The Medium IS the Message !?

The contemporary artist should not worry about its medium but rather constantly seek one that is able to carry the responsibility of the communicative effort he/she intends. By this I mean that if for one communicative idea the use of language is suitable then use it; if dance or performance is suitable, use it; if sculpture or video is suitable, use it. But use it only if it is strictly necessary, in other words use it only when nothing else can achieve one's communicative goal. My personal quest is that of trying to find a new form or define a new form for a particular need I within a certain creative process.

During that quest I have begun to need dance less and to use it in a less gratuitous way. Now I require more of other mediums like visual arts and theater.

Marcelo Rueda

Following are some ideas I want to share with you and I consider relevant to this week's readings:


From Gabriel Orozco's interview:

"One day I was in France and I saw the Foucault's Pendulum, and as you know it’s the way that it was proved that the earth moves. You have this pendulum hanging from very high which is constantly moving because the earth is rotating, and I found that fascinating. It’s a permanent motion sculpture. It’s a science too, but at the same time you can consider it as beautiful as...now okay, I don’t want to say a beautiful sculpture because I think it’s much better as an instrument for science, but anyway...I am an artist and I look at it as a possible sculpture. So then I decided why don’t we transform a billiard? What happens if one of the balls in the billiard is a pendulum? I also decided instead of having a rectangular table to have an elliptical table or an oval table. So then we will play closer to laws of the universe. And then when we put this hanging ball with the oval billiard table which is called “Oval Billiard Table with Pendulum,” you can play a game, but you add complexity because now you have time involved. And you have an element which is the elliptical bands. You cannot count on them anymore."

Game-based sculptures by Gabriel Orozco

A Game of Petanque with Sam Renseiw