The Public Projects part II: Usva 2003


The Public Projects
Analyses, Critics and Experiments in Audience Behavior

During the past five years different works were initiated which had a focus on public behavior in art and non-art spaces. These pieces consist of both passive and interactive parts. The public made the works by either acting in a certain way, fulfilling a specific event, performing in a more or less free area or an array of the above mentioned. The core of this undertaking was to do research on how the public acts and reacts to the artpiece's wishes, artistic conventions and to the artistic concept known as 'social sculpture'. By mixing up logical self-reference, the concept of choosing to see what one wants to see and the commonness of certain behaviour as well as by zooming into trivial actions and reformulating them in a sometimes selfreferent way or by juxtaposing these actions to others, a new vision on these were encountered by the public after their interference. The artist functioned mostly as a mediator in these pieces. He drew the blueprint of the pieces which were actually built by the public.



Part II: Join The Anonymous
Usva Lounge


Certain visitor cutting out Anonymity Specs

For a loungeparty in Usva, Groningen, an installation was designed in which human-size dolls made of foam were standing in a small space, all being anonymized. Next door was a small room which looked like a fair stand of a company called Black Rectangle. In this space the public were able to cut out their own Anonymity Specs. By putting the specs on their nose they made themselves an unknown customer to the company. By acting in this way the public joined a large group of other people by becoming anonymous to everybody.




Installation in next room




Part of the Anonymity Specs Stand




Overall view


Anonymity Specs Poster




Anonymous Dolls