and by one's expectation that, eventually, there will be some kind of payoff. (Or in this case, payout).
PSM: I have been considering boredom -- along with its friends: frustration and anxiety -- as central issues of this series. I suppose that comes with the whole investigation of futility, but I think boredom floats behind it all in important ways. It seems the Beckett influence is finally really coming out in my work. The idea of doing things without anything changing has been a recurrent motif for quite a while in my projects.
I think this is true as well for the interactive performances -- though to a lesser degree. In that realm you can look forward to a staring contest piece, perhaps the zenith of nothing happening.
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