To celebrate Art’s Birthday* on January 17th, 2019 , I did a participatory event on Instagram. I asked contributors to relect upon the Robert Filliou / Georges Brecht text that begins “THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE ASLEEP, AND SOMEONE AWAKE” (full text re-printed below) and send me their responses to that text.
On January 17th, 2019, from 8:11am PST to 11:11pm PST, participants DMed me their images / texts, which I then incorporated into a “blank” image and re-uploaded as a continuous set of stories. The “blank” image is based on one of my drawings of my hand and iPhone (an ongoing daily project where I draw my phone/hand/accessories first thing in the morning before turning the beast on and succumbing to its various charms.)
Here is a sample of the stories. It was a live real-time event, where I also had videos combing drawing and reflections upon what paleo girl** might have thought about the birth of art in her cave enjoying the glow of her fire***. These videos have been left in the ethernet to re-appear in perhaps 1,000,000 years, give or take a 1/2 century.
Many thanks again to all the participants.
*(Robert Filliou declared January 17th to be the birthday of Art – this year Art was 1 million+ years old (give or take a 1/2 century).
** Spoiler Alert: “paleo girl” was a badass and resisted it all.
**I read an article on the interwebs, it must be true, that fire was invented at least 1,000,000 years ago. Perhaps at the same moment as art…
There were many other artists / projects happening on or about January 17th, 2019 for Arts Birthday. Visit ArtsBirthday website for more. Follow me on the insta channel.
THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE ASLEEP
AND SOMEONE AWAKE
SOMEONE DREAMING ASLEEP
SOMEONE DREAMING AWAKE
SOMEONE EATING SOMEONE HUNGRY
SOMEONE FIGHTING SOMEONE LOVING
SOMEONE MAKING MONEY SOMEONE BROKE
SOMEONE TRAVELLING SOMEONE STAYING PUT
SOMEONE HELPING SOMEONE HINDERING
SOMEONE ENJOYING SOMEONE SUFFERING
SOMEONE INDIFFERENT
SOMEONE STARTING SOMEONE STOPPING
THE NETWORK IS ETERNAL