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I was challenged to eat only red foods for a day. These are all samples of every food I ate. This was much harder to do  than I expected because none of my red foods contained a lot of sustenance, and it is a lot harder to keep track of every single thing that you eat than i imagined.

My assignment for the week was to crumple and flatten a piece of paper over and over again to the point of destruction. Easy enough. Seemingly boring. Because Fluxus calls for being completely focused on what you’re doing, I decided to keep my senses open to the many details involved in crumpling a piece of paper. It’s interesting what a little of your attention can help you notice.

At the start of my crumpling experience I had a nice 8 x 12 sheet of printer paper. My crumpling became methodical overtime, as I rolled the paper between my hands like I was praying. After a while, I noticed that the texture was beginning to change significantly. Crumpling started to create small fissures within the paper which made it more easily bendable and soft. Eventually it took on a texture similar to that of toilet paper.

Another thing I noticed was the change in opacity. The paper became increasingly thin and sheer, and began to develop some holes much later into the crumpling. I thought it was interesting to note that at certain points, the paper would let off dust as I crumpled it up. It kind of freaked me out at first and I thought I was seeing things but it continued to do it over and over again.

I can’t say that I gained any value out of crumpling up my piece of paper. But I will say that it got me to reevaluate how present I am in daily activities. I must be missing a lot if I thought that there wasn’t much to notice in this simple act of paper destruction.

I was instructed to make a paper airplane, fly it 10 times, and record the furthest distance. My record was 12′ 5″

My first attempt

Although it may seem like a typical task that one is asked to do and experiment in either middle school or high school art classes, it was the first time someone had officially directed me to try using my left hand to draw something. Since it was my first time, I really wanted to take the time to put in more effort and consideration in what might’ve been a simple trial yet a considerable undertaking because of its challenge.

With my left hand, I tried to sketch a still life of a water bottle that was placed in front of me on my desk. Behind the water bottle, part of the back mantle of a small T.V. could be seen as well as a wire that lay limply between the two objects. When I started drawing the water bottle, I thought about how I normally approached and drew objects, both considering the shape and direction of the lines that existed and made up the object and how I controlled my hand movement while drawing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy and even though I was thinking the same way and trying to take my time to sketch it carefully, in the end it was still my less dominant hand. It felt strange realizing all the feelings that came to me when I was struggling. For instance, my hand really felt weak and almost numb and for the first time, it felt really useless in a unfamiliar way. Although I had used both of my hands together for many other tasks, I had never felt this need for so much demand in using just a single hand. It also made me wonder why and how the brain works that way.

In the end, the picture seemed like it had undergone some struggle, but it actually turned out better than I expected and it was a fun experience.

“Keep every receipt from every purchase you make and put them in order from lowest price to highest price.”

This was actually pretty hard for me to do. I don’t usually save my receipts unless I buy something expensive.  My mother would be proud of the person who gave me these instructions.  The least I spent was $1.79, and the most I spent was $12.15.  I think that’s pretty good in my opinion.  (Let’s just forget I spent hundreds of dollars the week before on books and supplies XD)  Only two of these receipts are for things other than food.  I think I need to spend less on food.  Or drop a couple friends.

What is this?

Fluxus was a pretty crazy art movement from the 60’s. One of the great things that this group did was to write and send each other instructions which they called scores. These little activities ranged from being light-hearted to pretty bizarre. In that spirit, I have made you all contributors to this page, so that you can engage in a similar activity. Every Wednesday in class you will randomly receive a partner and write them a small set of instructions. Before class the next Wednesday you will post on the blog the instructions you received and documentation of what you did, what it made you think, how people responded (if there were witnesses), and any other information or documentation that is appropriate.

This is intended to be fun, engaging and not overly time-consuming, so please keep this in mind while coming up with scores for your classmates.

If you need some inspiration check out the Fluxus workbook.

From Fluxus, with love.