ORQ's NYC debut outside the Sculpture Center
With chairs, freshly-made signs, the tripod, camera, and about 15 books and one issue of Heresies in tow, I schlepped to the opening of "We Burn, We Shiver" and the other exhibitions at the Sculpture Center in Long Island City yesterday. The staff and administrators were gracious in stashing my large, wheeled suitcase next to their watercooler, in spite of being very tight on space near the welcome desk. After touring parts of the exhibit (highlights: Soy el Final de la Reproducción room in back, and much of the work in the Landscape and Affect show downstairs, plus the green green green of the stones in the yard!)
It had been a tough day for a variety of reasons, and even after schlepping ORQ over from the studio, whether or not I could muster the spirit to do it was not really clear. Finally I decided to go for it, and while we got off to a rather slow start, it turned into a good city debut, with several folks consulting the oracle.
I realized that when I have ORQ's sources (books) on the ground, people probably think I'm trying to sell them used books!
In the spirit of meaningful randomness, Sophie, an artist who had her ORQ reading at Wassaic, came over to say hi and bring her friend Eric for a consultation.
The last reading of the day was for Allison, whose friends helped "put energy" into concentrating on her question. Then one of them, Cassie, invited me to do ORQ in her neighborhood! I look forward to bringing ORQ to different types of communities, especially thinking about the potential of the areas around libraries in Queens. Cassie said that most of her neighbors are Jamaican, so it should be an interesting experience.
It was definitely a documentation challenge to do ORQ alone. I tried to set up the camera, but as listener I really need to pay attention to the questioner, and to sit with them. If I continue to do this without a documentation person, I will have to ask the questioner to interact with the camera. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. For the video project, it would be good to have the questioner look at the camera and speak their question directly to it. But it really changes the interaction.
Images to come (we hope.)
It had been a tough day for a variety of reasons, and even after schlepping ORQ over from the studio, whether or not I could muster the spirit to do it was not really clear. Finally I decided to go for it, and while we got off to a rather slow start, it turned into a good city debut, with several folks consulting the oracle.
I realized that when I have ORQ's sources (books) on the ground, people probably think I'm trying to sell them used books!
In the spirit of meaningful randomness, Sophie, an artist who had her ORQ reading at Wassaic, came over to say hi and bring her friend Eric for a consultation.
The last reading of the day was for Allison, whose friends helped "put energy" into concentrating on her question. Then one of them, Cassie, invited me to do ORQ in her neighborhood! I look forward to bringing ORQ to different types of communities, especially thinking about the potential of the areas around libraries in Queens. Cassie said that most of her neighbors are Jamaican, so it should be an interesting experience.
It was definitely a documentation challenge to do ORQ alone. I tried to set up the camera, but as listener I really need to pay attention to the questioner, and to sit with them. If I continue to do this without a documentation person, I will have to ask the questioner to interact with the camera. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. For the video project, it would be good to have the questioner look at the camera and speak their question directly to it. But it really changes the interaction.
Images to come (we hope.)
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