QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Week 3 begins:
I’m hanging in there and, for the most part, still going strong. Physically, my body is having a hard time with the endurance and strain of the cramped quarters and the strange reality of heightened self-awareness, but my spirit is great and my mood is even more positive than when I began. Over the course of my stay I’ve been receiving and responding to an amazing amount of emails. Because the response has been such a big part of my experience here, I wanted to post some emails that have questions I think are very relevant. Please keep in mind that these responses have been generalized in some way to keep the identity of the writer fairly anonymous.
There are so many interesting things I’m learning from those that watch and give me some part of their self or their experience on the other side of the glass or camera.. or the back wall plasma screen! (For those of you who haven’t been into Proof On Main, there is a flat screen plasma television that diners in the restaurant are seeing at all times. This also includes the Proof On Main staff. Bless the, everyone for putting up with a girl living in a box at their workplace!)
These are some of the answer/questions/insights/revelations that continue to help me though my experience… please enjoy and don’t stop writing!
I would not know art if it bit me. Somehow this project is strange and funny, but mesmerizing, also. The only “art” I have ever been exposed to was an Andy Warhol exhibit at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. It was pretty cool. Now I see your display of “Life as Art” and I have to tell you, it brings out so many questions. Have you found this to be common? Like, why can’t your friends visit you once a day for like an hour or something? This is your life on display or “a” life on display. If its your life, then friends and family would be some part of it, right? Why, no TV? You have a computer, music and cell phone. Do you never watch TV? Speaking of music, what do you listen to? I saw you dancing earlier, it was so cute. How many emails have you gotten? Hundreds? Thousands? Who came up with this idea and how long have you planned it? There is so much that I am curious about now. Steve
Steve:
I would love to answer your questions:
Have you found this to be common?
Why can’t your friends visit you once a day for like an hour or something?
Steve, I have to tell you in reality I am hardly ever alone. I’ve had roommates for the past several years and growing up I was always with my brother, just two years my elder. I am now am used to being at my job, my desk, my computer, my coworker(Natasha’s in Lexington, KY). You may be speaking directly to the fact that I don’t let many people in the space, but please remember the window is a constant open door! I am rarely without street watchers most of the day. When the project began I wasn’t sure how I would feel about letting anyone in the space, nor did I want to exploit my friends and family in anyway. This was a big concern for me at the beginning, but now I am comfortable having a few guests one at a time and have been very open with the space to the media. I did have rehearsal in the space one night with two actors and the director for my upcoming play for a few hours. I found that this was an uncomfortable amount of people in my 8×5 nest! One other person is about all I can take without me (or them) feeling crammed! My family has been to visit, but haven’t really shown must interest getting on camera.
Why, no TV?
I do watch some T.V. in real life, but it’s mainly something I could do without for the time… I also didn’t feel the need to bring a television because I have a computer and some DVDs (although I have yet to watch a one!) I didn’t experience cable until I was well into my twenties, so it is something that I can live without! Plus, with the space so small, I couldn’t afford one more entertainment device!
Speaking of music, what do you listen to?
Glad you asked about music—that’s what I couldn’t live without! I have music on almost constantly to uplift my mood, to drone out the restaurant noise and give me a sense of home. Since my room has no ceiling, I often overhear dinner conversations in Proof. This is interesting because many people talk about me not realizing I can overhear them, but it can also get tiresome!
I listen to a wide range of everything: Fleetwood Mac, The Postal Service, Missy Elliot, Tori Amos, The Roots, DJ Shadow, Coldplay, Cake, Modest Mouse, M.I.A., Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Who, Wilco… you get the picture! Usually things that lift my spirits or make we want to dance and make art! Even a few of my new local friends have snuck mixed CDs my way!
How many emails have you gotten?
EMAILS! I love them and I have found they can take up lots of my time because my personality is such that I want to read and respond to them all. Plus, this is how I keep in contact with people watching that aren’t actually coming into the space or the window to speak with me. Overall, thus far in the project I have received over 1400! I was a few days behind getting my computer into the space, so I was behind with emails to start with and have yet to truly catch up! Overall, though, emails are such an important part of my project—allowing people to talk with me about their experience from far away, down the street, or anonymously.
Who came up with this idea and how long have you planned it?
This concept was in my mind for a while, but when I heard they might be able to building a room, that’s when the planning began. It was extremely hard to plan for this project! I came across an article the other day that said the idea was “hashed out over dinner” with myself and the owners. Sorry to report, it was hashed over a many afternoons and evenings at the computer researching, followed by several sleepless nights in my living room, tediously packing each item. Every item brought into the space was brought to be used for a specific purpose. Usually, working on the concept, installation and de-installation takes weeks, but with this most of my preparation was crunch time. What do you take to live and make art in an 8×5 box for six days? At first, I had the idea that there was more room, so when I got the dimensions by email I drove to Louisville immediately to really understand just how different it appeared in my mind. Not only was I shocked I was immediately forced to reevaluate my packing! It must have worked because I have been able to exist with what I brought into the space and what my parents have smuggled me in for me with two trips to Walmart.
Thanks for your time and questions, Steve. They were great and your interest and feedback is most appreciated.
What is it like living in that small space? What is it like haveing everyone look at you? I think it is cool that you are doing this! I was with one of my friends this morning and I saw you and I am watching you online. Cloe
What is it like living in that small space?
This is small space is a job to handle! In here, inside my 8X5 box, I have my whole world as an artist and living breathing human.
I have it all.
A home equipped with everything needed for weeks of living but with access to trash, parts of a kitchen and help from the Proof on Main Staff! This allows me to get help with cleaning the window, putting dishes back to be washed, getting some water if I need it, and leaving to use bathroom and shower facilities.
What’s Inside?
I have plays (some for reading, some for studying) that I never get to because of always writing on the window, always emailing! I have all my materials for the back wall– including everything from paint to polyacrylic (smelly stuff I try not to use when we have people in the restaurant!) to a bag of sharpies, a bag of paintbrushes..etc. etc. A little red cart serves as my kitchen with my food that has slowly been eaten in the last two weeks.jugs of water, all my clothes a kimono, six pairs of shoes and a charger for every gadget in the space; ipod, ihome, Apple PowerBookG4 (which is just mine temporarily, but the love I have for this computer I will take to the grave) digital camera with video and still shot, a razor cellphone that was recalled and not returned, a Polaroid camera and some film(brought in by my parents for week two)… you get my point.
And then there is the stuff I’ve brought into the my hole since June 4th:
A blue bucket with hundreds of used paper plates. When I say used, I mean written on for communication purposes and just as many index cards from questions written through the window. I love all the hilarious and strange things those cards say!) So, here, it’s messy and tiring. Every time I start this project, or do something else. It takes time, effort and energy to get it set-up and put away.
What is it like to be looked at?
\Most children associate what I’m doing with an animal at the zoo or in a cage. I very much feel this way, but unlike a bird, I know I will be set free in time.
The sensation of being watched is strange, certainly, and fun at times…and annoying at times. But it is always nice to know when I am being watched, I am watching in return. There is much to be observed from my side of the window. The city block is always changing and yet, there is a rhythm to the street that I have embedded in my bones. A soundtrack that carries from my space, the restaurant and the sidewalk- the songs of life: others and mine. The visual environment stays consistent but the audience changes drastically with every passing step. This is also the excitement of such public art.
Thanks for the support and questions, Miss Cloe.
Do you get to talk to any member of your family? Brian and Lisa
B & L:
My family is very supportive of my art no matter have “out of the box” it may be. My career in theatre for the last several years has pushed to me being exposed to larger audience in very vulnerable ways. They have been to see my home many times and their presence in my art is especially important
I talk to my Mom, and it’s still my mom through the web cam, watching and being a Mom!
“Lauren, it’s almost eleven o’ clock and you haven’t gotten dressed yet.”
[Noon is a very important time for me because a lot of business people are out on the street…this includes hot men in suits. When you’ve been in a box with a stuffed monkey and, as of recently, a plastic penguin, you are attracted to men of all sorts. This is also a good time for me to be “preparing” my self- primping, practicing like we all do for one another, ourselves; shaving our armpits, legs, faces, straightening, curling, drying or styling our hair, the endless cycle of putting on makeup, including but not limited to: moisturizer, concealer, foundation, bronzer or blush, eye shadow, eyeliner, eyelash curler, mascara. And don’t forget the lips; liner, lipstick, chap stick and for me, gloss gloss gloss.]
WHY DO WE PREPARE OURSELVES DAILY TO BE VIEWED BY OTHERS?
Or
“Do you have a belt on with those pants?”
[Hot pink Dickies with pinstripes. Low-rise= butt crack…not something I’m showing on camera these days.]
My father has been to see my place a few times, but on Father’s Day when I was still here, I wanted nothing more than to see him on the farm…instead I called from the box.
My older brother Haviland came down from NYC to see me on the night of the 21C Grand Opening. He assisted as an architect building 21C, the building in which PROOF ON MAIN is located. We have talked a few times since my stay, but overall, I miss my family and friends more than I could have imagined.
Hi Lauren…
I used to live in Louisville…many, many years ago. I was a teenager then, finding myself suddenly transplanted from Toronto (yes, Canada) with my family, due to my dad’s career. Very anxious & very pissed at being torn from my friends at a time in my life when ‘belonging’ was critically important…never mind to a different country & a culture which was sure to be not an ‘easy fit’.
I ended up with some incredible friends in Louisville & really enjoyed my three years there. My point is that I found Louisville to be somewhat conservative & happy in its ‘traditional ways’, so to speak. Obviously this is quite a few years later…but I must admit, that I’m still sort of surprised & pleased to read about such an experiment…an art performance…in the middle of a city that to me always screamed ‘blue blood’.
Terrific…and good for you. I do hope people have been receptive…and I really, really hope they have been appreciative.
I think what you’re doing (have done) is terrific…a bold artistic move in the middle of ‘middle America’. I only wish I’d come across this earlier.
How has this been for you? I saw you waving at people a few minutes ago…after all these days; I’m thinking you are a person who sees the best in people.
Just wanted to communicate my thoughts, as I was quite taken with your project.
I wish you well in your artistic endeavors.
Regards… Lynda G.
Lynda:
It is an experience in here, I tell you. And I wonder would it be the same in a town of 10,000 or a city of millions, in Tokyo or my hometown, Cynthiana, Kentucky? I can’t say, I don’t know that life, but I know that my life here over the past weeks in Louisville have been filled people of all classes, ages, and backgrounds. I’ve seen it all, and in turn, they have seen me as well!
How has this been for you?
I can’t express in words what the experience means to me. My life, my way of living it, will never be the same. Yes, it’s true, Louisville is in Kentucky and we are not known to be the most progressive state, but times are changing and this state and city are too!
Interestingly, I have never lived in a city bigger than Lexington, so I am not used to such a large, collective culture and arts community. The differences and similarities in large and small cities are clearer to me now. I have been to Toronto, (love the city and how clean the keep it!) It is leaps and bounds more culturally progressive than most cities here in America… but the feelings that I have developed for Louisville’s landscape and it’s people shape my experience. This goes beyond Southern hospitality and getting personal. It’s just not just artists or art enthusiasts who come to support me and show me love—it’s the horse carriage drivers, the third shift EMS, the street cleaners and technicians, the people that work here in PROOF on Main and 21c in every capacity, every hour of everyday.
Yes, you are correct, I always try to see the best in people, but I have witnessed a lot of great hearts here in this box. It’s more than a polite wave or thumbs up, a kiss or smile through glass, it is everything that this project is about. We are all the same, we are all living lives, we are all voyeurs, we are all special and complex creatures, and, although none of us can experience what any one else can, we all experience human nature and there is something quite universal about that. The question is, what do we do with this similarity? How do we help and influence our cities, our own boxes, one another? What will we do with our one, wild and precious life?
First off, I think this idea is truly wonderful. I’m sure that this experience has been so far above and beyond anything that you could have imagined when it first began. I really wanted to ask was a quick question. Do you feel that the piece generating so much attention has at all comprised its mission? My guess would be that when you set out to play the part of you, it was far less complicated in the early going than it has been more recently. In what ways do feel like the national attention has changed the process? Hang in there! JOSH
Josh:
The national and international appeal and participation was something I never expected with the project. The Internet makes so much possible—the spanning of space and time in the blink of the web browser eye. The attention hasn’t changed the process for me much, although I haven’t been unable to keep up with the constant emails from all over and phone and television interviews have never been so normal to my life, but that helped me accomplish what I was hoping for—a response from the public, the observers on the other side of the camera and the glass. Some people are sharing a part of their lives by looking in on a part of mine.
There isn’t much that’s changed in here though, my goals, concepts, my purpose for the piece hasn’t disappeared…evolved, yes, but not gone away. I am still here for the same reasons. The point I was making with voyeurism and the every growing reality obsession rings a bit truer, but I am the same in my box. I’m sill Lauren Argo; brushing my teeth, shaving my armpits, typing on this on the computer and spelling poorly, still here for you or anyone in the world to watch if they so choose. That is the role of the artist, to make a statement, beautiful and bold and yell it at the top of your lungs until at least person
Hello Lauren:
I am just a fan. I am from Indianapolis. I heard about your project from the
newspaper here at home. I find it interesting what you are doing. You have
got to be feeling pretty camped in an 8′ X 12′ space. In know you went to
school at UKY and majored in theater. What other kinds of things do you plan
on doing after this project? More public art? Philip
Philip:
Part of the box (the two back walls that were collaged and painted during my project) along with my bed, kitchen cart, painting table, nightstand, and other items from the piece are currently on display at the gallery in 21c Museum on 7th and Main in downtown Louisville. This was an interesting experience for me as an artist because it forced me to look at the space from the outside. In a way, this rebuilding was the truest form of installation and the biggest challenge of the project because I wanted to convey not just the space and objects in the space, but a sense of living there.
I am currently working on a video piece created from over five hundred hours of web cam footage from nearly twenty days of my Life As Art project. This video project will be a collaborative work with myself and a few video artists with musical composition by Louisville musician Scott Moore. One of my goals with this project is to play with aspects of time, space and environmental sound. Because audio was not part of the recording, there are so many interesting ways of incorporating this element into the video piece. I love collaborating with other artists and find myself continually searching for other artist’s work.
I am looking for investors and venues to pursue creating more installations that involve communication, performance, and experimental living. I have several ideas of taking this project to different cultures to see how the experience changes as the observer changes. There are endless possibilities for this project because each time the variables of performance and communication are altered each time would be different. I am fascinated by the impact the piece has on my life and other works and how it will push my work in the future. Hopefully, I will be doing the piece other cities and countries, gaining new insights into the concept that life is art and should be shared with others.
And more work on www.laurenargo.com!
